Below is a statement from PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, made available to PoliticsNGR;
“My
attention has been drawn to a statement by President Muhammadu Buhari
on the occasion of a Christmas homage paid on him by members of the
Federal Capital Territory Community in which he blamed his inability to
fight corruption on the Nigerian system.
According to the President, his administration is slow in fighting corruption because the system is slow.
My
immediate response to this is to commend President Buhari for admitting
that he has failed in fighting corruption. The President has just
corroborated Transparency International, whose latest Corruption
Perception Index shows that Nigeria is more corrupt today than it was
under the previous administration, having moved 12 places backwards in
the CPI, from 136 in 2014 to 148 this year.
But my point of
departure from the President is in blaming his failure on the system. I
disagree. The system has challenges, yes, but where there is political
will, the system can make progress.
I was Vice President of
Nigeria from 1999 to 2007 and we used that same system to speedily
convict no less a personality than an Inspector General of Police, and
several others including cabinet ministers and other high officials.
Mr. President, the problem with your anti-corruption war is not the system. You are the problem!
The
system allows you to arrest, try and convict your former Secretary to
the Government of the Federation, who was fingered in a major corruption
case, but you chose to let him go Scot free and you demonstrated your
tolerance for his corruption by giving him a prominent role in your
re-election campaign and recently welcoming him to the Presidential
Villa with open arms.
The system allowed you to arrest, try and
convict Abdulrasheed Maina, the biggest ever alleged thief in our civil
service history, who is suspected of looting the pensions of millions of
aged Nigerians. Yet you chose not to go that route, preferring instead
to recall him, reinstate and double promote him while giving him armed
guards to move about.
The system allows you to probe the $25
billion NNPC contracts awarded without due process, but you chose to
bury the matter under the carpet, hoping the Nigerian people will forget
about that grand scale alleged looting exposed by a leaked memo from a
member of your cabinet.
Finally, nothing in the system stops you from telling Nigerians who owns the billions found in an Ikoyi apartment.
Based
on the above statement of facts, I will not allow you to to make
Nigeria the scapegoat for your failure. Your failure is personal, and
not national.
If you could go abroad to insult Nigerian youths as
lazy, why did you go to Paris to praise a governor who was caught
red-handed receiving bribes on camera?
The system did not stop
the EFCC from charging the opposition Governor of Akwa-Ibom, Mr. Udom
Emmanuel, as a co-accused in the case involving the NBA Chairman, Mr
Paul Usoro (SAN). Contrast this with the treatment meted out to Governor
Umar Ganduje of the ruling All Progressive Congress.
Besides,
your excuse is deceptive, because you have staunchly resisted
restructuring. If you really believed that the system is the problem,
you would have embraced restructuring.
Unfortunate as your
admitted failure in the war on corruption is, it is your economic policy
that is the greater failure. Your lack of ideas and your politicisation
of the corruption war has made your administration fight legitimate
businesses and the opposition.
I might add that it is actions
such as this that have led to an unprecedented capital flight which has
caused joblessness and made Nigeria the world headquarters for extreme
poverty under your watch.”
Source:- Politicsngr
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