After Accusing His Administration As Most Corrupt, Buhari Confers Award Of Excellence On Jonathan

After critising the administration of his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan as most corrupt in the history of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday conferred Nigeria Excellence Award in Public Service (NEAPS) on him and 43 other prominent Nigerians.

The event took place at the conference room of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

NEAPS was set up to recognize distinguished public service to Nigeria, either contributions to individuals, state or local community, or the public through excellence in leadership, service, or humanitarianism.

To be eligible, the recipient must be a living public official or a private citizen excelling consistently in a given sphere of influence, in good character standing and must also be at the forefront of service and innovation.

The individual must show an act of public service beyond the acts of their given mandate in endowing their society positively.

But many would sense a tinge of irony in the award for given to the former president.

In the build up to the 2015 presidential election, Buhari accused his administration of mind boggling corruption.

Buhari and the All Progressive Congress used war against corruption as one of the three pillars of his campaign.

Others are power and restoration of security by leading from the front as an ex-general.

After coming to power in 2015, Buhari declared he inherited an empty treasury and set up an investigative panel to probe the Jonathan administration.

On June 23, 2015 via a press statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, Buhari was quoted as saying, “He (Buhari) said, ‘Look, the challenges I face are enormous’ against the background of the fact that this country is heavily indebted, billions of US dollars and the treasury is virtually empty.

“States are going without salaries. He said, in fact, even some employees of the federal government have been going without salaries.”

But the former president has maintained his innocence and denied he was part of any corruption and corruption scheme, telling Bloomberg that, “since independence, corruption has been a source of worry as it has been present in Nigeria. No administration can say it is free from it.”