ACCOUNTABILITY SHOWDOWN
Special to NigeriaCentral.com
Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, social democrat and former impeached Governor of Kaduna State (during the 2nd Republic), has condemned President Olusegun Obasanjo for absolving former head of state Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar’s government of fraud allegation estimated at N32.5 billion. (Obasanjo is in this May 29, 1999 handover picture with Abubakar. Fomer CGS retired Admiral Mike Akhigbe is in the middle).
Obasanjo has since described the allegation against Abubakar’s regime as mischievous and untrue. It is important to note that one of the initial acts of the Obasanjo presidency was the suspension (and later cancellation of most of the contracts and deals formalized a few months, weeks and days before the then popular Gen. Abubakar and his group left office. Musa disagreed by arguing that the Christopher Kolade probe panel should be allowed to carry out an independent investigation and offer its findings to Nigerians.
Musa recalled that a former Head of State of Nigeria “warned the administrators that they should not expose their predecessors no matter what they found against them. And attempts being made then to probe former administrators who handed over empty treasuries was stopped. Now, it means President Obasanjo is doing the same thing like that head of state. He is saying indirectly that his predecessor should not be probed.”
Musa is demanding some consistency by stating “if he (Obasanjo) cannot probe Gen. Abubakar, then he has no moral right to probe Gen. Ibrahim Babangida and the late Gen. Sani Abacha and any other former ruler.” He added that “If this report to drop probing Gen. Abubakar is confirmed then I have lost confidence in Obasanjo’s administration.
