President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, made a robust defence of the
integrity of all 36 ministers in his cabinet challenging anyone with a
contrary view to present evidence against such a minister.
Speaking
in his first media chat, the president said the first gains of the war
against corruption would become evident by the end of March, next year,
even as he accused erstwhile National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo
Dasuki (retd.) of having allegedly committed atrocities against Nigeria
through reckless disbursement of billions of government funds.
The
president made his first dismissal of the agitation for Biafra stating
that Igbo were in strategic position in the cabinet including holding
the petroleum and labour portfolios besides the stewardship of the
Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
President Buhari also assured of
the administration’s readiness to implement the N5,000 monthly transfer
to vulnerable Nigerians even as he said the campaign promise did not
emanate from him but from his then running mate, Vice-President Yemi
Osinbajo. He also frowned at the allocation of N47.7 billion for the
purchase of vehicles by the National Assembly even after the lawmakers
had collected car loans from the government.
The president, who
expressed his readiness to negotiate with any credible leadership of the
Boko Haram sect for the release of the kidnapped Chibok girls also
disclosed his readiness to consider a ban on the use of hijab should the
trend of bombing through young veiled girls continue.
Noting the
dire economic conditions facing the country, President Buhari was,
nevertheless, against the immediate devaluation of the naira even as he
revealed that N1.5 trillion had been recovered into the federation
account through the implementation of the Treasury Single Account.
The
president also spoke on the fate of the Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ibraheem
El-Zakzaky, saying that he had allowed the Kaduna State government and
the military authorities to take the lead in the investigations. He
affirmed that the cleric had over time overstepped his bounds to the
distress of the communities he lived.
On the panel that
interviewed the president yesterday were Kayode Akintemi, Channels TV;
Dr. Ngozi Anyaegbulam, Media World International; Munir Dan Ali, Daily
Trust and Ibanga Isine, Premium Times.
On the ministers“I
don’t think I tolerate corruption, I don’t think I picked anybody that I
know will embarrass my government. But if you have any evidence about
any of my ministers, I accept responsibility for the 36 ministers that I
have.
“I don’t think I took anybody among the ministers who has
got a case in court. Tell me one out of the 36. I don’t think I will
deliberately make that mistake.”
Asked if he would sack any of the ministers if he or she is charged to court for corruption, he said:
“No, I will insist that the case go through the courts.”
On
the location and condition of the Chibok girls, he said he would be
prepared to negotiate with credible elements in the Boko Haram
leadership if there is precise intelligence that could help return the
girls to their parents. He, however, affirmed that presently he did not
superior intelligence on the fate of the girls.
“We are still
keeping our options open. If a credible leadership of Boko Haram can be
established and they tell us where those girls are, we are prepared to
negotiate with them without any pre-condition. This we have made
absolutely clear. But while they are keeping the Chibok girls, they must
not get away with the idea that we will not attempt to secure the rest
of Nigeria.
“We have no firm intelligence on where they are
physically and what condition they are in. But what we believe from our
intelligence, they keep taking the girls around, they are not keeping
all the girls in one place, we don’t know how many divisions they made
of them and where they are.
On the crisis in Kaduna involving followers of the Shite leader, Sheikh El-Zakzaky, he said:“I
expect the Kaduna State Government to set up a judicial inquiry because
it happened in Kaduna, in one of the cities and it has been there for
the last twenty years from what I have been reading from papers. They
will occupy a federal highway, sometimes from Kano to Kaduna. This is
what I heard.
“We have a system of investigation, the military
that was involved too have a tradition of investigation and I am the
head of the federal government, I have to wait for the official report
before I can come out as head of the federal government and make a
statement. So I am allowing the Army and the Kaduna State government to
submit their report of inquiry. Meanwhile it does not mean that the
police, the SSS and other directorate involved are not doing their own
part of constitutional role.
Frowning at the activities of the group, he said:
“Unfortunately
it is very serious. How can any group proclaim statehood in a state? I
don’t want to speak about it in details now, I better leave it still
after the report of the inquiry but there are a number of clips I saw,
where some excited teenagers were visually hitting the chest of a
general, mounting road blocks and threatening them with missiles.
On
the contentious issue of subsidy, the president said that by the end of
the next quarter that there would be no more talk about subsidy in the
price of petroleum.
N5,000 monthly stipend for the less privileged“When
my VP was quoted, how can I come here and disown it? First, I believe
in getting facts, how many are involved? How are we going to do it? Is
it state by state or geo-political zone by geo-political zone? In trying
to get the bottom of the problem, a lot of work has to be done and if
it is undertaken, we have to look at it very well.”
On Dasuki, Kanu and othersAsked
on the alleged flouting of court orders by the state on the issue of
Dasuki and detained Biafran agitator, Nnamdi Kanu, he said:
“Technically,
if you see the kind of atrocities those people committed, if they jump
bail? I am sorry to say this publicly…the former president just wrote to
the governor of the CBN and said give N40 billion to someone while you
have two million Internally Displaced Persons, what kind of country do
you want to run?
“The one you called Kanu, do you know he has two
passports? One Nigerian, one British and he came to this country
without using any passport? Do you know that he brought sophisticated
equipment into this country and started broadcasting for Radio Biafra?
There is a treasonable charge against him and I hope the court will
listen to the case.
Biafra and marginalisation of Ndigbo“They
say they are marginalised but they have not defined the extent of
marginalisation. Who is marginalising them? Where? Do you know? Choosing
a minister is not a matter of ethnicity, it is a matter of the
constitution. I am limited by what the constitution says that there must
be a member of the executive council from each state. There is a lot of
partisan politics in it. Who is the Minister of State for Petroleum? Is
he not an Igbo? Who is the governor of the CBN? Is he not an Igbo? Who
is the Minister of Labour? Who is the Minister of Science and
Technology? What do they want? I stood elections and I won, I am limited
by the constitution, I have a member of every state in the Federal
Executive Council and I have to listen to them when I sit as chairman.
That is the limit the constitution gave me”.
Asked if he would
consider banning the use of hijab in the face of the continued use of
veiled girls in suicide missions in the Northeast, the president said:
“Placing
ban on hijab is not enough. However, if this continues it will be
banned. Because it is for the safety of the people generally.”