From WOLE BALOGUN, Ado-Ekiti

GBOYEGA Akinola was secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ekiti State and former chairman, Ikere Local Government. He had a chat with Daily Sun recently:

Governor Ayo Fayose recently raised the alarm on how the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), illegally frozen his bank accounts. What is your reaction?

It is not only embarrassing, it is a shock that a Nigeria of 2016 still behaves as if it was in the infancy. I don’t know how an agency, or one of the agencies of the Federal Government could just clampdown on a serving governor and have his accounts frozen, without any consultation or interrogation.

In fact, we read on the pages of newspapers that the reasons given by the anti-graft agency was that it was investigating the governor for certain alleged crimes.

We suspect that the Buhari-led government is using the EFCC to embarrass the opposition, most especially Fayose. It appears that the government is using the EFCC to destabilise Ekiti State.

The same EFCC had pounced on Ekiti House of Assembly and whisked away one of its members for weeks without any trial. All its actions are against the Nigerian Constitution. In Section 308 sub-section B in particular gives immunity to certain political office holders and governors are among this category. That is as long as they are in power or in office no case can be instituted against them, either civil or criminal.

I don’t know why the EFCC is flagrantly flouting the provisions of the constitution. EFCC should go and learn or else it would continue to behave like dummies in the Dark Age. It is the duty of the Federal Government and the President in particular to caution the EFCC.

What the EFCC did to the governor amounted to maladministration. It had turned down democracy in Nigeria. It appears as if we are in the era of the military. All these abuses must be curbed.

What is your take on the ongoing anti-corruption war by the Buhari administration?

The anti-corruption war is extremely biased and targeted at the opposition. That notwithstanding, the Federal Government claimed to have recovered certain assets from the looters. Why is it not disclosing the identities of those involved?

By not disclosing the identities of the looters, it appears the present government has something to hide.

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If you don’t publish the names of looters, there is no way Nigerians can ascertain the actual assets recovered from these people.

 

What do you suggest in practical terms?

I am challenging the Federal Government to let us know the names of the looters and their recovered loots. Again, Buhari must not repeat the mistake of 1984 about the recovered loots.

What was the mistake Buhari made as military Head of State in 1983?

For example, if one trillion Naira is recovered from a particular looter and somebody is telling us that it is just N100billion. How would Nigerians know the truth?

I remember this was the same way he fought corruption as military leader and jailed many politicians and within two years recovered millions of Naira. This was when Naira had great value. He did not do anything with the loots until he was overthrown in 1985.

As we speak, more than 27 out of the 36 states of the federation are indebted and many of them cannot even pay salaries of their workers. If we don’t want the system to collapse, half of the recovered loots should be shared among the 36 states on equal basis. Mr. President must give the affected states the order that the monies should be used to pay outstanding salaries and invested in projects that would shore up their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

Do you still have confidence in the Federal System of Government being operated in Nigeria?

There is nothing wrong with the system but many things are wrong with the operators. The Federal Government is biting more than it could chew and that is why have a lot of wastes. The Revenue Formula is wrong, both the sharing and the percentage must be reviewed. Why is the Federal Government taking 52-53 percent of the monthly allocation and given less that 40 percent to states and local governments?

The National Assembly should review this. If it fails to do this, in about two years to come the federal system will collapse and we will all have ourselves to blame. I recommend that the Federal Government must not take above 42 percent, the states 40 percent and the remaining 18 to the local governments and parastatals. Then there is this 13 percent derivation for the oil producing states that did not reach the grassroots. The percentage is for the hardship being suffered by the people of the oil producing areas and for environmental pollutions. I am suggesting that the 13 percent should be slashed into two equal halves to the states and local governments on one hand and the affected communities on another hand.

Let the government set up committees in each of the affected communities, which would include monarchs, chiefs and others. What we have seen in the past was that the state budget did not really capture these affected communities.

There should be another body apart from the EFCC to monitor the activities of governors in the states. This is because the way they run the affairs of the states is becoming worrisome. Many of the governors plunge their states into deep indebtedness. There must be a law in place to check excessive borrowing by states.