SINCE the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari, one word that has literally remained a recurring decimal is ‘Probe’. From the inception of his administration, he did not hide his determination to make those who had shortchanged Nigerians to account for their misdeeds. For many, it did not come as a surprise when President Buhari said he would probe the admin­ istration of his predecessor, Dr Gooduck Jonathan. During the 2015 electioneering campaign, President Buhari had assured that his government would be interested in looking at the past administration and immediately after the March 28 presidential election, there were calls in several quarters for him to probe Jonathan’s five-year tenure. So, given the anti-corruption stance of the President, many are in agreement on the need for him to beam his searchlight on previous administrations in the country. The thinking of those in this school of thought is for the government to have a holistic approach in the fight against corruption. However, in all of these, what came as a surprise to many was the declaration by the federal government that the probe will be restricted only to the immediate past administration headed by Dr Jonathan. The Presidency had in a statement issued by presidential spokesman, Mr Femi Adesina stated that the new administration will only probe its predecessor. Adesina, who is the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity had stated that: “If you recall, that was already settled before he got inaugurated as president. He has said he will not waste time digging into the far past. “The far past includes Obasanjo and others. But the president has said he will not waste time to go that far.” Since the government declared its stance on the probe of Jonathan’s administration, there have been a flurry of reactions, with various stakeholders taking divergent stands on the issues. While a school of thought, especially members of the ruing All Progressives Congress (APC) think there is nothing wrong in probing only the Jonathan administration, another school of thought says the government must be able to draw a line between a probe and a witch-hunt. Those in this school of thought believe that limiting the probe to Jonathan will be nothing but a witch hunt and Dr Jonathan corroborated their position in one of his speeches after the election. Many insist that Buhari should extend the probe as far back as 1985, when he was ousted by General Ibrahim Babangida in a coup d’etat or at least begin his probe from the inception of the current democratic dispensation in 1999. Since 1984 when the Buhari military junta was toppled, seven persons have ruled Nigeria. They include: Babangida, Ernest Shonekan, Sani Abacha, Abdusalami Abubakar, Olusegun Obasanjo, Musa Yar’Adua and Jonathan. Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan governed the country from 1999 to May 29, 2015. It is almost a national consensus that those who piloted the affairs of previous governments in the country have lots of questions to answer about the way and manner they managed the nation’s resources. That being the case, many wonder why President Buhari would be interested in probing five years of Jonathan and leave out eight years of Obasanjo and barely three years of late Yar’Adua. Some people also wonder why President Buhari would ignore the military regimes which succeeded him as head of state, especially as those periods have been variously described as the years of the locust. Although the Jonathan administration had been described as “ very corrupt”, with some of his ministers accused of corruptly enriching themselves, analysts argue that the same charge has also been made against past administrations, particularly the Obasanjo-led government. In fact, former Abia State governor, Orji Uzor Kalu had in a letter to Obasanjo dated September 25, 2005 catalogued corrupt practices under his administra­ tion. Kalu in that letter had said the following among others: “The Abuja National Stadium, why was the original design for the stadium which had a five star hotel and which contract was won by a Chinese firm discarded and re-awarded to another foreign construction company based in Nigeria without the component of a five star hotel but at five times the price originally quoted by the Chinese firm? There is unquestionable evidence at my disposal pointing to the fact that mega corruption lies at the base of this dramatic turnabout. “Why have the operations of the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) remained so murky? Who collected the commissions for the sale of Ajaokuta Steel Company and Delta Steel Rolling Mill, Aladja? To what degree would you, Mr President, defend those transactions as transparent? “Why have you found it difficult, Your Excellency, to probe the activities of the Federal Ministry of Works in spite of my subsisting allegation that the ministry stinks? It is an open secret that the operations of the ministry between 1999 and 2003 were mired in monumental fraud. “The most pressing question I wish to put to you, Sir, revolves around your long tenure as Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum Resources since 1999. Why has there not been a properly audited account of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources since then despite the outcries by the people for this to be done? There is indisputable evidence that all the major deals in the nation’s oil sector are being handled by you, through your cronies and agents. What about the leakages and the fraud at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), with particular reference to crude oil sales and the accrued commissions? What have you done to check the malfeasance?” Analysts believe that any meaningful probe of past administrations by President Buhari must include the Obasanjo and Yar’Adua era, if the president is not interested in what happened during the military regimes. This is because there are still unexplained issues about the Obasanjo years. There is the issue of $180million Halliburton bribery scam, $16million power project of the Obasanjo administration and many others. The Lead Director of Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), Eze Oyekpere agrees that there is need for probe administrations by Buhari to be all embracing. He told journalists recently that there are a lot of things that happened before Jonathan that the government equally needs to beam searchlight on. “ For instance, the Halliburton issue, the Siemens scandal did not just come up under the last administration. And those things are too recent for us to forget them. So, I believe that he (Buhari) shouldn’t simply draw a line and say it is going to be from 2011 or from 2010, no. “He should go back a little bit, even the power scandal that involves an expenditure of over $15bn where we can’t see the results up till today. He should go back a little bit, it shouldn’t be about Jonathan’s administration viz-a-viz PDP, APC, no. It should have been about our national interest and some of these issues are too recent in our memories for us to sweep them under the carpet.” Even the man in the eyes of the storm, former President Jonathan would want the government to look beyond his administration if it must do any probe. Prior to his exit from office, the former president had counseled his successor not to single him out for probe, noting that those advising Buhari to probe him, must equally advise him to probe others before him. According to the former president, “Some people are even calling for the probe of this government. I agree that in Nigeria, there are a number of things that we will probe, very many things. “Even debts owed by states and this nation from 1960 up to this time, they are saying it is Jonathan’s administration that owes all the debts. “I believe that anybody calling for probe must ensure that these probes are extended beyond the Jonathan administration, otherwise to me, it will be a witch- hunt.” He added: “If you are very sincere, then it is not just the Jonathan’s administration that should be probed. A number of things have gone wrong and we have done our best to fix them. The Attorney-General is aware of massive judgment debts, if we aggregate all of them, it is about $1bn. “How did we come to this kind of huge judgment debts? These issues should be probed. “How do you allocate our oil wells, oil fields, marginal wells and others? Do we follow our laws? All these should be probed. I believe all these and many more areas should be looked into.” Elders stateman and Second Republic politician, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai agrees with Jonathan. He said the Buhari probe should begin from 1975, noting that the only administration that should be exempted from the probe are those that have been investigated before now. Yakassai told Daily Sun in a recent interview that:” The administration of Gowon had been investigated by Obasanjo and the administration of Alhaji Shehu Shagari was investigated by General Buhari when he took over power. The administration of Sani Abacha, one way or the other had been investigated and a lot of money had been recovered. But so far, we can say that the only administrations that have not be investigated are Murtala\Obasanjo, the Buhari administration, Babangida and the Abdulsalami administrations. And I think that if we are going to deal with the root of corruption as a deterrent against the future, then we should spare nobody and have no limitation of time.” He says anything short of that will be sending a very wrong signal about the anti-corruption war of the government. So, as Nigerians await the commencement of the probe, the question begging for answer is should an administration that is desirous of cleaning the Augean stable ignore the glaring infractions of the past, because it would be time consuming.
http://sunnewsonline.com/new/probe-of-controversies/

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