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No easy money to throw around any more, says Buhari

By Mohammed Abubakar and Issa Ibrahim
14 July 2016   |   4:59 am
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday said the era of free and easy money in the country was gone for good, restating his promise to enthrone good governance through vigorous prosecution of the war against corruption.
Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (left); President Muhammadu Buhari; Governor Abdul’aziz Abubakar Yari; and Senator Kabir Garba Marafa at the Grand Finale of the Nigerian Army Day celebration, 2016 at Dansadau in Zamfara State… yesterday

Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (left); President Muhammadu Buhari; Governor Abdul’aziz Abubakar Yari; and Senator Kabir Garba Marafa at the Grand Finale of the Nigerian Army Day celebration, 2016 at Dansadau in Zamfara State… yesterday

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday said the era of free and easy money in the country was gone for good, restating his promise to enthrone good governance through vigorous prosecution of the war against corruption.

The President made the comment in Zamfara State while commissioning the 75-kilometre Wanke-Danjigba-Kucheri-Kigama-Bilbis road with seven bridges costing the state government about N 8 billion. Buhari had earlier commissioned a 20- kilometre township road and 40 kilometres drainages in Tsafe Local Government amounting to N 2.1 billion.

Governor Abdulaziz Abubakar Yari said the construction of the roads was part of the state government’s efforts to open up the rural areas to enable farmers transport their farm produce to the urban centres and also create gainful employment for the teeming youths.

President Buhari vowed to continue the ongoing war against corruption, lamenting that corruption had retarded the growth of the contrary. While saying that his administration had no intention of humiliating or disgracing anybody, he made it clear that it would not be stopped from recovering all looted finds to be put to public use.

The one-day visit of the President to the state yesterday was for him to attend the Grand Finale of the Nigerian Army Day Celebration, 2016 in Dansadau Local Government.

The President recalled that change agenda was at the core of his electioneering campaign in 2015, and called on the people of the state and Nigerians in general to join his administrator in ensuring that the change desired is well delivered.

This, he said, could not take place without the culture of accountability and good governance.

“Since this administration’s assumption of office in May 2015, the journey to fix the country and restore the hope of the common man in the Nigerian project has begun in earnest. I, therefore, wish to call on every one to think closely about the Nigerian situation. There is no easy money to throw around, we must go back to farming, livestock rearing so that we could develop the industries, we must put our hands on deck to ensure success of our mission,” he said.

At the Army Day celebration, Buhari pledged to equip the Nigerian Army to continue to play its role not only in ensuring professionalism but in defence of the territorial landmark of the country.

He commended the Nigerian Army for the huge successes it has so far recorded in tackling the insecurity in the country, but stressed that a lot still needed to be done to ensure total eradication of any trace of insurgency in all parts of the country.

5 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    NÔTĖ THÅT Dáñ-gô-té3XCèmëñt īs nøw sōld
    Dîréçt frōm fãctörîés fõr prómø prïcê of 1000-Nárïá pér bág,Bûyérs cãn
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    ábóvé cóntáçt sàlés máñágér Mrs B o l a on 0 8 0 3 8 5 4 7 9 1 9
    Assístáñt Sàlés Máñágér Mr M a k o j u óñ 0 7 0 3 3 4 6 7 7 5 1

  • Author’s gravatar

    LATEST PROMO NEWS VIEW PICTURE BELLOW AND GET THE NECESSARY DETAILS……

  • Author’s gravatar

    PMB i believe you have already been isolated from the reality of what is going on in Nigeria. Let your information staff go on face book or on line as recent as July 11 2016 to see how Nigerians are debasing the DOLLAR in a wedding party. ! ! ! The party takes place in Nigeria . PMB ! ! ! ! your assertion that the days of free money is over in Nigeria may not be true. As a pragmatic 21st century leader your second coming must be more refined and more sophisticated than what we had in 1984. Follow Nigerians and follow the MONEY.

    • Author’s gravatar

      Shut up.. Jonathan is NOT coming back.

      • Author’s gravatar

        There has been no shortage of praise for Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption war, which has led to the arrest of a string of high-ranking former government officials.

        The crackdown centres on an alleged $2.1 billion (1.9 billion euro) “arms scam”, where money earmarked for weapons to fight Boko Haram is said to have been diverted for political purposes.

        But experts say the arrests and ongoing trials do little to tackle systemic corruption in the defence sector that helped allow the Islamists to seize swathes of territory in the country’s northeast.

        Former national security advisor Sambo Dasuki is accused of overseeing a sprawling embezzlement scheme that saw “phantom contracts” awarded for personal gain, as under-equipped and demoralised troops fought better-armed militants.
        But Dasuki’s trials have a narrow focus: whether defence money was diverted to former president Goodluck Jonathan’s party to fund his failed 2015 re-election campaign.

        Campaigners say none addresses the companies behind the procurement deals or the lack of oversight that makes the sector ripe for fraud, leaving the door open to future arms scams.

        “The major issues within the defence sector have not really been sorted,” Eleonore Vidal de la Blache, from Transparency International’s Africa defence and security programme, told AFP.

        “Just because you prosecuted a few rotten apples it doesn’t mean that you’ve massively transformed the sector.”

        – Secretive status quo –
        Shielded by a secretive status quo, corruption thrived while Boko Haram tore through Nigeria in 2014, capturing territory the size of Belgium and killing over 2,500 people — one of the most bloody years of the insurgency, according to Human Rights Watch.

        Nnamdi Obasi, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the problem was “particularly serious” in the defence sector as national security is invoked to prevent scrutiny.

        “That, coupled with very poor leadership, administration and oversight, left the system to deteriorate to an unprecedented depth,” he added.

        In this murky environment, shady arms deals conducted with military merchants around the globe thrived.

        One company singled out by Buhari’s presidential committee probing arms deals is Societe D’Equipements Internationaux (SEI), which has offices in Abuja and Paris.

        Between January 2014 and February 2015, the presidency alleges Dasuki awarded SEI contracts worth $930,500,690 but the company failed to deliver operational equipment — if it arrived at all.

        “Had these funds siphoned to these non-performing companies been properly used… thousands of needless Nigerian deaths would have been avoided,” the presidency said in January.

        But SEI managing director Hima Aboubakar, who describes himself as a “big advisor in the security field”, maintained he only has Nigeria’s best interests at heart.

        “We fight against terrorism, against Boko Haram,” the businessman told AFP, seemingly unperturbed by the presidential probe into the affair.

        “It’s good to investigate all the companies, everybody who is a businessman needs to be investigated,” he said. “If you aren’t being investigated you aren’t serious.”

        Aboubakar has not been charged in connection with the alleged arms scam.

        Anti-corruption campaigners fear Nigeria’s justice system is too weak to secure convictions against individuals in the defence industry — and there have already been botched cases.

        Austrian security contractor Wolfgang Reinl, who worked with Abuja-based GTESC Limited, was detained last December by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission without a court order.

        Reinl, one of several individuals listed by the presidency over deals characterised by “irregularity and fraud”, was released in February.

        He later sued the EFCC for violating his fundamental human rights.

        In May, a judge ordered the EFCC to pay a fine of 10 million naira ($35 million, 32 million euros) and banned the anti-graft agency from arresting Reinl again, compromising any future investigation.

        “We’ve not been able to secure a conviction,” said Olukayode Majekodunmi, deputy director for the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, a civil society group.

        “That says so much about the fact that the system is not able.”

        At the same time, there are fears about the robustness of the Nigerian judiciary.

        “The judicial system in Nigeria is very weak, it has been polluted by corruption,” said Debo Adeniran, head of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders.

        “There are so many saboteurs that are thwarting the efforts of the government.”

        As it stands, defence equipment deals in Nigeria take place behind closed doors without much public consultation or scrutiny.

        The Public Procurement Act 2007, which governs procurement procedures, does not usually apply to military purchases.

        Politicians have been loath to question spending in parliament.

        In June, the Nigerian military held a seminar aimed at “totally overhauling and realigning their hardware acquisition processes”.
        But there has been little indication policy reforms will happen anytime soon.

        “Buhari hasn’t said anything major,” said de la Blache. “We are optimistic but more needs to be done.”