ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – Without mentioning any specific former minister or providing proof to back up his claim, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has said the recent trip to the United States by President Muhammadu Buhari, revealed that one of the ministers that served under former President Goodluck Jonathan cornered $6 billion. He added that by US standard it was an earthquake.
He also said it was not surprising that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was not happy with Buhari’s success because he has departed from the crude culture where government media where turned into party megaphones, security agencies were distracted and the opposition were chased about like rats, saying the opposition party should be pitied.
Fielding questions from State House correspondents shortly after meeting Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Monday, Oshiomhole expressed delight that Nigeria now has a President who talks with confidence unlike “a President that is blabbing and is not sure of what the issues are.”
The governor claimed that Jonathan’s administration liquidated the country, saying but for the fact Nigerians were a patient people, no PDP person should feel safe because their collective future was destroyed under the party.
He said, “The PDP destroyed the country. I mean from the lips of American officials; senior officials of the State Department said one minister under PDP cornered as much as $6 billion.
“The man said even by Washington standard, that is earth-quaking.
“So, PDP is a party that presided over the liquidation of our nation, destroyed all our institutions, converted the Armed Forces commanders to use them as if they were political thugs, converted NTA to a party megaphone, destroyed the SSS, went after opposition as if we were rabbits to be pursued into our holes, compromised even student unions and destroyed everything that you can think of and elevated religion to a state affair.
“Under the party, Israel became a place you visit every week; they placed pastors against mallams, placed North against South, East against West just to retain power; elevated Obas and Obis with dollars.
“You guys were reporting dollars that were changing hands; when NNPC was spending much more money than is available to the Federation Account.
“We are a very patient people. If we were not a patient people, anybody wearing the tag of PDP ought to feel very unsafe because you are all victims- all of us here.”
Oshiomhole claimed that under the PDP, there was no law as the party members were law to themselves.
He claimed that because Jonathan did not know what the issues were everybody was frustrated.
He added, “Mr. Carson who was the Assistant Secretary of State, when we visited him in company of Senator Saraki, then as chairman of the Governors’ Forum – that was on the eve of President Obama’s first visit to Africa – and we went to complain, ‘why is Nigeria not on the list?’
“What he said for me was quite instructive compared to what he said last week. Then I was present when he said ‘you know, we who see ourselves not just as friends of Nigeria, each time we think there is light at the end of the tunnel and it is time to encourage Nigeria to build on it, you would wake up the following day under President Jonathan to find out that even the tunnel had been removed.
“Those were the words of Mr. Carson. Now last week, this same Carson chaired the President’s address at the Institute of Peace and he said ‘we now have a man of enormous integrity; one that has shown so much faith in the democratic process; one that refused to be frustrated even in the face of massively rigged elections. He submitted to the judicial process and even when that was compromised he never gave up.
“‘America has done its check and we are convinced that this President is the one that Nigeria needs at this time to regain its leadership of the African continent.
“‘America now has a partner worthy of relations because they believe that every dollar that America provides to support Nigeria whether in the area of security, in the area of education, or encouraging American investors to invest in Nigeria, there is an enabling environment because what had been destroying the country is corruption.
“‘You have so much capital outflow; so, America is ready to stand side-by-side to support this President to achieve his core objective of fighting corruption, restoring security, creating jobs and redistributing prosperity’.
“So, if PDP doesn’t condemn it then they are no longer PDP. Don’t forget, people deceiving people has been a way of life for 16 years.”