Posted on: 03:21 Sat, 26 Dec 2015




One of the leaders of the governing
APC, Prince Tony Momoh, who is a
former Minister of Information, in
this media interview, speaks on
President Muhammadu Buhari’s
administration, recovered looted
funds and sundry issues. Relax and
enjoy the chat:

How would you assess President
Buhari’s administration, particularly on
the economy?

You have heard the President said he
is the one that Nigerians voted for
and he is responsible to them not to
me or you. He is not owned by
anybody. He was there between 1983
and 1985, he has experienced it, he
is the only one who came since
independence to be President of
Nigeria and succeeded. No other one,
Tafawa Balewa wanted to be a
broadcaster, he became Prime
Minister, Alhaji Shehu Shagari
wanted to become a Senator, he
became President; Olusegun
Obasanjo was in prison praying to
be released, at the end of the day he
became president, Late Yar ‘Adua
wanted to retire to lecture in
Ahmadu Bello University, he became
President; Jonathan was taken from
Bayelsa to Abuja and made Vice
President and them later became
Acting President and President.
Buhari went into politics and wanted
to be President in 2003, he failed,
2007 he failed and 2015 he
succeeded. Do you think that this
type of person will be rushed into
doing things he don’t believe will
make Nigerians grow? I can assure
you No. There are three steps in
Buhari’s scheme,
S+S=P that is the equation. S is for
security, he will secure Nigeria, the
other S is for stability, he will
stabilise Nigeria through
infrastructural development and the
outcome of security and stability is
Prosperity and Nigeria will prosper.
At the end of the day, if Buhari
doesn’t perform, stone us because he
is going to perform.

When people begin to appoint
ministers for him, programme
economic measures for him, begin to
tell him what will happen in
education and other ministries, you
give the impression that he came to
be President without preparing. I
can assure you he is prepared to
hold office by coming out with a
book called project Nigeria and that
book he has always had since 2002
when he entered politics and he is
going to implement this program.

He has a contract with every
Nigerian, all the ethnic groups and I
have said it, the South-East will be
more in his party than any other
group. Why? Because he is going to
develop their area more than PDP
ever did. Buhari knows where he
wants Nigeria to be. We are talking
of four years and it has not gotten to
one year yet and people are saying
he is very slow. One thing people
don’t know is that those who are
corrupt, those who did money
laundering, those who diverted all
sort of things, they know where the
heat is. This BVN I don’t know how it
works but it is revealing a lot of
things, if you have one bank account,
the thing will reveal all the
commitments you have. I don’t know
how it works but the government
seems to be finding out where people
have hidden money more than any
other time in our history. I am not in
that group, I am not carry out any
investigation but a lot of things are
coming out and a lot of things have
been done.

He believes that anybody who took
Nigeria’s money must return it, and
should be punished for taking the
money and denying the people of
facilities they would have had if the
way the money was used for them.

Look at what is happening with
arms, people went and collected
billions of dollars and sat down to
share the money and people where
dying in the North-East, those who
had no arms with them ran into
Cameroon, they put them under
court marshal and sentenced them to
death and they didn’t give them
arms. When they are dealing with
such people, Nigerians are saying it
is because they are in government.

Those in government are the ones
stealing the money, those in APC had
no access so will you say because
there was no APC among the PDP
that had the opportunity to serve
Nigeria that pocketed the money
should not be dealt with. Buhari has
said he is not against anybody but
everybody must bear the
consequences of their actions and
when things are happening as media
men find out why it is affecting your
friend or colleague.

We read that the federal government
have received some stolen funds from
looters. Don’t you think giving
credibility to the anti-graft war
Nigerians deserve to know those behind
the funds?

Government doesn’t talk, it is the
media that talks, and you are given
the responsibility to monitor
governance on behalf of the people.

Sovereignty belongs to the people of
Nigeria and through the constitution,
the government generates its power
and authority. The motto of
government is keep our secret, secret
and the motto of the journalist is
publishe and be dammed but to
publish the truth. If government has
been talking about people who have
returned looted money, find out
because you have protection. It is not
the duty of the government to start
publishing anything, what if what
they publish other is wrong? They
can be sued. The point I am making
is that yes, the people have the right
to know and the people have the
right to be told who does the telling.