Michael Egbejumi-David
By Michael Egbejumi-David
demdem@hotmail.co.uk / Twitter: demdemdem1
The mind is a funny thing. In politics as in love, the mind tends to remember only the good things, the good times. You see plenty of old geezers hanging around talking about the good old days and how things were better in their time. It really wasn’t, but that is the mind for you.
A combination of nostalgia and the crab-like beginnings of Buhari’s new administration have caused a few people to begin to look back fondly at the recently terminated Goodluck Jonathan years. But before we all got carried away completely, here comes Col. Santa Dasuki and his goody bags.
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. Dasuki shared out the money largely among his PDP colleagues, some newspaper houses, prayer warriors and then spent the remainder on himself. 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’s north-east.
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. 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.
President Jonathan addressing the UN General Assembly
Dasuki worked under the direct supervision of Jonathan. Jonathan had in fact authorised the withdrawal of all that money following a formal confirmatory request by the then Finance Minister, Dr Okonjo-Iweala. Once authorisation was given, that ended Jonathan’s role as President and Manager of resources. Dasuki and his mates simply went and had themselves a swell time.
Alas, this was the pattern throughout the Jonathanian years.
There was a time when his administration procured a software, I think, that was used to flush out ghost workers in some federal parastatals. In one small agency, nearly half the workers that were drawing salaries and other benefits turned out to be non-existent. 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. These people were left alone and left intact to go and practice their trade in other guises.
The Jonathan presidency was one of a vexing display of helplessness. It was a period of dangerous ineptitude. In a complex space like Nigeria, we had a hands-off Chief. While corruption never started with Jonathan’s administration, it certainly grew wings and became something hitherto unimaginable. Throughout Jonathan’s almost six years in office, I cannot remember one single solitary person that was tried and convicted for corruption. Rather, we began to be re-indoctrinated that it didn’t matter how people got into office or how they got rich. Just let them get rich. What mattered was that their richness meant the country was rich. And before you know it, we began to count private jets as an index of Nigerians’ wellbeing.
We all know the story…Before anybody heard of brother Jonathan, the man was a lecturer in a school, minding his own business. He taught some young people who were sufficiently interested, the exciting life of fauna. Just reading passages to a roomful of students was a painfully tedious task for him. He was utterly uninterested in the administrative end of things. He left the management of his day-to-day life in the over-bearing hands of his wife. He kept largely to himself and kept his head well down. Life was easier for him that way.
Then entered DSP Alamieyeseigha, freshly booted off the Nigerian Air Force. Alamieyeseigha plucked a docile Jonathan from the obscurity of school life and made him his Deputy.
As Deputy Governor, Jonathan stood by and watched while Alams went about his grim thieving business. He even pleaded a couple of times with then President Obasanjo to let Alams be. Our man from Ota was impressed and took note. This was loyalty, a good quality to have as far as he was concerned.
A few short years later, Obasanjo drafted-in an uninterested, unhealthy and unprepared Umaru Yar’Adua largely so OBJ could stick his middle finger to the rest of the country for torpedoing his attempt to perpetuate himself in office. Then, he paired up the colourless Yar’Adua with an even less colourful Jonathan.
As Vice President, Jonathan still kept his head well down. He was not in the mould of, say, Atiku or Dr Ekwueme. He wasn’t entrusted with any genuine State or Administrative duties, responsibilities or functions and he never asked for any. He never demonstrated any discernible managerial desire, skill, or capacity. More significantly, he still left the management of his life largely in the steady hands of his wife.
It was therefore an unhappy and a horrified Jonathan that watched Yar’Adua’s health plummet not even halfway into their first term. In the end, and despite his own personal reservations, Jonathan had to inherit the big seat. To help him out administratively, the Americans persuaded a reluctant Okonjo-Iweala to return to Nigeria and become Jonathan’s de facto Prime Minister.
So it was no great surprise when Jonathan turned out to be an inattentive leader. His officials ran circles around him to Nigeria’s cost. ‘Clueless’ was actually his lack of attention and permissiveness which enabled known and new vampires feast heavily on Nigeria. Santa Dasuki’s case is a draining reminder, lest we forget...