Exclusive: I was marked for assassination by Abacha's men but saved by Buhari - Martins

- Chief Kenny Martins reveals why it will be difficult for Nigeria to ever have very stable power supply

- Chief Martins reveals chilling details of how he was marked for assassination by Abacha's men and how Muhammadu Buhari intervened

- He reveals that Ibrahim Babangida had two opportunities of returning to power years after stepping aside and also states why this did not materialise

In this second part of the exclusive interview with Eromosele Ebhomele, Damilare Okunola and Emma Osodi, Chief Kenny Martins, former chairman of the Police Equipment Trust Fund (PETF) and in-law to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo chilling details of his near death experience, why politicians can be frustrating and what a good Nigerian leader should focus on

With your wealth of experience, why have you not considered running?

No, I'm such a philosophical person. I took it from my dad and I think, very far. I introspect intensively and know that everybody has a niche in life. It takes time to find, but when you have found it, just remain there. I consider myself simply okay. I'm more effective making things happen, putting things together. They say Kenny Martins is a brand, it is never brand, it is not me but my friends. Just leave me with my phone and the people I can reach. That is my strength. I want to do ABC, I can call one person to do A for me, one person to do B and like that. So they call me Mr Fix It, but I don't fix nothing. It is just that I have friends who I can always call upon and because we've so networked and synchronized, so we understand each other very well. I keep my friends. It is not like we don't have our disagreements, but I have seen that the strength of a man is based on his network of friends he has. I have their backs and they have mine. I can call on them and they have me. I see myself as a kingmaker.

I see those who step out of line from what they are supposed to be and it doesn't work well. I was telling President Obasanjo recently that: "You are not a money man, you are just a power man thinking about Nigeria. You are like a bulldozer, when Nigeria needs you for crises, they come and carry you, they use you to clear the estate and go and park you somewhere." Abiola's role was money, business philanthropy. You couldn't beat him there, he excelled. He was everybody's man, but he wanted power. Even the military that was his greatest constituency that he served severally in power were the ones that rejected him and said: "We won't have you as our number one. They were three cause of the annulment. So he should have stayed a kingmaker. I can't fight my friends fighting for positions. I can advise them on how to use the position for the betterment of myself and the people of the country.

We know you worked closely with the late Abiola. Looking back now, would you say your efforts were an exercise in futility?

No, it was not an exercise in futility at all. The history of a nation is a process that is endless. The biggest nations are all the same, their history is still a continum even up till today because you find issues of that time still radiating and affecting today. Abiola emerged a messiah of democracy. He died for that cause.

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Abiola emerged on a Saturday in Jos. The following Wednesday, Wole Sobamu, schoolmate and then publicity secretary of the INEC chairman in Lagos, came to me and said he wants to be Abiola's press secretary. I said 'Wole, how can you be Abiola's press secretary? Do you know him?' He said no but that he knows I would know him. I said: 'I know the man but I don't know him too well o. One thing you fail to know is that even though me and you used to contest with reading Hardly Chase back then in three hours, the things we read then are in real life and I use it to run my life. All those people you claim I know, I don't just know them. I have been of service and use, of support and solutions to them and they owe me. So when you see me go to them and say I want something, I am only drawing on a credit I have with them. I am not begging them. If you want to be Abiola's secretary, do something for him that would make him pick you when he gets there.' I told him to come back three days after and that I would think of what we can do. Before he came back the third day, it was shown to me that Abiola would win the election, but they won't give him the power.

So when he came, I told him: 'Let's go see Obasanjo. I will tell him you are a security man so that if he asked me how I knew what I was saying, I would say you told me.' I used to be shy then to say God told me something. So I went to OBJ and said: 'Sir, your friend...' He asked which of his friend and I said Bashorun and he asked Kash (Kashimawo which is the middle name of Abiola) and I said yes. I said the man would win the election but they won't give him. He said: 'What? That is not possible. Ibrahim (Babangida) can never do that to him. He brought him out himself. I said: 'No sir, it is powers beyond Ibrahim that would do it to him.' He said: 'You are taking this thing serious. Who told you?' I pointed at Wole and said he was a security man. He picked up his phone and called Abiola. We drove straight to Abiola's house in Opebi and I told him the same thing. He repeated the same thing OBJ said earlier: 'No, Ibrahim can't do this to me.' I said it was not Ibrahim but the powers beyond him. So he asked: 'What do we do?' It was already shown to me a lot of things that can be done. So I have him a snippet of what I think could be done to stall what late became the annulment. That was how he called his son, Kola and told him: 'This is Kenny Martins here and there is an issue. Anything he wants us to do, we will do it.' Here was I a neophyte. I wasn't a politician then, but a businessman. And here was Abiola telling his son that we should take over.

So we took over. All the major strategies from taking care of everything from NEC to the police stations to the IGP to governor's... We ended up drafting the budget for the SDP that was read that time at the Federal Palace Hotel by General Shehu Yar'Adua who flew in from overseas. And Wole and NEC eventually played that role and that was why you found that to annul the election was impossible for the government because we told everybody in NEC, the security forces and the governors both in SDP and NRC not to rig for us but just protect the common results.

That was why in every state, in every hamlet, the results were reflected. So that was why they had to take extra positions, extra powers and angles to be able to annul that election. And it didn't really work. So talking about Abiola, it was not an exercise in futility because we delivered the best election ever, the freest and fairest. We already took care of everybody's concern and they were consistent in ensuring that the results were reflected. It was the freest and fairest and also set the pace for the military to find it difficult to stay in power. It made it so bitter a pill that military incursion into governance became anathema that nobody ever wanted to consider because it became so messy.

We now take it a step further into the government of Abacha where some claimed they were fighting from outside while we were inside. It is easy to fight from outside o. It was a fight really and I salute them. But the greatest fight is fighting internally, staying with the government of the day, forming party with that government, having backers who believe that this election must hold. So we were under Abacha fighting under the National Centre Party that I represented then. There was UNCP which was 100 percent government party. But we were one of the few independent parties like the CNC under Saraki and Gemade. We were there. Some of us like Alhaja Suliat Adedeji were killed in the process just like NADECO people were bombed. That killing of Adedeji still remains the most unhappy day of my life. But at the end of the day, that transition collapsed and gave birth to a proper democracy. So I believe that the advent of MKO into politics, his involvement and the roles of some of us were foundations to this democracy.

That is why the players today should know that some people paid the price with their freedom and their lives for this democracy. Remember Obasanjo went to prison, people were killed. And they were spin offs from the Abiola election. Working for that election is one of the greatest services I have rendered to the country.

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And you almost paid with your life because we heard you were almost assassinated...

Oh, I was arrested, I was to be assassinated. When Obasanjo was arrested, I was by his side, incidentally, Atiku was also there. We just left the Ooni of Ife. He (Obasanjo) complained to us that his passport was seized. We go to the farm and they came and took him away. I followed him up to where they were keeping him. That is another long story. But as things would be, when he was arrested, my media friends came to me and said: 'We have it on good information that you are going to be killed. Because I have a kind of approach to life, it did not bother me. I didn't worry at all. But the information kept coming and some of them said even I did not worry, what if the stray bullets hit them. At that point, I was compelled to stand up and go to meet Justice Mamman Nasir. He is my old friend. I said: 'Sir, they say the government of Abacha wants to kill me.' He asked why and I said I don't know, but that they said I am Obasanjo's man. He said he would step into it but there was something I must do. He asked if I knew Daura, Muhammadu Buhari's place. I said I knew the place. He said: 'I will phone him now before you get to his place but go to him.'

So I drove to Buhari's house, that same house that is highly publicised now. As the simple man he is, he asked: 'Kenny, what is the problem?' He said before I would tell him, I should take a stroll and see one of Nigeria's boarder line. So I did and came back. I said: 'Sir, they say they want to kill me.' He asked for what and I said I didn't know. He asked who and I sad Abacha's government. He said: "Today is Wednesday. On Saturday, I will be having dinner with the president and I will take up the matter." By 1am on Sunday, my land-line phone rang and it was him calling from the Villa and telling me: "Listen, tomorrow which is Monday, the NSA, Alhaji Ismaila Gwarzo, will call you and come to see you in Lagos and take care of this matter." I thanked him. I had not met Gwarzo before. He said he had given him my number.

On Monday, I was in my office and the NSA called and was using 'sir' for me. I was just in my late 30s. He said: "My name is Ismaila Gwarzo. I have been told to call you by the former head of state, through the president, Court of Appeal by the head the head of state and I am supposed to see you tomorrow but please, I we will not see tomorrow, there are some commitments at the Villa. I will come first thing the day after tomorrow." I told him not to worry that I would come to the Villa. He said: "No, don't put me in trouble, the head of state and the former head of state asked me to see you. You have to tell them you are the one that said I should not come." I said I would tell them.

On Wednesday, I went. I entered his office and said I am Kenny Martins, Obasanjo's in-law. He said: "Yes, what can we do for you?" I said: "Nothing oh, they said your people want to kill me." He said: "Haba, how can you say my government wants to kill you? We are not killers." I said: "That was what I was told and I was asked to see you so that nothing will happen to me." He laughed and asked me to sit down. He pressed a bell by the side door, not the one I came through. A tall, fair, handsome man came in. He (Gwarzo) said: "Peter, do you know Kenny?" He said he knew me. I said I didn't know him. Gwarzo said that was the DG of SSS. He said: "Peter, this is Kenny. The president and the former president have said nothing must happen to him." A lot of things we discussed that day. I left, nothing happened to me. Everywhere I went, even if it was police checkpoint and I said I am Kenny Martins, they called me a bridge builder, saluted me. So I knew instructions had been given.

So you see, God, Justice Nasir and General Buhari, now President Buhari, saved my life. It should have been my happiest day but it still remains the saddest because unbeknownst to me, my closest ally in networking and bridge-building was Alhaja Suliat Adedeji and she was also marked down but nobody told us. Two weeks later, she was killed in her house in Ibadan. If I knew her name was on the list, I would have said it there and it would not have happened. That's why when people say five Abacha leprous parties, they don't know the price we paid to be inside Abacha's government, fight military to stand still.

They always think Abacha ate apple and died, but the transition was frustrated, scattered and was beyond control. Fighting from the inside was the toughest battle to fight for democracy. Even if he did not die, there are things that would have happened. You can talk about the five leprous fingers (parties) of Abacha when you are outside and canvassing for foreign exchange to survive as NADECO. That is simple. I remember they would give press conference in Lagos in the afternoon, bribe the media to delay the story till they will be in Cotonou the next day and say they are on exile.

But we stayed and fought just like Obasanjo went to jail. I was arrested one day by one man they call Frank Omenka, the head of that dreaded DMI (directorate of Military Intelligence). My neighbour is Senator Durojaiye. Nobody knew he was there for many months and everyone was looking for where he was. I saw one small window and he called Kenny and I said: 'Is this where you are? Everybody is looking for you.' That's why finally I got my bail few days later. I was even the one who told people where the man was. So people paid price for this democracy.

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That's why power seekers and holders must take it easy because the desperation with which they look for the power is the desperation with which they run the power and that is why we are not getting anywhere and that is why I say that as a kingmaker, my greatest pain is that those we place in power in power are a big disappointment to ourselves, God and the people they are serving. And you wonder why. They were your colleagues two days ago, a week ago, blowing the same grammar, crying the same philosophy, shedding the same tears of blood and asking why the country is not working. But when they get there, not only will they not pick your call, they start doing things totally anti-everything you people have stood for and you wonder why. Then they want to amass money that would last their 10 generations, take the money abroad, get duped and the same people you did not see when they were in power would now come back to you and would now want to talk to you. You ask them why they did not do what is right and they say: 'Baba Kenny, no be so.' It is a big problem for Nigeria. The quality of people that get to power and the quality they demonstrate when they get to power are two polarised issues. Our leaders need prayers. This nation needs prayers.

And you think prayers alone can solve the challenges?

We can't execute them like China is doing. So what else can we do? The prayer is for them to remember their commitment when they get there. There's nothing else we can do. We can't stay with them in the State House, we can't stay with them in the Senate, we can't stay with them in the House of Assembly seats. He is on his own. He then has the power in his hands. He has the mandate. You have nominated him, campaigned for him, networked for him, you have raised funds for him, but he is now there. It is not between him, his conscience and God.

General Ibrahim Babangida is a 'big individual'. How were you able to convince him to jettison his ambition in favour of the late Yar'Adua?

That would not be the first time. That man you have mentioned is one of the biggest believers in the nation-state Nigeria. After Abacha died, we had just three months to conduct elections. Abdulsalam Abubakar was in power. There was nobody else contending. It was only Abacha and MD Yusuf who were contending for power. There was no southerner. So it was given that a northerner would be president over that dispensation. With Abdulsalam, his main man now in power, Babangida was the next president with his popularity and reach within the five parties. I still salute him as one of ghetto biggest heroes of this dispensation because at our encounter the fourth day after Abacha died, I told him that granted that in the history of rulerships in Nigeria, there had not been a southern factor. The only southern factor we had was Abiola. So sir, if we are to have the next president, it cannot be you. Then, we were about 129 million. I told him that 60 million southerners cannot be second class citizens.

Abdulsalam, you, Abacha, Buhari, Shagari are the major people who have governed. The only chance the southerners have at emerging has been compromised. Sir, if you become president today, there would be so much upheaval. In the interest of stability, it will be good to allow a southerner to emerge. He agreed and also had a hand in choosing who would emerge the president in that new dispensation we were putting together and the only reason he picked the person was because that person was the best factor for national unity.

He said: "What I am talking about now Kenny, is that the country needs national unity. We are fractured now.” That created the emergence of President Obasanjo. So he dropped his ambition with a clear understanding that he would come afterwards. When it was time to come back and there were factors and people were kicking against it, I said again: "Sir, is it worth it? Let's have somebody else to do it."

So when they say the man is somebody who wants power at all cost, he is a man that people misunderstood. He has been one of the biggest factors in the unity and stability of this country till date. After God, maybe just one or two people before him in the stability of this country. And I should know because I am involved, probably more than anybody else. That man remains one of my heroes.

If you have the opportunity of becoming a president today, what would be your focus?

If I was a president today, maybe two or three things. I read recently that we spent $36 billion in five years importing fuel. That is an average of about $7 billion per year. How much does it cost to build a refinery? And they say it has impacted on our foreign reserve. I would take $10 to $15 billion and build three major refineries. It takes me two years to build. Ninety days to completion, I will tell them banks that gave us the money to float an IPO so that every Nigerian would buy it. I would then take back my money in two years. I would then tell Nigerians all the crude you need for the refineries, buy from me at international price and I will supply you upfront, fix the price yourself, supply the fuel and I am out of it in two years.

I will take another $1 billion dollars and build five major health institutions. After completing them in another two years, I will sell off to Nigerians. All the $1 to $2 billion we spend each year on medical tourism would be used to pay you Nigerians now running the health facilities. I would concession the roads to private sector, build and toll. Nigerians are willing to pay tolls if we have good, safe roads and where I have adequate security, ambulance and travellers pay N500 to drive from here to Onitsha. If every bus pays that amount, I will make back my money in two years. Then everything will open up. The same thing for power. These things are not rocket science.

Let me tell you about power. In 1999, three months after getting to power, the late Bola Ige called and told me there was an emergency. He said: "It is so clear that we will have power crises for ever. We need to get the private sector. Can you assist?" He gave me his SA, Olu Agunloye. Then, my friend, Kalejaiye, with my team of business people went around the world. We were with INEL of Italy who we got in touch with through their vice president. INEL of Italy has a place four times the size of National Stadium. They have three plants in that place generating over 5,000 megawatts and all the equipment are underground with a path letting out steam from the machines. INEL generates 300,000 megawatts and they sell power from Italy to almost the end of Britain. So power generated in Italy is consumed in Britain.

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We met Maritoba Hydro of Canada. We let five major players. They came together to form a consortium, have us a letter of commitment, gave us $1 billion guarantee and told us all the equipment we use here in Nigeria are obsolete. They promised to give us 1000 megawatts every year. We came back and Bola Ige was excited. But the government of the day decided to take up the three 'Rs' which are repair, refurbish and rehabilitate. It jettisoned that idea. Out of anger, the global players said Nigeria will never get 10 cents or power globally forever and because no country is able to generate power by itself, Nigeria will never have power. That is where we are.

Fifteen years ago, we got N500 billion to build five (five-star) hospitals across Nigeria at $100 billion each and that in two years, they would train us and recoup their money and take back their doctors. Till today, we have never got any federal, state government or body to endorse the paper and ask us to take the money in his name and help to run it. I wish I had a president who would listen. But do they ever listen?

2019: Kenny Martins speaks about Obasanjo's coalition, Buhari's chances Legit.ng

Source: Legit.ng