Former Kaduna State Military Governor, Col. Abubakar Umar (rtd) yesterday challenged President Goodluck Jonathan to prosecute former President Olusegun Obasanjo and all those indicted in the on-going Senate probe of the privatisation process.

Col. Umar, in a statement made available to The Nation in Kaduna, said it will be a disservice to the nation to leave those indicted unprosecuted.

He said: “The Federal Government owes it to posterity to order for an investigation into these disasters immediately and not to wait a day longer. To wait until Chief Obasanjo might have died … would expose it to charges of wickedness. When that happens, it would have no coherent defence.”

In the statement entitled “Do It Now”, Umar said: “It is up to the officials of the sold ALSCON, Delta Steel, Ajaokuta, NICON Insurance, Nigeria Re etc at insignificant fractions of their true values to convince the courts that they were motivated by a desire to help the motherland and not some other deity.

“If the Federal Government comes round to appointing judicial commissions to enquire into some of the other scandals that had beset public policy implementation over the recent past, Nigerians would surely be happy to help.

“Indeed not a few Nigerians are keen to know why all the major initiatives embarked upon during the eight years Chief Obasanjo had ruled the country – privatization, power sector reforms, alienation of Federal Government Properties, 2003 general elections, 2007 general elections etc; have been such spectacular failures.”

He added: “Even  for a people long used to the shenanigans of bureaucrats and the frequent scandals within government, the revelations from the just concluded Senate hearings into the implementation of the privatisation programme since 1999, have left many Nigerians sick with outrage.

“The shock comes not from hearing that mistakes have been made but from the fact that the mistakes were probably the result of widespread conspiracy. Even more telling is the attempt by some of the officials to obfuscate the issues, believing obviously that the public lacks the capacity to tell an honest mistake from a swindle when they see one.

“No matter how hard they tried to sound civil and non alarmist, witness after witness that has come before the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee ended up giving evidence that showed our privatization project is all but a fool’s errand.

“Almost without exception, the witnesses stressed one recurring issue: that implementation of the privatisation scheme since 1999 has been characterised by bad faith, depredation, embezzlement, fraud, swindle and, at times, outright theft by officials and clients alike.

“Often, the details cited are truly horrendous. But, let’s face it: much of it are hardly new. Over the years, many public policy analysts, newspaper columnists, NGO’s and a host of whistle blowers had suspected mischief and have made spirited efforts to persuade the Federal Government investigate the privatisation process.

“The Senate should therefore be commended for responding to this outcry even at this late hour. One would earnestly hope that the exercise is not one of the usual gimmicks designed to douse public agitations. For the sake of the present and future generations of our countrymen, this is one enquiry which needs to be carried out to its logical conclusion”.

Justifying the privatisation exercise, Col. Umar said “let this be said quickly, however: the case for privatisation and perhaps commercialisation of certain public enterprises has been well made.

“No attempt should be made within or outside the government to reverse or abandon it due to these lapses terrible as they are.”

We say this not because of the charges often made by some people, mainly chambers of commerce, that government has no business in business.

“It is because experience has shown that public interest is better served and economic development proceeds faster where government devotes most of their energies towards creating and sustaining an enabling environment.”


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