Civil Society Forum slams campaign against Buhari administration’s officials

The Forum of Civil Society Organisations of Nigeria (FCSO) has responded to recent comments made by Mr Okoi Obono-Obla during a Channels TV interview.

Addressing the media at the NUJ Press Center in Utako, Abuja over the weekend, Comrade Friday Maduka, Chairman of the Forum, accused Obono-Obla of spreading “a farrago of lies” and engaging in “unprecedented distortions” aimed at smearing officials from the Buhari administration, including his former mentors and benefactors.

He labelled Obono-Obla’s remarks as part of a desperate bid for relevance, accusing him of “grossly misinforming the Nigerian people” to curry favour with the current administration.

“Never did calumny seem so odious,” Maduka said.

He described Obono-Obla’s actions as a Machiavellian scheme, crafted to “stand logic on its head and pervert the truth.”

The press conference came in the wake of a Pan-Nigerian leadership meeting of over 200 affiliate civil society organizations, including groups from the diaspora.

According to Maduka, members of the organizations have been inundated with calls demanding that they counter Obono-Obla’s “unconscionable campaign of calumny.”

Maduka recounted Obono-Obla’s controversial tenure as Chairman of the Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Federal Government Property.

He said Obono-Obla had initially been appointed as a special adviser on prosecution matters to then-Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, due to their shared political background in the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), one of the founding parties of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“Alas, Mr Obla, like his compromised counterpart Professor Usman Yusuf [former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme], decided to implement his self-serving agenda, turning his AdHoc Committee for the recovery of public property into a personal fiefdom,” he said.

He accused Obono-Obla of fabricating protocols and creating directorates for personal gain, thus undermining the anti-corruption efforts of established agencies like the EFCC and ICPC.

Maduka also lamented over the trend of disloyalty among certain officials from the Buhari administration, who, after failing to leave office “in a blaze of glory,” are now trying to rewrite history.

“We are miffed, and it is indeed comical,” Maduka said, adding that “these individuals had elevated gross insubordination to a fine art and were now lampooning their former reporting officers and benefactors for purely self-serving purposes.”

He specifically pointed out that Obono-Obla’s alleged abuse of his position had included the creation of personal detention centres and settling personal scores.

According to Maduka, “no proper inventory was kept of properties seized on his watch.”

Maduka defended President Muhammadu Buhari and Abubakar Malami, stating that both had left “unimpeachable progressive legacies” in the fight against corruption.

“The venerable Mr. Abubakar Malami SAN and his principal, President Buhari GCFR, have bequeathed to the present generation of Nigerians and generations yet unborn probity, accountability, and unwavering commitment to one solid, coherent, indivisible Nigeria,” he stated.

He, however, described Obono-Obla as a man consumed by personal ambition, using his position to “fabricate contrived protocols” that allowed him to operate outside the bounds of the law.

“Mr. Obla’s audacious attempt to cast himself as a grand anti-corruption ombudsman was tantamount to working from answer to question and must be condemned,” he declared.

He announced that the Forum of Civil Society Organisations of Nigeria had conducted its investigation into Obono-Obla’s tenure, giving Malami a “clean bill of health.”

He urged the Nigerian public to “discountenance” Obono-Obla’s claims with “all the scorn that they deserve,” describing his actions as a dangerous distraction from the important work of anti-corruption agencies.

“Nigerians are perspicacious enough to realize that the audacious attempt by Mr Obla to cast himself as a grand anti-corruption ombudsman was a farce,” he concluded.