President Muhammadu Buhari and former military Head of State Gen. Abdusalami Abubakar met yesterday in a closed-door meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Abdusalami arrived at the State House at 3.30p.m for the meeting, which lasted for about 30 minutes.
He declined to speak with State House correspondents at the end of the meeting.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday said the prosecution of persons found to have stolen national resources would begin in a matter of weeks.
Buhari
A statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, quoted the President as speaking while granting audience to members of the National Peace Committee led by Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
“Those who have stolen the national wealth will be in court in a matter of weeks and Nigerians will know those who have short-changed them,” the President told his guests.
Adesina said Buhari told the delegation that his administration was irrevocably committed to doing all within its powers to break the vicious cycle of corruption, unemployment and insecurity in Nigeria.
“Nigeria has to break this vicious cycle before we can make progress,” the President said.
He added that his administration was diligently getting facts and figures pertaining to the nation’s stolen funds before proceeding to the prosecution of identified culprits.
Buhari also told members of the committee that the Federal Government, under his leadership, would not only ask for the return of stolen funds that have been stashed in foreign banks, but would also ensure that those who stole the funds are put on trial in Nigeria.
The President also said as part of its actions to address the national problems it inherited, his administration was reorganising Nigeria’s revenue generating institutions.
He said a single treasury account had been established for all federal revenue to ensure greater probity, transparency and accountability in the collection, disbursement and utilisation of national funds.
Buhari said, “We have really degenerated as a country. Our national institutions, including the military, which did wonderfully on foreign missions in the past, have been compromised. But we are doing something about it. The military is now retraining and morale has been resuscitated.
“As Petroleum Minister under Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo in the 1970s, I could not travel abroad until I had taken a memo to the Federal Executive Council asking for estacode. Now, everybody does what he wants.
“That is why security-wise and economically, we’re in trouble.”
Abubakar and members of his committee urged the Federal Government to be guided by the rule of law in its fight against corruption.
Members of the National Peace Committee who accompanied Gen Abubakar on the visit were Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, His Eminence, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar; the Sultan of Sokoto, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, Primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria.
Others were Justice Rose Ukeje (rtd), Prof Ameze Guobadia, Vanguard Newspaper Publisher, Sam Amuka; Dame Priscilla Kuye, Senator Ben Obi, Dr. Yunusa Tanko, and Dr. Arthur-Martin Aginam.
The National Peace Committee, formed before the 2015 general elections, was granted permission by the President to transform to a National Peace Council.
President Goodluck Jonathan has advised the incoming president, Muhammadu Buhari, not to single his administration out for probe.
President Jonathan
He said if Mr. Buhari must investigate him and his administration, he should do the same for the past governments.
A probe centred only on the Jonathan administration will amount to a “witch hunt”, the president said Wednesday at a valedictory cabinet meeting attended by ministers ahead of his handing over to Mr. Buhari on Friday.
Mr. Jonathan said his comments followed calls from different quarters for his administration to be investigated.
“Some people are even calling for the probe of the government, but I think in Nigeria, there are a lot of many things that will be probed, very many things, even debts owed by states and debts owed by this country from 1960 up to this time.
“They say it is Jonathan’s administration that is owing these debts. I believe that anybody that is calling for probe must also ensure that this probe is extended beyond the Jonathan administration.
“Otherwise, to me, it will be witch-hunt. If we are very sincere, it is not only the Jonathan administration that should be probed,” he said.
He said his government has had to operate under the harshest of conditions, some of which were politically motivated.
Mr. Jonathan attributed the just abating fuel scarcity and the strike action by the oil union to sabotage.
He noted that as a cabinet, all ministers had done their best despite the challenges faced during their tenure.
Noting that Nigeria has twice sat on the Security Council during the life of the outgoing administration, the president said it was obvious that the rest of the world appreciated the little contribution of Nigeria under his leadership.
– Premiumtimes
Former Head of State, Gen. Abdusalami Abubakar, on Tuesday urged Nigerians to give President Goodluck Jonathan the benefit of doubt on his promise that general elections would hold as re-scheduled.
Abubakar made the call while fielding questions from newsmen in Kano. The former Head of State was in Kano to inaugurate the Kano Informatics Institute, Kura.
He said Jonathan had in the recent Presidential Media Chart promised to allow the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct the polls on the new dates.
“As our President, let us give him benefit of doubt and accept what he said’’, Abubakar said.
He, however, urged INEC to ensure the conduct of free, fair and acceptable elections for the sustenance of the country’s democracy.
According to him, “I do hope INEC officials will conduct free, fair and credible elections in the country’’, he said. On his recent visits to President Jonathan and, Gen Muhammadu Buhari (APC presidential candidate), Abubakar said the visits were private.
A former South African President, Thabo Mbeki, and a former Head of State,Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, on Monday met with the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Maj-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari(retd.), in Kaduna ahead of the rescheduled March 28 presidential election across the country.
At the closed-door meeting at the Jabi Road office of the Katsina-born former Head of State, in the heart of the city, neither the august visitor nor the APC presidential candidate uttered a word to journalists that besieged the venue after the about one hour meeting, which stated at about 10am..
The guests had met with President Goodluck Jonathan, who is the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the coming election, in Abuja on Monday.
Abubakar, who is also the Chairman of the Peace Accord signed by the two leading presidential candidates, left for the Kaduna International Airport to catch a flight back to Abuja, after a photo session to signal the end of the meeting at about 11am.
Though, there was no official words as to what transpired during the meeting, a source confided in one of our correspondents in Kaduna that the meeting was not unconnected with the March 28 rescheduled presidential election.
The source said, “This is a closed-door meeting and its doubtful if they will talk to the pressmen. You know they met President Jonathan too. You know, all efforts to turn Nigerians against Gen. Buhari had failed and opinion polls have favoured the old man, even the ones conducted by the government.”
President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday met behind closed-doors with a former Head of State, Gen. Abdusalami Abubakar (retd.), and a former South African President, Thabo Mbeki.
The meeting was held inside the President’s official residence inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
None of them spoke with journalists at the end of the parley.
The meeting however was not unconnected with preparations for the forthcoming general elections slated for March 18 and April 11.
It will be recalled that Abubakar is the chairman of the National Peace Committee for 2015 General Elections.
The former military leader had on Saturday met with the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, over the elections.
Others who attended the Saturday meeting were the service chiefs including the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Vice Marshal Alex Badeh; the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Suleiman Abba, and leadership of the major political parties.
The meeting also had in attendance the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Sa’ad Abubakar III; Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan ; Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah; former Chief of General Staff, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe; Special Adviser to the President on Inter- Party Relations, Senator Ben Obi.
Abubakar might have used the opportunity of the Sunday meeting to brief the President of the outcome of the Saturday meeting.
