Chairman, Northern Senators Forum, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, APC, Nasarawa West, Monday, took a swipe at former President Olusegun Obasanjo for writing and criticizing President Muhammadu Buhari, saying the former President ought to be on trial for his activities while in office.
Addressing journalists, Monday in Abuja, Senator Adamu, however, said he agreed with the position of Obasanjo that the anti-corruption war, as currently being prosecuted, was selective.
He stressed that he was enjoying such benefits, going by what he described as Obasanjo’s actions while in government from 1999 to 2007.
Senator Adamu said: “Chief Obasanjo said President Buhari is selective in his anti-corruption war. I agree with him because if the President were not selective, Chief Obasanjo himself would be in the dock today on trial on charges arising from the pursuit of his third term gambit in the National Assembly in 2006.
“He (Obasanjo) knows as well as I and other leading members of the PDP that he badly wanted it and initiated the process of constitutional amendment. He influenced each member of the National Assembly who signed to support the amendment.”
He alleged that Obasanjo gave money to members of the then National Assembly to pursue his third term bid.
He said: “The money was not his, and it was not appropriated by the National Assembly as required by law. I, therefore, agree that in failing to make former President Obasanjo account for the money, President Buhari is waging his anti-corruption war selectively. “Should we forget that President Buhari has also not bothered to interrogate Obasanjo’s role in the Halliburton scandal for which some Americans are cooling their heels in jail? Perhaps President Buhari might wish to look in the Siemens affairs in which Obasanjo’s administration was indicted.”
The former governor of Nasarawa State, who also picked holes in Obasanjo’s low marks for Buhari’s government on economy and security, declared that Buhari inherited most of the problems afflicting the nation from the two areas.
He said further: “Every administration grapples with problems thrown at it by circumstances beyond its control. President Buhari inherited an economy that was unsteady on its feet.
“He also inherited the security problems such as Boko Haram, armed robberies and kidnappings. Yes, I agree that under his watch these problems should grow less, not more. But the solution to problems such as these, is a slow and agonising process since he has no powers to simply make them disappear overnight.”
