NewsRescue
Nigerians knew this would happen. When former Lagos state governor Tunde Fashola was quizzed during his confirmation hearings on the reported looting of millions of dollars Lagos state funds, he ridiculed the nation by saying, “I am only trained in law and I did not personally sign the cheques.”
The pretentious governor who was in essence the chief economic officer of Lagos state and therefore in charge of all budgeting, insulted the intelligence of the Nigerian senate and people.
Rather than disqualify him and send him to agencies for prosecution in the face of looting or otherwise grand misappropriation of millions, via building single boreholes in Lagos through his friend, Tunde Olowolafe at $500,000-a-piece and other similar fraudulent activities, the senate approved him. The senate thus put their rubber-stamp on Fashola’s brazen style of stealing public funds.
Again Fashola made headlines during the 2016 Nigerian budget padding scandal. He had again listed the cost to drill single boreholes at a whopping $850,000 a piece. N140 million was listed in his ministry’s submission for just two boreholes.
Recently again, news broke of how Fashola was ignoring procurement regulations and approaching signing off almost a billion dollars in contracts to a company serially indicted state fund mega looter Atiku Abubakar used for his heists during the Obasanjo era.
The Bureau of Public Procurement has quizzed Fashola’s inflation of contracts to the tune of N166 million (~half a billion USD) and award of them to “unqualified firms.” In Fashola’s typical market-boy thug style, Nigeria’s minister of housing and power “defended himself” that it was agents in the ministry he oversees – the evaluation committee – and not himself personally that oversaw the contract awards.
PremiumTimes slammed the “arrogant and insolent” minister fond of insulting Nigerians’ intellects with 10 questions.
Blinded by looting and working with looter cabal, minister Fashola has published no such and appears to have no road-map to take Nigeria out of darkness and has only pushed price-hike proposals to further levy Nigerians in the interest of the cabal owned power companies.
As it is evident that President Muhammadu Buhari is tone-deaf to the corruption in his cabinet, we pray Nigerians seriously and unabatedly protest for a total clean up and prosecution of the corrupt looters embedded in the Buhari administration. Ultimately we must all pray to the Almighty to rescue Nigeria from the hands of these shameless serial looters.
Dr. Peregrino Brimah; @EveryNigerian
