The federal government has
reacted to Nigerians’ call on President Muhammadu Buhari to resign.
Information Minister, Lai
Mohammed, told the media on Tuesday, that Buhari and the All Progressives
Congress (APC) government are not corrupt.
He cited the scandals rocking the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Niger Delta Development
Commission (NDDC) and Nigeria Social Investment Trust Fund (NSITF).
Mohammed said “naysayers have
misinterpreted these developments as a sign that the Administration’s fight
against corruption is waning.”
The minister noted that the
resignation call by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) “is nothing but
infantile.”
He said the fight against
corruption remains a cardinal programme of the incumbent.
“President Muhammadu Buhari, the
African Union’s Anti-Corruption Champion, who also has an impeccable reputation
globally, remains the driver of the fight and no one, not the least the PDP
under whose watch Nigeria was looted dry, can taint his image or reverse the
gains
of the fight. Anyone who
disagrees that the anti-corruption fight is alive and well is free to dare us.
“What the revelations of the past
few weeks, especially the investigation of the nation’s anti-corruption Czar,
have shown is that this Administration is not ready to sweep any allegation of
corruption under the carpet; that there is no sacred cow in this fight, and
that
– unlike the PDP – we will not
cover up for anyone, including the members of our party and government, who
faces corruption allegations.
“I wish to state that the
allegations of corruption in NDDC, for example, are not new. What is new is the
speed and seriousness with which this administration has tackled, and is still
tackling, the allegations. Had such attention been paid to the running of the
NDDC by previous administrations, the Commission would probably have avoided
its present predicament. Is it not a sad irony, then, that those under whose
watch the alleged freewheeling spending by the Commission
started are now the ones accusing
those who are cleaning up corruption after them?”
Mohammed pointed out that the
Buhari government has recorded over 1,400 convictions, including high profile
ones, and recovered funds in excess of N800 billion and forfeiture of
ill-gotten property.
“We are also putting in place
enduring institutional reforms that will deter acts of corruption. Here we are
talking about the Treasury Single Account (TSA), the
Whistleblower Policy, the
expansion of the coverage of the Integrated Payroll Personnel and Information
System as well as the Government Integrated Management Information System and
the Open Government Partnership and Transparency Portal on Financial
Transactions, among
others.
“Let me also mention the ICPC’s
Constituency and Executive Projects Tracking Group, aimed at tracking
performance of publicly-funded projects, and the Commission’s escalation of the
use of administrative sanctions in the public service by periodically
submitting, for sanction, names of public servants who are being prosecuted.
There is also the review of the personnel and capital fund expenditure of
MDAs.”
Mohammed added that those celebrating
the “so-called waning” of the anti-corruption fight are engaging in wishful
thinking, and are not looking at the full ramifications of the fight.
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