A
abujagirl
Guest
Dr. Sulaiman Abubakar, former Minister of National Planning, has dared President Muhammadu Buhari to probe the sources behind his presidential campaign funds.
Speaking to PUNCH Newspaper during an interview session, Abubakar said Buhari was not sincere in his anti-corruption fight.
On the use of arms deal money to fund former President Goodluck Jonathan's re-election bid, he said, ''It is still an allegation before the law court. We should allow the law court to handle it. People keep on talking about arms, arms, and arms but nobody has seen the facts and figures to know whether the money was meant for arms or not. I am saying that it could not be meant for arms but security votes. It was for security votes. Normally, security vote is at the mercy of the governors and the President and some security chiefs. It is something that is a secret. Nobody knows what goes on there.
''Nobody will tell you how security votes are spent. So for the first time now, we have seen a government that appears to have engaged in deliberate act of trying to know how security votes are spent. I am not trying to justify it but I am saying that none of the APC governors could swear with the Quran or the Bible that they never dipped their hands in their security votes to bring the present government into power. Where did they get the money to fund the activities that brought Buhari to power? Most of these monies could have come from Lagos, Edo, Kano and Rivers states and nobody is asking questions about the security votes of those states. What is peculiar about the security votes spent under Jonathan?
''I am not saying that keeping security votes a secret is the best thing, but I am saying that it has reached a conventional practice in Nigeria that people hardly know what goes on there. So why are we being selective now? Why are we coming up with this now? Why are people not asking questions about the billions of naira spent in Edo, Kano, and Lagos states in bringing the present government to power? Why are we not asking that question for God’s sake? If we want to fight this rot in security votes, we should fight it holistically. If actually the money falls into security votes and it is being spent, we should go beyond what transpired under the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.).
''We should go beyond Dasuki’s period to know how security votes in this country have been spent before now. Now in this budget, billions of naira are being budgeted for security votes and for military offices. What for? Why are we not asking what the funds will be spent on? I think we should probe more on how security votes in Nigeria are being spent. Why are we being selective with Jonathan’s government? This is not to say that I align with corruption or that I support the destruction of the Nigerian economy. But I am asking why only PDP, why only Jonathan? Billions of money was spent to bring this government to power. Where did they get the money? Such money came from Rivers, Lagos and other APC-controlled states and most of those states used their security votes.
''So, if we are to fight this, let us fight it holistically. Let us approach the issues globally and constitutionally. We should not just leave ourselves with one allegation on one party. We should go beyond that. Except we go beyond that and Nigerians stand to know the way security votes are being managed, Nigeria will not be seen to be serious in its fight against corruption.
Speaking to PUNCH Newspaper during an interview session, Abubakar said Buhari was not sincere in his anti-corruption fight.
On the use of arms deal money to fund former President Goodluck Jonathan's re-election bid, he said, ''It is still an allegation before the law court. We should allow the law court to handle it. People keep on talking about arms, arms, and arms but nobody has seen the facts and figures to know whether the money was meant for arms or not. I am saying that it could not be meant for arms but security votes. It was for security votes. Normally, security vote is at the mercy of the governors and the President and some security chiefs. It is something that is a secret. Nobody knows what goes on there.
''Nobody will tell you how security votes are spent. So for the first time now, we have seen a government that appears to have engaged in deliberate act of trying to know how security votes are spent. I am not trying to justify it but I am saying that none of the APC governors could swear with the Quran or the Bible that they never dipped their hands in their security votes to bring the present government into power. Where did they get the money to fund the activities that brought Buhari to power? Most of these monies could have come from Lagos, Edo, Kano and Rivers states and nobody is asking questions about the security votes of those states. What is peculiar about the security votes spent under Jonathan?
''I am not saying that keeping security votes a secret is the best thing, but I am saying that it has reached a conventional practice in Nigeria that people hardly know what goes on there. So why are we being selective now? Why are we coming up with this now? Why are people not asking questions about the billions of naira spent in Edo, Kano, and Lagos states in bringing the present government to power? Why are we not asking that question for God’s sake? If we want to fight this rot in security votes, we should fight it holistically. If actually the money falls into security votes and it is being spent, we should go beyond what transpired under the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.).
''We should go beyond Dasuki’s period to know how security votes in this country have been spent before now. Now in this budget, billions of naira are being budgeted for security votes and for military offices. What for? Why are we not asking what the funds will be spent on? I think we should probe more on how security votes in Nigeria are being spent. Why are we being selective with Jonathan’s government? This is not to say that I align with corruption or that I support the destruction of the Nigerian economy. But I am asking why only PDP, why only Jonathan? Billions of money was spent to bring this government to power. Where did they get the money? Such money came from Rivers, Lagos and other APC-controlled states and most of those states used their security votes.
''So, if we are to fight this, let us fight it holistically. Let us approach the issues globally and constitutionally. We should not just leave ourselves with one allegation on one party. We should go beyond that. Except we go beyond that and Nigerians stand to know the way security votes are being managed, Nigeria will not be seen to be serious in its fight against corruption.
