Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has responded to the
suggestion by President Muhammadu Buhari that the administration he (Obasanjo)
led between 1999 and 2007 wasted $16billion on power projects without anything
to show for it.
Mr. Buhari had while receiving a delegation of Buhari Support
Organisation (BSO) at the Presidential Villa Tuesday criticised previous
Nigerian administrations for "lack of imaginations."
In what appeared a direct
reference to Mr. Obasanjo, the president said “one of the former Heads of State
between that time was bragging that he spent more than 15 billion American dollars,
not Naira, on power. Where is the power? Where is the power? And now we have to
pay the debts.”
The former President, who backed
Mr. Buhari’s election in 2015, but who has since turned one of the fiercest
critics of the administration, has now shot back through a statement by his
media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi.
In the statement emailed to
PREMIUM TIMES, Mr. Obasanjo described Mr. Buhari’s claim as ignorant, and
unsubstantiated.
The former president said, “It
has come to the attention of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo that a statement
credited to President Muhammadu Buhari, apparently without correct information
and based on ignorance, suggested that $16 billion was wasted on
power projects by “a former President”.
“We believe that the President
was re-echoing the unsubstantiated allegation against Chief Obasanjo by his own
predecessor but one.
“While it is doubtful that a
President with proper understanding of the issue would utter such, it should be
pointed out that records from the National Assembly had exculpated President
Obasanjo of any wrong-doing concerning the power sector and has proved the
allegations as false.
“For the records, Chief Obasanjo
has addressed the issues of the power sector and the
allegations against him on many occasions and platforms, including in his
widely publicised book, My Watch in which he exhaustively stated the facts and
reproduced various reports by both the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC), which conducted a clinical investigation into the allegations against
Chief Obasanjo, and the Ad-Hoc Committee on the Review of theRecommendations in
the Report of the Committee on Power on the Investigation into how the Huge
Sums Of Money was Spent on Power Generation, Transmission And Distribution
between June 1999 and May 2007 without Commensurate Result.
“We recommend that the President
and his co-travellers should read Chapters 41, 42, 43 and 47 of My Watch for Chief
Obasanjo’s insights and perspectives on the power sector and indeed what
transpired when the allegation of $16 billion on power projects was
previously made. If he cannot read the three-volume book, he should detail his
aides to do so and summarise the chapters in a language that he will
easily understand.
“In the same statement credited
to the President, it was alleged that there was some bragging by Chief Obasanjo
over $16 billion spent on power. To inform the uninformed, the
so-called $16billion power expenditure was an allegation against Chief
Obasanjo’s administration and not his claim.
“The President also queried
where the power generated is. The answer is simple: The power is in the seven
National Integrated Power Projects and eighteen gas turbines that Chief
Obasanjo’s successor who originally made the allegation of
$16 billion did not clear from the ports for over a year and the
civil works done on the sites.
“Chief Obasanjo challenges, and
in fact encourages, anybody to set up another enquiry if in doubt and
unsatisfied with the EFCC report and that of the Hon. Aminu Tambuwal-led ad-hoc
committee.”
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