The immediate past president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan
has revealed that his attention has been drawn to a statement by the
APC with the headline 'Nobody could have looted like Jonathan, APC
replies PDP.'
File photo: Buhari & Buhari
Last week, the National publicity secretary of PDP, Dayo Adeyeye,
released a statement in which he accused the Buhari-led APC government
of treating the anti-corruption fight. Adeyeye's comment was in reaction
to the EFCC handing over to former Bayelsa state governor, Timipre
Sylva, the 48 houses they had initially seized from him.
In reaction to Dayo's statement, the National Publicity Secretary
of APC, Bolaji Abdullahi and the National vice-chairman of the party,
south-south, Honourable Hilard Ntufam Etta, granted an interview in
which they berated PDP's spokesperson for his comment. According to
Etta, the PDP spokesperson's comment was a joke and that nobody could
have looted as much as Goodluck Jonathan's administration did.
“My take on the matter is that the claim is comedy from the pit
of hell. No government, not just in Nigeria, but any part of the world
could possibly be as corrupt as Jonathan’s government. It isn’t possible
for human being to contrive or conspire again to have that kind of
sleaze. Not anywhere in the world. That’s just my reaction," the APC chieftain said
Well, the former president through his media aide, Reno Omokri, has
reacted to the APC spokesperson comment. Read the statement below
"My attention has been drawn to a statement by the APC and
released in some newspapers with the headline 'Nobody could have looted
like Jonathan, APC replies PDP'
It is indeed disheartening that the All Progressive Congress has
again decided to stand truth on its head by claiming that nobody looted
Nigeria like former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The statement by the national publicity secretary of the APC,
Bolaji Abdullahi, a man who once benefitted from former President
Jonathan's generosity and rode on his back to become a minister, shows
that the party is at its wits end and is running out of lies to feed
Nigerians.
First of all, no court has indicted or convicted former President
Jonathan of corruption neither can they do so because the former
President was not corrupt and did not loot.
We remind the APC that former President Jonathan once truthfully
declared that he has no accounts or property abroad. There is a Freedom
of Information Act signed into law by Dr. Jonathan and I urge Bolaji
Abdullahi and those who pull his puppet strings to take advantage of it
in verifying that assertion.
In any case, if the Jonathan administration was corrupt, what does
that say about Bolaji Abdullahi who was a member of that government for
three out of its five years? By indicting Dr. Jonathan, Malam Abdullahi
also indicts himself, after all, he did not resign from that government
until former President Jonathan sacked him.
Bolaji Abdullahi, like Senator George Akume, is only being clever
by half in indicting the PDP as the cause of Nigeria's problems.
Such is the APC's hypocrisy that Senator Akume said 'PDP caused the
pain we are in'. Senator Akume, like Bolaji Abdullahi forgets that the
PDP ruled for 16 years and Akume was a PDP Governor for 8 of those years
and a PDP Senator for 4 of those years.
Is it that one suddenly becomes a saint by joining the APC after being in the PDP for 12 years?
It is funny that no evidence of looting has ever been established
against Dr. Jonathan, yet the APC believes he looted, yet though
evidence abounds that ex military head of state, General Sani Abacha
looted, they believe and have publicly said 'Abacha did not loot'.
Over $5 billion has been traced to Abacha and over $1 billion has
been recovered from him including $320 million recovered under the
Buhari administration alone. The question for Malam Abdullahi is
this-how much has been recovered from Dr. Goodluck Jonathan?
No wonder Nigeria has not improved in the Corruption Perception
Index of Transparency International since 2014 when we made our best
improvement till date under Dr. Jonathan. Apparently, after sacking
people like Bolaji Abdullahi, Transparency International saw fit to
improve Nigeria's Corruption Perception Rating by 8 points. The position
we occupied in 2014 because of Jonathan (136) is the same position we
occupy today. No progress has been made from where he left off.
It is also sad for the APC to claim that its hands were tied by the
courts forcing the government to authorize the release of 48 houses
seized from Timipre Sylva, a major APC donor and chieftain.
Such stories should only be told to children on the TV program 'Tales by Moonlight'.
We ask Nigerians to note that even when the same courts ordered the
release on bail of Col. Sambo Dasuki and Sheikh Ibrahim el-Zak Zaky,
these individuals were not released in defiance of court orders.
It is obvious that the APC chooses which court order to obey based on how much the person involved has donated to the party.
It is also sad that Malam Abdullahi, who knows the truth, continues
with the propaganda that Jonathan said 'stealing is not corruption'.
Bolaji knows the truth because he was serving Dr. Goodluck Jonathan
as a minister when this incidence occurred. Former President Jonathan
merely quoted the then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Dahiru
Musdapher, who tried to differentiate between stealing and-corruption.
His Lordship the then CJN said most of the cases charged to courts
and celebrated as cases of corruption are actually cases of stealing. No
one has said stealing is good. Bolaji's APC should stop this falsehood
and propaganda.
Why the APC continues to circulate beer parlor gossip, I wouldn't
know. Even the Nigerian Senate headed by a former PDP governor now APC
Senate President accused the APC Federal Government for spreading beer
parlour rumour on corruption (front page of the Daily Sun Friday
September 8, 2017). Bolaji's statement is another beer parlour
propaganda.
The APC government has budgeted over N14tr in the last two years.
Bolaji should tell Nigerians what the government has done with the
money. Nigerians will not know the level of corruption in Bolaji's APC
government till another government takes over.
A government that harbors a man who was indicted by a duly
constituted Judicial Commission and even makes him a minister has no
moral authority to point fingers at others.
Finally, I appeal to Bolaji Abdullahi and the APC to focus on
explaining to Nigerians why despite the fact that it claims to have
recovered almost 2 trillion from the Jonathan administration, Nigeria
still wants to borrow 1.6 trillion.
With the amount 'recovered', Nigeria should have had enough not to borrow and a little extra on top to lend to others.
These lies only go to show that you can use propaganda to get to power, but you cannot use propaganda to stay in power.
*****************************
Reno Omokri
Bestselling author of the worldwide amazon #1 bestseller
(Conspiracy Theory) Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan
Years: Chibok, 2015 and Other Conspiracies
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