Wikileaks - President Goodluck Jonathan Had A "Chequered Past"


wikileaks -  telling us more of what we know

http://allafrica.com/stories/201109060826.html


U.S. Cable Says - Jonathan Ineffective As Governor

Habeeb I. Pindiga and Mohammed S. Shehu

6 September 2011

President Goodluck Jonathan had a "chequered past as a corrupt and ineffective state governor", according to a secret United States diplomatic cable leaked by whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.

The U.S. cable was prepared by its embassy in Abuja and sent to Washington in the wake of the terminal illness of then President Umaru Yar'adua, and was expressing fears over Jonathan's competence as he waited in the wings to take over in the event of Yar'adua's death.

The cable, dated December 1, 2009, said, "Dark rumors about Yar'adua's health have given way to broad fears that Yar'adua is likely entering his final days. Even if he defies the odds and returns to resume his duties, at least nominally, his authority has taken such a battering that he would be hard pressed to keep rivals in check, much less enforce his writ in government and the party. We will report on December 2 Vice President Jonathan's chequered past as a corrupt and ineffective state governor and his options in the current situation."

The cable did not state specifically what made the Americans formed this opinion about Jonathan. But another U.S. cable said in September 2006, the Economic and Financial Crimes commission (EFCC) seized USD 13.5 million from Jonathan's wife Patience at an airport. "Reports indicated the money was laundered through an associate; Jonathan managed to distance himself from the deal. The anti-graft commission investigating the source of the money has reported no findings to date. Although Jonathan's name was on the 2006 list of governors accused of corruption, he has not been publicly charged," the cable, created in 2007, explained.

When contacted for comments on the contents of the U.S. cables, Jonathan's spokesman Dr. Reuben Abati said, "These issues are totally immaterial in the present circumstance. I cannot react to it because my brief at the moment is that I speak for the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not the governor of Bayelsa State. In fact, you should understand that Wikileaks is about conversations between people, it is about peoples' opinion on a particular matter. So, I have nothing to say on that."

The December 1, 2009 cable also quoted former information minister Professor Dora Akunyili as telling U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Robin Sanders that the then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan was "symbolically in charge", but was afraid to exercise any authority.

She was quoted as telling the U.S. official that "the country is in a real mess as Yar'adua has been in and out of a comatose state since his arrival in Saudi, only coming out briefly afternoon of November 30, and since then he has been in a coma."

The report said when the Ambassador asked who was really running the day-to-day tasks of the country "as in the past it had unofficially been National Security Advisor Muktar and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), the former Information Minister admitted that this remained the case, but noted that Jonathan wanted to step into the light more, but was afraid to do so."

According to the cable, Akunyili said, "Yar'adua and Jonathan never had a good relationship" because the President mistrusted Jonathan and that there was always a sense from Yar'adua that the VP was "just waiting for him to die. "

In another cable, leaked by Wikileaks, the then Chief of Army Staff General Abdulrahman Dambazau said he was worried that Jonathan as acting president was becoming very sectional and that he was too easily influenced by others, particularly former president Obasanjo.

The meeting between Dambazau and the American ambassador took place on February 24. Dambazau told Ms. Sanders that Obasanjo was "in and out of Aguda House, Jonathan's residence, several times a day now, and it is making people uncomfortable, particularly in the North."

He urged the ambassador to call on Jonathan to be "his own man," which she did, as reported in another cable.

On the tension in the country in the days following Yar'adua's return to Nigeria from Saudi Arabia, Dambazau told Ms. Sanders that the "Katsina group" around Yar'adua had "caged" him off. He told the ambassador that Jonathan was beginning to exhibit similar tendencies, with the people around him behaving just as badly as the Katsina clique, and Jonathan handing out favors to his ethnic group.

"He (Dambazau) gave the example of the recent transfer of N19 billion of GON (government) funds to a Niger Delta environmental project that was done at the end of a meeting that Jonathan had with a group from his region. Dambazau said this was done outside of the normal Cabinet decision-making process." The cable said.

The cables were released last Friday in a mass publication of all the yet-to-be-released U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by Wikileaks. The website decided to publish everything following a disagreement with one of its partner newspapers, the Guardian of Britain. In November last year, Wikileaks began the piece-meal release of the 251,287 leaked cables.

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We have been preaching the same message since 19 gogoro - A man with no track record when he was assistant and full time governor - yet the masses expect he will do wonders when he becomes THE president. Abeg that one na INSANITY.

Oyb

Be prepared to read rubbish about how the northern elders are using wikileaks & co to discredit uncle jondull. Beaf will soon be hear to defend him as usual since Abati's effort in defending Jonathan is just too foolish

The December 1, 2009 cable also quoted former information minister Professor Dora Akunyili as telling U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Robin Sanders that the then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan was "symbolically in charge", but was afraid to exercise any authority.

What Akunyili revealed in 2009 is still the case today i.e GEJ is unable to excercise authority . His AGIP Puppet Masters pull his strings totally these days.

Air a contrary view concerning GEJ, they ll label u " hater"

I guess US is equally hater too.

No wonder they say truth is bitter.

Thank God for Wikileaks. Why didn't this come out before the elections although it won't have changed anything.

gists:

Oyb

[size=13pt]Be prepared to read rubbish about how the northern elders are using wikileaks & co to discredit uncle jondull.[/size] Beaf will soon be hear to defend him as usual since Abati's effort in defending Jonathan is just too foolish

That one I would like to see . . .

When contacted for comments on the contents of the U.S. cables, Jonathan's spokesman Dr. Reuben Abati said, "These issues are totally immaterial in the present circumstance. I cannot react to it because my brief at the moment is that I speak for the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not the governor of Bayelsa State.

In fact, you should understand that Wikileaks is about conversations between people, it is about peoples' opinion on a particular matter. So, I have nothing to say on that."

www.nairaland.com/attachments/180447_ROTFLMAO_gif3d0c775232c7f27cf80592785b9635b6


Laffta wan fall pesin on top Okada oo 

Corruption issues are immaterial?

Jonathan needs to increase Abati's allowance walahi. See hard work 

Were you seriously expecting any good thing to come out of retardeen Goodluck

Tell me something i didnt know

his past is chequered but not chequered enough to stop the americans supporting his presidential campaign and ensuring that he won the elections - he's a stooge, the americans like their stooges weak, cowardly and dumb - so he's ideal as far as they are concerned.

Retardeen Jonathan was afriad to exercise power.

Odechukwu has been embarrased, I am beginning to actually pity him.

beaf and co are nowhere to be found

Beaaaaafffffffffffffffffffffffff we are still waiting oooooohhhh , maybe na Buhari and Atiku manipulate this one tooo.

bump

mr transformation decepticon is still waiting for the proper time to declare his assets

A useless man like Jonathan leading a country of 150 million ?! That group is in trouble -- Patience has been stealing for a long time now. She's a bloody thief.

This whole thing is completely useless and can only make sense to the same CPC-goons on nairaland who like to spin any and everything against Jonathan. This is a conversation between people. No proof offered, no facts tendered, no legitimacy requested. Just what was chequered about his past? How exactly was GEJ corrupt? What exact case did the EFCC have against GEJ? Why is Dambazau afraid that Jonathan was having visitors from the South? On what exact issues were Jonathan influenced by the so called clique around him? If Yar'adua knew he was going to die wouldn't if have made sense to actually have a good relationship with his vice?

It's all co'ck and bull as usual. Anyone with hard facts should show it but hey you guys were never interested in facts were you?

^^^ My friend shaaaarrraaaaaaaaaap!

Stick needles in your eyes if you can't handle the yanks opinions about the grossly ineffective and corrupt Governor from Bsayelsa State!

Retardeen Jonathief Odechukwu.

I would want to meet this Mrs Sanders one day. She seems to know Nigeria more than its citizens!

How come our leaders are so easily swayed to share Nigerian domestic affairs with the US Ambassador And why is Mrs Sanders the one interviewing people here and there Too much poke-nose from Americans if you ask me.

X-factoria:

I would want to meet this Mrs Sanders one day. She seems to know Nigeria more than its citizens!

How come our leaders are so easily swayed to share Nigerian domestic affairs with the US Ambassador And why is Mrs Sanders the one interviewing people here and there Too much poke-nose from Americans if you ask me.

My dear this is what I do not get. Everyone seems so happy to talk to her and divulge all their fears and issues. Is she their therapist or is she using "jazz"? Na wa o

Ibime:

^^^ My friend shaaaarrraaaaaaaaaap!

Stick needles in your eyes if you can't handle the yanks opinions about the grossly ineffective and corrupt Governor from Bsayelsa State!

Retardeen Jonathief Odechukwu.

My guy, I am only asking for facts. Na wa for you sha.

Wikileak revealations truly has shed more light into the 'secret network' the US uses to 'rule' the world either for good or evil!

Now 'm sure it must be kicking in that ALL the American consulate staff and NGOs are potential spy for the American government.

Sad to read that America only truly value thier own blood at the expense of humanity! Why sponsor a weakling to become president of Nigeria?

Where is Tony Uranta @Beaf! I need his insight on this matter pronto!!

He was the same GIGO even when he was at the NDDC.

The man would be better employed as a zoologist at the UI Zoo. And UI actually needs a good zoologist now.
GEJ can submit his CV as soon as possible and save himself from further disgrace as the President of Nigeria.

of course he was ineffective,he is not a ruler but a follower,he is not decisive but indecisive,he is not an enforcer but a pleaser,he cant not take the blame but passes the buck,

"A Bell and plough each have their uses,and neither can do the office of the other.
water is good to drink,coal to burn,wool to wear;but wool cannot be drunk,nor water spun,nor coal eaten
,the wise man shows his wisdom in separation ,in gradation, the foolish have no range in scale[i],but suppose every man is as good as the other,what is not good they call worst,and what is not hateful,they call best"
[/i]Ralph Emerson

@somze

you expect proof from who?the chief spies for america remain their ambassadors.america always attaches CIA agents to every embassy for the purpose of scenarios like this.if i may say so,almost every revelation from the wikileaks cables have been proven to be accurate so why is this an exception?shoeless joe is simply an ineffective leader

Goodluck is still the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hug transformer if you like

X-factoria:

I would want to meet this Mrs Sanders one day. She seems to know Nigeria more than its citizens!

How come our leaders are so easily swayed to share Nigerian domestic affairs with the US Ambassador And why is Mrs Sanders the one interviewing people here and there Too much poke-nose from Americans if you ask me.

I disagree with u. I dont need Sanders to tell that GEJ has a FAILED past. of cos he did especially as a governor in Bayelsa.
The only way to disprove this is to list out his achievements there with the huge resources given the state. However there is absolutely NONE. The only thing he achieved was basically "carrying every1 along". u know, paddy-paddy kind of shit.

oyb:

Wikileaks - President Goodluck Jonathan Had A "Chequered Past"


wikileaks -  telling us more of what we know

http://allafrica.com/stories/201109060826.html


U.S. Cable Says - Jonathan Ineffective As Governor

Habeeb I. Pindiga and Mohammed S. Shehu

6 September 2011

President Goodluck Jonathan had a "chequered past as a corrupt and ineffective state governor", according to a secret United States diplomatic cable leaked by whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.

The U.S. cable was prepared by its embassy in Abuja and sent to Washington in the wake of the terminal illness of then President Umaru Yar'adua, and was expressing fears over Jonathan's competence as he waited in the wings to take over in the event of Yar'adua's death.

The cable, dated December 1, 2009, said, "Dark rumors about Yar'adua's health have given way to broad fears that Yar'adua is likely entering his final days. Even if he defies the odds and returns to resume his duties, at least nominally, his authority has taken such a battering that he would be hard pressed to keep rivals in check, much less enforce his writ in government and the party. We will report on December 2 Vice President Jonathan's chequered past as a corrupt and ineffective state governor and his options in the current situation."

The cable did not state specifically what made the Americans formed this opinion about Jonathan. But another U.S. cable said in September 2006, the Economic and Financial Crimes commission (EFCC) seized USD 13.5 million from Jonathan's wife Patience at an airport. "Reports indicated the money was laundered through an associate; Jonathan managed to distance himself from the deal. The anti-graft commission investigating the source of the money has reported no findings to date. Although Jonathan's name was on the 2006 list of governors accused of corruption, he has not been publicly charged," the cable, created in 2007, explained.

When contacted for comments on the contents of the U.S. cables, Jonathan's spokesman Dr. Reuben Abati said, "These issues are totally immaterial in the present circumstance. I cannot react to it because my brief at the moment is that I speak for the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not the governor of Bayelsa State. In fact, you should understand that Wikileaks is about conversations between people, it is about peoples' opinion on a particular matter. So, I have nothing to say on that."

The December 1, 2009 cable also quoted former information minister Professor Dora Akunyili as telling U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Robin Sanders that the then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan was "symbolically in charge", but was afraid to exercise any authority.

She was quoted as telling the U.S. official that "the country is in a real mess as Yar'adua has been in and out of a comatose state since his arrival in Saudi, only coming out briefly afternoon of November 30, and since then he has been in a coma."

The report said when the Ambassador asked who was really running the day-to-day tasks of the country "as in the past it had unofficially been National Security Advisor Muktar and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), the former Information Minister admitted that this remained the case, but noted that Jonathan wanted to step into the light more, but was afraid to do so."

According to the cable, Akunyili said, "Yar'adua and Jonathan never had a good relationship" because the President mistrusted Jonathan and that there was always a sense from Yar'adua that the VP was "just waiting for him to die. "

In another cable, leaked by Wikileaks, the then Chief of Army Staff General Abdulrahman Dambazau said he was worried that Jonathan as acting president was becoming very sectional and that he was too easily influenced by others, particularly former president Obasanjo.

The meeting between Dambazau and the American ambassador took place on February 24. Dambazau told Ms. Sanders that Obasanjo was "in and out of Aguda House, Jonathan's residence, several times a day now, and it is making people uncomfortable, particularly in the North."

He urged the ambassador to call on Jonathan to be "his own man," which she did, as reported in another cable.

On the tension in the country in the days following Yar'adua's return to Nigeria from Saudi Arabia, Dambazau told Ms. Sanders that the "Katsina group" around Yar'adua had "caged" him off. He told the ambassador that Jonathan was beginning to exhibit similar tendencies, with the people around him behaving just as badly as the Katsina clique, and Jonathan handing out favors to his ethnic group.

"He (Dambazau) gave the example of the recent transfer of N19 billion of GON (government) funds to a Niger Delta environmental project that was done at the end of a meeting that Jonathan had with a group from his region. Dambazau said this was done outside of the normal Cabinet decision-making process." The cable said.

The cables were released last Friday in a mass publication of all the yet-to-be-released U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by Wikileaks. The website decided to publish everything following a disagreement with one of its partner newspapers, the Guardian of Britain. In November last year, Wikileaks began the piece-meal release of the 251,287 leaked cables.

The thing about Wikileaks that most people conveniently forget is that Wikileak is mainly opinion of people based on discussion. Some of these opinion might be true, some generalised, some baseless rumour, some unconfirmed reports, some might be deliberate misleading lies/information.

Bottomline, wikileaks might not be all that different from the discussions you and I have here on Nairaland, or read on Newspapers. So we shouldn't swallow everything hook, line, and sinker, just because it came from Oyiboland or Oyinbo man or woman.  

jonathan and is wife are theives, i mean what more evidence do we need. the us uses its embassy as CIA intel centre and report to the white house daily. why have lost every sense of objectivity in these country, how dare u side gej after 100 days of nothing

Everyone in Nigeria is potentially weak, indiscipline and corrupt. i hold no brief for Jonathan for not meeting up to expectations, but there is no one that doen't have his weaknesses. While we cast stones to our leaders try and reflect on the followers too.
Few days back I read how a frustrated vendor could not get his payments processed because he is yet to greese elbows in the parastatal to ensure his file didnt go missing. (These elbows are not our presidents but followers)
This morning while coming to work I expereinced on many occassions where so called educated gentlemen drivers jumped the line and followed "one-way". many others would not stop at traffic light not minding the cars in  opposite direction. Not to talk of commercial buses that will stop in the middle of the road to pick passengers thus creating long queues of "hold-ups". Are these not followers? Yet we expect our leaders to perform wonders when we are not doing the little we can.
Many of us eat in commercail buses and litter the road with wastes. Say you throw a banana peel and an okada skid off on it and slams down on the road. Who is responsible should the odaka man die? The president? or LATSMA or FRSC? No! Its all of us that are indisciplined, who cannot do the little things we should.
Remember, the fact that everyone does it and goes free is not an excuse to make it right!!
Let us criticize our leaders objectively while we also criticise ourselves.

The smart people in this country knew this GEJ guy wasn't any good for the country.

Johnpaul2k2:

Goodluck is still the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hug transformer if you like

When his tenure is over, lets see who'll be hugging the transformer.

pdozie:

Everyone in Nigeria is potentially weak, indiscipline and corrupt. i hold no brief for Jonathan for not meeting up to expectations, but there is no one that doen't have his weaknesses. While we cast stones to our leaders try and reflect on the followers too.
Few days back I read how a frustrated vendor could not get his payments processed because he is yet to greese elbows in the parastatal to ensure his file didnt go missing. (These elbows are not our presidents but followers)
This morning while coming to work I expereinced on many occassions where so called educated gentlemen drivers jumped the line and followed "one-way". many others would not stop at traffic light not minding the cars in  opposite direction. Not to talk of commercial buses that will stop in the middle of the road to pick passengers thus creating long queues of "hold-ups". Are these not followers? Yet we expect our leaders to perform wonders when we are not doing the little we can.
Many of us eat in commercail buses and litter the road with wastes. Say you throw a banana peel and an okada skid off on it and slams down on the road. Who is responsible should the odaka man die? The president? or LATSMA or FRSC? No! Its all of us that are indisciplined, who cannot do the little things we should.
Remember, the fact that everyone does it and goes free is not an excuse to make it right!!
Let us criticize our leaders objectively while we also criticise ourselves.

All these little things you specify here revolves around the leadership of the country. If that is in order, these things will fall into place and not the other way round.

Opinion polls are changing, critics like us don't have to say a word again, The Man would show himself as he is, a leopard can't change his skin. goodluck to you, Goodluck to me, Goodluck to everybody, Goodluck Nigeria eeeeeehhhhh