"Jonathan And Lamido" - By: Sam
Nda-Isaiah on November 18, 2013
via Leadership Newspaper
I hope no one is duped by the
face-off between President
Goodluck Jonathan and Governor
Sule Lamido of Jigawa State being
packaged as the president’s own
version of the war against
corruption. Last week, Governor
Lamido accused President
Jonathan of doing nothing about
the lead he (Lamido) gave him: a
minister close to him collecting
$250 million bribe from an oil
company. In less than 24 hours,
the EFCC had swooped on two of
the governor’s sons over the
alleged laundering of about N10
billion. I am certainly not holding
brief for Sule Lamido and his
children. They may, in fact, be
guilty; but would the president
have given a different directive if
the governor had not been such a
trenchant opponent to him? If
Lamido had not been in the
Amaechi-led NGF and had been in
the Jang-led NGF, would the
prognosis have been different?
Or, let’s put it this way: why is it
that, in spite of all the hoopla
about Stella, the EFCC still does not
know the way to the aviation
minister’s house, even though her
bulletproof cars run on excess
aviation fuel? There have also
been several reports on the
petroleum minister, without any
consequences whatsoever. During
some of the investigations, it
was the president himself that
sometimes begged the National
Assembly not to “embarrass” the
ministers by inviting them to their
committees.
It is too early for us to forget the
president’s contributions to the
House of Reps fuel subsidy probe.
This is what happens when a
leader has completely lost
credibility. Governor Lamido may
well be guilty of the massive
corruption charges as alleged, but
Nigerians are reading other
meanings into it.
And, by the way, where is the
report of the fuel subsidy scam
involving the son of another PDP
chieftain? Nigerians have not yet
forgotten that the PDP chairman’s
son and his colleagues have been
charged in court over the theft of
N304 billion. It’s now over 20
months, and nothing is heard
about the case anymore. The case
will probably never come up again
until Bamanga Tukur starts
thinking of conducting a free and
fair presidential primary. And lest
we forget so soon, what were the
president’s contributions in
catching the pension robbery
kingpin, apart from what
Nigerians already know?
The president’s double standard
did not just surface today.
Evidence of it started showing
even before he became president.
Does anyone still remember
Vincent Ogbulafor? He was the
chairman of the PDP when
President Umaru Yar’Adua had
become sick and incapacitated.
Jonathan was acting president
then but Ogbulafor insisted that
the PDP would still zone its
presidential slot to the north.
Before anyone knew what was
going on, some funny charges
had been slapped on Ogbulafor’s
face for an offence he was said to
have committed seven years
earlier. Of course, Ogbulafor was
forced to resign. The PDP
chairman might have been guilty,
but he was not the only guilty
party there.
It is very hard to continue to trust
the current leadership of the
ruling party with power. And we
are all witnesses to the quality of
governance under Jonathan. Any
group that sees power as an
advantage for self-promotion and
breaking the law must never be
allowed near power. The Appeal
Court has just passed a
judgement declaring former
governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola as
the authentic secretary of the PDP.
But Jonathan doesn’t want that
and has quickly got Oyinlola
suspended from the party.
Nobody should tell me that it was
not Jonathan who did it. In their
confusion, they said Oyinlola could
not be reinstated because the
court judgement had not been
served the PDP headquarters. But
the same PDP headquarters was
aware enough to rush to the
Supreme Court to appeal the
Appeal Court’s judgement. That’s
certainly not the kind of
leadership you want to watch
over your nation.
If many Nigerians are forced to
either accept Jonathan’s
accusation or Lamido’s allegation,
more would rather believe the
Jigawa State governor because
the president has tons and tons
of corruption issues he has been
protecting. It may not be true, but
that is the perception the
president has given himself.
Nigerians now know how
important to the nation the man
who occupies the presidency is.
Next time, we must insist that only
a leader fit for a country as
important as Nigeria emerges.

In my place, the idiom is.....THE NEEDLE HAS DUG UP THE PLOUGH... ALLURA YA TONO GARMA