Buzz by Olumide Iyanda
Email: oiyanda@yahoo.com Twitter: @mightyng
Having squandered a record amount of the nation’s wealth and public goodwill since assuming office as President in May 2010, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has since become the butt of jokes and scathing criticism from sworn enemies and some people who once swore by his name. I do not know which of the two categories former Minister of Solid Minerals and later Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, belongs to but she once managed to touch a raw nerve in Aso Rock with her accusation that the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua/Jonathan administration wasted $67 billion saving her former boss, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, left behind.
The Federal Government however didn’t take Ezekwesili’s allegation lying down. First, it was then Minister of Information and now cock-wielding APGA gubernatorial candidate in Nasarawa State, Labaran Maku, who accused her of betraying “a surprisingly limited understanding of government finances.” Not done, he said her figure was factually incorrect because “at the end of May 2007 (when Obasanjo left), Nigeria’s gross reserves stood at $43.13 billion – comprising the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s external reserves of $31.5 billion, $9.43 billion in the Excess Crude Account, and $2.18 billion in Federal Government’s savings.” These figures, according to him, “can be independently verified from the CBN’s records.”
Wanting to rub salt in whatever injury he thought he had inflicted on the former World Bank Vice President for Africa, Maku found Ezekwesili’s “interrogation of the educational system somewhat disingenuous and borderline hypocritical,” because “during her tenure as Minister of Education between 2006 and 2007, she collected a total sum of N352.3 billion from direct budgetary releases. In addition, she received about N65.8 billion under the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Fund, and over N40 billion from the Education Trust Fund (ETF) during her time as Minister of Education. In view of these humongous allocations, a few legitimate questions arise. What did she do with all these allocations? What impact did they have on the education sector? One wonders if our educational system wouldn’t have been better today if these allocations were properly applied.”
Ezekwesili’s challenge that the government should engage her in a public debate over the figures was, expectedly, rejected by Aso Rock. Dr. Doyin Okupe, who fancies himself as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, while accusing Ezekwesili of “showing ignorance despite having served in government for so long,” said it is preposterous to be asking for a national debate “on the outlandish and reckless disinformation she made to incite the Nigerian people against the government.”
Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to the President, Dr. Reuben Abati, then added the kind of spin that only he could have conjured with his often caustic pen. According to him, “a loosely bound group of yesterday’s men and women seems to be on the offensive against the Jonathan administration. They pick issues with virtually every effort of the administration, pretending to do so in the public interest; positing that they alone, know it all. Arrogantly, they claim to be better and smarter than everyone else in the current government. They are ever so censorious, contrarian and supercilious.”
Despite its claim to the contrary, the government has become notorious for ignoring the message to focus on the character of the messenger. That, however, did not start with Jonathan. As it is in the present dispensation so was it under Obasanjo with the likes of Okupe and later Femi Fani-Kayode serving as ‘attack dogs’ at different times. The latter, who went on to become Minister of Culture and later of Aviation, replied Abati on behalf of other “yesterday’s men.” Easily identified as belonging to that group too is Obasanjo’s Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nasir el-Rufai.
Jonathan’s inability to cover himself in glory made him an easy target for Fani-Kayode, el-Rufai and a growing army of born again activists who have found a voice in newspapers and the social media. Such people often have strong cases against the Jonathan administration whose attempts at doing a leg over against his critics usually end in mis-kick.
Ezekwesili and el-Rufai have remained steadfast in their criticism of the present administration. The former is a prominent figure in the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, while the latter is the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna State.
Today’s men may be deluded as Fani-Kayode, who has since sniffed his way into Jonathan’s good books, once argued, but yesterday’s men must also share in the blame of what Nigeria has become. Aside the millions of dollars squandered in bogus power projects, health care, third term and other scams, the most enduring legacy of the Obasanjo administration which el-Rufai, Ezekwesili and others who got their Damascus experience after May 29, 2007 served, is the fostering of the Yar’Adua/Jonathan administration on Nigerians. There probably would not be a Jonathan in Aso Rock today if yesterday’s men had left Nigeria better than they did.
We should never forget that. For, today’s men will become tomorrow’s born again activists.
- Adapted from an article written in February 2013
