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Tag: Goodluck Jonathan

  • My emotional turmoil after losing 2015 poll, by Jonathan

    My emotional turmoil after losing 2015 poll, by Jonathan

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan, has described his experience after losing the 2015 presidential election as a devastating period in his political life.

    He said losing an election as a sitting president would make one think the whole world is against him.

    Jonathan disclosed this yesterday in Abuja at the 1st Raymond Dokpesi Annual Diamond Lecture.

    The lecture was organised by the management of Daar Communications in conjunction with the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations.

    His words: “It is not easy to lose an election as a president. You will think the whole world is against you. But then, Dokpesi invited me before I handed over. I remember what he said to me when I lost the election.

    Read Also; FULL LIST: 22 sacked, suspended Ministers in Nigeria from 1999 – 2024

    “There were so many senior Nigerians (elder statesmen) who spoke. After I listened to all the conversations, he congratulated me and encouraged me to look beyond the election. This is how I commemorated that session.

    “That communication gave me hope and helped me not necessarily for the transition hours ahead of me but also in my spiritual life as a private citizen. If you read my book, My Transition Hours, I explained it more elaborately.”

    Jonathan, a candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, lost the 2015 election to immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress candidate.

    Buhari polled 15,424,921 votes to defeat Jonathan who got 12,853,162 votes.

  • Drafting Goodluck Jonathan for 2027

    Drafting Goodluck Jonathan for 2027

    One of the stories that dominated the media last week was the noisy whisper about drafting ex-president Goodluck Jonathan for the 2027 presidential race on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Bauchi State governor Bala Mohammed spoke in Abuja about his speculated interest in the race, but sighfully suggested he would step down if Dr Jonathan declared interest. Mr Mohammed, PDP governors’ forum chairman, is one of the leading lights of the PDP. Since he flew the Jonathan kite, a number of PDP top hats have lent their voices to the call to draft the former one-term president. In their calculations, Dr Jonathan would fit the northern bill of finding a southerner to take the South’s second term in place of the disfavoured President Bola Tinubu. The self-appointed PDP spokespersons assume naturally that they speak for the entire North, despite the insurmountable presence of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the region. They also flagrantly discountenanced the 2018 constitutional amendment on term limit or the legal interpretation of Section 137 (3) of the 1999 Constitution. Even if he likes to run, it is hard to determine how he can. But the nation can indulge the political romantics who think that in Nigeria everything is possible.

    In 2022, despite constitutional provisions and months before the PDP and APC primaries, Dr Jonathan was rumoured to be interested in contesting the presidency on the platform of the APC, a rumour engendered and nurtured by his dithering over the race. The prospect tantalised the former PDP president, and he gave audience to a few APC/northern delegations bent on drafting him. But he also waffled over whether he would run or not run, hinting obliquely that he could embrace a draft only if he was made the consensus candidate. He said nothing about the constitution. Perhaps he and his supporters know something Nigerians don’t know. In the end, despite a group of northerners buying the N100m expression of interest form for him, and despite his brutal sense of caution, he allowed the process to dissipate itself. Today again, he is embroiled in a cynical presidential draft game by another group of PDP big wigs. It would be out of character for him to dismiss the speculation out of hand, especially this time because the speculation comes from his natural watering hole, the PDP. And why would he not want to be the cynosure of all eyes even when he knows his ignorant drafters are engaged in a fool’s errand?

    Dr Jonathan has matured into statesmanship. He may, therefore, be wiser today than when he presided over Nigeria. He remembers quite well that in 2015, the North repudiated him in favour of their son, Muhammadu Buhari, who went on to win the presidential election. Indeed, he probably watched as they nearly repudiated Candidate Bola Tinubu in favour of their son, Alhaji Atiku, who flattered their northernness and baited their primordial instinct. And in 2022, Dr Jonathan also probably recognised that fearful northerners chary of being out of the presidency for eight years plotted to use him to hold the reins for only four years. He vacillated in 2022, briefly succumbing to the blandishments of APC mandarins who thought to use him to thwart the wider objective of rotational presidency and a fundamental change of direction after ex-president Buhari had run the country aground. If Dr Jonathan feels humiliated to be seen only as a tool for thwarting noble goals and putting political leaders’ noses out of joint, he has been careful and cautious not to say anything so far. In 1998, when northern and military schemers thought to offer ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo the presidency, he was pretentious enough to ask how many presidents they wanted to make out of him. His question was rhetorical. Soon, as events later proved, he eagerly seized the opportunity, won the election, and even sought to outfox God by scheming for a third term.

    There is nothing in Dr Jonathan’s rule book that shows him up as a hypocrite like Chief Obasanjo. But he won’t run for the presidency if he is not certain he would win the nomination, get the backing of the law, and of course go on to win the main election. Unlike Chief Obasanjo, he is averse to risk-taking. To run for the coveted post, he would have to take the nomination consensually after the constitutional conundrum is resolved, and be sure that the APC had become so discredited nationally that a freshman politician from any party could win by a landslide. And of course, finally, he would have to be sure that his conscience does not trouble him to be seen as a tool in the hands of northerners disenchanted with President Tinubu. The drafter engineers may flatter him to no end, but he will have to be certain that their rhapsodies hold a ring of truth beyond deploying him as a political battering ram. Indeed, the northern PDP big wigs have begun to compose dulcet hymns about him and the generally uneventful time he spent in office. But he can never be sure how inelastic their sweet tongues are when they strain the truth and veer into flattery and lies. So, for now, he will watch the composers and drafters with quivering amusement, waiting to see which way the cats jump.

    Moreover, the former president is not an idiot to think that former vice president Atiku Abubakar would in a year or two suddenly become a non-factor. When Alhaji Atiku engages in political fights, he bites ears, scratches faces, thumb noses, and gives headbutts. To the former vice president, truth is a mistress to be ravaged, as his continuing fight with President Tinubu has revealed, and he does his battles with undiluted ferocity and bitterness. An aspirant, particularly of the dovish kind like Dr Jonathan, must wear armour designed by archangels to fight the battles the entrenched party behemoths will bring against him. Unfortunately for him, since losing the 2015 presidential election, he has played little or no role in the survival of the party to this day. Alhaji Atiku himself has of course been opportunistic and Machiavellian, completely undeserving of the attention the PDP still gives him, but Dr Jonathan has been nothing more than a cipher in the existence of the opposition party. For a party orphaned since 2015 and suckled by surrogates like Nyesom Wike, former Rivers State governor and current FCT minister, it is deeply ironical that estranged ‘fathers’ are fighting for the baby’s attention as another election beckons in the distance.

    Read Also: Goodluck Jonathan: Model of democracy and peace

    The truth about the PDP is, however, more disconcerting than the attention being paid to the speculated interests of Dr Jonathan and Alhaji Atiku. As it stands, the opposition party does not stand any chance of winning the presidency if elections were held today or tomorrow. The reasons are clear. The party lost in 2015 because of the cumulative damage done to the party by all three PDP presidents, starting with Chief Obasanjo who introduced so much instability into the running of the former ruling party. After the PDP lost the presidency that watershed year, no one of enough intellectual heft or character has been able to conduct a proper laparotomy on the party to diagnose why it lost power, not to talk of repairing the breaches. Instead of remaking the party’s platform and positioning it ideologically or even emotionally to appeal to Nigerians, party apparatchiks have focused on the personalities of their political suitors, men with money but no principles, men capable of raising a storm but impatient to take the wind when they see or feel it.

    Secondly, and more sobering for the party, neither the embittered and immensely self-centered Alhaji Atiku nor the dour and humourless Dr Jonathan is capable of swinging victory for the PDP. It is not even clear that either of them will be in a position to campaign in 2026, let alone run for the post. The APC administration is despised and blamed for the hardship and hunger pervading the country by a people long accustomed to gorging on national surplus, but the economy will very likely yield to medications soon, and by the end of 2025 probably roar back to life. All the indications are there, despite the string of unforced errors committed by the Tinubu administration. The PDP will not only have to redesign their platform and imbue it with strength and character, they will also have to find credible and committed leaders to fly their tattered flag. The party is already shaping up for a bruising battle for its soul. Whatever the outcome of that internecine battle, it is unlikely the wounds will heal on time for the next election, regardless of the North’s speculated loss of confidence in the Tinubu administration.

  • Goodluck Jonathan: Model of democracy and peace

    Goodluck Jonathan: Model of democracy and peace

    Until his entry into the political arena in the late 90s, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was relatively unknown beyond the places where he had worked as an education inspector, lecturer and environmental protection officer. But the anonymity soon gave way to limelight with the assumption of office of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha as governor of Bayelsa State in May 1999, under the umbrella of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Alamieyeseigha picked Jonathan as his deputy. They both served out their first term of four years and were reelected.

    However, Alamieyeseigha ran into trouble midway in their second term and was impeached by the State House of Assembly on December 9, 2005. He was immediately arrested after being charged with money laundering in the United Kingdom. He was subsequently replaced by Jonathan, in fulfillment of constitutional stipulation.

    Jonathan was governor until May 29, 2007. He was picked by Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua of PDP as running mate in the presidential election of that year. They won and Jonathan served as vice president from May 29, 2007 to May 5, 2010, when Yar’Adua died, in the course of a protracted illness.

    It should be noted that the National Assembly had earlier in February 2010, adopted the Doctrine of Necessity to  make Jonathan Acting President since Yar’Adua who had been away abroad in search of cure for his ailment since November 2009 refused to follow due process to hand over to him.

    Be that as it may, Jonathan remained in office till the 2011 general election when he was elected president. He was in power until he lost the 2015 election to former military head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    His cumulative five years in office as president witnessed some developmental projects.

    But Jonathan’s government was seen as largely corrupt, with hefty sums, both in Naira and foreign currencies, said to be missing in his years. ‘The Economist’ said corruption flourished under the Jonathan administration, “who let politicians and their cronies fill their pockets with impunity.”

    He also had issues with security – the highpoint being the abduction of more than 200 Chibok schoolgirls on April 14, 2014.

    However, whatever might have been his imperfections, Jonathan etched his name in gold when he conceded defeat in the 2015 election to Buhari, his main challenger. He was the first incumbent president in Nigerian history to do that.

    Yet, barely two days to the election, he had told The Cable that APC was overrated and that he was confident of victory: “I don’t think Nigerians will make the mistake of voting for Buhari. Gen. Buhari, with due respect, is not the right option for Nigeria at this time. It is a gamble that is not worth taking. I may not be perfect as nobody is perfect. But I believe that come Saturday, the majority of Nigerian voters will choose me as the best candidate to lead the nation forward.”

    Some other politician would have maintained this stance, even when it was clear that the election was not going in their favour. Not Jonathan. He promptly conceded defeat, even as the results of the election were still being announced. He said in a statement on March 31, 2015 that “nobody’s ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian.”

    This was a rare act of courage and statesmanship, especially in Africa, where elections are seen by many as do-or-die battles, and flawed or rigged polls have been the source of many bitter struggles, including violent overthrow of governments.

    This feat has helped significantly in keeping the former president relevant, not only at home, but also abroad.

    Since leaving office in 2015, Dr. Jonathan has remained committed to promoting democracy, peace, and respect for the rule of law in Africa.

    The former president has been involved in many international engagements and peace missions, including leading different Election Observer Missions to African nations like Tanzania, Zambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, The Gambia, Cambodia, Kenya, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. 

    He was nominated by the African Union (AU) to lead the 49-member continental body’s Election Observation Mission to Mozambique’s October 15, 2019 general elections. In the course of the assignment, he held consultations with various stakeholders in the country: government officials, members of the electoral commission, political parties, civil society groups, the media, members of the diplomatic corps, and other international observer groups.

    Read Also: Goodluck Jonathan… at the crossroads

    A letter of invitation to lead the mission signed by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, extolled Jonathan’s virtues: “Given Your Excellency’s vast experience and commitment in promoting democracy and peace on the continent, I would like to invite you to lead the African Union Election Observation Mission (AUEOM) to the Republic of Mozambique.”

    Earlier in June 2019, he emerged Chairperson of the African Chapter of the International Summit Council for Peace, an association of serving and former Presidents who are jointly working to bring peace, stability, and economic prosperity to the world.

    In May, 2020, he was appointed a member of the Kofi Annan Foundation Electoral Integrity Initiative Senior Panel. Two months later, he was named ECOWAS Special Envoy to head its mediation mission to resolve the socio-political crisis in Mali.

    In 2021 ECOWAS named him Chair of the Council of the Wise.

    In May, last year, he made history as the first African leader to be appointed to the International Advisory Board of the European Corporate Council on Africa and the Middle East.

    He is chairman of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation that he founded in 2015, to promote best practices in democracy and peacebuilding in Africa. He is also the Convener of the West African Elders Forum, another peacebuilding and mediation group comprising former presidents and eminent leaders from the region, to address election-related violence and other socio-political crises.

    Even as sitting president, Jonathan worked with other ECOWAS heads of state to resolve political crises and stabilise democracies in several African countries. Nigeria also got more recognition in the UN Security Council due to his commitment to peace and stability in Africa during his tenure.

    Apart from his international appointments and engagements, Jonathan ran diplomatic errands for his successor, and even now under the Bola Tinubu administration he has had to brief the incumbent on goings-on concerning some of his international engagements.

    For instance, barely two weeks of Tinubu’s assumption of office, he was in Aso Rock in his capacity as ECOWAS Special Envoy leading the group’s mediation mission in Mali to brief the President on the outcome of discussions with other members of the West African Elders Forum that he heads.

    He has also met Tinubu on the need for all former presidents to stop “fighting” and close ranks in the country’s interest. He had congratulated the President on his victory at the Supreme Court and so on. This is despite being a leading member of the opposition PDP.

    For Jonathan, nothing is too small or big to sacrifice in the quest for democracy and peace in the West African sub-region in particular, and Africa as a whole.

    He is also a Life Patron and Fellow of various societies such as the Nigerian Environmental Society, the Fisheries Society of Nigeria, Public Administrators of Nigeria, the International Association of Impact Assessment, the Institute of Corporate Affairs Management as well as Paul Harris Fellow, Rotary International.

    Born in in Otuoke, Bayelsa State, on November 20, 1957, he  holds Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctorate degrees in Zoology, Hydrobiology, and Fisheries Biology, respectively, all from the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

    He is married to Patience Jonathan and they are blessed with two children.

    Will Dr. Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan step forward for recognition as this newspaper’s Statesman of the Year!


  • Jonathan: Left in the cold

    How relevant is former President Goodluck Jonathan in Bayelsa State politics? His preferred governorship aspirant lost at the recent primary. Also, his choice as running mate to the flagbearer could not fly. Senior Correspondent MIKE ODIEGWU examines the plight of the former leader, who is now left in the cold in his home state.

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan is admired, not because he was an excellent leader when he was in power, but because he conceded defeat after losing the 2015 election.

    That singular act of surrendering power to President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) endeared him to many world leaders and institutions. Many people, therefore, described him as the hero of democracy.

    Jonathan had meteoric rise in power. The late former Governor Diepreye Alamieyeiseigha of Bayelsa State made him his deputy. The Otuoke-born leader rose from deputy governor to become governor, following the impeachment of Alamieyeseigha. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo made him the Vice-President to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. He became the first President from the minority oil-producing tribe, following, the death of Yar’Adua.

    But, all is not well with the former president in Bayelsa, his home state. Despite his experience and political profile, Jonathan has been boxed into a corner under the leadership of Governor Seriake Dickson.

    In fact, Jonathan and Dickson, hitherto belonged to the same political family, the Green Movement (GM). Members of the movement, including the King of Opume in Ogbia, King A.J. Turner, and a former Chief of Staff, Chief Dikivie Ikiogha were regarded as the kingmakers.

    As governor, Jonathan made Dickson his Commissioner for Justice. When the cabal, which consisted mainly of the GM crafted a plot to oust former Governor Timipre Sylva in 2011, Jonathan, who was President, picked Dickson, who was then in the House of Representatives as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to replace Sylva.

    Dickson, was one of the brains behind the Doctrine of Necessity that elevated Jonathan to the Presidency, following the death of Yar’Adua.

    Read Also: Jonathan’s absence delays decision on PDP’s running mate

    No sooner had Dickson emerged  governor than his relationship with Jonathan hit the rock. The former First Lady and wife of Jonathan, Patience, authored and acted the script that led to the collapse of the relationship due to her insatiable quest to control the governor and the state.

    The former First Lady and her foot soldiers, especially Jonathan’s Special Adviser, Domestics Affairs, Waripamowei Dudafa, allegedly tried to run an alternative government in Bayelsa, sidelining the governor in most of their activities. They threatened Dickson with impeachment.

    The Abuja forces, hiding under the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN), tried to run a parallel government in Bayelsa. To assuage the former First Lady, Dickson made him a Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education and bore all the outrage that resulted from the decision.

    But, Dickson was not happy that Jonathan failed to control his wife and call her to order. The former President rebuffed all entreaties by Dickson that Patience should learn how to respect democratic authorities. The governor fought back by removing all the vestiges of Jonathan and his wife in his government. He carried out a cabinet reshuffle and replaced appointees recommended by the former first family. Therefore, Jonathan’s reverence and relevance in Bayelsa politics diminished under Dickson administration.

    The governor, however, survived the presidential onslaught. The victory of the APC and President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 gave the governor a lifeline. In fact, there were reports that some PDP leaders in Government House popped champagnes immediately news filtered that Jonathan lost the presidential election. If Jonathan had won, Dickson stood no chance of flying the flag of the PDP for the 2015 election.

    Though the governor organised a grand reception for Jonathan and his wife, he was said to have learnt his lessons from his previous experience as he decided to own and manage his political structures. Dickson weeded off Jonathan’s sympathisers while constituting fresh executive committees of the PDP at the state, local government and ward levels.

    Shortly after his re-election, the governor for the fist time spoke publicly about his travails under Jonathan’s presidency. Speaking on 2017 Isaac Adaka Boro Day, the governor lamented that his Ijaw people, who surrounded the former President, contributed to the downfall of his Presidency. He said such persons wasted the six years the Ijaw occupied the Presidency.

    Dickson said that the ministers and other presidential aides from Bayelsa were after their selfish interests, thus losing the unique opportunity of attracting development to their domains. Speaking before laying wreaths at the tomb of Boroh in the Heroes’ Park, Dickson recalled that the persons who served in the Presidency for six years failed to work with him in the quest to bring development to the state.

    Instead, he said they were preoccupied with “devilish plot” of unseating him and installing another governor in his stead.

    “They suffered from the Bayelsa-Ijaw disease of pull-him-down syndrome,” Dickson said. The governor’s statement caused ripples in the state as persons against him interpreted it to mean an attack on Jonathan, his benefactor. It further created bad blood between him and the former President.

    The diminishing political status of Jonathan worsened during the last House of Assembly and National Assembly elections in Bayelsa. The governor single-handedly decided the candidates of the PDP in all the state and federal constituencies. All the Jonathan’s preferred aspirants failed to clinch the tickets of the PDP.

    Jonathan’s preferred aspirants, who defected to other parties to contest the elections, performed woefully at the poll. They were trounced by either the candidates of Dickson or those of the APC. There was silence in PDP when Jonathan’s senatorial district fell to the APC in the last election. Results of the elections showed poor performance of the PDP in Jonathan’s Otuoke community in Ogbia Local Government Area and his East Senatorial District comprising Ogbia, Nembe and Brass local government areas.

    The senatorial candidate of the APC, Mr. Degi Eremienyo Wagara, and the APC candidate for Nembe-Brass Federal Constituency, Isreal Sunny-Igoli, won at the district. Jonathan was said to have backed Senator Barigha Amange, who lost the PDP ticket, but defected to the African Democratic Congress (ADC) to contest the senatorial poll. But again, he failed to win the poll.

    Following the abysmal performance of the PDP in Jonathan’s zone, some stakeholders accused the former President of anti-party activities.

    The Ogbia Renaissance (OR) said in a statement by its chairman, Mr Obhioru Mitanoni, said Jonathan, his wife, A.J Turner and other PDP chieftains committed brazen anti party activities. Mitanoni claimed Jonathan secretly sponsored candidates of the APC, Accord Party and the ADC.

    Jonathan was rendered politically impotent in the build-up to the governorship primary of the PDP for the November 16 election. Before the primary Dickson promised to consult the former President to decide the flag bearer. Both leaders were seen together in public functions in what many people described as strange romance. However, their political differences tore them apart.

    Undoubtedly, Jonathan was said to have preferred a former Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Chief Timi Alaibe for the PDP ticket. There were reports that both Jonathan and former President Olusegun Obasanjo appealed to Dickson to allow Alaibe to fly the flag of the party. But Dickson insisted that only a member of his Restoration Team would get the ticket of the party.

    Though Jonathan made no public declaration supporting Alaibe, all his foot soldiers and his political associates including the king of Opume, A.J. Turner publicly identified with the aspirant. In fact, Turner, a monarch, accompanied Alaibe to Abuja to collect his expression of interest and nomination forms. But they were up against Dickson, who had mapped out strategies to disgrace them at the internal poll. The governor has always said he would retire some old politicians from politics.

    To further ensure the emergence of his preferred candidate, Dickson formed his personal political family, which he tagged the Restoration Caucus of the PDP. It was under the platform he delivered a Senator representing the Central Senatorial District, Douye Diri, as the candidate of the PDP for the forthcoming governorship election.  Jonathan and his co-travelers were stunned at the defeat of Alaibe at the primary election.

    In his quest to be in charge, the governor also shut out Jonathan from the running mate slot of the PDP. Despite calls from many stakeholders to honour Jonathan with the slot by picking anybody from Ogbia, Jonathan’s local government area, Dickson remained adamant as he personally chose Senator Lawrence Ewrujakpor, who hails from his Sagbama Local Government Area.

    By all indications, Jonathan has no political structure in Bayelsa to accomplish any interest, unless he goes cap in hands to beg Dickson. Many people are worried that the former president has no stake beyond being a member of the PDP in the party’s quest to retain the state.

    But analysts said Dickson should not be blamed for the travails of Jonathan. They cited the alleged abysmal performance of the former President in Bayelsa and the Niger Delta. According to them, there is nothing tangible on ground to remind the state and the Niger Delta that they once had the office of the presidency.

    Others said Jonathan’s Ogbia local government is an eloquent testimony that he failed his people and would never attract any grassroots political support. They said it was inexplicable that there are no basic infrastructures  in Ogbia.

    But, Dickson has maintained that there is no love lost between him and Jonathan. He said they were in good terms, insisting that their cordial relationship was displayed during the last state functions.

    “That event should have shown to most people that there is no problem between us. He is my elder brother and leader and he will continue to receive his respect. Even in this transition. That event shows that we are united when it comes to what we do for our people.

    “There is no relationship that had lasted longer than our relationship. There is no issue. But, aides and people around make careless statements and they manipulate stories and take advantage of the proximity they have with the former President.”

     

  • $9.6bn judgment debt: How Jonathan aborted plans to pay $850m to P&ID

    FRESH facts emerged on Friday that ex-President Goodluck Jonathan aborted plans to pay $850million to Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) Limited five days to his exit in 2015.

    It was learnt that some officials of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources smuggled a memo to the ex-President recommending the payment of the $850million.

    The ex-President, however, offered to seek a second opinion from a senior government official who advised against the payment.

    The top official was said to have advised Jonathan against such payment in the twilight of his administration because President Muhammadu Buhari’s government might uncover the payment.

    As at press time, there were indications that the law firm engaged from New York by the Federal Government had collected relevant documents and received briefing from top government officials ahead of the legal battle later this month in a UK court.

    But detectives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have been identifying those implicated in the Gas Supply and Processing Agreement (GSPA) between the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and P&ID.

    According to a top source, the P&ID was able to infiltrate the administrations of  Yar’Adua and Jonathan.

    The source said: “About five days to the handover to Buhari administration, some officials of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources came up with a suspicious memo to ex-President Jonathan on the need to pay $850million to P&ID.

    “The cash was to be sourced from the escrow accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).There were no legal instruments/ documents which fuelled suspicion by the ex-President.

    “The former President later sought advice from a senior official in his administration who advised against the release of such a humongous amount in about five days to his exit from power. Jonathan later shelved plans to approve the payment to P&ID.

    “By the time the EFCC concludes its forensic investigation, Nigerians will know more about the under-the-table deal behind the GSPA with P&ID.”

    As at press time, findings confirmed that the Federal Government was battle ready with P&ID over the $9.6billion judgment debt.

    Read Also: Court acquits Jonathan’s ex-aide over N1.6b fraud

    Another source added: “We are battle ready for P&ID. All relevant documents and briefing by relevant government officials have been made available to the law firm engaged from New York. The foreign lawyers will work with both Nigerian lawyers, Olasupo Shasore (SAN) and Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN), who have been on the matter.

    “So far, we are developing a strategy on the legal battle. The coordinating team might still meet next week to firm up this strategy. The position of the legal team is that we have a strong case against P&ID.”

    Meanwhile, detectives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have started identifying those implicated in the Gas Supply and Processing Agreement (GSPA) between the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and P&ID.

    Another top source said: “So far, the entire so-called contract was fraudulent. We have been able to establish that the Ministry of Petroleum Resources entered into the GSPA with P&ID without the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC). Those behind the deal took advantage of the illness of ex-President Umaru Yar’Adua.

    “The signing of the contract has traces of forgery of some documents. We are subjecting some documents to forensic analysis.

    “As I talk to you, we have identified some past and present government officials to be interrogated on the contract with P&ID. The activities of the Irish firm in Nigeria are also under scrutiny.”

  • Jonathan’s ex-aide, senator linked to Iwu’s N1.2b cash

    DETECTIVES are probing how a former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Maurice Iwu, got the N1.230 billion he allegedly disbursed to influence the 2015 general election.

    Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) investigators have discovered that the cash was paid through an aide of former President Goodluck Jonathan, and an oil magnate, into an account traced to Iwu’s firm.

    One of them gave N758 million while the other paid N445 million into the firm’s account whose only signatory is the former INEC chief.

    Six other suspects are under EFCC probe in connection with the poll bribery cash.

    A former senator from the Southwest, who played a role in the constitutional conference organised by former President Goodluck Jonathan, received about N170 million but denied that it was a bribe. He told investigators that he executed a job for Iwu who paid him for his services.

    The EFCC has launched a probe into the deal between them.

    It was learnt that Iwu allegedly created a group in 2014 made up of past directors of INEC who served in the Southwest.

    The co-opted directors served in Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Lagos states with the mandate to monitor the 2015 elections.

    Members of the group were found to have benefited from the N1.230 billion largesse which was allegedly shared by the former INEC chair.

    A brief on the plot by Iwu and others reads in part: “Iwu transferred funds to the retired INEC directors as well as others who were involved in the election from his account to which he is the sole signatory.

    “Analysis of the account showed that several suspicious deposits were made by Buraeu De Change firms into the account.

    Read Also: APC chieftain slams Jonathan’s comment

    “The total sum of N1, 230,000,000 was deposited into the account by BDC operators between between 29/10/2014 and 31/3/ 2015.”

    A highly-placed source said: “To cover up their tracks, $5 million cash was made available for Iwu’s project but routed through Bureau De Change operators.

    The source added: “Iwu has denied having any knowledge of the naira equivalent of the $5 million deposited into his firm’s Account by the BDC operators.

    “He said he cannot recall the source of the N1.230 billion deposited into his account.”

    Besides EFCC’s investigation, an INEC in-house committee, headed by a National Commissioner, Baba Arfo Shettima, came up with the following findings:

    • an NGO, West African Network of Electoral Observers, was used to share the bribe to INEC;
    • a former chairman of INEC (names withheld) coordinated the large-scale bribery scandal;
    • many former Resident Electoral Commissioners(RECs) and retired administrative secretaries were used to penetrate INEC in all the 36 states for the bribery to alter poll results;
    • some serving RECs and directors benefited from the bribery scandal as confirmed by EFCC’s investigations
    • a REC collected between N107 million and N140 million bribe;
    • while some RECs and INEC officials collected as much as over N100m, others were given as low as N150,000 to compromise the electoral system;

    About 205 INEC officials were implicated in the 2015 poll bribery scandal to the tune of  N23.9 billion.

    More than N3.4 billion cash has been recovered from INEC officials by the EFCC.

    The former INEC boss was arraigned before Justice Chuka Obiozor of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on August 8 for allegedly laundering N1.2 billion. He pleaded not guilty to a four count-charge. He was admitted to bail in the sum of N1 billion with two sureties in like sum after his bail application was heard on August 10.

     

  • Jonathan: APC can’t win in Bayelsa

    Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan has said the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State lack the political presence to win the November 16 governorship election.

    Jonathan, who spoke at the PDP Elders Advisory Council meeting at the Government House in Yenagoa, explained that the large number of PDP aspirants showed the party’s dominance as a preferred platform for the election.

    A statement by Governor Seriake Dickson’s media aide, Fidelis Soriwei, said Jonathan noted that PDP had the requirements to win at the poll.

    The ex-President praised Dickson; PDP Chairman Moses Cleopas and critical stakeholders, including the 21 aspirants, for working to stabilise the party.

    He noted that it was important for PDP to get its act together so it would not create room for opportunistic platforms to steal its victory.

    He said: “I need to plead with all the aspirants and all political leaders that there should be no mudslinging. We must free the space and eschew rancour because finally one person will become the candidate of the party and other aspirants must work for that one person for the party to win the election.

    Read Also: Nobody will take Bayelsa PDP primary to another state, says Dickson

    “It is only our unity that can give us victory; if we are not united, they (APC) can get away with it. For example, it took the unity of the people of Rivers State, including women who were resolute against soldiers, to get the PDP victory. If that had not happened, the opposition would have taken it.

    “For us to secure this state for PDP, we need maximum unity and that is why all the 21 aspirants are important to us; we must have that maximum unity and not create division or discrimination. At the end of the day one person will emerge and all of us will work for whoever emerges as candidate of the party.”

    Dickson stressed the need for members to be united to maintain their dominance, starting with the council poll on August 10.

    The governor called on members, particularly the governorship aspirants, to work for the party’s victory for all positions in the council election.

    He said: “When people say 21 aspirants are too many, I disagree. In 2006, we had close to 11 aspirants, and for a party that is strong, a party that has strength, attraction and connection, a party which is the dominant political platform, it is expected.

    “It’s not completely out of order as a ruling party, with all that we have done and with the way we have decapitated, decimated the other party because they virtually don’t exist in this state. So it is normal for any serious-minded person who wants to serve our people to think of doing so on our dominant platform which we have led and all of us has built and made stronger even in the face of very serious opposition. So, my leaders, there is nothing to lose sleep over.”

  • Monarch seeks revival of industrial park

    The Olu of Warri, Ogiamen Ikenwoli, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to revive the $20 billion Ogidigben Gas Revolution Industrial Park.

    He spoke with State House correspondents on Wednesday after meeting with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. The monarch also urged the Federal Government to open port facilities in the Southern and Eastern corridors to decongest the Lagos Ports which is adversely affecting economic activities in the state.

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan inaugurated the $20 billion Ogidigben Gas Revolution Industrial Park (GRIP) projected to generate 250,000 direct and indirect jobs.

    The monarch said efforts by the former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, to attract developers to the project collapsed after a consortium pooled over $10 billion for the project

    He said: “If the project and ports in the Southern parts of the country are revived, unemployment, kidnapping and insecurity will be a thing of the past. The over 2,700 hectares park is designed for fertilizer, methanol, petrochemicals, and aluminium plants.

    “We are at the Presidential Villa to congratulate the President on his election victory as a sign of solidarity.”

    On the idle ports in the south, the monarch said the ports, at Warri, Sapele, Burutu, Onitsha and Calabar, were a major source of job creation and social stabilisation.

    Read Also: Insecurity: Osinbajo confers with Ogun monarchs

    “We are talking of how to create jobs. We all know that issues of youth restiveness, crime and kidnapping, were at their minimal levels when these ports were operational. We will continue to assist in our domain to counsel our youths,” he added

    The monarch added that the visit also offered him an opportunity to share his thoughts with the President on the security challenges in the country.

     

  • What do Jonathan and wife want in Bayelsa?

    Not many Nigerians will contest the position that former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is one of the luckiest men in the political history of Nigeria. The Otuoke born university lecturer, who later became a Deputy Director of the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Development Commission had no inkling of what political destiny and exposure awaited him when he was prodded to wade into the political space in Bayelsa. Those conversant with the politics of Bayelsa would readily attest to the fact that Jonathan was one beneficiary of the political magnanimity of a group of Ijaw people who foisted a career that was to take him to the peak of politics in the country.

    An influential former Chief Judge of Bayelsa State, the late Justice Igoniwari, introduced the reluctant Jonathan to the duo of the late Chief Gordon Bozimo and former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who provided what later turned out to be the fertile ground for Jonathan’s ascendancy in the politics of Nigeria when he made him his running mate in the 1999 gubernatorial election in Bayelsa State. Six years later, Jonathan became the chief beneficiary of the political travails of his boss, Alamieyesigha, which eventually culminated in his controversial impeachment by a coerced Bayelsa Assembly. Thus, Jonathan became the governor of Bayelsa State without the traditional gruelling political processes of candidate selection and electoral contest. In 2007, former President Olusegun Obasanjo paired Jonathan with the late former President Umaru Yar’Adua as the latter’s running mate. He became Vice President and later Acting President and President with the death of Yar’Adua.

    The story of Jonathan portrays the story of an accidental politician who an interplay of factors have combined to reward with coveted political positions out of no efforts of his. Sadly, this political fortune of Jonathan has not translated to a story of ‘Goodluck’ for the People’s Democratic Party at the national and the state level. The PDP, its leaders and the Bayelsa State Government are the first casualties of what later turned out to be Jonathan mismanaged relationships in the politics of Nigeria.

    In spite of the monumental goodwill that was put at the disposal of Jonathan, the former President has a character flaw which eventually opened the floodgate of detrimental political events that got to the painful denouement of his political defeat by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015. Precisely, Jonathan suffered a shocking loss of prized relationships considered invaluable to the health of his political career because the overbearing influence of his wife and former First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, whose excesses have been blamed for the series of negative reversals that rocked his career. Perhaps, a few instances which are not too far from Nigeria’s immediate political awareness would suffice.

    It is common knowledge in political circles that former Governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon Rotimi Amaechi, was a close ally of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Amaechi, who played a critical role in the election of Jonathan, maintained a healthy relationship which thrives on the time tested ethos of sacrifice and mutual understanding until Jonathan’s wife appeared and took the once valued relationship to the shredders. She provoked Amaechi with her meddlesomeness in Rivers State and made brazen attempts to create her own sphere of governance and influence within the state.

    Sadly, like Emperor Nero who fiddled while Rome burnt, Jonathan ignored the excesses of his Czarina and refused to exert the expected authority of a leader until it became too late. Amaechi waited for that crucial stitch that could have saved nine, but it did not come, so he sought survival elsewhere. Nigerians don’t need to be reminded how an embittered Amaechi, a powerful ally who had done things in common with Jonathan, metamorphosed into the leader of a lethal nest of political traducers who wrested political controls from the sleepy talons of Jonathan, even as an incumbent leader. An embittered Amaechi led six other governors of the PDP to walk out on Jonathan during the PDP convention of 2013.

    Again, a cursory look at Jonathan’s relationships with his political benefactors from 1999 to date would readily show that the former President is not blessed with the virtue of gratitude. First, Alamieyeseigha, the man who destiny used to usher Jonathan to the political terrain, died in penury and lamentation while Jonathan held sway as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Is it not also a fact beyond contestation that Jonathan as President was nowhere near the burial of Alamieyeseigha and Gordon Bozimo, the men who accepted to make Jonathan Deputy Governor when Justice Igoniwari broached the idea to them? The medical and burial bills of both men were picked up by the Governor of Bayelsa State, Hon. Henry Seriake Dickson while their political experiment presided over the affairs of Nigeria.

    Again, Jonathan, in characteristic manner, refused to act when his wife, Patience Jonathan, went after his relationship with Dickson, reputed to be one of his strongest political associates and friends. The former First Lady added Dickson to the enemy list when he rejected her offer to make the Special Adviser Domestic, Mr. Waripamowei Dudafa, his running mate. Dickson, who was the governorship candidate of the PDP, opted for a retired career military officer, Rear Admiral Gboribiogha John Jonah, as his running mate, and this singular action drew the ire of the uncontrolled Patience Jonathan.

    Like a provoked empress on a mission to settle scores, Patience Jonathan initiated several subversive actions against Dickson in her heyday as First Lady. These actions range from the frustrated attempt to remove Dickson’s name from the list of contestants to organising Bayelsa women to stone him in an event he organised in honour of her husband in Yenagoa. Patience Jonathan went wild, raged against Dickson and poured a corrosive acid on a relationship that had produced the President and a governor, yet Jonathan became a captive of his inability to control his wife.

    The attempt to remove Dickson from the ballot in 2011 was foiled by the Federal High Court presided over by Justice Gladys Olotu. Today, Olotu is alive to tell the story of the venomous reaction of Patience Jonathan who exploited the vast influence of her office under Jonathan to sack her from the judiciary. Sadly, in the case of Olotu, it was even Jonathan that approved the compulsory retirement of the judge.

    On February 15, 2015, the excesses of the former First Lady under the defunct Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, threw Bayelsa and the Ijaw nation into great anguish when Mrs Elisabeth Oguru, the wife of then Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Alison Oguru, and 10 other prominent Bayelsa female politicians were burnt to death in a ghastly motor accident at Ahoada while returning from a purported two-day solidarity visit to Mrs Jonathan in her country home at Okrika, Rivers State. Painfully, the top female politicians met their untimely death because of the subversive activities of Mrs Jonathan against the Bayelsa State Government.

    Jonathan cuts the image of a tragic hero whose character flaw—the lack of capacity to act in the face of glaring evil—has made to lose all relationships with key players in his political life. He is like Prophet Eli, who ignored the heinous immoral conduct of his sons only to attract the punishment of God and his eventual loss of priesthood to Samuel.

    The lack of decisive action and the tendency of clandestine support for evil turned former President, Chief Olusegun, Obasanjo who played a key role in Jonathan’s emergence as Vice President, to fall out with him. An embittered Obasanjo shocked the Nigerian nation when he wrote Jonathan a letter titled “Before it is too late” on December 2, 2013. Although the letter gave a clear indication of a breakdown in relationship between Jonathan and his chief political benefactor, he looked the other way in his characteristics.

    Curiously, in spite of the tragic fallout of Jonathan’s inept reaction to the relational mishaps traceable to his uncontrollable wife, the former President seems to have continued with the nonchalance, even in the politics of Bayelsa. He has allowed politicians around him to perpetrate acts of subversion against the State Government while he cuts the image of the victim. It is even more agitating that the former President kept mum when soldiers and other security agencies were unleashed on Bayeksa and Rivers states during the last National Assembly elections. The former President did not say a word in support of the PDP when soldiers gunned down a PDP Ward Chairman and a Government House photographer, Mr. Reginald Dei.

    As a former President, the logical mind would have expected that Jonathan’s presence would provide a boost to internal cohesion within the PDP. Ironically, the opposite is the case. The former President is engrossed in latching unto the gubernatorial ambition of Timi Alaibe to intensify his covert subversive activities against the Government. He wields two battle axes in this renewed mission to destroy the PDP in Bayelsa—his wife Patience Jonathan and King AJ Turner. Since 2012, Jonathan has not contributed to the building of the PDP under whose platforms he has occupied all the coveted political positions in Nigeria.

    As a former President, many Bayelsans are still in shock that they produced a President who never helped the state out of it developmental challenges. And the people cannot help wondering what the former President and his wife really want in this absurd mission they have taken upon themselves to destroy the PDP ahead of the governorship election in November while they intensify discreet negotiation with Chief Timipre Sylva, who they believe will get the ticket of the All Progressives Congress. With the ominous signals from the antics of those who don’t mean well for the PDP and its internal cohesion in Bayeksa, the national leadership of the party would not need a seer to tell them to take the requisite steps to avert an impending danger before it is too late.

    • James Oputin, Secretary General of PDP Youths Network, writes from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

  • We must get Nigeria out of insecurity now, says Jonathan

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday called for a united front against insecurity.

    Jonathan, who said insecurity appears from time to time in the country, added that all leaders must have a conversation that would end the carnage defenceless Nigerians are facing.

    “We must get the country out of insecurity,” Jonathan said while responding to questions during the public presentation of a book tittled: “Not By Might Nor By Power”, a selected messages to the world written by His Grace, the Most Rev Nicholas D. Okoh, Archbishop, Metropolitan and Primate of Nigeria.

    The event, which was also the launching of the Nicholas Okoh Foundation, brought together eminent Nigerians, including former military Head of State Gen Yakubu Gowon.

    But Jonathan, while speaking to journalists, said every generation has its challenges, adding that leaders must come together to address it.

    “If things are wrong, leaders, including me, we should be talking. And there are a lot of conversations going on to solve this problem,” Jonathan said, adding:

    “Every generation has its problem. In fact, my generation is almost gone. It’s for your generation and we must all come together to solve the problem.”

    Read also: Jonathan seeks deployment of modern technology in terrorism fight

    “The security challenges have been with us for long, but we know that whatever is the challenge, we must come together and addressing it, The political leaders in the country and traditional leaders are talking. And we must get the country out of insecurity,” the immediate past president said.

    Rev Okoh cautioned against ethnic groups forming their own militia to stop the killings.

    “I have no solution because I am an individual. But we try to ask the appropriate authorities to do what they should do, and that is the government.

    “I strongly believe that individuals should not take security initiative. Because, if individuals take their own security initiative, by this way, I mean that we organise our own militias, the country will be destroyed,” Okoh who is due to retire next year, said.

    “Everybody will perish,” he said of ethnic groups forming their militias.

    He added: “But government that has the constitutional responsibility to maintain security should do so and quickly too before it gets out of hand. That is my appeal.”

    On why he has been speaking truth to power, the retired military officer, who joined the Anglican Church ministry and rose to the highest level, said: “It depends on what you believe to be your ministry. If your ministry represents God, God doesn’t lie. You might be poor, you must summon courage and speak the truth because it is the truth that heals. It is the truth that will define. If the person you are speaking to realises that you are lying or deceiving him, he will not help,” the Primate said.

    He advised young pastors not to be in a hurry, adding that he observed that many of them are in a hurry to be noticed.

    “If you are with God, hear from God before you speak. Don’t dish out your imagination and say, ‘God has said’ Make sure you receive a message from God and you are in tune with Him (God),” Rev. Okoh said.

    He said the NGO will help him in ministry even after leaving as Primate in the coming year.

    “I want to continue with my work as a man of God. The book is about yearly situation and the solutions I provided. At this point, I decided that the two volumes should be published. There are other books unpublished. There is a gap between what we think and what we do. We want our children and those following us to know that we have not arrived. We must back it up with moral intergrity,” Rev. Okoh added.