When I saw Reuben Abati, former\u00a0 Special Adviser to former President<\/p>\n
Goodluck Jonathan’s\u00a0 article\u00a0 on demons and ghosts that took over Aso
\nRock when he was there, I honestly took it as the lighter side of Nigerian
\ndiscourse. I knew Abati, right from his days as a Columnist with The
\nGuardian newspapers, maintained a weekly satirical column where he
\nentertains his readers with satirical sides of our daily national life.
\nBut on reading the hair-raising stories Abati recounted in the piece, I
\nknew he was dead serious. Don’t ask me if I believe his story. Am I mad?
\nAt this age? I equally find it hard that people will believe the gory
\nnarrative of Abati that certain deadly ghouls reside in the nation’s seat
\nof power, wrecking havoc both on the lives of men that pass through there
\nas well as the affairs of the country, which have suffered irretrievable
\ndamage by successive occupants of Aso Rock.<\/p>\n
On better reading of Abati’s I ended up with the inescapable understanding
\nthat Abati was trying to introduce a spiritual angle to the gregarious
\nfailure of the government he served. Abati was only trying to awe us with
\nghost stories for us to resign to the bunkum that the failure of the
\ngovernment he served, which led to its deserved electoral defeat last year
\nwas not natural. It was spiritual. The Jonathanian failure was caused by
\nspirits. It was beyond his human capacity. Who can wrestle with ghosts?
\nWho can wrestle with unseen powers, which, according to Abati wrought such
\ndamages as castrating the male occupants of Aso Rock and forcing their
\nspouses and other sundry female occupants to resort to using dildos, visit
\nillnesses\u00a0 and death on the men and women in power and force those who
\nwere charged with governing the country into making huge wreckage of that
\ncharge, among the many havocs Abati painted?<\/p>\n
If we remember very well, one of the most glaring areas of Jonathan’s
\ndereliction as president\u00a0 was on security and the ravage caused by Boko
\nHaram insurgents was the hallmark of that failure. It was so serious that
\nBoko Haram seized close to a third of the country’s landmass, killed
\nthousands of Nigerians in its bloody trail, maimed thousands and damaged
\nproperties worth billions of dollars,\u00a0 carted hundreds of innocent school
\nchildren to captivity and constituted real danger to the nation’s seat of
\npower in Abuja where it picked easy targets for ceaseless\u00a0 bombing. What
\nwas Jonathan’s response to this audacious challenge?\u00a0 Boko Haram members
\nwere ghosts according to Jonathan so who can fight ghosts since ghost
\nfighting is not one of the requisites for aspirants to the country’s
\nleadership? So Abati’s was just a mere rehearsal to what was a standard
\nbelief in the regime he served; weave a supernatural narrative around the
\nproblems facing the country and exculpate yourself from possible
\ninaction. He intended his ghost story as an excuse for the failure of the
\nregime he worked for.<\/p>\n
But how does one explain Abati’s principal, Goidluck Jonathan’s display
\nthis week when he addressed a gathering at Oxford? Jonathan came spruced
\nup for an outing- one of the syndicated outings he has been desperately
\nsoliciting for since he was thrown out of power. He painted such a rosy
\npicture of Nigeria under him that you would have been forgiven if you
\nbelieve he was talking of the Garden of Eden.<\/p>\n
To Mr. Jonathan, he transformed Nigeria to an Eldorado which was flowing
\nwith milk and honey.\u00a0 He said he worked for the next generation of
\nNigerians and not the next election, that CNN told him that Nigeria was
\nthe third fastest growing economy in 2015 (and you wonder why not the
\nfastest growing in the world?). Mr Jonathan further said he fought
\ncorruption without making noise and that Sambo Dasuki his National
\nSecurity Adviser did nit steal the $2.1 billion for which he is facing
\ntrial at moment. It was a fine polish to himself and his regime. How
\nJonathan hopes to mend his tardy image from this outing remains to be seen
\nbut one should admit, he made good dabbing so much talcum on his
\nnot-so-pleasant image. I don’t know whether he meant his to have much more
\nvalue than a fireside story.<\/p>\n
But let us interrogate Jonathan’s claims a little. We must work with the
\nhard evidences surrounding his claim of performing an economic miracle
\nhere for the six years he was in power. A recent Vanguard (a Nigerian
\nnewspaper beholden to Jonathan and his interests) report revealed that
\nunder Jonathan, Nigeria made a revenue in excess of N51 trillion. This
\nfigure surpasses the revenue for the period all other regimes were in
\npower. It was at a period Nigeria sold crude at the highest ever price of
\n$140 a barrel and exported more barrels per day than at any other period
\nin our history, as there were no avengers seeking to avenge their
\nelectoral defeat. What did Nigeria get from that monumental accrual? Apart
\nfrom Jonathan’s hollow stories, what tangible gain did Nigeria get from
\nthis providential windfall?\u00a0 Our infrastructures were completely degraded
\nas roads collapsed, health and educational sectors witnessed untold
\natrophy, power sector collapsed, poverty ravaged the land, internecine
\ncorruption reigned supreme-despite Jonathan’s hollow claim of fighting
\ncorruption. What thrived under Jonathan which was exactly what his growth
\nstory was all about was an untamed fight by Jonathan’s cronies\u00a0 to
\ncorruptly steal these huge accruals as Jonathan practically liberalized
\ncorruption, claiming that stealing is not corruption.<\/p>\n
The period when we received the highest accrual from oil was paradoxically
\nthe period when our infrastructure collapsed totally. The period when
\nJonathan claimed he grew Nigerian economy was the period when several
\nmillions of hapless unemployed Nigerians flooded every available stadia
\nand open spaces to seek for 3,000 uniform jobs and many were trampled to
\ndeath in the struggle for space that ensued. The period when Jonathan
\nclaimed he turned Nigeria to an Eldorado was the same period the country’s
\npower sector ground to a halt throwing Nigeria to prolonged darkness for
\nmost parts of his six years sojourn. It was the period the petroleum
\nsector waltzed in unending sleaze and graft as it became a conduit fir
\nstealing the nation’s resources without remorse. The period Jonathan
\nclaimed he was growing the economy through yet undisclosed means,\u00a0 was the
\nperiod when the country’s treasury was bankrupted even in the face of
\ngrowing oil revenue. It was a period when the $62 billion foreign reserve
\nbuilt by Jonathan’s predecessors when oil was not as princely priced as it
\nwas under Jonathan, was depleted to a paltry $28 billion even with oil
\nprices maintaining an all-time high price regime.<\/p>\n
The period Jonathan claimed he was doing magic here was the period price
\nof oil was going so high in the international commodity market yet his
\nfinance Minister claimed she borrowed half a trillion Naira to pay federal
\ncivil servants’ salaries and 23 States were bankrupt and were owing salary
\narrears running into years. That these states were bailed by the President
\nBuhari regime at a time oil price nosedived to as low as $27 per barrel
\ntells of the type of economy CNN told Jonathan he was building to the
\nthird fastest growing in the world in 2015 when he exited power.<\/p>\n
On Jonathan’s claim that he worked for future generation of Nigerians,
\nwell the future is already here and Nigerians are already reaping the
\nfruits of Jonathan’s efforts in the vandalised country he handed over to
\nPresident Buhari. We are reaping the fruits of his reckless plundering\u00a0 of
\nthe excess crude account, his purloining of the fireign reserves, the
\nghastly looting and irresponsible wreckage he and his mandarins visited on
\nthe country’s economy. He needn’t solicit for\u00a0 hand clappers on this as
\nNigerians, already in the dubious future Jonathan worked for them by
\nallowing a holistic plunder of the nation’s treasury, are already clapping
\nfir him.
\nAs for not working for the next election, we need to ask Jonathan\u00a0 why
\nwhat remains of the nation’s treasury was emptied when Jonathan was
\nseeking reelection. We need to ask him why the nation’s landscape was
\nlittered with dollars and pound sterling as his desire to continue in
\noffice overwhelmed his rationality.We need to ask him why he completely
\npurchased the nation’s media and turned it into a brazen hatchet for his
\nre-election bid. We need to ask him why he stoked a deadly ethnic rivalry
\nand very deep religious division as he dreamt of more years in power. We
\nneed to ask him why he sponsored various ethnic militia groups, unleashed
\nthem on innocent Nigerian citizens while seeking reelection. We need to
\nask him why he impudently postponed the election when it was certain that
\nhe would lose and relocated to Lagos where he was personally sharing
\ndollars to induce electorates. Did the idea of not working for the next
\nelection occur to him after Nigerians adamantly rejected him on March 28,
\n2015? He needs to come clear on these.<\/p>\n
Jonathan claimed Sambo Dasuki did not steal the $2.1 billion security
\nmoney he placed under him.\u00a0 Serious? It is fortuitous to ask if Jonathan
\nbelieved himself in this assertion, as in his other assertions. For the
\nperiod the inquest into the monumental corruption that occurred during
\nJonathan’s watch lasted, there has been this attempt to weave a thin cloak
\nto shield Jonathan from questions he should be answering over these
\ncorrupt acts. But it seems that Goodluck Jonathan is misrepresenting this
\nto mean he was deaf and dumb to happenings that occurred under his feet
\nwhile he was president. As the buck stops at the president’s table, it is
\nuntenable that Jonathan should pretend he didn’t know the huge corrupt
\nacts that happened under his watch. I think he is pushing his luck too far
\nand needs to be taken in to answer questions. Since he knows to much\u00a0 as
\nto know that Sambi Dasuki didn’t steal this huge amount, even in the face
\nof monumental evidences and earth shaking confessions that run contrary to
\nhis mischievous claim,\u00a0 the security agencies must see the need to take up
\nJonathan to tell us all he knows of not\u00a0 just the amount Dasuki and co
\nstole but the huge corruption cases that happened under him. That seems
\nthe way to go as Jonathan goes about hauling diets in an attempt\u00a0 to
\nsustain a deceptive clean persona that lives in the mud.<\/p>\n
Jonathan claimed he fought corruption silently, without making noise about
\nit. Though he did not elucidate on this, that statement in itself reveals
\nJonathan as the chameleonic simpleton he has been largely seen as. It is
\nstill beyond contemplation to fight such a rugged monster like corruption
\nquietly and for Jonathan, corruption remains a beloved pet project, which
\nhe fed and nurtured for the six years he was in power. Jonathan was to
\ngive what neared a legal seal to corruption when he uttered, in one of his
\nseveral moments of embarrassing simple-mindedness\u00a0 that stealing is not
\ncorruption. How them could he have fought corruption; either loudly or
\nquietly? As gory tales of mind boggling corruption that happened under
\nJonathan continues to shell out, it is a wry joke fir even Jonathan
\nhimself to entertain the belief that he has any repulsion to corruption.<\/p>\n
But then, as has been his norm since he was sent out of power, Jonathan
\nroams the globe looking for cheap laurels to claim and seeking audiences
\nto talk to with his flawed rehabilitation story. Is he under the
\nimpression that it is not the same international community he readily
\npatronises that treated him with such unprecedented ignominy while he was
\nin power? Is it not the same international community that broke every norm
\nin diplomacy to dismiss Jonathan as a corrupt, clueless buffoon who has no
\ncapacity to govern any forward-looking nation on earth?<\/p>\n
During the capture of the Chibok girls and the international outrage that
\nfollowed the Jonathan government’s inaction of that vile action, Hilary
\nClinton, then US Secretary of States and now Democratic presidential
\ncandidate in next month’s American polls, lambasted Mr Jonathan as running
\nan utterly corrupt regime which has squandered Nigeria’s oil wealth. At
\nthe same period, former Republican Presidential Candidate, Senator John Mc
\nCain has described Jonathan’s government as a ‘non-existent’ government.
\nEarlier before then, world renowned economist and Founder of Washington
\nbased Free Africa, Prof. George Ayitteh has dismissed Jonathan as a
\nmeretricious mediocrity and a joke. As recent as last year, The Economist,
\nin reviewing the Buhari regime after eight months in power, had summed as
\nfollows; “In the eight months since Mr Buhari arrived at Aso Rock, the
\npresidential digs, the homicidal jihadists of Boko Haram have been pushed
\nback into the bush along Nigeria\u2019s borders. The government has cracked
\ndown on corruption, which had flourished under the previous president,
\nGoodluck Jonathan, an ineffectual buffoon who let politicians and their
\ncronies fill their pockets with impunity”.<\/p>\n
Truth us that Jonathan wasted a golden opportunity to make Nigeria great
\nthrough a combination of compulsive corruption, ineptitude, weakness and
\nlack of clue. The unputdownable truth is that Jonathan and his government
\ntossed Nigeria’s providential chance to achieve progress and the wonder is
\nif Nigeria will ever get such providential opportunity again in its
\ntortured history. What we are doing today is living with the debris of the
\nJonathan wreckage. We are left with the aftermaths of the comprehensive
\nvandalization Jonathan visited on the country and the Buhari government is
\ndoing its utmost best to contain the many after effects of the Jonathan
\nbrigandage.<\/p>\n
You wonder what Jonathan wants to achieve my scavenging the international
\nspace to reel out his spruced-up, rehabilitative stories. Little wonder
\nthat his audiences are always Africans, mostly Nigerians who are always
\nmobilised to venues for such empty displays to cheer him on. So does
\nJonathan, even in his legendary simple-mindedness, think the
\ninternational community did not know the parody he ran in Nigeria for six
\nyears? Is he thinking they don’t know the elephantine corruption he
\nvisited here as his reign lasted? Is he under the feeling that the
\ninternational community have forgotten just how he practically collapsed
\nthe country with the combined blitzkrieg of corruption, cluelessness and
\nimpunity?<\/p>\n
Back to Abati’s ghost stories, it is obvious that his attempt to weave a
\nspiritual alibi for the failure of the government of his principal runs
\ncontrary to Jonathan’s self-marketed claims of superlative achievement. If
\nwe believe Jonathan, would we still believe Abati when he claims that a
\nconclave of ghosts resided in Aso Rock to negatively influence performance
\nof those in power? If we believe the rosy picture of Nigeria which
\nJonathan hawks about, would we still believe Abati when he claims that
\nwitches and wizards were responsible for the embarrassing shortfalls of
\nthe regime he worked for? How could we believe Jonathan’s story of
\nsuperlative performance and still believe his Media Adviser regal the
\nnation with stories of demons that prevented the government he worked for
\nfrom making impacts on the lives of the people through its policies? If we
\nbelieve Jonathan’s self-rendered story of turning Nigeria into the tenth
\nwonder of the modern world, how would we still believe as Abati weaves
\nfairy tales to explain the obvious under-achievements of the same Jonathan
\nregime he served? Either way you see it; either from the Jonathan
\nself-adulatory gaffes or from Abati’s curious ghost stories, the fact
\nremains that Nigerians were served the shortest end of the stick during
\nthe time Jonathan reveled here.
\nPeter Claver Oparah
\nIkeja, Lagos.<\/p>\n
E-mail: peterclaver2000@yahoo.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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