Keyamo can’t be Minister, Tinubu’s spokesman at the same time – TMG Chairman

Keyamo can’t be Minister, Tinubu’s spokesman at the same time – TMG Chairman

The chairman of the Transformation Monitoring Group (TMG) and Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Musa-Rafsanjani, has issued a rebuttal to the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, who accused him of being sponsored by the opposition party after he (Rafsanjani) called for his (Keyamo’s) ministerial resignation.

Rafsanjani had initially called on Keyamo to resign as a minister following his appointment as Tinubu’s presidential campaign spokesperson but Keyamo said it is not a crime to combine the two tasks.

Rafsanjani disclosed this in an interview with Ibrahim Ramalan, while speaking on the state of the nation, the increase in public corruption, looting and diversion of public funds.

He said, “Everyone knows that there is no way you can be a minister and a spokesperson for a presidential candidate. Mind you, being a spokesperson is a huge work that requires daily media responses because you are speaking on behalf of that person.

“You are going to cheat on the work that the nation has given you as a minister. Not only that, you are cheating on time. The time you are supposed to be doing your work as a minister, you would use the same time talking on behalf of that presidential candidate.

“In other words, the reason why Keyamo is refusing to resign is simply because of his personal interest and lack of respect for the nation and also his attempt to blackmail people who caution him.

“I can bet that if Keyamo was to be on the other side of the political divide, he would have gone to court to challenge that person. But we are not going to join issues with Keyamo. Our duty is to point out that he cannot be a minister serving the nation and using the time and resources of the nation to do another job.

“In fact, he is actually undermining Bola Tinubu because he is not going to focus on promoting and projecting his image very well. So, he is both undermining the Nigerian people and Bola Tinubu because he is not going to be able to give them the necessary attention and time that the two jobs require.

“Nobody says Keyamo should not be in one political party or the other but he is supposed to know that he is taking a job outside the job of a minister that is a full-time job. So, for any job outside his ministerial job, there will be a conflict of interest,”

“We don’t care about the party, what we care about is for Nigeria to work and you cannot be taking taxpayers’ money and doing private work. Resources are not only money, time is also resources. The intellect that we are paying you a salary for is also resources. So he needs to learn how to talk responsibly, especially to his seniors.

“Keyamo is a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and, by implication, he is my minister. So, if I see him cheating Nigeria and Nigerians, I should be able to point out to him and we responsibly, honourably and respectively drew his attention to that. We did not insult him but he is now insulting us, saying that we are agents of the opposition. This is the normal blackmail people who do dubious things engage in.

“They dismiss and abuse and turn things upside down, but at the end of the day, Nigerians know the truth. So I’m not bothered about Keyamo because his response was just desperation to defend his position that is clearly not defendable,” the CISLAC boss said.

Rafsanjani said CISLAC has no political party affiliations or religious sentiments, and he only speaks the truth on behalf of Nigerians.

“I am not a politician. We have spoken to people with all sorts of political affiliations. Buhari is a Hausa-Fulani man, a Northerner, and I pick up on him too. So, I am not a tribalistic. When Jonathan was there, we raised issues; when Yar’adua was there, we raised issues; and when Obasanjo was there, we raised issues in their administrations.

“So, who is Festus Keyamo to say that we are politicians? I am not a politician and my organisation has nothing to do with any politician. We are purely human rights and anti-corruption organisations. This is about Nigerians and it’s about honesty, and sincerity and about strengthening the democratic institutions, while having responsible and responsive governors.

Rafsanjani noted that the fight against corruption has been watered down, and government keep borrowing money to finance things that have no economic or human developmental values to Nigerians.

He said, “Nigerians and Nigeria are facing serious challenges of increasing public corruption, looting and diversion of public funds. The government has not been able to block the leakages, especially the revenue leakages.

“There is an outright diversion of public funds and stealing. Government officials are still doing these without modesty and decorum. That is why the country is facing serious economic challenges.

“Right now, we are borrowing money to finance even payment of salary, to finance payment of subsidies which many people see as payment of fraud because we cannot be spending N4trillion on the so-called subsidy that Nigerians are not benefitting from.

“If you go around, you would see that the majority of Nigerians in every local government area are buying fuel at the so-called black markets. So, why are we subsidising corruption? It is important that the government prioritises its spending.

“The Nigerian government under President Muhammadu Buhari has continued to experience denial of public looting. Every now and then, when you draw their attention to that, there are gaps and leakages, they respond by attacking human rights and anti-corruption activists while official corruption is on the increase.

“In the past, the Buhari government prioritised asset recovery simply because it was broke and they needed money at the time. So, civil society supported the government in its effort to recover money from yesterday’s looters. As we speak, the government under Muhammadu Buhari cannot account for the recoveries both local and international. In all honesty and sincerity, Nigerians have not seen the impact of these recoveries.

“There is corruption in defence procurement. Every day, you would hear a huge amount of money being spent yet insecurity is on the increase. The National Assembly is also increasing more funds for security, yet nobody is seeing any improvement.

“So, corruption in the security sector has exposed Nigerians to more danger and risk under President Buhari. This is not to say that there was no insecurity before the Buhari administration. We have always had security challenges but not in the manner in which we are having. More aspects of insecurity had been established without appreciable efforts to deal with it,” Rafsanjani said.