The former vice-president had
said Buhari is “very uncompromising, power drunk (and) will not be ready to
leave power without a fight”.
But Femi Adesina, the president’s
spokesman, said his principal is uncompromising in the quest to restore probity
and accountability to public office.
“He is uncompromising in cleaning
the rot Nigeria was consigned into pre -2015, thus the war against corruption
is being fought without fear or favour,” Adesina said.
In a statement on Thursday, Ibe
questioned the presidency for doing nothing when Abubakar Malami,
attorney-general of the federation
(AGF), secured a court order to stop the senate from probing the
reinstatement of Abdulrasheed Maina who is accused of a multi-billion pension
scam.
“If President Buhari is
‘uncompromising in cleaning the rot Nigeria was consigned into pre -2015’ then
how come the latest Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International
reveals that Nigeria is more corrupt today than she was in 2015, having moved 12 steps backwards in
Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, moving from 136 in 2014 under the PDP to 148 today?,” the
statement read.
“Again, we ask how uncompromising
a president can be when he allows a minister accused of forgery to remain at
her job?
“It appears that the president is
surrounded by people who have become his echo chamber and are telling him what
he wants to hear, otherwise no one in his right mind would call an
administration that increased the price of petrol while at the same time paying
more subsidy on the product than the previous government which it accused of
‘subsidy scam’, uncompromising against corruption.
“It is only common sense that if
the price of petrol increased by 68% from ₦87 per litre to ₦145, then the cost
of fuel subsidy should also reduce, especially as the price of crude oil also
reduced.
“However, by some strange
mathematics, the Buhari administration pays a whopping ₦1.4 trillion on subsidy
per annum according to the minister of state for petroleum. This amount is
almost twice what the Jonathan administration paid and yet President Buhari
accused that administration of scamming the nation.
“Where is the transparency in
that? No wonder the minister of state for petroleum resources revealed in a
leaked memo that $25 billion worth of contracts were awarded by the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation under the watch of the supervising minister of
petroleum, President Muhammadu Buhari.
“More than a year after the probe
panel which probed the fantastically corrupt Ikoyi apartment billions affair,
nobody knows who owned the money and how $43 million in cash was housed in a
government linked flat. So much for an uncompromising attitude to corruption.”
Commenting on the issue of Buhari
being allegedly power drunk, Ibe said the president is a witness against
himself.
“It goes without saying that a
president who publicly boasted that the rule of law can be suppressed against
certain individuals is not only power drunk, but dictatorial,” he said.
“By that statement made by
President Buhari at the opening ceremony of the 58th Annual General Conference
of the Nigerian Bar Association, Nigerians now understand why this
administration continues to flout court orders. This is what happens when a
president thinks he is above the law.
“We advise the presidency to
familiarise itself with the constitution of the federal republic of
Nigeria 1999 as amended, in order to
understand that the Rule of Law and the fundamental human rights of all
Nigerian citizens are guaranteed by that document which the President swore to
uphold on May 29, 2015.”
It's just that Buhari is no different from those he is accusing.
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