TheCable

Femi Adesina, presidential spokesperson, says President Muhammadu Buhari can never be friends with anyone who steals public funds.

In an article posted on his Facebook page on Thursday entitled, ‘PMB and the NDDC’, Adesina said the president hates corruption with “passion”.

The spokesman said the corruption in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) made the president suspend its management board and order a forensic audit of the agency.

He described the NDDC as an interventionist agency established to serve citizens but was transformed to the private cash cow of a few people.

“Well, it is meant to be an interventionist agency, but one thing is crystal clear. Despite hundreds of billions of naira invested over 20 years, the true intervention has been in the pockets of some select people, rather than on the region, and the lives of the people in general,” he wrote.

“There’s one thing President Muhammadu Buhari hates with a passion. Grand larceny. Expropriation and purloining. Once it’s confirmed that you are filching from the public purse, you can never be his friend, no matter who you are.

“So he had to bring to a halt the gravy train that the NDDC had become over the years. And no stampede, no rout or panic. The house cleaning must be done, and done well. Thorough.

“In the Niger Delta, you see plenty of signboards, but little or no projects. In other words, people collect contracts, erect signboards announcing the project, but the job never gets done. And the contractors get paid.

“What to do? A forensic audit was necessary. Some powerful forces mounted robust resistance, but they didn’t reckon with the iron will of the President. The audit was done, and report submitted.”

Since Buhari’s intervention, the spokesman said the NDDC has recorded more positive strides than it did in 15 years.

“It even has a befitting head office, something deemed impossible before now. That is what is possible with honest leadership in a country,” he added.

Adesina asked Nigerians to pick an honest leader in the 2023 presidential election.

“As 2023 approaches, I pray that Nigerians would consolidate on honest leadership by electing somebody who can move us forward in probity and accountability. Buhari has shown us the way, may we never veer off the path again. Amen,” he wrote.