The Presidency announced last week that the Council of State granted pardon to some prominent individuals. Corralled by insufferable political opportunism, President Goodluck Jonathan included a former governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who had served time for corruption charges, on the list. Since the President, through the unsuspecting Council of State, granted the pardon to Alamieyeseigha, the Presidency has been raking up every imaginary excuse to justify the presidential infamy. Needless to say, the ghastly pardon and the torrent of excuses to defend it present this government as the most morally bankrupt in the history of political leadership in the country.
There are two steps leading to the granting of a presidential pardon. The first gatekeeper is the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy.
This body peruses any proposal by the President and makes its recommendations. A media report credited to Tam David-West, a former Minister of Petroleum, indicated that the President bypassed this committee and went straight to the National Council of State, which considered and approved his request. If that was the case, then the process was dubious, corrupt and offensive to good governance and transparency. The decision must be seen for what it is – a most reprehensible and visionless act, which etches the Jonathan Presidency on a canvas of infamy. Decidedly, his action is one indiscretion that once again vitiates his moral authority to govern.
Alamieyeseigha, who served as the governor of Bayelsa State from 1999 to 2005, is still a fugitive on the wanted list of the United Kingdom. After suspecting him of money laundering, a search of his London residence by London Metropolitan Police had yielded £1 million in cash and another £1.8 million was found in his bank account. Detained in London in September 2005 on money laundering charges and later released on bail, he jumped bail and fled back to Nigeria.
But this was just a pyrrhic victory; sooner than later, from a frying pan, he fell into fire. An incensed Bayelsa State House of Assembly had him impeached; and then followed his prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, under Nuhu Ribadu. Eventually, Alamieyeseigha pleaded guilty and was convicted for stealing public funds and money laundering. He forfeited huge cash and property to the government and was given a two-year sentence. But he stayed in jail for just two days, having been in prison for two years since his arrest. Jonathan, who was his deputy, became the governor in line with the 1999 Constitution.
Besides Alamieyeseigha, Mohammed Bulama, a former managing director of Bank of the North, who grounded the hitherto financial behemoth, got the same reprieve. Incidentally, these two recipients of state pardon were the first set of convictions the Ribadu-led EFCC secured in our law courts. In his rush to the door, facts have emerged that the names of Oladipo Diya, a former Chief of General Staff, the late Shehu Yar’Adua, Abdulkareem Adisa, roped into two phantom coups and convicted by the regime of the late Head of State, Sani Abacha, were used as smokescreen for the Alamieyeseigha pardon. These military officers had been pardoned before by a former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, by a gazette dated March 4, 1999. Jonathan’s haste is inexplicable; what a folly! Many senior lawyers insist clemency under the constitution is the same with the state of pardon.
Unsurprisingly, Nigerians are enraged by Jonathan’s action. Ribadu, whose gritty devotion to the anti-corruption campaign ensured that Alamieyeseigha was punished, lamented, “The action by government is capable of stopping the entire war against corruption. The message that is sent to the courts and the law enforcement agencies is a very negative one. It is a very discouraging act. Like most Nigerians, I am very disappointed by this development.” Others are no less disappointed. These fulminations within the country are complemented by international condemnations. Forthrightly, the BBC in its online report described the action as an “irresponsible decision,” while the AFP captioned the farce thus: “Nigeria’s President Pardons corrupt ex-governor.” No fewer than 10 former governors, all colleagues of Alamieyeseigha, are still standing trial for abuse of office since 2007 that their tenure expired. But James Ibori of Delta State, serving a 14-year sentence in London, and Lucky Igbinedion of Edo State are the only two so far convicted.
However, a few, blind to the moral odium inherent in the pardon of Alamieyeseigha, may argue that Jonathan acted within the powers vested in him in Section 175 (1) (2) of the Constitution and cite past beneficiaries, including Obafemi Awolowo and Odumegwu Ojukwu, as credible references. These claims ring hollow. It is argued that the pardon power should be used with caution and on a limited basis as a safety valve for true miscarriages of justice. It is also customary for outgoing presidents to show mercy in their final days in office, as a gesture of unity and reconciliation, but definitely not as an incentive for a galling national vice like corruption.
That some former American Presidents, including Bill Clinton and George Bush, abused the power can never be a sensible argument to justify Jonathan’s unconscionable act. The claim by Jonathan’s spin doctors that Alamieyeseigha was pardoned for ensuring stability in the Niger Delta is equally offensive. One clear fact is that every power goes with a responsibility. In exercising the power to pardon, Jonathan simply elevated his selfish interest over and above national ethos or morality. If he wanted to settle his political debt to Alamieyesigha, who he recently described as his political mentor, that should not be at the expense of the moral health of the country. The impetuous decision has only exposed his veiled ambition for 2015.
Corruption has manacled growth and development in Nigeria, an acknowledgement that led to the setting up of the EFCC in 2004 and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission a little earlier. Over $500 billion of public funds is said to have been looted between 1960 and 2009. In its heyday, the mere mention of EFCC sent shivers down the spines of crooked politicians, dishonest public officials, tainted contractors, scammers, corrupt bankers and sundry financial felons. Now this tribe of people mills around our President. No thanks to our President, the anti-graft agency has become a shadow of its once vibrant self. The awful combination of Yar’Adua and Jonathan governments has been accused of squandering $67 billion left in the coffers in 2007.
Jonathan has taken the culture of corruption to horrific levels. We once warned that “Nigeria is buckling under the weight of Jonathan’s propensity for the absurd.” Since he became President accidentally in 2010, Jonathan has been moving from one misstep to another. He has just added to his bulging record of infamies by compromising the pardon power with cronyism. The government’s inertia in dealing with the brazen theft of public funds by state officials perhaps may push the country to a precipice.
But Nigeria deserves better leadership. The President’s apparent lack of passion and laid back disposition do not engender much hope. His tendency to retreat into the cocoon woven around him by self-serving advisers, adopting a victim mentality that hardens his missteps and entrenches a culture of mediocrity at the highest level of governance must stop. He should redeem his reputation by rescinding this offensive act immediately.
Sunday Punch editorial.
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