Monday April 20, 2009 |
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A week ago, this newspaper carried a
News Agency of Nigeria report under the caption, “We are a vain nation”.
The quoted claim was not as important as the man who voiced it. In case
you missed it, the statement was credited to Goodluck Jonathan, sidekick
to Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the slumbering disaster who presumes to govern
Nigeria.
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Jonathan, a lecturer at the
University of Port Harcourt before he made a foray into
politics, reportedly “identified the pursuit of mundane things
that are worthless to the country's development by both leaders
and followers, as the cause of the nation's under-development.” |
Could
this Easter message be heartfelt – or was it just another
hypocritical speech by a man who, like most Nigerian
politicians, is beyond shame? |
|
Jonathan made this curious assertion
during an Easter Sunday service at Aso Rock Chapel. In what NAN
described as “an emotive address,” Yar’Adua’s deputy waxed diagnostic
about Nigeria’s crisis. In his words, “What makes us remain the way we
are, what makes us to be backward, is that we value those things that
matter less to a society.”
At this point, those who’ve followed Jonathan’s political career would
want to exclaim Wow! But wait, the man isn’t done yet. The news agency
quoted the man as confessing that, “Having worked in the government for
almost 10 years now, I know that most of the problems we have, are
because of the vain and trivial things that charm us most.” Jonathan
then recalled that Nigeria once shared the same developmental bracket as
India, Brazil, Indonesia and Singapore, “but regretted that those
countries had left us behind.”
What accounted for Nigeria’s catastrophic slip? An answer was offered in
the gospel according to Jonathan. As NAN reported, Jonathan “blamed past
leaders for looting the treasury and stashing funds meant for the
country's development in banks outside the country.” Again, in his
words: “Nigeria has so much money stashed outside this country, most of
the money stolen from the public treasury. If 50 per cent of these funds
were brought back and kept in Nigerian banks they would have enough
funds to give as loans. Our banks would not need to send girls to go out
and hustle for deposits.”
Nor was this the end of Jonathan’s strange confessions. He stated that
the embezzlers “do not even need 10 per cent of [their loot]” and that
“some of them hide the money and their children will not even see it.”
Having diagnosed the Nigerian disorder, Jonathan proclaimed the
antidote. He implored Nigerians, wrote NAN, “to use the Easter period to
purge themselves of mundane things and pursue things that would be
beneficial to the uplifting of the nation.” Speaking with the
earnestness of a prelate, he made a prediction: “if we sacrifice most of
these artificial and mundane things that are not critical to us…this
country will be a better place.”
Odds are that some speechwriter handed Mr. Jonathan this speech and –
without pausing to rehearse it – he rushed off to the chapel to read it.
Why did he not deem fit to reflect on this self-indicting speech before
he mounted the podium with it? For that matter, why did he not see the
wisdom of clearing the speech with his wife, Patience Jonathan, before
reading it?
Until former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s abracadabra installed
Jonathan as “vice president,” Patience Jonathan was a target of
investigations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
In late 2006, agents of the anti-corruption agency seized close to $15
million dollars from Mrs. Jonathan, whose husband was then governor of
Bayelsa. Two months earlier, the EFCC had frozen N104 million it also
accused Mrs. Jonathan of attempting to stow away through one Mrs. Nancy
Ebere Nwosu.
Given his family’s history, Mr. Jonathan’s sermon on the malaise of
graft and greed is nothing less than fascinating. Could this Easter
message be heartfelt – or was it just another hypocritical speech by a
man who, like most Nigerian politicians, is beyond shame? If the man’s
sentiments are genuine, then what has he done to censure his wife? Why
hasn’t he invited the EFCC to go through with its investigation of his
wife, and to haul her before the law if she’s found to have engaged in
gluttonous embezzlement?
Beyond his wife’s questionable financial activities, Mr. Jonathan may
also have a few personal questions to answer. A year and a half ago,
this former lecturer responded to public pressure by making his asset
declaration public. He declared that he was worth N295 million.
How did he generate that stupendous level of income? As the Guardian
columnist Sonala Olumhense noted, “this means he had been growing richer
at the rate of close to N17 million per month” during the 17 months he
was governor.
If Mr. Jonathan meant what he said in his Easter message, he owes it to
himself to explain how he accumulated his fortune. And he should also
explain how his wife came by the sums of $13.5 million and N104 million.
He should clarify the disturbing discrepancy between his sermon and his
conduct, or he should simply exit the pulpit.
