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 others
Asked 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.”
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