“Every country has the government it
deserves”, Joseph de Maistre, August 15,
1811.
The PUNCH of Wednesday October 23, 2013
was for me particularly remarkable. Its
reports – regular columns and opinions –
summarized all Nigerians need to know
about the government they
overwhelmingly elected in 2011. Many long
term readers of this column would recall my
strident calls for Nigerians to massively
reject the PDP, including Jonathan, at the
polls. My reason was simple. Based on
information at my command, some of
which was published in my book, PDP:
CORRUPTION INCORPORATED, Nigeria could
never get out of the mess in which we are
stuck as long as the PDP, as presently
constituted, is in power at the centre. And,
by power, I mean the legislature as well as
the Presidency.
I continue to recollect how even highly
intelligent persons, the professors of ASUU,
and others, just as intelligent but not wise,
allowed themselves to be persuaded that
Jonathan could head a political party
remarkably different in style from the one
Obasanjo headed. And, let me hasten to add
that, Obasanjo headed what some believe to
be the most corrupt government in Nigeria
from 1999 to 2007. Some of the evidence is
there in that book.
Even as the votes for the 1999 elections,
which brought Obasanjo to power for the
second time were still to be ratified by INEC,
the President-elect granted an interview to
CNN – because for OBJ, charity begins
abroad, not at home. Asked what would be
his top priorities, he declared, with feigned
sincerity, that he would reduce poverty and
fight corruption to a standstill. Instead, he
left more Nigerian living in poverty than he
met in 1999 and headed what is believed to
be the most corrupt government in history.
He has since April 2010, when Jonathan
became President, emerged as President-
Emeritus giving advice, even when not
asked and often the wrong ones when
asked. If a man is known by the company
he keeps, a President can also be judged by
the type of advisers he chooses. Judged
strictly on his own two top priorities –
poverty alleviation and corruption
eradication – Obasanjo was a failure. And he
failed because instead of eradicating
corruption he fostered it.
Fish rots from the head; as most people
who grew up along the waterways know.
The PDP has been led by people who “don’t
give a damn”, about Nigerians, to use the
words of the current President – Goodluck
Jonathan. They have also appointed into top
office, mostly people who are clones of
themselves. The truth is; bad leaders cannot
be comfortable with selfless public servants.
Incidentally, when I read in the papers,
criticism of Jonathan’s administration by the
likes of Fani-Kayode and Dr Ezekwesili, what
passes through my mind is that this is a
case of the kettle calling the pot black. Fani-
Kayode, like his predecessor in the office of
the Ministry of Aviation, is still facing
corruption charges. Until exonerated, he
should be the last person to cast aspersions
at Princess Oduah. Where, at any rate, were
they when Petroleum Development Trust
Fund, PDTF, money was used to purchase a
Peugeot 607, for a woman of easy virtue
contrary to the provisions of the Decree
which established the Fund?
It is in my book. What is the difference
between that and “Oduahgate”?
Prominent among the stories in the PUNCH
of that day was one titled:
PRESIDENTIAL FLEET LARGER THAN THREE
DOMESTIC AIRLINES. It then went on to
inform us that the Nigerian presidential fleet
had more planes than those of Germany,
Britain, Netherlands, and other larger
economies of the world. If that was
supposed to be a reflection on President
Jonathan, the author of that and the writer
of another piece titled A PRESIDENT’S
FLEETING FANCY were telling us stale stories
and they were putting the blame only on
Jonathan when the origin remains
untouched. Like a doctor, treating
symptoms instead of the causes of
diseases, they would not go very far.
To start with Jonathan was not the
originator of large presidential fleets. One
commentator said to me that he did not
expect a man who confessed to going to
school shoeless to engage in such
profligacy. I had to remind him that
Obasanjo, who was the originator of large
presidential fleets, which did not disturb
Fani-Kayode or Dr Oby, was also born poor,
and he left prison almost destitute in 1998.
That did not stop him from sending a
request to the National Assembly in 1999
for a jet which was superior to what the
Queen of England, not born shoeless, uses.
That also did not stop him from giving N10
billion for Poverty Alleviation Programme,
PAP, for which there has been no account till
today. From the same PDTF account
Obasanjo paid N300 million for the
registration of a company in Nigeria; a task
which could have been undertaken by any
“Charge and Bail” for two million and he
would consider himself overpaid. I cannot
recollect Fani-Kayode or anyone else in his
cabinet raising objections and going to the
press to denounce it. Apparently something
is either good or bad depending on
whether you serve in the government
involved or not. We are sick and tired of the
self-righteousness of OBJ’s people.
President Jonathan and former President
Obasanjo
The truth is Obasanjo designed the template
for the waste and fraud and it was
supported and funded by the PDP-
controlled National Assembly; partly
because all the Senate Presidents, the party’s
National Chairmen and other officials, close
to the corridors of power, also use the
planes for vainglorious reasons. The crash
of a presidential helicopter, which took the
lives of the former National Security Adviser
and a Governor, while running kabukabu
errand for Jonathan’s Senior Special Adviser,
is a clear testimony to uses for which this
mammoth fleet has been established and
retained. A President of Nigeria can only use
one aircraft at a time and not everyday; so
why have ten? Don’t ask Jonathan alone
that question, ask Obasanjo as well. He
started it.
That N9.2 billion per annum is spent on
running costs of the PRESIDENTIAL AIRLINE
is also stale news. What Nigerians need to
know are the opportunity costs of the N9.2
billion, to which the “don’t give a damn”
PDP presidents have subjected Nigerians.
They were, of course, ably supported by
David Mark as two-time Senate President
and his predecessors in office. To the best
of my knowledge, no single Senate
President or Speaker of the House had ever
objected to the maintenance of a large fleet.
They had faithfully budgeted for them – as
members of a cabal are supposed to do for
OGA.
Why stop at planes alone, if we want to root
out official waste and corruption
completely. We should also ask how many
cars are in the Presidential fleet, the models
and costs. Nigerians will again be
astonished by how much gap there is
between their President, leader of one of
the poorest nations on earth and those of
the USA, Germany, China, Japan, Brazil and
even South Africa. Aso Rock is like the
parking lot of a luxury car dealer. Out of our
three civilian Presidents since 1999, the
most prudent, Yar’Adua, was ironically the
only one of noble birth. The other two, born
poor, had not spared a thought for how
many poor people can be helped by their
prodigal spending on frivolities.
The day before Wednesday’s stories, which
includes comments about Madam Aviation’s
cars, procured at outrageous prices, PUNCH
had informed us about N3 billion being
spent by the Federal Capital Authority, FCA,
to build houses for National Assembly
leaders whose remunerations had been
monetized after Obasanjo (again, you say!),
unilaterally sold off the houses that were
provided for them to the occupants. Tucked
in that story was another scandal authored
by OBJ.
The former Speaker, Dimeji Bankole, was
allowed to go away with his own palatial
residence for a paltry N45 million. He now
lets it out for N40 million per annum.
Perhaps, it was another coincidence that
Bankole and Obasanjo are both PDP
members from Abeokuta. Perhaps! But,
where else does a patriotic President sell off
his country’s property at less than the
market price and where else does a patriotic
Speaker buy the same knowing that the
nation is being cheated out of funds
needed for the seventy per cent poor?
Where else?

and where do citizens fight corruption along tribal divides?
we actually deserve d government... comments from various users on recent events on Nairaland goes a Long way to show that the reason Nigeria is better than Ghana is because everyone cares about their kinsmen even in Evil...perhaps such kinsmen don't know of their existence and May never know some tribal bigot. fought an internet war for his kinsman.
D MASSES ARE FEMININE!!!