Jonathan: The Silence of the Guilty
Articles/Opinion, Babs Ajayi, Latest Headlines Thursday, January 28th, 2016
By Babs Ajayi
BALTIMORE, MD (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Billions of dollars and billions of naira were stolen during the Jonathan kleptocracy, and now reports are emerging how the looting took centre stage during the corruption-driven administration of Jonathan. Jonathan was at the centre of the cash-sharing scam and so far his name has been mentioned as the one who approved the release of billions in naira and dollars. Just recently, the National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Olisa Muteh confirmed that he received N400 million from Mr. Jonathan for “a job.” Muteh refused to mention the job he did for N400 million, but the shocking side of the story is the fact that Mr. Jonathan has remained silent since the Dasukigate scam was made public along with several share-the-loot schemes that have overtaken the media in the last several weeks.
Matters regarding Jonathan and his culpability have been made to look unimportant and a side issue by no other than The Commonwealth of Nations, an organization of former British Colonies. It is shocking that The Commonwealth seemed to have found in Mr. Jonathan a credible leader despite all the facts available to the Nigerian, British, and United States governments about the involvement of Mr. Jonathan in several frauds and cases of missing funds. Mr. Jonathan even travelled to the United States in December 2015 to receive an award! How will any organization give Mr. Jonathan unmerited recognition and award? Is it because he accepted defeat and handed over to the victor? Was his defeat not very obvious that there is nothing else for him to do than to gracefully accept defeat or face shame and disrepute? Did he not readily accept defeat hoping that the winner of the election will not prosecute him considering the several scams he committed and the kleptocratic regime he ran?
The Commonwealth has done so much damage to its reputation by giving Mr. Jonathan undeserving recognition and relevance. For an organization that has very little relevance in the scheme of things, one will expect that The Commonwealth would be the last body to try to shore up the profile of a very corrupt man who lacked leadership qualities and whose image for most part of his time in office was that of a clueless, spineless and irresponsible leader. Who else will The Commonwealth offer a platform? Robert Mugabe? Despite the fact that major government projects were poorly funded, Mr. Jonathan was able to provide the sum of N 1.7 billion to Mr. Fani-Kayode for publicity for the 2015 general elections for the purpose of shoring up his battered image. How was the money disbursed? No one can tell. The cash-grab pointed to an endemic pattern and abuse of trust and state funds, which portrayed Mr. Jonathan as an irresponsible, reckless, and corrupt funds manager. It is this portrayal that supports the commonly held view that Mr. Jonathan should be vigorously interrogated and put on trial. While the people suffer and lack very basic infrastructure and necessities of life, Mr. Jonathan and his co-looters were busy emptying the national treasury to fulfil their personal objectives and line their own pockets.
The sharing of hundreds of millions of naira to political parties by Mr. Jonathan with the intent to earn their support was unbelievable – even to political parties that did not produce presidential candidates such as the Accord Party of Senator Ladoja. Mr. Olu Falae also collected N100 million for his party, the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The former secretary to the Federal Government is now being accused by some leaders of his party who claimed he only reported N5 million. The integrity of many who claimed to be leaders is now being put to test; many have been shown to be greedy louts and no more than thieves. The reckless abuse of state funds, the sharing of billions of dollars and naira among Jonathan and his men, missing billions from crude oil revenue, and the theft of state funds with impunity, which we commonly refer to as kleptocracy, are reasons that make many to wonder why any organization, particularly The Commonwealth would avail Mr. Jonathan a platform to launder his tattered image and a clueless reputation.
Babs Ajayi
@Babs_ajayi
Short URL: https://www.africanexaminer.com/?p=29789
Mr. Ajayi, you write like an APC man. You have no business in journalism if you cannot do objective reporting. Tell me, which other leader in African has ever handed over at the end of their tenure apart from Mandela. Handing over is big problem of African Leaders and it is much of a concern to the world. So put on a scale with the crime you said GEJ committed, you can see, with disappointment that it weighs far much less. The corruption and looting as you said are local issues and only Nigerians must find solution to that. But handover is of global concern, as you can see. The looting is still going on as we speak. It is the same people that did the same PDP looting, they are still there doing what they know how to do best. So it is not a GEJ problem. So still prepare to write more. You have so much looting stories ahead of you.