The All Progressives Congress (APC) has commended the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, for his patriotism and dedication to the nation, following his principled stand on the Jonathan administration’s tepid fight against corruption.
In a statement in Lagos on Tuesday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the Speaker exhibited a leadership trait that is rare in these parts by shunning partisanship to say that the President’s body language does not indicate that he has the political will to fight corruption in the country.
”Hon. Tambuwal and President Jonathan belong to the same political party, but this did not deter the Speaker from rising above crass partisanship when the issue involved borders on national interest. This is the stuff of good leadership.
”Hon. Tambuwal has shown that he is indeed the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives and that the entire country is his constituency, unlike President Jonathan who has transformed himself to a PDP and a sectional leader by viewing serious issues of national importance from the prism of partisanship and sectionalism,” it said, expressing the hope that other Nigerians will emulate the Speaker.
APC said the party was delighted to be in the same company with the Speaker over the criticism of President Jonathan’s nonchalant stand on corruption, which has eaten deeper into the national fabric under the present administration, adding: ”We have raised the same issues raised by the Hon. Speaker several times in our regular intervention, but the administration has dismissed our concerns on the altar of partisanship.
”However, now that no less a personality than the country’s number four citizen and a top member of the PDP is the one raising the issue, and coming against the background of Nigeria’s slide in the 2013 rankings released recently by the global anti-corruption body Transparency International, we hope the administration will realize that it has only been paying a lip service to the anti-graft battle, and perhaps make amends,” the party said.
It said the Speaker was totally right in talking about the President’s body language, which is a reflection of the deceptive actions he (President Jonathan) has taken time and again over very serious issues of corruption, including the monumental fuel subsidy scam, the pension scam, the fraud involving the excess crude account, the Sure-P scandal and Oduahgate.
”These are slam dunk corruption cases that should have been handed over to the anti-corruption agencies for summary disposal. Instead, the President – thinking Nigerians will merely scream and forget after some time – engages in his usual distracting method of setting up committees, the report of which he will then put away to gather dust….until another corruption case rears its ugly head.
”Nigerians are not stupid and they understand very clearly that the President is shielding corrupt people, as long as they are willing and able to contribute massively, from their ill-gotten funds, to his (President’s) campaign slush funds. Now that a person of the calibre of the Speaker of the House of Representatives has added his voice to this burning issue, the die is cast for Mr. President: He can either move to redeem the image of his administration or continue to swim in the ocean of corruption,” APC said.
