The remains of late Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the first civilian governor of Bayelsa, has been laid to rest in Amassoma, Southern-Ijaw local government area of the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the deceased was buried after a commendation service by the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) on Saturday.
Speaking at the burial ceremony, Gov. Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa said Alamieyeseigha’s demise was a trying time to the people of Ijaw nation.
Dickson described him as “a bridge builder” who believed in what is right for his people.
“A bridge builder has departed in our state; a man who knows what is right and just.
“We know we have lost a true hero but we have put ourselves together and pray for his gentle soul to rest in peace,” he said.
Former president Goodluck Jonathan described the deceased as a man of vision who brought development to the state.
Jonathan said that his legacy on education and infrastructural development would not be forgotten in the history of Bayelsa and Ijaw nation.
“He brought to us the Niger-Delta University (NDU); he was a man with vision, champion for peace, unity and social integration,” he said.
Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, the acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said Alamieyeseigha’s death was regrettable to the nation, prayed for God’s grace and urged the deceased family to bear the loss.
Sheriff said that the late former governor was a real hero, who championed the emancipation of his people.
“He was a real gem and true keeper of his people; may his soul rest in peace,” he prayed.
Tag: Goodluck Jonathan
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Encomium galore as Alamieyeseigha is buried
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Judge’s absence stalls arraignment Jonathan’s aide, two others
The planned arraignment of former Special Adviser to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on Niger Delta Affairs, Kingsley Kuku and two of his associates was stalled Tuesday morning by the absence of the proposed trial judge, Justice M. M. Kolo of the High Court, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Wuse Zone 2, Abuja.Kuku ( who is said to be at large) was to be arraigned in absentia with Lawrence Pepple (who served as Technical Assistant to Kuku on Reintegration) and Henry Nonso Ogbolue (who served Kuku as Special Assistant, Media and Communications) on two separate charges.They are charge with criminal conspiracy, fraudulent acquisition and false declaration of assets.A new date has been fixed for their arraignment. -
Dasukigate: Why Jonathan should face trial – Ndume
Senate Majority Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, Thursday said that former President Goodluck Jonathan should face trial if he covertly instigated the sharing of $2.1billion given to former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, to buy arms.
He also said that Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, should be held responsible for any breakdown of law and order in the state.
Ndume who spoke to reporters in Abuja noted that if Jonathan who approved $2.1 billion for the purchase of arms turned back to give directive secretly that the money should be shared among his cronies, he should be prosecuted.
He said, “I do not want to dabble into that being one of the victims of the insurgency. My house was taken over by insurgents and my town was declared a caliphate of the insurgents. My Emir was killed while these people were smiling to the banks with the money that was meant to buy arms and ammunition.
“It was for lack of ammunition that the Nigerian Armed Forces had to run away.
“As far as I am concerned, these people are living on blood money, the blood of so money innocent citizens of this country particularly from the North East.
“No justice is too much for them, nobody is supposed to be spared. Because the case is judicial and I am not a lawyer to determine who should be brought to book, what I am saying is that justice should be served.
“Over 10,000 people have lost their lives, at one time you could see my people were slaughtered like chickens and the reason why this happened was because our army was not equipped and not well kitted.
“And somebody made away with the money meant for the procurement of arms and ammunition.
“I am not defending President Jonathan but he approved that this money be used for procurement of arms. So if the law says he should be part of those that should be part of the accountability or those that should face justice, I think nobody should be spared.
“I really don’t want to make comment on that but anybody that is involved in that blood money should be held responsible.
“If the President approved that money in the name of buying arms while giving a directive that it should be shared among his cronies, then he should face the law.
“If anybody is supposed to buy arms and you gave them money to buy arms, as the president, after some time you should ask `where are the arms anyway.”
Let me add and clearly that is my position, if because of this or any other criminality Jonathan should face the law, he should, I did, I am facing the law.
“Nobody is supposed to be above the law, if Jonathan is a culprit he should face the law: if there is evidence that the former president should face the law then he should. After all, he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.”
On the trial of the Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, by Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), he said that the issue is being blown out of proportion.
Ndume wondered why his own trial on allegation of being a Boko Haram sponsor, is not getting the kind of attention Saraki’s trial by the CCT is receiving.
He said, “Do you know that I am still in court on a more serious issue.
“The President of the Senate is in court for assets declaration but I am in court for a more serious issue that I am alleged to be a sponsor of Boko Haram
“I have been in court for four years so why is it not an issue.
“I have not complained, it is not a big deal. I am still the Leader of the Senate and my role is as important as that of the President of the Senate but it is not a big deal.
“Why are you making his own case a big deal? I think the Nigerian press trivializes things, dramatises issues, and concentrates on events and personalities instead of ideas: does that help us?”
The killings going on in Rivers State, Ndume said that Governor Wike should be held responsible for any breakdown of law and order in the state.
He noted that as the Chief Security Officer of the state, Wike should on top of situation in his state.
The Senate, he said, has always “condemned what is happening severally, not just in Rivers but anything that is happening that has to do with loss of lives and criminality we stand to condemn it.”
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Jonathan’s Almajiri’s school system was a wrong policy, says Kano governor
Kano State governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has said that the Tsangayal School system known as the Almajiri school system introduced by the Jonathan administration was a misplaced priority saying.
Speaking at an APC media roundtable in Abuja, Ganduje said what should have been done was to find a way of integrating the almajiris into the normal school system to avoid stigmatization in the future.
The governor said it was a waste of resources to construct blocks of classrooms in the name of almajiri schools without the pupils to attend them.
While saying that he has written to President Muhammadu Buhari, explaining the measures been by the Kano state government to intergrate the students, he said creating special schools for the almajiris was abnormal.
“The last federal government introduced the Almajiri schools but the school is not well articulated. It is a wrong policy. For example in my village, we have this school with only 50 students and in Kano we have over three million Almajiris.
“If you are creating an Almajiri school that is abnormal, who will like to be tagged Almajiri? Is it that after completing your studies your certificate will be tagged Almajiri? And later in life you will be called a graduate of Almajiri school? Which means you were an Almajiri before, so it has some social problems.
“What we are adapting is integration. The Almajiri are integrated into the normal school system and from our investigation most of the Almajiris in Kano came from other parts of the North state, from Chad and Niger. -
Jonathan, wife absent at Dickson’s inauguration
Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Seriake Dickson, was on Sunday inaugurated for his second term in office.
Dickson said his new term would focus on economic diversification, rural electrification scheme, massive investment in power to drive industrialization, youth empowerment and investment in agriculture.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Patience, who recently attended a thanksgiving ceremony organised in Port Harcourt by Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Nyesom Wike, were conspicuously absent at the swearing-in and thanksgiving service.
But governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), members of the National Assembly, the PDP’s National Working Committee (NWC), the party’s Board of Trustee (BoT) members, traditional rulers and many stalwarts of the party witnessed the event at the Samson Siasia Sports Complex, Yenagoa.
Some of the PDP governors in attendance were – Ayodele Fayose (Ekiti), Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Emmanuel Udom (Akwa Ibom), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta), Dairus Ishaku (Taraba) and Dankwabo Ibrahim (Gombe).
The 2015 governorship candidate of PDP in Lagos, Jimi Agbaje; the Senate Minority Leader and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Mr. Leo Ogori and a host of other dignitaries were also present at the occasion.
The state’s Chief Judge, Justice Kate Abiri, administered the oaths on the governor and his deputy, Rear Admiral John Jonah (rtd).
Abiri said she was empowered by Sections 185 (1) and 187 (2) of the 1999 Constitution as amended to perform the ceremony, adding that Dickson and his deputy were required to take fresh oaths to renew their mandates.
Speaking after the traditional parade by the police, Dickson said his victory was a testimony that the Ijaw nation had never and would not be conquered.
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PDP chief: my life at risk over Ekiti poll ‘fraud’ leak
Aluko should face perjury charge, says Fayose
•APC, rights activist call for trial of suspects
A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief who blew the whistle on the alleged rigging of the 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State yesterday alleged that his life was under threat.
Dr. Temitope Aluko, who on Sunday spoke of how former President Goodluck Jonathan allegedly gave Governor Ayo Fayose $37 million to prosecute the election and directed that the military should facilitate victory for the then PDP candidate, said he escaped from the hands of “fake security men” on Sunday night.
He also indicted many politicians and military chiefs.
But Fayose described him as desperate and denied the allegations.
Also yesterday, All Progressives Congress (APC) urged the government to prosecute all the people indicted by the ex-PDP chief.
A human rights lawyer, Morakinyo Ogele also called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe the $37m allegedly given to Fayose by Jonathan.
Aluko said yesterday: “After the live television interview on Politics Today on Channels Television on Sunday at about 9.30 pm, my attention was drawn to the presence of some operatives supposedly from the office of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), seeking to effect my arrest.
“However, having passed though the same route before, my instinct immediately told me that something was amiss. I made some calls and found out that there was no such order to effect my arrest by the office of the IGP or from any other security agency for that matter.
“I was later made to understand that the ‘fake’ security agents were actually miscreants posing as security men and acting on the orders of Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose to get rid of me at all cost.
“I must let Nigerians know that I have made a resolution to let the whole world know what transpired during the Ekiti 2014 governorship poll.”
The Ekiti APC, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, called on the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami (SAN) to prosecute all those named in the Ekiti 2014 election rigging drama.
The party said it had twice petitioned the Office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice on the matter, stressing that the revelations by PDP secretary had made it imperative that the nation’s chief law officer must act now.
Olatunbosun said the election fraud crisis had refused to go despite all shenanigans by Fayose, who he said was the biggest beneficiary of the election fraud that created a blight on Nigeria’s international image.
The APC spokesman said even though there was nothing new in the PDP Secretary’s revelations, he noted, however, that it had become pertinent to prosecute the suspects as the revelations were again emanating from the insider who participated fully in what is now known as Ekitigate.
“By Aluko’s revelations, we are justified in our claim that our candidate, Dr Kayode Fayemi, never lost that election, but was criminally toppled by a coup d’etat orchestrated by Fayose in cahoots with President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration that illegally deployed money and the military to ensure victory for Fayose.
“It is interesting that more names are coming up in the biggest election scam ever witnessed in Nigeria with the alleged participation of Ifeanyi Ubah of the infamous Transformation Agenda for Nigeria (TAN), a shadowy campaign group for former President Jonathan in the fraud. No wonder Ubah was compensated with a honorary Fellow by Fayose at the Ekiti State College of Education for a job well done.”
Ubah denied ever giving Fayose money for the election.
Olatunbosun went on: “It is in the light of this that we are calling on the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation to prosecute all the suspects in the election fraud for treasonable felony to preserve the integrity of the Nigerian Constitution.”
The APC said President Muhammadu Buhari should use Ekiti election “fraud” case to convince Nigerians that official impunity and fraud would not have a place in Nigeria under his watch.
“We have seen the Army already tackling the military aspect of the Army Probe Panel report. We expect the police and attorney general of the federation to also toe the line in coming out with the civilian component of the probe report and act accordingly.
“The military men were mere agents used by Fayose to rig the election. Some of the officers implicated in Fayose’s crime had been recommended for various sanctions, including losing their jobs while others are to face prosecution by the EFCC and court martial, according to the military rules and administrative procedure.
“These military men should not be made to suffer alone for the crime committed in conjunction with Fayose and his fellow conspirators in PDP who are still working free as if there is no law in this country,” he said.
Olatunbosun berated Fayose’s media aides, Lanre Ogunsuyi and Lere Olayinka, for claiming that Captain Koli’s audio tape was a forgery, saying, however, that it was gratifying that Fayose, who also first denied his voice on the tape, later admitted that it was his.
“If the Ekiti audio tape was a forgery as they alleged, were the appearances of Koli and Tope Aluko also forgeries?” he said.
Noting that Fayose had always mouthed his readiness to wave his immunity to face prosecution over alleged crimes, he said now was the time to wave that immunity to face prosecution on the electoral fraud.
He insisted that APC would not accept anything short of comprehensive review of the Ekiti State election saga, even as he urged Nigerians to prevail on the Minister of Justice to compel Fayose to explain to the world what he meant by saying that he collected INEC soft copies and got them printed as captured in Captain Sagir Koli’s tape detailing all activities connected with Ekiti poll rigging.
“Besides Fayose talking on the tape about how INEC gave him soft copies that he printed to win the election, the minister of justice must also compel the governor, who spoke on election result collation in the tape, to tell Nigerians which election result he was collating in Efon-Alaye on June 19, 2014, two clear days before the June 21, 2014 governorship election,” Olatunbosun concluded.
Ogele urged Fayose to resign from office within seven days “because the election that brought him to office was highly compromised”.
He vowed to approach the Federal High Court if Fayose fails to resign to seek a declaration that the election is null and void by reason of the latest facts and figures released by Fayose’s former right-hand man.
The activist-lawyer also challenged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to explain its own side of the story following the alleged sharing of N1 billion by its officials to compromise the Ekiti poll.
“They have the statutory power to probe this fraud; they should look into it to ascertain whether it is part of the arms money diverted and shared among many people. If truly the Federal Government is determined to fight corruption, EFCC, as a matter of urgency, should comb Ekiti for this gigantic fraud.”
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CCTV contract: Reps summon Ambode, Monguno, Adeosun, others
The National Security Adviser (NSA) Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd), Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, the Governor of Lagos State, Akinwumi Ambode, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mohammed Musa Bello as well as the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele are to appear before a House of Representatives panel over a contract for the provision of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) in Abuja and Lagos.
The $470m CCTV contract was awarded to ZTE Corporation, a Chinese company, by the immediate past government of President Goodluck Jonathan.The contract that could not be executed was for the purpose of security in Abuja and Lagos.
According to the Chairman of the committee, Ahmed Yarima (APC, Bauchi), others expected to shed light on their roles in the contract include the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase, Minister of Interior Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd), Minister of Communications Adebayo Shittu and Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Garba Dambatta.
Others are ZTE Corporation of China and its MD in Nigeria; Nigeria Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT); BC-TEC Engineering; NETLINK Broadband Networks Limited; OPEN SKYS Services Limited; LTS Security and Communication Limited; DG Debt Management Office (DMO); FIRS chairman; Registrar General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the DG Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP).
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Second RUNNER-UP: GOODLUCK JONATHAN The poor, poor president
Here is the abridged narrative of the shoeless boy from the oil creeks of the Niger Delta who played hide-and-seek with providence and was caught out. This is how the game went: he was born wretched but was catapulted on a trajectory of greatness and nobility. Pampered all the way with privileged positions many princes would kill for and ultimately hoisted on the rarefied kilimanjaroic cape of power where history cohabits with the gods – the presidency of a country, the biggest in the Black world. Now what?
We wager that at this sepulchral apogee, providence posed him the final challenge: jump or climb down. And Jonathan jumped!
This is the story of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the immediate past leader of Nigeria who defied history and smudged the flowing gown of nobility providence draped him with. His five-year era was defined by befuddling incompetence, humongous graft and a vacuous sense of history and legacy. What he lacked in work ethic and discipline, he complemented with rapacity; and in place of honor, was a newfound megalomania and quest for power far beyond his ken; much more than providence (his chi) had bequeathed him.
In his last days he was without a prayer; he had jettisoned the small gods of the rich creeks that propelled him to heights he never imagined. All he wanted was to ride in the carousel of power and glory without the concomitant communion, work and rigour. In his final moment of denunciation and parting with his guardian spirits, he broke his word, which he gave before the people and shamelessly challenged them for proof. He did not reckon that even honor is a deity of sort. Thenceforth, the unseen ones left him. Thenceforth, he was alone and lonely. Thenceforth, his journey transited from the metaphysical to the mere physical, flesh and muscle. And if muscle mattered much in the affairs of man, bulls would rule the world, abi?
And he did put up a fight: all the fighting force in the land was co-opted but it proved to be ridiculously puny; all the money in the central bank could not buy enough votes and all the clergy and diviners in Nigeria and neighbouring countries could not muster enough grace to save him from a self-inflicted perdition. And President Jonathan, the one the gods favoured so much fell with agonizing thud on that election day of March 28, 2015.
Today, we count him as not THE man of the year but among the subordinate casts, an anti-hero in an epochal tragi-comedy he could have played a star role. Jonathan offended the gods; he repudiated the people and misread history.
When he could have massively mobilized man and resource to enact legacies and monuments like refineries, petrochemical complexes and path-breaking highways, he built a scaffolding of excuses. He looked on while a rampaging army of looters remorselessly raped and ravaged the land as if tomorrow would never come. His was a season of plunderation never known in our history.
In his bid to remain in power at all costs, he played the ethnic card to the limits; nudging one group against the other. He also tried hard to corral religious groups and traditional rulers into a polity he had thoroughly muddied. Whatever it cost, he paid; whatever they asked he gave them. From palace to palace, from churches to groves, he was showered with a surfeit of induced anointing. He suborned most elders of the land, sent them unholy errands and made many of them speak like toddlers. Infamy suffused the land in that critical moment prelude to the 2015 elections.
When all these seemed futile and he faced a certain electoral debacle, he postponed the election at the nick of time. Then in desperation, started a multi-billion naira campaign of calumny against the electoral umpire he had appointed, seeking to tar him and boot him.
But nothing worked in his favor anymore, the good spirits of the creeks that ensconced him unto Aso rock had returned home without him, it seemed. On that historic day, he had a historic fall from grace. He went on record as the first incumbent president to lose election in Nigeria. His political hara-kiri was complete but for that last act…
He put that call through to the new helmsman and offered goodwill and felicitations, allowing Nigeria a fresh berth. That little act of graciousness is his saving grace today. It is a white flag, the size of a handkerchief, but white all the same.
Then he walked into the cold, a poor, poor fellow, beaten, bent and diminished… well, save for that little, white kerchief.
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When two ministers went missing
As former President Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure muddled toward its desultory end, two of his senior ministers, with responsibility for some of the most critical issues of state, went missing from their strategic turfs.
I called attention to one of them, the Foreign Minister, Ambassador Aminu Wali, in my September 23, 2014, column titled “Where is our Foreign Minister?”
“Has anyone in the attentive audience ever seen, heard, sensed or otherwise encountered Ambassador Aminu Wali acting out his remit since he was appointed Foreign Minister in March 2014?’’ I asked.
I had raised this question in the wake of the Chibok abductions, when the accident-prone Jonathan administration stumbled from miscue to egregious miscue in a perfect calendar of blunders. Day after day, Nigeria took a pummelling in the global news media. And the foreign minister, who should have been the international face of Nigeria at such a time, was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, he was trying desperately to sell Dr Jonathan to political kingmakers in the so-called Northwest geopolitical zone as the best thing to have happened to Nigeria since the amalgamation, and an unquestionably worthy candidate for re-election.
Hear him as he read the communiqué at the end of the meeting: “Having carefully considered the steady and stable progress of our nation under the able leadership of the President, the stakeholders of PDP in the Northwest, having in mind the monumental strides attained by this administration, have resolved to urge President Jonathan to declare for president in the forthcoming 2015 elections so as to continue the good works he started in nation building.”
They say an ambassador is a person sent to lie for his country abroad. Ambassador Wali was going round the country lying for the president and his administration.
To be fair to Wali, he was not the only minister plying that trade. The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, did exactly that each time he opened his mouth. So did the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, but with emphasis on his personal achievement.
It came as no surprise, then, that Wali’s expertise was not tapped during what must rank as one of Jonathan administration’s most humiliating foreign misadventures, namely, the dramatic seizure in hard currency of the equivalent of N9.3 million from a Nigerian-owned private jet that made a covert landing at a private airport near Johannesburg, in South Africa, with the Jonathan administration’s fingerprints all over it.
The administration said the money was for the purchase of arms from private vendors for the security services and that the shipment was properly documented. The South African authorities, on the other hand, were acting on the theory that this was a money-laundering caper gone awry and were not in the least impressed by the disingenuous fudging that marked Abuja’s attempt to explain the incident away.
The last is yet to be heard of that incident
The second cabinet official who went missing from his strategic turf at critical points in the last phase of Dr Jonathan’s presidency was Lt.-Gen. Aliyu Gusau, the Minister of Defence and, before that, National Security Adviser in the Obasanjo administration.
Aliyu Gusau had been appointed to replace Dr Bello Haliru, to demonstrate the government’s resolve to regain vast swathes of territory Boko Haram had seized in the Northeast, and to crush the insurgency.
Shortly after resuming office, he summoned the service chiefs to his office for a meeting, at which the war effort was likely to figure prominently. The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Vice Marshal Alex Badeh, countermanded the summons, stating that the invitation had to be routed through his office.
Whereupon, as was widely reported in the media, Aliyu Gusau resigned. Later reports said the minister had insisted on meeting with service chiefs alone, and had demanded an apology from Badeh, who was probably still in high school — or in the military academy – when Aliyu Gusau was promoted to the rank of army general.
Despite President Jonathan’s intervention, the twain stood their grounds, and Aliyu Gusau made it known that, contrary to media reports, he had not resigned.
For all practical purposes, however, he might as well have resigned.
Boko Haram escalated its campaign of murder and mayhem and battled the ill-equipped and ill-used Nigerian military to a stalemate, often dictating the terms of engagement. In one instance, an entire army battalion, faced with Boko Haram’s superior firepower and motivation, “tactically manoeuvred” its way to neighbouring Cameroun, where it was disarmed and escorted back to base.
Through it all, the minister of Defence was missing. He was not seen at the war front rallying the troops and boosting their morale. Usually self-effacing, and a man of few words as befits the super spook – beg your pardon – the consummate intelligence officer that he is, this time he stood aloof, distant, as if the war was none of his business.
Nor did he join in the controversy surrounding the seizure by South Africa of a cash-laden private jet from Nigeria that had landed surreptitiously in a private airport near Johannesburg, allegedly on a mission to buy arms from private dealers for the Nigerian “security services.”
Was Badeh’s refusal to submit to the authority of the minister of Defence the reason General Aliyu Gusau chose to keep his own counsel in matters relating to the military, including the Boko Haram insurgency that was steadily incorporating more and more Nigerian territory under its infernal control?
Was that how it also came about that the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), who, it has been said, was not a career intelligence officer but had on his own taken a crash course in military intelligence after his retirement — was that how he came to supplant the minister of Defence and to assume responsibility for procuring arms and ammunition and other materials for the military directly or through contractors?
The figures cited in those transactions, in which Dasuki seems to be a central figure, boggle the mind. So do the puny returns resulting therefrom, according to officials looking into the matter. President Jonathan, Dasuki has said, approved all the transactions at issue.
Aliyu Gusau’s name has not figured thus far in the investigations. He must be glad that he kept his distance from all the wheeling and dealing that the EFCC says it has uncovered in the office of the National Security Adviser.
Should he merely have kept his distance under the circumstances? Should he not have resigned to protect his honour?
For the record will show that, under his watch as Defence minister, the armed forces could not tame Boko Haram, and allegations of shady transactions in military purchases surfaced.
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PDP and the burden of Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency
DAAR communications chairman, Raymond Dokpesi who is one of the major conveners of the South-South political movement that bolstered and galvanized the emergence of the region that produces the most wealth in Nigeria into national reckoning, recently allegedly voiced the opinion that PDP made a mistake in fielding GoodLuck Ebele Jonathan, GEJ as her presidential candidate in the last election.
When the acolytes of the out gone president, particularly former presidential spokesman, Doyin Okupe, and PDP spokesman, Olisah Metuh, literarily ‘jumped into his throat’, Dokpesi decided to be politically correct by ‘clarifying’ that his statement was twisted out of contest by the opposition as it was actually directed at the lower rung of the PDP political spectrum, whom he accused of fielding unpopular candidates, hence the current reversal of the fortune of PDP from the ruling to opposition party.
Dokpesi’s comment about GEJ’s unpopularity and unsuitability as presidential candidate in 2015, sounded familiar to me because somebody else had held that position and voiced out it boldly about five(5) years ago and it led to a vicious political persecution and loss of personal liberty.
That person is former governor of delta state, James Onanefe Ibori who is now serving a jail term in a UK prison .
His opposition to GEJ’s presidential ambition in 2010,on the ground that it was against the grand strategy by the PDP to return power to the north after residing for eight (8) years in the south, with Olusegun Obasanjo, OBJ as the custodian, was rebuffed and even drew the ire and bile of the ‘principalities and powers’ in Aso Rock villa at that time.
Ibori has always insisted that his opposition to those aiming to go against the well established PDP power rotation principle that held the party together like a glue is not personal but an altruistic commitment by a party loyalist to the sustenance of the PDP as the ruling party, but his plea, as it were, fell on deaf ears.
Now,I know that some antagonists would argue that Ibori confessed to the crime of money laundering in the UK ,hence he is in incarceration, but we are all aware of the circumstances under which he did. His entire family-only sister, wife, daughter’s mother and lawyer were encircled and jailed, compelling him to capitulate.
Also keep in mind that with the way Nigeria is wired, when the authority decides to ‘nail’ a public officer, there is hardly any escape from being found guilty of malfeasance, but if a person is enjoying the goodwill of the govt in power, he or she is accommodated like a blue eye prince and could therefore get away with murder with the authorities looking the other way.
Take for instance the issue of the celebrated Halliburton, Siemens and other sundry multi million dollars acts of corruption involving former top Nigerian political office holders, that have earned foreigners involved in the crimes with them, prison terms, while the Nigerians are yet to be made to face the consequences. This is simply because the indicted Nigerian leaders are in the politically correct camp and as such arraigning them would rock Nigeria’s political boat. Another case in point is the recent call by SERAP, a civil society organization, on the new Attorney General and minister of justice , Abubakar Malami to prosecute the thirty one (31) state governors whom the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC reported as corrupt and which was accepted and adopted by the National Assembly, NASS in 2006.That 31 of the 36 governor’s were found guilty by EFCC of corruption, suggests that virtually all the governor’s in OBJ’s era have been tarred with same black brush, so singling out Ibori for persecution after the unfortunate passing away of former president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, was a deliberate punishment.
Similarly, another parallel can be drawn in the recent dismissal of fraud charges against former Bayelsa state governor, Timipreye Sylva by justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja on the ground that arraigning the ex-governor three times on same charges (2012,2013 and 2015) after the cases had been discharged. This underscores the fact that l had made earlier that, govt can raise charges against a perceived enemy at their whims and caprices.
It may be recalled that Sylva served only one term in Bayelsa state and was stopped from getting a second term ostensibly for fraud and incompetence but in reality, his political career was truncated for allegedly falling out of favor with the then occupiers of Aso Rock villa which is similar to what happened to James Ibori.
By opposing GEJ’s intention to run for the office of the president in 2011,Ibori certainly stepped on sensitive toes and the rest as they say is history, as he is now on the last lap of his long incarceration, but what’s intriguing is that it took about half a decade for another party stalwart, Dokpesi who felt same way as Ibori to speak out, and even then he was quickly gagged and in the interest of peace he has modified his comment.
Amazingly, even after the unfortunate catastrophic consequence that Ibori predicted would befall the PDP, should his caution against fielding Jonathan not be heeded has materialized, (as the PDP has now fallen from grace to grass at the March 28th presidential polls) no other current PDP member of considerable weight has voiced the concern publicly, so the sentiment about the calamity that Jonathan attracted to the PDP has remained in the realm of closet gossip.
Strangely ,former PDP leaders whose opinion on the unsuitability of Jonathan for the presidency in 2015 in convergence with ibori’s position in 2011,include OBJ who had to tear up his PDP membership card in the full glare of TV cameras in protest and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar who also led five PDP governors out of Eagle square last year in protest before subsequently defecting to APC. So Ibori basically was the first to ‘bell the cat’ and he was slammed by the system.
It is indeed a pity that, like Egyptian pyramids, evidence of not being visionary enough to steer the former ruling party away from the precipice was looming ,yet PDP bigwigs then and even those still left in the party, are still living in denial by pretending like an ostrich that buries its head in the sand, falsely believing that all her body are also cancelled, but unbeknown to the bird, (and in this case the PDP) its whole body except the head is sticking out like a sore thump.
Events that threw up Goodluck Jonathan as the vice presidential candidate of the PDP in 2007 and literarily thrusted him into national limelight, are still fresh in my memory because l was there when it was unraveling, nearly a decade ago as late Umaru Yar’Adua was being elected the presidential candidate of the PDP.
Under the chilling cold harmattan weather, at the Eagle Square, Abuja, l had the rare privilege of being the returning officer for late president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (2007-2010) who was then, Katsina state governor and presidential candidate of the PDP. Uche Secondus, the present acting PDP chairman would remember that event clearly because he was desirous of being the returning officer to Yar’Adua before l was detailed to perform the duty.
The responsibility for being the returning officer to the presidential candidate was thrust upon me by , Yar’Adua who conveyed his request through, one of his close confidantes at that time, Abba Rumma who was later to become a super minister of the Yar’Adua era.
I recall elder statesman, Tony Anenih , then chairman of PDP Board of Trustees pacing up and down in the Eagle Square courtyard following then president, OBJ inspired changes in PDP constitution stipulating that going forward, only ex-presidents would become the party’s Board Of Trustees, BOT chairman.