COMMENTS ON JONATHAN BEING VERY CORRUPT: Omokri accuses Tinubu of being bereft of facts

Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s former aide, Reno Omokri, has suggested that facts may have eluded a leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, for him to have claimed that public funds grew wings and ran faster than Usain Bolt during Jonathan’s government.

The former Lagos State governor, had while delivering a speech at an event in Abuja on Thursday, made the claim.
Tinubu had said, “The prior government used the public treasury as a private hedge fund or a charity that limited its giving only to themselves.

“So much money grew feet and ran away faster than Usain Bolt ever could. That which could have been spent on national development was squandered in ways that would caused the devil to blush.”
He had added, “Boko Haram would have taken more territory and more lives would have been lost to insurgency if Jonathan had remained in power.”

But Omokri who responded on behalf of Jonathan in a statement made available to newsmen argued that Tinubu must have mistook the Usain Bolt speed with which public funds are disappearing under President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to that of the previous administration.

According to Omokri, if Tinubu had facts, there was no way he would have attributed the speed with which public funds are disappearing as that of Usain Bolt to Jonathan’s government when in fact, that reference should be referring to the present administration.

Noting that Jonathan cannot be accused of owning any property outside the shores of Nigeria, Omokri asked if that could as well be said about Tinubu and his APC members in power.

“First of all, the only global body for monitoring corruption is Transparency International which releases an annual Corruption Perception Index.

“It is a fact that Nigeria made her most improvement in Transparency International‘s annual Corruption Perception Index In 2014 under President Jonathan when we moved from 144 to 136 representing an improvement of 8 points.

“Transparency International observed the Jonathan administration’s fight against the corruption in Nigeria’s fertilizer procurement regime, the use of technology to remove 50,000 Federal ghost workers and the speed at which the then President fired ministers accused of corruption or conflict of interests.

“From that time till today, Nigeria has not made any improvements and has remained at 136 where Jonathan left us because Transparency International deals with facts, not opinions or media trial.

“Other than media sensationalism, there have been no convictions of financial misappropriation stemming from the Jonathan era.

“However, we do know that it is a fact that the allegedly corrupt pension thief, Abdulrasheed Maina, was dismissed and declared wanted by the Jonathan administration.

“We also now know that it is a fact that the present Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, met with Maina in Dubai. We know that Maina’s family revealed in a press conference that Maina was invited back to Nigeria by the present government. It is also a fact that Maina was recalled, reinstated and given double promotion by the current administration.

“Moreover, we know from the Head of Service’s leaked memo that President Muhammadu Buhari was aware of this entire saga.

“Perhaps Asiwaju Bola Tinubu mistook the Usain Bolt speed at which Maina was smuggled back into the country and reinstated for the unproven claims of corruption under Jonathan.

“We also know that it is a fact that $25 billion worth of contracts were awarded at the NNPC without due process. It is also a fact that this is the highest ever such amount involved in Nigeria’s history. Again, perhaps it is this amount that Tinubu meant when he said “So much money grew feet and ran away faster than Usain Bolt ever could”. Or perhaps he was referring to Babachir Lawal.

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“Nigerians should note that on the 7th of March 2014, then President Jonathan said “I am loyal to Nigeria’s economy. I don’t have accounts or property abroad.”

“Till date, nobody has been able to contradict that statement because it is true. Can Bola Tinubu or anybody in the APC leadership make a similar claim?” Omokri said.

On the issue of Boko Haram and terrorism, Omokri argued that the global body recognized to monitor terrorism which is the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), had in its annual Global Terrorism Index released between 2013 and 2014, unfortunately listed Nigeria under President Jonathan, as the fourth most terrorized nation in the world.
He added, “However, in the latest Global Terrorism Index released yesterday (November 15, 2017) by the Institute for Economics and Peace, Nigeria has deteriorated from where Jonathan left it and is now the third most terrorized nation.

“So if according to Transparency International, Nigeria was less corrupt under Jonathan than it is today and according to the Institute for Economics and Peace, Nigeria is more terrorized today than it was under Jonathan, it becomes clear that Bola Tinubu has no factual basis to make the claims he made.”

 

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