A former federal lawmaker, Shehu Sani, has faulted President Bola Tinubu for saying he is not interested in probing military spending under his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari.
Sani, who represented Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the 8th National Assembly, said the President’s stance was contradictory to his probe of the past activities of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under embattled apex bank chief Godwin Emefiele.
Tinubu during a media chat on Monday said he won’t probe military expenditure under Buhari but Sani, who spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday, said doing that was tantamount to rewarding larceny and corruption.
The former lawmaker said, “When you find yourself in this position, especially with a nation facing these critical issues like ours, you still have to go backward and see how public funds that were looted have been recovered and I think we have been doing that with what has happened in the CBN the last time.
“But when one of the panelists questioned him (Tinubu) about the looting, the mismanagement of security and defense forces under the Buhari administration, which he needs to probe, I think he made it clear that he is more interested in moving forward than moving backward. It’s a bit contradictory; you can move backward in CBN but you can’t move backward in security.
“I believe that what should have been is that if he is being provided with evidence that shows that there are clear cases of corruption, he would move to recover public funds. That is what the answer was supposed to be.
“If you say that whatever happened in the past has gone, it is more like rewarding larceny which he has done by saying he is not going to go back.”
Sani said the President should be held accountable for all his policies and the actions of his ministers since he claimed all his cabinet members are performing.
“He (Tinubu) should be held responsible for what has happened under his government. He has economic reforms. He has started, there are lots of pains, Nigerians are suffering but it is a fact all over the world and in history: economic reforms have never been popular with the citizens,” he said.
