Good morning.

After my release from a three-day incarceration which terminated two days ago, I lost the appetite to contribute to discussions here. Nevertheless, upon some consideration I decided to do this.

For those who insist we just forgot about the immediate past admin and concentrate squarely on the current one, well, you might have a good point but the problem is, the guys that push this line of thought are the same guys that keep attributing every accomplishment of this government to Jonathan. When it has to do with some cheery news, an assembly plant here and there, stable power supply, etc, they go "oh thank you GEJ", but when those idiotic murderers set off a bomb, or the local currency takes a beating, they don't hesitate a split second to blame the President.

There's no gainsaying most of the ills we suffer today, from economic hardship (devaluation of the naira) to ethnoreligous intolerance have their roots from seeds sown by the past leaderships, especially Jonathan's.

So, in the spirit of fair coverage and keeping the legacies of Ebele alive, I decided to do this little piece.

Enjoy.

We've heard, on several accounts, about incidences of massive corruption under Jonathan's administration, chief amongst which were:

1. Fuel subsidy scam: This is arguably the biggest fraud in the country's recorded history. From the outcome of several probes, it was revealed that the monies stolen under this scheme ran into $16.4 billion. On some accounts, we had up to 2.56trillion naira stolen, the most conservative of which was 1.8trillion naira. The fact that the figures couldn't be reconciled by the various bodies who should have a common figure as to how much was actually expended on subsidy, from the Finance ministry to DPR, PPPRA, to CBN, showed that indeed the expenditure was questionable.

The most chilling part of this was that it was done with no supplementary approval (budget) from the NASS, in blatant violation of extant fiscal laws. Under the budget, only about 356 billion naira was appropriated. To this day, no explanation has been given as to what accounted for the astronomical rise in subsidy expenditure.

www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/2015-budget-nigerians-divided-over-fuel-subsidy-removal/

mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE84C08N20120513?irpc=932

2. Pensions Fraud: Under this scam, we saw over 400billion naira (over $2.5billion then) stolen by Maina and his gang. sunnewsonline.com/new/n469bn-police-pension-fund-scam-they-want-me-dead-maina/

3. Crude oil theft: Under saint Jonathan's admin, according to the coordinating Minister of the Economy, Nigeria was losing a princely $12.6billion. thenationonlineng.net/new/oil-theft-and-a-ministers-lament/ . In this interview, Jonathan even sank as low as blaming the oil thefts on "the refineries abroad!!" He didn't think his surveillance contractors or himself had any blames to take whatsoever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCZos8xM7Iw. How much more dishonourable can a leader be?

4. Kerosine subsidy mega scam: Under the guise of a nonexistent subsidy on kerosine, the government of Goodluck Jonathan expended a whooping $8.76billion. This fraud was so staggering the governor of the nation's apex bank had to blow the whistle. But rather than investigate and bring offenders to justice, Jonathan went for broke, persecuted and criminalised the whistle blower! www.punchng.com/feature/kerosene-subsidy-the-hidden-mega-scam/ www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26535530

At the risk of sounding verbose, I'd limit the cases to these as they are some of the most publicised cases of barefaced theft under the immediate past admin.

Now, let us sum up the figures above: 16 + 2 + 12 + 8 = $38billion!! The greatest betrayal of the mandate given Jonathan by Nigerians was that not a SINGLE individual is serving a jail term over this rot. That sends but only one signal to discerning minds- that the presidency itself must have been complicit in the whole scheme.

Here are some potentially life changing projects these monies could have been channelled into had Jonathan and his henchmen shown a little bit of honour and commitment to the course for which the Nigerian people elevated to where they were.

I call them the Opportunity Costs of Corruption.

1. The Itaipu Hydro Electric Dam. I chose to refer to this first because the problem of inadequate power supply is one that affects every single Nigerian and as a problem, has defied solutions by successive administrations, not because of insolvency but corruption.

Jonathan's government spent over $8billion ( www.thisdaylive.com/articles/fg-states-lgs-spend-8-26bn-on-nipp-projects/202324/ ) generating nothing but darkness. In the twilight of his administration, the economy of the nation was literally shut down as power supply dropped to its lowest levels in the country's recorded history.

Itaipu dam was built by joint effort between two countries- Brazil and Paraguay. It is the world's second largest hydroelectric plant with an installed capacity 14GW. It supplies 75% of electricity consumed by Paraguay and 17% of that consumed by Brazil. It cost both countries and investors $20billion to build to finish!

Let's put these figures into perspective: Kainji dam, Nigeria's premier electricity generation facility has an installed capacity of 760MW and cost us $209million to build. There are 1000megawatts (1000MW) in 1gigawatt (1GW). If we were to convert, we would have 0.760GW of electricity being produced by Kainji. ie. Kainji dam generates approximately 5.4% of what Itaipu generates!!

The last time we heard, the nation's total electricity generation capacity was 10,000MW- still about 71% of Itapu's. www.nipptransactions.com/background/electricity-market/

Now, had Jonathan's government decided to build an Itaipu-like dam rather than stealing the monies above, they would still have kept a change of $18billion and Nigeria electricity problem would have been history!

Given that the nation has a total installed capacity of 10,000MW (10GW) and an "available" capacity of 6,000MW (6GW), the total is still 4,000MW shy of Itaipu's capacity and what could actually be transmitted is 8,000MW shy of Itaipu's. Isn't this a disgrace??

The economic benefits in terms of employment and wealth creation having such a facility brings to a country can only be imagined.

2. John Hopkins Hospital:

The new building, one of the largest hospital construction projects in U.S. history, is
erected on five acres and includes two 12-story patient towers, 560 all-private patient rooms, 33 state-of-the-art, spacious operating rooms,
and expansive new adult and pediatric emergency departments. The facility has
the most sophisticated diagnostic imaging equipment, such as an intraoperative MRI
scanner for neurosurgery cases and high-speed, low- dose CT scanners, as well as the latest technology for surgical and minimally
invasive procedures.

With healing gardens, soaring lobbies, a hand-picked collection of more than 500 works of art and cheerful, light-filled patient rooms, the
new building is designed to provide a welcoming and caring environment to advance the healing process. Patient rooms have sleeping
accommodations for family members. Sound-absorbing features in patient care
corridors, ranging from acoustical ceiling tiles to a quiet nurse-call system, promote a tranquil
environment. There are also expanded food options and food delivery times to meet
the nutritional needs of patients.

All of these for just - wait for it- $1.1billion!!!. m.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/its_open_the_johns_hopkins_hospitals_new_11_billion_building_welcomes_first_patients

With citizen dying of very preventable causes and spending millions of dollars yearly on seeking medicare abroad, imagine what a facility like this could have done for us in terms of prevention of deaths, prevention of capital flight and medical research.

Now, with both projects in the kitty, we still have about $16.9billion left!

3. The Mogul of Mumbai: This is one monstrosity that has placed India shoulder to shoulder with superpowers of engineering and technology. It is one of the world's largest petrochemical refineries with a capacity to refine 600,000 bpd. With annual revenues in the region of $18billion, one can only imagine what a facility like this could do to a country's economy.

Now, guess how much it took investors to set this up- a "paltry" $3.2billion!!

Subtracting this from the 16.9, we would have a change of $13.7billion left.

4. Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge: Nothing demonstrates Jonathan's grand deceit than his non-completion of the second Niger Bridge which happened to be one of his strongest campaign promises during 2011 elections. He even went as far as saying he'd go on exile if he doesn't complete that bridge before 2015!!

The Danyang Grand Bridge is a 165km engineering masterpiece built in four years, the same duration of time Jonathan plans to deliver his fabled Second Niger bridge of 1.5km!!.

Let's play with these figures a little: for a bridge of 165km to be built in 4years, it means about 3.5km would be built in a month!! Just imagine this!! It means the Chinese would take less than a moth to deliver what it would take Jonathan 48months to complete!!! If that doesn't make your head spin, then I don't know what else would.

To the interesting part: it took just $8.5billion to deliver this.

Again, subtracting from the change we are left with, upon building one hundred and ten second Niger Bridges (165km divide by 1.5km), we would still have a change of over $5billion left!! There are a billion and one things we could do with this amount of money as a nation!


These are but just a few things this nation could have done with the proceeds of corruption and incompetence in the last admin.

It remains to be seen how Jonathan cuts the image of a "hero" deserving of a Nobel Prize.

Thanks.

Cc: Lalasticlala, Ishilove, OAM4J.

Ok

hian

You try. Your nobel on its way

I became one of the happiest Nigerian to see GEJ removed from office through election. Am a Niger deltan and I hold no grudges for GEJ. But he is incompetent, weak and too corrupt.

Cc: Midolian, Obiagelli, Caseless, Clerverly, Demdem, PassingShot, Beremx. Hope you guys have been good.

For the wailingwailers, your insults and inane rants are expected.

That billions of dollars was stolen under the administration of Jonathan is not questionable. That we lost billions of dollars to corruption under Obasanjo administration is very correct. We hope we are past that now and we can finally move forward.

We believe this administration wants the best for Nigeria and are ready to do all it takes to make Nigerians proud of their country. All we ask is that we are carried along and not left to speculations and fortune tellers.

Finally if there are cases of corruption against anybody, they should be handled by the appropriate agencies and not the media.

size40:
I became one of the happiest Nigerian to see GEJ removed from office through election. Am a Niger deltan and I hold no grudges for GEJ. But he is incompetent, weak and too corrupt.

These are his most obvious attributes and explains one's perplexity as to calls from certain quarters for his immortalisation.

God bless you OP,if we didn't boot the criminal king out,and his cronies,just a matter of time,before Nigeria sinks..

He's an armed robber personified,who was luckily bestowed the highest office,and decided to loot every penny he sees.

He's worst than Abacha.

The existence of corruption is human nature but the President is not bound under any obligation to take responsibility for them.

The Law enforcement agencies and our Judiciary should be strengthen as credible institutions to function independent of politicians.

Nigerian Politics goes beyond mere permutations into settlement of individual, regional and religious interests hence the impediments and obstacles in fighting corruption.

As Gov. Amaechi said, if Jonathan had won second term, he will be spending the rest of his life in prison. However, he is now confident that no amount of corruption unraveled under/from his watch (administration) will make him go to jail.

This is Nigeria for you and I.

#BlindFollowers





belive this clowns at your own peril

palm oil people and their propaganda threads,see them all over the thread hating goodluck

Yomieluv:
God bless you OP,if we didn't boot the criminal king out,and his cronies,just a matter of time,before Nigeria sinks..

He's an armed robber personified,who was luckily bestowed the highest office,and decided to loot every penny he sees.

He's worst than Abacha.

What Abacha or any other government for that matter stole pales in comparism to the wanton theft that was pervasive under Jonathan.

If a government deserves a medal of honour for incompetence and corruption, none other would be so deserving than Jonathan's.

presher:
palm oil people and their propaganda threads,see them all over the thread hating goodluck

As expected. Why not counter a single point raised herein??

Omenka, this post has simplified the confusion of Hero-worshipers. Unfortunately, no amount of economic terrorism can shock the conscience of a prejudiced people. Thank God, we have Change through democratic revolution.

TRUTHTOPOWER:
Omenka, this post has simplified the confusion of Hero-worshipers. Unfortunately, no amount of economic terrorism can shock the conscience of a prejudiced people. Thank God, we have Change through democratic revolution.

They should keep trying to sell their perished goods. Discerning "customers" know better.

eph12:
That billions of dollars was stolen under the administration of Jonathan is not questionable. That we lost billions of dollars to corruption under Obasanjo administration is very correct. We hope we are past that now and we can finally move forward.

We believe this administration wants the best for Nigeria and are ready to do all it takes to make Nigerians proud of their country. All we ask is that we are carried along and not left to speculations and fortune tellers.

Finally if there are cases of corruption against anybody, they should be handled by the appropriate agencies and not the media.

The media plays an important role in informing the public and bringing pressure to bear on the authorities not to sweep cases of official corruption under the carpet. The citizens also have a role to play in resisting, and exposing these acts of corruption and publicising them so that the authorities are compelled to act.

I felt like it was God's judgment on Nigerians to make Jonathan our president for those horrible 4 wasted years. But we must continue praying for the new FG not to drink from thesame cup of intoxicating wine with Jonathan and cohorts. Phewwww!

Tinubu recently said:

"A latrine pit of 16 years can’t be cleaned up in 30 days because the mess is much.

“No matter what they are saying we are not re-running the election until four years time.

@OP: Tanoids are gonna hate you for this.

Even the second Niger bridge is still under #comingsoon. Thankfully the years of the locust are over!

#change

GADAMITT ! omenka killed it kudos bro

Lalasticlala, I see no reason why this thread s still lying in the backstage. For fairness, give it the coverage it deserves.

Thanks.

omenka:
Cc: Midolian, Obiagelli, Caseless, Clerverly, Demdem, PassingShot, Beremx. Hope you guys have been good.

For the wailingwailers, your insults and inane rants are expected.

Omenka, this is a thoroughly compiled work. You've really done well.

Just as you said, I am no longer very much interested in contributing to scholarly educative discussion on this forum because of the way the children of anger and frustration have been let loose nowadays. At every good news, they're quick to tag it one of the legacies of Jonathan while celebrating the bad news as failure of PMB! Their idiocy knows no bounds!

I live outside Nigeria and I can categorically tell you that Nigeria may have missed her golden opportunity to record some outstanding infrastructural development that would have been brought about by the oil windfall of 2010 to 2014. One only needs to look at what UAE, Qatar, KSA, Bahrain and a host of others achieved with their own spoils of the windfall to understand that we were conned by GEJ and his cohorts.

What the wailers have continuously failed to understand is that bad governance does not discriminate on ethnicity, religion and tribes to deal with its victims just as results of good governance is enjoyed by all irrespective of your religion, party affiliation, ethnicity and tribe.

The only good news is that we now have a glimmer of hope in a Buhari who is averse to corruption, lack of accountability and probity. Had GEJ succeeded in staying put as president, Nigeria would have been dangerously close to becoming a completely failed state.

Change2015:


The media plays an important role in informing the public and bringing pressure to bear on the authorities not to sweep cases of official corruption under the carpet. The citizens also have a role to play in resisting, and exposing these acts of corruption and publicising them so that the authorities are compelled to act.

But it's the so called authorities that are coming to complain and cry in the media instead of taking them to court or submitting evidences in their possession to the appropriate agency. It shows these accusations are just from permutations and combinations.

Lalasticlala, Ishilove, Seun, this is a well written article deserving of FP. It offers people some insight into what we could have achieved if not for mismanagement.

eph12:

But it's the so called authorities that are coming to complain and cry in the media instead of taking them to court or submitting evidences in their possession to the appropriate agency. It shows these accusations are just from permutations and combinations.

They will duly be taken to court when all evidences have been fully compiled. Just make sure that when the time comes, no complains from you.

YoruBanger:
Tinubu recently said:



@OP: Tanoids are gonna hate you for this.

Actually no matter how long the latrine has been used cleaning it shouldn't take more than few hours

presher:
palm oil people and their propaganda threads,see them all over the thread hating goodluck

The issues raised are beyond your comprehension, I guess.

PassingShot:

They will duly be taken to court when all evidences have been fully compiled. Just make sure that when the time comes, no complains from you.

Complains from me ke? Oga I don't know any of them personally and I can never defend a politician unlike some of you here that don't really know what's going on underground but still jump around to defend them that makes one thinks some of you are being paid for this. Any ways I just need Buhari to give Nigeria constant 24hrs power supply and me and my generations would be forever grateful. Till then we just dey observe.

omenka:
Cc: Midolian, Obiagelli, Caseless, Clerverly, Demdem, PassingShot, Beremx. Hope you guys have been good.

For the wailingwailers, your insults and inane rants are expected.

beautiful article Omenka. Like some said earlier, Jonathan remains the most corrupt president Nigeria ever had. The subsidy scams recorded during his administration must not be swept under the carpet.

God bless Nigeria

eph12:

Complains from me ke? Oga I don't know any of them personally and I can never defend a politician unlike some of you here that don't really know what's going on underground but still jump around to defend them that makes one thinks some of you are being paid for this. Any ways I just need Buhari to give Nigeria constant 24hrs power supply and me and my generations would be forever grateful. Till then we just dey observe.

Don't lump me with those who defend politicians. Check some of my threads and posts to understand what I stand for.