President Muhammadu Buhari, according to presidential spokesperson Femi Adesina, can never be friends with somebody who steals public funds.
In a piece titled “PMB and the NDDC” that he published on his Facebook page on Thursday, Adesina stated that the president “hates corruption with a passion.”
According to the spokesman, the president suspended the Niger Delta Development Commission’s management board and ordered a forensic assessment of the organization due to corruption.
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He described the NDDC as an interventionist organization that was created to help citizens but became a private cash cow for a few individuals.
“Well, it is meant to be an interventionist agency, but one thing is crystal clear. Despite hundreds of billions of naira invested over 20 years, the true intervention has been in the pockets of some select people, rather than on the region, and the lives of the people in general,” he wrote.
“There’s one thing President Muhammadu Buhari hates with a passion. Grand larceny. Expropriation and purloining. Once it’s confirmed that you are filching from the public purse, you can never be his friend, no matter who you are.
“So he had to bring to a halt the gravy train that the NDDC had become over the years. And no stampede, no rout or panic. The house cleaning must be done, and done well. Thorough.
“In the Niger Delta, you see plenty of signboards, but little or no projects. In other words, people collect contracts, erect signboards announcing the project, but the job never gets done. And the contractors get paid.
“What to do? A forensic audit was necessary. Some powerful forces mounted robust resistance, but they didn’t reckon with the iron will of the President. The audit was done, and report submitted.”
