NYAKOGATE: YAR'ADUA'S DEADLY WAR LEGITIMISING CORRUPTION
The saying that anything built on false hood hardly thrives cannot be said
to be ordinary sayings of the wise. In nine out of ten cases the above
saying proves itself right. It is not an overstatement to therefore say
that the PDP as a party and its controlled federal government of the
federation have once more proved that they are far from being the
democrats they claim to be.
I personally think that democracy is all about being democratic and
adhering to all its tenets, transparent and observance of the rule of law.
Unfortunately for all true genuine democrats within or out of the PDP, the
picture the ¡largest party in Africa¢ is painting about democracy in
Nigeria today is not only gloomy but also one that is capable of causing
serious political crisis in the country similar or even worse than what
happened in Kenya recently.
The recent attempt by the PDP dominated 25-member state house of assembly
members were so uncomfortable with the trend of expenditure, fraud and
abuse of law and due process by the state governor, Admiral Murtala Nyako
since he was sworn into office in May last year. It will be recalled that
the state assembly served the Governor with an impeachment notice accusing
him of ¡committing acts of gross misconduct, abuse of office and
fraudulent spending of public funds¢. The legislators cited section 188 of
the 1999 constitution which gave them powers to act the way they did. The
legislators must be commended for being proactive and shown commitment to
save the state funds from being drained into Nyakos¢s purse.
The crux of the matter is that Nyako has betrayed the trust and confidence
reposed in him by the people of Adamawa state (assuming that the people
voted him into power) by personalizing the office of the Governor. He
collected N141million from the coffers of the state for renovating his
personal house but till today the work has not been done. He also forced
the state to purchase N42m seedlings from his Sobore Farms. The issue is
that the prices of the seedlings were grossly overinflated. He also
illegally and unconstitutionally set up an agency of government called
special projects directorate and appointed his sons as Coordinators and
further contravened section 42(1) (a) and (b) of the 1999 constitution by
allegedly allowing the selection instead of election of candidates for
local government council elections.
From the above charges put up as reasons for the impeachment notice, one
can confidently say without any iota of doubt that Nyako has infringed on
the constitution. And as law makers, the legislators have no alternative
but to enforce total compliance of the constitution which they swore to
defend and protect at all costs no matter whose ox is gored.
It is therefore ironical that the same Yar¢adua convened a meeting of all
stakeholders in the Adamawa crisis at the presidential Villa on Wednesday
to pressurize the assembly men into abandoning a matter that is purely
seeing to be a constitutional breach by the governor. Newspapers reported
that Nyako, the Speaker of the state assembly, James Barka, PDP national
Chairman and his Deputy had a closed door meeting with Yar¢adua with a
view to killing the process of impeaching Nyako for fraud, forgery,
corruption and an infringement on rule of law.
The questions in the minds of concerned Nigerians are as many as you can
think of. Has Yar¢adua sacrificed his war against corruption for the open
thievery of public funds by Governor Nyako? Are PDP Governors free to do
whatever they can with public funds and go Scot-free even if evidenced is
put forward by a constitutional arm of government like the legislature and
such facts dismissed as ¡a family affair¢? Is that not ironical and
speaking from two sides of his mouth for Yar¢adua who claims to be a born
again dogged fighter of corruption to now turn around to tell those who
want to fight corruption to go to hell? My conclusion is that Yar¢adua is
either eating his words on corruption or he has not been sincere in his
war on the matter. Or could it be that his resolve to fight corruption has
been trampled upon by some more powerful PDP hulks?
Even the Speaker of the assembly had said that what the members did was to
raise matters of constitutional importance since they are all largely
allegations of gross misconduct and constitutional breaches which must be
addressed constitutionally and not politically.
So for Yar¢adua or the PDP national leadership to make an attempt to
frustrate the enforcement of the constitution by the assembly men is not
only illegal, unconstitutional but also morally suicidal and a cog in the
much touted resolve of Yar¢adua to wage a relentless war against
corruption. For them to say that the matter is a family issue that
concerns only PDP is not only a big lie but a big attempt from the highest
office in the country to cover up fraud and corruption. Ordinarily it is a
matter that concerns all and sundry because it involves public funds.
It is my candid view that the case against Murtala Nyako must not to be
taken lightly¢ Apart from trampling on the constitution, Nyako has
committed acts inimical to the growth of the constitution and development
of the state. Most importantly, Nyako has committed fraud and other
corrupt practices which should not be allowed to go above the head of the
EFCC.
I also have no doubt in my mind that the EFCC under the able resolve
commitment of its Chairman, Farida Waziri and commence top level and
serious investigations into the tenure of Nyako so that right things will
be done to safeguard the lean resources of Adamawa state.
BY HAJIYA HAFSAT M. ZANNA
(musahafsat@yahoo.com)
87, GAMBORU NGALA STREET, MAIDIGURI
BORNO STATE