Atiku Not Sincere About Restructuring, Job Creation — Sagay

* Asks Ex-VP To Cure Himself Of Corruption Before Curing
Nigeria .
* Nobody Takes Sagay Seriously Any Longer — Atiku

As the battle for 2019 presidential election intensifies, Prof.
Itse Sagay (SAN), Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee
Against Corruption (PACAC), and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, PDP
presidential candidate, on Tuesday traded words over key issues
that would dominate the contest such as restructuring,
anti-corruption war, and job creation.

Speaking in an interview with Daily Independent not
TheNigerialawyer on Tuesday, Sagay described Atiku’s statement that
he would restructure Nigeria within six months if elected president
as a mere campaign ploy to get the votes of Nigerians.

According to Sagay, during his eight years as vice president in
the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Atiku
never made mention of restructuring but supported Obasanjo who was
very hostile to pro-restructuring elements in the country.

Sagay said, “On the claim by Atiku that he will restructure
Nigeria within six months, I think Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has
answered that question.

“Atiku was in power for eight years with Olusegun Obasanjo.
Obasanjo is the most hostile person in the whole world to
restructuring. His opposition to restructuring was simply
unbelievable and Atiku was with him as second-in-command.

“Throughout this period, Atiku never expressed any unhappiness
or displeasure about it. Jointly, they totally discouraged and
stamped out any idea on restructuring.

“But Atiku is a smart man. Seeing that the South-South,
South-East and some minorities in the South-West are now using
restructuring as a battle cry, he now wants to harness it as a
campaign programme so as to get support and votes. He is obviously
not sincere. It is just a campaign ploy and Nigerians can see
through the deceit”.

On the claim by Atiku that he would fight corruption with more
vigour than President Muhammadu Buhari, Sagay said Atiku had no
moral right to talk about fighting corruption because he himself
was allegedly corrupt.

While asking Atiku to purge himself of corruption first before
extending it to the country, Sagay described Atiku as a comedian
who shouldn’t be taken seriously by Nigerians, and challenged him
to travel to the United States if indeed he had no corruption case
hanging on his neck.

“Number two, on the issue of corruption, he said he will fight
it with more vigour than the current administration.

“How can he do that? Won’t the doctor cure himself first before
curing others? Why is Atiku afraid of going to the United
States?

“What of the money he is making from our ports and other
facilities? How did he get to be in that position? How did he
become a monopolist of everything in our ports making billions of
dollars?

“Atiku is paying N10 million tax, probably he is the next
richest man to Aliko Dangote in this country. Yet everybody is
keeping quiet. I am surprised that nobody is saying anything about
it. Is that not corruption?

“For a man of his immense wealth, who is a dollar billionaire
because most of the ports in this country and some number of other
things are controlled by Intels, his company.

“The whole idea of N10 million as tax doesn’t show any
difference between Atiku and myself in terms of tax payment.

“So, to me that is corruption. Atiku does not have the moral
authority to fight corruption. All these talk about fighting
corruption is just campaign ploy.”

“We want to know how many billions of dollars Atiku is making
from our ports.

Hadiza Bala Usman, the NPA MD is fighting it right now. That is
a big fight on her hands now, to try and remove the monopoly and
strangleholds Atiku has on our ports so that other companies can
have a chance to compete, earn money for themselves and the
company. Atiku’s Intels is so monopolistic in our ports now.

“He also said he has created more jobs. Has he created jobs more
than Dangote? He is a comedian. Nigerians should just forget about
him.”

However, responding to Sagay’s claims, Segun Sowunmi, the
Spokesperson for the Atiku Campaign Organisation, said Nigerians no
longer take Sagay seriously because, as he puts it, senility was
creeping into the senior advocate.

Sowunmi, who spoke for the Atiku Campaign Organisation, asked
Sagay to stop what he described as “embarrassing, naked dance in
public space”.

Sowunmi said, contrary to Sagay’s claim that Atiku never
mentioned restructuring throughout his eight years as vice
president, he said Atiku had been advocating a restructured Nigeria
even before the return of democratic government to the country in
1999.

“It is only Prof. Itse Sagay that is not aware that the
generality of Nigerians no longer take him seriously nor believe
anything he says.

“He has demonstrated that over the last couple of years that
perhaps, age has caught up with him and he is now beginning to
appear senile.

“It is only a senile mind that can say that an Atiku Abubakar
who has been advocating restructuring for as long as anybody can
remember, even as far back as 1995, is not serious about
restructuring.

“Atiku has been very consistent on the need for us to
restructure Nigeria and his positions and ideas on how to go about
restructuring are there in the public space.

“One of them is that Atiku believes that we should now begin to
look at the concurrent list of the Federal Government and whatever
we can push to the states so that they can have more control over
their resources which should be given to them through an Executive
Order.

“Atiku has also been very clear that it is time for Nigeria to
accept the idea of a multi-layer policing structure and put a
framework in place where areas that need to create police around
their communities, local, state governments can have a framework
that they can work together with the Federal Government and the
Nigerian Police Force so they can secure lives and property as it
obtains in other developed economies.

“Atiku has also been very consistent with the need for us to
ensure that the extractive industry and minerals that are under the
ground in the states that some more authorities should be given to
states to be able to manage their own resources”.

On the fight against corruption, Sowunmi said Atiku believes
that the anti-corruption war must be pursued in a more systemic
manner which led to the formation of Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and other offences
Commission (ICPC), Procurement Act during the Obasanjo-Atiku
presidency from 1999 to 2007.

“Atiku has been very consistent on the need for the country as a
whole to approach anti-corruption on a more systemic manner which
is consistent with what we have always done in government leading
to the establishment of the ICPC, EFCC, Procurement Act and the
administration of Criminal Justice Act.

“If what Prof. Sagay is saying is that this embarrassing and
vindictive charade that they call anti-corruption is what is best,
we obviously know that age has caught up with him and we just
advise that he engage himself in explaining what Buhari has done to
deserve a second term and stop this embarrassing, naked dance in
public space that is beginning to make him appear inconsistent to
people who like him in the past,” he said.