OPEN LETTER TO MR. PRESIDENT AND COMMANDER IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMED FORCES FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA- MUHAMMADU BUHARI GCFC
ON BUDGET FRAUD AND CORRUPTION IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Your
Excellency sir, let me once again commend you for the good work you are
executing and the credible leadership you have offered our nation since
assumption of office about a year and half ago.
I write this
letter to you as a last resort to seek action on the allegations of
budget fraud, abuse of office and corruption I leveled against Speaker
Yakubu Dogara and three other Principal Officers of the House of
Representatives and use your good office to ensure that urgent reforms
are implemented in the House to sanitize it from the monumental
individual and systemic corruption that has become the biggest business
in the House of Representatives.
Although I wrote you a letter
few weeks ago, seeking audience to provide you with comprehensive
briefing on the allegations i raised and endemic corruption in the
House, iam yet to get a reply. However, I fully understand that your
busy schedule might have caused the delay. Had I got that opportunity
before I left the country, I am optimistic that you would have by now
been in a clearer picture of how corrupt the Speaker, our number four
citizen is and the three other Principal Officers, individual and
systemic corruption in the House and my crusade to continue to expose
corruption in the House, Nigeria as a whole and push for urgent reforms
in the House.
I crave the indulgence of your excellency to pardon
me for resorting to an open letter to draw your attention to this
matter. The need to deal with the matter decisively and the urgency
involved necessitated opting for this channel. Besides, I am aware of
some powerful forces working behind the scene in cohort with some
members of leadership of the House to ensure that I never get access to
you and the matter never see the light of the day.
Your
Excellency, i attained a modest educational and career height before
joining the House. I come from a good home with a rich and diversed
background. My middle class parents brought me up in a very descipline
environment and instilled in me the virtures of hard work, honesty and
courage. It is a training that taught me never to respect a corrupt
person no matter how highly placed. I am a responsible young man with no
passion for vengeance or mischief. I know exactly where I am coming
from and where I am heading. I know exactly what Iam doing sir.
Sir,
it is noteworthy to mention that in my 5 years in the House as a two
term member and Chairman House Committee on Finance 2011-2015 and
Chairman House Committee on Appropriation 2015-2016, I have never abused
my office or corruptly enrich myself. My offense was standing against
budget fraud, immunity for Principal Officers of the House and exposing
corruption in a way that has never been done or seen in the history of
the House of Representatives.
I am a product of the establishment
but I have always been uncomfortable and have always looked for the
right opportunity or trigger to rebel against the ills of the system
through exposing fraudulent acts, corruption and abuse of office in high
places for the good of Nigeria and Nigerians. My case whether people
believe me or not is that of a young man who is frustrated with the
deep-rooted system of corruption in high places. I have decided that
enough is enough and I am ready to take on any corrupt person or
institution especially the House of Representatives. Some people have
raised issue that why did I wait until I left office before opening up.
That assertion is not true as I have always spoken within and outside on
issues like this since I joined the House in 2011. A simple research
will confirm this.
Your Excellency, in the last few months I have
raised grievous allegations of budget fraud, abuse of office and
individual and systemic corruption against Speaker Yakubu Dogara and
three other Principal Officers of the House. I followed it with a
petition to the security and anti graft agencies including the DSS,
EFCC, ICPC and the Police. I have had several interactions with these
agencies and pledged my continuous cooperation and willingness to stand
witness during prosecution.
I took it for granted that the House
on resumption from recess will do the needful by asking the Speaker to
step aside and conduct a comprehensive investigation in collaboration
with the ongoing external investigation, but what my colleagues did
remains a shock to the country and the world at large. They decided to
punish me for exposing corruption, while celebrating the people I
accused of corruption. The Speaker of course took advantage of the
deep-rooted systemic corruption in the House to blackmail members to
support him. I have been suspended from the House for a year and banned
from holding any position for the rest of the 8th Assembly and I must
apologise to the House before I am allowed back even after the
expiration of the 1 year suspension.
Sir, this is an institution
that is supposed to support you in fighting corruption. You have taken
on corruption and corrupt people decisively, the crusade will be
incomplete if corrupt elements are allowed to infest the Legislative arm
especially the House of Representatives. You should by now know that
you will never get the required support to fight corruption with Dogara
as Speaker of the House and most importantly if reforms are not
implemented in the House.
Your Excellency, let me use this
opportunity to inform you that I have challenged my suspension in court
because it is unconstitutional and the seat belongs to my constituents
who are proud of my anti-corruption crusade in the House. My
constituents have also filed a case in court to challenge the
suspension. I have also stated clearly that I will never apologise to
any member in the House or the House itself as I did not commit any
offense and I will continue to stand by all the allegations I raised.
Sir,
I should also bring to your notice that the Speaker is making frantic
efforts to ensure that this matter is suppressed. They will do all they
can, including blackmailing you to ensure that the matter is not
investigated and culprits prosecuted. In your case, since they cannot
find issues of corruption associated with you, they will resort to
frustrating any request you forward to the House for approval with a
view to arm twisting you or trying to weaken you in the eyes of the
public and international community. This is how they operate. You should
watch out and be vigilant.
On issue of reforms, your excellency
may wish to use your good office to decisively get the House TO END THE
FRAUDULENT ALLOWANCES REGIME and publish all entitlements of members,
stop budget fraud, disclose internal budget of the House, open up
finances of the House for external audit, implement e-parliament,
activate electronic voting and attendance system, introduce individual
member's and standing committees' performance template, revert to old
house rules to avoid contempt of court and draconian powers Speaker
Dogara accorded himself, drop immunity for Principal Officers, pass the
anti corruption bills sent about a year ago by your good self, make
Speaker Dogara and others refund hundred of millions collected for
rents, return 40 billion stolen from 100 billion zonal intervention
funds, return projects diverted to his farm and other fraudulent
projects worth billions, compel Speaker Dogara and other occused
Principal Officers to step down for prosecution and make the House
apologise to Nigerians for the individual and systemic fraud and
corruption and gross abuse of office that has become the hallmark of the
House over the years.
Your Excellency, the House of
Representatives stinks of corruption and something urgent must be done
to salvage the situation. I pray that you direct the various agencies
that I submitted petitions to expedite action on the matter as Nigerians
and the world are watching to see how we will deal with this issue of
incontrovertible corruption by Speaker Dogara and others and systemic
corruption in the House. We have a golden opportunity to show the world
that there is zero tolerance for corruption under your leadership. Even
more, is the willingness of a serving member in my person who
understands these issues and who has offered to stand as witness and
provide every support towards prosecution. There is no better way of
demonstrating our commitment to the fight against corruption than to use
Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Deputy Speaker Lasun, Whip Doguwa and Minority
Leader Ogor as example.
I strongly believe that if the security
and anti-graft agencies expedite action on the allegations and the
recommended reforms are implemented, it will go a long way in resolving
the crisis and provide the ventilation for the House to commence the
process of self-cleansing to repair its battered image and restore the
trust of Nigerians in the House. It is a reform that Speaker Dogara has
completely lost the moral ground to superintend.
Your Excellency,
let me draw your attention to a major constraint which has always been
the threat to my life since the beginning of the budget fraud saga. I
have raised alarm severally that the House cabal led by Speaker Yakubu
Dogara are using Hon. Herma Hembe to either assassinate or kidnap me or
members of my family. Hon. Hembe has been stalking me. I have been
worried and written to the security agencies but none of these people
have been questioned. In fact at some point, they tried to use some
elements in one of the security agencies to abduct me. All these were
reported by my lawyers.
It is against this background that I took
the decision to stay away from the country until my safety is
guaranteed. However, I will be available once my attention is required
in respect of my petition against the Speaker and others or any petition
that may come against me. I am therefore pleading with you sir to look
at this issue with your usual dispassionate approach. For whatever my
limitations are as a person, how I am treated will determine if in
future people especially those within a system can defy personal risk
and speak out against corruption.
I pray that God Almighty
continue to bless you with long life, good health and more wisdom as you
steer the ship of our great country.
Thank you.
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