Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari speaks at the summit

President Muhammadu Buhari said in London yesterday that he would give an account of what has been recovered from Nigerians who looted the treasury in his first  anniversary broadcast on 29 May.

He also said  his government will publish the names of corrupt Nigerians who  will also be prosecuted.

“So far, what has come out, what has been recovered in whatever currency from each ministries, departments and individuals, I intend on the 29th to speak on this… we want to make a comprehensive report on the 29th.

On whether the names of those indicted will be published, he said: “Yes, eventually, it has to be done because we want to successfully prosecute them. But you know you cannot go to the courts unless you have documents for prosecution.

“People signed for these monies into their personal accounts, their banks gave statements that the money is there, when it came, how much and so on.”

On allegation of selective prosecution, Buhari said: “That is an accusation against the law enforcement agencies. But I assure you that we do not interfere. Try and get those who are now under arrest, you will find out it is across the board.”

On 2016 Budget implementation, he said: “It depends on the efficiency of the technocrats. Yes, we have six months to implement the budget. You know why there was a delay. There is something called padding. I have been in government since 1975. I was governor of what is now six states: Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Taraba, that used to be North East. Then I was in Obasanjo’s cabinet, Petroleum for three and a quarter years. I was Head of State for 20 months.

“I had never heard about that word  padding until this year. And what does it mean? It means that the technocrats just allowed the government to make its noise, to go and make the presentation to the National Assembly. They will remove it and put in their own.

“When we uncovered this, we just had to go back to the basics again. Ministers had to go again and appear before the Minister of Budget and National Planning and make presentations again. This was clearly brought out by the Minister of Health.

“I saw with my own eyes, nobody told me. I was watching NTA and he appeared before a committee that said the minister should come and defend his budget. He looked at what was presented to him as his budget and he said he had nothing to defend, that that was not what he presented.

“Subsequently, we discovered that it was not only the ministry of health. So they allowed us to talk rubbish as government and they do what they like.”

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