Suleiman Umaru
President Muhammadu Buhari a retired Army General is not a happy man. Initially he had seen the former President Goodluck Jonathan admnistration as being very Corrupt, thus, throwing the country into an economic mess .
But barely one year into his second term in office, the Katsina state born Nigerian President has suddenly ealised that the same level of Corruption that had bedeviled the previous Administration has rubbed off on his Administration. Indeed, the level of Corruption in the Buhari led All Progressive Congress, APC, government is so worrisome that people now describe the Jonathan administration as saint.
Buhari may have unbarred his mind last Friday about the high level of Corruption in his government after a Sallah Service when the Presidential Villa when Journalists posed questions him. Angered by the recent Coruption allegations arising from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commisssion, EFCC , and the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, he had expressed his worries over appointees of government placed on positions of trusts. ‘’There has been an abuse of trust by people trusted by the previous Administration and this Administration’’, referring to his administration, he had said.
He has every reason to worry because of the allegations of Corruption levelled against Ibrahim Magu, a Commissioner of Police and acting Chairman , EFCC, by Abubakar Malami, Attorney General and minister of Justice. Malami, the Attorney General of the Fedeation, had accused the EFCC, boss of disclosing a total naira recovery of N504 billion but lodged N543 billion in the Recovery Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. The amount lodged in the Recovery Account was said to have exceeded the disclosed figures by N39 billion, raising questions, where the extra amount paid into the Recovery Account with the CBN , were raised?
‘’I said assets recovered should be sold and the money put in the TSA, so that the money can be identified at any level’’. He disclosed that the decision was taken to see ‘’who will come back to them and take it back again to those who had misappropriated the funds .
Besides the ministerial allegations against the suspended former EFCC, boss, of not lodging what he has declared to have recovered, he was said to have used the services of one Emmanuel Omale, a Pastor and founder of hand of God Prophetic Ministry to buy a landed property worth N73 million in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, UAE.
Magu was said to have told the Presidential panel investigating allegations of Corruptions against him by the Attorney General that he fraudulently enriched himself by diverting and mismanaging proceeds of recovered assets that he never did so.
An aggrieved Buhari had confirmed that ‘’a number of assets was actually recovered and some money from the looters by the EFCC. He had said that the government had introduced the Single Treasury Account, TSA, were all the money recovered were put’’.
Although Buhari may claim credit for the introduction of the TSA, but it was said to have been initiated i by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former minister of Finance and Coordinator of the economy under former President Jonathan but it could not be implemented by the administration. It was one of the policies of the Jonathan administration that was said to have been inherited by the Buhari administration and now being put into practice.
In spite of the news making the rounds that Magu, the former EFCC , boss , own property both within and outside the country, the Commission has come out strongly to defend him, insisting that he has no property anywhere. The Commission maintained that Magu, their former boss did not own any property, threatening ‘ to take legal action against the Media Platforms used by the blackmailers against the Commission and the former acting Chairman of the agency’’.
If the allegations of Corruption against Magu, was not worrisome enough, the allegations and counter allegations of Corruption between Joi Nunieh , former Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and Godswill Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom state , Senator and now minister of ministry of Niger Delta. While Magu was being investigated by the Presidential panel, the Femi Gbajabiamila, led House of Representatives Committee on Niger Delta, is investigating the spending of N40 billion between May and August, 2019, under the Nunieh administration in the agency.
Notwithstanding the claim of the Aanti-graft agency that their former boss was clean of every allegations of Corruption against him by perceived blackmailers , the Opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, would want Buhari to throw in the towel because of the increasing cases of Corruption involving people appointed in positions of trusts across the country.
Uche Secondus, the National Chairman of the party had accused Buhari of abandoning the electioneering Campaign promises he made at the 2015 and 2019, Presidential elections to fight Corruption. Making reference to the ongoing investigations of the EFCC, NDDC, North East Development Commission, NEDC, Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF, and other agencies under the close watch of Buhari, Secondus, the PDP, National chairman, lamented that Nigeria under the APC, administration was on a ventilation gasping for breath.
According to him, ‘’ corruption has become a way of life among political appointees and other Nigerians while Buhari plays the Ostrich’’ The party maintained ‘’what the country is witnessing today is a total collapse . But the APC, had described the call for the Buhari’s resignation from office by the PDPD as ‘’a silly idea’’.
The ruling APC, had told those that cares to listen that he Buhari administration ‘’ is delivering on the all the key Campaign promises of securing the nation, fighting corruption , improving the economy and livelihoods’’. Yekini Nabena, APC, Deputy National Publicity Secretary, however, would want the PDP leadership to stay quiet and allow the Buhari administration ‘’clear the rot the party had foisted on the country in its 16 years of rule.