Abdulsalami Abubakar has called on Nigerians to support
Buhari’s anti-corruption war.
Former head of state, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd)
says President Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade is neither
sectional nor selective as some Nigerians were claiming.
Abdulsalami, speaking at the 2016 summit of the
Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN) in
Abuja on Tuesday, July 26, also called on Nigerians to
support the current effort of the federal government to
fight corruption in public service.
According to Leadership, he said Nigerians were not
sincere enough about the anti-corruption campaign,
adding that there was nothing sectional or selective in the
current fight against corruption.
He said: “It is nothing like sectional, it has to start from
somewhere. If, of course on the way, you find anybody in
particular, I cannot see it as sectional as some people
think. For one thousand miles, we have to start with a
step. If someone is found to be corrupt, definitely he has
to be handled that way.”
Abubakar, who was represented by the president,
Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Ahmed Yakasai at the
event, said that a lot of things were going wrong in the
country because Nigerians placed ethnicity, tribalism and
sectionalism far ahead of the unity of the country and
national interest.
“But that is the problem of Nigeria, this diversity. If I am
found to be corrupt, I run to my people and will say this
Yoruba man is dealing with me. If I am a Yoruba, I will say
this Igbo man is dealing with me. It is wrong, we are not
sincere. Nothing sectional or selective in the current fight
against corruption,” he said.
The Punch reports that the former head of state also
challenged professional bodies in Nigeria to sanction their
members who aided and abetted corrupt tendencies.
He urged professional bodies to eliminate quackery in their
professions, adding that Nigeria had continued to lose
several lives and property as a result of the activities of
quacks.
Meanwhile, former president Olusegun Obasanjo recently
held a close-door meeting with President Muhammadu
Buhari in Aso Rock, Abuja and part of what was discussed
centred on Senate President Bukola Saraki, according to
Sahara Reporters.
Obasanjo had told journalists that he was at the
Presidential Villa to relay a message to Buhari, but also
had the opportunity to slam the National Assembly
members as lacking integrity.
Fresh reports from Sahara Reporters indicates that
Obasanjo actually gave Buhari some strategies to get
embattled Saraki removed from office.
Quoting a source privy to the development, the report said
at the meeting which lasted about two hours, Obasanjo
told Buhari that it would be very difficult for the president
to achieve his goal for Nigeria if he continued to tolerate a
corrupt leadership at the National Assembly.