Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itse Sagay, has revealed why President Muhammadu Buhari cannot prosecute former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan.
The federal government led by Mr. Buhari of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has always complained of the misrule it met in power, blaming the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The PDP until 2015 had been at the helm of affairs in the country and has produced three presidents, Obasanjo and Jonathan who are still alive and late Umaru Musa Yar’adua since the return to democracy in 1999.
The incumbent government had from the day of its inuaguration been blaming its predecessors of misrule but some Nigerians are calling for the prosecution of the former leaders if so much looting was carried out under their regimes instead of recurrent lamentation.
But in an interview with The Punch, Sagay disclosed that the nation was not ripe for such hence the former leaders could not be tried.
“Speaking from a peripheral level, unlike in South Africa, Brazil, and other countries, we don’t have a history or culture in this country of prosecuting our former presidents. It will take a long time, when we’ve developed and become more mature, to do that kind of thing. Right now, if you touch a former president, the storm that it will bring will be so diversionary and disturbing that it will affect your capacity to do positive things for the citizens. In my own thinking, you have to leave them alone and go for those who carried out the act of looting,” Sagay was quoted by the paper.
He also said there should be media trial for looters who amassed wealth illegally from the nation’s treasury.
Looters need to be tired in the media so that people will know how they got their wealth and shame them should they appear in public.
He stated this while reacting to claims by former president Olusegun Obasanjo that the current administration was just making noise about the war against corruption.
“I don’t agree with him. Noise should be made because you cannot reduce us to this level of poverty and wretchedness and think the government will continue to hide your name from the public. Even if a person has yet to be convicted, let them be subjected to the odium of public contempt so that when you see his child driving a Rolls Royce, you should be able to point at him and say, ‘That’s a car bought with our stolen treasury that you are driving.’ I support media trial; let the looters be tried in the press. If they feel there is anything wrong with it, let them sue the government; they have the right to sue if they didn’t steal.”
When asked what will happen to the reputation of the alleged looters soiled due to the media trial if they are eventually found to be innocent, Sagay could not give a straight answer.
He said: “Why there should be media trial is that it’s not every corrupt person that will be convicted. Therefore, something should be done to mark them so that when they appear in public, everybody will know and say, ‘Here is another looter who is not in prison!’”
He also noted why the looters’ lists contained names of mostly members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“…I am not surprised that the list contains mostly the PDP members because they were the ones in charge of our common wealth before the APC came in. APC wasn’t the party in charge of our common wealth before.”
When asked what the fate of those perceived to be corrupt who left the PDP for APC citing a former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro who was alleged to have taken part in the same $2.1bn arms scam that led to the inclusion of PDP members on the looters’ list as an example, he said he didn’t know why Obanikoro’s name was omitted.
Sagay noted that the government is going to publish name of 55 persons it said allegedly looted N1.34tn under the Jonathan regime and that the list includes former governors, ministers, bankers and so on, noting that the expected list is another one entirely.
The PACAC chairman also said looting of public funds was still ongoing at the national assembly through budget padding.
He said the implementation of treasury single account (TSA) by the Buhari administration has shown that country is making trillions of naira that “nobody knew about.”
“Nobody is sharing any money again — but perhaps at the national assembly looting is still ongoing due to budget padding. Some sharing may be going on at that level, but at the executive level, I can assure you that no sharing is going on.
“Remember, we have the treasury single account, though initiated by the Jonathan administration, but never implemented. The TSA has revealed the trillions of Naira that this country had been making but which nobody knew about.”
Professor Sagay…If this is what you really think for non prosecution of Obasanjo et al and Jonathan et al, then, no wonder Nigeria is a mess and corruption cannot be stamped out. That we do not have a history of prosecuting former leaders is not a reason at all. If that is the case, then I have a couple of questions for you:
1. Why then do we have the clause in the constitution, that for crimes committed while in office, certain leaders -president, vice president, and deputies- get immunity from prosecution until they leave office?
2. If we do not have the history of prosecuting past criminal leaders, such as Brazil, Peru, South Korea, etc. then, when do we start?
Because your assertion Sir is absolutely horrible for a country that is embroiled with this kind of looting and corruption.
President Buhari cannot and does not have the temerity to prosecute Obasanjo and Jonathan because he himself is embroiled in so much corruption from Nasarawa to Nembe. Have you forgotten the PTF debacle when Buhari was in charge? Have you forgotten the on-going Maina issue? Right now, this president may face impeachment because he did not prior authorization from the senate to withdraw and pay $469 million for military for US aircrafts. But the main issue is that they withdrew too much money for somethings that cost $122 million. President Buhari cannot prosecute former presidents Obasanjo or Jonathan (or any other person in that category) because it will be so much of hypocrisy. Would he also go after former head of state Babangida? How about the former vice president under Obasanjo (Abubakar Atiku) and others? The list can go on and on.
If we do not have such a history of prosecuting former leaders…we should start now! Because Professor Sagay, when it comes to fighting any form of corruption in Nigeria, President Buhari is the not the one to do it; he is conflicted.