The Presidency has said President Muhammadu Buhari would be ready to grant former president Goodluck Jonathan audience if he sought to make clarifications in view of the revelations coming from the EFCC’s probe of the multi-million dollar arms procurement scandal perpetrated under his administration.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina who stated this in an interview on Saturday, further said because of Buhari’s belief in decency and civility, he would not shut out his predecessors, even if some people had done so in the past.
Adesina said, “A former President should always have access to a sitting one. It would be uncouth and indecent to shut out a former occupant of such lofty office. If some people did it to their predecessors in the past, it is not this President who believes in decency and civility.
“Yes, President Buhari will always grant audience to former President Jonathan, if there is any request for such. A rebuff does not come into the picture at all.”
Meanwhile, a top government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the former President had tried to reach out to the National Security Adviser, Babagana Mongunu.
The source, however, said he did not know if Jonathan had succeeded in establishing a contact.
“I know that the former President has been trying to reach the NSA. Whether he has succeeded, I do not know. You can ask the NSA himself,” he said.
It was the NSA, on the orders of the President, who constituted the committee that has audited the procurement of arms and equipment in the Armed Forces and Defence sector from 2007 to 2015.
Most of the information in public domain on the arms scandal is from the findings of the committee, which has submitted two preliminary reports so far.