Any probe should go beyond my administration, says Jonathan
REACTING to calls from several quarters for the probe of his administration, President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday said that such an investigation should be extended to the governments preceding his, adding that it would amount to selective justice to single out only his administration for such inquiry.
Jonathan also yesterday signed six different bills passed by the National Assembly into laws. The bills were part of the last minutes legislations signed into law by the President ahead of his final disengagement on Friday .
T
he President also met with the Chief of Defence Staff, ( CDS) , Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, service chiefs and heads of security agencies in his office. The meeting which lasted for about two hours was also attended by some relevant cabinet ministers.
In the same vein, outgoing Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, yesterday eulogised Jonathan for his leadership, which recorded remarkable achievements on several sectors , adding that posterity will be kind to Jonathan for his magnanimous concession of defeat after the March 28 election.
Speaking at the valedictory session of the FEC) in Abuja ,President Jonathan also reflected on the now suspended strike by oil marketers and workers that had crippled the nation, stressing that it was a pure blackmail aimed at brining his soon— to -end -government to ridicule.
His words, “Some people are even calling for the probe of the government, but I think in Nigeria, there are a lot of things that should be probed, very many things, even debts owed by states and debts owed by this country from 1960 up to this time.
“They say it is Jonathan’s administration that is owing these debts. I believe that anybody that is coming for probe must also ensure that this probe is extended beyond the Jonathan administration. Otherwise, to me, it will be witch-hunt. If we are very sincere, it is not only the Jonathan administration that should be probed.
The President also cleared the air and laid to rest the speculation as to when he would dissolve his cabinet. The media had been awash since last week that Jonathan was likely to dissolve his cabinet yesterday after the valedictory FEC meeting, but he assured the ministers that they would still be on their seats till Thursday evening( today) after the valedictory dinner for them.
Reviewing his five years and three weeks old administration, Jonathan said they did their best considering the very difficult circumstances that they operated under, citing the strike by university teachers under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU) that lasted for six months last year, the Boko Haram insurgency in the north east as well as the strike by oil marketers and workers that led to acute fuel scarcity in most parts of the country among others.
He said: “even though we operated under an extremely difficult situation, maybe because politics in Nigeria is just maturing, we witnessed the longest ASUU strike. I don’t think we have ever witnessed a strike that lasted for six months and we believe that that strike was partially politically motivated, otherwise lecturers cannot troop out for six months.
“There were the terror attacks, we know Boko Haram predates this administration but immediately after the elections, I believe because of local and external factors, they became very vicious, extremely destructive, killing people and destroying properties.
“Even this last fuel scarcity, to me one can clearly say it was an act of sabotage. This government has few days to go and that is definitely not the time you expect massive strike, using marketers and unions, unions asking for increase in salaries at a time oil price have dropped and volumes have dropped. None of the International Oil Companies (IOCs) is increasing salaries but our unions wanted 11 per cent increase in allowances and so on and so forth and went on strike.
While the President admitted that a number of things had gone wrong in the past which his administration had done its best to rectify, he believed that it doesn’t warrant his government being deliberately targetted for wrong doings.
According to him, “A number of things have gone wrong and we have done our best to fix them. The Attorney General is aware of massive judgments debts, if we aggregate all of them is almost going to $1 billion. How did we come to this kind of huge judgment debts. These issues should be probed. How do you allocate our oil wells, oil fields, marginal wells and all that do we follow our laws? All these should be probed. And I believe all these and many more areas should be looked at.”
Prominent among the bills that were signed into law yesterday, according to the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, included the Tobacco Control Bill 2015; the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency Act 2015; Equipment and Leasing Bill 2015; AMCON (Amendment) Bill 2015; Standards Organisation of Nigeria Bill 2015 and the National Sugar Development (Amendment) Bill 2015.
Apart from Badeh who attended the security meeting, others included the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minimah; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin; Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshall Olusola Amosu, the Director-General of the Department of Security ( DSS) Mr. Ita Ekpeyong, and the Inspector-General of Police, (IGP) Solomon Arase.
Others at the meeting included the Defence Minister, Lt. Gen. Mohammed Aliyu Gusau, his Foreign Affairs counterpart, Aminu Wali, the Natiobal Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Mohammed Sambo Dasuki.
The details of their discussion was, however, not made public.
In his speech during the FEC’s valedictory session, Obanikoro thanked the president for giving him the opportunity to serve the nation.
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10 Comments
Admission of guilt? Mr. Clueless at his best. Obviously, this is the worst disaster to happen to Nigeria. Abdulsalam should be probed for fostering on the nation a very corrupt constitution that allows every official to steal through bogus, undeserved salaries by the legislators and Governors through security votes. In the case of OBJ, he should be probed for imposing incompetent,corrupt president on the nation and IBB for truncating the nation’s freest and fairest election which led to the present quagmire.
We will start the probing with the Jonathan administration where the corruption is so much that it will take decades to get from it to the preceding administrations.
“When trees fall successively one on another, you start by removing the tree that fell latest.” This makes perfect sense, for how would you start removing the first tree that fell from under the pile of trees over it?
Probe should start with Babangida government (North) and work its way up to Jonathan’s government (South). Everyone including the Senate and House members should all be probed, and all governors of the Federation should be probed. OBJ claimed he spent 16 billion dollars on electricity, yet no bush was cleared, and his presidential library should be probed, he need to come clean on how that huge edifice was financed. Bankole and his co-crooks must return all looted funds. Former Serving ministers and their ministries, and current ministers and their ministries must all give account of their stewards. If the next four years is devoted to probes and accountability in Nigeria, I am more than satisfied. But, there will be no patch patch probe. Atiku, Tinubu, Fashola, Obj, all must be probed, these people were in government before Jonathan came to power. Every breathing and living politician with elected position and that had access to public funds must ALL be probed. LETS PROBE THEM ALL.
You are right Mr. President. i totally agreed with you.
I think the probe should be done by a simple arithmetic.
Annual Salary = #xxxxxx
Balance personal Account = #xxxxxx
Balance joint Account = #xxxxxxxx
Foreign bank Account = $??????
Real property = #?????
Other personal property= #?????
Anything in excess of your annual salary should be justified with detail expense report.
Any gift must be supported with a gift letter from the donor and a cancelled check from the donor’s bank account. (reasons for the gift must be detailed as well – i.e in exchange for what?)
Since your case is current and fresh, I think it should start with you since most documents are still here and not burnt and most people that are affected are still here with us (alive and well).
I think fair is fair. What do you think?
Of course! That’s precisely what Nigerians voted for. The squandermania that struck the Nation after the Civil War and persisted, needs be cured along with Corruption. Never again shall we engage in wasteful Government.
Teddy Roosevelt once said that “The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants them to do, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it”. Our country has never been this bad, but for the wrong choice of leadership jostling in and out of the corridor of power working for themselves and amassing so much wealth that the cry of the poor has reached high heaven, and God in heaven knows that the guilty must be punished. They are heartless, no conscience of their stealing, looting and with every sense of criminal minds to deprive another of the basic needs of life. Buhari will really need to take a stand and address the issues of corrupt tendencies among the political class or elite if he most succeed. Corruption is a salient process which has been identified to keep the country where it is now. In western world congress men and women are career people, who sees public offices as a call to service, but in our own context those individuals who pretend to represents us are ”slackers” that cut for themselves jumbo pay whilst the lots are suffering.
There is an Igbo proverb that says ‘he who admits guilt of stealing would be fined four goats but he who does not admit to stealing would be fined eight goats when found guilty’. Jona has admitted his guilt, let Nigerians decide what fine to be apportioned to him. Whatever ‘fine’ that is agreed on should be doubled for OBJ, IBB, and even Buhari himself. These trio of juntas have visited Nigerians with untold hardship since they appeared on the terrain. Probes are expensive and will cripple the already battered economy and Jona knows that. All looters must be followed to their rat-holes to recover their loots no matter how long it takes.
We have a new government that claim that fighting corruption will be his top priority, and I support it, but OBJ refused to probe his predecessors, was it out of fear or he got something to hide? What must happen, NOW is a blanket spread of anti-corruption probe, starting from Babangida then to Jonathan, and all past and current Senate and House principal leaders, Governors past and present, and current and past ministers and their ministries MUST ALL BE PROBED, that is what we want and what we expect from Buhari, if he fails to probe, he has failed in his number one assignment and has failed on his campaign promise. WE WANT A COMPREHENSIVE AND AN EXHAUSTIVE PROBE THAT IS ALL ENCOMPASSING, NOT LIP-SERVICE OR PROBE BASED ON CHEAP POLITICAL SCORES, NOT BASED ON TRIBAL OR RELIGIOUS SENTIMENTS, BUT BASED ON THE ZEAL TO TURN NIGERIA INTO CHINA THAT HAS ZERO TOLERANCE FOR CORRUPTION WHICH LED TO ITS RISE AND TODAY A WORLD ECONOMIC POWER. LETS FIGHT CORRUPTION FROM ITS ROOT, AND LETS FIGHT IT HONESTLY, SINCERELY AND EXHAUSTIVELY, STARTING FROM BABANGIDA.
The last PDP corruption is so TOXIC we have to start with them. It is a record.So much has never been stolen from Nigerians before now. The outgoing administration made it an art. Its a record we cannot afford to ignore. Slowly but surely, the task must be DONE.
The biggest fraud ever committed in Nigeria took place under Obasanjo regime, and that explained why he refused to probe his predecessors, up till now Bank-ole his anointed speaker has yet to account for over 4 billion he stole, and obj has yet to account for 16 billion of electricity fund, his presidential library was estimated at 200 billion, we are watching buhari
We will review and take appropriate action.