A Nollywood veteran and playwright, Dr. Pedro Obaseki, has condemned the outcry by the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party that President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption war is targeted at members of the party.
Obaseki, who took this position on Monday during an interview with our correspondent in Benin, Edo State, said it was unfortunate that the opposition party had mistaken the prosecution of past public officers, who had been accused of financial mismanagement, for persecution.
It will be recalled that the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, had while reacting to the arrest of a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Senator Godswill Akpabio, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Sunday, challenged the Federal Government to prove to Nigerians that its anti-graft war was not aimed at intimidating members of the PDP.
Metuh had also reportedly accused the ruling All Progressives Congress of rewarding “the former governors of Lagos and River states with ministerial nominations” while their counterpart in Akwa Ibom was “being hounded by the EFCC.”
But Obaseki said, “I think the PDP is seeing the prosecution of principal players in the government they held as perceived persecution. If Buhari, who came because Nigerians wanted those who have looted the treasury to be prosecuted, is doing that and those who are the immediate victims are seeing it as persecution, it is ok,” he said.
The former Managing Director of Daar Communications Plc, who received the Nollywood Veteran Award in 2013 as one of the pioneers of the movie industry, explained that Nigerians in the Diaspora had been embarrassed with the arrest of a former minister in the UK, a development which he said was also an embarrassment to the image of the country.
He said, “It is a shame for me to be on a plane to the UK, and just as you get to the airport, they are announcing the arrest of my immediate past Minister of Petroleum.
“No matter how happy Nigerians are that Diezani (Alison-Madueke) has been arrested, at that point all of us at Heathrow Airport who were Nigerians, felt diminished because the British government arrested your immediate past minister of the most economic resource in your nation. If you are a Nigerian, your humanity will shrink a little.”
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