A civil rights organization, Anti-Corruption Network, ACN on Wednesday faulted the nomination of some persons which it claimed, have either been indicted for alleged corruption or facing charges by anti-graft agencies for consideration as Ministers saying President Goodluck Jonathan is “buttressing generational apathy.”
The group which threatened to “march on the Senate and embark on aggressive protest to bring sanity into the Nigerian system” also slammed the President over the appointment of a former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, barely two days after being sacked as Chairman of the Nigerian Railway Corporation.
A former National Security Adviser, Lt-Gen Aliyu Gusau; former Governor of Adamawa State, Boni Haruna and Ambassador Aminu Wali from Kano State were on the list of 11 ministerial nominees forwarded by the President to the Senate for confirmation.
The Executive Secretary of ACN and former member of the House of Representatives, Dino Melaye in a statement in Abuja called on the Senate to reject any ministerial nominee of questionable character.
He said, “The nomination by the President Goodluck Jonathan to the Senate of people averagely between the ages of 60 and 80 clearly shows that Mr. President is buttressing generational apathy. What hope for Nigerian youths and my own generation? Wali and Gusau can give birth to Jonathan.
Melaye also described the appointment of Bamanga Tukur as Chairman of the NRC when his eldest son is approaching 50 years as laughable, adding that it was appalling that the President has further “demonstrated his love for corruption and corrupt persons” by the nomination of a former Governor of Adamawa State, Boni Haruna, currently faing corruption charges with the EFCC.
Melaye therefore, called on the Senate President and the Senators to reject any ministerial nominee of questionable character, particularly those indicted or facing criminal or corruption charges with any of the anti-graft agencies. “Mr. President owes the Nigerian people a lucid explanation why he is nominating corrupt characters as Ministers,” he said.
The ACN director said that “This romance of corruption by Mr. President juxtaposes the continuous stay in office of the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah despite the N255 million bullet-proof car scandal; Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke; Minister of Niger-Delta Affairs, Elder Godson Orubebe and many others elucidates why indicted Ministers sin his government are not being punished.
“We will stop at nothing if the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria proceeds in clearing corrupt nominees for Ministerial appointment. We will march on the Senate and embark on aggressive protest to bring sanity into the system,” he said.
While describing corruption in Nigeria as endemic, systemic and becoming contagious, the ACN boss said that for Nigeria to be rescued, “we should stand up without fear or favour, the fear of consequences and fight corruption headlong because we don’t have any other country we call our own apart from Nigeria.”
He said, “We must do everything to rescue this country from the hands of these economic cankerworm. I am bold to say that in this government, since Jonathan’s assumption of office, not one political office holder has been prosecuted and jailed.
“The fight against corruption in Nigeria is a herculean one because there is a popular saying that when you fight corruption, corruption fights you. There is intimidation, incessant arrests, threats and assassination attempts on my life. But for me, I am resolute because the battle to deliver this country from economic cankerworms, financial vultures and inept leadership as I have repeatedly said is a battle of no retreat, no surrender.”
Nigerians, he said, must creep out of their cocoons and become change agents adding that “we need to call a bloodless revolution that will transform this nation from the hands of these economic cankerworms and financial scavengers. Nigeria is not only sick but also suffering from a dreadful continental abnormality.
“In an unjust society, silence is a crime, this is the time in the history of Nigeria where silence is no longer golden. People must come out and speak because the day you stop eating is the day you start dying. Where dictatorship becomes legalised, revolution becomes a right.”