The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has charged President Muhammadu Buhari to speak up on allegations of illegal award of oil contracts worth $25 billion (N9 trillion) under his stewardship.
The party said the alleged complicity of the Buhari Presidency, coupled with Mr. President’s failure to address the reported fraudulent contracts awarded through the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has earned the nation a huge embarrassment of being labelled a ‘kleptocracy’ in the international arena.
The party was reacting to allegations of corruption contained in a new book authored by former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, and ex-United States Intelligence Community expert on Nigeria, Matthew Page.
Entitled, “Nigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know,” the book described Nigeria as a ‘kleptocracy’ and accused President Buhari of doing too little to tame corruption.
In a statement issued by Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP spokesman, the party described the position of the authors as a vindication of its stand that the All Progressives Congress-led administration was not serious in its fight against corruption.
“Nigerians wonder how President Buhari and his handlers felt when they read the new book by a former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, and former US Intelligence Community Expert on Nigeria, Matthew Page, where our dear nation was described as ‘a kleptocracy’, because of the humongous corruption festering unchecked in the Buhari administration.
“The new book has further vindicated the stance of the PDP that corruption has skyrocketed under President Buhari, as also emphasized in reports by other international bodies, including the United States Department of State, the Amnesty International (AI) and Transparency International (TI), which recently declared that corruption has escalated in Nigeria under President Buhari, despite his nebulous anti-corruption claims.
“The book also aligns with our party’s position that President Buhari’s incompetence, utterances and failure to live up to expectation as the father and chief security officer of the nation are directly responsible for the escalated acrimony, bloodletting and killings in various parts of our country in the last three years.
“Indeed, as captured by the book, the impunity and constitutional violations by Buhari administration has done a lot of harm against our nation, while his failure to address the endemic corruption in his administration, particularly in the petroleum sector, where he presides as the Minister of Petroleum Resources, is hurting the image of our nation,” the statement read in part.
The party accused President Buhari of failing to address the alleged stealing of N1.1 trillion worth of crude oil as well as the sleazy oil subsidy deals by interests close to his administration.
It added: “President Buhari has failed to address the alleged diversion of N18 billion Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, fund.
”He has also refused to address the alleged stealing of N10 billion National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, from the Treasury Single Account, TSA, by APC officials and Presidency cabal, among other sharp practices in his government.”
