The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, has received commendation from the All Progressives Congress (APC) for speaking up against increasing rate of corrupt practices in the present administration.
Lai Mohammed, the opposition party’s Interim National Publicity Secretary, in a statement on Tuesday hailed what it described as the Speaker’s patriotism and dedication to the nation.
The Speaker on Monday had criticized the present administration, saying President Goodluck Jonathan is paying lip service to the fight against corruption.
Mohammed’s statement reads, “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.”
“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 (Peoples Democratic Party) 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 opposition spokesman also recalled the recent scandals that have portrayed the administration as not being serious in the fight against corruption such as 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.”
