Beyond Pardon And All That

--> By Timawus Mathias

If we imagine that some of the policies and pronouncements of President Goodluck Jonathan will not determine the outcome of the journey to the political milestone of 2015, we delude ourselves.

Sure as hell, the President’s track record of achievements and or none achievement will be determining factors and it is against this background that I reflected on the handling of the security situation in Borno, Yobe, and Kano States. Hardly had public chagrin over the (mis)visit to Borno and Yobe died down than President Jonathan grabbed another bite of controversy - the pardoning of disgraced kinsman and his former boss, Diepriye Alamiyesegha.

It is already a done deal and President Goodluck Jonathan has defended the pardon he granted to the convicted former Governor of Bayelsa State, in a manner more forcefully than he has done before. With the same shrug over the lingering question of the President’s non-declaration of assets, Goodluck Jonathan does not give a damn what anybody thinks of the pardon.

The public outcry of angst and condemnation of the Presidential pardon forced the Federal Government’s strenuous effort to justify the deed, even though sadly, an intricate wave of ethnic, regional and religious politics has been woven into the disgraceful incident. The Presidency has said, it was an act of the Council of State which sat in Abuja, surprisingly with General Gowon as the only military past head of State present. Olusegun Obasanjo, Muhammadu Buhari, and Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar were unsurprisingly absent. Worse, according to media reports, Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State in matter of fact fashion told reporters that there was no mention made of any former governor at the Council of State meeting at the Presidential Villa last week, “no such issue (referring to Alamieyeseigha) was discussed and I did not see the name of any ex-governor”, Nyako was reported to have proclaimed. How could a whole Nation’s Council of State take such a far reaching decision, without records of who once got pardoned to the extent that already pardoned leaders like the late General Yar’adua and others like him were “re-pardoned”?

Defenders of the act point out that it was in keeping with provisions in section 175 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which states that the President may (a)”grant any person concerned with or convicted of any offence created by an Act of the National Assembly a pardon, either free or subject to lawful conditions.”

Section 175(2) states that “the power of the President under subsection (1) of this section shall be exercised by him after consultation with the Council of State.”

Constitutionally as this may be validated, the difficulties that lie ahead as the moral implications and undertones are more vigorously verbalised, are enormous, and raise several contentions. It is proven that Nigerian political leadership is yet to be reposed on persons well groomed in nationalism, patriotism and governance.

It was morally out of place for President Jonathan, to have been the one meting out pardon to his kinsman and former boss, so shabbily that any observer can tell that it did not go down well with the National Council of State said to have deliberated on the issue. Thus in one fell swoop, the national psyche is besmeared with thick smudges of ethnicity, nepotism and sectionalism. When the world expected him to catch more corrupt officials that abound, particularly under his watch, he set free one that had already been convicted and disgraced, to add to the number of those who escaped the land through the many open corridors?
The Americans called it “a setback in the fight against corruption” in Nigeria, a comment for which the Ministry of Foreign is reported to have summoned the Deputy Chief of Mission of the United States Embassy.

A good time to recall the great difficulties that President Obasanjo faced in order to have Nigeria delisted from its pariah status, when the country was internationally isolated, its nationals, prominent and ordinary, subjected to disgraceful scrutiny at entry points - corrupt  had become a universal adjective for every Nigerian. This singular act by our President drops the country far down in the corruption ladder.

Already western nations where Alamiyesegha is still a subject of criminal investigation have pronounced a rethink of their policies on Nigeria, and would see the country being denied of vital developments that arise from international cooperation.

I see in President Jonathan’s current kamikaze strides a misplaced confidence that the circumstances that gave him victory in the 2011 elections still exist and would be of the same effect in 2015. In 2011, President Jonathan had won in view of the tacit support given him by the nouveau Northern political class which had defeated the old order, then against him. President Obasanjo reigned in the Yoruba support. The PDP had considered “unfair” and “unnatural” for the PDP to deny its sitting president his party’s ticket, Jonathan being president then by the fiat of Yar’adua’s death.

The picture is different today. President Jonathan in 2015 is not going to have those emotions in his sails. He has a track-record that will speak, much of it rather unimpressively on character, national security, and accountability. An ear to the ground picks up angry voices that suggest that many Nigerians will give a damn on the 2015 gambit.

Will Nigerians return Goodluck Jonathan as President for another term, come 2015 without taking into account the President’s showing in mandate delivery, and the insecurity of the land, particularly in Borno and Yobe and Kano states? With the pardoning of Alamiyesegha as icing, one can see influencers across divides finding the need to consult among themselves for a future leader for Nigeria, and being more circumspect to find a leader with proven political antecedents, service integrity, and experience in Governance. This is obvious.
 
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