President Goodluck Jonathan aiding and abetting Corruption in Nigeria - Aminu Tambuwal

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, yesterday launched a scathing attack against President Goodluck Jonathan accusing him of insincerity in his administration’s fight against corruption. Tambuwal, who advanced reasons for blaming the President for the growing spate of corruption in the country, wondered why the Presidency would be setting up committees to investigate cases of corruption.

He said that the Executive had no business investigating cases of corruption. The Speaker said what was expected of the executive was to refer “these matters to the EFCC and I trust the EFCC, they will do a good job.

“I tell you, let the Executive have the will for referring these matters from the office of Mr. President to EFCC and you will see what will happen. But if the body language is not correct, this is what you get,” he said.
 
The occasion was a roundtable organised by the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, in Abuja to mark the International Anti-Corruption Day.

Tambuwal was reacting to views expressed by individuals and institutions on various issues including the ongoing moves by the National Assembly to pass a bill legalising operation of foreign bank accounts by public officials and the various probes embarked upon by the National Assembly which had not produced any concrete results.

The NBA President, Sir Okey Wali (SAN), had started the drama when he said that Nigerians were tired of probes by the lawmakers with nothing to show for it. The Code of Conduct Bureau Chairman, Mr. Sam Saba, had said that passing a bill legalising operation of foreign account would amount to encouraging corruption in the country.

But the Speaker, who had earlier said that the mandate of the legislature was to make laws and hold public officials accountable by exposing corruption and wasteful management of public resources, disagreed with both the NBA and the Code of Conduct Bureau.

Tambuwal said the setting up of various probe panels by the National Assembly was not a departure from its constitutional duty and that if there were no concrete results, he said both the Executive and the Judiciary should be blamed.

He specifically accused EFCC of failing to act on the reports of virtually all the probe panels that had exposed corruption in various strata of the society even as he accused it of engaging in corrupt activities. The Speaker said it was not correct for EFCC to tell the whole world that it was already acting on the reports of various probe panels set up by the National Assembly.

He said: “The report you have been implementing is the Aig Imokhuede report, not that of the House of Representatives. “For instance, the last the House heard from you on the subsidy report was when you requested me, the Speaker, to request some of my members to come and help you do your work, asking for explanations on some of the recommendations. I said no, it is not part of our job. We have done our bit, go ahead and do yours.

“Of course, the pension scam is there. The scam in the aviation sector is the most recent one.

“There is also that of the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission, where trillions of naira from private citizens were suspected to have been mismanaged and is being mismanaged. “When we commissioned an inquiry into it, what interested you more particularly, was the allegation that our members refused to travel after taking $4,000 estacode, and they are still facing trial.

“An officer was found culpable, and as a result of this, the National Assembly, jointly passed an appropriation law, denying that agency funding. That is still there. “I cannot recall reading anywhere or hearing from any commentary that the DG of SEC was ever invited by the EFCC or that any officer of SEC was ever invited by the EFCC.

“Still on this matter, we received a report from the Public Accounts Committee of the House that it is like 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. “We are quietly investigating that and we will get to the root of that matter.

“I know as a fact that the grants you (EFCC) receive from donor agencies have never been budgeted for. That is corruption.” Tambuwal argued that it was not every corruption cases that must be reported to the EFCC. “Some cases are very clear. What happened in the aviation sector recently, do you need an angel from heaven to report to the EFCC that something went wrong there?

“I am not aware that anything was done by either the EFCC or ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission), or any other security agency. “At best, what we have is that the National Security Adviser, NSA, who should have been bothered about and more seriously interested and concerned about the security situation in this country, is being given an assignment to investigate what is clearly obvious. I beg your pardon.”

Turning to the Presidency again, Tambuwal said: “When I raised the issue of operation of the Bureau of Public Procurement 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 came out to be attacking my person, and 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 Bureau of Public Procurement 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.

We said no, go and do what the law says before you come to us. “Those who made the law know that the Director General cannot do the job alone, which is why the laws says there should be a council.”

He also blamed the Executive for the poor funding of the agencies. He noted that even when the Legislature approves funds for these agencies; it is for the Executive to release these funds. Reacting to the public concern raised over the bill to allow public officers operate foreign bank accounts, Tambuwal said there was nothing wrong in what the lawmakers were doing.

Meanwhile, the ICPC has described corruption as the most dangerous phenomenon that has deters growth and development of Nigeria. The agency also blamed public office holders for abuse of office for personal gains.

The North-East zonal Director of the Agency, Mr. Bulama Naji Ali, made the observation yesterday in Bauchi on the occasion of the World Corruption Day. Ali, who said that corruption is being celebrated in public offices, regretted, that the paradox of sleaze has created permanent poverty following the misuse of the nation’s resources, resulting in such vices as the Boko-Haram insurgency, oil theft and kidnapping which are barriers to meaningful development.

Ali attributed corruption in the polity to failure of the past anti-corruption measures where there was no stiff penalty hence the need for a significant paradigm shift in fighting the menace by government.



Culled form National Mirror