{"id":45093,"date":"2015-12-21T13:29:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T12:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=45093"},"modified":"2015-12-21T13:29:00","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T12:29:00","slug":"goodluck-jonathan-on-my-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/goodluck-jonathan-on-my-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"Goodluck Jonathan On My Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Egbejumi-David<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

The mind is a funny thing.\u00a0 In politics as in love, the mind tends to remember only the good things, the good times.\u00a0 You see plenty of old geezers hanging around talking about the good old days and how things were better in their time.\u00a0 It really wasn\u2019t, but that is the mind for you.<\/p>\n

\n

A combination of nostalgia and the crab-like beginnings of Buhari\u2019s new administration have caused a few people to begin to look back fondly at the recently terminated Goodluck Jonathan years.\u00a0 But before we all got carried away completely, here comes Col. Santa Dasuki and his goody bags.<\/p>\n

\n

The past days have been awash with revelations of how our former National Security Adviser during the Jonathan administration frittered away some $2.1 billion in just a few weeks.\u00a0 Dasuki shared out the money largely among his PDP colleagues, some newspaper houses, prayer warriors and then spent the remainder on himself.\u00a0 The worse bit is that the money was meant for arms purchase to counter the scourge that was Boko Haram as members of that sect were busy daily killing thousands of defenceless Nigerians, killing some of our military combatants and laying to waste a significant portion of Nigeria\u2019s north-east.<\/p>\n

\n

There was even a confessed instance where government operatives went directly to the Central Bank with Ghana-must-go bags and carted away money to Dasuki to apparently enable the retired Colonel share the booty more quickly.\u00a0 It looks a safe bet that this is not a one-off; more sordid escapades of mindless, unchecked and perhaps permissive looting of the commonweal might yet come to light.<\/p>\n

\n

Dasuki worked under the direct supervision of Jonathan.\u00a0 Jonathan had in fact authorised the withdrawal of all that money following a formal confirmatory request by the then Finance Minister, Dr Okonjo-Iweala.\u00a0 Once authorisation was given, that ended Jonathan\u2019s role as President and Manager of resources.\u00a0 Dasuki and his mates simply went and had themselves a swell time.<\/p>\n

\n

Alas, this was the pattern throughout the Jonathanian years.<\/p>\n

\n

There was a time when his administration procured a software, I think, that was used to flush out ghost workers in some federal parastatals.\u00a0 In one small agency nearly half the workers that were drawing salaries and other benefits turned out to be non-existent.\u00a0 Once the system was cleaned and stabilised, no attempt whatsoever was made to go after those that had perverted the payroll and had been benefiting from defrauding the State.\u00a0 These people were left alone and left intact to go and practice their trade in other guises.<\/p>\n

\n

The Jonathan presidency was one of a vexing display of helplessness.\u00a0 It was a period of dangerous ineptitude.\u00a0 In a complex space like Nigeria, we had a hands-off Chief. While corruption never started with Jonathan\u2019s administration, it certainly grew wings and became something hitherto unimaginable.\u00a0 \u00a0Throughout Jonathan\u2019s almost six years in office, I cannot remember one single solitary person that was tried and convicted for corruption.\u00a0 Rather, we began to be re-indoctrinated that it didn\u2019t matter how people got into office or how they got rich.\u00a0 Just let them get rich.\u00a0 What mattered was that their richness meant the country was rich.\u00a0 And before you know it, we began to count private jets as an index of Nigerians\u2019 wellbeing.<\/p>\n

\n

We all know the story\u2026Before anybody heard of brother Jonathan, the man was a lecturer in a school, minding his own business.\u00a0 He taught some young people who were sufficiently interested the exciting life of fauna.\u00a0 Just reading passages to a roomful of students was a painfully tedious task for him. \u00a0He was utterly uninterested in the administrative end of things.\u00a0 He left the management of his day-to-day life in the over-bearing hands of his wife.\u00a0 He kept largely to himself and kept his head well down.\u00a0 Life was easier for him that way.<\/p>\n

\n

Then entered DSP Alamieyeseigha, freshly booted off the Nigerian Air Force.\u00a0 Alamieyeseigha plucked a docile Jonathan from the obscurity of school life and made him his Deputy.<\/p>\n

\n

As Deputy Governor, Jonathan stood by and watched while Alams went about his grim thieving business.\u00a0 He even pleaded a couple of times with then president Obasanjo to let Alams be.\u00a0 Our man from Ota was impressed and took note.\u00a0 This was loyalty, a good quality to have as far as he was concerned.<\/p>\n

\n

A few short years later, Obasanjo drafted-in an uninterested, unhealthy and unprepared Umaru Yar\u2019Adua largely so OBJ could stick his middle finger to the rest of the country for torpedoing his attempt to perpetuate himself in office.\u00a0 Then, he paired up the colourless Yar\u2019Adua with an even less colourful Jonathan.<\/p>\n

\n

As Vice President, Jonathan still kept his head well down.\u00a0 He was not in the mould of, say, Atiku or Dr Ekwueme.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t entrusted with any genuine State or Administrative duties, responsibilities or functions and he never asked for any.\u00a0 He never demonstrated any discernible managerial desire, skill, or capacity.\u00a0 More significantly, he still left the management of his life largely in the steady hands of his wife.<\/p>\n

\n

It was therefore an unhappy and a horrified Jonathan that watched Yar\u2019Adua\u2019s health plummet not even halfway into their first term.\u00a0 In the end, and despite his own personal reservations, Jonathan had to inherit the big seat.\u00a0 To help him out administratively, the Americans persuaded a reluctant Okonjo-Iweala to return to Nigeria and become Jonathan\u2019s de facto Prime Minister.<\/p>\n

\n

So it was no great surprise when Jonathan turned out to be an inattentive leader.\u00a0 His officials ran circles around him to Nigeria\u2019s cost.\u00a0 \u2018Clueless\u2019 was actually his lack of attention and permissiveness which enabled known and new vampires feast heavily on Nigeria.\u00a0 Santa Dasuki\u2019s case is a draining reminder, lest we forget…<\/p>\n

\n

\n

demdem@hotmail.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

Twitter: demdemdem1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Egbejumi-David The mind is a funny thing.\u00a0 In politics as in love, the mind tends to remember only the good things, the good times.\u00a0 You see plenty of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\nGoodluck Jonathan On My Mind - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/goodluck-jonathan-on-my-mind\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Goodluck Jonathan On My Mind - 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