The
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, on Monday
said that President Goodluck Jonathan’s “body language” did not
indicate that he had the political will to stem corruption in the
country.
He also decried Jonathan’s penchant
for setting up committees to probe corruption allegations and what he
termed “the culture of undue secrecy surrounding the operation of
government.”
Tambuwal listed the oil subsidy and
Security and Exchange Commission scandals, the Pension scam as well as
the Oduaghate, to buttress his allegation of Jonathan’s perceived
paying of lip service to the war against graft.
The speaker also came hard on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission accusing it of being corrupt.
He was reacting to issues raised during
the question and answer session at an event organised by the Nigerian
Bar Association to mark the 2013 International Anti-corruption Day in
Abuja.
But the Presidency said it was
unfortunate that a man occupying a high office as the speaker could
judge the President by body language.
Tambuwal had said, “The Executive, by
constituting committees to investigate what ordinarily would have been
investigated by the EFCC, the ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices and
Other-Related Offences Commission) and the Code of Conduct Bureau, is
engaged in a duplication of effort.
“We ( the National Assembly) do our own;
we have been mandated by the 1999 Constitution to do it. They ( the
anti-corruption agencies) have been established by law to do what they
do.
“The Executive has no business in
establishing their own. They (the Executive) should just refer
corruption issues, if they mean business, to the EFCC.
“Let the Executive have the will of
referring these matters, from the office of Mr. President, to the EFCC
and see what will happen.
“By the action of setting up different
committees for straightforward cases, the President’s body language
doesn’t tend to support the fight against corruption.”
Turning to a representative of the
EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, at the event , he said the agency had
turned a blind eye to several fraud allegations that the National
Assembly had investigated.
He said, “Let us start with the
anti-corruption agencies. I am happy that EFCC is here because they are
also corrupt. Let us start by asking them what happens to the grants
they receive from donor agencies which are neither budgeted nor
accounted for? That is corruption.
“This is why we have asked the House Committee on EFCC to look into some of these issues and report back.
“The EFCC said it had started
implementing the report on the probe of the fuel subsidy regime. Let me
say it here today(Monday) that what EFCC said it was implementing was
not the House report which exposed the enormous fraud in the system, but
the one by Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede.
“The last the House heard from you on
the subsidy report was when you requested me, the Speaker, to ask
some members of the House to come and help you do your work. You also
asked for explanations on some of the recommendations.
“I said no, it is not part of our job. We have done our bit; go and do yours.
“What has happened to all the exposed
corruption cases? Of course, the pension scam is there. “There are
also the recent and obvious fraud in the aviation sector and that of
the SEC where trillions of naira from private investors were
suspected to have been mismanaged.
“When we commenced investigation into
the SEC matter, what became of paramount interest to the EFCC was an
allegation that one of our members collected $4,000 as estacode to
travel but failed to do so.
“Our members were immediately rushed to
court for prosecution. Meanwhile, the top government officer that was
found culpable in the main fraud for which the National Assembly called
for public hearing, nothing has happened to her till date.
“I have not heard or read anywhere that she was invited by the EFCC or that any member of SEC was even invited.
“We at the National Assembly, for the
sake of probity and accountability, agreed that budgetary allocation to
SEC should be suspended, only for us to hear that the Finance
ministry, the Budget Office and the Accountant- General of the
Federation’s office found a leeway of funding SEC through service-wide
vote.
“Coming to what happened in the
aviation industry recently, do we need an angel to report to the EFCC
that something happened there? No we don’t.
“What we have is that the National
Security Adviser, who should have been more seriously interested and
concerned about the security situation in this country, is being given
an assignment to investigate what is clearly obvious.
“We all belong to this country and so people should stop taking us for granted.”
Tambuwal also explained his disagreement with the Presidency over the Bureau of Public Procurement.
He said that Jonathan had failed to set up a council for the BPP, as stipulated by the law.
According to him, the President should stop using the Federal Executive Council as a clearing house for the award of contracts.
Tambuwal said, “When I raised in my
budget speech and advised Mr. President to stop using the Executive
Council as a clearing house for the award of contracts, so many people
attacked my person, saying that I was disrespectful to the office of
the President.
“The fact of the matter is that the
position of the law, that is the BPP Act, is that there should be a
council to be established by the President.
“That position of the law is not being
respected and that is the reason we kept in abeyance, the amendment
proposed to the law by the President.”
The Speaker also accused the Executive of selective compliance with the resolutions of the National Assembly.
He said, “When we came up with the
doctrine of necessity, we gave the then Vice-President (Jonathan) the
power to act as President. That was promptly implemented and he was
sworn in as Acting President.
“But when we go to other areas, they(Executive) said it is mere advice, which they can implement or do whatever they like with.
“For now, without sounding defeatist, our resolutions are not being respected.”
But the Speaker stressed that the
National Assembly was working on a law that would make it compulsory
for the Executive to comply with all its resolutions.
Tambuwal denied insinuations that the lawmakers were guilty of padding the budget.
He also faulted the calls that a member
of the House, Farouk Lawan, should have been suspended after he was
accused of collecting bribe from a businessman, Femi Otedola.
Earlier, in his speech titled, “The
Role of the Legislature in Curbing the Corruption Pandemic in Nigeria,”
Tambuwal had stressed that Nigeria would have made significant progress
in the fight against corruption if the government and its agencies had
enforced the anti-corruption laws enacted by the National Assembly.
The Speaker called on Nigerians to
insist on the prosecution and sanctioning of persons indicted by the
legislature or by any agency concerned with the fight against
corruption.
The Presidency however said it was unfortunate that Tambuwwal, could be judging the President by body language.
The Special Adviser to the President
on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, in an interview with one of
our correspondents, wondered whether the Speaker had become a sorcerer
that could read Jonathan’s body language.
Abati said by virtue of his position,
the Speaker should make efforts to focus on government’s anti-corruption
efforts rather than body language.
He said, “Is he (Tambuwwal) now a
sorcerer that he now goes about reading people’s body language? He
should make efforts to focus more on the efforts of the administration
in fighting corruption and comment on what he knows.
“This administration is not going to
fight corruption on the basis of mere speculation, or the politics being
played by some people.
“Since his argument is based on body
language, I think it is unfortunate that a man that is occupying such a
high office is talking about body language whereas he is in a position
to know the truth and defend both his party and the government.
“He should make the effort to know that
the government is investigating various matters and working on them, and
that President Jonathan will not condone any act of proven corruption.
“Besides, the Executive is not in a
position to dictate to the judiciary and other independent institutions.
There is a process.
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