Aregbesola, Osun and Jonathan’s tragic errors
By Funmilola Adekunle

Scathing criticisms shot at the good people of the State of Osun by ousted former President Goodluck Jonathan did not come as a surprise. In a lowly remark signed by a certain Okechukwu who claims to be his media aide, Jonathan who nearly brought Nigeria to her two knees made futile attempts to continue his well-known contempt for the people of Osun and the legitimate government which he tried but failed to subvert and topple during the heated 2014 elections.
For one thing, Jonathan wrote with so much bile without consideration for the fate circumstances impressed on him when he rose from a tenderfoot to suddenly become the President of Nigeria. Former Presidents ordinarily should avoid gutter language in their references otherwise such only end up demeaning the idiosyncrasies of the individual involved. It was generally assumed that the six years he spent in Aso rock, exposed to international affairs and varying cultures, should have been enough to tame his well-known base instincts.
This is necessary to re-educate the former President on best practices in mass communication, diplomacy and statesmanship.
No doubt, Mr Jonathan obviously wrote in anger and fury leading him to rest on hasty, fallacious premises destined for wrong conclusions. Apart from the vain attempt to glorify his ruinous, ridiculous and shameful 6-year mis-governance that threw Nigeria into the dogs, elevated corruption to state principle and his sustained contempt for good governance, Mr. Jonathan flavored his treatise with outright lies childish propaganda, reactionary assumptions and self-demeaning assertions coming from someone who had the fate of 170 million thrown on his lap but chose to destroy that opportunity and left the seat of power filthier and in a state of moral stupor.
It is appalling that a President who parades a PhD can, with ignominy dismiss the Opon Imo project which saw a radical transformation of the state of Osun in the realms of education and learning. Obviously Mr. Jonathan’s warped judgment cannot be superior to the assessment of reputable international bodies including but not limited to the United Nations, (UN) and several of her agencies that thumps up for the unique project. It is interesting that Jonathan mischievously mentioned Ekiti as a reference of good government but he dubiously failed to reference the fact that the Opon Imo project is substantially the same with the e-learning adopted by Ekiti State under the All Progressives Congress, (APC).
It is a shame that Mr. Jonathan raised issues about the financial propriety in the award of the Opon Imo contracts when in actual fact he was the President and Commander-in-chief of Nigeria as at the time the project took place. We are aware his cronies and blood-bound rookies abound in Osun. A decent leader should have asked questions and in fact initiated the process of the probe for any infraction. Why then did he, as the then President, failed to raise the alleged case of corruption when the project was being executed? It is sad that Jonathan quoted fictitious figures regarding the project, a clear indication of a state of mind that lacks knowledge, clarity of purpose and sometimes warped.
It is an admission of mischief and stupidity that his regime did not do anything to investigate his imaginary crime of Osun people while his dubious and rogue regime lasted. It is disrespectful on the part of Jonathan to describe the school uniform as clueless when infact the project did not only improve creative, indigenous knowledge but also met the aspirations of parents and students in the State of Osun.
It is a blatant lie when Jonathan claimed Osun owed workers up to 12 months making reference to “unprecedented labour protest”. This is quite unimaginative. If a former President of Nigeria could either be a reservoir of short memory, naughty or dubious, then one could understand his mental challenges in dealing with a complex country as reflected in his megalomaniac and hollow leadership which led to his unprecedented humiliation at the poll by Nigerians in 2015.
It is unfortunate that Jonathan forgot so easily that the only “unprecedented workers’ protest” one can remember was the one staged against Jonathan over the subsidy scam and fuel hike held at Ojota in Lagos and across the country. It is sad that a man who is expected to hide his face in shame could still find his voice. Jonathan should remember that history remains unkind to him.
As an Ijaw man who found himself shot into fame to steer the fate of Nigeria, Mr Jonathan and his criminal gangs rather did not employ the sophisticated skill needed to govern Nigeria but rather restricted his prowess to that needed to steer a canoe on a mere tributary which led Nigeria to tragedy and a near civil war. This was the reason why the courageous people of Osun and Nigerians humiliated and thrashed his awkward regime when they chose Aregbesola against his desperate desires.
The reference to Justice Olamide Folahanmi Oloyede who broke the golden rule of separation of powers by interfering in a most bizarre and irresponsible manner in the functions of the Executive, is an indication that Folahanmi may be one of the paid agents of destruction planted in Osun by Jonathan. He fanned his ego by saying he laid a “solid foundation for democracy”, what a ridiculous and blatant lie. Nigerians who voted overwhelmingly against him are wiser. The statement he issued is akin to a filthy pig who saw a mirror but could not admit his lewdness until he jumped and broke the mirror, thereby smearing his face with his own blood.
The people of the State of Osun are not aware that their Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola was rated as the “Worst Governor of the Year” according to Jonathan by an unseeded “Daily Post” that probably publishes from Jonathan’s bedroom. The disgraced President claimed Senator Ben Murray Bruce, the Senator representing Bayelsa East offered 506,600 wardrobe allowances to Osun workers, one needs to struggle to know who the beneficiaries are. If anyone needs assistance, it is actually the people of Otuoke whose environment and motherland have been taken away from them due to environmental pollution, a people whose livelihood has been destroyed, a people exposed to harmful toxins with generational consequences and who have access to illicit weapons more than they have access to books. Mr. Jonathan was in power for 6 years but did nothing about the plight of his people except to build an ungraded university which is not as good as some secondary schools in the State of Osun.
It is worrisome that a former President of an enlightened country like Nigeria could cite authority from a faceless and covetous organization like the Civil Society Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEOS) which came as an emergency “Evil Society” set up with the parochial aim of promoting Jonathan’s culture of hooliganism in the build up to the 2014 election when Jonathan invaded Osun with 35, 000 armed men including rogues in military uniforms, who were quickly distinguished by their drunkenness and mucky mannerism.
It is tragic for Nigeria that a man under whose nose over 300 billion dollars were stolen and under whose watch his wife became one of the richest women in the world sourced from illicit funds, could mount the pulpit to sermon on morals and ethics.