May 22, 2015 : Eniola Akinkuotu
Frank Kokori
Human
rights activist, Chief Frank Kokori, has advised the President-elect,
Muhammadu Buhari, to start his administration by prosecuting and jailing
looters immediately after he takes oath of office on May 29.
Kokori, who is a former General Secretary
of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, said this
during an interview with our correspondent on Thursday.
The
activist said by immediately prosecuting looters, Nigerians would have
an idea of what the Buhari administration stands for and change would
gradually set in.
He said, “You cannot change everything in
four years but when Nigerians start seeing little changes in three to
six months and then in one year and you see people being prosecuted and
jailed for stealing public funds, and the government ensures that all
the funds that were taken overseas are recovered, there is no way the
needed change will not come.
“Why should Nigeria have up to $250bn in
stolen funds abroad and only $35bn in our foreign reserves? The
international community is aware of this and the incoming government is
not foolish. Anybody that thinks he has stolen and will go scot free
must be deceiving himself because if any thief goes scot free, then the
All Progressives Congress-led government is not serious.
“So, the APC government must make sure
that Nigerians that stole money are prosecuted and jailed while the
money should be retrieved. Nobody should run a government by saying you
will forget the past, no. The way Nigeria is today, people must be
punished for the pains they have subjected Nigerians to.”
Kokori described the fuel scarcity across
the country as unfortunate. He, however, rejected suggestions that
subsidy must be removed.
He said the incoming administration must
focus on building new refineries and repairing the old ones so as to
stop the importation of fuel.
He said, “The question of subsidy would
be looked into. It was the corruption in the subsidy that affected the
sector. Once there is transparency and corruption is curbed and
discipline is enforced, things will work. Why should we be importing a
huge quantity of petrol?”
The former NUPENG boss, who came into
limelight during the June 12, 1993 struggle, described the emergence of
Buhari as a sign of good things to come.
He said the Peoples Democratic Party
punished Nigerians for many years and took the citizens for granted. He
said four more years of President Goodluck Jonathan would have been
disastrous.
Reacting to threats by some ex-militants
to return to the creeks if Buhari revoked their pipeline surveillance
contracts, Kokori urged Buhari to ignore the ex-militants.
He, however, advised Buhari to ensure
that the people of the South-South benefit from his government so that
they would not feel marginalised.
He called on the Independent National
Electoral Commission to continue electoral reforms so that the next
elections would be better that the previous ones.
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