Interview: Why President Buhari Insisted On Fashola And Amaechi In His Cabinet

A professor of law, Itse Sagay, has revealed real reasons why Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, insisted on having controversial former Rivers governor, Rotimi Amaechi and former Lagos governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, in his cabinet, despite massive opposition. 

Professor Sagay

Sagay, who doubles as the chairman of the presidential advisory committee on anti-corruption had an interview with Premium Times and he spoke extensively on various topical issues ranging from the efforts of the past and present administrations’ fights against corruption to the issue of an ex-NIMASA boss who was recently bundled into a bus by security agents and more…

Read extracts below:

Over the past years we have seen you coming out to speak on issues bordering on corruption. How would you rate the previous administration’s fight against corruption?

You mean the previous administration’s encouragement of corruption? But you and I know that they were promoting corruption as a way of life. Look at all the revelations which you and I know. In fact, when I started reading it I started laughing because it reminded me of so much of one culture in Delta State where I come from. We have all these young young boys who don’t have a job, who are looking for money anyhow. If there’s anything going on, any party, they’ll go there. If there’s any rich man in town, they’ll go there hoping he’ll throw money. And when one gets and he’s going away, he’ll see the other and he’ll say “You don obtain?” Then that one will go and tell the other “You don obtain?”

The Jonathan government has introduced the culture of ‘You don obtain’ as a national culture. For everybody to be walking into an office somewhere and collecting his share of Nigerian resources and walking away for nothing. So there’s no question that the Jonathan government actively promoted corruption. And has wrecked and ruined this country as a result because we have no money anymore. It’s just incredible that anybody can just wake up and get his share. This man got 100 million, this one got 2.1 billion, everybody is having a share. On what basis? Tompolo had 13 billion. Everybody. As long as you belong to the PDP, you can just walk in some office and collect a suitcase of money and go. Somebody went to the Central Bank and collected 14 suitcases of dollars, $47 million in suitcases. That’s a bazaar, it’s bizarre. That’s not an organized country. That is chaos and total disorder.

Recently, an ex-NIMASA boss was bundled into a bus by security agents despite two courts granting him bail. Are you concerned about the disrespect for court rulings?

But he was rearrested for a new charge. That’s allowed. They were not disrespecting the bail, they had a new charge. For any new charge, police can arrest. So all he needs to do is to ask for bail for that too. You see, it’s all up to us. If you go about committing 50 different crimes, and you are charged for one and you get bail. You can be charged for the second one, third one, fourth one, all the 50 and you get bail for all the 50. That’s what had happened. They were playing football with our money at our various levels…

(Cuts in) But the manner in which he was bundled into the bus…

(Cuts in) He was resisting. I don’t support it, mark you. I don’t support it. It was humiliating. He could have been injured because it was too rough. But again, a man like that, he’s an educated man, a lecturer, you don’t struggle with the police. ‘Oh new charge? Ok, call my lawyers. This is the new charge.’ Enter the vehicle and go. But to physically resist. I think it’s very foolish for anyone to physically resist the state because you cannot defeat the state.

Critics of the present government say they are targeting only PDP members. That there’s an Amaechi or Fashola who had also had petitions written against them yet nothing was done to them. What do you think about that?

Who are the people who wrote petitions against Amaechi and Fashola? Primarily, they are this same people who are afraid of being probed. Who thought these two strong men being in Buhari’s government will so strengthen that government. That the contrast between it and the Jonathan government will be so strong and that they themselves will be exposed. Do you think Wike will want Amaechi to be in any government? He would not. He is so frightened of Amaechi, if he could destroy him he would have destroyed him long ago. There’s nothing he had not done to destroy him. With Mama Patience. There’s nothing they haven’t done. It’s just that the guy is such a clucky, strong, energetic, and witty fellow that just got himself out of all that. Then they just cooked up a panel made up of sympathetic, pro-Wike judges who went there parading themselves in a most dishonourable manner. So it’s nothing to be taken seriously.

The same thing with Fashola. Some people did not want Fashola to be in this government and so they just decided that the best thing to do is to tarnish his name, tarnish his record, which the whole world respects. From the United States to Australia, to the Middle East, to even the United Nations, everybody knows that Fashola has the best record in governance that this country has had since Awolowo. So they just wanted to destroy all that over night because they were frightened of him becoming a minister. That’s why I have a great respect for Buhari. He was unmoved. He was unshaken. He just kept his cool. And when he now came out, what did he do? He made Fashola the symbol of his government. Fashola is the number one minister in this country today. And Transport given to Amaechi is equally important, because we are talking of railways, highways, aviation, and so on. Buhari knows what he is doing most of the time. He doesn’t talk much.

But do you think this government’s fight against corruption so far has targeted only opposition elements?

No. It hasn’t. You see, what is happening, I’m a little bit in the know of this, this government is not going out of the way to look for people to prosecute. No. They are prosecuting people whose corruption is jarring them in the face. Corruption that is virtually blocking your road, you cannot move unless you move it out of the way. That’s the type of corruption we are facing. Corruption that has crippled this government now.

So when they talk of corruption of Obasanjo, Yar’adua, all these people, that we should go back to that, no complain about that. But if we don’t clear the last five years, the type of corruption we have seen is mind-boggling and not only that, they are all close. You can see the way the NSA’s office was turned into a bazaar. Even after Buhari was elected, they still transferred money, over 27 billion to NSA’s office, after the election. We have to deal with those first. How can you now go back to 1960, to Shagari and so on when you have this low-hanging fruit right in your face. It makes no sense. So it’s not a question of discrimination. It’s a question of going after the obvious, the immediate, the most threatening which has to be taken care of before you move on.

Source: Vanguard