BREAKING NEWS, Politics
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President Muhammadu Buhari says it now a matter of weeks that those who have helped themselves with public funds will go on trial
PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has given assurance that the trial of those found to have stolen public funds would begin in a matter of weeks.
Femi Adesina, spokesman of the president in a statement on Tuesday, August 11, quoted the President Buhari as telling members of the National Peace Committee led by Abdulsalami Abubakar, retired general and former head of state, at a meeting in Aso Villa, Abuja.
At the meeting held behind closed doors, which lasted for about two hours, the president was said to have declared his administration was irrevocably committed to doing all within its powers to break the jinx of corruption, unemployment and insecurity in Nigeria.
“Nigeria has to break this vicious cycle before we can make progress,” Buhari said, adding that his administration was diligently collating facts and figures on the nation’s stolen funds, before proceeding to the prosecution of identified culprits. “President Buhari told his guests that the government, under his leadership, would not only ask for the return of stolen funds that have been stashed in foreign banks, but will also ensure that those who stole the funds are put on trial in Nigeria,” the statement said.
The president also told his guests about his resolve to address the national problems his government inherited, especially those of the nation’s revenue generating institutions.
Similarly, he explained why he had to order that a single treasury account be established for all federal revenue agencies to ensure greater probity, transparency and accountability in the collection, disbursement and utilisation of national funds.
“We have really degenerated as a country. Our national institutions, including the military, which did wonderfully on foreign missions in the past, have been compromised. But we are doing something about it.
The military is now retraining and morale has been resuscitated.
“As Petroleum minister under General Olusegun Obasanjo in the 1970s, I could not travel abroad until I had taken a memo to the Federal Executive Council asking for estacode. Now, everybody does what he wants. That is why security-wise and economically, we are in trouble,” the president said.
Matthew Hassan Kukah, bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, who spoke on behalf of the delegation, said the meeting harped on the need to stabilise the polity after the March and April general elections which Buhari won.
Kukah denied media speculations that the meeting was prompted by reports that former President Goodluck Jonathan had complained to Abubakar about witch-hunting of officials who served in his government by the present administration in the prosecution of the war against corruption.
The bishop said contrary to reports that Jonathan asked for the committee’s intervention, he said: “Anybody is free to come to our committee, but President Jonathan never, either by telephone or any other means, sought to see the committee. We went to see him after we had already seen members of the political parties and a few members of the civil society. So, this essentially, is just to hear everybody out,” Kukah said.
He noted that Nigerians are now committed and that everyone should be encouraged to his quota. “The only thing we can collectively be opposed to is injustice, iniquity, corruption and we all had one single conversation. I am happy the president also reaffirmed the need for this committee to continue and the international community has very much welcomed its contributions. Essentially we are not policing, but when the need arises we help to build confidence,” the cleric said.
On insinuations that Buhari administration’s stance on corruption could heat up of the polity, Kukah said: “It is not heating up the polity. In our conversation with President Jonathan and members of the political parties, I don’t think any Nigerian is in favour of corruption or is against the president’s commitment to ensuring that we turn a new leaf. I think what we are concerned about is the process,” he said.
Kukah reminded everyone that the leadership of the country should be mindful of the fact this nation is operating a democratic government and that “under our existing laws everybody is innocent until proved guilty.”
Prominent among those who were also at the meeting were Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Mohammed Sa’ad Abubakar III, sultan of Sokoto; John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Metropolitan Archbishop of Abuja Catholic Diocese; Nicholas Okoye, a reverend and primate of the Church of Nigeria and Ayo Oritsejafor, pastor and president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN.
Others were Ben Ndi Obi; Priscilla Kuye, former national president of the Nigerian Bar Association; Sam Amuka-Pemu, publisher of Vanguard newspaper; Amaze Guobadia; Yunusa Tanko, national chairman, National Conscience Party, NCP, and John Odigie-Oyegun, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
— Aug 24, 2015 @ 14:15 GMT
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