The Ibori Phenomenon – A Generational Imperative

One important and often overlooked recurrent feature of social & political history is that at least once in a generation a hitherto unprecedented phenomenon develops and roots itself in the most strategic of positions in the grand scheme of things. The phenomenon could be an idea, a philosophy, a practice, or even a personality. But the common factor is that it innocuously plants itself and flourishes whilst society itself remains oblivious of its true effect and importance until it is too late.

Putting aside the source and/or means, from his ownership of a national Newspaper, a commercial airline, his private jets, his acquisition of Wilbros Engineering and NAFCON, choice real estate the world over from Nigeria - South Africa – United Kingdom – United States adorned with fleets of expensive cars; the enormity of James Ibori’s wealth is only just beginning to be unmasked. But one thing is clear, his financial interests whilst vast are intricately interspersed in a modular and calculated fashion to inhibit detection.

Make no mistake, whilst a London court may have temporarily frozen a “mere” £35 Million of his assets as known to the London Metropolitan Police and the EFCC rap sheet accuses him of embezzling a “mere” N9 billion; it is widely believed that he has accumulated wealth in excess of $1 billion that has been strategically invested in various banks, real estate, and company shares in every continent of the world.

From his unique style and approach to investing “his wealth” one can adduce that James Ibori’s intelligence quotient is highly developed. He has shown that he has a capacity to think beyond and outside of what we mere mortals consider the realms of normalcy and come up with schemes, plots and plans that can only be described as sheer ingenuity. This is not necessarily a bad thing but the purpose for what these resultant “brilliant” schemes are deployed is what makes the difference between benevolent good and pure evil.

Whilst the above may conjure parallels with the “evil genious”, make no mistake, if Ibori had found his way in to the Nigerian Army and was presented with similar circumstances with which either Babangida or Abacha were presented with, then it is almost certain that Nigeria’s history would contain a chapter that would have been darker, more hellish, more dangerous, and more sorrowful than that of IBB and Abacha combined.

The highest court in Nigeria, the Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that a Mr James Onanefe Ibori was duly convicted by a competent court in 1995. This ruling was was elicited from the Supreme Court following a lower court’s inexplicable ruling that there was a “sentencing” of the said “Ibori” but no conviction.. Three years later and despite evidence from the original trial judge and other witnesses identifying the then Governor of Delta State as the said convict of 1995, the very same court ruled that the 1995 convict James Onanefe Ibori and the then Delta State Governor James Onanefe Ibori were not the same person. With all due respect to the hallowed court, this was one of their poorest rulings that not only missed a golden opportunity but sacrificed both morality and principle on the altar of legal technicalities. Even a blind man could tell who the ex-convict was.

It will be recalled that Ibori had “championed” the resource control debate. This was to the “strong man” himself, the Balogun of Owu’s utmost exasperation. The Balogun saw the “resource control” debate as a dangerous threat to the existential unity of Nigeria and therefore set out to neuter the misguided but “errant” governor. After several failed attempts to “nail” the “pesky” Ibori, the Balogun famously acknowledged just before the PDP primaries in December 2006 that Ibori was the most intelligent of all his then Governors. He then proceeded to recruit Ibori as “sergeant” and main “financier” of his hand-picked Yar’adua Campaign Group. The apparently “out-of-favour” Ibori jumped at the opportunity to “redeem” himself before the Balogun and to curry favour and gain precious influence in the new administration that would be headed by Yar’adua.

The eventual charade that was presented as “elections” in April 2007 was first “show-cased” in Delta State in the 2003 “elections” – where surprise, surprise there were NO elections. It is almost certain that it was this model that was used as the blue-print for what occurred in April 2007 the country over.

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A keen political observer will have noted that Ibori has Presidential ambitions and he appears to be carefully laying out the ground work to achieve such an objective. A former associate recalls meeting a young James in a house in North London in the early 1990s who at the time assuredly boasted of his intention to be the Governor of Delta State. And when the opportunity presented itself in 1999 the hitherto unknown James Ibori crushed and/or subdued all opposition in his path including well established house-hold names in Delta State to achieve his previously stated objective and to bring the Ibori phenomenon to public consciousness. Quite simply, his track record speaks for itself. Today the imperative is that Yar’adua’s Nigeria needs to be very weary and extremely careful, otherwise the clear and present danger of the creeping Ibori phenomenon will take permanent root and will eventually gobble-up his Administration and engulf the whole country for generations to come.

The most intriguing aspect of the Ibori phenomenon is that most who have met and have interacted with him tell of a most affable and charming person. And of course, his generosity (with ill-gotten wealth) goes before him. But, many have crossed his path and some have never been in a position to tell their stories, but those who have will tell you one of the most compelling tales that you have ever heard except that it is no tale; it’s real.

The recent revelations about his alleged convictions for theft and fraud in the UK in 1991 and 1992 should not be surprising; but what is surprising is how in active connivance with the State House of Assembly passed Supplementary Budgets covering the period from 1999 to 2004 involving over N35 billion presented to Delta State house of Assembly and signed into law on the same day, on 14 June 2004! He exceeded this high record in December 2006 when a Supplementary Budget for a whopping N67 billion was submitted to the House and signed into law on 5 December 2006 after the actual budget of 2007 had already been passed! These are no mean feats that would no doubt inspire awe in the klepto-likes of Abacha and Mobutu.

The universally respected Human Rights Watch’s report of 2003 all but named Ibori as a major sponsor of, and beneficiary of violent militancy and lucrative bunkering activities in the oil-rich Niger-Delta. In fact it is widely believed that it was these groups that were strategically deployed to harass and bully the previous owners of Wilbros to vacate and sell-up to Ibori. Hence, it should not surprise any one to hear that three “militant” groups in Delta have threatened hell and brimstones if their “Champion” is not granted bail by the Federal High Court in Kaduna at its next sitting.

His penchant for spinning and propaganda are second to none and that was his main brief under the tyrannical reign of Abacha for which he was funded and commissioned to setup The Diet Newspaper. It is an open secret that he regularly “settles” certain media houses to keep “unfavourable” stories off the newsstands. His deftly deployed mouth-pieces in the adept Abel Oshevire and latterly the obviously skilled Tony Eluemunor have been nothing short of Orwellian in their bids to “manage” the “stories”. One suspects that they have both been thoroughly schooled in Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. “Sun Tzu was the first to recognize the importance of positioning in strategy and that position is affected both by objective conditions in the physical environment and the subjective opinions of competitive actors in that environment. He taught that strategy was not planning in the sense of working through a to-do list, instead it requires quickly responding appropriately to changing conditions”- (Wikipedia). Sound familiar?

The self-styled “Odidigborigbo of Africa” has “conquered” every aspect of Delta State, the Nigerian judiciary (up to the Supreme Court), the Nigerian electoral system (INEC), the Nigerian Police, major sections of the Nigerian media, and to a great extent the Balogun himself,  and he continues in his attempt to conquer both the EFCC and the British Criminal Justice System. Who will come out victorious remains to be seen. Personally, I would not bet any money against Ibori. Disregard the Ibori phenomenon at your peril!