By: Benedict Agu
They said He wasn’t a democrat, he proved them wrong by conducting an election that has become a reference point on the continent of Africa today. They said He was corrupt, yet five years after leaving office, not a single case of corruption have they been able to bring forward against him. You then begin to wonder what his continued rising profile have psychologically and emotionally done to the Muhammadu Buhari regime, who still curiously and outrageously appears to be embroiled in a wild goose chase of their imaginary corruption allegations, against former President, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
While it somehow sounds laughable, one is also sincerely concerned about the latest drama of the regime, which media reports claim, is requesting all documents from American banks concerning any alleged transactions to, from, or for the benefit of Dr Jonathan and his wife between 2009 and the present day.
The latest revelation is scandalously an obvious witchhunt and tendentious at best. It is visible to the blind and audible to the deaf, that this is another in the series of the usual diversionary antics of the Buhari’s regime, whenever it is battling with its aviodable mistakes and irretrievably nosediving popularity.
Well, in the latest instance of the mendacious allegation, the regime flagrantly failed in its usual manner, to link any verifiable asset or the purported foreign bank accounts directly to Dr Goodluck Jonathan, but instead resorted to media rascality and propaganda, which has become the regular trademark of the Buhari’s regime.
It is important to remind this regime once again, that Nigerian political culture has advanced far beyond this regime’s characteristic blame game, rumours and innuendos. They should perhaps be reminded that the era of rumormongering and government propaganda is well past its sell-by date.
For the benefit of unsuspecting members of the public, particularly Nigerians, Dr Goodluck Jonathan today remains one of poorest former President in the whole of the African continent. And this is because he refused to appropriate public funds to himself, contrary to the design of the unconscionable propagandists desperate to sell a different narrative to the public. His lifestyle before, during and after office attests to the fact that this illustrious son of Nigeria has always lived within his means and was driven by patriotism for all his actions and policies as President.
How many Nigerian leaders, including President Muhammadu Buhari can find the comfort of having his residence in such part of Yenagoa, in Bayelsa State, where the Jonathan modest residence is located, or is it the rented duplex which houses the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation Office in Abuja that speaks to his opulence? For the avoidance of doubt Jonathan has no investment or property anywhere in the world today that could be described as a choice possession befitting of a man who has served this country as former Deputy Governor, Governor and later Vice President and President of the Federal republic of Nigeria.
Despite all the harassment and empty boasts of the Buhari regime targeted at his predecessor, none of the so called corruption allegations against Dr Goodluck Jonathan has been personally linked to him. Goodluck Jonathan is only a rich man, in the imagination of his detractors and shadow chasing agents of this regime.
Nothing can be more duplicitous of a serving government than to surreptitiously without recourse to Dr. Jonathan subpoena American banks to produce his non-existent bank documents despite the former President’s consistent insistence that he has no accounts abroad.
The fact that the Federal Government admitted in the US court judgement that was not under investigation on the matter being that the signing of the P&ID contracts preceded the Jonathan administration, points to the fact that there must be more to the endless witch-hunt than pursuit of public good.
It is as well that the former President has not only not restated his innocence but has gone further to urge the American authorities to cooperate with the blundering Attorney General of the Federation in his request for bank details senior officers that served in the past administration.
It is instructive that Jonathan through his spokesman reminded the Buhari government that it found itself in a big whole today with the P&ID imbroglio because it willfully ignored appropriate counsel stemming from a negotiated settlement offered in 2015 by the preceding administration that could have ended that matter without the threat of impending financial doom.
Despite the foregoing, it is obvious that operatives of the embattled Buhari regime will definitely stop at nothing in continuing on this path of infamy.
They will not give up on attempting to demonise Dr Jonathan and members of his family, especially as it has now become very obvious that the woeful performances of the regime, can never earn President Buhari the kind of popularity and influence, being enjoyed by Dr Goodluck Jonathan, after his tenure of office. But they fail to realise that Nigerians are no fools.
