Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State says there
was massive looting of the commonwealth during
the administration of former President Goodluck
Jonathan.
The Governor said while he was in no position to determine
if the former President was personally guilty, or if he
acquiesced to the looting, but as President, he must take
responsibility for what happened under his watch.
In an interview with Sahara Reporters TV in Washington DC,
Governor Oshiomhole also said although he had raised
many questions on the tenure of the former Minister of
Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, he has nothing personal against her.
He said: “what is obvious is that so much money was
diverted and unaccounted for from government treasury.
Not just from excess crude account, but also from other
agencies of government. The numbers are huge. For
example, NNPC reports that they earned about N8 trillion
within three to four years and over the same period, they
claimed they spent N3.5 trillion and paid to the federation
account about N4.1 trillion. So the cost of running NNPC
was as much as the cost of running the federation, both the
Federal, State and local governments. So that tells you the
amount of primitive stealing that went on. The numbers are
mind-boggling. So when we talk of Excess crude, that is just
one element.”
He said his grouse with Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was that as
Coordinating Minister of the Economy, so much sleaze and
malfeasance went on under her watch without raising an
alarm, saying “she has to come clean. Having accepted the
role of the Coordinating Minister, so many things went
wrong with the Nigerian economy even to the extent that for
the first time in our history, even the Federal Government
could not pay salary, they had to borrow. The pension
scheme has been drawn down, the social purpose of the
pension scheme has now been defeated.
“So first of all we are saying, accept responsibility that you
failed to manage the economy properly. Two, you never
gave in even when we argued that the economy was in
distress she was on record as always saying no, the
economy was fine, the economy was strong, we are the
largest economy on the continent. Of course, people are
not fooled, just revaluing your assets and playing with the
numbers. What has changed in the quality of life of the
people? You have rebased the economy, have you rebased
the quality of life? You haven’t!
“If you claim to have the largest economy, you can’t also
plead insolvency at the same time. What we are simply
asking her to do is to open the whole book. What the
council has asked us to do is, the Committee of Four
Governors is to just look at this excess crude thing, and
show what went in, who took what, when and who
authorized it. So at least we have a basis to start. But I
think, going forward, we will need a forensic audit by
competent auditors to look at the books so that the whole
truth can be known even if we can’t retrieve some of the
money but I believe a lot can be retrieved and it is good that
we have a basis to identify who is responsible and who to
be blamed.
“I think people need to recognize that from my own
background, I am never intimidated. As a labor leader, I
questioned authority, I interrogated power and the fact of
being in government doesn’t give me much comfort as to be
indifferent about gross abuse of power and criminal
diversion of funds. What should I hate her for? What for? I
am not a federal official, I am as privileged as any other
governor but I am troubled by people saying one thing in
the afternoon and doing another at night.
“People should ask the question, how come each time the
issue of corruption and abuse or diversion of funds was
raised, Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was the first to defend
rather than show concern and have open mind. You
remember when the CBN Governor whom you can’t dismiss
talked about huge billions of dollars diverted, Ngozi was
quick to say no, it is not $20billion, it is only $10.8 billion.
“Even that was offensive to good conscience and then later
she said we are going to do forensic audit, NNPC books
have not been audited. How could she preside over an
economy in which the main player such as NNPC was not,
as a matter of course, carrying out annual audit? Why
should that happen under her watch? A lot of funds
accruing to institutions like NIMASA were diverted. Why
should that happen under her watch? Contracts were
awarded without any bidding.
“If people say there was too much corruption in Nigeria,
who was presiding over the economy? She is not on record
as having raised any alarm on abuse of office. So there is
nothing personal about it. If anything I consider her a friend
but she knows that my friendship is subordinated to the
bigger national interest. What do I stand to gain? I could as
well play along, keep quiet, be a good guy but I will rather
be a good guy to my conscience, not to any body’s face.
“So the truth is, she should answer the questions. She was
reported to have said that because she didn’t approve the
loan the Governor wanted to take to pay contractors and I
said very good, I wanted to borrow money to pay
contractors, not to pay workers but she was borrowing
money to pay salaries but I have never borrowed money to
pay salaries, I am up-to-date with the payment of salaries.
“So I am not grumbling because I am frustrated, I am
making a point because that is the truth. She is not entitled
to claim an honor that she doesn’t deserve in the face of
these huge numbers that cannot be accounted for. I believe
the President is quietly doing some works to determine
what went wrong in the rot that he inherited, to determine
who is responsible for what.
“When these numbers begin to come out, I will expect the
minister to explain how she can claim to have been a
successful Coordinating Minister of the Economy yet the
economy suffered so much bleeding and diversion of funds.
“Here in Washington, everybody is talking about billions of
dollars of Nigeria crude money that was taken. How could
you supervise an economy, you are cooking the soup, the
elephant leg is being stolen and you didn’t raise an alarm.
People raised an alarm and you shut them up. So I think
Nigerians should move away from sentiments. I have even
heard people saying it is ethnic issues. It is the typical
Nigerian issue when a public officer has no explanation, he
seeks escape route by bringing in sentiments of ethnicity
and religion.
“For people like me, that doesn’t disturb me at all. I am a
union man, I have always interrogated power and when I
was in the NLC, I challenged some of our policies. So she
knows where I stand. I would rather be known for
something that be known for nothing.
“On the issue of PMB decision to probe the immediate past
administration of GEJ, Oshiomhole said, “I don’t think probe
is the right word. For a President whose major campaign
was hinged on ‘if we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill
us’, it is only natural that he recovers what was stolen and I
think it is only patriotic that we do that.
“More also when you inherited huge debts and you will be
devoting huge resources to service those debts. If we
recovered money from Abacha government even after his
death, why should anybody ask questions if indeed he
should probe.
“I don’t think it is about probing. Probe means investigating
what is not obvious but when you can see a thief stealing
and you can arrest him, ask him and recover what has been
stolen, that is not probe. Probe is like finding what is not
clear, it is so clear that so much money was diverted even
we were told we are losing 400 thousand barrels a day.
How can that happen? Yes we have always had issues of
illegal bunkering but then you talk of 10 thousand or 20
thousand barrels. How can anybody explain 400,000
barrels consistently for 2, 3 consecutive years and
incidentally, this is the time that the government gave out
contracts to people to protect the pipelines and huge sums
of money was paid. So you are asking yourself, how come
during the previous government under Yar’Adua, even at the
peak of militancy, we didn’t suffer this huge demurrage.
“I think it is not about choice for President Buhari whether
or not to recover what has been taken. I think he is obliged
to do it in the national interest. I don’t see how he can shy
away from it because it is like seeing something stolen
from your household and you refuse to recover it; you can
see the thief, and sometimes you even can see the stolen
goods.
“A lot of stealing went on under President Goodluck
Jonathan’s watch, there is no question about that but as
for his own personal level of guilt, it is not for me to say.
But every President, just like every Governor or Local
Government Chairman must accept responsibility for
whatever happened under his watch. Leadership is about
responsibility.”
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