THE MAN: BUHARI 5. General Buhari lives a Spartan and modest life. FACT: He occupied lofty positions like the Governor of the defunct North-Eastern State of Nigeria, Head of State, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources and Chairman of NNPC, Chairman of Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund (PTF). He could easily be one of Nigerias wealthiest politicians with oil blocs to loot because he birthed and supervised the establishment of our existing refineries. Today, we import 70% of the fuel we use because those after him have literally crippled the refineries. He could have retired into stupendous opulence like the Danjumas, Obasanjos, and Abachas of this world. But Buhari bucked the trend and chose the honourable path. FACT: Buhari is the only head of state that did not promote himself to a full star General in office. Muhammadu Buhari is the only former head of state that did not allocate any oil block to himself during and after his tenure, even as a minister of petroleum. Muhammadu Buhari did not build or buy any house as a head of state, Petroleum minister or PTF chairman. He was collecting loans from Banks as a petroleum minister to build his house which took many years. The records are there in the banks for all to see. Muhammadu Buhari did not increase the pump price of fuel as a head of state one day. His anti-materialism is unparalleled. He is not self-serving. Little wonder he is called the peoples General. MAI GASKIYA, posterity will reward you now and in time to come. Many like him, only few do not like him, but like him or hate him, he is a living example of zero corruption, anti-materialism, discipline and prudence. FACT: All through his days in the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), GMB never drew any salaries and relied fully on his pension and proceeds from his farming business. FACT: Buhari is one of the cleanest men I have ever met in my life. If anybody wants me to dislike Buhari, such person should give me an example of his corruption. I will run away from him totally. But right now, there is no evidence. On the contrary, the more they attack him on this issue of corruption, the more they are making him Gold bier. I will give two examples. One, Babangida thought Buhari was making a lot of money on counter trading, so he set up two independent bodies to investigate counter trading. One of the bodies was headed by J.K. Randle, while the second was headed by Prof. Aboyade of blessed memory. None of them found anything against Buhari. None; I attested before the two bodies. Great Aboyade commission was digging into Buhari’s counter trading, J.K. Randle, who’s still alive, did the same thing. But both of them produced reports that showed that counter trading was so clean and was making so much money for Nigeria. Then two, soon after Obasanjo was sworn in, there was a social function for him in Lagos or so, then surprisingly, some people tried to praise Buhari, Obasanjo said: ‘don’t praise him, I have not probed him.’ It was after that incident that Obasanjo set up Dr. Haroun’s probe panel of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF). Haroun probed PTF inside out. Buhari was discovered to be as clean as snow. You know, why he agreed to be the head of PTF was not to condone what Abacha was doing then, but he saw it as a way of serving the country and he did well. I have the record. Haroun came out and said PTF account was audited every year while Federal Government account was not audited in 36 years. You know Babangida detained Buhari for 40 months after he overthrew him. Buhari’s mother died while he was in detention and as a Muslim, I expected Babangida to rise above politics and allow Buhari to go bury his mother. If he was released, I am sure he wouldn’t have run away. Buhari was not allowed to go bury his mother. But in the night after the woman was buried, Babangida released Buhari. His son died, the same thing happened. Anyway, after Buhari came out of detention, he told Babangida to tell the world about his corruption. The records are there. The same thing happened with the PTF. He told Obasanjo to publish the report of the panel, but Obasanjo could not publish it because it was a certificate of honour for Buhari. If that Haroun’s report had any page in it that indicted Buhari, Obasanjo would have used that to disqualify Buhari from contesting against him. Buhari is clean. He is not corrupt. To show how Buhari loves Nigeria, he doesn’t like spending Nigerian money frivolously. When he overthrew Shehu Shagari, Buhari never changed any chair or curtain in Dodan Barracks. Buhari used what Shagari was using until he left. As minister, our total pocket money under Buhari was N200 per month. You could spend less than N200 without accounting for it, but anything above N200, you must account for it. When he increased the money to N250, we clapped for him at the executive council.Now, as a former governor of the defunct north-eastern state, former minister of petroleum, former head of state, former executive chairman of PTF, Buhari has no house in Abuja. If he goes to Abuja, he stays in a private hotel. He has no house either uphill or downhill, apart from his house in Kaduna.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 07:15:31 +0000