Frontline cleric, Bishop Matthew Kukah has denied that former President Goodluck Jonathan contacted the National Peace Committee for the 2015 general election to beg President Buhari on his behalf.
The media was recently awash with the news that the meeting, held Thursday night between Buhari and Jonathan was initiated because the former president sought for understanding on alleged corrupt practices and mismanagement of funds under his administration.
The report claimed that he was hearing about some of the graft allegations for the first time.
Fielding questions from State House correspondents after a meeting with President Buhari, Kukah said: “Anybody is free to come to our committee, but former President Jonathan never by telephone or another means talked to the committee. We went to see him, but that is after we had already seen members of the political parties, members of the civil society. We planned to see the Speaker because we couldn’t see him yesterday (Monday).
“This is a very planned series of interventions, essentially just to hear out everybody and I think the good news is that Nigerians are committed to a new nation, they are committed to ensuring that the gains and blessings God has given us come to fruition”.
On why the intervention has become necessary, the Cleric said: “This is not an intervention, it is a hearing out process. We just had an election; it was like a wedding. But now is the reality of government – now the marriage and people need to be encouraged. We need to reaffirm that this is our country and the only thing we can collectively be opposed to is injustice, inequity, corruption and in that regard we all had one single conversation.
“The President has also reaffirmed the need for this committee to continue, and the international community has very much welcomed the contributions of the committee. Essentially we are not policing, but when the need arises, we help to build confidence in the process,” he said.
Kukah said the committee gave a bit of update about the relevance of the peace committee itself and how it can help to nurture what God had given to Nigerians, during its meeting with President Buhari.
Commenting on the administration’s stance against corruption, Kukah said, “In our conversation with President Buhari and members of the parties, I don’t think any Nigerian is in favour of corruption or is against the President’s commitment to ensuring that we turn a new leaf. I think what we are concerned about is process; it is no longer a military regime and under our existing laws everybody is innocent until proven guilty.
“Again, our own commitment is not to intimidate or fight anybody. The former President’s commitment and what he did still remains spectacular, and I think that President Buhari himself appreciates that. So our effort really is to make sure that the right thing is done”.
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