Buhari: I’m not on revenge mission

Orders audit of NNPC, CBN, FIRS

By Iheanacho Nwosu

In line with his anti-graft postur­ing and change mantra, President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered a complete audit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other revenue generating agencies.

This is even as he challenged Nigerians to embrace his agenda for change arguing that change does not just happen. “You and I and all of us must appreciate that we all have our part to play if we want to bring change about. We must change our lawless habits, our attitude to public office and public trust. We must change our unruly behavior in schools, hospitals, market places, motor parks, on the roads, in homes and offices. To bring about change, we must change ourselves by being law-abiding citizens,” he said.

The President, in his message to mark Nigeria’s 55 anniversary equally urged Nigerians to be grateful to Dr Goodluck Jona­than for accepting defeat in the March 28 presidential election, an action which he said saved the country from untold conse­quences.

He stressed that the fact that Nigeria has remained together is an achievement we should all appreciate and try to consolidate. “We have witnessed this year a sea change in our democratic development. The fact that an opposition party replaced an en­trenched government in a free and fair election is indicative of the deeper roots of our democrat­ic system. Whatever one’s views are, Nigerians must thank for­mer President Jonathan for not digging-in in the face of defeat and thereby saving the country untold consequences.”

Dismissing fears that his government may embark on pay back mission to those who offended him President Buhari said: “I bear no ill will against anyone on past events. Nobody should fear anything from me. We are not after anyone. People should only fear the consequenc­es of their actions. I hereby invite everyone, whatever his or her political view to join me in work­ing for the nation.”

He listed specific areas that are receiving the attention of his government saying preliminary steps have been taken to sanitize NNPC and improve its opera­tions so that the inefficiency and corruption could be reduced to a minimum.

He said the nation’s refiner­ies which can be serviced and brought back into partial produc­tion would be enabled to resume operations so that the whole sor­did business of exporting crude and importing finished products in dubious transactions could be stopped.

He said whatever the cir­cumstances we find ourselves in because, October 1st should be seen as a day for joy and cel­ebrations noting that “55 years ago, we liberated ourselves from the shackles of colonialism and began our long march to nation­hood and to greatness.