OMOKRI, AREGBESOLA AND THE JONATHAN AD-
My attention has been drawn to a piece by Reno Omokri, disparaging the person of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola over facts revealed by the Osun governor on how the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan pillaged our national resources. Omokri’s outburst against Ogbeni does not deserve a response and the reasons are not far-fetched. Omokri is obviously living a lie, surrounded by unseen forces, and believes in a distorted historical fact of a government he once actively participated in.
For the sake of clarity, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola whilst hosting a team of delegates from the federal government on the Digital Switchover project, explained how Nigeria got into this sorry state. Three indisputable facts given by the governor for the payment of modulated salary in his state are the following; economic downturn induced by brazen corruption, wanton theft of crude oil and mismanagement of the country’s resources by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led federal government under Goodluck Jonathan.
Has Omokri forgotten so quickly that at least $20bn allegedly disappeared into thin air under his master’s administration? Lest we forget, never has Nigeria’s resources been plundered like was witnessed during the Jonathan’s blighted era. The brazen theft and unprecedented looting of public funds under Goodluck Jonathan is an historical one since the entity called Nigeria was created. The Jonathan led administration single-handedly redefined corruption in government.
Lest we forget, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala went on a borrowing spree to pay salaries of federal government workers shortly after she revealed over 400,000 barrels of crude oil was being stolen daily by government protected-plunderers, whilst her colleagues in other ministries busied themselves with thieving what was left in the treasury.
In fact, one of the notorious bandits that made up Jonathan’s cabinet was said to have chartered private jet at will to cater for her housemaid, whilst another abused her office by instructing agencies under her to purchase multi-million naira armoured vehicles for her leisure ride.
I will not belabour the issue of the ruin and destruction the Goodluck Jonathan era brought our way; however, my prayer is that may Nigeria never have to be governed by another president whose singular objective in leadership is to balkanise Nigeria.
Since Omokri lacks the requisite knowledge on how government works in Nigeria, let me take a moment to school him. Theoretically, Nigeria practices federalism. Except the Nigerian Constitution is amended, states within its domain will continue to depend on the federal government for sustenance, except for a few. Many of the resources are locked up in the hands of the federal government. Interestingly, there are 68 items in the exclusive list, with just around 30 on the concurrent list in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Osun, for example, has enough gold deposits, whose income can cater for a minimum of 50 years’ budget, is forced to go cap in hand to the federal government because the constitution acts as a major impediment to achieving our dream as a state. Kikiowo Ileowo, Osogbo