Power sector: Yar’Adua deceiving Nigerians – Aliyu, ex-Reps leader
Former House of Representatives Minority Leader, Hon. Farouk Adamu Aliyu, has poured ice on President Umaru Yar’Adua’s effort to fix the power sector in the country.
He also accused the Reps Speaker, Dimeji Bankole, of conspiring with the Presidency to play out a script by embarking on what he described as a wild goose chase in the name of power probe, with the sole intent of discrediting former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Speaking on an AIT (Africa Independent Television) programme tagged “Focus Nigeria,” monitored by Sunday Sun, the former lawmaker who was in the House between 2003 and 2007 said: “You know I am not an Obasanjo fan, but I have to say this because that is the truth. President Yar’Adua is the greatest enemy of Nigeria in terms of the power issue. Obasanjo did something before he left. If Yar’Adua had funded the budget in the last one year, we will not be talking about 6000MW by the end of this year; we would have gone far.
“I said it earlier that Obasanjo did not steal any money meant for the power project, but my colleagues in the House did not help matters with the power probe. Speaker Bankole only connived with Yar’Adua to rubbish Obasanjo, and that is because he (Bankole) too wanted to bring Ogun local politics to the limelight. And this is why I insist that the elite in Nigeria are Nigeria’s problem. Every money in this country is being spent by politicians.
“In our time, we (House of Representatives members) were collecting N9million per quarter. But now they are collecting N25million per quarter,” he added.
Aliyu, who believes that now is the time for progressives in Nigeria to unite and fight Yar’Adua on electoral matters to a standstill, just the way they did to Obasanjo during the vexatious third term plot, insisted that the president has never being sincere with his pronouncements since he was sworn in on May 29, 2007.
“Everything Yar’Adua says, he doesn’t mean it. But I want to beg him in the name of Allah to be sincere with whatever he says. He has the semblance of been better than Obasanjo, but unfortunately he is not. Mr. President is simply not sincere.”
“When he came, he said there was a problem with our electoral system, and that he wants to solve it. If he was sincere with his promise, he should have taken the Uwais’ report to the National Assembly,” he said.