In this interview with JOHN ALECHENU, former Joint House Leader of the<\/p>\n
defunct Peoples Redemption Party and Chairman of the Foreign Relations
\nCommittee, as well as a member of the Defence Committee in the Second
\nRepublic, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, speaks about the Buhari administration\u2019s
\nanti-corruption war, the arms probe and other national issues. Excerpts:<\/p>\n
Critics of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration have latched
\non to the recent arrest of former Army Chief, Azubuike Ihejerika, to
\naccuse it of partiality. What is your take?<\/p>\n
If Nigerians can remember, I said recently week; when one of the four
\nservice chiefs, who are being investigated, namely: General Azubuike
\nIhejirika was arrested by the DSS. I said while the arrest of Ihejirika
\nwas a very positive development, it was none the less, inadequate. It was
\npartial and certainly sends a very wrong message. One, Ihejirika took over
\npower from somebody called Lt. General (Abdulrahman) Dambazau. If
\nIhejirika was guilty; it stands to reason that Dambazau is equally guilty
\nbecause Ihejirika took over from him. In any case, information coming out
\nfrom the investigation panel set up to probe arms deals indicates clearly
\nthat Dambazau has a case to answer. In addition, Dambazau is today falsely
\nbeing made to represent Kano in the government by Buhari, which is very
\nunfair and unjust because this man was not born in Kano. He is today
\nMinister of Interior and in addition to which, he is Minister in-Charge of
\nPolice Affairs. Under the British norms of Public Administration and
\nManagement, if you are under investigation, you are normally asked to step
\naside. Dambazzau has not be asked to step aside, which means he is being
\nallowed to interfere with the investigations by the EFCC which is in fact,
\na police organisation. Another person who I also understand has been
\nindicted and should be arrested like Ihejirika is Lt. Gen. Kenneth
\nMinimah. Minimah was not given that job on merit, he was given that
\nposition on purely tribal consideration and in appointing him as Chief of
\nArmy Staff, several of his colleagues who are better tested and more
\nrefined and in fact, better recommended were not only shoved aside, they
\nwere also prematurely retired. He should also be arrested like Ihejirika.
\nAfter Minimah, we now have Buratai. Buratai is an interesting case not
\nbecause he is not guilty but because Buratai and the circumstances
\nsurrounding his appointment and the scandal he is now enmeshed in; are
\ntypical of the disastrous sense of judgement of General Muhammadu Buhari
\nand the way he stubbornly refuses to admit when he makes a mistake.<\/p>\n
Since you\u2019ve brought in the alleged scandal involving Buratai, what do you
\nmake of the whole thing?<\/p>\n
It is now clear beyond any reasonable doubt -like we see in the media \u2013
\nthat Buratai was the Director of Procurement at Defence Headquarters.
\nThere can never be any reason why other chiefs of Army Staff who are
\ninvolved in malfeasance and grand crimes in procurement should be arrested
\nand taken to court while Buratai is allowed to remain scot-free. Secondly,
\nhis position as Chief of Army Staff is something nobody can explain; only
\nBuhari can explain. It has now been discovered that this man is filthy
\nrich like his cohorts. Thirdly, that he has property in Dubai among other
\nplaces and that while the Army tries to cover one of their own, their
\nChief of Army Staff; by saying that he acquired these through the savings
\nof his family- I don\u2019t know what his family was earning, what about what
\nhe acquired when he became Chief of Army Staff? How does Buhari explain
\nthat? Nigerians deserve an answer and the answer must come quick because
\nNigerians cannot be taken for a ride by either Buhari or any army officer.
\nThe days when Nigerian Army officers can tell lies and get away with it or
\npretend to be messiahs in Nigeria is now gone. Every soldier must prove
\nhimself to be clean before we take them to be clean. We do not take
\nanybody from Buhari to be clean simply because he says he is clean or his
\npublic relations men who are paid to say so, say he is clean, that day is
\ngone and gone forever.<\/p>\n
There has been this talk about a cabal hijacking the Presidency, a charge
\nthe Presidency has denied. We will like your thoughts on this?<\/p>\n
Let me say straight away that whether one calls it a cabal or a mafia or
\nsome kind of cult or whatever, there is a group of people who are wielding
\npower within the Presidency under Buhari. Whatever you say it is; it is
\nand a lot worse. First, the most influential person in the Presidency
\ntoday is one Mamman Daura whom as you know, is a nephew of the President.
\nHis father was Buhari\u2019s elder brother. In addition, Mamman Daura was the
\none who single handedly brought up Abba Kyari, the current Chief of Staff
\nto the President. In fact, Abba Kyari knows Mamman Daura more than he
\nknows his own father. Next, the Personal Assistant to Buhari himself is
\nthe son of Mamman Daura, next is what they call SCOP, State Chief of
\nProtocol, and is also a son-in-law to Mamman Daura because he is married
\nto Mamman Daura\u2019s daughter. Next, the Minister they unilaterally chose,
\nagainst the interest of the party and against the wishes of Sokoto people,
\nhappens to be the daughter of the younger sister of Mamman Daura\u2019s wife.
\nBoth of them are daughters of Sultan Dasuki, who was sacked by General
\nAbacha. We have the Aide De Camp to Buhari himself, Colonel Abubakar. He
\nis married to the granddaughter of one of Buhari\u2019s elder sisters. Next we
\nhave the woman who represents Kaduna in the Federal Executive Council, she
\nis a cousin to Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai. It is well known
\nthat el-Rufai is one of the closest governors to Muhammadu Buhari. Next,
\nwe have the Minister for the Federal Capital Territory. The Minister of
\nthe FCT is the man called Musa Bello, who used to be the Managing Director
\nof the Northern Nigeria Development Corporation, which used to be the
\nbiggest holding company that belonged to all the northern states. His only
\nqualification to be FCT minister is the fact that his father has been
\nBuhari\u2019s friend over the years. Now, there is a young man called Sabiu
\nYusuf, nicknamed Tunde \u2013 probably because of late General Tunde Idiagbon.
\nHe is another PA to President Buhari. He is also a grandson of another
\nsister of Buhari. This is enough to prove to you that this is shamelessly
\nthe worst form of nepotism in the history of government in Nigeria. In
\nfact, in the history of Africa, let me make bold to assert that I have
\nnever seen any level of nepotism that has equalled or surpassed this in my
\nentire life \u2013 I am now in my 67th year. Another thing I also want you to
\nknow is that, Amina Zakari, who was and still a national commissioner in
\nthe Independent National Electoral Commission representing the entire
\nseven states in the North-West. It is being claimed that Buhari knows
\nnothing about her appointment (before he became President), it is a lie.
\nWhen President Goodluck Jonathan was re-organising the INEC and he was
\nbringing in Prof. Attahiru Jega, he reached out to Buhari and asked Buhari
\nto nominate somebody from the North-West so that that person would be a
\nnational commissioner. Of all the people in the North-West, Buhari decided
\nto nominate his own niece, the daughter of his elder sister- Amina Zakari.
\nShe has been there; when Jega left, Buhari was determined to make her
\nchairman, it was because of the massive backlash that he dropped the idea
\nlike hot potatoes. As we are talking today, that woman is a national
\ncommissioner which means she is one of the principal election umpires.
\nThroughout my reading of history, political science and social sciences
\ngenerally, I have never heard of any dictator or any tyrant under any
\nsystem of government whether totalitarian or fascist, appointing his own
\nniece to conduct elections in which he was either a party or going to be a
\nparty to; Buhari has done that. The immediate younger brother to Amina
\nZakari is currently the Minister for Water Resources representing Jigawa
\nState in the same Buhari government. In addition, even though they are
\nfrom Kazaure, Kazaure is contiguous to Daura. The eldest sister of both of
\nthem is now the Commissioner for Education in the All Progressives
\nCongress government in Jigawa State. If this is not nepotism, then I don\u2019t
\nknow what is nepotism and anybody who has the guts, the brutal arrogance
\nto appoint these relations not bothering about public opinion, about the
\nsense of justice, about competence, then you can see that he has a very
\nserious question to answer. There are two mysterious cases.<\/p>\n
Which cases are you referring to?<\/p>\n
The case of the Governor of the Central Bank, Godwin Emeifele and the
\nMinister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu. It was Buhari
\nhimself who said that he knew when the governor of the CBN picked a piece
\nof paper and gave an instruction that N14bn should be withdrawn from the
\nCBN and that money was withdrawn. That was nearly a year ago and up till
\ntoday, Buhari is still retaining Emefiele as CBN governor. The Buhari I
\nknow is an economic illiterate and anybody who knows anything about
\ncurrency movement and foreign exchange and fluctuations knows that the
\nNaira has been effectively devalued. It was the same Buhari who boasted
\nthat the Naira would never be devalued under him for as long as he remains
\nPresident and even threatened the governor of the CBN that he was going to
\nsack him if he devalued the Naira. He (CBN governor) is still there. In
\nthe case of Kachikwu, he is the mystery man in the cabinet. No one can
\nactually tell you who nominated and brought in Kachikwu. We knew that he
\nwas friends with Abba Kyari when they both worked in Mobil but none of
\nthem had the influence to bring him in and make him Minister of Petroleum
\nResources. Forget the nonsense about him being the junior minister because
\nhe is the senior and junior minister in addition to being the Managing
\nDirector of the NNPC (until recently when he was replaced. This again
\nconfirms the arrogance of President Buhari in putting two positions
\ntogether; one purely civil service and technocratic position which is the
\nGroup Managing Director of the NNPC and the other one which is purely
\npolitical- a minister.<\/p>\n
What is wrong with the President merging these portfolios in the light of
\nthe administration\u2019s desire to cut the cost of running government\u2026?<\/p>\n
Since this man became minister, there has been nothing good coming out of
\nthe oil industry rather than confusion, crisis and corruption. That again
\nis an indication of the decadence we have in this government. People who
\nare being accused and arrested for corruption as it should be, we are also
\naware that some of these cases that the DSS is getting involved in are
\nshady because they have no experience whatsoever in prosecution. That is
\nwhy from the famous case of Farouk Lawal, a former member of the House of
\nRepresentatives who was involved in getting money and putting it under his
\ncap and what have you which was captured on camera. They arrested that
\nman; it was a clear cut case long before Buhari became President. Till
\ntoday, the DSS has not been able to prosecute Farouk Lawan. He is still
\nsitting at home; his house is about 200 metres from my house. That shows
\nyou that when you hear that the DSS is arresting somebody for corruption,
\nit is clearly political and maybe there is money or corruption involved.
\nWe also know that there are people from within the DSS from the very top
\nwho are even threatening that they will soon arrest the Chairman of the
\nEFCC and the National Security Adviser.<\/p>\n
These are serious allegations. Why would they want to do that?<\/p>\n
The main reason is these people have refused to cooperate with them:
\nMamman Daura, Abba Kyari and the DG DSS, who is also part of the Daura
\ncabal they want to take over the anti-corruption war so that it will be
\nunder their hand and they can cut deals and render the anti-corruption war
\nuseless. I know who they propose to take over, it didn\u2019t work. I think
\nBuhari resisted- which is miracle. They are now proposing somebody. The
\nperson who they proposed was a retired DIG, he, myself and Magu (current
\nEFCC boss) had worked in Port Harcourt during my years in OMPADEC. Now
\nthey are thinking of a retired Commissioner of Police. The only
\nqualification they are looking for is someone who can be controlled by
\nthem. This is the situation we find ourselves.<\/p>\n
In the light of what you have said, what would you say has changed in
\ngovernment?<\/p>\n
I will put it this way, we have exchanged one thoroughly corrupt
\ngovernment for one that pretends to be honest and is doing an honest job
\nwhile in reality, it is business as usual.<\/p>\n
\u2026But for the first time, alleged malfeasance in the purchase of weapons is
\nbeing investigated. Is this not progress?<\/p>\n
Recently, an interim report was submitted to President Buhari. The report
\nhad to do with the on-going investigation of the Nigerian Army which is
\nthe primary consumer of the money that was used to prosecute the war on
\nBoko Haram and of course, the Niger Delta insurgency. I have been
\nreliably informed that the report even though partial, has already
\nindicted the following: General Ihejirika and the current Chief of Army
\nStaff, Buratai. What was strange about the report was the fact that it was
\nsilent about General Dambazzau who was Army Chief before all of these
\npeople. The report was silent about his own role which goes to confirm
\nthat the Mafia or the cabal in the Presidency consisting of the Chief of
\nStaff, DG DSS and of course, their godfather, Mamman Daura, have an
\ninterest in making sure that by hook or by crook, General Dambazau is
\nprotected even though he was supposed to come first. For some reason, the
\nBuhari administration which prides itself with its anti-corruption war has
\ndecided that the report is not going to be published because he has been
\npersuaded by the three that publishing the report will embarrass the
\ngovernment. This is very strange and at best laughable because Buhari\u2019s
\nfirst administration in 1984 got into a lot of trouble with the media
\nbecause of Decree 2 which makes it a crime to embarrass any public office
\nholder. That made Buhari and his administration back then very unpopular.
\nThese characters in the Presidency, the cabal or the mafia or whatever you
\ncall them, are determined to make Buhari make the same mistake again. For
\nBuhari to ask a report not to be published because some people in his
\ngovernment will be embarrassed is a very strange manifestation of the
\nBuhari we knew and is likely to cause a lot of problems. In the case of
\nDambazau, it is clear that the years 2007-2010 are critical (to the arms
\nprobe) because these were the years when he was supposed to be in charge
\nbut again, he is being protected by the DG DSS and co. Nigerians demand
\nthat the interim report be made public and that there should be no sacred
\ncows. In any case, anything they try to hide will be made public in due
\ncourse because nothing remains permanently secret in Nigeria, Buhari
\nhimself knows that. Others who have been in that position also know that.
\nIn addition to what was contained in the report as it concerns uniformed
\npersons, we are reliably informed that some permanent secretaries,
\ncivilians and civil servants have been implicated and it is important for
\nthe report to be made public for Nigerians to decide who can be trusted.
\nWhen crimes are committed, it is not only soldiers that are implicated,
\nwithout the collusion of Permanent Secretaries and others within the
\ncivilian administration. Nigerians are watching and watching carefully and
\ndemand that these things be made public.<\/p>\n
Is the cabal, like you said, not working to protect the interest of the
\nPresident?<\/p>\n
No. According to very reliable sources, the cabal in fact has a problem
\nwith the National Security Adviser and the Chairman of the EFCC. The
\nproblem the cabal has with the NSA is not the same they have with the
\nacting Chairman of the EFCC. The problem they have with the NSA has to do
\nwith what the office of the NSA and the security establishment generally
\ndetermined was going to be a danger to the President himself. They found
\nthat the contractors supplying aviation fuel to the Presidential fleet
\nwere actually appointed -they are cronies to Jonathan Goodluck and his
\nwife, Patience. And the security services felt that retaining them under
\nthe new dispensation would be dangerous, unhealthy and poses a direct
\ndanger to the President, members of his family and other members of the
\ngovernment. They made the determination and submitted a report to the
\nPresident through the NSA recommending that a new supplier be sourced to
\nsupply fuel for the Presidential fleet. Buhari agreed with their
\nrecommendations and signed off on it. He agreed with the new contractors
\nto supply after it was done in the process of implementation, Mamman Daura
\nwas claimed to have said the former supplier was his friend therefore
\nnobody can take the contract away from them. All efforts to explain the
\nimplications to him failed. He raised issues first; with the NSA then with
\nthe President but he did not get his way. That was when he raised the
\nissue with the DG DSS on what to do with the NSA. It is noteworthy that
\nwhen Obasanjo was President, all the service chiefs including the
\nInspector General of Police and the DG DSS were reporting to Obasanjo
\nthrough the NSA. That was how the system worked and no bloody civilian
\never got involved with security matters. If Nigerians hear that there is a
\nthreat by a civilian to arrest the NSA, they should know the reason why.
\nNigerians should not underestimate the danger posed by the cabal because
\nif Nigerians are not careful, the cabal will inadvertently bring down the
\ngovernment or destroy Buhari\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n
Courtesy: Punch Newspapers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In this interview with JOHN ALECHENU, former Joint House Leader of the defunct Peoples Redemption Party and Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, as well as a member of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n