But for the lastminute change of mind by President Muhammadu Buhari, many ministers and aides of his predecessor, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, perceived to be corrupt, may have been in detention by now, New Telegraph has learnt. It was gathered yesterday that the president had decided to announce an immediate clampdown on top officials of the defunct Jonathan administration in his inaugural speech last Friday, but was persuaded by some associates to drop the idea. Buhari, who has made fighting corruption a cardinal policy of his administration, a source said, was urged to make haste slowly and avoid creating the wrong impression before the international community. It was based on his intention that security agents at the nation’s borders were placed on the alert not to allow any of the former ministers or top aides of Jonathan to travel out of the country.
The source said before he revised his speech, Buhari had wanted to announce an immediate clampdown on some officials of the Jonathan administration perceived to be corrupt with an immediate probe of their activities while in office. Buhari’s inaugural speech, which he read on Friday, dwelt more on what should be done to revamp the economy and not on how to recover looted funds and punish corrupt persons. The cardinal focus of Buhari’s electioneering campaign was how to fight corruption and make sure that looted funds are recovered.
But the speech read at the inauguration was silent on what should happen to those believed to have looted the treasury. The source told New Telegraph that after Buhari agreed to drop the portions of his speech on the clampdown, the new decision was not immediately conveyed to security agents who had been stationed at the airports to maintain surveillance on past top government officials on their watch list. The source added that some security agents had begun to act on the initial directive before Buhari got wind of it and ordered the release of a statement dissociating him from the move to either delay or prevent some past government officials from travel-ling outside the country. In the statement issued on Saturday night by Mallam Garba Shehu, the president ordered security operatives not to molest any former government officials or stop them from travelling abroad.
“Officials of past administration, including ministers, are entitled to their full rights and privileges under the constitution and must not be subjected to any undue harassment and intimidation at the airports or at other points of entry and exit and we have not banned anyone from travelling.
“Unless otherwise directed by the courts, no law-abiding citizens should be barred from travelling abroad. We must treat fellow citizens with courtesy and respect. Officials at the borders and other points of entry and exit should conduct their affairs in strict compliance with due process. No one has my permission to bar anyone from travelling abroad”. But the source stated that “these security agencies had started acting because no counter signal was sent to them and the report of their action came to the president which necessitated the statement above.” According to him, though Buhari heeded the advice not to order a clampdown on top officials of the last administration, he was not happy to drop his intention to fight corruption from day one as he had promised.
The content of the speech, he said would have affected some neighbouring countries, whose economies depended largely on smuggling of goods into Nigeria. “People who were saying that the inaugural speech was not rich enough or did not give direction on how to fight corruption did not understand what went on behind the scene before the read speech was produced. He (Buhari) was told that there was no way he would be reading a speech that would have high consequences on those who have come to felicitate with him.
“If Buhari had been allowed to read his original speech, by now, many would have been under house arrest or properly arrested by security agencies. Those who prevailed upon him to change his speech believed that there would be a better time for the president to give such directives and fight corruption and that would be when he must have gone through the books. “Also, the party members were of the opinion that he should be very careful on how to address the issue of corruption so that some of its leaders would not be affected,” the source stated. New Telegraph learnt that Buhari would soon address the nation and reveal his roadmap on how he intends to fight corruption.
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