sentencing of James Ibori in 2012. (Reuters/
Akintunde Akinleye)
Puzzling resurgence
Beating corruption
Last month, James Ibori, a former
governor of oil-rich Delta state in the
south of Nigeria was released, after four
years in a UK prison. He had been
convicted by a British court for
embezzling state funds during his eight
years in charge. Ibori was released and
deported after he had returned up to
$110 million of “proceeds of crime”.
Ibori’s journey to spend time at her
majesty’s prisons started after 2009,
when a Nigerian court threw out a 170-
count corruption charge against him,
citing a lack of merit in the case. But
the determination of the government at
the day and the cooperation of Interpol
ensured he was arrested a year after he
fled to the United Arab Emirates to
avoid extradition to the United Kingdom
for retrial.
On release in December, Ibori was
ushered into the waiting arms of some
of his fiercest supporters including
Peter Nwaoboshi, a serving Nigerian
senator from his state. Back home, the
Delta state government reaffirmed its
joy and loyalty while in Oghara his
hometown, the celebrations at the news
of his release got so out of hand a
motorcycle rider got killed in a hit-and-
run accident while performing
celebratory stunts.
To Nigerians outside the Niger Delta
region, it’s puzzling that Ibori, who has
a long history of allegations of theft and
fraud going back to the nineties, would
be welcomed so openly. What may even
be more surprising is the strong
possibility that his political career
rather than fizzling out, could be on
the verge of a resurgence.
Former governor of Nigeria’s Delta
state James Ibori. (Reuters/Stringer)
A lot of people owe their political rise
to Ibori explains Cheta Nwanze, head of
research at SBM Intelligence. “He
empowered many politicians around
him and built infrastructure in many
parts of Delta State,” says Nwanze.
“There is also a narrative within the
Niger Delta that in other regions,
thieves get away with their loot.
However, their own heroes and
liberators like Ibori and [former
Bayelsa governor, Diepreye]
Alamieseyeigha who also steal are
persecuted. Hence the way people have
reacted to his release.”
Samuel Oniovosa, a resident of Ughelli
town in Delta and a government worker
during Ibori’s first tenure agrees. “Ibori
was one of those who grabbed money
but was also a benefactor to a lot of
politicians and put a lot of
infrastructure in the state so a lot of
people see him as a godsend. Even in
prison, people would go ask his opinion
on a lot of stuff.”
Hugely influential in his two four-year
terms as governor, Ibori installed
Emmanuel Uduaghan, his protégé and
cousin as successor in a clime where
godfatherism helps to oil the wheels of
political machineries across the
country. While in prison, evidence of
his tenterhooks came to the fore as a
faction of his party—the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP)—loyal to him
sidestepped the incumbent’s choice and
anointed Ifeanyi Okowa, a former
member of Ibori’s cabinet as governor.
With the Nigerian economy currently in
recession and the general sentiment
being that the Muhammadu Buhari
presidency has underperformed,
political permutations and alignments
are already underway ahead of the
2019 general elections. And Ibori’s
name has come up as one of those who
could be a key ally for some of the
principal actors. “I believe the
government at the center will try to
court him because of his influence in
Delta but no one knows if he will get
into the thick of things immediately or
rest indefinitely”, adds Nwanze.
In the murky waters of Nigerian
politics, questionable characters and
people with criminal pasts have
emerged as pillars in the political
firmament so there is little to suggest
that Ibori’s case will be any different.
For example, Buruji Kashamu, a
serving opposition party senator, is still
wanted in the US for drug crimes
which are often linked to inspiration
behind the writer of the Netflix show
Orange is the New Black.
On the other side of the party divide,
Bola Tinubu, the APC national leader
forfeited almost half a million dollars
after being fingered as being part of a
drug racketeering ring also in the state
of Illinois. But Tinubu, a former Lagos
state governor and one of Nigeria’s
most powerful politicians, was crucial
to the defeat of former president
Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 polls.
President Muhammadu Buhari unseated
Jonathan largely because of a campaign
that promised to prioritize tackling
terrorism and the endemic corruption
in Nigeria. But it has been business as
usual in a country ranked 136 of 175
nations in the 2015 Corruption
Perception Index by Transparency
International. Despite an avowed
commitment to fighting corruption by
the Buhari presidency, no single
conviction has been secured and
influential members of the cabinet have
question marks hanging over their
integrity.
Ibori is believed to have funded a
presidential campaign in the past and
still has strong connections within
Nigeria’s north. With the ruling All
Progressives’ Congress (APC) and the
northern-dominated hierarchy at the
presidency looking to ensure electoral
victory in 2019, it could reach out to
Ibori to woo an already suspicious
southern Nigeria including the kingpin
Tompolo who was declared wanted in
February 2016 . The militants’ attack on
oil installations across the region have
severely dented revenues in a country
in the middle of a recession and whose
primary export is crude oil.
“He’s expected to be more influential
now as he is now an unlikely hero that
has survived the ‘worst trial and
persecution,'”says Adewunmi Emoruwa
of political think thank LEPAN Nigeria.
He will be a major bridge builder
especially from behind the scenes for
northern presidential candidates
seeking to woo the Niger Delta in 2019.”
Back at home in the Delta, it is also
widely believed that Ibori, who was
implicated in the #PanamaPapers
imbroglio, still has plenty of funds
stashed away to operate behind the
scenes as a kingmaker in Niger Delta
politics. Before his imprisonment, he
was seen as instrumental in building
bridges and agitating for resource
control in the Niger Delta region.
Some think Ibori could become larger
than life in Niger Delta politics again by
either of the two major parties. His
ruthlessness—shown in the way he is
believed to have engineered the
replacement of Nuhu Ribadu, then the
well-respected chair of Nigeria’s anti-
corruption agency, could come in
handy for the former ruling party, PDP
which has been in limbo since
Jonathan’s loss.
While his involvement in the 2015 polls
remains unknown, Ayiri Emami an APC
chieftain and Ibori loyalist who
regularly visited him in prison,
declared in an interview last March
that Ibori predicted the defeat of
Jonathan, his kinsman from the Niger
Delta who refused to shield him from
international prosecution.
“He is coming back to change the
game,” stresses Oniovisa. “We just don’t
know how.”
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