Former Delta State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governorship Aspirant in 2007 general election and currently Special Project Director in the office of Delta State Governor, Chief Sunny Onuesoke has rebuked Speaker of House of Representative, Hon Aminu Tambuwal over his recent utterance that that President Goodluck Jonathan is encouraging corruption in Nigeria by paying lip service to the fight against corruption.
It would be recalled that Tambuwal who spoke as a guest speaker at the 2013 International Anti-corruption Day, organised by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Abuja, on Monday alleged that President Goodluck Jonathan is encouraging corruption in Nigeria by the way and manner he his handling corruption cases, adding his body language’ seems to be encouraging corrupt practices in the country.
Reprimanding Tmabuwal who is alleged to be on his to joining APC over his unguided statement, Onuesoke argued that Tambuwal being part of the government of the day has shot himself on his foot because he cannot exonerate himself or the National Assembly from the allegations of which he is accusing President Goodluck Jonathan and members of his executive.
Advising Tambuwal to start the war against corruption from the House of Representative of which he is the Speaker, Onuesoke who is also an environmentalist said, “The Speaker is part of the government even though he belongs to the legislative arm of government. If the executive arm cannot fight corruption then the speaker also has some blames. Part of his duty is to fashion the legal framework to fight corruption. He is in charge of lawmaking.
“He should say the current leadership of which he is number four citizen of this country cannot combat crime but not by singling President Jonathan out by saying he is encouraging crime. What has he done to the Femi Otedola case against Farouk Lawan who is a member of the House of Representative? Is Farouk not still in the House? He should start fighting corruption from the legislative arm. He should resign for indicting the government he belongs to for saying they cannot combat corruption.
“Oversight function is now a source of income for the lawmakers as they intimidate ministers and agencies of government for money. If he is not acting the script of the opposition, let him start the anti-corruption war from the House. Let’s have the legal framework of fighting corruption.”
Onuesoke argued that, if Tambuwal feels the government is corrupt, while he is also part of the government, the best thing he should do is to resign.
“This is what happened in developed countries. You cannot be part of government and at the sometime attacked the government. If you know what is happening with the government is not alright with you, the best thing to do is to resign,” Onuesoke said.
Berating the Speaker for making such an unfounded allegation, Onuesoke queried what evidence does Tambuwal has for making such an assertion.
Describing Tambuwal as lacking administrative experience, Onuesoke disclosed, “He is not supposed to have made that kind of statement. Does he not know that some House of Representatives members were picked up for corruption? What did he do? The young man lacks experience. He is a party man and what he has done is wrong. As a party man, he must learn from experience, he must be calm.
“What evidence does he have to say that the president is not fighting corruption? Or does he want the president to go and jail his cabinet members to show that he is fighting corruption? He should not play into the hands of those that want to destroy him. He is a young man who should build his party squarely and allow his party to dictate what is going to be his own political future.”
Onuesoke who is Delta State PDP Stalwart pointed out that it is wrong for a number four citizen of the country to make such an allegation, just as he added that the rate at which the Speaker is going, he may fall into wrong hands, which may not augur well for him.
“If he really means what he is saying, he should not have waited for the time of decampment before making such statement. If he had done it that way, we would have taken him more seriously,” he argued..