“This money may have gone into a federal account. Yes, but no matter what Forex we make, we monetize it, and the ones we make are getting in the market and local governments…if we were in 1988 The money we could spend between 1994 was $12.4 billion, that would be great.
In an excerpt from the autobiography “The Journey of Service” launched on February 20, 2025, Babangida funded a large-scale infrastructure expansion in the revenue of the then-Governor General Yakubu Gowon, General Yakubu Gowon, the policy, Policy, policy, but for example, the Localization Act of 1972 inadvertently provided “providing unexpected gains” to a small number of influential individuals at the expense of the non-oil sector.
The 400-page account of Babangida says the booming oil wealth has shaped government spending, exacerbated public corruption and caused economic distortions that still plague the country today.
In Chapter 7, titled “Reform of the Economy: Privatization, IMF, SAP and Other Matters,” he argues that “the days of our country’s oil boom” are overshadowed by “criminal corruption.”
He wrote that with the decline of the 1970s, corruption even touched high-ranking figures, which exacerbated the dissatisfaction of junior officers.
This coincides with the government’s sudden change in the date when Nigeria resumes civilian rule – which eventually inspired another coup, he suggested.
According to Babangida, the trend continued until the second republic, who condemned “a period of luxury spending, real output falling outside the oil sector and deepening import dependence.”
He recounts: “Funds are borrowed in large quantities from outside, not essentially on profitable businesses, but on significant consumption and prestigious projects, or sometimes just sneakily lending to the state , not using a lot of money.”
He noted: “The squandering of the Second Republic is now common sense. Outside the oil sector, actual production is declining, with the pre-occupation of transactions, and the pursuit of easy surplus import dependence intensifies, while with internal terms of trade with agriculture and The impact of rural activities has caused domestic food security to be eroded.
“Exportable commodities other than petroleum products are gradually destroyed. Domestic consumption patterns are based on tastes obtained from foreign countries, while narrow domestic investment is built on consumer-oriented import substitution strategies that do not depend on domestic natural resources, It is based on imported raw materials.
“Public sector spending has expanded rapidly without adequate attention to the sustainability of the government’s tax base.”
In this book, the former head of state details how this situation worsened to the long-term balance of payment crisis by the mid-1980s, estimated Naira exchange rates and declining agriculture.
It read: “By the mid-1980s, this imagined dark situation changed by the chronic balance of the chronic payment crisis and the unequal import licensing system, the rapid rise in food import bills, incomplete payments or incomplete payments. More complexity is that despite the ongoing fiscal deficiencies, debilitating consumption and unproductive culture, low productivity, import dependence, production processes, decayed agriculture and swollen public service staff, the wages and wages of public services are fast.
“This dangerous state of economy has nothing to do with its historical dependence, undeveloped, unintegrated and asymmetric urban-rural character.”
By his account, the previous government “lack of political will, courage and vision” to address Nigeria’s deep underdevelopment actually made his government struggle to cope with the “state of economic danger.”
Part of the so-called mismanagement stems from the government’s dominance in the “height of command” industries, which he calls the “pipeline of waste and corruption.”
He insisted that previous governments had used the oil boom to build large-scale state-owned enterprises (from refineries to newsprint factories), many of whom became perennial currency losers under political intervention rather than business discipline.
He noted that this led to a 15-month national economic emergency on October 1, 1985, hoping to reorganize the economic restructuring along a more productive and self-reliant route.
When the choice of IMF loans sparked a public uproar, Babajda said his government chose a local structural adjustment plan.
He explained that the plan aims to “correct the embedded overestimation of Naira” and shift the focus to agriculture, local raw materials, and privatize or commercialize failed government businesses.
Despite the social impact of SAP, Babangida still faces his imprint as a “responsible and easy-to-oil legacy”.
He further argued that reducing subsidies, adjusting repayments in exchange rates and public spending were the only way to address decades of “import substitution strategies that rely not on domestic natural resources but are based on imported raw materials.”
Babajda also spoke of criticism of his government’s so-called oil income expenditure.
Interviewed in 1995 Tell the magazine, The former military president, attached to the book, firmly defended his administration’s creation and management of specialized accounts, and, according to the Okigbo team, had approximately $12.4 billion in oil windfall during his tenure.
His speech came after the 1995 budget announcement by then-Governor Sani Abacha, which abolished the dedicated account.
The Okigbo team report shows that the account passed $12.4 billion and allegedly spent $122.2 billion on non-regeneration projects, deeming no bias to the Nigerian economy.
He said: “People think we’re sharing some kind of loot. For example, I didn’t start Ajakuta, but by the time I took over, $4 billion had sunk. A lot of money was put in, and I think it was unfair to let the whole thing waste. So , I invested money to keep the clothing moving, and the record showed how much it cost.
“About 18 years ago, when we worked in many businesses with some countries, you went back to history. To this day, Nigeria has not gained any gains from all of these investments in the 1970s. I’m talking about regenerative investment. Running the government After that, you won’t invest in the bank. Okigbo, I’m glad; there’s no saying that someone stole that money.
“When determining priorities, the government decides what its priorities are. This may not be the same as he thinks it should be a priority. It may not be the same as others in society consider it a priority. If you remember, we are in Abuja ( There were many questions on Abuja and Ajakuta about the questions you wanted to say.”
Babangida also resembles the previous government, deeming that lending foreign exchange income directly to major national projects was normal, bypassing federal accounts.
He noted that the economic choices he made during his eight years in office were painful, but were necessary to restore “productive capacity.”
