Former President, Goodluck Jonathan has said he is proud to have been
the President under whom Nigeria made her best improvement in the
Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International.
Jonathan stated this in a press statement sent on his
behalf by his former Special Assistant on New Media, Reno Omokri.
The statement was a response to claims by former Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) boss, Farida Waziri, in which she
said at an interactive session in Lagos that she will kneel down to
thank former President Goodluck Jonathan for sacking her as the
commission’s boss.
According to Mrs Waziri, had she not been sacked by the ex-President, she
would have been traumatized by now, given the ongoing revelation of
alleged grand corruption that took place under the last administration.
However, Jonathan said that Farida Waziri has a history of
badmouthing former Presidents to enter the good books of the incumbent
President.
He said: “My attention has been drawn to comments made by Farida
Waziri to the effect that she was removed as Chairperson of the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission because of a particular case she was
handling.
“Mrs. Waziri also said that she received a call from Aso Rock over this case which instructed her to drop her investigations.
“It is understandable that when there is a new government in power,
people would want to ingratiate themselves to the new administration and
one of the easiest way to do this is by demonizing the previous
government.
“Nigerians will remember that Mrs. Farida Waziri was appointed as the
chairperson of the EFCC by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua in
May 2008 under very controversial circumstances after the unceremonious
removal of the pioneer Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu.
“It will be recalled that after she was appointed, Mrs. Farida Waziri
made some uncomplimentary remarks against former President Olusegun
Obasanjo because he said “I know that the woman they brought in to
replace Ribadu (Farida Waziri) was not the right person for that job”.
“In response to that statement, Mrs. Farida Waziri described
ex-President Obasanjo as a man known for “speaking in a manner that
betrays his status as an elder statesman”. She also accused President
Obasanjo of ‘mischief’.
“Farida Waziri made those comments to ingratiate herself to the then
administration and her accusations against former President Obasanjo
were denied.
“Mrs. Farida Waziri also accused her predecessor, Malam Nuhu Ribadu,
of being used by former President Obasanjo “to push the aborted third
term agenda”. And claimed to have been Mr. Ribadu’s instructor at the
Police Academy.
“Again, her comments were found to be untrue and Malam Ribadu released a statement then and said as follows;
“This is a unclad lie that she keeps flaunting to seek undue
relevance and validate her own appointment. At no time in my career did I
work under the same section or unit as her. In fact, contrary to the
Waziri’s claim that she ‘trained’ me, it was I that actually lectured
her and others, on fraud investigation and prosecution, when she was
newly posted as Head of Special Fraud Unit even though she was my senior
in rank.
“That Mrs. Farida Waziri has a history of telling lies against former
Presidents in order to ingratiate herself to the serving President is
an established fact and old habits die hard.
“I never called Farida Waziri from the Aso Rock Presidential Villa or
any State House at any given time, neither did he ask her to drop or
take up any investigation.
“Let it be known that there is no statute of limitations on
corruption cases and if Mrs. Farida Waziri has any evidence that she was
asked to drop any cases of corruption, she is challenged to show proof
of such.
“I fired Mrs. Farida Waziri for reasons he would choose not to
disclose publicly for now, but Nigerians may want to remember that
Nigeria continued to sink in Transparency International’s annual
Corruption Perception Index during Mrs. Waziri’s tenure at the EFCC.
“Things got so bad at her last year at the EFCC (2011) that we moved
from 134 in 2010 to 143 in 2011 which represented a backward movement of
9 points. Which God fearing leader would leave a person responsible for
such retrogression as the head of a sensitive institution as the EFCC.
“It would also be recalled that the transparency website, Wikileaks,
exposed that both the US Federal Bureau of Investigations and the London
Metropolitan Police refuses to cooperate with the EFCC under Farida
Waziri because of doubts they had about her credibility. Those Wikileaks
cables are still publicly available.
“However, after the sack of Mrs. Waziri in 2011, Nigeria made her
highest improvements in the annual Corruption Perception Index till date
in 2014 when we moved eighth places from 144 to 136, so in essence the
facts speak for themselves.
“I am proud to have been the President under whom Nigeria made her
best improvement in the Corruption Perception Index of Transparency
International. That is a fact. And so he is not concerned about the
opinion of Farida Waziri or other persons as opinions cannot overthrow
facts.”