Be afraid of prosecution not persecution

Since that infamous outburst in a sanctuary of God, several Nigerians have commented differently to that claim or desperate act of defense of the most likely scenario that several of those that have served this government would be investigated for the quantum recklessness in the way they ran the affairs of government.Again, President Jonathan was […]

Since that infamous outburst in a sanctuary of God, several Nigerians have commented differently to that claim or desperate act of defense of the most likely scenario that several of those that have served this government would be investigated for the quantum recklessness in the way they ran the affairs of government.
Again, President Jonathan was in my view clever by half and I am sure will say more such things – maybe worse – in the coming days because of the colossal damage to the fabric of the Nigerian nation done by the gangsters in his government. The common parenthesis that we hear from those who speak for this government long before they were rejected by the Nigerian people was that the problems after all were not caused either by the president or his government. They always love to romanticize by claiming that they inherited the rot.
Yes! I agree with them but governance is not just about assets, but also liability. When they sought to take over power, didn’t they know that the problems on ground were gigantic? Were they only interested in taking over the resource allocation component leaving the myriad of problems for us to solve as citizens?  Balderdash, obviously.
I think what President Jonathan is saying is not that his aides would be persecuted but that they will be prosecuted. He knows that because taking a curious stock of income and expenditure in the last six year vis-a- vis value addition in terms of infrastructure and quality of life of Nigerians, only the President, his coordinating minister for the economy who coordinated every expenditure since she came and despite the huge income that accrued to the nation from the sales of oil and other sources, would say it was a success, she is leaving a treasury that is empty and shamelessly she tells the world that the economy is sound and they are bequeathing a sound economic system. Can anything be further away from the truth than this?
It was the late Professor Sam Aluko who said that trying to know the economy of any society is the easiest thing to do. Just take a look at the citizens walking on the streets. What you see on their faces tells you details about the economy of their society. This voodoo economics of structural functionalism, which dwells only on paper has since been put to rest even by the World Bank and IMF.
The focus has since been on human conditions as the measure and centerpiece of economic policies and not this percent aging that is out rightly in direct opposite of the realities on the ground. The truth is that the Nigerian economy has been badly managed and in fact run aground by this government and its ministers.
The fear of looking into the records is responsible for the alarm being raised by the president. I will prefer if the president would own up to the fact that several critical decisions of his government were pencilled by some of these eggheads he trusted so much and the result is the economic collapse that we face as a nation today.
To claim that there will be persecution of those who run the nation aground is to pre-empt and possibly water down or make asking questions impossible by those who will be taking over from this government.
I am of the view that the president must learn to choose what he says to the nation at this critical moment in history. His statesmanship mantra or otherwise would be judged by how he exits power. Such utterances in my view, just like the one by the Professor of Power, warning the new government not to tamper with the privatization of the power sector are only pointers to areas that need focus from the new government.
Those who have questions to answer shouldn’t be afraid if they are sincere in the decision-making process. It is a price that those who hold public office must be ready to pay. Mr. President, it shall not be persecution but most likely, prosecution.