MAGU:BUHARI HAS LOST CONTROL OF HIS GOVT.
EXCLUSIVE: Magu: Buhari has lost control of his govt., former Nigerian leaders say
By allowing the State Security Service to undermine him in his quest to make
Ibrahim Magu substantive chairman of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC), President Muhammadu Buhari has lost control of his
government and should consider overhauling his administration forthwith, two
former Nigerian leaders have told PREMIUM TIMES
In separate interviews with this
newspaper on Wednesday, the former commanders-in-chief, who spoke on strict
anonymity, said Mr. Buhari should be very worried about the direction his
administration is headed.
“I strongly reject the notion
that Buhari is helpless in his own cabinet,” one of the former leaders said. “I
would never have allowed such humiliating insubordination in my administration.
It was unthinkable that my own appointee would oppose my nominee at the
National Assembly. No one could have tried that with me. He or she would have
paid dearly for it.”
“What happened showed clearly
that Buhari is not in charge.”
The second official said what
happened in the Magu case was “entirely inconceivable in a presidential system
anywhere in the world.”
In a painful effort to make sense
of the development and convey his “rude shock”, the former leader said Mr.
Buhari might actually be the one behind the “repeated humiliation of his own
nominee”.
“Unless he is the one behind the
whole controversy by deliberately double-dealing with his own nominee and other
subordinates, there’s no way I would have thought a situation like this will
play out as someone who had been privileged to hold that position.
“As far as I am concerned, things
seem to have fallen apart. It is also possible that he has never been in
control. It is very unfortunate.”
Weighing in further on the
controversy, one of the former leaders said the intrigues were a clear
indication the president had lost grip of his government.
“For me, it’s clearly disrespectful,”
another former commander-in-chief said. “His (Buhari’s) appointees are hostile
towards him and I think that’s not something we see regularly in governments
across the world.”
The former leader said “not a
single one” of his appointees ever made any attempt that could “remotely be
deemed an act of insubordination.”
“Never did any of my appointees
even tried to override a decision that had been concluded.”
One of the leaders recommended
that heads should roll if Mr. Buhari must regain control of his government.
“I will recommend an urgent
cabinet shake-up if there’s a way he could go about that before it’s too late,”
the former leader said.
“That’s about the most important
decision to take after today.”
The comments came hours after Mr.
Magu, Mr. Buhari’s preferred nominee for the EFCC top job, was rejected for the
second time in three months by the Nigerian Senate.
The senators hinged their
decision on a security report authored by the State Security Service (SSS),
which portrayed Mr. Magu as “a liability to the anti-corruption stance” of
the Buhari administration.
The disparaging document was
produced by the SSS despite President Buhari’s public posturing to get Mr. Magu
cleared.
The SSS had last year written a
similarly indicting letter to the Senate as its response to the Senate’s
request for security appraisal of Mr. Magu in the confirmation process.
In the October 2016 letter, the
SSS said Mr. Magu was involved in controversial matters including living in a
house allegedly payed for by a man being prosecuted for corruption. It advised
that Mr. Magu not be confirmed.
Based on the conclusion of the
secret police, senators threw out Mr. Magu’s nomination.
But in another letter in January,
Mr. Buhari requested that the Senate reconsider its position and clear Mr. Magu
as substantial chairman, saying the allegations against him were false and
baseless.
The EFCC chief has been operating
in an acting capacity since he was first appointed by President Buhari in
November 2015.
On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Magu
appeared before the senators for his confirmation hearing. He answered a
series of questions on the activities of his agency.
But Dino Melaye, a senator from
Kogi, shocked the nation when he indicated that the SSS had forwarded a new
report insisting on the validity of its earlier memo and insisting the EFCC
chairman was unsuitable for the post.
“In the light of the foregoing,
Magu has failed the integrity test and will eventually constitute a liability
to the anti-corruption stand of the current government,” Mr. Melaye, said
quoting excerpts of the letter.
Consequently, the Senate ruled
Mr. Magu stands rejected.
The botched confirmation could,
however, be a fallout of a long-drawn battle for supremacy between different
blocs in the Buhari cabinet.
PREMIUM TIMES had exclusively
reported in mid-2016 how a major political crisis was brewing between the National
Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, and the Director-General of the SSS, Lawal
Daura.
The division within the
presidency was largely believed to be responsible for the embarrassing objection raised by the SSS against
Mr. Magu last year.
It remained unclear how Mr.
Buhari plans to approach the matter going forward. His spokespersons, Femi
Adesina and Garba Shehu, did not answer or return calls seeking clarification
on the matter.
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