An Ex-Convict As Benefactor

Editor: I wish to comment on the interview granted Prince Bola Ajibola under the title “If an ex-convict is President Jonathan’s benefactor, we are not safe”, published in some national newspapers recently.

Prince Ajibola made the above statement in reaction to President Jonathan’s admission that an ex-convict and a former governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyieseigha, is his benefactor. In my attempt to perceive the moral dimension of the president’s grim admission I couldn’t hold back straying into ambivalence.

The fact that someone who assisted me in the past is later caught stealing does not erase the fact that he is my benefactor. Whether I support stealing or not is a different matter. President Jonathan became the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State courtesy of Alamieyieseigha long before he (Alamieyieseigha) was prosecuted for crime. Perhaps, it would have been more informed if Prince Ajibola had impugned the president’s discretion for admitting such in public.

Prince Ajibola is an Owu – (Abeokuta) man just like Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. He has benefited from appointments from those many consider as not corruption free. This includes Obasanjo who cannot deny being an ex-convict. He did not criticise Obasanjo when he used undue influence on multinational companies and the government to donate towards his N4 billion presidential library project. He did not condemn Obasanjo publicly when he held on to Lagos State’s statutory allocation for more than a year in disobedience of a court order. We did not hear the voice of this former Judge of the World Court when Obasanjo was disobeying court orders and standing on the rule of law. I don’t want to believe Ajibola is aware of the carnage unleashed on Anambra State by Obasanjo just to please the Ubas. Can Ajibola affirm that if the president who made him the Attorney General of the Federation is probed he would be cleaner than Alamieyieseigha?

In the interview under reference Ajibola referred to Obasanjo as an eminent statesman. Should we call on an Ijaw man to say the same of President Jonathan? Those whose palm kernel is cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble.

Oluwole Osagie-Jacobs,

Ikare.