Tambuwal’s Statement On Jonathan Unfortunate – Abati

The Presidency has berated the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal for alleging that President Goodluck Jonathan’s body language encourages corruption in the country.

Tambuwal, who was the guest speaker at the 2013 International anti-corruption day organized by the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, in Abuja, had while speaking on “The Role of Legislature in the Fight against Corruption in Nigeria”, said “By the action of setting up different committees for straightforward cases, the president’s body language doesn’t tend to support the fight against corruption”.

But the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, took exception to Tambuwal’s allegation yesterday, describing it as very unfortunate.

The presidential spokesman reacted through his twitter handle, @abati1990.

According to Abati, “Tambuwal should focus more on the efforts of the administration in fighting corruption, and comment on what he knows” because the current administration is not going to fight corruption based on mere speculation or what he termed “bad politics” being played by some people.

The President’s spokesman added that “It is unfortunate that a man that is occupying such a high office is talking about body language” when “he is certainly in a position to know the truth and defend both his party and the government”.

Abati disclosed that government is investigating various matters and working on them in line with due process contrary to the Speaker’s claim that most of the corruption cases uncovered by the National Assembly were being swept under the carpet.

While acknowledging that the fight against corruption is a collective effort, Abati assured that “President Jonathan will not condone any act of proven corruption”.