Jonathan and the audacity of corruption

“They said the National Security Adviser stole $2.2billion. I don’t believe somebody can just steal $2.2 billion. We bought warships, we bought aircraft, we bought lots of weapons for the army and so on and so forth and you are still saying 2.2 billion, so where did we get the money to buy all those things?” 

Throughout last week, I kept pondering over these comments credited to former President Goodluck Jonathan that his embattled former National Security Adviser,Sambo Dasuki never stole $2.2billion dollars as alleged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC). I felt like throwing up  on how moral recession has become part of our DNA.

I asked myself these questions and found no answers. Was he sleeping when he made these comments? Does he know how much has been recovered from those who collected the Dasuki’ blood money’’ meant for the purchase of arms to fight Boko Haram? Does he realize the gravity of havoc wrecked on the Nigerian state by Boko Haram due to his administration’s diversion of funds meant for arms procurement to prosecute his 2015 re-election campaigns? I came to the conclusion that he was truly clueless and has no conscience to be so reckless in his comments.

In other clime, Goodluck Jonathan will be cooling his feet in prison with hard labour for abdicating his duties as commander in chief. This is why he can open his mouth and offend the sensibilities of Boko Haram victims and Nigerians in general who are wallowing in poverty due to the biting economic recession. How does one explain to the families of thousands of Nigerian soldiers who died in the North East fighting Boko Haram with crude weapons that the former president said they bought? Lest we  forget, their wives had protested in 2015 at Giwa Barracks that their husbands will not go to the frontline unless the federal government fully equips them with sophisticated weapons to fight Boko Haram. Yet, the man entrusted with this responsibility is making this kind of comment. Indeed, we have lost it as a people and a nation, if this is the kind of leaders we are producing.

Has Jonathan forgotten that former chief of defence staff, Alex Badeh told the world at his send forth in 2015 that the government never bought arms for Nigerian soldiers? Former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala also confirmed the release of the funds to Dasuki based  on a memo from the president and  that she requested the National Security Adviser to  account for the funds directly to the President since she was not part of the security architecture. In case, Jonathan has forgotten about all these facts, Nigerians who were at the receiving end of his cluelessness have not forgotten. In fact, the wound will not heal for a life time.

Jonathan will do 180 million Nigerians a lot of good if he decides to keep quiet instead of insulting our intelligence. Many of us are still at a loss how his wife, Patience managed to get millions of dollars from her late mother who was never a businesswoman nor an oil magnate. The Jonathan story just reminds Nigerians on the need to never allow our worst eleven to take over the mantle of leadership again. This is because the former president and his ilk will one day wake up and tell us that the duo of Alex Badeh,Nenadi Usman and Fani Kayode are saints.

Regardless of what Goodluck Jonathan and his co travelers who have chosen to dip their hands in the commonwealth and pretend as if nothing has happened think, they will have their day  in court, if not now, then in the future. The late Dele Giwa  said “any evil done by man to man will be redressed; if not now then later, if not by man then by God. For the victory of evil over good is temporary.”

There is a Nigerian proverb that says when you have nothing good to say, it is better to keep quiet. It is better if Goodluck Jonathan saves Nigerians and himself any further embarrassment by not making comments that make one feel like throwing up. This is when silence is golden.

Lawal, can be reached through [email protected] Twitter:AbdulRafiu19