Professor Emeritus Ibrahim Lawal, a retired NIPSS director and an elder statesman from Adamawa state, has claimed that during Buhari’s administration, there were claims of ministers embezzling billions of naira in addition to the alleged misappropriation of public monies by former CBN governor Godwin Emefiele. In addition, he voiced his worries regarding the mishandling of the loot collected from Abacha, claiming that dishonest politicians profited from it and made off with the money. He contended that since the Emefiele reports to former President Muhammadu Buhari, he cannot be held solely responsible for the economic collapse of Nigeria.
He said in an interview with Tribune, ”Emefiele did his own. He was a governor of the central bank answerable to only the President. The President [Buhari] also is not clean in this respect, because as an executive President, he should have cautioned Emefiele to stop all that. Everything didn’t happen overnight. It happened over a long period. Aside from Emefiele, what of the ministers that stole billions of naira in Buhari’s tenure? Even the Abacha recovered loot went into the hands of corrupt politicians and they made away with it.”.
