Who are the people holding Jonathan hostage if not Hausas and Yorubas? ::|:: Jonathan under hostage, can’t fight corruption, says David-West
What is your take on the letter written by Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo to President Goodluck Jonathan in which he accused him of
working to destroy Nigeria?
I completely support Chief Obasanjo without reservations; indeed, I
agree with almost everything he said in the letter and even at the risk
of being immodest, I have a personal vindication.
I have been very critical of President Jonathan for a very long time
such that some people have come to plead with me to support him, but
their arguments were very faulty and unserious.
To support Jonathan because he is an Ijaw man can only be stupid, but
his good performance in office qualifies me to support him. For me, I
have never joined any political party in my life, even during my
undergraduate days at the University of Ibadan between 1956 and 1958
when there were strong students Action Group (AG), students NCNC, I
never identified with any one of them, even though Zik was my political
role model.
Rather than join any party, Nigeria is my party and my manifesto is
simple, only the best is good enough for Nigeria. And anyone that
satisfies this is my man while anyone that violates it is my enemy, and I
will fight such a person with all I have; pen, campaign and so on to
see that he or she is exposed for everybody to see. And in this stance, I
have incurred the wrath of people like Edwin Clark who abused and even
insulted me.
The same thing with my cousin, Asari Dokubo who insulted me because
of Jonathan. He stayed with me in this my university residence. Also,
whenever he came to Ibadan to visit his Muslim friends, he used to have
his meals in my house. Even during Ramadan fast, since we are not
Muslims, we often made sure that he broke his fast with special meals in
this house. Similarly, I used to finance him with my university salary.
But despite all these, he insulted me because of Jonathan and I said
to him that time will vindicate me because I don’t have anything
personal against Jonathan but the love for Nigeria. We were very close
but because of Jonathan and his own excesses and style, we parted ways.
For instance, I said it is irresponsible to call the northerners
parasites and worthless people because saying such is reckless and does
not help the image of Jonathan. To register my annoyance on this, I told
Jonathan in my writings, asking him to dissociate himself from the
irresponsible statements by Dokubo and Clark because he is not in Aso
Rock because of being an Ijaw man. Rather, he is in Aso Rock because of
Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo people, they put him there and not Ijaw people,
this is because the total vote he had in Ijaw area was mere 24 per cent.
The woman that started the doctrine of necessity was an Igbo person,
Prof. Dora Akunyili; the person who moved the motion for him in the
National Assembly to become an acting President was an Hausa man without
prejudices to the fact that acting Presidency was unconstitutional and
illegal. Also, the person who made the National Assembly to act by
organising mass movement to sensitise the lawmakers on the danger ahead
was Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Save Nigeria Group, a Yoruba man. The
person that spearheaded his Vice Presidency was a Yoruba man, Chief
Obasanjo.
OBJ stage-managed how he became Vice-President to the late President
Umar Yar’Adua. So he is a creation of Obasanjo. If he was acting
properly and with circumspection and maturity, the last person he should
offend by deed or by words is OBJ; it is like biting the finger that
feeds one. So Jonathan today with the letter written to him is a victim
of retributive justice. A lot of Ijaw people that pleaded with me to
support Jonathan after listening to my own position often agreed with
me. Indeed, one of his relations came to this house, a very brilliant
engineer who worked with me when I was the Petroleum Minister.
He pleaded with me to support him but I told him that Jonathan being
Ijaw does not qualify for my support. I added that he should tell
Jonathan that he has been kidnapped and hoodwinked by sycophants and
professional job seekers.
It is worse than being held hostage. Jonathan today has no freedom of
thought and action, but rather giving impression of acting somebody’s
script in his style of governance and this could only have been by those
who kidnapped him or his wife. I also told his relation to tell him
that I would never pull him down but that if he does not change and I
see people pulling him down, I will not stop them as I have nothing
personal against him. He is too young to me.
So what OBJ did was to hit the nail on the head. I am thus warning
him as Obasanjo is not a careless person and has never been
irresponsible in his writings because whenever he takes a stand, he must
have researched very well. It is thus left for Jonathan to respect what
OBJ said, as doing otherwise will be to his own detriment. Let me also
warn him that he should never dare to reply him, the consequence will be
very bitter like vinegar.
Also, he should not allow his aides to reply him because what they
have done so far portrayed them as not knowledgeable and their reply
would be third-rate and make things more difficult for Jonathan. The
best for them is to keep quiet. We all remember that OBJ did the same to
IBB and we knew where it ended, so it is important for Jonathan to
leave OBJ alone, he should not reply him but stay away from him. What
OBJ did is sounding the last knell for Jonathan’s administration.
One of the allegations OBJ levelled against Jonathan was the
issue of corruption. Can one say he is right given the fact that
Aviation Minister, Ms Stella Oduah, upon all the allegations against her
is still sitting as a cabinet member?
It is time for all of us to see corruption as the greatest thing that
has kept the country where it is today. And despite the noise being
made by the present administration, Jonathan cannot fight corruption as
those who kidnapped him are corrupt. Many Nigerians have accused IBB of
institutionalising corruption but Jonathan’s administration has made
corruption a religion and an article of faith with lots of adherents,
priests and chief priests from high to low.
When the issue of Halliburton came up, I could remember that General
T. Y. Danjuma told Jonathan that his ability to fight corruption would
be measured by how he tackled it and at the end of the day, he could not
achieve anything.
As someone who revelled in corruption, he allowed an Italian company
that has huge contract with the Federal Government to build a church for
him in his village, Otuoke and he was justifying this.
That day, I said he was finished as a fighter of corruption. And come
to think of it, if I could be sentenced to lifejail for drinking tea
and accepting a wrist watch from a company that had no contract with
NNPC as Petroleum Minister, an allegation which turned out to be fantasy
and I spent 11 days in Kirikiri Maximum Prisons and nine months in Bama
Prisons, Jonathan with what he did should be impeached and jailed
because it was nothing but corruption.
However, concerning his fight against corruption as it concerned his
cabinet members, I think his problem is that he has complex. For
instance, take the case of Okonjo-Iweala, she most of the times behaved
as the one calling the shot and I have had cause to say that there is
nothing special about her. While there is no doubt that she is
brilliant, it is a fact that there were other Nigerians better than her.
And in terms of loving Nigeria and its economy, I doubt her
patriotism and ability to revive the economy. There are many reasons to
justify this, one, no Minister in the country’s history has ever been
called ‘Coordinating Minister.’ I believed that she herself coined this
to hoodwink her boss. And if she loves Nigeria so much, why did she
allow herself to be paid in dollars during the time of OBJ knowing that
such is injurious to the economy.
So I cannot but say that concerning the crusade to fight corruption, a
man that cannot know about his own weakness is the worst enemy of
himself, and I don’t think Jonathan knows his weakness; he should forget
about Tam David-West but must not forget about OBJ.
As a former Petroleum Minister, what do you think can be done
to sanitise the oil sector given the rot that has pervaded the sector
such that oil boom has become more or less oil doom ?
Whenever I talk about oil in this country, my blood boils simply
because this is a sector that is dear to my heart. The time of (General
Muhammadu) Buhari was the golden age of the country’s oil industry
management with the evidence being there for all to see. This was
because we had an incorruptible man as the Head of State. He not only
hated corruption but was highly disciplined and related to all of us as
example.
Till today, I still commend those that we worked together to achieve
this. Nigeria’s oil industry is the worst managed in the whole world all
because of the greed of those managing the sector. As a minister, I
travelled round the world and met the Oil Minister of Saudi Arabia,
Sheikh Jaki Yamani, who served for 24 years; through him, I learnt a
lot, likewise from Buhari.
There is nowhere in the world that oil is stolen brazenly as it is
done in this country. The situation is so bad that the NNPC is now more
concerned with producing more corrupt millionaires. With what God has
endowed the country with, there is no basis for Nigeria to be in problem
as we are having it today.
The nation’s Bonny Light is like that of Britain, and as of
yesterday, it sold for 103 dollars per barrel and with the country
producing two million barrels per day, we all know how much will be
accruing to the country. But with this wealth, the people are still
suffering. God and the angels will punish those behind this. Jonathan
does not know what he is doing, that he id bringing more pains to the
people.
For instance, Nigeria’s oil is the costliest in the world; it should
not be more than N40 per litre. N97 is exploitation of the people. From
the top to the bottom, all of them in the oil sector seem to be gaining
from the rot; if not, they will have put a stop to the nonsense in the
sector. With what is happening in the sector, the future of Nigeria has
been mortgaged by the irresponsible, reckless, visionless and corrupt
leadership of today.
The world today is celebrating Nelson Mandela; can we rightly
say that we have leaders whether present or past of his mould in the
country?
To me, none can be compared to Mandela and we got it wrong in this
country because we are bad as a people. And for Jonathan to have
declared three days of mourning is cosmetic because nothing of such
happened in Aso Rock. Mandela to everybody was the greatest thing to
happen to Africa, he was an icon, not only of Africa but of the world.
For him, money was not everything but name; while the opposite is the
case in the country. When our leaders die, relations hired mourners to
mourn them, compared to what is happening to Mandela. The problem then
is not in our star but ourselves. Mandela was selfless as he emptied
self of self, he cared for his country and its people and provided for
them. He was humane and human. While he lived for the people, Nigerian
leaders live for themselves and no Nigerian leader can match him, after
him, I don’t think there will be another Mandela in Africa in the next
100 years. He has come and gone but his ideas will live on. Nigeria’s
problem is mostly of leadership, but followership also contributes as
Nigerians love pleasure too much. It is incumbent for the followership
to stand firm and make corrupt leadership uncomfortable by marching to
Aso Rock and the National Assembly, if they do this, the leaders will be
forced to act rightly. It is only Pastor Bakare that has succeeded in
doing this with his Save Nigeria group. Indeed, there is no reason that
the followership cannot enact the Arab Spring here, doing this will put
our leaders on their toes. Corruption also stays because of Nigeria
paradox. The country deserves more than we are getting. Indeed for some,
the fear of Buhari is the beginning of wisdom as we have so many
corrupt leaders. It is so bad that some Nigerians can be bought to sell
their mother; however, without ideals and principles, no country can
move forward.
As someone who has lived virtually all his life in the
education sector, what is your view on the MOU signed by the FG and ASUU
to end the over five-month old strike in the universities ?
While it is good that this has been signed, I am however afraid that
this will not solve the problem in our universities but rather, scratch
it on the surface. Indeed, it has only taken us to suspended animation.
We were all here when Okonjo-Iweala said there was no money with nobody
saying anything to the contrary, so they now have money. We all know
that this government has never been serious in funding education,
putting less than eight per cent into the sector whereas countries like
Ghana and South Africa put 31 per cent and 24 per cent respectively.
The reality in the world today is that any government that jokes with
education is a vagabond government as without education, everything
will collapse. Nigeria is a government of anything and it shows that we
are not serious. So the strike may be over on paper but not in spirit as
there is nothing to celebrate in the MOU but rather, nonsense.
I am a practical person and until we all see the practical aspect of
what was signed, Nigeria will still be sitting on a keg of gunpowder.
And given what happened before the signing with Nyesom Wike (Education
Minister) bluffing to sack the lecturers with no top government official
putting him where he rightly belonged is not a good omen, more so when
he was not talking to primary or secondary school teachers. Thus I am
not happy with the signing because it is a mere resolution, and for a
government that violated an agreement, how are we sure that they will
keep faith with the MOU?
What do you think the just-concluded Anambra gubernatorial
elections portend for the country as we prepare for the 2015 general
elections?
It is a matter of fact that the Anambra election is a mirror of 2015.
If INEC had conducted a sensible, credible and transparent elections,
many Nigerians will have celebrated the feat. But as it is, there is no
hope about 2015 elections and 2014 will be so hot. Any election that is
rigged spells doom for the country. Thus, the Anambra elections
signposted what to expect from INEC in the forthcoming elections in the
country. When elections are rigged, what we often hear is that the
aggrieved should go to court which those in power know will be in their
favour.
This is because the difference between the Judiciary and the
Executive is the difference between six and half a dozen. Indeed,
Jonathan has done so much to destroy the system; be it education,
judiciary, security and so on, the administration is disastrous. It was
Machiavelli who said in his book, ‘The Prince’, that for the leader to
be wisely advised, he should be wise himself but Jonathan has not been
able to live like the Machiavellian Prince as a model as he is not wise.
Likewise, Machiavelli also said in the same book that a leader should
allow his praise-singers to know that he will be offended if not told
the bitter truth, but Jonathan prefers the opposite and they are not
sincere.
A typical example was when my good friend, Ebenezer Babatope engaged
in a highest form of sycophancy when he said Jonathan is equal to Awo,
Zik and Sardauna put together. But on the contrary, it is indisputable
that 100 Jonathan are less than 100 Awo, Zik and Sardauna respectively.
Jonathan has not done well at all; it is so bad that on my part, there
is nothing to be proud of as an Ijaw man, given what he has done.
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