The President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote; the Chairman of BUA Group, Adulsamad Rabiu; and the founder and Chairman Emeritus of the TY Danjuma Foundation, General Theophilus Danjuma, among other prominent Nigerians, donated over N17bn to former military President Ibrahim Babangida during a public presentation of his book, “A Journey In Service.”
The former Nigeria’s military president wrote the long-awaited autobiography and the event included a fundraising by the IBB Presidential Library Foundation.
The event held on Thursday at the Congress Hall of Transcorp Hilton was attended by former president of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, who delivered the keynote address.
The event was also attended by former heads of state Generals Yakubu Gowon and Muhammadu Buhari, who sent a representative, Abdulsalam Abubakar and Goodluck Jonathan.
Former president Olusegun Obasanjo was the chairman of the occasion.
A compilation of the donations, which was made by THE WHISTLER, showed that Dangote donated the single highest amount with the sum of N8bn broken down into N2bn annually for four years.
Dangote’s N8bn donation is followed by Rabiu, the co-launcher of the book who supported the former military president’s project with N5bn.
Danjuma, who was also a co-launcher of the book, pledged the sum of N3bn during the event.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio and the Deputy President of the Senate, Jibrin Barau, donated the sum of N50m and N20m, respectively.
Billionaire businessman Authur Eze pledged the sum of N500m to launch the book and also supported the library project.
The book, ‘A Journey In Service,’ is expected to unravel the mystery surrounding the IBBB persona as military president and as a family man.
Many would also be looking forward to reading about reasons for the annulment of the June 12, 2023, presidential election believed to have been won by the late MKO Abiola.
Babangida was Nigeria’s military head of state from 1985 to 1993, during which he survived two coups.
The annulment of the June 12 election led to a national crisis, which culminated in the extension of military rule until 1999, when the country returned to civil rule.