'I was forced to pay a godfather N10m monthly as governor ' - Mbadinuju

Former Anambra state governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju (1999 to 2003) tells Saturday Punch:

Well, a godfather has many connotations. You could have  positive godfathers and negative ones. The good ones work towards making things work and succeed but if you have a godfather that is always challenging, he wants to make appointments, if you have 10 commissioners, he would want to have three or four. After you have given him two commissioners, he will say he wants Special Advisers, Special Assistants and he will even want to choose their portfolios but I said these things are not done like that and they said it is done like that, that is controversy.

There is a godfather who had an arrangement with the military that he would be paid N10m every month, I wasn’t there when the agreement was made. When I tried to stop it, I was dragged to President Obasanjo’s office and I told Obasanjo this is the situation I found on ground and Obasanjo said I had to go back and continue paying it; that it was legal. At what stage did I renege? They will always try to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it. Obasanjo gave them contracts worth billions of naira, they were super rich, there was nothing I could give to them.

You mean Obasanjo asked you to pay this godfather; who is he?

Yes, Obasanjo asked me to pay. The godfather is one of the Uba family.