17th April, 2020
Senator Ali Ndume has earned the knocks of the presidency after he suggested that kleptocrats around President Muhammadu Buhari are undermining the COVID-19 palliatives meant for poor Nigerians.
Ndume in a press interview in Maiduguri described Buhari as an innocent man surrounded by corrupt politicians who use their positions to exploit and kill other Nigerians.
Ndume condemned the manner the federal government’s COVID-19 palliative fund is being distributed and called for the dissolution of the committee headed by the Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management minister, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouk.
“In fact, left to me, I am strongly calling for the humanitarian committee headed by the minister of Humanitarian Affairs to be dissolved with immediate effect. And the president should as a matter of urgency form a taskforce that would deal with issue of palliatives, headed by the military, police, civil defence, voluntary organisations and the NYSC among others,” Ndume said.
The presidency was not so happy with his criticism.
In a statement released today,Garba Shehu, the SSA Media to the president said Buhari would not condone kleptocrats around him as he would have shown them the door.
Then Shehu upbraided Ndume for making an allegation without proof.
Read the full reaction:
When he was first elected President in 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari said that he belonged to everybody and belonged to nobody. What was true then remains true today.
He believes in public service, as a servant of the people – and he expects the exact same commitment from members of his government and, of course, his closest aides.
The President has made it clear times without number that anyone who will not, cannot, or does not pull his weight – nor meet these exacting standards – is not welcome in his administration. A number of ranking officials have been shown the way out at various times simply on account of this.
Similarly, he believes in loyalty and truthfulness. Should any individuals be found to be serving themselves and not the people, then it is right and proper to call them out. But this must be done on the basis of evidence and proof – not on conjecture.
It is therefore disappointing to hear a politician call out unnamed individuals in the administration and accuse them of unnamed transgressions.
If this politician has evidence – then he should make public their identities as well as his proof. Innuendo is not proof.
Similarly, simply claiming that the COVID-19 Palliative Measures Committee is not functioning as it should is not the same as presenting proof for such a claim.
No one replaces an institutional government body in the midst of the global pandemic without clear and irrefutable evidence that it needs replacing.
A press briefing from a discontented politician is rarely the source of such evidence.
At this difficult time of the battle by Nigeria against Coronavirus, everyone should help the fight and not seek to make political capital out of it, whatever his or her grievances.