"I heard that some people have started returning money; I will not believe it until I go and see for myself. Imagine a situation where the former CBN governor who by God ‘s grace would later become the Emir of Kano raised an issue of missing billions of money, not in Naira but in Dollars, $20 billion. What happened, instead of investigating to know whether it was true that the money was missing or not, they simply found a reason to remove him. So these are the issues we are talking about" he said in Hausa
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Buhari said, “On the issue of
corruption, I heard that some people have started returning money. I
will not believe it until I see for myself.
“You all remember what the Emir of Kano
talked about when he was the governor of the CBN. He said $20bn not
N20bn was unaccounted for; they said it was a lie. Instead of
investigating it, they sacked him. And God in his infinite mercy made
him the Emir of Kano. In any case, that is what he wanted. And since
this was documented, our administration will take a look at it.”
A
management and accounting consultancy firm, PriceWaterHouse, was last
year hired by the Federal Government to carry out a forensic audit of
the NNPC following Sanusi’s allegation.
Sanusi had written a letter to Jonathan in September 2013 that $49bn was not remitted to the Federation Account by the NNPC.
But following the controversy generated
by the letter, a committee was set up by the government to reconcile the
accounts of the corporation.
Sanusi later recanted and said the unremitted fund was $12bn. He later changed the figure to $20bn.
PwC, in its report stated that while the
total gross revenues generated from crude oil liftings amounted to
$69.34bn between January 2012 and July 2013 and not $67bn as earlier
stated by the Senate Reconciliation Committee, what was remitted to the
federation account was $50.81bn and not $47bn.
Within the $69.34bn, the audit report
revealed that $28.22bn was the value of domestic crude oil allocated to
NNPC, adding that the total amount spent on subsidy for Premium Motor
Spirit amounted to $5.32bn.
The PwC report read in part, “Signature
bonus, Petroleum Profit Tax and Royalty yet to be paid by NPDC is
$2.22bn. Total cash remitted into the federation accounts in relation to
crude oil liftings was $50.81bn and not $47bn as earlier stated by the
Senate Reconciliation Committee for the period January 2012 to July
2013.
“Based on the information available to
PwC, and from the above analysis, the firm submitted that NNPC and NPDC
should refund to the federation accounts a minimum of $1.48bn.”
Last week, the Minister of Petroleum
Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, disclosed that the NNPC had
started refunding the unremitted $1.48bn into the federation account.
But while expressing gratitude to the
visiting delegation, Buhari said his administration would work in tandem
with the manifesto of the APC.
He listed priority areas to include
security of lives and property, the economy and job creation as well as
the war against corruption.
On the issue of security, he described the menace of Boko Haram as purely the evil of terrorism which has no link to religion.
Buhari said, “ We thank God that it is
now evident that this problem of Boko Haram is not a religious problem.
It is purely terrorism. I said it earlier that all the religions we
practise,especially Islam and Christianity, do not support terrorism.
“So,anyone who goes and kills people in the mosque, church, market, motor park or school either does not know what Allahuakbar (God is great) means or does not believe in it. This is terrorism. It is our hope that God gives us the power to end this.”
The former Head of State said that unemployment must be urgently tackled because it constituted a threat to Nigeria’s survival.
He explained that from his campaign
stops in 35 out of the nation’s 36 states, the sheer number of jobless
youths they saw signposted clearly that there was a serious crisis at
hand.
Buhari said, “From the airports to the
streets, we saw youths running after our vehicles sweating. Some were
walking the whole distance to wherever we were driving to. Whether they
went to school or did not go to school, it was evident that they don’t
have jobs. This is one of the biggest problems we have in Nigeria today.
“Most of our youths,who form 60 per cent
of our population in Nigeria are without jobs. These people who are
still bubbling with energy will constitute a danger to this nation if
they don’t get jobs.”
The President-elect took a swipe at the
outgoing Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Government for
‘‘inflicting a lot of pains on Nigerians with its misrule.’’
He however said that the military
deserved commendation for regaining many territories it hitherto lost
to Boko Haram in the North-East.
Buhari said, “Among the worst atrocities committed against Nigeria by the PDP is what it has done to our military.
“It is our military that went to Burma;
the same army that when I was commissioned second lieutenant, I did not
spend three weeks before I found myself in Kinshasa (in Congo), then
(the civil war) in Nigeria and Sierra Leone and did well. Now to say
Nigerian soldiers failed to retake 14 local government areas out of 774
is unbelievable.
“For me who served in the military, I
find it incomprehensible except if I go there to find out what happened.
The kind of leadership brought upon us by the PDP whether it is
documented or not, it can never be forgotten in our history.”
Buhari also decried the attitude of some Nigerian elite to the suffering of the masses.
He noted that Some of them “have built
houses outside their states so that when trouble starts, they don’t even
bother to take their bags before fleeing on Achaba (motorcycle).’’
Buhari lamented the fate of some
Nigerians from the North-East who “do not know where their parents and
children are because their houses have been burnt in cities like Bama,
Michika, Mubi, Madagali and other places ” by Boko Haram insurgents.
The President-elect appealed to members
of the legislature at the federal and state levels to give attention to
matters that would benefit the nation and its people in all their
deliberations.
He promised that the incoming APC-led
Federal administration was determined to ensure that roads, schools
and hospitals were built and made functional.
Buhari described Adamawa State as one of the few states in the North- East which still has arable land.
This, he said, was unlike his home state
of Katsina where desertification has condemned a lot of people
without formal education to a life of servitude.
Earlier, the leader of the delegation
and governor-elect of Adamawa State, Jibrilla Bindow, appealed to the
President-Elect to help the state rebuild its institutions and
reduce poverty and youth unemployment.
Reacting to Buhari’s decision to probe the missing $20billion NNPC funds
allegedly looted by Jonathan and his petroleum minister Diezani
Alison-Madueke; Niger Delta militant Asari Dokubo’s wife, Hajia
Mujahidat Daba Dokubo-Asari, took to her Facebook page writing…
“Buhari wants to probe the poported missing 20 billion as his no 1 peority .well i pity for Nigerians who thinks Buhari is the change they looking for . like i have always said it, that this man Buhari is very vindictive and will waste his tenor as president to fight his perceived enemies . i pity Nigerians for voting Apc cos the future looks very bleak, time shall tell.”
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