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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Politics / Nepotism In Buhari’s Govt, The Worst In Nigeria’s History –junaid Muhammad. (1356 Views)
South-East Governors Are Confusionists - Junaid Muhammad / Diezani Forfeits N4.8b Abuja Houses To Govt-the Nation / Nepotism In Buhari’s Govt, The Worst In Nigeria’s History –junaid Mohammed (2) (3) (4)
Nepotism In Buhari’s Govt, The Worst In Nigeria’s History –junaid Muhammad. by olamitodotun14: 9:40am On Jul 23, 2016 |
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:
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. |
Re: Nepotism In Buhari’s Govt, The Worst In Nigeria’s History –junaid Muhammad. by Angelo45(m): 9:52am On Jul 23, 2016 |
Oboy eh Op abeg no b waec essay na |
Re: Nepotism In Buhari’s Govt, The Worst In Nigeria’s History –junaid Muhammad. by ekesimo(m): 10:27am On Jul 23, 2016 |
Ok. small small we re gathering the clues. In summary, Buhari is being controlled by northern hegemony to the detriment of Nigerians at large. Nigerians wake up! |
Re: Nepotism In Buhari’s Govt, The Worst In Nigeria’s History –junaid Muhammad. by 4wrd9ja: 10:40am On Jul 23, 2016 |
Like buhari,like tinubu,like aregbesola, na their way in apc be that ,the gullible ones will do all the hardwork and dangerous work to put them In power only to be fed with crumbs if at all. while the juicy ones are reserved for their families,not even good governance that every body can benefit from,hope the gullible ones and zombies can see that this is not about them, even their e warriors don't earn up to 40k month, so much for progressives, been deceiving people since 1999 |
Re: Nepotism In Buhari’s Govt, The Worst In Nigeria’s History –junaid Muhammad. by DIKEnaWAR: 10:52am On Jul 23, 2016 |
Some people will come and dismiss this because of their support for Buhari who does not know them. |
Re: Nepotism In Buhari’s Govt, The Worst In Nigeria’s History –junaid Muhammad. by Biafrarep(m): 12:24pm On Jul 23, 2016 |
Junaid Mohamed, a welk know Hausa bigot is even disgusted at the extent to which Buhari has taken bigotry and nepotism yet the Afonjas have continued to pretend that all is well, WHAT A SHAME!! |
Re: Nepotism In Buhari’s Govt, The Worst In Nigeria’s History –junaid Muhammad. by OKKO(m): 1:35pm On Jul 23, 2016 |
The story no get source?
My friend go search it in punch newspaper of today. For PMB I didn't expect much from him. |
Re: Nepotism In Buhari’s Govt, The Worst In Nigeria’s History –junaid Muhammad. by KomonSense: 5:12pm On Jul 23, 2016 |
If Buhari does not resign honorably, now I know this country is under serious northern bondage. I curse the north and that stupid Mamman Daura Revolution in Nigeria is now or never Just making #CommonSense |
Re: Nepotism In Buhari’s Govt, The Worst In Nigeria’s History –junaid Muhammad. by KomonSense: 5:13pm On Jul 23, 2016 |
If Buhari does not resign honorably, now I know this country is under serious northern bondage. I curse the north and that stupid Mamman Daura Revolution in Nigeria is now or never Just making #CommonSense Lalasticala this should make FP |
Re: Nepotism In Buhari’s Govt, The Worst In Nigeria’s History –junaid Muhammad. by ayemerbarth: 5:14pm On Jul 23, 2016 |
Only God can deliver us from this monster Govt who feel nothing for her people. |
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