ABUJA, Federal Republic of Nigeria. Nigerian leaders of various political divides have been charged to go about the current pursuit for a corrupt-free society without rancour, while government ensures fairness to all concerned.
This was the kernel of the message from the National Peace Committee for the 2015 General Elections led by former military head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The meeting, held behind closed-door, followed earlier separate sessions between President Buhari and his two living predecessors since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
Nigeria has had three elected presidents before Buhari, but Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua, who took over from Chief Obasajo in 2007 died midway into his tenure in May 2010.
Also at the meeting were the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’Ad Abubakar III; the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor; Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Nicholas Okoh; Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan; a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Priscilla Kuye; Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, and Senator Ben Obi, among others.
The Peace Committee is credited with its mediatory role between the major opponents in last presidential polls, former President Goodluck Jonathan and Buhari.
The Committee supervised a peace accord between the two that spelt out the need for decent electioneering campaigns devoid of violence and foul language, and eventual peaceful acceptance of defeat by any loser in the contest.
Meanwhile, the President granted permission to the National Peace Committee, formed before the 2015 general elections, to transform into a National Peace Council.
The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Bishop Matthew Kukah, spoke with correspondents on behalf of the peace committee at the end of the closed-door meeting held with President Buhari, with an appeal to him to ensure that his administration follows due process in its anti-corruption war.
The clergyman also noted the need to ensure that the ongoing anti-corruption war does not heat up the polity.
Recent events had that shown leaders from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) firing missiles at one another over matters of alleged corrupt activities and massive looting of the nation’s treasury by the Jonathan administration.
APC leaders and officials of Buhari’s government had variously accused the PDP leaders and the Jonathan government of corruption, the president had consistently reiterated his stance to recover all looted funds and ensure that no one found wanting would escape justice.
APC Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, had been very vociferous in his attacks on former officials of the Jonathan government, accusing persons like Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former coordinating minister of the economy and minister of finance, of promoting the culture of looting the nation’s treasury, just as he once declared that another former minister had been discovered to have stolen a whopping $6billion (about N1.2trillion)
The embattled leaders of the PDP had also picked up the gauntlet with the APC, accusing the Buhari government of being selective in his anti-corruption drive as it has directed its efforts only at the opposition while shielding persons in his own party.
Acting national chairman of PDP, Mr. Uche Secondus and Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose had challenged President Buhari to start his probe with APC leaders who bankrolled his electoral campaigns if he was serious with his anti-corruption war. Secondus charged Buhari to dare probe former governors of Lagos State and River State, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, who are believed to have spent billions of naira to install him as Nigeria’s president.
Even the rancour being generated as a result of President Buhari’s anti-corruption drive had reached the National Assembly where senators of the opposition PDP raised the alarm that President Buhari was deploying state security and officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to hound their leaders across the country.
The PDP had on Monday told Buhari that while he was having difficulty forming his cabinet, the politicians around him and the permanent secretaries who are left to run the government have been busy looting the treasury.
According to PDP in a statement in a statement issued by its national publicity secretary, Olisa Methu, said that stealing had been on the increase under the Buhari government, adding that the volume of stealing and other acts of corruption currently going on in the government was becoming worrisome.
However, President Buhari and former Nigerian leaders had engaged in a series of meetings since the past days, which was beginning to tickle the public with sneaky feelings that the moves were probably not in connection with subterranean efforts to slow down Buhari in his avowed anti-corruption war against former President Jonathan and his lieutenants.
There had been speculations that Jonathan had lobbied General Abubakar to intervene on his behalf as President Buhari appeared to be pursuing persons who worked with him, even as it was being said that Obasanjo’s meeting with Buhari was to insist on ensuring that the government does not back down on the probe of the Jonathan administration and possibly put him in jail.
Be Fair
Speaking with journalists, however, Rev. Kukah said that from the encounter of the committee members with Jonathan and others, it was clear that no Nigerian is in support of corruption.
He said the concern was, however, that since the country was no longer under military rule, every accused person should be presumed innocent until found guilty by competent courts.
The clergyman said, “It (the way corruption war is being fought) is not heating up the polity.
“In our conversation with President Jonathan and members of the parties, I don’t think any Nigerian is in favour of corruption or is against the President’s commitment to ensuring that we turn a new leaf.
Kukah said the meeting with President Buhari was neither an intervention nor a hearing session.
“This is not an intervention. It is not a hearing out process. When we had the elections, it was like a wedding. Now the reality of government is the marriage and people need to be encouraged.
“We need to reaffirm that this is our country and the only thing we can collectively be opposed to is injustice, iniquity, corruption and in that regard we all had one single conversation. The President has also reaffirmed the need for this committee to continue, and the international community has very much welcomed the contributions of the committee.
“Essentially, we are not policing, but when the need arises, we will help to build confidence in the process,” he concluded.
He said Buhari also stated the need for the committee to continue to help build confidence when the need arises.
“I think what we are concerned about is the process. It is no longer a military regime and under our existing laws, everybody is innocent until proven guilty.
“Again, our own commitment is not to intimidate or fight anybody, the former President’s commitment and what he did still remains spectacular and I think that President Buhari himself appreciates that. So, our effort really is to make sure that the right thing is done.”
Kukah said committee members at the meeting with Buhari gave update about the relevance of the committee itself and how members could help to nurture the peace God has given to the country.
He confirmed that members of the committee had met with Jonathan after meeting with some political parties.
He claimed the meeting with Buhari was not at Jonathan’s instance, saying the parley was a continuation of a series of intervention aimed at getting feedbacks from the conduct of the last elections.
“Anybody is free to come to our committee but President Jonathan, never by telephone or other means, talked to the committee.
“We went to see him, but that is after we had already seen members of the political parties and members of the civil society.
Rev. Kukah disclosed that the committee also planned to see the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, saying that earlier effort made to see on Monday didn’t work through.
“This is a planned series of intervention essentially just to hear out everybody and I think the good news is that Nigerians are committed to a new nation. They are committed to ensuring that the gains and blessings God has given us come to fruition,” he added.
Buhari and Jonathan signed a peace agreement ahead of the March 28 presidential elections at the instance of the peace committee.
Trials Soon
Amidst the call for caution by the Abdulsalami Abubakar-led National Peace Committee, President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed that the prosecution of persons who have stolen Nigeria’s resources will begin in a matter of weeks.
Addressing members of the committee at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday, Buhari said he would not only ask for the return of stolen funds that have been stashed in foreign banks, but also ensure that those who stole the funds are put on trial in Nigeria. Lamenting the rot that the country has found itself over the recent years, the President said his administration was diligently getting facts and figures pertaining to the nation’s stolen funds, before proceeding to the prosecution of identified culprits.
In view of this, the President informed his guests that those who have stolen the national wealth “will be in court in a matter of weeks so Nigerians will know those who have short-changed them.”
According to an Aso Rock statement issued after the closed-door meeting, Buhari added that we “we have really degenerated as a country. Our national institutions, including the military, which did wonderfully on foreign missions in the past, have been compromised.
“But we are doing something about it. The military is now retraining and morale has been resuscitated.
“As Petroleum Minister under Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo in the 1970s, I could not travel abroad until I had taken a memo to the Federal Executive Council asking for estacode.
“Now, everybody does what he wants. That is why security-wise and economically, we’re in trouble.”
He therefore declared that his administration was irrevocably committed to doing all within its powers to break the vicious cycle of corruption, unemployment and insecurity in Nigeria so that country can make progress.
Buhari explained that as part of its actions to address the national problems it inherited, his administration was also reorganising Nigeria’s revenue generating institutions.
He recalled that a single treasury account had been established for all federal revenue to ensure greater probity, transparency and accountability in the collection, disbursement and utilisation of national funds.
Credit: Daily Independent (Nigeria)
