afrol News, 21 May - Nigerian President would not join the rank of African leaders bent on probing into the alleged financial embezzlement of their predecessors. Umaru Musa Yar'Adua said no amount of pressure would force him to probe former President Olusegun Obasanjo, describing it as "a waste of time and energy".

Obasanjo, who transfered the mantle of leadership to President Yar'Adua last year after his third term bid hit the rock, has been named in so many financial practices, including those involving the country's epileptic energy sector. His family members and associates have also been linked to embezzlements.

Despite reversing some of Obasanjo's policies that are not in tandem with the law, Mr Yar'Adua was not still convince to dig into his predecessor's alleged financial crimes.

The Obasanjo regime's many privatisation programmes have violated existing laws, which is why the current administration is duty bound to examine such transactions and find if they are correct before action is taken, Yar'Adua said.

"If the transaction was carried out, in violation of due process, but even then this administration allowed the transaction to go on, until Mittal itself violated the terms of the transactions," Nigerian leader told 'Financial Times'.

"If you take the asset and then violate the terms of the agreement entered, and this is brought to the attention of government, now government has the duty to look into this and see. If it is established that yes, truly the other party has violated the terms of the agreement, it should just not hold back and sit back, because we want to observe the sanctity of agreements; you observe the sanctity of all agreements entered if they are in conformity with the law and they are being implemented and executed in conformity with the lawful agreement signed. Where there are violations, government is duty-bound when these violations are brought to its attention to look into it and take action," he said.

He said the Nigerian government is ensuring absolute adherence to the rule of law, which obliges all contractual agreements and covenants entered by government are done according to law and are respected. "This has never happened in this country, and in fact it's the greatest challenge the nation is facing."

Yar'Adua's critics accused him of being too slow to act on governance issues. But he said one cannot respect the law and at the same time dictate the pace of its speed.

"I smile, because I know, I have been a governor for eight years; I have also had some challenges to sort out, some problems. Because I know the quality of what you can achieve depends on how you plan a programme. You cannot make major achievements by just trying to rush things," he said, adding that the "quality of your planning, the quality of your programmes, determines the nature of their achievements."

He said the lessons they have learnt is that "you cannot acheive anything without planning, and planning is a long-term process. That is why I am saying that we need to produce a national plan to the year 2020."

The Nigerian leader dispelled rumours that he was not medically fit to rule the country.

"When I hear these rumours, I always feel more elated, they confirm to me that I am not what those peddling the rumours want to believe I should be - I am an ordinary human being, I am not a super-human being, I don't know one yet, but certainly I'm not one," he said, describing himsel "a normal human being who can fall sick, who recover or die."

Yar'Adua said he has been going to Germany for medical check-ups every year since 1986. "Now the fact that I am President today doesn't mean that when I feel there's something that I think is wrong and needs to check I shouldn't go to my doctors, where all my records for the past 22 years are there. It is the most practical thing to do… They know the background of everything about me medically."

By staff writer

© afrol News

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