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Wikileaks Graft Stories : Some
People Want Jonathan’s Regime
to
Fail ,says Okonjo-Iweala
By Danlami Nmodu
Newsdiaryonline
Sunday Sep 11,2011
Nigeria’s Finance Minister Mrs Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala has debunked allegation published by Wikileaks
that she gave a $50
million contract to a brother named JonJon while
serving under the
Olusegun Obasanjo presidency.She told journalists at an unusual
press briefing in Abuja that she was
not surprised that these
stories against her and members of the economic team are coming
out now, because she has evidence that some people do not want
President Goodluck Jonathan’s regime to succeed.
Specifically she said, the” underlying
motivation is for this (Jonathan) administration
not to succeed.” Speaking further ,Okonjo Iweala revealed
that some people actually came to her and tried to stop her from
joining the Jonathan administration, because such people felt if
she joined the regime, there could be a chance that the regime
might succeed.
According to the minister “It is not a
surprise that as more and more aspects of the reform unfold, you
will see more and more attacks, more and more stories are coming
out, these are nothing new against my person or against members
of the team….The attack has started.….people trying to do damage
to my reputation..They think
they can do that, but I tell you, they cannot and they will
never succeed…….The underlying motivation is for this
administration not to succeed.’’
“Before I came, people tried to stop me
from coming. They actually came to see me to tell me not to come
because if I came there might be a chance for success .She said
such detractors will not stop because , if you try to fight
corruption they will fight back. She urged journalist to
crosscheck what they hear or read not to copy ‘something from
some disreputable websites that have now become sites of lies
instead of sites of truth.She urged journalists to call her to
verify before you print’.
Amazingly she chose to blast
Saharareporters and pointblanknews and others which have made
stories out of Wikileaks expose.When asked if she was referring
to the Wikileaks stories, she said she did not mention Wikileaks,
but went ahead to say the Wikileaks story about her is false. “I
never mentioned Wikileaks..but the Wikileaks story about me is
completely false..They were not even intelligent about it…I have
no brother called JonJon”Mr Okonjo-Iweala said.
When asked if she could mention those who
approached and urged her not to join Jonathan’s regime, she
declined
maintaining that there
was still some hope that such people could still be persuaded
to
see reason.
Earlier the finance minister said a new era
of being transparent
with the budget has started.She also revealed that there
would be a relaunch of the publication of the federation
revenue (allocation).She discovered on her recent return
that
publication of the
federation allocation was
not
regular any more and
people wondered why these publications are no longer regular.
“So we immediately got to work. I asked President
Jonathan who gave his
blessing since it is by popular demand and with the support of
the accountant general’s office we began the publication
again ,’’she said
“More importantly, we have now put the past
18 months of revenue allocation into a book form.. we will
upload it on the website of the ministry, people can take it and
make their analysis. For us, it is transparency in action….’’
Okonjo-Iweala.
“We will like to see you the media working
with these data and drawing conclusions and many articles could
be written..Civil society has also said they want use it as a
tool to hold the federal government ,ministers
(and all)accountable for what
they are receiving,’’the
minister said
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