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The government
of former President Goodluck Jonathan has responded to allegations by
Kaduna Governor Nasir El Rufai that the regime spent “billions of naira”
on Nigeria’s independence celebrations.
In a statement signed on October 3, 2015 by erstwhile Minister of National Planning, Dr. Abubakar Sulaiman, dismissed El Rufai’s commentary as and “ungodly fabrication of lies” and the “rantings of a favour seeker”.
“It is high time government
functionaries desisted from abusing their immunity by destroying history
and trading on lies just to gain cheap popularity or curry one favour
or the other from certain quarters,” the statement read. “Perhaps,
President Olusegun Obasanjo was right in his assessment of El Rufai when
he said in his latest memoir, My Watch that his vivid
recollection of him (El Rufai) is his penchant for lying, for unfair
embellishment of stories, and his inability to sustain loyalty for
long.”
The statement provides a breakdown of
Independence Anniversary spending from 2012 – 2014 and says that 2010
and 2011, which are not readily available are similar to the other years
under President Jonathan.
Read the full statement below:
We were taken aback by the recent
comment reportedly credited to His Excellency, Governor Nasir El-rufai
where he claimed that the immediate past President, His Excellency, Dr.
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s administration spent N64billion to cover the
country independence anniversary spending in five years.
The break down, according to the
governor showed that N13 billion was spent in 2011, N15 billion in 2012
and N14 billion in 2013 and N22 billion allegedly spent in 2014.
This tissue of lies was contained on his Facebook comment on Thursday.
Ordinarily, we would have allowed this
to go as just ranting of a favour seeker, but for the sake of ordinary
Nigerians who were abreast of happenings under the administration and
also those who never did, we will like to set the record straight.
It is important to correct the misinformation so that the unsuspecting public would not be misled.
For the record, a breakdown of our
anniversary spending between 2012 to 2014 amounted to N332.6 million. We
challenge the Office of the Government of the Federation( OSGF) to
publish these details for the consumption of the public.
For the record, a breakdown of our
spending for this event between 2012 and 2104 goes thus; 2012-107.6
million; 2013 – 45 million and 2014 had 180 million. So, the question
here is where did the billions as claimed by El Rufai emanate from?
Even though that of 2010 and 2011 are
not handy now, but it should be known that they all fall within the same
bracket as the one stated, except that the 2010 anniversary was a
Golden one when the country marked her 50th year of independence. But
even then , not such outrageous sum was either budgeted or expended.
Again, it is germane to explain the
increase in the 2013 anniversary spending for the purpose of
accountability. The National Honours Award Investiture was incorporated
into the celebration, thus making it two events in one, hence the
N174,800,000.00 budget.
We also want to add that the said award
investiture could not hold in 2013 and the approved budget rolled over
and was utilized to organise the investiture in 2014.
It is high time government functionaries
desisted from abusing their immunity by destroying history and trading
on lies just to gain cheap popularity or curry one favour or the other
from certain quarters.
Perhaps, President Olusegun Obasanjo was right in his assessment of El Rufai when he said in his latest memoir, My Watch
that his vivid recollection of him (El Rufai) is his penchant for
lying, for unfair embellishment of stories, and his inability to sustain
loyalty for long.
That exactly is what El Rufai has done with his ungodly fabrication of lies against Jonathan government.
One hopes that President Buhari would be
on guard against being misled by the likes of El Rufai who are hell
bent on misinforming the Nigerian publics.
Signed
Dr. Abubakar Olanrewaju Sulaiman,
Immediate past Minister/Deputy Chairman, National Planning
3-10-2015
Immediate past Minister/Deputy Chairman, National Planning
3-10-2015
If my memory is still intact, one thing that marked the Independence celebration during GEJ's tenure was that it was mostly low key, celebrated inside Aso Rock with the President not going to Eagle Square.
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