Jonathan’s govt, most corrupt ever –Buhari’s party

 

VITUPERATION between the President Goodluck Jonathan administration and presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change, Major-General  Muhammadu Buhari, continued on Wednesday with Buhari’s party describing Jonathan’s government as topping the sleaze chart.

“On corruption and sleazy tendency, the Jonathan administration transcends all others before it,” the CPC said in a statement in reaction to the Presidency’s attack on the former head of state on Tuesday.

The CPC pointed to the mind-boggling revelations of corruption being unearthed by the probe of the oil sector by the National Assembly as evidence of corruption in the government.

Buhari also on Wednesday raised the alarm that the Jonathan administration was plotting to arrest him.

In a swift reaction, however, the ruling People’s Democratic Party defended the administration as not being corrupt.

The Presidency, in a statement by Jonathan’s spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, had lampooned Buhari over a comment the latter made to his party members in Kaduna on Monday. Abati said Buhari was haunted by his electoral defeats.

The CPC candidate reportedly threatened that that there would be bloodshed if the 2015 elections were not transparent. He was also said to have described the Jonathan government as Boko Haram.

The PDP also said Buhari was bloodthirsty and that he was suffering from “combat withdrawal syndrome.”

 Corruption, arbitrariness

But the CPC statement accused Jonathan of nepotism and arbitrariness.

The statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the CPC, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, reads, “Nigerians are still befuddled by the impeachable show of arbitrariness by the regime in expending N2.67trn on fuel subsidy instead of the appropriated N240b in the 2011 appropriation act.

“As expected, the regime has attempted all manner of subterfuge to give executive cover for the indicted people in the scam, who were the bank-rollers of the President’s electioneering.

“Could it be that the missing money was funnelled deliberately to the Jonathan Presidential Campaigns, with the acquiescence of the President?”

The CPC also defended Buhari’s charge that the Federal Government was the greatest Boko Haram confronting the country.

 Boko Haram FG

It says, “In April 2012, (the National Security Adviser), General Andrew Owoye Azazi, averred that there was indisputable proof that Boko Haram is PDP. As things stand, President Goodluck Jonathan is the national leader of the PDP.”

It said that since the President had also agreed that members of the sect had infiltrated his government and he had not done anything to it, then he should stop pretending that the government was not that of the sect.

 The CPC also cited the arrest of a serving senator who is a member of the ruling party for being a member of the sect.

The party further alleged that the Senator, who is currently facing trial, had deposed to an affidavit before a Federal High Court wherein he stated that Vice-President Namadi Sambo was aware of his activities with Boko Haram.

Apart from this, it said that in April 2012, Mr. Henry Okah, who is being tried for terrorism in South Africa, had deposed to an affidavit before a South African court that Jonathan was the sponsor of the October 1, 2010 bombing at the Eagle Square in Abuja.

 Nepotism

On nepotism, the Buhari’s party accused Jonathan of recruiting only his kinsmen to head the oil ministry.

It says, “As Head of State, his (Buhari’s) Oil Minister was Prof. Tam David-West, a Kalabari man from Rivers State.

“As a leader, he created the ambience for his ministers to work unobtrusively and devoid of executive meddlesomeness.

“But what do we find with Dr. Goodluck Jonathan? All the appointees as oil ministers in his two-year reign thus far as President of Nigeria have been Nigerians of Ijaw extraction, like himself!”

It wondered why the President was in a hurry to claim that the October 1, 2010 bombings in Abuja were not carried out by MEND.

 The opposition party said the President could have done that because MEND, which it said waged relentless and potent insurgencies against the Nigerian state was from the President’s region.

 Not a corrupt govt

Reacting to the CPC attack on Wednesday, however, the PDP in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, said the revelations from the oil sector probe were an indication that the Jonathan administration was determined to fight corruption.

Metuh said the CPC and its “few members” should also know that the majority of the members of the House belong to the PDP “and whatever they are doing to expose corruption has the support of the PDP and the President.”

Speaking on the appointment of the minister in charge of the oil industry who is from the President’s home state of Bayelsa, Metuh said there was nothing wrong with that since the minister “is qualified to hold the position.”

He said, “On the issue of tribalism, the CPC should know that it is only the first time that a woman is heading the oil ministry, and she is qualified to head the ministry.

“The government has not appointed two ministers as erroneously stated by the CPC. In the United States of America, a former president even appointed his brother as the attorney-general because he believed in his capability.

“The CPC should learn to win elections rather than try to mislead unsuspecting Nigerians. Its leader, Buhari, is a symbol of failed elections. For now, the PDP is in charge and President Jonathan is using the mandate handed over to him by millions of Nigerians very well.

“The President will never be distracted by the antics of a one-man party that has refused to be national in outlook.”

 Buhari is right

Meanwhile, the Action Congress of Nigeria on Wednesday condemned the attacks on Buhari by the Presidency and the PDP, saying the CPC candidate’s warning was timely.

In a statement in Osogbo, Osun State, on Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the ACN said the statement for which Buhari was being “mercilessly savaged” was nothing but a warning against those who might be planning to rig the 2015 general elections.

It said the “coordinated attacks” by The Presidency and the PDP raised a lot of concern regarding their plans for the 2015 elections.

It said, ‘’We hold no brief for anyone. But it is true that if elections are rigged, as they have been so shamelessly and brazenly done by the PDP since 1999, naturally people will react, and in doing so it is impossible for anyone to predict how far things can go.

“This is what, in our opinion, Gen. Buhari warned against. If  The Presidency and the PDP have no intention to rig in 2015, why are they so worried about the consequences of such an action?’’

The party said Buhari’s warning was in order, considering that the 2011 general elections remained the most systematically-rigged polls in Nigeria’s history, irrespective of the so-called endorsement by some visceral foreign election monitors.

The ACN said, ‘’The 2011 elections also left Nigeria divided along ethnic and religious lines, more than at any other time in the history of Nigeria, hence no one should tell us about the polls being the best since Nigeria returned to civil rule, just because some self-acclaimed monitors said so.’’

‘’We have said it before and we will like to repeat it: any statement emanating from The Presidency must be presidential through the use of civilised and elevating language, rather than pub and unguarded phrases. This is because such statements are read all over the world, and provide a window into the minds of those overseeing the affairs of state.

‘’The voice of the presidential spokesman is the voice of his principal, the President. That is why his statements must be sober and guarded, in addition to reflecting deep introspection. The insults heaped on Gen. Buhari – a former Head of State – for merely exercising his right to freedom of speech are totally unacceptable and run against the tenets of decorum and mature political discourse.’

ACN said, however, that it was not surprised at the response of the PDP, “since it was becoming increasingly clear to all that nothing good can come out of a party that has wasted all the opportunities that could have made Nigeria a proud member of the international community in the past 13 years.”

 Buhari should apologise

However, a chieftain of another opposition party, the All Nigeria Peoples Party, also on Wednesday asked Buhari to apologise to Nigerians and withdraw his statement that there would be bloodshed if the 2015 elections were rigged.

The former National Vice-Chairman of the the ANPP in the South-South zone, Asukewe Iko-Awaji, said on the telephone with one of our correspondents that it was wrong for Buhari to have uttered such a statement amid bombings and other attacks on the country.

He said, “Such a comment should not have come at this critical time when Nigerians are experiencing bomb attacks in the northern part of the country,” he said.

“It is more disturbing to note that the statement is coming from a former Head of State, who should have joined in finding a solution to the insecurity in the northern part of the country.

“He threatened bloodbath, but there is already bloodshed in some parts of the country. His comment is capable of heating up the polity.  What he (Buhari) should do now is to withdraw his statement and apologise to Nigerians.”

PUNCH NEWSPAPER