Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State says there was massive looting
of the commonwealth during the administration of former President
Goodluck Jonathan.
The Governor said while he was in no position to determine if the former
President was personally guilty, or if he acquiesced to the looting, but as
President, he must take responsibility for what happened under his watch.
Jonathan and
Oshiomhole
Jonathan and Oshiomhole
In an interview with Sahara Reporters TV in Washington DC, Governor
Oshiomhole also said although he had raised many questions on the
tenure of the former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the
Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, he has nothing personal against her.
He said: “what is obvious is that so much money was diverted and
unaccounted for from government treasury. Not just from excess crude
account, but also from other agencies of government. The numbers are
huge.
For example, NNPC reports that they earned about N8 trillion within three
to four years and over the same period, they claimed they spent N3.5
trillion and paid to the federation account about N4.1 trillion.
So the cost of running NNPC was as much as the cost of running the
federation, both the Federal, State and local governments. So that tells you
the amount of primitive stealing that went on. The numbers are mind-
boggling. So when we talk of Excess crude, that is just one element.”
He said his grouse with Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was that as Coordinating
Minister of the Economy, so much sleaze and malfeasance went on under
her watch without raising an alarm, saying “she has to come clean. Having
accepted the role of the Coordinating Minister, so many things went wrong
with the Nigerian economy even to the extent that for the first time in our
history, even the Federal Government could not pay salary, they had to
borrow. The pension scheme has been drawn down, the social purpose of
the pension scheme has now been defeated.
“So first of all we are saying, accept responsibility that you failed to
manage the economy properly. Two, you never gave in even when we
argued that the economy was in distress she was on record as always
saying no, the economy was fine, the economy was strong, we are the
largest economy on the continent. Of course, people are not fooled, just
revaluing your assets and playing with the numbers. What has changed in
the quality of life of the people? You have rebased the economy, have you
rebased the quality of life? You haven’t!
“If you claim to have the largest economy, you can’t also plead insolvency
at the same time. What we are simply asking her to do is to open the
whole book. What the council has asked us to do is, the Committee of Four
Governors is to just look at this excess crude thing, and show what went
in, who took what, when and who authorized it. So at least we have a
basis to start. But I think, going forward, we will need a forensic audit by
competent auditors to look at the books so that the whole truth can be
known even if we can’t retrieve some of the money but I believe a lot can
be retrieved and it is good that we have a basis to identify who is
responsible and who to be blamed.
“I think people need to recognize that from my own background, I am never
intimidated. As a labor leader, I questioned authority, I interrogated power
and the fact of being in government doesn’t give me much comfort as to
be indifferent about gross abuse of power and criminal diversion of funds.
What should I hate her for? What for? I am not a federal official, I am as
privileged as any other governor but I am troubled by people saying one
thing in the afternoon and doing another at night.
“People should ask the question, how come each time the issue of
corruption and abuse or diversion of funds was raised, Minister Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala was the first to defend rather than show concern and have
open mind. You remember when the CBN Governor whom you can’t
dismiss talked about huge billions of dollars diverted, Ngozi was quick to
say no, it is not $20billion, it is only $10.8 billion.
“Even that was offensive to good conscience and then later she said we
are going to do forensic audit, NNPC books have not been audited. How
could she preside over an economy in which the main player such as
NNPC was not, as a matter of course, carrying out annual audit? Why
should that happen under her watch? A lot of funds accruing to
institutions like NIMASA were diverted. Why should that happen under her
watch? Contracts were awarded without any bidding.
“If people say there was too much corruption in Nigeria, who was presiding
over the economy? She is not on record as having raised any alarm on
abuse of office. So there is nothing personal about it. If anything I
consider her a friend but she knows that my friendship is subordinated to
the bigger national interest. What do I stand to gain? I could as well play
along, keep quiet, be a good guy but I will rather be a good guy to my
conscience, not to any body’s face.
“So the truth is, she should answer the questions. She was reported to
have said that because she didn’t approve the loan the Governor wanted to
take to pay contractors and I said very good, I wanted to borrow money to
pay contractors, not to pay workers but she was borrowing money to pay
salaries but I have never borrowed money to pay salaries, I am up-to-date
with the payment of salaries.
“So I am not grumbling because I am frustrated, I am making a point
because that is the truth. She is not entitled to claim an honor that she
doesn’t deserve in the face of these huge numbers that cannot be
accounted for. I believe the President is quietly doing some works to
determine what went wrong in the rot that he inherited, to determine who
is responsible for what.
“When these numbers begin to come out, I will expect the minister to
explain how she can claim to have been a successful Coordinating
Minister of the Economy yet the economy suffered so much bleeding and
diversion of funds.
“Here in Washington, everybody is talking about billions of dollars of
Nigeria crude money that was taken. How could you supervise an
economy, you are cooking the soup, the elephant leg is being stolen and
you didn’t raise an alarm. People raised an alarm and you shut them up.
So I think Nigerians should move away from sentiments. I have even heard
people saying it is ethnic issues. It is the typical Nigerian issue when a
public officer has no explanation, he seeks escape route by bringing in
sentiments of ethnicity and religion.
“For people like me, that doesn’t disturb me at all. I am a union man, I
have always interrogated power and when I was in the NLC, I challenged
some of our policies. So she knows where I stand. I would rather be
known for something that be known for nothing.
“On the issue of PMB decision to probe the immediate past administration
of GEJ, Oshiomhole said, “I don’t think probe is the right word. For a
President whose major campaign was hinged on ‘if we don’t kill
corruption, corruption will kill us’, it is only natural that he recovers what
was stolen and I think it is only patriotic that we do that.
“More also when you inherited huge debts and you will be devoting huge
resources to service those debts. If we recovered money from Abacha
government even after his death, why should anybody ask questions if
indeed he should probe.
“I don’t think it is about probing. Probe means investigating what is not
obvious but when you can see a thief stealing and you can arrest him, ask
him and recover what has been stolen, that is not probe. Probe is like
finding what is not clear, it is so clear that so much money was diverted
even we were told we are losing 400 thousand barrels a day. How can that
happen? Yes we have always had issues of illegal bunkering but then you
talk of 10 thousand or 20 thousand barrels. How can anybody explain
400,000 barrels consistently for 2, 3 consecutive years and incidentally,
this is the time that the government gave out contracts to people to
protect the pipelines and huge sums of money was paid. So you are asking
yourself, how come during the previous government under Yar’Adua, even
at the peak of militancy, we didn’t suffer this huge demurrage.
“I think it is not about choice for President Buhari whether or not to
recover what has been taken. I think he is obliged to do it in the national
interest. I don’t see how he can shy away from it because it is like seeing
something stolen from your household and you refuse to recover it; you
can see the thief, and sometimes you even can see the stolen goods.
“A lot of stealing went on under President Goodluck Jonathan’s watch,
there is no question about that but as for his own personal level of guilt, it
is not for me to say. But every President, just like every Governor or Local
Government Chairman must accept responsibility for whatever happened
under his watch. Leadership is about responsibility ".
source : http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/07/there-was-primitive-looting-under-jonathan-oshiomhole/

Ok!
Let us learn HI-TECH Lootocracy from "congo-meat-BABA"!

Ugly MOFO!

Ramblings from a demented fool!

Short oriakpo aka sharp mouth. E for no even dey pain me if say sence de dey he talk. He go use edo money marry whitey ,why won't he misbehave?

this what i heat pass u they with jona back then y u no tell am. cat jump ship u no get shame

Fleshly:
Ramblings from a demented fool!

ethnic sentiments is surely a disease to some people of a certain area. You mean to tell me that you are not alarmed that someone is looting your future?. The sore losers still haven't gotten over this past election? ?? At least it wasn't a Yoruba governor that made the comment .EVEN if it's my own father that stole from Nigeria , he must be probed. That's the idea......Buhari should just forget this region,nothing will change their ethnic bitterness. Their combined voted is like 20% of all total votes anyway.

Is he not ashamed of himself, to carry that prostitute and call her wife, with all the public funds for marriage and her care? He like almost all the other governors are not paying their workers and instead supporting an old coupist to continue the business as usual for the ni.gga area ZOO

This dwarf spewing trash again. Lala is really giving him high dosage lately

The people above me with their bad mouth eh

azzima:
ethnic sentiments is surely a disease to some people of a certain area. You mean to tell me that you are not alarmed that someone is looting your future?. The sore losers still haven't gotten over this past election? ?? At least it wasn't a Yoruba governor that made the comment .EVEN if it's my own father that stole from Nigeria , he must be probed. That's the idea......Buhari should just forget this region,nothing will change their ethnic bitterness. Their combined voted is like 20% of all total votes anyway.

If I call you a fool, or an Idiat, you will shout ethnic sentiment!
when will you have sense, you son of a ....,
So I should be alarmed because one mouth diarrhea is making spurious allegations, that have everything but honesty.

just receive sense!

Edo lost money under Jonathan cos of corruption,we agree o yet u took the remaining funds to lure and marry a beautiful foreign lady which we all know will never agree for you if not for that money.God is watching you

mensdept:
Is he not ashamed of himself, to carry that prostitute and call her wife, with all the public funds for marriage and her care? He like almost all the other governors are not paying their workers and instead supporting an old coupist to continue the business as usual for the ni.gga area ZOO

You are nothing but a phool and will almost certainly continue to languish in poverty

Demented goat

What has his wife got to do with pertinent questions he is asking about the obvious looting that went on in the past govt that he has every right to demand

You foolishly mentioned he hasn't been able to pay his workers but ignorantly failed to connect the fact their current inability to fund their recurrent expenditures largeley has something to do with the brazen looting that went on in the past administration

Fleshly:


If I call you a fool, or an Idiat, you will shout ethnic sentiment!
when will you have sense, you son of a ....,
So I should be alarmed because one mouth diarrhea is making spurious allegations, that have everything but honesty.

just receive sense!

Should we be disregarding the allegations even though his concerns seems legitimate?

Should we ignore all indicators that suggest we are broke as a nation despite the massive oil prices during the last administration?

We should be asking questions and demanding accountability for us to have any chance of prosperity

I guess oshiomole is the new finance minister, because any allegation concerning missing funds comes from him all the time...SMH

jaybee3:


Should we disregarding the allegations even though his concerns seems legitimate?

Should we ignore all indicators that suggest we are broke as a nation despite the massive oil prices during the last administration?

We should be asking questions and demanding accountability for us to have any chance of prosperity

We shouldn't infact those responsible for the "thiefery" should jailed and their loot recovered, but to be candid with you oshiomole, is beginning to sound like a broken record on this issue...


I would rather prefer less talk and more action on the issue of corruption, and whoever wants to scream witch hunt should be screaming witch hunt for all i care...IMHO

Oshiomole should stop talking as if he has oral diarrhea and back up his claims with evidence.
I have never seen where a ruling party keeps on playing opposition after winning.

fitzmayowa:


We shouldn't infact those responsible for the "thiefery" should jailed and their loot recovered, but to be candid with you oshiomole, is beginning to sound like a broken record on this issue...


I would rather prefer less talk and more action on the issue of corruption, and whoever wants to scream witch hunt should be screaming witch hunt for all i care...IMHO

I also prefer the action since he has already raised the awareness.
However, his continous utterances on the subject matter is simply because he (alongside el rufai and one other northern governor that was once AGF ) is part of the committe set up by the president to look into the discrepancies surrounding the ECA account.
He also has to continuously defend himself as some part of the media is already making it seem like a witch hunt against the almight NOI.

Nigeria is fu.cked with this type of mindset her youth has. They will soon come over here to talk about how there are no jobs in that shit hole country. When I read some comments on nairaland I weep for that county. You all deserve what you get.

Benin city has not improved much.
All this charity should begin at home.

GEJ impunity must be probed based on the information coming after his exit!!

Everyone knows that & that's why he was booted out of office

Still wondering where he gets his data from


Maybe na for bedroom he forms all this story with his foreign bride

The only time Oshiomhole made headline was "the Go and Die saga" so Where was he during Jonathan's admin?