- Say APC govt. has failed Nigerians
The Northern Elders Council has accused the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration of witchhunting the opposition with its anticorruption crusade.
The NEC also criticised the performance of the Buhari government, saying it has failed to live up to the expectations of Nigerians.
NEC Chairman, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, in an exclusive interview with our correspondent in Abuja, declared that the anti-corruption crusade of the Federal Government had been selective and targeted at the opposition.
Yakassai alleged that the Buhari administration’s fight against corruption had focussed on those outside the fold of the ruling All Progressives Congress while turning its face away from the members of the ruling party alleged to have committed similar offence.
The former special adviser to former president Shehu Shagari on national assembly matters in the second republic added that such a skewed anticorruption crusade directed at only the members of the opposition, would not yield lasting results.
“The fight (anticorruption) is onesided and selective,” Yakassai said.
He claimed that, “the billions of Naira we are hearing of that has been traced to so many accounts, if it is true and correct, the money is enough to run Nigeria for more than one year.”
The elder statesman also accused the Buhari-led APC government of failure to prepare adequately for the governance of the country.
Yakassai stressed that this was why the government had failed to perform after over a year in office.
He said, “They only concentrated on how to take power, but did not plan on what to do with power when they got it.
“I have been vindicated. How much was a bag of rice in 2015? How much did you buy American Dollar last year and how much is it now?”
Yakassai also criticized past military governments in the country for allegedly squandering the nation’s resources.
“The amount of money misappropriated by the military people is far greater than the amount of money allegedly traced to accounts of political class,” he added.
The NEC chairman further declared that the crisis rocking the opposition Peoples Democratic Party was not natural but stage-managed by some unseen hands.
He observed that democracy would not thrive without a virile opposition, adding that the dispute in the PDP was unnecessary.
“The crisis in the PDP does not look natural to me. In any country the highest authority of a political party is the convention, so the decision of a convention on a political party is final,” Yakassai said.
