ALAMIEYESEIGHA: JONATHAN UNCHAINS CORRUPTION

Why is president Goodluck Jonathan stumbling from one irrational decision to another and most of his decisions tend to portray him and his administration as ‘clueless’ even though I know that a man that rose from the ashes of poverty to become a PHD holder from University of Port Harcourt(in a country where sadist professors ensure that PHD students suffer longer years in the wilderness than their counterparts abroad) can never be said to be clueless? There is nothing clueless about a man who rose to become the governor of Bayelsa State and was the vice president of the country when his boss president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua died on May 5, 2010 and he was able to outsmart the North that was determined to stop him from winning the 2011 election. Nobody who saw the ferocity that the North fought to retain the presidency following the death of Yar’Adua under a subsisting agreement of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which zoned the presidency to the North at the time and Jonathan triumphed over such opposition, can say in fairness that the president is clueless. Nobody can succeed in the shark infested murky water of Nigeria’s politics by being clueless. Politics like life is all about the winner. Nobody remembers the loser as he licks his wounds. Jonathan has had his victories. That said ,there is no denying that Jonathan’s presidency has been full of monumental gaffs and sickening decisions that you are forced to think that he is on a mission of self destruct that would make it easy for his traducers and others to conclude that he is a man destined for a one-term president.

One of such sickening decisions was the ill-advised granting of state pardon to the former governor of Bayelsa State and his former boss Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha. When I was privileged to see the news flash by the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) on Tuesday night(March 12, 2013) I knew then that Jonathan is “finished” because he has just handed ammunition to the opposition who have made “ Jonathan is too soft on corruption”  their mantra. Of course the opposition leaders are right even though the stench oozing from their own corruption had only been minimized  by the few years they have spent outside power. With this decision by the president it would be difficult for the president to convince Nigerians and the international community that he is fighting corruption. Jonathan’s presidency has wittingly or unwittingly unchained corruption. The presidency though must have realized how damaging the decision was as NAN weekly withdrew the story, but the damage had already been done as some media houses run with the story. What the presidency fails to note is that in this information age nobody can be granted pardon by a president and it would remain a secret. Even though Jonathan’s Media Aide, Dr. Doyin Okupe tried to defend the indefensible, Nigerians are not deceived. Jonathan has just shot himself on the foot as there is no justification for such a pardon especially by a president who wants to be taken seriously on the fight against corruption. When I heard that Alamieyeseigha had been pardoned it was obvious that it was to pave way for him to contest future elections as the albatross(ex-convict) that had been hanging on his neck since he was convicted of looting the treasury of Bayelsa State needed to be removed. Apparently he wants to join his thieving ex-governors who has transmuted to senators. There is no doubt that a Senator Alamaesegha is now on the making as 2015 approaches. Can you blame Alamieyeseigha for putting pressure on his godson to set him free afterall some of his colleagues(ex-governors) who apparently stole more are now in the senate and those not in the senate have used their highly paid lawyers to frustrate the EFCC from sending them to jail where they rightly belong?

Lest we forget, Alamieyeseigha looted the treasury of Bayelsa State hiding his ill-gotten wealth at home and abroad and following his admission of guilt the assets especially those in Nigeria was forfeited to Bayelsa State. In the U.K. the authorities seized $1.5 million (N225 million) cash stashed in his London home as well as $2.7 million (N405 million) held in bank accounts at Royal Bank of Scotland PLC and Santolina Investment Corporation. His London real estate valued at $15 million (N2.25 billion) was also seized by U.K. authorities.
Alamieyeseigha also had  his stolen monies spread across notorious tax havens and offshore destinations such as the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, and Seychelles. Others were hidden in the U.K. and South Africa. This is the man Jonathan has pardoned and he wants Nigerians to applaud.