Fear of defeat

Had the drums of war been beaten by opposition elements, all the security agencies would have swooped on them, disrupted the press briefing and taken hostages as happened to APC staff at the party’s computer centre in Lagos last year. A couple of days ago, I listened to the grim accounts of what those arrested […]

Had the drums of war been beaten by opposition elements, all the security agencies would have swooped on them, disrupted the press briefing and taken hostages as happened to APC staff at the party’s computer centre in Lagos last year. A couple of days ago, I listened to the grim accounts of what those arrested staff went through – handcuffing, blindfolding, torture , etc. The pregnant lady among them was so traumatised she started bleeding but mercifully didn’t lose the baby. That is the Nigeria over which Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan presides.
For once, Interior Minister Abba Moro found his voice and condemned the threat. “Mr President has said that in the unlikely event of his losing the election, in the course of this exercise, that he was straight man enough, he was democratic enough, to concede defeat”, said Moro.
The militants brushed Moro’s counsel aside; instead they issued a seven-day ultimatum to General T.Y. Danjuma who had called for their arrest for threatening the corporate existence of the country. Danjuma, they ordered, should tender an open apology to them or his assets in the Niger-Delta would be attacked. It beats my imagination how a president could allow his tribesmen to continue making him look so undeserving of leadership as the war hawks have been doing.
These are desperate times. Unlike the previous elections in 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011, this is the first time the ruling PDP will face a real challenge. Having failed to frustrate the merger of the parties which formed the All Progressives Congress (APC); having failed in its well-honed scheme to blackmail General Muhammadu Buhari through a forged medical report and allegation that the former military head of state did not have the requisite educational qualification; having failed to convince Nigerians with the vicious video making myriad grave allegations against Buhari; having seen how the polls conducted by its own sympathisers have favoured the opposition … there is, indeed, cause for alarm.
Although Jonathan is the ultimate beneficiary of the war-mongering efforts of his kinsmen, I suspect that the president is not half as desperate as those who depend on his being in power to access unfair advantage. Without him, they are nothing. Somebody should introduce these fellows to the philosopher Heraclitus who famously taught the world that the only thing constant in life is change.
So far, the PDP has refused to give an account of Jonathan’s stewardship in the last six years. But the people are asking (as is their right to so do), “What have you done with the earlier mandate?” They want answers to questions such as the following:
ON CORRUPTION
1.       N150 billion pension fraud. Major culprit, Abdulrasheed Maina, then Chairman of PRTT (Pension Reform Tax Team) was given police protection and (possibly assisted) to flee overseas.
2.       N1.3 trillion petrol subsidy scam. Culprits, including Mahmud Tukur and Mamman Nasir Ali, sons of two former PDP national chairmen, still breathing air of freedom.
3.       N1 trillion “padding” of 2012 Budget uncovered by the Senate. No executive action or retribution.
4.      Inflated N255 million bulletproof car scandal involving former Minister for Aviation, Ms Stella Oduah.
5.       $20 billion unremitted proceeds to the Federation Account as exposed by former CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.
6.       $15 million arms purchase scandal in South Africa. Nigeria’s influence had been so degraded that the government was buying arms through informal channels, just like terrorist gangs.
7.       Estimated $30 billion Excess Crude Fund unaccounted for.
8. $10 billion spent by Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke to rent a private jet for personal use (she has now gone to court to halt any inquiry into how she spent public funds).
9. Inflated contract of N64 billion ($96,970 or N19,879,000 per square metre)for the construction of the second runway at the Abuja airport.
10. Abacha loot of $227 million repatriated by Liechtenstein last June now shrouded in fog.
 ON IMPUNITY
1.       Granting state pardon and maintaining close political ties with Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, his former boss convicted of money laundry and a fugitive from the British justice system.
2.       Withdrawal of charges against Mohammed Abacha, standing trial for at least $4 billion dollars looted from the public treasury between 1996 and 1998.
3.       Retaining Mr. Abba Moro as minister in spite of the colossal loss of lives occasioned by the racketeering and mismanagement of a recruitment process into the NIS.
4.       Encouraging the split in the Nigerian Governor’s Forum and doing the ludicrous by supporting a minority faction which earned 16 votes, as against the majority which had 19 votes.
5.       Jonathan’s protégé and Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Ayodele Fayose, assaulted court judges physically, tore up court documents and has been running the state with a legislature comprised of  seven members from the PDP while the majority of 19 opposition members have been hounded into hiding.
6.       Invasion of the National Assembly using the police in a bid to instigate the removal of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
7.       Using the DSS to invade opposition party’s facilities under trumped-up charges.
8. Using soldiers to forcefully gain access to the state-owned Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium in Port-Harcourt for presidential rally without the permission of the state government.
9. Using hooded security agents to hound citizens in the name of security.
10. Sending thugs to disrupt the sitting of the Bring Back Our Girls Group while displaying crass ineptitude in the fight against Boko Haram.
Which of the above does the PDP want to do differently, going forward? The total of missing (misappropriated/unaccounted for) funds is more than our current foreign reserve of $32 billion (OMG!).
If there won’t be any change in the PDP style as they seem bent on insisting, then are Nigerians not within their rights to vote them out? Desperation or no desperation, no blackmail or threat of war will work this time. They might as well start chanting ‘Nunc dimitis’.
Sorry if that appears like a prognostication; but it is!