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So Obasanjo Stinks To High Heavens By Jide Ayobolu One would not have thought that President Olusegun Obasanjo is also patently corrupt. This is a person that had carried on like Mr. Clean, even at a point he was on the board of Transparent International. In fact, when he came on board in 1999, one of the cardinal programmes of his government was the war against corruption. It was as a result of this that the ICPC and EFCC were set up to ensure that the cankerworm of corruption that has engendered the development of underdevelopment is completely eliminated from the scheme of things in the country. More than any other government in Nigeria since the attainment of political independence in 1960, the Obasanjo led government has made a lot of noise about stamping out graft from our body polity. But all of this will appear to be not more than paying lip service to the issue at stake. All the grandstanding, all the sermonizing on the pulpit, all the razzmatazz from ICPC and EFCC that are nothing but a toothless bull dog and a willing tool in the hands of the president to even up with perceived political enemies, all the foreign trips and tough talks in international for a as well as deliberate attempt to label some people as corrupt and others as clean all fall flat in the face of the facts emerging from Senate Review panel that looked into the Udoma Egba committee with a view of unearthing the real issues in the PTDF saga. After some hitches, the senate review panel on the Ad Hoc Committee Report on the PTDF submitted its report to the senate, indicting both president Obasanjo and vice president Atiku Abubakar. The committee lashed president Obasanjo for using PTDF money for the incorporation of Galaxy Backbone, purchase of computers-for-all-Nigerians Initiative and the rehabilitation of the Defence Industry Corporation of Nigeria (DICON). It also declared illegal the approval given by president Obasanjo on the restriction of PTDF funding, just as it maintained that the four accounts in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) where PTDF excess revenue are kept are illegal. Calling for the four accounts to be closed, the panel recommended that president Obasanjo and Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) boss Funsho Kupolokun should be held responsible for contravening section 1 of the PTDF Act. On PTDF money deposited in Trans International Bank (TIB) and Equatorial Trust Bank (ETB), the panel found no link between the deposits and loans granted by the banks to companies, which include MOFAS and Netlink Dgital Television, owned by Otunba Oyewole Fasawe. It declared that due process was followed in placement of $125 million and $ 20 million in bank deposits. The panel pointed out that if there was any irregularity in the banks granting the loans, they should be sanctioned by the CBN. But for approving the additional $20 million without the president’s authority, the panel recommended that vice president Atiku should be referred to the Code of Conduct Bureau. For misleading the vice president to approve the additional $ 20 million, it recommended that the EFCC should continue its investigation and prosecute, if necessary, the former Executive Secretary of PTDF, Hamidu Abubakar. After months of controversy, the truth came out recently on the real story behind the PTDF scam. Hitherto, the blame was heaped on vice president Atiku Abubakar who, understandably, was the target of the attack coming from the presidency. And the strategy was to stop him from contesting the April 21 presidential election. From the EFCC to the Senate Victor Ndoma-Egba panel, everything was done to ensure Atiku became the fall guy. And, those behind the plot almost succeeded. The Senate Umaru Tsauri Panel report was made public recently and it has changed the scenario. Now, president Obasanjo is now on the spot. This is clear vindication of vice president Atiku Abubakar’s position that if he gave any approval on transfer of funds, he got presidential order to do so. Previous panels tried to hide Obasanjo’s culpability in the use of PTDF funds funds for projects other than what the agency was set up. So, the question that comes to mind is that, what kind of investigation did the EFCC did on the PTDF saga? Why was the outcome of its investigation lopsided? Why did the EFCC not publish the various accounts of the Mofas and Marine Float Accounts publicly? Why is Nuhu Ribadu defending the President as if he is the public relations officer of Aso Rock or even the presidential spokesperson? Why did the Ndoma Egba committee report merely rubber-stamp the EFCC report? Is it true that the members of the committee were each given N25 million each as well as a plot of land each? Is this how to really fight corruption? Are those who are saying some people are corrupt, are themselves not more corrupt than those they so label? So, Obasanjo stinks to high heavens.
By
Jide Ayobolu Abuja Nigeria
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