By Okey Ndibe
 |
|
Goodluck
Jonathan
|
Last
week, the US government was so miffed by President Goodluck Jonathan’s pardon
of several big-name Nigerian convicts – among them former Governor Diepreye
Alamieyeseigha – that its embassy in Nigeria issued a sharp rebuke. In a tweet,
US diplomats in Abuja said they were “deeply disappointed” by Mr. Jonathan’s
action. The tweet continued: “We see this as a setback in the fight against
corruption.”
The
reaction was a rather startling, if refreshing, breach of diplomatic
convention. But its premise was also fundamentally misconceived.
Forget
about “deep disappointment.” Nobody who has observed the Jonathan
administration from the moment of its conception should even be disappointed,
period. The government acted altogether in character in pardoning Mr.
Alamieyeseigha. It can be said, in fact, that President Jonathan did the job he
was “elected” to do – pure and simple.
For
me, the truly baffling thing about the US tweet was the presupposition that Mr.
Jonathan was ever engaged in a “fight against corruption.” Flowing from that
profound misperception was the claim that the granting of official clemency to
Mr. Alamieyeseigha represented “a setback” in that ostensible fight. The US
government got it wrong – dead wrong.
Let’s
be clear. Mr. Jonathan’s administration has never been in the business of
fighting corruption. Yes, it often invokes the rhetoric of combating
corruption. But truly fighting? No! Does Corruption dabble in the business of
fighting Corruption? There’s no real moral or ethical difference between Mr.
Alamieyeseigha and those who presumed to forgive him for pocketing millions of
dollars of public funds. The two parties here, forgiver and forgiven, belong
within the same conclave of iniquity.
The Jonathan administration reeks of
corruption. Since occupying the throne in Aso Rock, this particular government
has accumulated a dossier of scandals – from questionable, smelly deals in the
oil sector to the hiring of political operatives notorious for their stinky
pasts.
The
Nigerian president has been characterized in some quarters as confused and
clueless. It’s an unfair – and patently false – charge. Mr. Jonathan is as
clear-eyed about his mission as any of his predecessors. And one thing he
understands clearly is that he was not put in Aso Rock to fight corruption.
He
was put in there to pretend that there’s a “fight.” That fight, he understands,
can be waged only with speeches, whilst maintaining a conspicuous respect for
the rights and privileges of Nigeria’s who’s who in the corruption
industry.
Former
Governor James Onanefe Ibori of Delta must be regretting the day he fled to
Dubai as Jonathan’s security agents hounded him in the creeks of the Niger
Delta. Discovered in his Dubai hideout by the ever-alert Interpol, Mr. Ibori
was extradited to the UK where he stood trial for money laundering and received
a 13-year jail sentence.
The British were able to strike the fear of the law in
an Ibori who, in Nigeria, swaggered his way to acquittal on more than 100
counts of corruption and money laundering! In the UK where it’s harder to buy
judges, Mr. Ibori ate the humble pie, pleading guilty to avert a more damaging
trial.
Had
he given thought to the matter, Mr. Ibori would have stayed back in Nigeria.
Indeed, he should have handed himself to officers of Mr. Jonathan’s Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission. The worst prospect would have been his
arraignment. He would then have been able to send a delegation of “elders” and
“royal fathers” to go and see Mr. Jonathan on his behalf.
The peace-building
missionaries would have assured the president of ex-Governor Ibori’s “total
loyalty” and implored him to regard the errant governor as his “political son.”
That would have been the end of the matter! Or, not quite: Mr. Ibori might have
landed a choice contract or two – or some juicy appointment, to use a favorite
Nigerian adjective.
President
Jonathan has a senior special adviser on ethics on his payroll. Yet, anybody
who longs to take a measure of the president’s ethical funds has only to look
at the shining star of Tony Anenih in the Jonathan firmament. In the last three
months, the Presidency appointed Mr. Anenih to chair the board of the Nigerian
Ports Authority and then elevated the selfsame Anenih to the post of chairman
of the ruling party’s Board of Trustees.
That
Mr. Jonathan saw fit to bestow the two posts on Mr. Anenih speaks volumes –
about the two men. It says that Mr. Jonathan “knows” what he’s doing, and in
particular that he knows how to prepare for and win the 2015 presidential
(s)election. In Nigeria’s political circles, Mr. Anenih is called the “Leader”
and “Mr. Fix-it.” Yet, the man was a woeful failure at his most prominent past
assignment as Nigeria’s Works Minister. Under his watch, Nigerian roads
remained dismal, even though N300 billion had been budgeted for his ministry.
Mr.
Anenih’s accolades credit the man’s foxiness, especially his expertise in
turning sure losers into certain winners (or vice versa). During the Obasanjo
days, Mr. Anenih was the first to announce to the world that there was no
vacancy in Aso Rock – before the PDP ran away with wangled landslides. Summoned
to Mr. Jonathan’s side as the 2015 polls draw closer, Nigerians must now take
seriously a recent warning from Kema Chikwe that Mr. Jonathan was already
virtually re-(s)elected.
A
friend of mine jokingly derided Mr. Anenih as “chairman of the PDP’s board of
the tired.” But the matter is too serious to be consigned to a joke. At bottom,
the Jonathan-Anenih coziness reveals something about the president’s vision of
where Nigeria is – and where it should be headed. It is a terrifying vision and
prospect. It’s also consistent with the president’s temperament, outlook and
unimpressive record.
Not
since former President Olusegun Obasanjo personally oversaw the petroleum
industry has there been more apprehension about corruption – the absence of
transparency – in the sector. Yet, Mr. Jonathan’s body language betrays a man
at peace with monumental corruption. For sure, he has never contemplated acting
to address the documentation of sleaze in the oil sector.
Mr.
Jonathan has not disappointed me precisely because he has lived up – or down –
to my expectations of his presidency. The forces that conspired to enthrone him
were not looking for a sure-footed, determined and nimble crusader against
corruption. They wanted a certified protector of the interests of the corrupt,
in fact a veritable fertilizer of corruption. He has fit the billing and served
the mission.
Former
EFCC chairman Nuhu Ribadu was quoted in the New York Times as deploring the
pardon granted Mr. Alamieyeseigha. And then he said, “Corruption is our main
problem in Nigeria. We don’t need this kind of negative signal. This is a
tragedy.” Well, President Jonathan would disagree.
For him, corruption is not
Nigeria’s main problem: it is Nigeria’s main opportunity. And the clemency to
the Alamieyeseighas, seen by Mr. Ribadu as a negative sign and tragedy, may
well be Mr. Jonathan’s assurance to the “selectors” of Nigeria’s president that
he is ever dead set against rocking the boat.
Memo
to the US government: Mr. Jonathan is doing his job. A central requirement of
that job is to NOT fight corruption.
Please
follow me on twitter @ okeyndibe
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