The President Muhhamadu Buhari’s total war on graft got a big boost yesterday with the declaration of support from the members of the Peoples Democratic Party in the House of Representatives.
The PDP caucus urged the President to go all out and recover the country’s stolen money. The party however, advice the president to adopt a “holistic” approach in fighting corruption. According to the caucus, no politician, serving or former public office holder should be spared by the President, not minding whether the person was a PDP member or a member of the majority All Progressives Congress.
This was stated when the PDP caucus’ media team, spoke with journalists at the National Assembly in Abuja, noting that the negative impact of corruption was felt by all Nigerians, irrespective of their political affiliation. Continuing, the caucus added that, in fighting corrupt persons, there should be no protection for anybody, no matter the political party they belonged.
Leader of the media team, Mr. Rima Shawulu, observed for example, that there were many politicians who were members of the PDP before they defected to the APC. According to him, in carrying out his anti-corruption crusade, the President should not create the impression that such persons no longer had cases to answer by virtue of joining the APC, adding that there were key members of the APC itself with alleged corruption cases, which the President could not afford to ignore.
Shawulu said: “We support the agenda of Mr. President and the Federal Government to fight corruption and we will back him to recover funds on proven cases. “Our position as a political party is that the President does not have the powers by himself to draw a line that some crimes should be investigated while others are not to be touched. “Corruption should be fought holistically; whether the offenders are in the PDP or in the APC, there should be no waivers on corruption investigations.”
According to Shawulu, a wrong impression had been created that the PDP and its lawmakers were against Buhari’s anti-corruption stance, recalling that the first resolution passed by the current 8th House on the crude “SWAP” contracts awarded by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was sponsored by a member of the PDP.
“It was also a PDP member who moved the motion that the handover notes of former President Goodluck Jonathan should be published for the purpose of accountability. “Another motion on the non-implementation of the 2015 budget was sponsored by a PDP member; all along we have been out for accountability,” he said.
According to him, the PDP will not engage in frivolous criticisms of the Buhari administration or act like ‘area boys’ by cooking up facts just because the PDP wants to lambast the government in power, but rather the caucus would co-operate with the government to enable it fulfill the electoral promises made to Nigerians.
The lawmaker advised Buhari to settle down to serious governance, warning that the PDP was anxiously waiting in the wings to reclaim power at the national level in 2019, adding that the PDP deserved credit for ensuring a smooth transition of power from the Jonathan administration to the current government, and that “if the PDP had behaved like other political parties in Africa, Nigeria would have been engulfed in another civil war.”
He further declared that the PDP House caucus played a key role in the emergence of the leadership in the House, adding that ‘majority of our members voted for Speaker Yakubu Dogara and the Deputy Speaker, Suleiman Lasun, and we are happy with how they have conducted the affairs of the House. We will give them our continued support”.
Other members of the PDP media team are Rep. Golu Timothy (PDP/Plateau); Rep. Onyemachi Mrakpor (PDP/Delta); Rep. Kingsley Ebenyi, Rep. Akinjo Kolade and Rep. Tony Nwulu.
