₦airaland Forum

Genrational change that brought Dimeji Bankole a man in our genration whose sticky fingers is worse than fingers with glue. Orji Kalu is younger than Ribadu , Saminu Turaki is younger than Ribadu , Fani kayode was young , all these young men´s hand were soiled in corruption.

PapaBrowne:
Lagosboy, Are you really on ground in Lagos?? Please ask fellow Lagosians because from my own widespread discussions, Buhari doesn't stand a slim chance in Lagos except maybe amongst the Hausa community. The only other place Buhari has some significant followership is amongst internet users.
In the rest of the south west,especially in the rurals, it is either ACN or PDP.Urbanites with large muslim popul;ations like Ibadan, Shagamu and maybe Ogbomosho would try for Buhari, but not significantly.
Have you noticed that the Jonathan camp is spending more time attacking Ribadu than Buhari? Buhari chances in the SW are slim, so they are not too bothered about him here.

I said the message of Buhari is fast moving in Lagos and people are hearing about it on a daily basis, GEJ are not attacking Buhari becaus ethey dont have anything to attack him with. The largest number of undecided voters are streaming to Buhari amongs the educated people.

I still ask you to please provide me the the backup for 25% of SW being muslim. I would love to see the source.

brabus:
Here's another Nigerian who failed to realize where the shoe pinches. A nail pinches you, instead of removing the nail, you are looking for who put it there. How many people will be dealt with and probed? Have you started compiling the list of those you will deal with? Little wonder, he choose Bakare (another critic).

Everybody keeps talking about corruption. Are there corrupt guys in the house? Do we agree Nigerians are corrupt? Or is it our Govt that is polluting our mind by not providing necessary infrastructure, services - leaving us to the mercy of tyrants. At least Man must chop.

Buhari did not say directly he will probe, what he said was 18 billion dollars has been spent between 1999 - 2007 and nothing to show for it, we need to know what happened to the money and how it got lost.

Common sense will tell us , it is still Nigerians that will work in the ministries , it is still a bulk of the same people that will do everything. If one does not know how th eprevious billions got missing, whatever plan or amount is voted to the sector will go down the same way the earlier money went down the drain.

While silmutaneously working on the power they have to identifyt the loop holes of which money is siphoned away. Or Do you think OBJ did not sincerlyw ant power for Nigerians, Bola Ige himself said he was going to turn stone to Bread and after 2 years he could not do anything he was tranferred to justice ministry. Wonderful plans have been on the table since 1999 buddie, the problem is not planning as we have tons and tons of wonderful blueprints. Vultures are lying in wait for the funds to be awarded so they can swallow

rhymz:
Some people just like to exaggerate Buhari's potentials and downplay GEJ's. It is not about giving support to your favourites, the reality on ground is that to an average rural Nigerian in the south, Buhari is an unknown name to them. GEJ is more recognized plus PDP is the only party my grandmum and a lot of old folks in the rural areas can remember when it comes to parties. The other time there was some sort of mobilization of women by the PDP, they chanted party songs in igbo language and stuff, it shows you PDP is realy grass root and on ground everywhere. That is how elections are won, taking it down to the grass root and making urself an item

Which south are you referring to SW SE or SS. it is better to be specific

Gbawe:
I like and respect Buhari but lets all have the honesty to admit his shortcomings . Ribadu also did not have much money in exile . He had lucrative job offers yet he shunned them unlike others so he could keep dialoguing with Nigerians to promote awareness and goodwill towards the task ahead . He relied heavily on friends like Femi Falana while he worked with revolutionary zeal. He was always at interactive sessions , throughout the diaspora,  and important awareness meetings to highlight the issues facing Nigeria . He was effectively lobbying the UK and USA about corruption in Nigeria when he could have been in a cushy office recieving a fat salary !!! There was a lot Buhari could have done that he did not do . Those things have nothing to do with money and are , IMO, an indication of lethargy, poor political planning and strategy. There was work to be done and Buhari did not do it . Simple . This is his third campaign and no one should forget that. We are adults . We should not be throwing our toys out of the pram (like Bakare) because Buhari is not getting his way . In a very diverse nation like Nigeria , you must forge bonds and build alliances .


My brother , please listen to yourself !!! You are joining the Buhari fans who operate with religious zeal and a "holier-than-thou" piousness !!! This is politics !!!! There is absolutely nothing wrong with Ribadu meeting with IBB. Everybody else , including Buhari , has done it at one time or the other. In fact , if memory serves me correctly , I remember Buhari sharing a stage with IBB to declare that "Abacha never stole a Kobo" .

Lets drop the double standards . There seems to be a general intolerance and ungraciousness in the atitude of Buhari's supporters . Even his VP is highly intolerant , pugnacious and uneccessarily confrontational . It is almost as if everyone associated with team BB sees no other alternative to Buhari . Everyone else is vastly inferior , a "pretender" , a "faker to be exposed" (according to Bakare) or unworthy as far as BB fans are concerned . Why is it so with you folks ? Why are you guys not moderate in thinking ?  After the elections , and even if Buhari wins , will he run Nigeria on his own?

Firstly the lucrative job offers you made reference to and boldened is the PTF i guess. However, if you dont know before i better state it here because it is on record that Buhari did not recieve salary from the PTF, Buhari said he is recieving his pension from the govt and does not feel comofrtable recieving another salary from the same govt he is already taking money from.

Ribadu was in diaspora and I have seen him talk in couple of places in the UK but dude, we seem to be forgetting that poitics in Nigeria is not the same as speaking at organised forums in the west. I have never doubted Ribadus passion and i stated and i am stating it again that Ribadu has shown inconsistency which casts doubt in my mind. Ribadu chose the easiest option of joining an established party to actualise his dream. Buhari tried this option twice and failed when he realised he is in the midst of people that do not share the same principles or ideology with him he started a new party.

Ribadu could have done the same, Tunde Bakre told of how he gathered all these men together to form a party of real progressives but Ribadu chose the easiest option. PDP is not bad because PDP is a person , PDP is bad because of the people in PDP. Ribadu cannot ride to power on looted Lagos fuinds and fight corruption in LAgos. It will not work. Yaradua could not fight Iboris corruption because it wasnt OBJs money but Iboris 10 Billion that was used in the election of 2007.

It seems you are the one a bit intolerant of accepting Ribadus short commings, I have never denied that Buhari has his own limitations but Ribadu is showing inconsistencies and that is what i want people to see. Ribadu cannot win this election and he himself knows that but why is he denying us the opportunity of seeing PDPs back by stepping down for Buhari who has the whole north behind him.

Ribadu form the start refused to sign the withdrawal form and has said he will not stèp down. Posterity will not forgive these people if PDP returns to power .

IBB is a political baggage amongst the real progressives , ask Wole Soyinka about his experience, ask Oshiomole about his experience, Tinubu and his boys ran away from Edo state when they learnt IBB was going to be there. Ribadu chose to visit the Lion in his den and the smart Tinubu was absent not by coincidence. IBB has a way of neutralising his haters and he has jus done that to Ribadu. Go ask Tai solarin how IBB neutralised his opposition. Tinubu is smart but unfortunately Ribadu is politically inexperienced to have made this move.

PapaBrowne:
You mean the North West. But just a reminder, the North is large and has a very huge Christian population who because of the Jos crises have decided to put an end to the Hausa Fulani domination of the region. Plateau, Benue, Taraba are all full time Christian states. Adamawa, Kogi, Kwara, Nassarawa, Niger and Kaduna all have christains dominating at least half the population of the states and would be voting Jonathan!! The Jos crises is the game changer in this election and it favours Jonathan incredibly!!


The southwest is officially recorded as 25% muslim. I don't know where you got your dream of 60% from!!

Could i have a back up for the bolded please.

How will PDP influence this coumminity leaders in the SW when 3 out of the 6 states int SW are in the hands of the ACN. Oyo is only between GEJ and Buhari as acknowledged by Akala himself . It is only Ondo state that might go to GEJ and the voters pouplation is small.

The game changer is LAgos and Oyo state. Perhaps only 20% of Lagos population will you call rural and majority of Lagos residents are hearing about Buhari, most of them are enlightened and aware of what is happening. They will vote Fashola because they have seen good things, some will vote Ribadu and some will vote Buhari. PDP has no chance in LAgos, they have never and will never win even 15% of the votes.

Buhari has tried to build bridges across the Niger but the problem is he is not a loud man, he does not bring the media to cover all he does. When he does, the media never acknowledges it, folks like Lanre Tejuosho have been working for the Buhari cause since 2006, Lekan Abiola have been working for the Buhari cause since 2005. The problem all these guys are normal people and people i know personally. Politicians in the south have not worked with him simply because workinmg for him means no money will flow into their pockets. that is th esimple truth

Gbawe:
Will you guys kill yourselves if team BB does not win? All dis una conspiracy theory is becoming a tad annoying !!! "Everyone is conspiring to frustrate the ascension of the messiah". Even Bakare has not stopped attacking everything that moves. A very important election cannot be won that way !!!! Last I checked , we are still in a democracy and IBB can endorse any candidate he wants. I have seen erstwhile intelligent folks making ridiculous arguements in favour of Buhari while they ignore how it is the retired General who has gotten himself where he is today with how he virtually does nothing between elections . He does not build bridges and alliances. He is not out and about spreading goodwill . We don't see any benevolent initiatives from him outside election season.  A few charitable projects , and even town hall meetings , in the SW and other areas Buhari does not have good support would have been paying dividends right now. instead Buhari deploys a christian yoruba Pastor as VP , a few weeks ago , and he expects to win reesoundingly . It is not done that way .

Buhari always becomes complacent and nigh invisible after an election loss yet everyone should just declare him President because they want the PDP gone ? If Buhari had done what he should to reach out to influence groups and stakeholders then this election would not even be close because Nigerians want the PDP out . That many still don't see Buhari as a viable option should be a sad indictment of Buhari's own poor post/pre election efforts . How about folks like Wole Soyinka , a man I respect very much, who fail to back Buhari? Lets be honest with ourselves . It is Buhari himself who has simply not done enough to win despite this being the third Presidential election he will participate in.

Buhari is a normal person, he is a former head of state , after election he fought in court for 24 months. All you have said needs money, politicians spend money when they go about the country to speak to people and other things. Nigerian politics is like that, many politicians have told me personally and especially in 2007 that Buhari is asking tthem to work without money and they cannot.

This man has only his pension to feed himself and family nothing more. He does not have advert on TV simply because of funds, when he raised funds NTA rejected it. CPC was formed only 1 year ago and the whole nation is shaking because of the Buhari brand. His unpopularity in the South is largely due to the unscrupulous media of which 70% of them are owned by politicians.

I am not vilifying Ribadu and in fact i like him as a person, i respect his courage and passion but him running under ACN was what held me back from supporting him. I am uncomfortable with his incosistency. IBB can endorse anybody but the issue is his visit to IBB to solicit support. Folks like Gani will forever be respected because he will never visit IBB in his residence of which he says he will convert into a National hosiptal if he had the opportunity.

Gbawe be honest with me , do you sincerely think Ribadus visit to IBB and having lunch with him is in line with Ribadus "percieved principles".

brabus:
@Klas, Which means it doesn't matter? How old are you? Why dont you go and post on Elder's forum? Why are you doing this on Nairaland? How many 70 years old people do we have here?

What has endorsement got to do with friendship? If OBAMA endorses HIM, does it mean they have any rapport? Lagosboy, I[b] dont know you - if you are vying for any post and I see you are good. I will endorse you. Does that mean anything to you?[/b]

Anyone can endorse anybody it does not matter but what matters is the visit to IBBs hill top mansion , have lunch and then go away. Buhari has visited IBB before in a well publiciesed visit but it was nothing to do with election. When Buhari was in Nigeri he did not visit IBB in his mansion, Ribadu has consistently shown inconsistency and right now i cannot say where he belongs. My question is why was Tinubu absent? It simply because he doesnt want to commit political suicide

COMPAQ:
That doesn't look like the popular side o!! The seating looks like leather and I can see a few oyinbo's there. Oyinbo's would not be seating at the popular side!!!

Do oyinbos have 2 heads , please let us shed our slavery mentality. I guess it is monkeys that sit in the popular stands of old trafford and Wembley.

Buhari is humble, he is free to mingle with common people because his conscience is clear. IBB, OBJ ; GEJ cannot walk free on streets of Kano without being lynched . OBJ has been stoned, beaten several times.

Buhari is our next president God willing-

Everyday Ribadu keeps surprising me with his inconsistency, in 2006 Ribadu was castigating IBB and tried to arrest Mohammed his son, Ribadui sings anti corruption jargon, now Ribadu chose to dine with the evil genuis himself. Consistency is the hallmark of a great leader , I am not surprised Tinubu was absent as it would have been a political suicide for him the SW.

IBB is just playing to the gallery as if Ribadu is sincere men like IBB will not stay in Nigeria when he becomes president. IBB cannot deliver Niger state for Ribadu except the election is rigged, IBB has no influence amongst the masses of the north , IBB , Ciroma, and all their gangs could not deliver the north for Atiku within PDP less the entire voters.

By their fruits we shall know them, show me your firends and i will tell who you are. Ribadu has found a friend in IBB. It is enough sign for those with wisdom to see the handwriting on the wall. There is what we call principle and the end does not justify the means.

I am eargerly waiting fo the BB train to hit Lagos, I have been telling people that Buhari canwin Lagos or at least garner about 30 - 40% of the votes in the state. ACN will truly be shocked at the turn out in Lagos, thanks Wadeoye about reminding us of the hausa votes in LAgos, the middle class and youg people are joining theBB train everyday.

Victory shall be our God willing

Buhari Bakare two honest me that can change Nigeria.

I am from LAgos state, omo eko to the core and i am firmly on the BB2011 Bandwagon !!

Buhari will perform a lot better in the SW compared to what people think. Bakare has been in the SW for the last week fighing hard and working hard to garner support. That is why youhave not seen him in the Northern campaings last week.

However, the campaign in the SW could be better but money is an important factor in Nigerian politics. Buhari does not have it but had done tremendously well, Brand Buhari is a wonderful brand breaking barriers never seen before in Nigerian politics.

Jonathan cannot get 40% of SW votes and in fact PDP cannot get 20% of the votes. The SW votes will be split between Ribadu and Buhari.

Int he north East as well , especially in Adamawa Buhari will do better than people think and Buba Marwa is campaigning well for himself and for Buhari over there.

day by day the falsehood of Thisday cash and carry polls is manifesting.

please where is kotangora ? is it in Niger or Kogi state.

No Nogerian politician can pull this sort of crowd and it just shows Nigerians really want change and are ready to fight for it. May God bless our efforts with Victory.

Was it Dele momodu that voted for himself ROMFLAO

I pray this poll translates to reality on ground and we coast home to victory

Hilarious but seriously some of the issues raised are only what some Nigerian youths care about including premiership football.

Shame o shame

Pat Utomis is becoming increasingly annoying if he indeed wrote this article. He should simply shut the f**k up if he has nothing to offer Nigeria. He has become a celeberated noise maker, today he says PDP is bad tommorrow he says oh PDP only needs restructirng and has held Nigeria as one.

He is a confused person, featherweight in politics and of no relevance. Utomi cannot win his local govt or even his ward and he is here ranting nonsense.

Is it the same Muhammed Abacha CPC was trying to substitute with another candidate that Utomi is ranting about. Does CPC have a constitutional right to deny an individual party registration? Hopw come Muhammed Abacha isnt funding the whole CPC campaign an dBuhari has to fly in 100 years old jets to get places.

Utomi is only watering the ground to romance PDP in the near future.

Pat Utomis is becoming increasingly annoying if he indeed wrote this article. He should simply shut the f**k up if he has nothing to offer Nigeria. He has become a celeberated noise maker, today he says PDP is bad tommorrow he says oh PDP only needs restructirng and has held Nigeria as one.

He is a confused person, featherweight in politics and of no relevance. Utomi cannot win his local govt or even his ward and he is here ranting nonsense.

Is it the same Muhammed Abacha CPC was trying to substitute with another candidate that Utomi is ranting about. Does CPC have a constitutional right to deny an individual party registration? Hopw come Muhammed Abacha isnt funding the whole CPC campaign an dBuhari has to fly in 100 years old jets to get places.

Utomi is only watering the ground to romance PDP in the near future.

honeric01:
What are you saying? this is a public property, Buhari as a tax paying Nigeria has the right to criticize the government in whatever form as long as he is not attacking any personality.

Do you remember 1993 Abiola election jingles?

No food, no light, no road, i tire for life oo

My brother, wetin u dey think, my sister helepu don come
M K O M K O M K O ACTION
aBIOLA Abiola Abiola Progress

Na him be our man o

SPD na the party
To make our country
Better our life oo

You remember that right?

How can i forget this jingle and it remains the best ever i have heard.

Rememember th eother lines

The small money we dey earn
na so so transport dey chop

And another one:

On the march again , on the march again

looking for mr president
MKO is our man o MKO is our man o

MKO SDP Kingibe Action
Abiola Abioola Abiola Progress

Unfortunately kingibe sold out

It seems GEJ and his forty thieves are bent on rigging this eletion using the police. Jega said a policeman would stand at the end of the queue after accreditation and i wondering how this will work if the police is already compromised.

Rigging will not work only if we as a people are ready to use our will power to fight the rigging machinery

Inspiring , emotional and deeply reflective.

I would like to contribute in six digits as well for this song to be on mainstream TV and posters in the SW especially Lagos. Buhari must win Lagos

The write up was a bit stretched too far but the general idea and message is simply the truth. GEJ is unfit to be the president of 150 million Nigerians. Ribadu would be checked by the god fathers that put him there if he wins. Buhari remains our only hope as his godfather is indeed the Almighty God and the godfather of Bakare as well is the almighty God.

Two honest men deserve your votes.

Awesome Emotional and propels a person to do the right thing which is to vote for the BB ticket.

I cannot wait to see the BB badwagon come to Lagos.

Kai no one has said Amen to this prayer. Even PDP supporters know that PDPis a failure.

No wonder people say the only reason anyone will vote GEJ is either on ethnic solidarity or based on selfish intended gain

I guess no PDP fan would be able to say Amen to this prayer.

BEAF if you truly believe in your PDP , come here and say Amen to this prayer

Gbawe:
Nothing . And that is precisely the point. It is Buhari's prerogative entirely and no one should call him names ("greatest enemy of democracy" for the stance he takes that he was fully entitled to take in the first place.

Gbawe the talks between ACN/CPC was never about northern consesus but about party alliance with Buhari as the candidate. There is no comparison here rather it further strenghtens our resolve in the fact that this man is principled to the core. He never sacrifices his prinicples for actualisation of his ambition, he is consistent and you can pin an ideology to him.

Good news, Buhari is breaking down the religion barrier he opponents are placing in his way.

The BB2011 tsunami will wash PDP away God willing

Please take time to read till end.

Jonathan and Dame Patience Goodluck, Change and the Burden of History

With the impending elections, Nigerians would be seeking through the present, a future. This endeavour constitutes a change process that requires the use of our understanding of why our yesterday was miserable, moment, obscure, as determinants in seeking the realization of a cheery tomorrow. Given that this implies seeking history (future) through history (past and presence), our ability to achieve the desired- a better tomorrow, is incumbent upon the realization of the fact that the traumatizing moment we are agitatedly seeking its reversal, was once a future whose present bleakness owes to our collective inabilities to use the past that gave birth to it, in shaping its course. It is therefore on the basis of this consideration that this article uses on the one hand, the instrumentality of history, in addressing certain issues constituting moral burden on Jonathan and Dame Patience Goodluck. On the other, Arnold Toynbee’s concept of seeming repetitive patterns in history is used to unearth the fortress on which Jonathan’s presidential ambition is based and what this portends for the change we desire.

With the impending elections, Nigerians would be seeking through the present, a future. This endeavour constitutes a change process that requires the use of our understanding of why our yesterday was miserable, moment, obscure, as determinants in seeking the realization of a cheery tomorrow. Given that this implies seeking history (future) through history (past and presence), our ability to achieve the desired- a better tomorrow, is incumbent upon the realization of the fact that the traumatizing moment we are agitatedly seeking its reversal, was once a future whose present bleakness owes to our collective inabilities to use the past that gave birth to it, in shaping its course. It is therefore on the basis of this consideration that this article uses on the one hand, the instrumentality of history, in addressing certain issues constituting moral burden on Jonathan and Dame Patience Goodluck. On the other, Arnold Toynbee’s concept of seeming repetitive patterns in history is used to unearth the fortress on which Jonathan’s presidential ambition is based and what this portends for the change we desire.

Although there is the hidden hand of God in man’s unfolding history, it is man’s activities in and within time that give birth to circumstances which either favour or impede the realization of man’s goals in time. It is also these activities that culminate into man’s today. Since man’s today would tomorrow become a past, then, what man is today, would, all conditions being equal, be determined by his activities of yesterday. This is why man’s today’s deeds-good or bad are parts of his becoming in time and therefore constitutive of how man society evolves in a given time and direction. It therefore becomes incumbent that if man must live a better tomorrow, man must truly remember the past that makes his today what it is, learn from it and use the lessons as yard stick for seeking a better tomorrow. In refusing to do this, man will be unmaking his tomorrow and that of the larger society to which he belongs.

A practical illustration of the above stream of thought may be discerned from a doctor-patient relationship. For a patient to be effectively treated, a doctor would require the former’s previous health/medical experiences and other related pieces of information. If the patient decides to present a distorted information or withhold any of the required information, not only might the doctor’s service be rendered useless, the patient’s health might be endangered or become a burden which might compound existing society’s problem. It is within this prism that the alleged involvement of Jonathan and Dame Patience-Goodluck in a well documented case of money laundering would be re-examined.

[b]As rightly stated by many writers on this issue, on September 11, 2006, Mr. Osita Nwajah, the then EFCC spokesman made a public declaration that a whopping sum of $13.5 million Dollars (US) was seized from Mrs. Patience Jonathan. This was during her husband’s reign as the Governor of Bayelsa State and Nuhu Ribadu’s years as the EFCC Chairman. Before this, there was also a sum of N104 that was reportedly seized by the EFCC from one Mrs Nancy Ebere Nwosu in August 2006, which, as confessed the latter under oath, also belonged to Mrs Jonathan. These money laundering matters, a past that is for the moment presumed to be wrongly associated with Jonathan and his loving wife, Madam Patience, is now widely sensationalized as a ploy aimed at desecrating the persons of Jonathan and Patience. These issues have also also been widely portrayed as fabrication of the political opponents of Jonathan and the PDP.

To establish the innocence of Jonathan and his wife, statements credited to Ribadu were quoted. Accordingly, Ribadu cited as saying, “I never handled a case against Patience Jonathan, never; it’s a lie. You know it is so sad because in our country this is how we go about maligning people. But today thank God I am not in his government. So, I can open up and talk. If I were to say it earlier people would have thought that I was looking for job from President Goodluck Jonathan. I am not looking for anything. But the truth must be told.” (The Nation, September 16, 2010).

To convince the electorates of the veracity of Jonathan and Patience’s incorruptibility, another statement of exoneration reportedly issued as well by Mallam, Nuhu Ribadu had also been quoted. This statement reads, “the case had to do with a lady and a man who lodged huge sums of money in the bank. The EFCC was alerted by the bank and an investigation was carried out. It was found that they legitimately earned the money through contracts executed in the state. All the reports in the media were lies. For instance, it was initially reported that N70 million was lodged into the bank. Later, it was reported that the money ran into millions of dollars. Such was the extent of the lies. We never handled a case against Patience Jonathan.” (Thisday of September 17, 2010).

Since the alleged crime was committed under Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, a man who is believed by many as a trustworthy and steadfast person, one may be tempted to say the case never existed at all or consider the whole issue, a mere ploy by Jonathan’s political adversaries. But, in view of the fact that over reliance on one source is a factor that affects the reliability of historical sources and veracity of an historical claim, one is compelled to seek the use of the historical tool of test of consistency and cross validation with other sources in establishing the veracity of these claims.

During my search for other primary evidence on this matter, I stumbled on a case with a suit number FHC/ABJ/M/340/06, filed on August 21, 2007 at the Federal High Court, Abuja. As indicated in this file, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu-led EFCC named Mrs. Patience Jonathan, wife of Goodluck Jonathan, as an accomplice in the N104million-money laundering case involving one Mrs. Nancy Ebere Nwosu. The amount in question was stated in this file to be laundered on the order of Mrs Patience Goodluck into a First Bank of Nigeria account number 3292010060711 held in the name of Nansolyvan Public Relations Limited by one Hanner Offor.

Still not satisfied with this new primary source on the issue at hand, further effort was exerted to dig into the archive. Again, we stumbled on the EFFC’s affidavit used in supporting the above mentioned suit’s originating summons. In this document, Ofem Uket, the then EFCC prosecuting officer declared, “Our investigations revealed that Mrs. Patience Jonathan, wife of the Governor of Bayelsa State, was the person who instructed one Hanner Offor to launder the said sum of N104, 000, 000 into the account of Nansolyvan Public Relations Limited with First Bank of Nigeria Plc (FBN), Niger House, Marina, Lagos”.

To further establish the veracity of this discovery, I was forced to search for a court ruling on this matter. Findings revealed that on August 22, 2006, Justice Anwuli Chikere who then was at the Federal High Court, Abuja presided over the EFCC’s application on this case and ruled that, "leave is hereby granted to the Executive Chairman of the EFCC to , freeze the bank accounts of the persons referred to as the account holders pending the conclusion of the investigation of the activities of the said persons in connection with their involvement in the acts of money laundering and other economic and financial crimes related offences".

Given that the combined use of both primary and secondary sources is needed to make a reliable historical narration, effort was also directed at newspaper reportage of this suit and judgement. Among many others, in its 11 September, 2006 edition, a story under the caption,”EFCC seizes N104m from Bayelsa Governor’s Wife” featured in the Punch, Nigeria’s most widely read newspaper. The news item was put together by Sam Akpe and Tobi Soniyi, Abuja. When cross-examined with our newly found primary sources, we observed consistency between contents of the newly discovered primary resources on this matter and this news reportage. It may be interesting to produce parts of these documents which highlight how EFCC arrived at the conclusion that the laundered money in question involved Jonathan and Madam Patience.[/b]As shown in these documents, Mallam Ribadu-led EFCC stated: Mrs. Nancy Ebere Nwosu through whom the money in question was laundered “had been evasive in her earlier statements.But when confronted with further evidence, she said, ”I voluntary elect to state as follows: My earlier statements were made while I was very disorganised by the overwhelming questions I had to deal with.” “She then admitted that Mr. Godwill Oba told her that Mrs.Jonathan wanted to give him (Oba) some work and that she (Mrs. Jonathan) would advance the mobilisation money to him (Oba) through her (Nwosu) account. She said, “When Oba came for the money to be withdrawn, I confirmed from Her Excellency, Mrs. Patience Jonathan that she wanted the intended project money to be withdrawn.” “I know that Her Excellency is related to Oba. I confirmed from Her Excellency that the money could be made in favour of Oba.”


As further observed in one of these documents, Ribadu-led EFCC declared that, “Investigations into the laundering of the N70m into Finviclaud with Access Bank Plc cheque revealed that the money was deposited into the account with a First Bank of Nigeria Plc cheque number 3292010060711 for N70m, a personal current account drawn on Nansolyvan Public Relations Limited at the Niger House Marina branch.” “ Nwosu then transferred the N70m from the account into another account operated by Fivviclaud at the Access Bank Plc, Apapa branch, Lagos.” ”Our investigations at the two banks – First Bank and Access Bank – showed that Nwosu of No 2A Araromi Street, Lagos Island, is the sole signatory to the two accounts.”


Given new insights which these documents have offered us, one is bound to raise the following questions. Is it possible that Jonathan and Patience Goodluck are not aware of this court suit? If they do, why is it that they merely rely on Ribadu’s statement of exoneration to establish their innocence and not on any competent court’s judgment? Can it be said that their refusal to back up their claim of exoneration with a competent court’s judgment or make allusion to any pending court case on this matter is an attempt to burry facts of history and hoodwink the masses? While readers are at liberty to find appropriate responses to these questions, one is tempted to suppose that Jonathan and Patience are playing the blame-trade and using power to cover up a past which is inherently part of their persons and a leading reason why our today is miserable.

Another round of question that needs to be raised would be on Nuhu Ribadu’s role in the whole issue. Since we have established that a case with suit number FHC/ABJ/M/340/06, filed on August 21, 2007 at the Federal High Court, Abuja, exists on the issue at hand, can we accept Nuhu Ribadu’s conflicting statement which reads, “I never handled a case against Patience Jonathan, never; it’s a lie” (The Nation, September 16, 2010) as a statement of fact?
We may also need to ask, has Nuhu Ribadu known to have exhibited double-speaking attitude in the past or in recent time? Evidence suggests that in an interview the former EFCC boss granted The NEWS magazine in February 2007, Nuhu Ribadu once stated that, “Olabode George was never an executive officer of NPA. He was a part-time Chairman. It is the Executive Managing Director who runs the place; it was the MD’s name that appeared in all the contract papers of NPA. Olabode George was a part-time Chairman whose name was never on any contract paper”.
Upon the the pronouncement by Justice Olubumi Oyewole which sentenced Olabode George to a deserved two years imprisonment without an option of fine, Nuhu stated that the ruling “is a measure of the shamelessness of our elite and the institutions that fuel their values. That Chief George could be awarded a national honour in our country and that he could later sue some newspapers for libel on account of the damming indictment report I prepared against him.”


[b]Again, the question is, are there no obvious contradictions in the above-quoted statements credited to Nuhu Ribadu on a crime which involved Bode George’s abuse of public trust? It seems to me one is a statement of exoneration and the other, of indictment on Nuhu Ribadu and Bode George. Since the foregoing suggest that Nuhu Ribadu’s statements may be self-contradictory, then, it is only objective that his statement which exonerated Jonathan and Dame Patience of any involvement in the money laundering case under consideration be discarded. Probably it was this reality that made Jonathan Goodluck warns Nuhu Ribadu that he should desist from parading himself as a man of integrity. Little wonder, Jonathan Goodluck through his campaign organization stated that, “to also show Ribadu’s lack of faith in the anti-corruption fight, he recently said and we quote:“I won’t bother myself with the integrity of politicians that will fund my campaign. I will take corrupt politicians money for my campaign as far as the money is not put in my pocket.” [/b]

It is also curious to note that Jonathan and Dame Patience Goodluck who were quick in quoting Ribadu to establish their innocence ironically rejected Nuhu Ribadu’s recent exoneration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu of any public trust abuse during the latter’s 8-years reign as the Governor of Lagos State. As stated Jonathan through his presidential Campaign Committee, “the Campaign Committee recalled that in 2007 while answering questions from the Senate on the alleged acts of corruption by some governors, Ribadu pointedly said that the corruption of the former governor of Lagos state, Senator Bola Tinubu was “of international dimension …] Is it not curious that the same person with such a tag is now the political godfather of Ribadu and sole financier of his political campaigns?, “Ribadu by such posturing has given Tinubu a clean bill of health which is not only hypocritical, but evidence that given the same opportunity, he would not have done better than the governors whom he had indicted.”


Premised on the above position of Jonathan Goodluck on Nuhu Ribadu as an hypocritical personality, a position, upon which Jonathan predicated his rejection of Tinubu’s exoneration by Ribadu, then, it is only logical that all right thinking persons should also dismiss Ribadu’s exoneration of Jonathan and Dame Patience Goodluck of any complicity in the case of money laundering under consideration as hypocritical and fallacious.

From the above analysis, there are some discernible apparent patterns in how the personalities of Jonathan and Patience Goodluck have been unfolding in time. One is that, in the bid to achieve their bids of becoming, they have decided to cover a part of their past and using all means possible to prevent those seeking to revisit it as agents of blackmail. It seems it was this reality that made the discerning Moses E. Ochonu, Assistant Professor of History concluded that, “President Jonathan Goodluck’s ambition is built and sustained partly on blackmail.” Ochonu added, “but blackmail is only one item in the Jonathan presidential toolbox, Revisionist history is another.” Since one of the objectives of this article is to use Arnold Toynbee’s concept of seeming repetitive patterns in history in uncovering the fortress on which Jonathan’s presidential ambition is based and what this portends for the change we desire, attention will now be on how Jonathan has been handling issues of national security.

It could be recollected that the twin bomb blasts that rocked the litigious 50th Independence anniversary of Nigeria from colonial servitude caused ethno-political hiccups, and exchange of tirades across divides and affiliations. In effect, accusing fingers were pointed at the probable master minders of the blast to the extent that individuals with different pedigree and affiliations were arrested, interrogated and arraigned by the Jonathan Government.

Ironically, the only group, MEND, which claimed responsibility for the attack was offered a clean bill of health by President Jonathan Ebele Goodluck. Accordingly, Jonathan stated, “The name of MEND association that operates in Niger Delta was only used. I grew up in the Niger Delta so nobody can claim to know Niger Delta better than myself, because I am from the Niger Delta. I know the person behind the attack and the person sponsoring it.

They are terrorists, not MEND.” He also added, “the government knows them and would fish them out as investigations proceed.” This slipshod vituperation one may want to contend, raises a series of salient questions on the leadership credentials of Goodluck. Given the fact this statement of exoneration issued MEND by Jonathan preceded any known investigation into this matter, then, he may be guilty of playing politics of blame, culpable of policitization of national security and gross incompetence in handling national matters. A more revealing part of the above statement credited to Jonathan is that which reads, “I know the person behind the attack and the person sponsoring it.” It should be asked,who is this fellow Jonathan had in mind or was refereeing to as the brain behind the bomb blast? Could it be one definite individual or that the identity of such individual will depend on Jonathan’s ambition of becoming? We may need to probe further.

If one could recollect vividly as well, Raymond Dokpesi, who then was the campaign manager of former dictator Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, one of the strong contenders who was vying alongside Jonathan for the PDP Presidential ticket, was detained in connection with this bombing issue. One may need simply guess Babaginda’s alleged involvement.

On the eve of a New Year, precisely on 31 December, 2010, Nigeria witnessed another bomb blast at “Mammy” market attached to the Abacha Barracks in the Asokoro area of Abuja. While reacting to this tragic development, the leadership of Jonathan Goodluck concluded and announced that, “the recent bomb blasts in Nigeria were politically-motivated and handiwork of detractors who wanted to bring down the present administration.”

With thorough investigation yet to be conducted into this issue, on 1 January, 2011, after a New Year service at the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) Abuja, Jonathan proclaimed, “the preliminary analysis of the explosives so far used in Nigeria, the one used in the October 1 explosion has the same characteristics with the ones that happened in Port Harcourt, Warri and some parts of the Niger Delta, it has been classified. The one that happened yesterday (Friday) from preliminary analysis is identical with the ones that happened in Jos. So there are two routes. As long as the security operatives know the two routes, we will get to where these things are coming from."

On the 3 January, 2010, the Minister of Interior, Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho (rtd.), was reported to have said that it was too early to link the bomb blasts at the mammy market beside Mogadishu Military Barracks to the Christmas Eve explosions in Jos, Plateau State. Again one observes the problem of hasty judgement, fabrication of a non-existing security report and a sly attempt to blame those who were assumed to be allegedly responsible for the obdurate Jos mayhem and the Niger Delta arm-struggle as the sponsors of the 2nd Abuja bombing.

From the instances analysed so far, it is evident that revisionist politics of black mail and the use of deceit to cover up facts of history underlie Jonathan Goodluck’s attempts at becoming. Since history is what David McCullough describes as, “who we are and why we are the way we are” Nigerians have reasons to think outside the status quo in navigating their search for a better future. Also, in view of the fact that the ignoble inaction of our thieving leaders is a core factor that led us to what we are and where we are at the moment, the tomorrow we are seeking will only be a moment of respite, if, we make amends by entrusting the navigation of our tomorrow in care of those whose yesterday was not part of what contributed to the culture of corruption and blackmail that make our today miserable. Wouldn’t it be right that to say that the Jonathan and Dame Patience Goodluck’s activities in time examined so far has imposed on us all, the burden of learning from the past, and the present, by making at the desirable time, desirable decision and desirable effort, that is built on desirable foundation and redirected in the desirable direction. I supposed this is the only way we can bring about the desirable change that would revive desirably, the desired future of our country.

Abudugana, the author of this article can be reached through abudugana2000@yahoo.com.

oyb:
why do you think odumakin called it audacious incompetence?

the thuggish area boy mentality - defeat logic with unintelligible incoherent shouting down

the same kadira  ahmed that gej's chief thug was claiming was swept off her feet by the dunce in chief
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-524671.0.html

ask beaf

How time changes and GEJ had 6 months since then to show Nigerians his ability but shame o shame. If Kadira could write this sorts of things in october how come GEJ fled the way he fled to Turais chicken as the Chief Social Prefect.

Well done bro for digging this out

confetti:
Mr. Omisore was however silent on the reasons that informed the legislators to raise the National assembly's share of the budget from N111.23 billion to N232.73 billion, an increase ofN121.5 billion, or 4.7 per cent of the entire budget. He was also not forthcoming about the additional increment of N433 billion which jerked the final estimates to the N4.971 trillion the lawmakers approved.[/b]Mr. Aganga had warned lawmakers during a budget defence session last month on the implications of tampering with the benchmark figure of $65 per barrel, saying it could spell doom for the economy should the oil price fall below that level during the year, considering that the excess crude oil account (ECA), which is almost depleted, may not be there anymore to augment the budget as was done last year.

[b]PDP must go, Jona is so clueless and these law makers are a bunch of greedy idiots. Change must come to Nigeria 2011. BB all the way.

May God not let this omisore return to the senate, please who is his opponent in Osun . How can they have 120 billion increase for the national assembly even after Sanusi dissed them on their excessive wages. That money could be used to fix the benin road that is gateway to hell.