The issue of Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, false asset declaration with Code Conduct of Bureau is major topic in political field in the country.
However, the embattled senate president has appeared at the first hearing of his trial with CCB in Abuja, where he says he’s not guilty over the allegation labeled against him, but Publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore , says that he’s biggest thieve in modern day politics of Nigeria and he should be in jail by now.
The founder online leading citizen media platform, and Publisher of Sahara Reporters, Mr Omoyele Sowore, has alleged that the embattled Senate President of Nigeria National Assembly, Dr Bukola Saraki, is biggest thieve in Nigeria modern day politics and should be in jail right now. He further says that it is unfair for former delta -state governor James Ibori to be in jail in UK, while Bukola Saraki is walking free in Nigeria.
In an exclusive interview Mr Omoyele Sowore , granted to The ParadigmNg, where he speaks on the state of the nation issue in Nigeria and many others.
When asked of his opinion of accusation of bias against the person of Senator Saraki by his media outfit, Sowore said, “In a sense, I have a personal moral issue with anybody whose greed and looting have contributed to Nigeria’s backwardness and degradation.
In a sense, I have a personal moral issue with anybody whose greed and looting have contributed to Nigeria’s backwardness and degradation. I think it is honestly unfair that former Governor James Ibori is in jail for laundering monies stolen from his state and Saraki is walking free after stealing so much from his father’s defunct bank and from Kwara State. It is unjust. All members of Senator Saraki’s camp know he is a very big thief. The records are there for all to see. It is the reason Saraki may not be able to declare his assets as of 2007. He was richer than most people according to his assets declaration form we obtained.
What is your view on how vigorous the anti-corruption war has been under the current regime?
Omoyele Sowore: I am very worried that the anti-corruption fight is neither well organized nor well institutionalized. It is akin to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Oputa Panel, which had more entertainment value than any visible substance. President Buhari’s anti-corruption war makes good copy for newspaper reporting, but few big-name corrupt suspects have been hurled before the courts. It is just all hearsay. And of what value is the anti-corruption war in which no one is really hurt?
The Paradigm: One of your sworn enemies in the Jonathan administration was Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. She has accused SaharaReporters of bias. How true is it?
Omoyele Sowore: I don’t have any sworn enemies that I am aware of, but I have to make a confession. I am one of the young people who had a good knowledge of the way the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) operate. I was lucky to be schooled by the likes of Femi Falana, Bamidele Aturu, Chima Ubani, Gbenga Olawepo, and several others, including the inimitable Gani Fawehinmi (who I should admit wasn’t much of a socialist). These activists exposed the workings of the World Bank and their lackeys to us way before Joseph Stiglitz won the Nobel Prize for saying the same thing or before John Perkins wrote his bestseller, The Economic Hit Man. I knew from the onset that Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala was a fluke. Unknown to many, she is one of the longest serving government officials in Nigeria in the last 16 years Mrs. Iweala has been a recurring government decimal. She supervised the ruin of the Nigerian economy; she supported everything that is bad for us. But her biggest flaw is that she hates taking responsibility for her actions. She loves scaring people; she’s a crybaby and a bully. I detested those attributes about her. She will use anything she can find to blackmail anyone that confronts her. I wasn’t scared of her, she didn’t intimidate me, and she didn’t like that. But she was an absolute failure. That’s why the US would not even touch when she wrongly claimed that she was the leading candidate for the World Bank presidency job.
You can read complete interview here.