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Jonathan's Pathetic Apologetics by Yhinkss(m): 7:47am On Apr 28, 2017 |
Former President Goodluck Jonathan, reflecting
on his electoral defeat two years ago, shunned
deep introspection and remorse for his five- year
reign of impunity . What comes out from him from
excerpts of a new book is a potpourri of
falsehoods , hypocrisy , lame excuses and blame for
everyone but himself . But before Nigerians fall
once more for his favourite tactic of playing the
victim , they would do well to remember the
devastating impact of his bad government.
Words attributed to him in a book , Against the
Run of Play , by Olusegun Adeniyi , a well -known
journalist, and billed for public presentation in
Lagos on Friday , were vintage Jonathan. Posing
yet again as the perpetual victim , he blamed
former world leaders − Barack Obama of the
United States , Britain ’ s David Cameron, and
French president , Francois Hollande − for
desperately wanting a change of government in
Nigeria . He blamed Attahiru Jega , the former
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral
Commission , for allegedly working with the
Americans by insisting on the initial February
2015 date set for the presidential election ; he
blamed his own former party chairman , Adamu
Mu ’ azu , whom he accused of working against him,
and he carpeted the press and civil society for
highlighting the pervasive corruption that
flourished on his watch .
First , the context : As he left a limping economy
and widescale corruption behind , Jonathan’ s five
years at the helm were an unmitigated disaster
for Nigeria , the effects of which 170 million
Nigerians are experiencing today . He ran the
economy aground, failing like his predecessors to
diversify effectively and entrenching what The
Economist of London labelled “ a rentier state . ”
His government despoiled all fiscal buffers −
foreign reserves hardly rose despite persistently
high oil prices until August 2014 . In its defence ,
his finance minister claimed that it was $ 43 .13
billion that was inherited, yet , despite oil prices
averaging $ 90 -$ 103 per barrel up till mid -2014 ,
reserves moved barely perceptively , while the
Excess Crude Account had crashed from $ 22
billion to only $2 . 2 billion when Muhammadu
Buhari took over by mid - 2015 . Jonathan left no
major new signature infrastructure project ; only
inflated repair projects which are mired in
controversy.
Arguably his greatest disservice that ought to
have been his major triumph was the badly
managed privatisation of power assets that
transferred most of the generation and
distribution companies to untested , incompetent
domestic consortia that have saddled Nigeria
with a legal quagmire . But it is in the areas of
corruption and security that Nigerians were
mostly badly done in by that terrible government.
Jonathan ’ s denial that he dismissed corruption
allegations as “mere stealing ” is false . He declared
this on local and international TV . Corruption ran
riot on his watch , as attested to by the latest
scandals involving his wife , the suspended spy
chief who stashed away $ 43 million in a Lagos
apartment, the missing oil receipts being probed
in parliament , as well as the $ 2 .1 billion arms
purchase fund that ended up in private hands .
While he is whining that Obama and other world
leaders , civil society , the media and the
opposition alleged corruption “without proof,” the
world is still aghast at a sprawling corruption
scandal centred on the abuse of N 2. 53 trillion
petrol subsidy in 2011 when only N 248 billion was
approved in the budget . His government also
signed away N 603 billion in less than a year for
dubious import duty waivers , exemptions and
concessions, according to Customs. The fraud
associated with oil swap agreements is still
unfolding . Hypocritically , he claimed to have
dropped Stella Oduah as Aviation minister when
evidence emerged, but said he retained Diezani
Alison -Madueke as oil minister “ because there
was no foolproof evidence . ” This same ex -minister
is alleged to have withdrawn millions of dollars to
finance his re -election bid for which she and
many others , including electoral officials , are
being tried . He disingenuously discredited the
Nuhu Ribadu panel report on the grounds of
disagreement among some members , but failed to
say that he had appointed Steve Oronsaye and
Bernard Otti to the board of the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation in an obvious move of
brinksmanship.
It is not too late for Jonathan to grow up . He may
think Nigerians have forgotten and that it is time
to move on . This is fantasy . All the colossal
scandals that defined his time in government will
live on in the minds of the people who bear the
burdens of his misrule. Former president
Olusegun Obasanjo , who broke all party rules to
make him deputy to the late President Umaru
Yar ’ Adua, is quoted in the same book as admitting
that from his first days in office , “… he showed
that he was too small for the office.” He
demonstrated this in his mishandling of the Boko
Haram terrorist insurgency. Boko Haram has
killed over 25 ,000 people, displaced over two
million and once held 27 local government areas
as its “ caliphate . ” Rather than take full charge,
he allowed his generals to turn it into a gold
mine for corrupt enrichment , an ATM, according
to Obasanjo , for taking money from the treasury .
The influential The Economist once declared that
Jonathan ran the most corrupt , most clueless
government in Nigeria ’ s history. We can ’ t agree
more . Indeed , we hold him and his corrupt
generals responsible for the failure to rescue the
276 Chibok girls in 2014. His false narrative that
he did try to rescue them contradicts reports that
he failed to act when initially informed ,
continuing to view terrorism as a personal
conspiracy against him.
Surprisingly , Jonathan has not changed , falsely
asserting and boorishly claiming that Boko
Haram is being defeated because Buhari is a
Muslim , not viewed as an “ infidel’’ like he was.
But salafist militants view all existing
governments as infidels to be violently
overthrown . They target the Muslim leaders of
Saudi Arabia , Iraq, Egypt , Tunisia , Jordan ,
Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya , Somalia , Chechnya ,
Algeria and Bahrain . Boko Haram has killed emirs
and has vowed to kill Buhari, the Emir of Kano
and the Sultan of Sokoto , the nominal head of
Nigerian Muslims .
Jonathan incorrigibly blamed the media for his
electoral defeat . We insist he lost the election
because he was a total failure . He cites high
figures of votes for Buhari in Kano, but was silent
on equally suspicious figures for him from the
South -South states , from Rivers or from Akwa
Ibom and Delta states where votes recorded for
him doubled the number of accredited voters .
But we hold President Muhammadu Buhari and
the Nigerian people culpable for providing the
leeway for Jonathan to trample on our collective
memory . While the Buhari government has
demonstrated lack of courage to bring Jonathan to
justice, many Nigerians celebrate , instead of
rising against corruption. Across the world ,
people of conscience are marching in their
thousands to protest against corruption; in
broken , dysfunctional Nigeria , hundreds are, for
a few wads of naira, marching , vandalising
property, and preaching hate in defence of the
corrupt . The officials on trial who have claimed
to have been obeying Jonathan’ s orders by
collecting and distributing public funds provide
enough grounds to put him also on trial . The anti -
corruption war cannot go far unless Jonathan is
confronted in court with his misdeeds . Past
rulers who break the law are put in the dock .
South Korea , Guatemala , Brazil , Peru , Zambia ,
Italy , France are ready examples . No one should
be above the law .
Buhari should save his reputation by pulling out
all the stops in the war on graft . Far too many ex -
Presidents have demonstrated this belief that they
are above the law . Jonathan failed to bring
corrupt past leaders to justice, but Buhari must
bust the myth. Nigerians should realise that
corruption has ruined their present and rendered
the future gloomy for their children and rise up
against corrupt leaders − past and present . As for
Jonathan , he should be reminded that the history
of his administration is already being written and
it is neither flattering nor can he remodel it with
falsehood and whining hypocrisy . punchng.com/jonathans-pathetic-apologetics/ 1 Like |
Re: Jonathan's Pathetic Apologetics by Mynd44: 8:08am On Apr 28, 2017 |
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