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
Defence Committee in the Second Republic, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, speaks
about the Buhari administration’s anti-corruption war, the arms probe
and other national issues. Excerpts:
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| Junaid Mohammed |
Critics of the President
Muhammadu Buhari-led administration have latched on to the recent arrest
of former Army Chief, Azubuike Ihejerika, to accuse it of partiality.
What is your take?
If Nigerians can remember, I said
recently week; when one of the four service chiefs, who are being
investigated, namely: General Azubuike Ihejirika was arrested by the
DSS. I said while the arrest of Ihejirika was a very positive
development, it was none the less, inadequate. It was partial and
certainly sends a very wrong message. One, Ihejirika took over power
from somebody called Lt. General (Abdulrahman) Dambazau. If Ihejirika
was guilty; it stands to reason that Dambazau is equally guilty because
Ihejirika took over from him. In any case, information coming out from
the investigation panel set up to probe arms deals indicates clearly
that Dambazau has a case to answer. In addition, Dambazau is today
falsely being made to represent Kano in the government by Buhari, which
is very unfair and unjust because this man was not born in Kano. He is
today Minister of Interior and in addition to which, he is Minister
in-Charge of Police Affairs. Under the British norms of Public
Administration and Management, if you are under investigation, you are
normally asked to step aside. Dambazzau has not be asked to step aside,
which means he is being allowed to interfere with the investigations by
the EFCC which is in fact, a police organisation. Another person who I
also understand has been indicted and should be arrested like Ihejirika
is Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minimah. Minimah was not given that job on merit, he
was given that position on purely tribal consideration and in
appointing him as Chief of Army Staff, several of his colleagues who are
better tested and more refined and in fact, better recommended were not
only shoved aside, they were also prematurely retired. He should also
be arrested like Ihejirika. After Minimah, we now have Buratai. Buratai
is an interesting case not because he is not guilty but because Buratai
and the circumstances surrounding his appointment and the scandal he is
now enmeshed in; are typical of the disastrous sense of judgement of
General Muhammadu Buhari and the way he stubbornly refuses to admit when
he makes a mistake.
Since you’ve brought in the alleged scandal involving Buratai, what do you make of the whole thing?
It is now clear beyond any reasonable
doubt -like we see in the media – that Buratai was the Director of
Procurement at Defence Headquarters. There can never be any reason why
other chiefs of Army Staff who are involved in malfeasance and grand
crimes in procurement should be arrested and taken to court while
Buratai is allowed to remain scot-free. Secondly, his position as Chief
of Army Staff is something nobody can explain; only Buhari can explain.
It has now been discovered that this man is filthy rich like his
cohorts. Thirdly, that he has property in Dubai among other places and
that while the Army tries to cover one of their own, their Chief of Army
Staff; by saying that he acquired these through the savings of his
family- I don’t know what his family was earning, what about what he
acquired when he became Chief of Army Staff? How does Buhari explain
that? Nigerians deserve an answer and the answer must come quick because
Nigerians cannot be taken for a ride by either Buhari or any army
officer. The days when Nigerian Army officers can tell lies and get away
with it or pretend to be messiahs in Nigeria is now gone. Every soldier
must prove himself to be clean before we take them to be clean. We do
not take anybody from Buhari to be clean simply because he says he is
clean or his public relations men who are paid to say so, say he is
clean, that day is gone and gone forever.
There has been this talk
about a cabal hijacking the Presidency, a charge the Presidency has
denied. We will like your thoughts on this?
Let me say straight away that whether
one calls it a cabal or a mafia or some kind of cult or whatever, there
is a group of people who are wielding power within the Presidency under
Buhari. Whatever you say it is; it is and a lot worse. First, the most
influential person in the Presidency today is one Mamman Daura whom as
you know, is a nephew of the President. His father was Buhari’s elder
brother. In addition, Mamman Daura was the one who single handedly
brought up Abba Kyari, the current Chief of Staff to the President. In
fact, Abba Kyari knows Mamman Daura more than he knows his own father.
Next, the Personal Assistant to Buhari himself is the son of Mamman
Daura, next is what they call SCOP, State Chief of Protocol, and is also
a son-in-law to Mamman Daura because he is married to Mamman Daura’s
daughter. Next, the Minister they unilaterally chose, against the
interest of the party and against the wishes of Sokoto people, happens
to be the daughter of the younger sister of Mamman Daura’s wife. Both of
them are daughters of Sultan Dasuki, who was sacked by General Abacha.
We have the Aide De Camp to Buhari himself, Colonel Abubakar. He is
married to the granddaughter of one of Buhari’s elder sisters. Next we
have the woman who represents Kaduna in the Federal Executive Council,
she is a cousin to Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai. It is well
known that el-Rufai is one of the closest governors to Muhammadu Buhari.
Next, we have the Minister for the Federal Capital Territory. The
Minister of the FCT is the man called Musa Bello, who used to be the
Managing Director of the Northern Nigeria Development Corporation, which
used to be the biggest holding company that belonged to all the
northern states. His only qualification to be FCT minister is the fact
that his father has been Buhari’s friend over the years. Now, there is a
young man called Sabiu Yusuf, nicknamed Tunde – probably because of
late General Tunde Idiagbon. He is another PA to President Buhari. He is
also a grandson of another sister of Buhari. This is enough to prove to
you that this is shamelessly the worst form of nepotism in the history
of government in Nigeria. In fact, in the history of Africa, let me make
bold to assert that I have never seen any level of nepotism that has
equalled or surpassed this in my entire life – I am now in my 67th year.
Another thing I also want you to know is that, Amina Zakari, who was
and still a national commissioner in the Independent National Electoral
Commission representing the entire seven states in the North-West. It is
being claimed that Buhari knows nothing about her appointment (before
he became President), it is a lie. When President Goodluck Jonathan was
re-organising the INEC and he was bringing in Prof. Attahiru Jega, he
reached out to Buhari and asked Buhari to nominate somebody from the
North-West so that that person would be a national commissioner. Of all
the people in the North-West, Buhari decided to nominate his own niece,
the daughter of his elder sister- Amina Zakari. She has been there; when
Jega left, Buhari was determined to make her chairman, it was because
of the massive backlash that he dropped the idea like hot potatoes. As
we are talking today, that woman is a national commissioner which means
she is one of the principal election umpires. Throughout my reading of
history, political science and social sciences generally, I have never
heard of any dictator or any tyrant under any system of government
whether totalitarian or fascist, appointing his own niece to conduct
elections in which he was either a party or going to be a party to;
Buhari has done that. The immediate younger brother to Amina Zakari is
currently the Minister for Water Resources representing Jigawa State in
the same Buhari government. In addition, even though they are from
Kazaure, Kazaure is contiguous to Daura. The eldest sister of both of
them is now the Commissioner for Education in the All Progressives
Congress government in Jigawa State. If this is not nepotism, then I
don’t know what is nepotism and anybody who has the guts, the brutal
arrogance to appoint these relations not bothering about public opinion,
about the sense of justice, about competence, then you can see that he
has a very serious question to answer. There are two mysterious cases.
Which cases are you referring to?
The case of the Governor of the Central
Bank, Godwin Emeifele and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources,
Ibe Kachikwu. It was Buhari himself who said that he knew when the
governor of the CBN picked a piece of paper and gave an instruction that
N14bn should be withdrawn from the CBN and that money was withdrawn.
That was nearly a year ago and up till today, Buhari is still retaining
Emefiele as CBN governor. The Buhari I know is an economic illiterate
and anybody who knows anything about currency movement and foreign
exchange and fluctuations knows that the Naira has been effectively
devalued. It was the same Buhari who boasted that the Naira would never
be devalued under him for as long as he remains President and even
threatened the governor of the CBN that he was going to sack him if he
devalued the Naira. He (CBN governor) is still there. In the case of
Kachikwu, he is the mystery man in the cabinet. No one can actually tell
you who nominated and brought in Kachikwu. We knew that he was friends
with Abba Kyari when they both worked in Mobil but none of them had the
influence to bring him in and make him Minister of Petroleum Resources.
Forget the nonsense about him being the junior minister because he is
the senior and junior minister in addition to being the Managing
Director of the NNPC (until recently when he was replaced. This again
confirms the arrogance of President Buhari in putting two positions
together; one purely civil service and technocratic position which is
the Group Managing Director of the NNPC and the other one which is
purely political- a minister.
What is wrong with the
President merging these portfolios in the light of the administration’s
desire to cut the cost of running government…?
Since this man became minister, there
has been nothing good coming out of the oil industry rather than
confusion, crisis and corruption. That again is an indication of the
decadence we have in this government. People who are being accused and
arrested for corruption as it should be, we are also aware that some of
these cases that the DSS is getting involved in are shady because they
have no experience whatsoever in prosecution. That is why from the
famous case of Farouk Lawal, a former member of the House of
Representatives who was involved in getting money and putting it under
his cap and what have you which was captured on camera. They arrested
that man; it was a clear cut case long before Buhari became President.
Till today, the DSS has not been able to prosecute Farouk Lawan. He is
still sitting at home; his house is about 200 metres from my house. That
shows you that when you hear that the DSS is arresting somebody for
corruption, it is clearly political and maybe there is money or
corruption involved. We also know that there are people from within the
DSS from the very top who are even threatening that they will soon
arrest the Chairman of the EFCC and the National Security Adviser.
These are serious allegations. Why would they want to do that?
The main reason is these people have
refused to cooperate with them: Mamman Daura, Abba Kyari and the DG DSS,
who is also part of the Daura cabal they want to take over the
anti-corruption war so that it will be under their hand and they can cut
deals and render the anti-corruption war useless. I know who they
propose to take over, it didn’t work. I think Buhari resisted- which is
miracle. They are now proposing somebody. The person who they proposed
was a retired DIG, he, myself and Magu (current EFCC boss) had worked in
Port Harcourt during my years in OMPADEC. Now they are thinking of a
retired Commissioner of Police. The only qualification they are looking
for is someone who can be controlled by them. This is the situation we
find ourselves.
In the light of what you have said, what would you say has changed in government?
I will put it this way, we have
exchanged one thoroughly corrupt government for one that pretends to be
honest and is doing an honest job while in reality, it is business as
usual.
…But for the first time, alleged malfeasance in the purchase of weapons is being investigated. Is this not progress?
Recently, an interim report was
submitted to President Buhari. The report had to do with the on-going
investigation of the Nigerian Army which is the primary consumer of the
money that was used to prosecute the war on Boko Haram and of course,
the Niger Delta insurgency. I have been reliably informed that the
report even though partial, has already indicted the following: General
Ihejirika and the current Chief of Army Staff, Buratai. What was strange
about the report was the fact that it was silent about General
Dambazzau who was Army Chief before all of these people. The report was
silent about his own role which goes to confirm that the Mafia or the
cabal in the Presidency consisting of the Chief of Staff, DG DSS and of
course, their godfather, Mamman Daura, have an interest in making sure
that by hook or by crook, General Dambazau is protected even though he
was supposed to come first. For some reason, the Buhari administration
which prides itself with its anti-corruption war has decided that the
report is not going to be published because he has been persuaded by the
three that publishing the report will embarrass the government. This is
very strange and at best laughable because Buhari’s first
administration in 1984 got into a lot of trouble with the media because
of Decree 2 which makes it a crime to embarrass any public office
holder. That made Buhari and his administration back then very
unpopular. These characters in the Presidency, the cabal or the mafia or
whatever you call them, are determined to make Buhari make the same
mistake again. For Buhari to ask a report not to be published because
some people in his government will be embarrassed is a very strange
manifestation of the Buhari we knew and is likely to cause a lot of
problems. In the case of Dambazau, it is clear that the years 2007-2010
are critical (to the arms probe) because these were the years when he
was supposed to be in charge but again, he is being protected by the DG
DSS and co. Nigerians demand that the interim report be made public and
that there should be no sacred cows. In any case, anything they try to
hide will be made public in due course because nothing remains
permanently secret in Nigeria, Buhari himself knows that. Others who
have been in that position also know that. In addition to what was
contained in the report as it concerns uniformed persons, we are
reliably informed that some permanent secretaries, civilians and civil
servants have been implicated and it is important for the report to be
made public for Nigerians to decide who can be trusted. When crimes are
committed, it is not only soldiers that are implicated, without the
collusion of Permanent Secretaries and others within the civilian
administration. Nigerians are watching and watching carefully and demand
that these things be made public.
Is the cabal, like you said, not working to protect the interest of the President?
No. According to very reliable sources,
the cabal in fact has a problem with the National Security Adviser and
the Chairman of the EFCC. The problem the cabal has with the NSA is not
the same they have with the acting Chairman of the EFCC. The problem
they have with the NSA has to do with what the office of the NSA and the
security establishment generally determined was going to be a danger to
the President himself. They found that the contractors supplying
aviation fuel to the Presidential fleet were actually appointed -they
are cronies to Jonathan Goodluck and his wife, Patience. And the
security services felt that retaining them under the new dispensation
would be dangerous, unhealthy and poses a direct danger to the
President, members of his family and other members of the government.
They made the determination and submitted a report to the President
through the NSA recommending that a new supplier be sourced to supply
fuel for the Presidential fleet. Buhari agreed with their
recommendations and signed off on it. He agreed with the new contractors
to supply after it was done in the process of implementation, Mamman
Daura was claimed to have said the former supplier was his friend
therefore nobody can take the contract away from them. All efforts to
explain the implications to him failed. He raised issues first; with the
NSA then with the President but he did not get his way. That was when
he raised the issue with the DG DSS on what to do with the NSA. It is
noteworthy that when Obasanjo was President, all the service chiefs
including the Inspector General of Police and the DG DSS were reporting
to Obasanjo through the NSA. That was how the system worked and no
bloody civilian ever got involved with security matters. If Nigerians
hear that there is a threat by a civilian to arrest the NSA, they should
know the reason why. Nigerians should not underestimate the danger
posed by the cabal because if Nigerians are not careful, the cabal will
inadvertently bring down the government or destroy Buhari’s reputation.
Source: Punch Newspapers
The Department of State Services has arrested one Jones Abari, aka
