President Muhammadu Buhari will furnish the nation with a comprehensive report of his anti-corruption gains thus far on Nigeria’s Democracy Day–May 29.
Speaking to select media houses in London where he was attending the anti-corruption summit, the president said “So far, what has come out, what has been recovered, in whatever currency, from which ministry, department and individuals, I intend on the 29th [of May] to speak on this because all that Nigerians are getting to know are from the newspapers, radio and television because of the number of people arrested by EFCC, DSS. We want to make a comprehensive report by May 29”.
He also said those being prosecuted will soon have all their names published. “Eventually, it has to be done because we want to successfully prosecute them. But you know you can’t go to the court unless you have the documents to do your prosecution – where some of these people sign for these monies, send it to their personal bank accounts. Their banks gave a statement that the money is there when it came and how much of it is available and so on”.
President Buhari spoke about how he first knew of the word ‘padding’.
“We have six months to implement the budget. But you know why there was a delay. There is something called “padding”. I’ve been in government since 1975. I was governor of the north-east state, which is now six states: Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, and Taraba. Then I was in Obasanjo’s cabinet, in the petroleum ministry, for three and a quarter years. I was head of state for 20 months. I never heard the word “padding” until this year. I never heard about it. And what does it mean? It means that the technocrats just allow the government to make its noise, go and make presentation to the national assembly, so they will remove it and put their own. So, when we uncovered this, we just have to go back to the basics again.
“Ministers again had to go and appear before the minister of budget and planning and make presentation again. And this was clearly brought out by the minister of health. I saw with my own eyes, nobody told me. I was watching NTA. He appeared before a committee. And they said, ‘Oya, minister, come and defend your budget.’ He looked at what they presented to him as his own budget and he said I have nothing to defend. They said what do you mean, and he said this is not what I presented. And subsequently we discovered that it was not only the ministry of health. So they allow you to talk rubbish as government and then they do what they like”.
The nation has come under incessant attacks from suspected Fulani herdsmen and lives have been lost to the menace. Buhari said there’s intelligence available to him that most of the perpetrators are from Libya.
“There seems to be some credibility that there are other than Nigerian cattle rearers involved. Now this is because of what happened in Libya. Gaddafi, during his 43-year regime, trained some people from the Sahel… militarily, he trained them. And when his regime was overthrown, those people were again dispatched to their countries. They are gone, carrying their weapons and they found themselves even in Boko Haram. It is a major regional and virtually African problem. They work with al Qaeda, with Boko Haram, and so on. It is a government project now to trace them, and disarm them and if necessary try them and lock them up”.
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