Honourable Uzoma Nkem Abonta, a house of representatives member representing Ukwa-east/West federal constituency of Abia state has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to publish the handover notes from former President Goodluck Jonathan’s government even as he tackles corruption regardless of political affiliations.
The three-term national legislator, who is a Peoples Democratic Party member, emphasized the need for the document to be made public, saying such would properly guide Nigerians in comparing governance outcomes between Buhari’s administration and that of Jonathan.
In an interview published by Leadership, Abonta, also opined that president Jonathan’s loss at the last presidential elections was due to the hand of God and the internal wranglings in the Party.
He said: “Jonathan did not emerge in the election, not that he lost. In his humility and all what not, he said, “I will go” and he left. A lot of factors, contributed to Jonathan not being re-elected, one of which I’ll take to be the hand of God so that Nigeria may be preserved. Two, the activities of the PDP within PDP did not help matters.
“Those people who won elections in the APC, are they not PDP members? Are some of them not people denied tickets in PDP and they went to APC and won? Therefore, lack of intra-party democracy and high-handedness in the PDP helped APC. The problem in PDP was the gain of APC. When I hear that PDP ran this country for 16 years and messed it up, I laugh because some of the people saying it spent eight years if not more in the PDP. Nigerian politicians would always chase the ambulance; they would follow where the goodies are. But I make bold to tell you that APC will not bring any change if PDP is not watching them.”
On the fate of the south-east and south-south geopolitical zones in terms of appointment since they were the zones where president Buhari garnered the least votes in the last elections, Abonta said Buhari should be guided by the federal character principle.
Abonya said:“The South-east and the South-south may not have given the president plenty of votes, but in terms of appointment, President Buhari may be guided and must be guided by the federal character principle. Be that as it may, we know he would reward party loyalists; we know he may reward those who worked for him, and be compelled to give the very juicy positions to his key men, more so to guarantee his success and avoid sabotage.
“But he cannot leave out these zones in appointments. The West that gave him plenty of votes has also gotten nothing. The appointments he made with the service chiefs, he told us well ahead that they were made based on their records. And I want to agree with him partially though. If you look at the hierarchy of soldiers, for every 20 Northern generals, you may get one Easterner who may also be a junior officer. Things are tilted to that side until there is a balance in the recruitment process based on equality of states. We can pretend to excuse the president on that until he makes further appointments. If he now wants to appointment professors, we expect that the North would be disadvantaged.”
The federal lawmaker also pledged his support of the president’s anti-corruption crusade saying the president must start somewhere regardless of party connections.
“We are all supportive of the anti-corruption crusade from the president. He must start somewhere. Mr President himself has also said that if there is any APC person that is corrupt, such a person will not go free. We are watching. By the time he makes the list of corrupt people he got from abroad open, we will ask why is he after A and not B, and where they belong to.
” Those he is chasing now, we are also told, have cases to answer. I don’t think Buhari is a magician. I am not holding forte for him. I am a PDP member but he can only know who is corrupt or not based on reports given to him. He has said, “I won’t go beyond Goodluck.” Not going beyond Goodluck is probably to take a chunk he can finish. If doing Goodluck would lead to doing beyond Goodluck, he should do it,” he said.
On statement credited to the APC spokesman, Lai Mohammad that Buhari has achieved more in his few weeks in power than Jonathan did in four years, Abonta said there was no basis for comparison.
“There was one debate I watched on Channels TV between Lai Mohammed and one civil society person on this claim recently. He man humbled Lai Mohammed. He made him realise that he was talking what was not based on facts. How can you say Buhari’s two months’ achievement surpass somebody’s six years? I am not about to judge Buhari, I am only praying for him. Like Tinubu said, he needs 100 days of honeymoon. He needs three months to settle down, to put things together and chart a course. Anyone judging him now doesn’t wish him well. He may be slow, but steady. He should not be too slow.
“How can Lai Mohammed say, the refineries are working under Buhari? That man asked him, how many turn-around maintenance contracts have your government signed to be able to revive the refineries. I also know that there is no turn-around maintenance that would last less than two months. Has Buhari even spent three months in office? Someone builds a storey building, roofs it, puts the glasses and all what not and another person just painted and opened the door for tenants to come in; who built the house? If we see the handover notes, we will see whether it touched on the refineries and what were Jonathan’s achievements and failures.
“But what I know is that the fear of Buhari is beginning to restructure things. The fear of Buhari with the anti-corruption crusade is making evil (civil) servants to behave normal. If you say Buhari has improved the power supply, the GENCOS and DISCOS have not added any other new contract or injected more funds into their operations, because they still have no funds,” Abonta affirmed.
President Buhari’s anti-corruption posture has started gaining momentum. The nation’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has suddenly woken up to its responsibilities, inviting and questioning top politician with corruption cases.
The main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, has accused the President of witch-hunting saying that most allegedly corrupt officials in the All Progressives Congress are not being questioned or investigated.
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