WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.240 So imagine a national emergency, like a real, 00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:06.259 terrifying, unimaginable crisis. Right. It's 00:00:06.259 --> 00:00:08.880 the kind of situation where you don't haggle 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:10.880 over the price of a fire hose because your entire 00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:12.960 house is actively burning down. Yeah, you just 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:15.560 act. Exactly. You just open the vault, point 00:00:15.560 --> 00:00:19.039 to the problem, and say, whatever it takes, just 00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:21.539 get it done. Because in those critical moments, 00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:26.039 Speed just becomes the absolute priority. Standard 00:00:26.039 --> 00:00:28.739 bureaucracy, the usual layers of procurement 00:00:28.739 --> 00:00:31.100 committees. They all suddenly look like fatal 00:00:31.100 --> 00:00:34.579 bottlenecks. Precisely. The priority shifts entirely 00:00:34.579 --> 00:00:37.840 from financial prudence to immediate survival. 00:00:38.240 --> 00:00:40.439 You need the gear. and you need it yesterday. 00:00:40.780 --> 00:00:43.060 But what happens when the people holding the 00:00:43.060 --> 00:00:45.719 keys to that emergency vault decide that the 00:00:45.719 --> 00:00:47.920 burning house is actually a highly convenient 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:50.500 opportunity? Terrifying thought. Right, an opportunity 00:00:50.500 --> 00:00:53.619 to finance a massive political campaign, buy 00:00:53.619 --> 00:00:57.179 favorable media coverage, or even pay for what 00:00:57.179 --> 00:00:59.840 gets categorized on paper as spiritual purposes. 00:00:59.939 --> 00:01:02.079 Yeah, that's where things get really wild. Today 00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:05.079 we are doing a deep dive into the source material 00:01:05.079 --> 00:01:08.200 surrounding Dasukigate. We're tracing the exact 00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:12.439 path of a staggering $2 billion anti -terrorism 00:01:12.439 --> 00:01:14.900 budget to see how it just vanished. Into the 00:01:14.900 --> 00:01:17.219 pockets of political elites, yeah. Exactly, turning 00:01:17.219 --> 00:01:19.739 into one of the most astonishing scandals of 00:01:19.739 --> 00:01:22.840 the 21st century. To really understand the mechanics 00:01:22.840 --> 00:01:24.760 of this, we have to look at the environment that 00:01:24.760 --> 00:01:28.000 made it possible. because the context is everything. 00:01:28.280 --> 00:01:31.340 Right, take us back. So, as we all probably remember 00:01:31.340 --> 00:01:35.299 from the horrors of April 2014, the world was 00:01:35.299 --> 00:01:38.579 watching Nigeria in absolute shock. The Boko 00:01:38.579 --> 00:01:41.920 Haram insurgent group had just kidnapped 276 00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:44.239 schoolgirls in Chibok. Just an absolute tragedy. 00:01:44.680 --> 00:01:46.700 Completely. And the political and international 00:01:46.700 --> 00:01:49.060 pressure on the Nigerian government under then 00:01:49.060 --> 00:01:51.719 -President Goodluck Jonathan was immense. I mean, 00:01:51.760 --> 00:01:53.879 they needed to show overwhelming force. Right. 00:01:53.950 --> 00:01:56.590 which required immediate massive funding to equip 00:01:56.590 --> 00:01:59.290 the military. They needed a rapid response. And 00:01:59.290 --> 00:02:01.750 the scale of that funding was just monumental. 00:02:02.030 --> 00:02:04.569 We are looking at extra budgetary spending here. 00:02:04.790 --> 00:02:07.090 Huge amounts. Yeah. The financial records and 00:02:07.090 --> 00:02:09.729 subsequent investigative committee reports show 00:02:09.729 --> 00:02:14.169 an allocation of 643 .8 billion naira. And that's 00:02:14.169 --> 00:02:16.110 not even counting the foreign currency. Right. 00:02:16.289 --> 00:02:20.030 Plus an additional spending of about 2. $2 billion 00:02:20.030 --> 00:02:23.509 in foreign currency. And this money completely 00:02:23.509 --> 00:02:26.590 bypassed the standard Ministry of Defense channels. 00:02:26.990 --> 00:02:28.710 It went straight to the Office of the National 00:02:28.710 --> 00:02:31.930 Security Advisor. Exactly. The NSA, which was 00:02:31.930 --> 00:02:34.270 under the leadership of Colonel Sam Bodasuki. 00:02:34.990 --> 00:02:37.509 And the stated mandate was entirely straightforward. 00:02:37.930 --> 00:02:41.110 I mean, on paper, it made sense. Use these funds 00:02:41.110 --> 00:02:43.669 to buy helicopters, fighter jets, ammunition, 00:02:43.870 --> 00:02:46.430 and tactical gear to crush the insurgency. Right, 00:02:46.650 --> 00:02:49.250 buy the fire hoses for the burning house. Exactly. 00:02:50.050 --> 00:02:52.270 However, when a presidential investigations committee 00:02:52.270 --> 00:02:55.669 was later inaugurated in August 2015 by the incoming 00:02:55.669 --> 00:02:58.759 president, Mohamedouh Buhari, their audit revealed 00:02:58.759 --> 00:03:01.580 a completely different reality. Oh, completely. 00:03:01.740 --> 00:03:05.060 Very little of that $2 .2 billion was ever actually 00:03:05.060 --> 00:03:07.379 converted into military hardware. Okay, let's 00:03:07.379 --> 00:03:09.520 unpack this because the sheer scale of the missing 00:03:09.520 --> 00:03:11.780 money is difficult to visualize. It really is. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:15.020 We're talking about billions meant to stop a 00:03:15.020 --> 00:03:19.180 violent insurgency. How does a fund created during 00:03:19.180 --> 00:03:21.909 a national tragedy just evaporate? Well, they 00:03:21.909 --> 00:03:24.509 didn't just write a bad check. Right. We really 00:03:24.509 --> 00:03:26.650 need to examine the actual mechanics of this 00:03:26.650 --> 00:03:29.689 heist. They engineered an entire labyrinth of 00:03:29.689 --> 00:03:32.150 illusory defense contracts. Yeah. The committee 00:03:32.150 --> 00:03:36.729 analyzed 513 specific contracts that were awarded 00:03:36.729 --> 00:03:38.969 by the Office of the National Security Advisor 00:03:38.969 --> 00:03:42.590 during this period. 513. Right. And out of those, 00:03:42.729 --> 00:03:46.610 they identified 53 entirely failed contracts. 00:03:46.849 --> 00:03:50.009 Now, 53 out of over 500 might sound like a manageable 00:03:50.009 --> 00:03:52.189 margin of error. in a wartime scenario? Sure, 00:03:52.289 --> 00:03:54.969 until you isolate the monetary value of those 00:03:54.969 --> 00:03:57.830 specific failures. This is the crazy part. It 00:03:57.830 --> 00:04:00.169 is. The amount of foreign currency drained by 00:04:00.169 --> 00:04:03.530 just those 53 phantom contracts was more than 00:04:03.530 --> 00:04:06.610 twice the $1 billion loan that the National Assembly 00:04:06.610 --> 00:04:08.990 had officially approved for borrowing from the 00:04:08.990 --> 00:04:11.189 World Bank. Wait, really? Let that sink in for 00:04:11.189 --> 00:04:13.370 a second. The money hemorrhaged on just the failed 00:04:13.370 --> 00:04:16.089 contracts alone was double the official international 00:04:16.089 --> 00:04:18.189 loan taken out to fund the entire war effort. 00:04:18.430 --> 00:04:21.529 It's staggering. And looking at how these deals 00:04:21.529 --> 00:04:24.350 were structured, it reads less like a military 00:04:24.350 --> 00:04:26.670 procurement strategy and more like an international 00:04:26.670 --> 00:04:29.589 shell game. Oh, 100%. Like, take the situation 00:04:29.589 --> 00:04:32.029 that unfolded the month after the Chibok kidnapping. 00:04:32.250 --> 00:04:35.430 The Marion Ford situation. Yes. The Nigerian 00:04:35.430 --> 00:04:38.470 army somehow ends up attempting to procure weapons 00:04:38.470 --> 00:04:41.329 through an American expatriate living in Prague 00:04:41.329 --> 00:04:44.569 named Marion Ford. It perfectly illustrates the 00:04:44.569 --> 00:04:47.329 chaotic, almost deliberate lack of due diligence. 00:04:47.589 --> 00:04:50.269 I mean... Marion Ford was approached to broker 00:04:50.269 --> 00:04:53.250 this massive arms deal, but he didn't even possess 00:04:53.250 --> 00:04:56.009 the necessary legal licenses to trade in international 00:04:56.009 --> 00:04:59.110 arms. Unbelievable. So to circumvent this, he 00:04:59.110 --> 00:05:01.529 signed an agency agreement with an actual arms 00:05:01.529 --> 00:05:04.430 dealer named Era Delarian. OK, so he outsources 00:05:04.430 --> 00:05:07.009 it. Right. And Delarian operated a company that 00:05:07.009 --> 00:05:09.529 was split between Fresno, California and Sofia, 00:05:09.529 --> 00:05:11.959 Bulgaria. So let me get this straight. The defense 00:05:11.959 --> 00:05:14.279 of a nation facing a massive insurgency relies 00:05:14.279 --> 00:05:16.939 on an unlicensed American in the Czech Republic 00:05:16.939 --> 00:05:19.879 who then outsources the job to a guy splitting 00:05:19.879 --> 00:05:22.620 his time between California and Bulgaria. That's 00:05:22.620 --> 00:05:25.060 exactly what the sources show. And the mechanism 00:05:25.060 --> 00:05:27.139 completely collapsed under international law. 00:05:27.620 --> 00:05:30.319 I mean, of course it did. Delarian was eventually 00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:32.480 charged and arrested by U .S. authorities in 00:05:32.480 --> 00:05:35.829 2019. The U .S. Department of State strictly 00:05:35.829 --> 00:05:38.329 regulates international arms brokering by U .S. 00:05:38.529 --> 00:05:41.089 citizens through compulsory licenses. Which I'm 00:05:41.089 --> 00:05:43.569 guessing his company did not have. Nope. They 00:05:43.569 --> 00:05:45.589 did not have them for the specific contracts 00:05:45.589 --> 00:05:48.550 they signed with a vendor for the National Security 00:05:48.550 --> 00:05:53.129 Advisor back in 2014. Wow. So it devolved into 00:05:53.129 --> 00:05:56.610 this tangled web of frozen assets and international 00:05:56.610 --> 00:05:59.089 legal trouble. Now, the High Court of Nigeria 00:05:59.089 --> 00:06:02.990 did later, in August 2022, clear that specific 00:06:02.990 --> 00:06:05.329 vendor, Socia, take him on to Internationale 00:06:05.329 --> 00:06:08.949 and return their frozen assets. OK. But the initial 00:06:08.949 --> 00:06:11.509 reliance on unlicensed brokers just shows how 00:06:11.509 --> 00:06:13.810 the standard protocols for international military 00:06:13.810 --> 00:06:16.050 procurement were entirely abandoned. It's like 00:06:16.050 --> 00:06:17.990 having a corporate black card with an unlimited 00:06:17.990 --> 00:06:20.449 balance. And instead of hiring a licensed contractor 00:06:20.449 --> 00:06:22.529 to fix your collapsing roof, you hand the card 00:06:22.529 --> 00:06:24.910 to a guy you met at a bus stop. A guy who promises 00:06:24.910 --> 00:06:27.029 he knows a guy in another country with some tarps. 00:06:27.240 --> 00:06:30.180 Exactly. But here is where I have to push back 00:06:30.180 --> 00:06:32.899 on the mechanics of this. I mean, I understand 00:06:32.899 --> 00:06:35.620 how contracts can fail or get bogged down in 00:06:35.620 --> 00:06:38.000 international courts, but I know what it takes 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:40.500 to wire even a few thousand dollars internationally. 00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:44.100 There are forms, anti -money laundering checks, 00:06:44.439 --> 00:06:47.420 compliance officers. Oh, absolutely. I find it 00:06:47.420 --> 00:06:49.420 structurally impossible to believe a central 00:06:49.420 --> 00:06:52.220 bank just hands over billions of dollars. Was 00:06:52.220 --> 00:06:54.980 there really zero paperwork or was the paperwork 00:06:54.980 --> 00:06:58.259 just highly classified? You are hitting on the 00:06:58.259 --> 00:07:00.560 exact vulnerability that was exploited here. 00:07:00.779 --> 00:07:03.339 It wasn't an absence of paperwork. It was the 00:07:03.339 --> 00:07:06.740 weaponization of a specific bureaucratic classification. 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:10.160 Okay. How so? The system was bypassed using a 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:13.250 legal loophole meant for covert operations. And 00:07:13.250 --> 00:07:15.990 this brings us to the confession of Shaibu Salisu, 00:07:16.490 --> 00:07:18.310 the former Director of Finance in the Office 00:07:18.310 --> 00:07:20.649 of the National Security Advisor. Oh, the 11 00:07:20.649 --> 00:07:22.930 suitcases. Exactly. In his written statement 00:07:22.930 --> 00:07:25.790 to investigators, Salisu detailed a directive 00:07:25.790 --> 00:07:28.250 from Sambotosuki to go directly to the Central 00:07:28.250 --> 00:07:30.990 Bank of Nigeria. And he just walks in. Salisu 00:07:30.990 --> 00:07:34.930 literally walked in, collected $47 million in 00:07:34.930 --> 00:07:38.449 physical cash, plus a balance in euros, packed 00:07:38.449 --> 00:07:41.509 it all into about 11 suitcases, and had it driven 00:07:41.509 --> 00:07:44.189 directly to to Duski's residential address in 00:07:44.189 --> 00:07:46.689 Asakoro. What's fascinating here is the sheer 00:07:46.689 --> 00:07:51.790 audacity of moving $47 million in suitcases to 00:07:51.790 --> 00:07:54.029 a private home. It's like something out of a 00:07:54.029 --> 00:07:56.189 movie. Like, how does the governor of a central 00:07:56.189 --> 00:07:59.550 bank legally authorize a pallet of cash to walk 00:07:59.550 --> 00:08:01.790 out the front door? Because of a phrase that 00:08:01.790 --> 00:08:04.470 acts as an accounting black hole. Two words. 00:08:04.699 --> 00:08:07.680 Special Services. Special Services. Solisa stated 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:09.860 that the official request for the funds was simply 00:08:09.860 --> 00:08:12.800 tagged with those two words, signed by the National 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:15.100 Security Advisor and handed to the central bank 00:08:15.100 --> 00:08:17.639 governor. Wow. So that's the magic password. 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:20.620 In a system operating under an extreme, officially 00:08:20.620 --> 00:08:23.519 recognized national security emergency, Special 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:26.360 Services is the ultimate override code. Because 00:08:26.360 --> 00:08:29.560 you can't really audit a covert operation. Exactly. 00:08:29.720 --> 00:08:32.539 It is designed for paying covert informants or 00:08:32.539 --> 00:08:34.740 funding off -the -books intelligence operations 00:08:34.740 --> 00:08:37.919 where receipts would endanger lives. By slapping 00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:40.840 that classification on massive withdrawals, the 00:08:40.840 --> 00:08:43.659 Office of the National Security Advisor legally 00:08:43.659 --> 00:08:46.320 blinded the compliance departments. So they couldn't 00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:48.440 even ask questions if they wanted to. Right. 00:08:48.669 --> 00:08:51.309 The investigative committee found billions of 00:08:51.309 --> 00:08:54.210 naira transferred to single companies with no 00:08:54.210 --> 00:08:56.769 underlying agreements No tax fulfillment records 00:08:56.769 --> 00:08:59.750 and no delivery schedules. The normal auditing 00:08:59.750 --> 00:09:03.269 reality was suspended So if the vault is open 00:09:03.269 --> 00:09:05.629 and the auditors are locked out, where does the 00:09:05.629 --> 00:09:08.809 money actually go? Well That is the big question. 00:09:09.029 --> 00:09:11.870 Because 11 suitcases of physical cash and billions 00:09:11.870 --> 00:09:14.830 in untraceable wire transfers don't just evaporate 00:09:14.830 --> 00:09:17.669 into the ether, they land in someone's hands. 00:09:17.889 --> 00:09:19.590 They leave a trail eventually. Right. And when 00:09:19.590 --> 00:09:22.350 you trace the funds, you don't find international 00:09:22.350 --> 00:09:25.730 arms dealers. You find local politicians. We 00:09:25.730 --> 00:09:27.970 are leaving the realm of defense procurement 00:09:27.970 --> 00:09:31.210 and entering the architecture of a massive political 00:09:31.210 --> 00:09:34.100 slush fund. The paper trail became incredibly 00:09:34.100 --> 00:09:36.000 vocal once the authorities moved in. Yeah, let's 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:38.720 talk about that. Nigeria's primary anti -graft 00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:41.879 agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, 00:09:42.759 --> 00:09:45.779 or EFCC, alongside the Department of State Services, 00:09:46.299 --> 00:09:48.740 began making high -profile arrests. Starting 00:09:48.740 --> 00:09:51.820 with Sambo Dasuki and Shibu Salusu. Exactly. 00:09:52.200 --> 00:09:54.460 And once the key players were in custody and 00:09:54.460 --> 00:09:56.539 realized the scale of the evidence against them, 00:09:56.759 --> 00:09:59.830 they started talking. The overriding narrative 00:09:59.830 --> 00:10:02.169 that emerged from their confessions was that 00:10:02.169 --> 00:10:04.210 the counter -terrorism funds were deliberately 00:10:04.210 --> 00:10:07.570 diverted. To sponsor the 2015 reelection campaign 00:10:07.570 --> 00:10:10.289 of then -President Goodluck Jonathan. That was 00:10:10.289 --> 00:10:12.629 the claim, yes. Okay, before we break down the 00:10:12.629 --> 00:10:15.009 specific names and the astonishing justifications 00:10:15.009 --> 00:10:17.529 given for these payouts, we really need to pause 00:10:17.529 --> 00:10:20.289 and make something very clear to you, the listener. 00:10:20.649 --> 00:10:22.850 Yes, this is a crucial point. The financial tracing 00:10:22.850 --> 00:10:25.090 and the subsequent confessions we are discussing 00:10:25.090 --> 00:10:28.230 involve highly politically charged allegations. 00:10:28.610 --> 00:10:31.210 These center around Nigeria's major political 00:10:31.210 --> 00:10:34.149 parties. Specifically, the PDP, which was the 00:10:34.149 --> 00:10:36.549 ruling party at the time, and the APC, which 00:10:36.549 --> 00:10:39.169 was the incoming administration pushing the investigation. 00:10:39.470 --> 00:10:42.230 Right. And we are not taking any sides here? 00:10:42.399 --> 00:10:45.220 We do not endorse any political viewpoints, nor 00:10:45.220 --> 00:10:47.559 do we validate the political motivations behind 00:10:47.559 --> 00:10:50.539 who was arrested. We are strictly and impartially 00:10:50.539 --> 00:10:53.580 unpacking the claims, the financial records and 00:10:53.580 --> 00:10:56.379 the fierce denials exactly as they were documented 00:10:56.379 --> 00:10:58.539 in the source material during the investigation. 00:10:58.740 --> 00:11:00.779 Exactly. Just reporting what the sources say. 00:11:01.080 --> 00:11:03.899 And that context is vital because the investigation 00:11:03.899 --> 00:11:07.039 paints a picture of a defense office that completely 00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:10.100 morphed into a political financier. When you 00:11:10.100 --> 00:11:13.090 look at the specific disbursements, The connection 00:11:13.090 --> 00:11:15.610 to military hardware just vanishes completely. 00:11:16.429 --> 00:11:18.750 Let's look at those disbursements, because the 00:11:18.750 --> 00:11:21.629 justifications honestly defy logic. First, the 00:11:21.629 --> 00:11:24.889 records show 2 .1 billion naira transferred to 00:11:24.889 --> 00:11:27.769 Chief Raymond Dokpezi, the chair emeritus of 00:11:27.769 --> 00:11:29.909 DIR Communications. Right. When investigators 00:11:29.909 --> 00:11:32.549 asked why Media Mogul was receiving anti -terrorism 00:11:32.549 --> 00:11:35.129 friends, he openly claimed the massive payout 00:11:35.129 --> 00:11:37.490 was for media and political campaigns to support 00:11:37.490 --> 00:11:39.769 the president's re -election. It's right out 00:11:39.769 --> 00:11:43.240 in the open. Then the investigation traced 650 00:11:43.240 --> 00:11:47.120 million naira to the account of Nduka Obagbana, 00:11:47.460 --> 00:11:49.639 the publisher of the Thiste newspaper. Okay, 00:11:49.960 --> 00:11:52.620 and what was his reason? When confronted, his 00:11:52.620 --> 00:11:54.500 management team offered a different defense. 00:11:55.179 --> 00:11:57.559 They claimed the money was government compensation 00:11:57.559 --> 00:12:00.320 to mitigate the damage their offices suffered 00:12:00.320 --> 00:12:03.039 during the Boko Haram twin bombings years earlier. 00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:06.039 Which begs the question, why is the Office of 00:12:06.039 --> 00:12:09.019 the National Security Advisor acting as a property 00:12:09.019 --> 00:12:11.460 insurance adjuster using an emergency weapons 00:12:11.460 --> 00:12:14.320 budget? It's a great question, and it just keeps 00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:17.519 going. Musili Obanikoro, a former minister of 00:12:17.519 --> 00:12:20.039 state for defense, reportedly detailed to authorities 00:12:20.039 --> 00:12:22.960 how he physically transported $5 million from 00:12:22.960 --> 00:12:25.120 the arms fund. And who did he give it to? He 00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:26.960 said he handed it over to Ayo Faiyosa, a former 00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:29.360 governor. Wow. But the justification that truly 00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:31.600 breaks the scale of standard accounting comes 00:12:31.600 --> 00:12:34.340 from Atahiru Bafuroa. the former governor of 00:12:34.340 --> 00:12:37.220 Sokoto state. Oh yes, this one is... The financial 00:12:37.220 --> 00:12:41.159 trace showed he received 4 .6 billion naira, 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:43.500 and his official response to the allegation was 00:12:43.500 --> 00:12:45.480 that the money was given to him for spiritual 00:12:45.480 --> 00:12:48.240 purposes. Spiritual purposes? I have to ask, 00:12:48.460 --> 00:12:51.700 from an auditing perspective... How does a financial 00:12:51.700 --> 00:12:54.820 system even process a multi -million dollar line 00:12:54.820 --> 00:12:57.700 item for spiritual purposes? It processes it 00:12:57.700 --> 00:13:00.259 because the person writing the check is also 00:13:00.259 --> 00:13:02.480 the person defining the rules. I guess so. When 00:13:02.480 --> 00:13:05.200 an institution operates entirely devoid of independent 00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:08.659 oversight, justifications become entirely subjective. 00:13:09.299 --> 00:13:12.360 There was no coherent legal basis for these financial 00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:14.159 transactions. It's just whatever sounds good 00:13:14.159 --> 00:13:16.279 at the time. What we are seeing is the complete 00:13:16.279 --> 00:13:19.679 hijacking of an institution. The tragic reality 00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:23.379 of the Boko Haram insurgency provided this impenetrable 00:13:23.379 --> 00:13:25.639 shield of national security. Which means no one 00:13:25.639 --> 00:13:28.500 can look at the books. Exactly. That shield insulated 00:13:28.500 --> 00:13:30.620 the spending from the auditor general, allowing 00:13:30.620 --> 00:13:32.779 vast sums of state wealth to be distributed for 00:13:32.779 --> 00:13:35.779 media buys, political mobilization, and entirely 00:13:35.779 --> 00:13:39.220 undefined spiritual campaigns. So with the money 00:13:39.220 --> 00:13:41.580 scattered across the political elite like a high 00:13:41.580 --> 00:13:44.899 -stakes game of musical chairs, the inevitable 00:13:44.899 --> 00:13:48.269 happens when the music stops. A new administration 00:13:48.269 --> 00:13:50.730 comes in? Yep. The anti -graft agencies pull 00:13:50.730 --> 00:13:53.889 the actual bank records and the accused are suddenly 00:13:53.889 --> 00:13:56.190 sitting across from interrogators. And it triggers 00:13:56.190 --> 00:13:59.370 a spectacular domino effect. It instantly devolved 00:13:59.370 --> 00:14:02.409 into a survivalist blame game. Everybody turning 00:14:02.409 --> 00:14:05.440 on everybody. Pretty much. Yeah. When Sam Modusuki 00:14:05.440 --> 00:14:08.539 was first transferred to the ESCC, he completely 00:14:08.539 --> 00:14:11.379 stonewalled the investigators. He refused to 00:14:11.379 --> 00:14:13.639 write a formal statement, arguing that he was 00:14:13.639 --> 00:14:16.480 being subjected to an illegal media trial and 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:19.019 a political witch hunt. But the investigators 00:14:19.019 --> 00:14:21.340 didn't need him to confess first, did they? Because 00:14:21.340 --> 00:14:23.279 they already had the architect of the transfers. 00:14:23.539 --> 00:14:25.399 Exactly. They had Shibu Saletsu, the director 00:14:25.399 --> 00:14:27.379 of finance. The suitcase guy. The suitcase guy. 00:14:27.879 --> 00:14:30.139 Saletsu had already been thoroughly interrogated 00:14:30.139 --> 00:14:32.159 and had written a comprehensive confessional 00:14:32.159 --> 00:14:35.019 statement, the exact document detailing the central 00:14:35.019 --> 00:14:37.460 bank withdrawals and the 11 suitcases. So what 00:14:37.460 --> 00:14:40.580 did they do? The EFCC operatives simply walked 00:14:40.580 --> 00:14:44.200 into Desuki's interrogation room and placed Saletsu's 00:14:44.200 --> 00:14:47.299 written confession on the table. Oh, man. The 00:14:47.299 --> 00:14:50.679 documented reaction from Dasuki is almost cinematic. 00:14:51.200 --> 00:14:53.419 He reads through his own finance director's detailed 00:14:53.419 --> 00:14:56.960 account, looks up, and reportedly says, you mean 00:14:56.960 --> 00:14:59.860 Solisio wrote all these? You mean he said these? 00:15:00.419 --> 00:15:03.409 Give me a pen and paper. Just like that, the 00:15:03.409 --> 00:15:06.389 dam breaks. He begins writing out a comprehensive 00:15:06.389 --> 00:15:08.889 list of the political figures who received the 00:15:08.889 --> 00:15:11.750 diverted funds. That moment sparked a massive 00:15:11.750 --> 00:15:14.529 chain reaction of indictments across the political 00:15:14.529 --> 00:15:16.970 spectrum. Because once the central node of the 00:15:16.970 --> 00:15:19.889 operation starts providing names, everyone downstream 00:15:19.889 --> 00:15:22.570 has to scramble to explain why state funds ended 00:15:22.570 --> 00:15:24.470 up in their private accounts. It's true. And 00:15:24.470 --> 00:15:25.909 here's where it gets really interesting. Oh, 00:15:25.909 --> 00:15:27.830 it gets more interesting. Oh, yeah. Because the 00:15:27.830 --> 00:15:30.190 Confessions started painting a picture of a highly 00:15:30.190 --> 00:15:34.289 organized, Distribution Network. Ambassador Bashir 00:15:34.289 --> 00:15:36.909 Yiguta, the former Minister of State for Finance, 00:15:37.289 --> 00:15:39.870 was arrested and provided a confessional statement 00:15:39.870 --> 00:15:41.750 detailing how he acted as a distributor. What 00:15:41.750 --> 00:15:45.090 did he claim? He outlined handing out 600 million 00:15:45.090 --> 00:15:48.350 naira to six zonal chairmen of the ruling party's 00:15:48.350 --> 00:15:50.809 Contact and Mobilization Committee for the 2015 00:15:50.809 --> 00:15:54.389 election. He specifically stated he gave 100 00:15:54.389 --> 00:15:57.830 million naira to each chairman. Wow. But you 00:15:57.830 --> 00:16:00.610 cannot publicly accuse highly entrenched political 00:16:00.610 --> 00:16:03.129 figures of receiving embezzled defense funds 00:16:03.129 --> 00:16:06.389 without triggering a fierce, highly calibrated 00:16:06.389 --> 00:16:08.710 counteroffensive. Oh, the pushback was intense. 00:16:09.289 --> 00:16:11.590 The individuals named immediately went on the 00:16:11.590 --> 00:16:14.190 defensive, utilizing partial admissions combined 00:16:14.190 --> 00:16:17.100 with technical denials. Right. Like Chief Bo 00:16:17.100 --> 00:16:19.879 George. He was identified by Youguta as one of 00:16:19.879 --> 00:16:22.919 those zonal chairman and he issued a vehement 00:16:22.919 --> 00:16:26.320 public denial labeling Youguta's claim as mischievous 00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:28.899 and deliberately fraudulent. But he didn't deny 00:16:28.899 --> 00:16:31.059 receiving money altogether, which is the fascinating 00:16:31.059 --> 00:16:32.919 part. Yeah. Bo George admitted that his committee 00:16:32.919 --> 00:16:35.840 did meet to reconcile party factions and he acknowledged 00:16:35.840 --> 00:16:38.200 that Youguta handed the committee cash. But the 00:16:38.200 --> 00:16:40.730 amount was the issue. Right. He insisted the 00:16:40.730 --> 00:16:42.990 amount was only thirty thousand dollars, which 00:16:42.990 --> 00:16:45.149 was less than six million naira at the exchange 00:16:45.149 --> 00:16:47.190 rate back then. Quite a difference from one hundred 00:16:47.190 --> 00:16:50.909 million. Massive difference. And he heavily stressed 00:16:50.909 --> 00:16:53.029 that it was strictly to reimburse the committee 00:16:53.029 --> 00:16:55.850 elders for their transportation, hotel accommodations 00:16:55.850 --> 00:17:00.570 and feeding allowances. Not a one hundred million 00:17:00.570 --> 00:17:04.650 naira campaign slush fund. And this strategy 00:17:04.650 --> 00:17:07.690 of denial reached the absolute highest level 00:17:07.690 --> 00:17:10.049 of the previous administration. You mean Goodluck 00:17:10.049 --> 00:17:13.230 Jonathan? Yes. Former President Goodluck Jonathan, 00:17:13.470 --> 00:17:16.430 while speaking at a forum in Washington D .C., 00:17:16.430 --> 00:17:18.710 forcefully refuted the allegations surrounding 00:17:18.710 --> 00:17:21.369 his office. What did he say exactly? He flatly 00:17:21.369 --> 00:17:23.990 stated, Where do the money come from? I did not 00:17:23.990 --> 00:17:26.509 award any $2 billion contract for procurement 00:17:26.509 --> 00:17:28.750 of weapons. OK. While he admitted there were 00:17:28.750 --> 00:17:31.109 some accounting irregularities, he claimed the 00:17:31.109 --> 00:17:33.150 entire narrative was being wildly exaggerated 00:17:33.150 --> 00:17:35.089 by the incoming government to discredit him. 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:38.220 But financial and political analysts immediately 00:17:38.220 --> 00:17:40.759 flagged the former president's statement as highly 00:17:40.759 --> 00:17:44.319 evasive. Why did that specific phrasing raise 00:17:44.319 --> 00:17:47.059 so many red flags? Well, if we connect this to 00:17:47.059 --> 00:17:49.880 the bigger picture, the phrasing, I did not award 00:17:49.880 --> 00:17:53.119 any $2 billion contract, is a master class in 00:17:53.119 --> 00:17:55.279 technical evasion. Right, because it wasn't one 00:17:55.279 --> 00:17:58.119 single contract. Exactly. He was sidestepping 00:17:58.119 --> 00:18:02.039 the actual mechanism of the fraud. Dasukigate 00:18:02.039 --> 00:18:05.619 wasn't about a single massive two billion dollar 00:18:05.619 --> 00:18:07.779 purchase order with the president's signature 00:18:07.779 --> 00:18:10.039 at the bottom. It was death by a thousand cuts. 00:18:10.579 --> 00:18:12.819 It was an amalgamation of hundreds of smaller 00:18:12.819 --> 00:18:16.160 fictitious contracts combined with direct physical 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:19.460 cash withdrawals from the central bank. All legally 00:18:19.460 --> 00:18:21.539 facilitated through the Office of the National 00:18:21.539 --> 00:18:23.920 Security Advisor. And the president doesn't sign 00:18:23.920 --> 00:18:26.480 those daily withdrawal slips. No, the NSA does. 00:18:26.910 --> 00:18:30.009 This web of partial confessions, where a politician 00:18:30.009 --> 00:18:32.589 admits to taking travel money but denies taking 00:18:32.589 --> 00:18:35.609 campaign money, perfectly illustrates the incredible 00:18:35.609 --> 00:18:37.910 difficulty of prosecuting systemic corruption. 00:18:38.049 --> 00:18:39.930 Because the individuals involved deliberately 00:18:39.930 --> 00:18:43.210 blur the legal definitions. Exactly. When does 00:18:43.210 --> 00:18:46.210 a legitimate hotel reimbursement cross the line 00:18:46.210 --> 00:18:49.279 into an illegal campaign contribution? And when 00:18:49.279 --> 00:18:52.259 does a campaign contribution get exposed as the 00:18:52.259 --> 00:18:54.460 direct laundering of stolen national security 00:18:54.460 --> 00:18:56.900 funds? By the time the auditors finally get access 00:18:56.900 --> 00:18:58.819 to the books, the financial waters have been 00:18:58.819 --> 00:19:01.440 completely muddied. Which brings us to the ultimate 00:19:01.440 --> 00:19:04.619 resolution of this sprawling web. We've traced 00:19:04.619 --> 00:19:06.779 how the emergency loophole was exploited, how 00:19:06.779 --> 00:19:09.440 the money was scattered to media moguls and politicians, 00:19:09.500 --> 00:19:12.500 and how the entire network turned on itself when 00:19:12.500 --> 00:19:15.539 the anti -graft agencies closed in. But what 00:19:15.539 --> 00:19:19.279 is the actual tangible aftermath of Dasukigate. 00:19:19.359 --> 00:19:21.980 I mean, what came of all this? The investigative 00:19:21.980 --> 00:19:24.200 committee's probe resulted in the indictment 00:19:24.200 --> 00:19:28.000 of over 300 companies and citizens, a list that 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:30.299 included serving and retired military officers 00:19:30.299 --> 00:19:33.640 who facilitated the phantom contracts. And they 00:19:33.640 --> 00:19:35.700 actually did get some of the money back, right? 00:19:35.900 --> 00:19:38.619 They did. The financial recovery efforts yielded 00:19:38.619 --> 00:19:41.410 significant tangible results. The presidential 00:19:41.410 --> 00:19:44.430 administration reported that over 7 billion naira 00:19:44.430 --> 00:19:46.630 had been successfully recovered from indicted 00:19:46.630 --> 00:19:49.309 companies and individuals. That's a huge sum. 00:19:49.769 --> 00:19:51.950 Furthermore, the committee mandated that another 00:19:51.950 --> 00:19:54.849 41 billion naira was slated to be refunded by 00:19:54.849 --> 00:19:57.250 several of the corporate entities involved in 00:19:57.250 --> 00:20:00.240 the failed procurement deals. And my absolute 00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:03.079 favorite detail from the recovery phase, several 00:20:03.079 --> 00:20:07.240 top officials reportedly rushed to return 1 .4 00:20:07.240 --> 00:20:10.859 billion naira just a single week after the government 00:20:10.859 --> 00:20:13.680 released its initial statement of intent to prosecute. 00:20:14.039 --> 00:20:16.369 Amazing how that happens. Right. It is amazing 00:20:16.369 --> 00:20:18.750 how quickly people can locate massive sums of 00:20:18.750 --> 00:20:20.710 money they previously claimed to know nothing 00:20:20.710 --> 00:20:23.369 about when the threat of a prison sentence becomes 00:20:23.369 --> 00:20:25.769 a reality. Truly a miracle. So what does this 00:20:25.769 --> 00:20:28.029 all mean for you listening to this deep dive 00:20:28.029 --> 00:20:31.369 right now? It is very easy to look at Desucagate 00:20:31.369 --> 00:20:34.589 as just a localized political scandal, like a 00:20:34.589 --> 00:20:37.150 product of a specific administration in a specific 00:20:37.150 --> 00:20:39.660 country. But it's much bigger than that. It is, 00:20:39.779 --> 00:20:42.279 because the mechanics of this heist are entirely 00:20:42.279 --> 00:20:44.740 reliant on basic human nature and the universal 00:20:44.740 --> 00:20:47.799 exploitation of a crisis. It demonstrates how 00:20:47.799 --> 00:20:50.519 terrifyingly easy it is for a genuine life -or 00:20:50.519 --> 00:20:53.640 -death national security emergency to be weaponized 00:20:53.640 --> 00:20:56.039 by the people in charge to permanently bypass 00:20:56.039 --> 00:20:58.660 transparency. And this raises an important question, 00:20:58.660 --> 00:21:01.380 because the knowledge we gain from history is 00:21:01.380 --> 00:21:03.619 most valuable when we apply it to the systems 00:21:03.619 --> 00:21:06.339 we interact with today. The core lesson here 00:21:06.339 --> 00:21:09.160 isn't strictly about the intricacies of the 2015 00:21:09.160 --> 00:21:13.099 Nigerian elections. It is a profound masterclass 00:21:13.099 --> 00:21:15.880 in the inherent vulnerability of emergency funding. 00:21:16.079 --> 00:21:19.200 No matter where you live. Right. Whenever a government 00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:21.700 system intentionally strips away its standard 00:21:21.700 --> 00:21:24.460 checks, balances and public bidding laws in the 00:21:24.460 --> 00:21:27.259 name of pure expediency, whether the crisis is 00:21:27.259 --> 00:21:31.059 a localized war, a global pandemic or a catastrophic 00:21:31.059 --> 00:21:34.140 natural disaster, it creates an administrative 00:21:34.140 --> 00:21:36.849 shadow environment. And in that shadow environment, 00:21:37.150 --> 00:21:39.150 the rules just don't apply. The safeguarding 00:21:39.150 --> 00:21:41.069 of the public treasury is no longer guaranteed 00:21:41.069 --> 00:21:44.049 by the law. It becomes entirely dependent on 00:21:44.049 --> 00:21:47.230 the personal unchecked integrity of a very small, 00:21:47.329 --> 00:21:49.690 very powerful group of people. And as we've seen 00:21:49.690 --> 00:21:52.049 today, relying solely on personal integrity when 00:21:52.049 --> 00:21:53.490 there are billions of dollars sitting on the 00:21:53.490 --> 00:21:55.809 table can lead to some highly creative definitions 00:21:55.809 --> 00:21:58.789 of spiritual purposes. It certainly can. So we 00:21:58.789 --> 00:22:00.750 want to leave you with a final thought to mull 00:22:00.750 --> 00:22:04.799 over as you navigate the news cycle. When a government, 00:22:05.220 --> 00:22:08.099 anywhere in the world, declares a state of emergency 00:22:08.099 --> 00:22:11.299 and purposefully bypasses standard financial 00:22:11.299 --> 00:22:13.920 oversight for the sake of moving quickly, who 00:22:13.920 --> 00:22:15.859 is actually holding the keys to the vault? That's 00:22:15.859 --> 00:22:17.519 a question you have to ask. Next time you read 00:22:17.519 --> 00:22:19.700 the headlines about a massive, fast -tracked 00:22:19.700 --> 00:22:21.799 emergency spending bill being passed in the middle 00:22:21.799 --> 00:22:25.460 of the night, ask yourself, could 11 suitcases 00:22:25.460 --> 00:22:27.759 be walking out the back door? Something to think 00:22:27.759 --> 00:22:30.059 about. Thank you for joining us on this deep 00:22:30.059 --> 00:22:32.400 dive into the underlying mechanics of Dasukigate. 00:22:32.750 --> 00:22:33.230 you next time.