Nepotism in Buhari's government is the worst in Nigeria's history - Dr Junaid

                               

A chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and member of the Defence Committee in the second republic, Dr Junaid Mohammed has said that there is a group wielding power within President Buhari’s administration.

In a recent interview with The Punch, Dr Mohammed reacted to talks about a cabal hijacking the presidency, a charge the presidency has denied.

Mohammed said: “Let me say straight away that whether one calls it a cabal or a mafia or some kind of cult or whatever, there is a group of people who are wielding power within the presidency under Buhari. Whatever you say it is; it is and a lot worse.

First, the most influential person in the presidency today is one Mamman Daura whom as you know, is a nephew of the president.

His father was Buhari’s elder brother. In addition, Mamman Daura was the one who single handedly brought up Abba Kyari, the current Chief of Staff to the President.

In fact, Abba Kyari knows Mamman Daura more than he knows his own father. Next, the Personal Assistant to Buhari himself is the son of Mamman Daura, next is what they call SCOP, State Chief of Protocol, and is also a son-in-law to Mamman Daura because he is married to Mamman Daura’s daughter.

Next, the Minister they unilaterally chose, against the interest of the party and against the wishes of Sokoto people, happens to be the daughter of the younger sister of Mamman Daura’s wife. Both of them are daughters of Sultan Dasuki, who was sacked by General Abacha.

We have the Aide De Camp to Buhari himself, Colonel Abubakar. He is married to the granddaughter of one of Buhari’s elder sisters. Next we have the woman who represents Kaduna in the Federal Executive Council, she is a cousin to Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai.

It is well known that el-Rufai is one of the closest governors to Muhammadu Buhari. Next, we have the Minister for the Federal Capital Territory.

The Minister of the FCT is the man called Musa Bello, who used to be the Managing Director of the Northern Nigeria Development Corporation, which used to be the biggest holding company that belonged to all the northern states.

His only qualification to be FCT minister is the fact that his father has been Buhari’s friend over the years.

Now, there is a young man called Sabiu Yusuf, nicknamed Tunde – probably because of late General Tunde Idiagbon. He is another PA to President Buhari. He is also a grandson of another sister of Buhari.

This is enough to prove to you that this is shamelessly the worst form of nepotism in the history of government in Nigeria.

In fact, in the history of Africa, let me make bold to assert that I have never seen any level of nepotism that has equalled or surpassed this in my entire life – I am now in my 67th year. Another thing I also want you to know is that, Amina Zakari, who was and still a national commissioner in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) representing the entire seven states in the North-West.

It is being claimed that Buhari knows nothing about her appointment (before he became President), it is a lie. When President Goodluck Jonathan was re-organising the INEC and he was bringing in Prof Attahiru Jega, he reached out to Buhari and asked Buhari to nominate somebody from the North-West so that that person would be a national commissioner. Of all the people in the North-West, Buhari decided to nominate his own niece, the daughter of his elder sister- Amina Zakari.

She has been there; when Jega left, Buhari was determined to make her chairman, it was because of the massive backlash that he dropped the idea like hot potatoes.

As we are talking today, that woman is a national commissioner which means she is one of the principal election umpires.

Throughout my reading of history, political science and social sciences generally, I have never heard of any dictator or any tyrant under any system of government whether totalitarian or fascist, appointing his own niece to conduct elections in which he was either a party or going to be a party to; Buhari has done that.

The immediate younger brother to Amina Zakari is currently the Minister for Water Resources representing Jigawa State in the same Buhari government. In addition, even though they are from Kazaure, Kazaure is contiguous to Daura. The eldest sister of both of them is now the Commissioner for Education in the All Progressives Congress government in Jigawa state.

If this is not nepotism, then I don’t know what is nepotism and anybody who has the guts, the brutal arrogance to appoint these relations not bothering about public opinion, about the sense of justice, about competence, then you can see that he has a very serious question to answer. There are two mysterious cases.

Dr Mohammed went on to speak on the mysterious cases saying: “The case of the Governor of the Central Bank, Godwin Emeifele and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu.

It was Buhari himself who said that he knew when the governor of the CBN picked a piece of paper and gave an instruction that N14bn should be withdrawn from the CBN and that money was withdrawn. That was nearly a year ago and up till today, Buhari is still retaining Emefiele as CBN governor.

The Buhari I know is an economic illiterate and anybody who knows anything about currency movement and foreign exchange and fluctuations knows that the Naira has been effectively devalued. It was the same Buhari who boasted that the Naira would never be devalued under him for as long as he remains President and even threatened the governor of the CBN that he was going to sack him if he devalued the Naira.

He (CBN governor) is still there. In the case of Kachikwu, he is the mystery man in the cabinet.

No one can actually tell you who nominated and brought in Kachikwu. We knew that he was friends with Abba Kyari when they both worked in Mobil but none of them had the influence to bring him in and make him Minister of Petroleum Resources. Forget the nonsense about him being the junior minister because he is the senior and junior minister in addition to being the Managing Director of the NNPC (until recently when he was replaced. This again confirms the arrogance of President Buhari in putting two positions together; one purely civil service and technocratic position which is the Group Managing Director of the NNPC and the other one which is purely political- a minister.

What is wrong with the President merging these portfolios in the light of the administration’s desire to cut the cost of running government…?

Since this man became minister, there has been nothing good coming out of the oil industry rather than confusion, crisis and corruption. That again is an indication of the decadence we have in this government. People who are being accused and arrested for corruption as it should be, we are also aware that some of these cases that the DSS is getting involved in are shady because they have no experience whatsoever in prosecution.

That is why from the famous case of Farouk Lawal, a former member of the House of Representatives who was involved in getting money and putting it under his cap and what have you which was captured on camera. 

They arrested that man; it was a clear cut case long before Buhari became President. Till today, the DSS has not been able to prosecute Farouk Lawan. He is still sitting at home; his house is about 200 metres from my house. That shows you that when you hear that the DSS is arresting somebody for corruption, it is clearly political and maybe there is money or corruption involved.

We also know that there are people from within the DSS from the very top who are even threatening that they will soon arrest the Chairman of the EFCC and the National Security Adviser.” The ex-Joint House Leader of the defunct Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) said: “The main reason is these people have refused to cooperate with them: Mamman Daura, Abba Kyari and the DG DSS, who is also part of the Daura cabal they want to take over the anti-corruption war so that it will be under their hand and they can cut deals and render the anti-corruption war useless.

I know who they propose to take over, it didn’t work. I think Buhari resisted- which is miracle. They are now proposing somebody. The person who they proposed was a retired DIG, he, myself and Magu (current EFCC boss) had worked in Port Harcourt during my years in OMPADEC. Now they are thinking of a retired Commissioner of Police. The only qualification they are looking for is someone who can be controlled by them. This is the situation we find ourselves. In the light of what you have said, what would you say has changed in government?

I will put it this way, we have exchanged one thoroughly corrupt government for one that pretends to be honest and is doing an honest job while in reality, it is business as usual.