A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Robert Clarke, has supported the idea that the embattled former chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Mr Abdulrasheed Maina, should be given a chance to speak with President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to him, there is a lot of rot in the system which indeed needs to be exposed and it would be to the advantage of the government if the president allows Maina a chance to explain things.
He made this position known Tuesday on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily,while reacting to an exclusive interview of Maina in which he insisted that he was innocent of the allegations preferred against him.
“His action now is not to prove his innocence, his action now is to prove that there is a leakage in the system which needs to be covered up and he knows it – It is in the interest of government to call him down and let him speak and show the government where these leakages are.
“Maina has come out now to say that through this system I have been able to steal so much, now I want to help you to curb this system.
“Whichever language he uses, when you recover and you did not tell people and you did not return it, what does that mean,” Mr Clarke questioned.
“If I recover on behalf of government and I still keep the money, it means something else, it’s not recovering.
“If he participated in it, then he has to pay the price, if he did not participate in it and he is aware of it and never blew the whistle then, he is also as guilty.
“But I will agree with him to sit down with Mr President and let Mr President know that the system you are running, there are so many loop holes. That the civil servants in this country have walked through this system and are making a hell of money out of this system – So I agree with him, he should be given the opportunity”.
Mr Clarke also decried the state of the present government, noting that it indeed gives room for corruption.
He, therefore, opined that the system has to be changed from its roots in order to prevent more instance such as this, from rearing its head.
“The system of governance we have, gives room for corruption. This is a classic example where within the system, somebody can sit down and in a long period of time be stealing trillions, whereas, we are now going around the world begging to borrow trillions.
“The problem in Nigeria is that the system is rotten. Unless we change the system of governance, these areas of corruption will always rear their heads”.
