Former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu has said that President Jonathan would do well to listen to Speaker of the House of Reps, Aminu Tambuwal’s advice on taking a tougher stance on the war against corruption.
Ribadu said ,”My own and what I will want to add is to talk to President Jonathan directly and say please listen: when people talk, especially serious people, people, who are in strategic positions in our country, when they tell you something take it and improve yourself.
“The message of the speaker is that of Mr. President, wake up, what you have been doing is not going well especially with the fight against corruption. And all that he (speaker) said are nothing new.
“They are all that we as Nigerians are aware of and we see it and we live with it daily. I want to appeal to the President that as our leader, the President of 160million Nigerians, Nigerians are telling him the reality and the truth, especially when it comes to the fight against corruption, let him listen to speaker Aminu Tambuwal.
“What he said is the truth. What he said is what Nigerians believe. What he said is the fundamental thing that today all of us are worried and concerned. . It is not to come out say they are going to fight or they are going to be defensive. It is a matter of telling you for you to correct yourself.”
The All Progressives Congress also called on President Jonathan to pay attention to his fellow Party members, stating that this was beyond partisan politics.
The APC said, “Tambuwal and President Jonathan belong to the same political party(Peoples Democratic Party), but this did not deter the speaker from rising above crass partisanship when the issue involved borders on national interest.
“This is the stuff of good leadership. Tambuwal has shown that he is indeed the Speaker of the House of Representatives and that the entire country is his constituency.”
’We have raised the same issues raised by the Speaker several times in our regular intervention, but the administration has dismissed our concerns on the altar of partisanship.
“However, now that no less a personality than the country’s number four citizen and a top member of the PDP is the one raising the issue, and coming against the background of Nigeria’s slide in the 2013 rankings released recently by the global anti-corruption body Transparency International, we hope the administration will realise that it has only been paying a lip service to the anti-graft battle, and perhaps make amends.”
The APC said most of the pending corruption cases were open and shut cases if Jonathan did not lack the will to prosecute them.
The APC added, ‘’These are slam dunk corruption cases that should have been handed over to the anti-corruption agencies for summary disposal. Instead, the President – thinking Nigerians will merely scream and forget after some time engages in his usual distracting method of setting up committees, the report of which he will then put away to gather dust until another corruption case rears its ugly head.”
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