By Andrew Oota
Nigerian professionals and Defenders of Democracy and Good Values, a Non-governmental organisation has warned that the pattern of style of investigations of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s special investigator of the Central Bank of Nigeria will hinder foreign investments .
The organisation further stated that deliberate media trial and attempts to nullify the National Assembly approval on the means and ways without recourse to the court or reversal by the nation’s highest lawmaking body will only portray the country in bad light .
The association equally described as mischievous and ridiculous , the report of the investigator making the rounds on social media platforms alleging malfeasance by professor Ibrahim Gambari the immediate past Chief of Staff to former President Muhammadu Buhari alongside the immediate past Finance minister Ahmed Zainab to a tune of N17.3trillion ways and means by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
In a press conference by the association’s national President , Professor Usman Yaro in Abuja , the group pointed out that the Central Bank of Nigeria vested with the constitutional mandate of monetary policies cannot and should not be seen above the laws and assumed to be without blemish ,”however all matters of corruption and other related forms of malfeasance involving that institution must be handled in the most professional manner that closes all gaps. Investigations into the books of the CBN must be detailed and pass integrity test ,the report should be water tight devoid of speculations .
“The authors of such a report must make it first as classified document, such that when eventually released to the public,it will seek to resolve the issues and provide the way forward . Where people’s names are just dropped without without background perspectives will not do the bank, the economy and our investment drive any good”.
The association’s president continued,” the report in the media brandishes a staggering N17.3 trillion and N23 trillion ,this is not a small amount of money. And to link a Chief of Staff to the President to such humongous amount is shocking and terrible to the ears . We are not holding forth for Professor Gambari but it is ridiculous that Nigerians seek to destroy some of her best brains who have made the country proud on the international stage and are still doing their best to promote the Nigerian image globally.
“The duties of a Chief of Staff are distinct and if he conveyed approvals,it is important to first understand whose directive he carried out . If the directive was from the President and it was within approval limits why should an investigator release an unsigned document just to indict such public officer and for what purposes”.
The association mainatined that investigations of such magnitude should have included inviting all actors and to ascertain what led to what they allegedly did, “the report should explain where the likes of Gambari were invited and their submissions succinctly captured. We therefore call on President Tinubu to be mindful of fifth columnists in his administration as well as those bent on using his administration to fight personal wars by making verge suggestions that will bring the administration to unecessary conflict with the National Assembly as well as the judiciary”.
“If indeed there is a suspicion that the ways and means were misused ,it is important to define the level of involvement and explicitly state clear roles of suspects. If you have concluded that the Presidential approvals were questionable you have to place the blame on the President and not chief of staff. If you suspect that there we neither due appropriations not approvals and you conclude it was a diversion , the right institution to hold accountable should be the finance and CBN and not chief of staff . But in doing that ,you must do it not to discredit the CBN as an institution because when you do that you are sending the wrong signals and scaring investors .
“If your investigations report identifies a breach of the law,you simply charge those culpable to court , but where in one breath you acknowledge the approval of the National Assembly and in one breath question the authority under which those monies were expended shows incoherence and wild ghost chasing .
“We are even at a lost as to what amount the investigator suspects to have been misused between N17.3 and N23 trillion. However our point is that the investigator must deploy the best pattern to continue the investigation of the CBN and should explicitly state ,if found involved , the extent of Professor Gambari in the N17 or N23 trillion means and ways expenditure . We can’t continue to destroy our best brains who have served this country meritoriously and we cannot destroy our institutions just because we want to be praised or seen to be working . There must be full disclosure, people should be given benefit of fair hearing and the investigator must confine himself within the provisions of the law”.
