In 2005, Nigeria’s Education Minister Fabian Osuji was arrested over allegations of paying lawmakers to inflate his ministry’s budget, pressure began mounting around Senate President Adolphus Wabara, who was accused of playing a behind-the-scenes role in the deal.
According to P.M. News in this summary by Archivi:
▶️ The crisis began when senators on the Education Committee realised they were being used to pressure parastatals under the ministry for money. In protest, they allegedly blocked the budget, forcing Osuji to reach out to Wabara to intervene.
▶️ Wabara admitted that he arranged a meeting between Osuji and members of the committee but denied collecting money or asking for bribes on their behalf. He maintained that the meeting was only meant to resolve tensions over the budget process.
▶️ However, EFCC detectives reportedly uncovered enough information to seek President Olusegun Obasanjo’s approval to question the Senate President himself. The President was said to have agreed, insisting that no one should be protected from investigation.
▶️ Lawmakers opposed to Wabara were said to be positioning themselves to use the scandal to remove him from office, while his allies rallied around him, insisting he had no case to answer.
▶️ Some senators privately warned that if Wabara was found guilty, Obasanjo should use the moment to make a strong example in his anti-corruption campaign.
▶️ The scandal eventually led to Wabara’s resignation from the office.
FURTHER DETAILS
Many years later when he clocked 70, Wabara said in an interview: “I am a man of a kind, because I am contented. All the people I have invited, many don’t believe it because they said I don’t look 70. But it is not only in death that you say the Lord giveth and He taketh. Even in positions, He gives you the positions and takes it. I keep telling people, if God hadn’t used Obasanjo to do what he did to me through the national broadcast, I wouldn’t be alive today. So, God had to make me exit that position to save my life…my own God showed it to me that I should leave the position. I resigned; most people take it that I was impeached. I was never impeached. I resigned.”
Credit: Archivi/ Ethnic African Stories
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