On July 17, 2012, a recently re-elected Governor Adams Oshiomhole visited Aso Rock Presidential Villa and on his way out he had a chat with State House Correspondents and said as follows “what the Edo election has confirmed is that when the President and Commander-in-Chief puts the country first and conducts himself as a statesman, not just as a party leader, credible elections are possible, because people were apprehensive that the Nigerian Army could be misused. But of course, I told them I didn’t think they were right, but the President’s clear directive was that the votes must count."
The
former labour leader continued in his praise of then President Jonathan
saying "We need to appreciate the President and encourage him to
sustain this principle of truly reminding all of us, who hold political
office, that we are at the mercy of the electorate, not of the
Presidency. I think the President has done that. The President has demonstrated statesmanship. I think there is hope for Nigeria”.
Going by the statement he made above, many Nigerians were shocked to read his recent statement on August 23rd, 2015 where he said inter alia "if
the Igbos were marginalized, it was President Jonathan and the PDP. If
Nigerians know what these people did, they will stone them to death –
jungle justice."
How is it possible that three
years ago, Governor Oshiomhole saw President Jonathan as a well behaved
statesman who rose above partisanship to put the nation first and then
make a 180 degree turn to attack the same person and suggest that he be
stoned by the public?
Anyone who knows Former President Goodluck Jonathan knows that the first description of him by Governor Oshiomhole is correct.
Former
President Goodluck Jonathan is a man who does not lust for power and
refused to reach out to grasp power even when it was within his reach in
2010 during the saga occasioned by the tragic illness of his boss,
President Umaru Musa Yar'adua.
Jonathan demonstrated loyalty, patience and complete submission to the will of God and God elevated him.
When
Dr. Jonathan lost the March 2015 Presidential election, he did not wait
for the Independent National Electoral Commission to finish declaring
results before calling then candidate Muhamnadu Buhari to concede.
As
a result, for the first time in her history, Nigeria does not have any
judicial challenge against the winner of a Presidential election.
President Jonathan is a man of honour who does not deserve the treatment being meted out to him by Governor Adams Oshiomhole.
The
Comrade Governor should come to an awareness that his party, the All
Progressive Congress, is now in power. They are no more in opposition.
The
Jonathan administration remains the only administration in Nigeria's
history that promoted freedom of Speech by signing the Freedom of
Information Bill into law so Nigerians could have access to any
information they so desire.
Versions of the Freedom of Information Law are also in force in Western nations including the US.
Only
on August 21st, 2015, an investigation by Leadership Newspapers (whose
publisher is an APC chieftain and former Presidential Aspirant on the
platform of the party) revealed that no US official ever told Governor
Adams Oshiomhole or any other person that one minister stole $6 Billion
under President Jonathan's watch and challenged the Comrade Governor to
name the US official that said so and the minister involved.
Nigerians may read that investigative report here http://leadership.ng/news/
Governor
Oshiomhole may want to take advantage of the FOI law by ensuring that
his aides use it to verify any allegation he may have before he going
public with it.
For example, he could
have accessed freely available information from the Bureau of Public
Procurement, BPP, as to the total cost of the 2nd Niger Bridge and he
would have established that the entire cost of the bridge was ₦108
billion. How is it then possible to pay a consultancy fee of ₦140
billion for a project of ₦108 billion as the comrade Governor alleged?
When
the comrade Governor said that the Agricultural Transformation of the
Jonathan administration was a hoax, did he know that the International
Food Policy Research Institute, IFPRI, revealed in their annual Global
Hunger Index that hunger in Nigeria reduced while Jonathan was
President?
This fact was carried by no less a
medium than Premium Times and most Nigerians would know that Premium
Times would not publish anything good about the Jonathan administration
if it was not true.
That report could be read here http://www.
Governor Oshiomhole should note that four years is not such a long time. Every time
spent in distracting President Buhari from the task of governance by
attacking ex-President Jonathan is borrowed from time that should have
been spent in helping the new administration succeed.
You
do not try to please a man who may be kind to you by demonizing a man
who has been kind to you. When you do that, you are sending two
messages.
First,
you are telling the man who has already been kind to you that he was
foolish for being kind to you. Secondly you are communicating to the
man who may be kind to you that he will be foolish if he goes on to
extend kindness to you.
I
pray that my Christian advise does not meet with the bombastic response
that previous attempts at engaging the Comrade Governor have received. I
mean no harm as I only want to draw the attention of Governor
Oshiomhole to the fact that no condition is permanent on earth.
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