Ace journalist and former presidential candidate, Dele Momodu, has described Nigeria as a mafia nation where impunity happens repeatedly.
Momodu stated this while analyzing on News Central the call by some critics for the trial of General Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) following revelations he made in his autobiography ‘A Journey In Service’.
The PDP Chieftain said the call for Babangida’s trial would have no effect, adding that IBB remains one of the ”owners” of the country.
He narrated that former President Olusegun Obasanjo became president in 1999 because the “owners” of Nigeria chose him.
His words: “I do not like to engage in exercise in futility. I know for a fact that Nigeria is a mafia nation, and that is why this impunity can occur regularly and repeatedly. It’s an exercise in futility to say, go and prosecute Babangida, when he’s one of the major, major members of the owners of Nigeria. I came up with that theory in 1998-99, when General Olusegun Obasanjo was contesting against Chief Olu Falae. And I tried to get Ridwan Lukman, who was at OPEC in Vienna at that time. And I traveled to Vienna to persuade him to be a running mate to Chief Olu Falae. And Ridwan Lukman told me that the owners of Nigeria have decided that OPEC is the next president of Nigeria. And I said, are we not going to have an election? And he said, of course, we will have an election, but it’s all preconceived, preconsidered, and then predetermined.
“So, it is virtually impossible today, the way Nigeria is configured. You can see that even President Bola Tinubu, who fought Babangida, who fought Abacha, who we were together in exile for three years in London, he couldn’t spit fire the way we used to spit fire in those days. So, Nigeria has a way of sucking you in to the extent that you become a part of the system. And anybody who knows our country very well, will know that calling for the prosecution of either Gowon or Babangida or any of the principal actors is just an exercise in futility.“
