• Kukah cautions against speculations
• Organised labour backs President
IF any probe of those alleged to have looted the nation’s treasury is
to have any meaning and not be seen as a selective witch-hunt, then
President Muhammadu Buhari should start with all past civilian
administrations beginning from 1999.
This was the position of the Chairman, Labour Party of Nigeria (LP),
Abdulkadir Abdulsalam, who yesterday urged Buhari to be holistic by
extending such probes to former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo,
erstwhile Vice President Abubakar Atiku, Senate President Bukola Saraki
and other former state governors.
Meanwhile, members of the Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar-led National
Committee on Peaceful Election yesterday met behind a closed door with
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara.
Bishop of the Sokoto Diocese, Rev. Hassan Kukah, who fielded
questions from reporters on behalf of the panel after the parley, urged
the Buhari administration to endeavour to remain focused in the task of
delivering democracy dividends to Nigerians and not get distracted from
the core business of governance on the account of too much talk about
probe.
Frowning at speculations surrounding the resolve by Buhari to launch
an investigation to ascertain those who pilfered public funds, Kukah
acknowledged that corrupt practices over the years truly set the country
backward.
Also, organised labour has thrown its weight behind the President’s
determination to prosecute those who looted the nation’s treasury.
It, however, urged Buhari to expedite action in saving the nation’s
manufacturing sector in order to generate more employment for Nigerian
youths.
At a press conference in Kaduna yesterday, the Deputy President of
the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Issa Aremu pointed out that
since his inauguration on May 29, Buhari has made some significant
moves in the direction of good governance in the areas of
anti-corruption, security and economy.
Aremu explained that “Labour agrees with President Buhari that
Nigeria has to break this vicious cycle of corruption, unemployment and
insecurity in Nigeria before we can make progress,’’ stressing that “all
Nigerians are therefore enjoined to support the government in this war
against graft, which is the root of all woes including senseless
violence engendered by poverty.”
He said: “Beyond recovering the stolen funds, we need institutional
framework to prevent graft and public theft. To this extent, we commend
the presidential directive on a Single Treasury Account (STA) for all
federal revenues to ensure greater probity, transparency and
accountability in the collection, disbursement and utilisation of
national funds.”
The LP chairman told journalists that the Halliburton issue must also be probed to enable Nigerians know the true position.
“Firstly, I want to state that the President’s statement that trial
of those who looted the nation’s finances is a welcome development in
our fight against corruption. But the fundamental question is; what are
the pragmatic mechanisms put in place by the Buhari administration and
the All Progressives Congress (APC) to fight corruption? He has to
evolve a special means of fighting this corruption because the
corruption we are talking about involves many people in high places.
Fighting corruption must be comprehensive, not selective, not
discriminatory, not biased and must be total and holistic. Fighting
corruption must involve former President Obasanjo, Vice President Atiku
Abubakar and the former governors.’’
He said if former Governor James Ibori is still languishing in jail,
in Great Britain, then governors who served and are known to have looted
this country, in whatever political party, should not be spared.
“It is not proper that people would loot our money only to use the
same money to recycle themselves and become our leaders again, it should
not be allowed to happen,” Abdulsalam said.
Abdulsalam who noted that Buhari should know that Nigerians elected
him because of his previous pedigree urged him to ensure that he
retained that sincerity of purpose in his fight against corruption.
“At his age, he has nothing to fear. The corruption fight should
involve Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Joshua Dariye, Bukola Saraki and all those
governors now in the Senate who are found to have looted our resources
must be prosecuted. He should not limit the fight to only the NNPC.’ ’
Kukah told reporters that the parley chaired by Abdulsalami was in
conclusion of their consultations aimed at getting a feel from the
stakeholders about what they feel concerning the National Peace
Committee and its role.
His words: “There is no such thing as probe in a democratic setting
like ours. What obtains is investigation, and once people lead and
things are not right, investigation becomes necessary.
“However, in doing that we must never be distracted from the
spectacular actions undertaken by former President Jonathan. He is an
individual. I think this whole thing about probe can be ascertained once
investigations are concluded. But we are saying that a lot of talks and
speculations about this probe are distractions nobody need. So the most
important thing is that we need a stable country first before we can
talk about these things. And they would have happened down the line.”
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