President and Power in Nigeria by David Williams

Author:David Williams [Williams, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General
ISBN: 9781317792017
Google: RHt0DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-10-24T05:08:07+00:00

The Commissioner for Finance launching the 5 kobo and 10 kobo decimal coins on 3 July 1972 at the Central Bank.

The Finance Commissioner paying a visit to the historic Badagry Township with other Commissioners.

The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Mr Pierre Paul Schwitzer, paying a courtesy call on the Commissioner for Finance.

but the legislators wanted it so that all political salaries, including their own, could be raised. When he failed to have his way, Alhaji Shehu at once allotted the extra N5,000 to four charities, including the Nigerian Red Cross, with which he had worked when he was at the Ministry of Economic Development and Reconstruction, and the Nigerian Society for the Blind, for which, many years ago, he was prepared to become a full-time worker. He was also, incidentally, showing his confidence in such voluntary organisations. He maintains this practice, selecting different charities each year.

The highest income he has ever had in a single year was N43,167 - and that was quite exceptional, even though it would have been considered derisory by hundreds of Nigerian businessmen and lawyers, including many of his “radical” political critics. Nor have his net “assets” as declared at various times, including his accession to the Presidency, been impressive. There is the house in Sokoto and the house in Shagari, although the farm there, in spite of his investment in it, is not a realisable asset. Like most people in a position to do so he leased a plot from Lagos State Government on Victoria Island, the new expensive suburb of Lagos. All paid the market rent; but it is surprising that they did not realise that there would be, as there was, a hostile reaction among those not so fortunate when details of the transactions were made public.

There was, too, a plot in the industrial estate at Port Harcourt which has cost him a lot in bank charges. There were a few thousand shares; and that was it.

The Port Harcourt plot, indeed, he never even saw, and no longer owns. For it was presented to him when he was Federal Commissioner of Finance by the then Rivers State Government. Governor Diete-Spiff argued that he had been of such assistance to the fledgling state that he should be an honorary citizen; and for that to be possible he had to have a piece of land in the state. The State Government also named a street after him. With a bank loan Shehu Shagari had a house built on the land, but sold it to help to finance his election campaign. Contractors financed development of the Victoria Island site, and themselves draw the rent until their costs are met.

Shehu Shagari’s North-Western State was affected, as were all states, by the determination of the Murtala Muhammed government in 1975 to “purge” (the word generally used) the public services. It was not, however, only officials suspected of corruption who were “retired”. It was difficult to know at the time precisely who made the choice, and it was later officially admitted that there could have been mistakes.

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