Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has decried the decision by President Muhammadu Buhari to sideline him after working assiduously to sack the former government and usher him in, in 2015.
Atiku made this known on Wednesday in an interview with the Hausa Service of the Voice of America (VOA). He claimed that months preceding 2015, he deployed his resources and also exploited his contacts to ensure that the All Progressives Congress (APC) won the elections.
He however lamented that since the party won the election at the federal level, he had been sidelined.
According to him “Honestly speaking, I’m still a member of the APC; I was part of all the processes, including campaigns until success was achieved. But sadly, soon after the formation of the government; I was sidelined, I have no any relationship with the government, I’ve not been contacted even once to comment on anything and in turn, I maintained my distance. They used our money and influence to get to where they’re but three years down the lane, this is where we are.”
Although he said little had been achieved in the fight against corruption by the current administration, the Former Vice President said President Buhari deserved commendation for decimating Boko Haram sect.
“Yes, there were successes but not a comprehensive success because the Boko Haram miscreants are still very active, killing our people and many local government councils in Borno and Yobe are under their firm grip. People cannot dare go back to their dwellings"
“This thing baffles me; I never imagined that Nigeria will fight a protracted battle with Boko Haram for five years. At a time, we fought the Biafra war, which was more complicated because of the terrain in the South but the Biafran soldiers were roundly subdued in 30 months.
But here we’re, fighting an endless battle with the Boko Haram and there’s no end in sight,” he said.
He lamented that the current Management of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) was doing very little to build an institution that would check corruption in the future stressing that the EFCC was only interested in a media war.
“How many people were arrested, prosecuted and jailed? How much was recovered from looters? When we came on board in 1999, I remember we recovered between $4.5 and $4.7 billion from those that looted under Abacha,” he added.
