I’ll Faint If I See N1bn – Ex-Governor Ngilari

• Former Adamawa Governor Bala Ngilari claims he’d faint if he possessed N1 billion, defending his integrity amid corruption allegations
• Ngilari recounts his failed senatorial bid due to high delegate demands for N1 million each, illustrating challenges in politics

Barr Bala Ngilari, former Governor of Adamawa State, claims he will faint if he sees and owns N1 billion.

This was said by the ex-governor in response to the corruption case that made him the first victim of a court ruling since the return of democracy in 1999.

Ngilari, who governed the North Eastern state for a brief period between October 2014 and May 2015, was convicted of corruption and sentenced to prison after leaving office.

The former governor made the remarks while appearing as a guest on Trust TV’s Daily Politics program.

When asked if he had “like N1bn of your own?” he replied, “If I see N1bn now, I will faint.”

In fact, the good thing is that the greatest difficulty for a person who tries to be honest and righteous is that you gather so many enemies. Till tomorrow, I say it boldly without fear or favour, if you take the proceedings of the courts that arraigned me on a five-count charge, there is not one count of the five that said I took one naira or diverted one naira, not one, he said.

He further said that after losing the governorship seat, he wanted to contest as a senator in the following election year, but could not because the delegates in his party were asking for N1m each.

In fact, I tried to contest for the Senate too under APC. I went round, toured and two, three days to the primary election, I called and reached out to the delegates through my director general and my coordinators.”

The delegates told me, ‘Look, sir, when it comes to the right person to go for this thing, you are the right person, but honestly we will be sincere and honest with you we cannot accept N100,000 which you want to offer us.’

To help. My idea was that I could offer N100,000 for probably 200 people. That would come to about N20 million, so that they could go and start something at home.

I mean N100,000 at that time was something. (But) they said, ‘No, sir, we will not collect your N100,000 because there are people who are willing to give us one N1 million each.