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Tunde Omolehin, Sokoto
The Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign against corruption is politically motivated.
He added that the Federal Government is only paying lip service to its anti graft war, saying the President is not doing enough to build strong institutions to fight corruption.
Tambuwal stated this at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding of the 2019 United Nations Development Framework and the launch of a spotlight initiative between the state government and the United Nations, held in Sokoto.
The Governor recounted that “When I was the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, I accused the then President Goodluck Jonathan, who was a member of my party, of supporting corruption. That is when he granted state pardon to the former Bayelsa State governor, Late DSP Alaimesigha, who was accused of corruption. We all know what happened after.
“Now, it is a public knowledge in Nigeria today that the moment you align yourself with a particular political party today, you are immune to the fight against corruption.
“We cannot get it right on the issues in the fight against corruption in Nigeria, especially when the agencies that are assigned to the task are at the mercy of the Federal Government. When they don’t like your face, they set EFCC against you.
“We are very much aware that once you join a particular party, you are immune from being prosecuted by the EFCC or ICPC, that is not the way to go. We need to stop politicising the fight against corruption and take it headlong, otherwise we won’t go anywhere.
“We knew what happened here during election, when EFCC was all over the place, arresting people anyhow, identified from them their political masters with the belief that people are buying votes.
“We know the political actors here who used EFCC as part of their campaign to come and intimidate people here. The earlier we realize that we are not doing it right the better for the institutions to do better.
“That is why during my tenure as Speaker, I spoke about it and I still want to assure you now that I am ready to support the constitutional amendments that will make our institutions strong.
“There is need to separate the office of the Minister for Justice from the Attorney General of the Federation. The Minister can be a politician while the Attorney General of the Federation should be above board and not a politician.
“We also need to separate the office of the Accountant General and that of the Accountant General of the Federation. We must go back to the constitution and do the right thing, if not or unless, we may not get it right” he added.
Earlier in his remark, UN Resident Coordinator Edward Kallon, who represented UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, emphasized on the disturbing mega trends that are of concern to the global body.
He said the UN was worried and concerned about four raising issues affecting Nigeria. Kallon emphasized such issues as the country’s demographic growth, which he put at an estimated rate of 3.2 percent, while the economy is growing at 2.1 percent.
“The rest are the multi dimensional poverty and increased inequality, impact of climatic change and competition with natural resources, pervasive corruption, insecurity and the empowerment of women.”
Kallon also briefed Governor Tambuwal on the UN reforms in the areas of prevention, peace and security, reform of the UN governance system and improving management and accountability.
