President Muhammadu Buhari regretted yesterday that many good
Nigerians who would have been qualified for ministerial positions had
been compromised.
He, however, noted that even though for want of credible persons, the
ministerial list is being delayed, he will not risk appointing such
people into his cabinet because it would amount to taking the country
back to square one.
Buhari who said this when he appeared as a guest on Good Morning
Nigeria, a breakfast network programme of the Nigerian Television
Authority (NTA), also assured that the federal government is perfecting
the necessary documents with which to prosecute crude oil thieves in the
country.
He said up to the 10th of this month, oil thieves continued lifting
crude oil illegally, adding that the culprits are people in government.
On the ministerial appointments, the president said the process is
taking too long because capable persons in the country have been
compromised by people who planned to use them to destroy the country’s
economy.
He said, “From what I have seen so far, we need very patriotic
Nigerians, Nigerians that can work very hard with knowledgeable
experience, committed Nigerians to be in charge of ministries. A lot of
institutions in Nigeria are compromised, everybody for himself and God
for all of us. It is most unfortunate.
“We have people, educated and experienced people, but everybody seems
to be working for himself on how much they could get away with as soon
as possible. We have to look for technocrats and politicians. We have to
look out for decent people in this class to give them the
responsibility of being in charge of ministries and important
parastatals”.
Noting that no compromised person will make it as a minister in his
government, Buhari said, “We will try as mush as possible to avoid
appointing hostages; by this, I mean people who have been in the system
but compromised their personal and professional integrity. It is taking
so much time because a number of knowledgeable people have been
compromised.
“They have been compromised by people who will like to depend on them
to damage our economy and security; a lot of them have been
compromised. The worst thing that I think can happen is to get a
compromised person to be in charge of institutions. There is no way he
could be efficient or patriotic.
“Somebody behind the scene will be tele-guiding him at the expense of
the nation. This is what we are trying to avoid and I assure you that
so much damage has been done to Nigeria. We cannot rush to give this
responsibility to people that have unfortunately been compromised.
“Because there is no way you can effectively supervise, let’s say 20
ministries, you have to give it to people you trust and you allow them
to perform according to the constitution of the country. If you appoint
compromised people, then we will be back to square one and Nigeria will
be the loser”.
President Buhari further said the level of corruption in the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is terrible to the extent that
the corporation does not even know how many bank accounts it operates.
He said, “The multiparty democratic system for developing countries
has its advantages and relative disadvantages in the sense that for us
to get the help of the developed countries, we have to get our facts:
documents, complete and reliable investigation, take them to court and
get these people prosecuted.
“Meanwhile, the theft continues. Up to the 10th of this month, our
crude is still being illegally lifted by people who are in government.
We are trying to get these documents; we are getting cooperation from
the international community. We are going very soon to make sure that
those who perpetrated this crime against Nigeria will be faced with
facts and be taken to our courts.
“We have got the cooperation of some of the countries that are the
destinations of our crude and we are discussing with them. We have to
maintain high confidentiality so that we don’t risk some of the people
in Nigeria that are helping us to trace the destinations of this stolen
crude and then the accounts where the proceeds are being paid instead of
the federal government’s account.
“I don’t think the NNPC knows how many accounts are there in which
payments are made on Nigerian crude. The monumental fraud has been going
on for a number of years; a lot of Nigerians cannot comprehend it”.
He added that the moment Nigeria complies with the requirements of
the benefitting countries, “they are very willing to make sure that all
those accounts are frozen and the money repatriated to Nigeria. It is
not an easy process but I assure you that we are working very hard.”
On the leadership crisis in the National Assembly, the president
explained that he decided not to interfere because doing so will be
against the principle of separation of powers.
He regretted, however, that because of selfish ambitions, the All
Progressives Congress (APC) members in the federal legislature allowed
the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to take advantage of the
crisis and relegate the ruling party to the background.
His words: “I have to be very sensitive to the constitution of the
country. I do not like to be told by anybody especially the legislators
that I am interfering in their matter. There are three arms of
government: executive, legislature and the judiciary.
“Over the last 16 years, they have developed the system of choosing
their leaders. There is no way I can directly interfere. All I can do
through the party is to appeal to their conscience that what I already
observed, we should go over it as soon as possible.”
“When I say we, I mean the APC. We cannot win the battle and lose the
war. We must not allow individual personal ambition to succeed in
dividing us and allow PDP to deal with us. This is what the National
Assembly has allowed so far, the APC is giving the PDP the allowance to
take over the government again.
“This is extremely disheartening, I am very worried.The only think I
can do is to appeal to the conscience of the APC members in the Senate
and House. It took us time to get to where we are, I don’t want personal
ambitions to scuttle our success and therefore fail to deliver on our
promises to the nation”.
On reports that he was planning split the NNPC into two, Buhari who
noted that he also read the reports noted that the best way to go about
it is to first establish the fact of the magnitude of the inexplicable
way the NNPC conducted itself.
He also blamed the protracted fuel scarcity in the country on
corruption which he said had killed all important public institutions.
He said, “When we do that, we will be on higher moral ground to do
whatever recommendations made to us. The problem of fuel scarcity is one
of the problems. We all know we used to have four refineries refining
daily on the average of about 450,000 barrels per day.
“We had 25 depots all over the country from Maiduguri to Ilorin, from
Gusau to Yola, from Makurdi to Port Harcourt to Ibadan. All these
infrastructure have virtually been vandalized amd Nigerians are forced
to buy products from world markets as if Nigeria hasn’t invested in the
industry.
“This is sheer corruption and inefficiency. This situation cannot be
undone overnight. Firstly, we have to organize with our partners who had
been developing the petroleum sector. Nigeria was constituency losing
on a daily basis millions of dollars.
“I think those who have been operating in the industry have been
displaying lack of conscience and patriotism. Only God knows the amount
of damage done to Nigeria”.
On whether the United States is willing to sell arms to Nigerian
following the President’s four day visit to the country, Buhari said his
administration had been able get clear cut assurance from the US that
it assist Nigeria in many ramifications.
“Americans are willing to help us, they understand our problems, they sympathize with us”, he stated.
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