By Adamu Alkali Baraka
From a disheartening heart I can’t stand to admit what the former Governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Hammanyero Nyako who during a 2-Day Summit on “Rethinking the Security and Development Agenda for Northern Nigeria”organized by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Foundation in Kaduna where as a guest speaker who much honesty, sincerity, uprightness and truthful utterances ought to be his guiding principles as an elder statesman in the country.
But his confession of blatant lies in a broad daylight has proven that his integrity is questionable, his unchecked fallible utterances needs to be cautioned and his gullible lies against Adamawa state people is unpardonable, our generation and other generations yet unborn cannot forgive him for disgracing the people of the state, which he looted. That he is freely roaming the streets of Nigeria without the law catching up with him is a serious cause for concern on the part of our judicial system.
The devolved attitude of financial reckless of Murtala Nyako will not longer be tolerated, as one of the respected elder in the state, I’m want to remind the good people of Nigeria that the former governor was outrageous in squandering the coffers of Adamawa State with unnecessary bills without following due process. This is enough reason to charge him for financial mismanagement of public funds.
For Nyako to had said that only N45 billion was given to him over the seven years he spent as governor of Adamawa State is to tell every Nigerian that the former governor is a senior liar as shown in a draft of white paper on the report of Justice Bobbo Umar Judicial commission of inquiry into the finances and human resources management of Adamawa State Government from June 2007 to June, 2014 where the erstwhile governor (Nyako) was the seated chief accounting officer.
In the report the commission of inquiry among many findings, discovered that the Ministry of Finance gave the accrued revenue of N461,978,392,597.35 whereas the accountant-general gave the figure of N543,828,870,129.56 for the period of June, 2007 to June, 2014. The two divergent figures had shown that a difference of N81,850,477,532.21 is suspected to have been siphoned during the regime of the said governor.
It is disgusting for Nyako to inform hundreds of people gathered for what they thought to be edifying lectures only to end up getting unpardonable lie of collecting only “N45 billion” as against N543,828,870,129.56 billion realised during his tenure as a Governor.
His deprave lifestyle turned plunged the state into financial despair. N 45 billion was what he got as against N543,828,870,129.56, according to the Justice Bobbo Umar’s report. Many people will be inquisitive to ask this question: Where is the balance of over N750 billion? It’s indeed true to say that Nyako has terribly lied against Nigerians and as a matter of fact his shameless character is considered to be disrespectful, dishonouring and trying to portray a failing glory of Nigerian retired military officers, serving and former governors and to every well-meaning and respected people of not only Adamawa State but Nigeria as a country.
To further expantiate to the world that the initially impeached governor is nothing more than a liar is the comparison of his administration and that of Mr Boni Haruna his predecessor and his successor, Hon. Umaru Fintiri who took over from Nyako as Acting Governor after he was impeached, received about N30b including special funds in 3 months that he acted.
From 2008-2014 when Nyako was impeached, the state’s average monthly receipt from the federation account was N3b (minimum). The increase in receipts by the state under Nyako from the previous ones was because of the high price of crude oil which was over $114 per barrel. The estimated fund received by Governor Nyako’s government was N450b from the federation accounts.
Governor Boni received N114.8b in 8 years out of which about N32b was in his first 4 years (1999-2003).Out of this amount, salaries and leave grants alone took about N39b. The remaining amount of over N70b was for other recurrent and capital expenditures for 8 years.
Yet Nyako and his cohorts accused Governor Boni of diverting N50b out of state’s statutory allocation while in office then. What an irony ! If Nyako got only N45 billion in 7 years, it means that he got about N600m monthly while the state’s salary bill for workers during his time in addition to his then ridiculous number of SAs was more than N1.5b.
At this point one will be allow to say that Nyako is an inconsistent liar whose administration is full of financial irregularities which need to be investigated by the EFCC and other anti-graft agencies to ascertain the truth status of his administration and the money he claimed he received, contradicting the draft white paper on the report of Justice Bobbo Umar judicial commission of inquiry into the finances and human resources management of Adamawa State Government.
It’s also pertinent to say that most of our leaders are utterly shameless, as our leaders, elder statesmen and elders in the land cannot say the truth even if it means saying it to fall into trouble. I see a serious decay, a fallen glory of some of our Northern senior citizens, I noticed a can of worms conceal in a glass cup of shame in their cupboards breaking it is a total disgrace to some of our so-called leaders.
Nyako, one among many of the senior men we have in this country will tell lies to Nigerians during a programme to honour Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, whose act of good leadership most of them had enjoyed to be what they are today, and through out his life, record did not tell us he ever lied or involved in any form of corruption.
I consider the name “Sir Ahmadu Bello” with much reverence because of the magnitude of selfless service he rendered to humanity, seeing it as a diadem of his glory and is signifying the sovereignty of the many sacrifices he made to sustained a good name in the whole of Africa.
The late Sardauna will never forgive the likes of Nyako in this country, because he taught them honesty but they are never honest, he thought them sacrifice but they will not sacrifice for the people, he asked them not to steal but they are ardent criminals in the corridors of power. He was a servant leader but they are our task masters, exploiting the wealth of the nation to empower only their families and friends.
Rtd General Galadanci is a replicate of Sir Ahmadu, his fearless attitude, bold mindset made him to be right on time to declared that the gathering under Nyako as a guest speaker is a deceit considering his administration pitfalls while he was a Governor of Adamawa State and for him to lie that he only collected N45billion.
Galadanci said: “We are here deceiving ourselves. We Northerners like to lie to ourselves. All the beautiful papers presented and applauded woefully failed to address the real issues. Yet we all clapped for them. Let me ask; where is the the Chairman of BoT of this Foundation? Don’t tell me, he is in jail for stealing money of his people while he reigned as their governor. Even on this high table (points at the high table), there are people who have stolen the futures of their people yet, we are all here lying to ourselves! Our leaders in Northern Nigeria are thieves! They compete in out-stealing each other at any given chance. We must not continue to hide them”
I specially want to commend Gen. Galadanci for being courageous enough to tell Nyako and other Northern leaders that they are worthless liars whose glory is suffocating in total shame while trying to shade their names in good books written in gold and in pearls. I thank the organisers of the programme for a job well done in an effort to find a lasting solution to security problems in the country, most especially in the Northern states were many places were ravaged by the activities of Boko Haram.
Adamu Alkali Baraka, a public commentator, wrote in from Abuja
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