Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari, who last month gave reasons why he had avoided responding to former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s open letter to him, which listed his alleged failures and advised him not to seek re-election, has taken the former president to task over a $16 billion power project during his administration.
The President threw the challenge on Tuesday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja while receiving the Buhari Support Organization led by the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Hammed Ali.
Although Buhari did not mention Obasanjo by name, he queried why there was no stable power in the country after a former president claimed to have spent $16 billion on a power project.
The House of Representatives had in 2008 described $16 billion spent on power by Obasanjo’s government as a massive waste, blaming it on “poor budget planning and a lack of proper oversight by relevant bodies.”
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project had also in 2016 urged the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, to immediately appoint an independent counsel to investigate allegations of corruption in the spending of $16 billion on electricity by Obasanjo’s government.