SAN FRANCISCO, December 22, (THEWILL) – Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on anti-corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay SAN, has called on the immediate past President, Goodluck Jonathan, to seek an audience with his successor, Muhammadu Buhari, and confess all he knows about the messy $2bn arms procurement deal.
Speaking with The Punch, the senior advocate expressed optimism that if Jonathan could provide adequate information on the matter, he would be accorded the adequate respect by virtue of being a former President.
A former National Security Adviser, NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) alongside others are currently being prosecuted for the roles they played in the arms scandal. The embattled ex-NSA had claimed to be acting on “instructions from above” in the controversial disbursement of the funds.
But reacting to whether Jonathan could be arrested despite his soaring popularity in the international community for conceding defeat to Buhari in the March 28 presidential election, Sagay noted that the issue was a ‘sensitive’ one, but contended that conceding defeat to Buhari did not make Jonathan a hero as one good action could not make up for several evil actions.
According to him, “To start with, the great reputation he (Jonathan) seems to have is the fact that he admitted defeat. There are thousands of actions that are negative actions so I don’t think that we should overplay it.”
“But on the issue of the former President going to prison, I agree that it is a bit touchy politically but the case of Jonathan is particularly bad if you see the manner with which the country’s resources and government coffers have been turned into a bazaar parlour where everyone goes to collect his own share. Just like Warri boys would ask, ‘You don obtain your own?”
“Everyone was going to ‘obtain’ under Jonathan. It was just bizarre but I understand that dealing with a former Head of State is always a sensitive issue but I would say he should have a private chat with President Muhammadu Buhari and say all that he knows and if there is anything he has to release, then he should release it and be allowed to go quietly into retirement.”
