Probe Obasanjo, Atiku, Tinubu, others, LP urges Buhari
Obasanjo
• 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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55 Comments
Nonsense!
Is LP saying that if PMB cannot probe all administrations before him, he should forget about probing any of them including Jonathan? What a bunch of unpatriotic citizens! Why must Buhari spend all his time probing all past administrations? Why didn’t Jonathan probe OBJ and the rest before him? GEJ’s failure to probe any of his predecessors was an indication that he was satisfied with what he was handed over to; or he didn’t probe because he knew he was going to continue the looting spree.
The only administration that has immediate and direct impact on Buhari’s is Jonathan’s. So, if it is the only one that PMB can probe in order to start a cycle, so be it. If Jonathan’s regime must be made a sacrificial lamb in order to get out of the vicious cycle of corruption so be it. And when PMB’s tenure comes to an end, let his successor probe his regime too. Gradually, a culture is established and we will one day get it right.
It make sense for Buhari to start the probe from OBJ government, because if Apc wins the next presidential election in 2019, I don’t see them probing Buhari or whoever replaces him, it’s only a PDP government that is likely to probe an Apc government. Apc won’t probe Apc and PDP won’t probe PDP.
It may make sense to you and some others, I have no problems with that. However, it is the president’s choice to determine what is best for him given the time he has to work with. To probe only GEJ’s administration may take up to two years to complete, how much more an administration far back!
What is worth doing is worth doing well, the president is not complaining about lack of time, except you are saying he spoke to you about it personally, Come to think of it, we need a complete surgery, the foundation should be laid now, with a full government in place , they can archive a lot in the fight against corruption.
@ Ola, it can be done concurrently. He doesn’t need to be done with the immediate past before probing others. I support the probe of all Nigerian looters, no matter which administration.
Yes if he can’t go back to Obasanjo’s government, then there’s no need. It’s difficult for a PDP government to probe another PDP govt it’s succeeding, the same way an APC government will not d0 same. This is the only opportunity we have, so let him go back to Obasanjo’s government, including the Halliburton case.
Good talk. Buhari have only 4 years..are we saying the whole term should be spent on probing past administration?… It does not matter how the man chose to do his job, all that matters is that it should be done well and in accordance with the law of the land.
I totally agree. Looting under GEJ would be easier to trace because it is recent. If several trees fall on top of each other, you pick the one on top (most recent ) first. If the one you pick needed up pulling the one below it, so be it. Buhari should focus on GEJ administration.
Partial justice is worse than injustice. If you are fighting corruption then you must fight it everywhere. No carve outs, no statutes of limitation. It must be fought in a holistic way. Otherwise it becomes a with-hunt and a tool of the ruling party to harass the opposition.
The money they have stolen or looted since 1999 is not our money. If they are found today will they not be useful for our development?
the elders has spoken, they have seen the end of the road, what an elders see sitting down you may not be able to se climbing an eloko tree. the warning came early.
you see why the hausa lacks wisdom , i have only one remarkable word for you Buhari will be there for ceond term if he may even finish his first term in happiness just watch out .
buhari should start from himself…after that he can go after anyone…$2.8bn …interest earned and not paid to nigeria…
Any probe that does not include obasanjo and co means buhari is only witch hunting which is unacceptable.
All the hypocrites and cowards in Nigeria are speaking out including Abdulkadir Abdulsalam. When the last regime was there you never said or shouted probe. Now you are all shouting probe all the government. You cannot teach the incoming government how to govern and am sure you do not know the full agenda of their plans either. Those who never spoke out in previous regimes cannot be taken seriously not.
he is been truthful as an elder statesman, do not say you are not warned bokohari. don’t disintegrate nigeria
Nigerians should leave this man alone and let him do his job .Buhari would probe whoever he wants to probe as the President. He would not jump over the past adminstration.This is gradual proceesing.
I dare to disagree with you, he cannot probe whoever he wishes, he cannot be selective about it but holistic. If he decides to probe Jonathan alone, he won’t succeed. He must go back to the days of Obasanjo including the Halliburton case.
Yea ,you might disagreed with me but i want you people to understand that is not possible for PMB to jump over the adminstration he took over from .This is gradual processing if PMB should probe anybody. PMB needs serious prayer from you Nigerians ..
It is not for Buhari to probe whoever he wants to probe, that is the problem we have. We want to end corruption just like the current APC government. The probe must be structured to remove any form of bias.
Nigerians are asking Mr. President to probe post military era, and that is from 1999, what is wrong with this appeal by Nigerians?
I am getting tired and surprise on this whole push to probe Jonathan and Jonathan alone. That me explain Patience Jonathan cry, “God Dey o”
lies. Every living corrupt leaders must be probed. But, again, Buhari has no guts to probe Obasanjo.
The rule of justice is ” if you probe someone, you must probe everyone”. Nigerians say an emphatic NO to selective justice.
The truth is that Mr. Buhari lacks the moral courage to probe Tinubu and co…His moral courage begins and ends with Mr. Goodluck Jonathan.
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It was only insincere and undiplomatic for Jonathan’s PDP government not to have probed Obj’s PDP government, because as president you shouldn’t allow the agenda of your party to supersede the agenda of the government to serve your country. Jonathan should have probed his predecessor’s government if he was dissatisfied with it. Buhari should probe his predecessor’s government if he finds out that his government was corrupt and even probe his government further for not probing the Obj’s govt. If he had really found out that the obj’s govt was corrupt
now we have getting superman to do the job, that gej aired does not mean bokohari will toe the same line. he is the president from a different party and he want to probe a party that ruled nigeria for 16yrs, why then will he omit 10yrs of rule by the same party and concentrate on just 6yrs out of 16yrs. it is unjustifiable
Since 2007, when Atiku left office as vice –President, the
Senate and the House of Representatives have been carrying out probes in
different sectors of the economy. From the Bureau of Public Enterprises,
power sector , petroleum Subsidy and
Capital Markets. Where and when in all these has Atiku’s name
mentioned or indicted don’t west your time Mr Abdulkadir Adulsalam LP Chairman Atiku is clean.
Halliburton scandal in case you do not know
The call by the LP chairman for the investigation of the past leaders apart from Jonathan is laughable, he should note that the rate of Jonathans corruption level is so high that nothing will be left untouched during his regime. Jonathan administration is the worst in the history of Nigeria in terms of corruption as they have destroyed Nigerian economy. Others are Saints compare to former President Jonathan.
Is the definition of stealing ten kobo different from the definition of stealing one million naira? Corruption in Jonathan’s Government was high and the one in another Government was low, at the end what do you call them? Some people talk just because they want to talk and not becaus they have any reasonable thing to say. What can you say about privatisation during Obasanjo regime? What can you say about power and what can you say was the reason why Obasanjo and Aneni[Mr. Fix it] went after Orji Uzoh Kalu during the Obasanjo regime? If you can supply answer for these, then Buhari should go ahead to probe only Jonathan’s regime, else, keep your mouth shut.
you are brainwashed my guy, he has no liver to probe, just making noise as usual
Who is Abdulkadir Abdusalam to name names or advice PMB on how to carry out his anti corruption war?
Only the guilty fears the name MUHAMADU BUHARI.
Abdulkadir naming names will not help you just return your loot and pray BABA forgives you.
CHANGE is here to stay.
BUHARI DARE NOT PROBE OBASANJO. Remember Buhari had a position under Obasanjo, and the file is still missing till date. Obasanjo has Buhari’s scrotum’s in his hands. Let him try.
Honestly speaking you guys are just wasting your time , time would tell who and who would be listed , The World is very interested about the well being of the Poor people in Nigeria , where only few Elite milking the Money, Allowed the President to execute his work as a President, , He will never Satisfy everybody or the World, The New Hope is to get Nigerian Back to Work, Probe who that would never finish until another 5-10 years, people needs better living standard , Like Jobs, Security , Roads, Electricity, Education, Health Care , Housing , Food, etc, if you all recall Abacha Loots what happen to date? did you receive meals allowance increase ? or New Bridge or road built since GOWON days ? waste of time , Let the President do his Job Nigeria, Nothing would be done within a Day ! Wish you all well alright.
no one is holding him, is is just propagating on the pages of newspapers, he has no liver to fight corruption that brought him to power. he is more corrupt than the people he choose to probe
I find the arguments of those calling for the President to extend his probe to previous governments before GEJ laughable because PMB did not take over from them. His responsibility is to check on what he inherited from his predecessor but if in the course of doing that, some evidence surface to link previous government(s) then he would be duty bound to call them to account. And those fixating on Tinubu should come up with the evidence of corruption against him or forever shut up, we can’t run anti corruption crusade on perception, beer parlour gossip, envy or malicious intent.
that means Buhari is not ready to fight corruption. if he is ready, it should be total except he is a coward. one question i want to ask Nigerian is,” Is Halliburton scandal not corruption”? is $16B dollars spent on power reforms not corruption? we are all waiting.
You might as well ask him to probe Balewa, Azikwe, Awolowo and others posthumous so you guys can achieve your aim of seeing him fail. How come you people even see any sense in probe so much that you are now asking him to extend it beyond GEJ regime, why didn’t you ask your man to probe the previous regime before him. GEJ handed over to him and PMB responsibility is to ensure things done by GEJ were legit. Moreover if any of you have any implicating evidence against those regimes, then forward them to the relevant agencies, after all all the probes we are talking about emanated from petitions by concerned Nigerians, PMB did not point out people to be probed as many of the investigations predates PMB but were stunted by political considerations, the heat became intensified because a focused man is at a the helms. Period.
Where did “LP” party stand during the last general election concerning corruption? Nowhere! What Mr. Abdulkadri and his co-travelers are doing is to pollute the water and create more confusion in our polity as many of his ilks are known. Hear him: President Buhari should “probe” administrations of Lord Lugard all the way to Olusegun Obasanjo before probing the Jonathan administration otherwise is a “witch-hunting.” At least we have somebody who has the balls to hunt down the witches and wizards before they destroy us completely. Everybody knows that this is the argument of corrupt and polluted minds. Leave President Buhari alone and let him do his surgical operation to revive a comatose nation in peace. He doesn’t need your advise this time around. Wait until LP wins Aso Rock before you probe the Lord Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammed (SAW).
OBJ has been in corridor of power since 1966, he probed people with Murtala in 1976 and people say he is a saint, who owns that expanse of land at Ota, the palatial Hilltop House/Library, Bell University and many more. Buhari is afraid to investigate OBJ his former master. All these talk about probe or no probe are waste of time, let Buhari form his govt and go ahead to govern and if possible exceed PDP achievement, not to come and investigating people.
Does Buhari has the legality to probe past government, was he elected to be auditor general of the federation, let our dear president concentrate on the period of his tenure which is within the ambit of his power. He cant probe OBJ or Jonathan, because they all had executive authority at their time and Buhari’s tenure is from 2015 to 2019, so where does he derive the legality to extend his tenure backwards? Or you want Jonathan or OBJ to reort their tenure to Buhari for authentication or approval, what do we call an executive president, you think it is a clerical position? So Jonathan will now appear before Buhari to explain how he run his administration, bullshit rubbish.
Nothing is selective in the approach the president has adopted so far. He said it before he won the election that he will set a limit for his corruption fight and if he now chooses to limit himself to GEJ government, I think it is his prerogative. Of recent, he equally said that if by rule, the government stumble on any corruption case, he will probe and get justice for Nigerians. My stake is that Nigerians should allow this man do his work to the best of his ability after all, he will not steal our money knowing his pedigree from time immemorial, that alone will have sanitize the Nigerian society. Time will tell soonest
Constitutionally, Buhari can only fight corruption within his administration (2015 – 2019) and not to go ask other former presidents questions on how they run their administration. The presidents of Nigeria have their executive powers during their tenure and it is not the function of another president to validate or approve the action of their predecessors, they can modify, cancel but not query them for their actions. We are still suffering from military absolutism hangovers.
Nigeria has many anti graft agencies that are responsible for that, they outlive every president. Mr President is only replaying Sanusi’s script of missing phantom oil money and wants to get at GEJ.
Should it be the President’s responsibility to probe or the entities which were formed for the sole purpose of performing such probes? So is it until Buhari says to probe someone before EFCC does it’s job? You might as well scrap EFCC then. Nigeria is very very backwards I must say. It’s like saying the US attorney General should only probe people Obama wishes to probe. Where is the check and balance?
”YES” … my dear Jegede — for your info every probing agent’s in anywhere in the world is not an independent organization they all depend on their leader either the president, prime minister, chancellor or head of the government — that is where they take directive from, and Nigeria EFCC is not exceptional. — talking about time for him to probe those people, is the same time it takes to probe one leader or tenure of government that it takes to probe the rest… all takes effect simultaneously. … Let takes example from China they are probing leader of the pass twenty to thirty years ago and they are making headway … Let us brake that genes of caucus which is the father of corruption
Yes indeed, the corrupt practices over the years truly set the country backward, And there is eight dangers to human
virtue that nil a nation down which our leaders ignored
1. Wealth without work
2.Pleasure without conscience
3.Knowledge without character
4.Business without ethics
5.Science without humanity
6.Religion without sacrifice
7.Politics without principle
8. Law without abiding
The Code of Conduct Bureau and tribunal Act, cap. 56 of the Laws of the Federation 1990 stated that a public
officer who does any act prohibited by law shall be deemed ipso facto to have committed a breach of this Code, so let start from the 1999 administrations, this is the only way forward for Nigeria as a nation otherwise there will be no headway for Buhari probe on GEJ administrations.
Your point is like an Auctioneer’s stamp on a sale! The Laws are in the Books. Let’s go, my man. The investigators should go to work. Help has been promised by some friendly Governments.
Nigerian police tells that
everybody is a suspect, so therefore let start from the 1999 administrations
The fact that Nigeria needs total cleansing, the probe of all previous adinistrations is indeed the way to go. Obasanjo’s holier-than-thou attitude will be tested on that frame.
CORRUPTION IS A CRIMINAL OFFENCE AND IT IS NOT STATUS BARRED, WHICH TRANSLATES THAT ANY CORRUPT PERSON CAN FACE JUSTICE ANY TIME EVEN AFTER DEATH. PRESIDENT BUHARI IS EFFECTIVE PLAYING HIS ROLE TO CHECKMATE CORRUPTION. IF OTHERS BEFORE HIM HAVE DONE THE SAME THING NIGERIA AND NIGERIANS COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER. IN ANY EVENT THE INSTITUTIONS UNDER PAST REGIME DID NOT LIVE UP TO WHAT WAS EXPECTED OF THEM. WE SHOULD ALL BE VERY GRATEFUL TO PRESIDENT BUHARI FOR STRENGTHENING THESE BODIES AND THEY ARE VERY FREE TO CARRY OUT THEIR FUNCTIONS. WE MUST ALL STAND UP VERY TALL AND SAY VERY LOUDLY, VERY FIRSTLY, VERY ROBUSTLY AND VERY COMPLETELY THAT CORRUPTION MUST BE OBLITERATED FROM OUR SOCIETY IF WE WANT TO MAKE VERY MEANINGFUL PROGRESS AS A GREAT NATION
Absolutely a Nationalist view of the impending undertaking. Only Labor can foster such a sanctifying view of the National zeal to cleanse SILT that has buried our growth possibilities. Beginning with the civilian Administrators is clearly plausible. It does not mean a retro-action will not be directed to the Military regimes that beat the People into this stupor of inabilities to demand their rights in all tiers of Governance. Labor is fulfilling its functions magnificently. They have been owed wages and sidelined if to its own advantages, from the blind National stampede for obliterating our Treasury. And through it all they remained calm knowing that attempts at work-stoppages could beckon a total collapse. What we should plead is for Labor to hold its own in the patriotic patience so far displayed and work diligently with all until that flicker of light at the end of the tunnel. The administration I have always maintained, have a new plough now. While we hope it should inexcusably be vigilant, there should be questions if they fail to deliver to Nigerians a level playing Political Landscape. For the people, patience is a virtue. We are not dogs but in the setting, as we find ourselves now, the biggest bones are not farfetched if we really see these propositions to a humbly, peacefully and democratically processed ends.
period.Probe all past civilian administration from 1999-2015 or dont probe any at all.
Between 53 suitcases, Certificate and those who know the truth; we can only probe GEJ Administration. Let’s not go very far into the past. Lol
How do we fight and eradicate this scourge and cancer called corruption if we begin to play politics and trivalising corruption. We could have expected the LP to have requested PMB to probe the all regimes from 1960 till date. It is on record that, every successive administration after Gowon has instituted or set up probe panels to look into the books of his predecessors Obasanjo investigated and probed Abacha and Abdulsalami regimes. That was the period we started hearing of repatriation of stolen funds and the establishment of EFCC. Obasanjo even probed members of his own administration and sent a few to jail.So what had prevented Goodluck Jonathan to have probed Obasanjo or Yara Adua`s regimes or even set examples on members of his own administration for the 6 years as President? If Jonathan did not have the balls to even dismiss his Minister of Interior for the NIS recruitment scam and death of Nigerians, or his SGF for the scam surrounding the CCTV Camera contract for FCT or the scandals and looting by his ministers, then he has to take full responsibilities for his actions and inactions. PMB should limit his probe to Jonathan administration handing notes and not be distracted by all these soundbites and hot air. As soon as most of these corrupt officials start spending more nights at maximum security prisons across the country, they rest will start vomiting.
We will review and take appropriate action.