There has been strident calls of recent by those caught up in the nets of anti-corruption agencies for an extension of invitation to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan for interrogation over his alleged role in approving the expenditure of monies for the purchase of arms which were eventually thrown about in an extravagant and ostentatious way to the PDP stalwarts for promoting his presidential ambition.
Mrs Ngozi Okonjo Eweala, the finance minister that served under him had testified that she had doled out large chunk of money to Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd), the erstwhile Security Adviser, on the instruction of his boss, former President Jonathan. Her testimony was also corroborated by the former Chairman of PDP’s Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, who was accused of appropriating huge sums of money to ex-president’s political associates and senior party men to work for the party’s success in the March presidential elections.
While highly placed officials of Jonathan’s administration and key party leaders were thoroughly humiliated following their arrests and later subjected to sustained, closed questioning over their alleged involvement in the arms scam, president Jonathan and his spouse, Dame Patience Jonathan, the fiend-like woman that stoutly stood behind her husband like the Rock of Gibraltar, were happily whiling away their time in a cosy resort far away from the reach of the long arms of the law that roped in their comrades-in arms over the offences they were alleged to have committed.
It may appear that the couple were totally unaware of the fate that befell their ostensible accomplices or have been totally complacent and indifferent about their predicaments. They kept mum and tight-lipped, unwilling or have been appropriately advised to remain silent lest they divulge information that could give them away.
The disclosure of former president Jonathan’s guilt in the arms purchase scandal has really portrayed him in a very poor light before majority of Nigerians who are now thinking aloud whether Jonathan was a saint or a devil, for that has really dented his image and besmeared whatever remains of his reputation and credibility.
The question that quacks everybody’s lips is why did Jonathan allow racketeering politicians access to the national wealth? Nigerian citizens also want to know why former President Jonathan deliberately caused much suffering and death to his fellow countrymen simply because some of his self-seeking associates wanted to enrich themselves to the detriment of suffering masses.
Many soldiers and innocent civilians have lost their lives to a better armed and equipped Boko Haram insurgents and many more suffered indignities in the hands of callous kidnappers that eventually collected huge ransom money from traumatised relatives.
What many people could also not readily comprehend was why ex-president Jonathan had turned the office of his National Security Advisor to a bank where money, in hard currencies, had illegally been distributed to political jobbers. Perhaps, only future generations of Nigerians could be able to fathom the total amount of money expropriated from that office. It is only then the extent of the damage done to the nation’s economy could be fully determined.
It is also not improbable that Sambo Dasuki was actually acting on the instruction of his former boss who facilitated his role of a Father Christmas as he wantonly dispensed money meant for arms purchase in defence of the country to those that do not wish the country good.
In fact he and the beneficiaries of his largess are clearly the enemies of the peoples of Nigeria who will continue to suffer untold hardship for their alleged roles in depleting the national coffers.
For these and many reasons, ex-president Jonathan could not hold his head high with pride and dignity wherever he goes, for the dishonourable acts his cohorts have been accused of committing if eventually proved would certainly pull him down and force him to cover his face in shame.
The seemingly overwhelming evidence in his alleged complicity in the arms scandal may prove to be the Achilles’s heels that may jeopardise his future political ambitions.
In that regard, ex-president Jonathan should break his silence and respond to the deafening calls by concerned Nigerians to come out and explain his alleged role in the arms scandal. He is not above the law and should, therefore, come out to emphatically give graphic details of what had become apparent over the allegations labelled against him by the people that worked closely with him, who were also regarded as his close confidants and hatchet men.
No matter whatever ex-president Jonathan may think about himself now, he no longer enjoys the immunity from prosecution and possible jail tern conferred on him by the constitution, so he can be arrested, prosecuted and be even convicted on a long jail-term.
The Buhari administration must hasten the process of interrogating ex-president Jonathan while he should therefore be prepared to face the music and also take his medicine as a man. His close associates, especially the blindfolded benefactors of his largesse should do him a favour by asking him to divulge all he knows about the Dasukigate and other malfeasances that tend to draw the country back.
