Dasukigate: Was Jonathan actually a perceived robot?

When President Muhammadu Buhari on May 29, 2015 took the reins of government, in his first few months, the world was besieged by a surge of sleaze. The presidential panel chaired by Air-Vice Marshall John Ode (rtd), unearthed several stories of mindboggling allegations of corruption in high places including Wadata Plaza the baking room of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

By Sanusi Muhammad

Many of the allegations revolved around the office of the sacked National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd), a prince of the Sultanate of Sokoto.

The narrative evolved as a theatre of accusations and recriminations about full throated defenses, protestations of innocence, explanations hiding under veils of technicalities, half-confessions overcast by shadows of regret, epistolary flourishes marked by aggressive assertions and the bandying of figures.

Whether during arrests, or through supine visages in court or defiant poses on newspaper pages, or the electronic media, the persons involved in this still unfolding drama have further desecrated the cathedral vista of government office. They brought the dignity of public service down to a farce of thieving in tandem with the wish of Tafa Bologun, DSP Alameisiegha, Olabode George, AbdulRasheed Maina, Bayero Nafada, Dimeji Bankole, Joshua Dariye, Danjuma Goje, Olisa Metuh, Raymond Dokpesi, Attahiru Bafarawa, James Ibori, Gabriel Suswan, Peter Odili, Chimaroke Nnamani, Ramalan Yero, Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, Rev. Jolly Nyame, Saminu Turaki etc.

Many persons were on the take. Many contracts defied the minimal rules of civilized transactions. The money disbursed in the name of national security fulfilled any imaginary purpose from online fantasy to religious ecstasy.

What is baffling in this cacophony of iniquity is the inscrutable silence of the principal actor of the regime: ex-president Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan. To be fair to the ex-president, he uttered a rebuttal at the onset of the allegations.

“I did not award any $2billion contract for the procurement of weapons. Where did the money come from?” He asked at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in faraway United States.

Showing how he felt about the welter of allegations, he said, “Sometimes I feel sad when people mention figures”.

Jonathan also adverted to figures cited by President Buhari administration after a visit to the United States barely a month he assumed office. “When the president paid official visit to the US, there were some figures that were mentioned that I don’t believe”. He referred to “$150billion American money” reported to be missing, adding rhetorically. “And Americans will not know where it is?” He felt the allegations were not pelted at his administration.

That was November 19, 2015. In the flush of the first few days of the allegations, sacked NSA Dasuki also presented an exterior of innocence and victimization. He issued a statement that seemed sturdy and beyond reproach. He said he was made NSA on June 22, 2012 while the allegations dated March 2012. He explained that “all contracts and accruing payments were with the approval of the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces. Once the President approved, The NSA paid”.

He shamelessly added that “there was due process for every purchase in line with regulations guiding arms procurement for the armed forces”.

Dasuki further said that “Nigerians should note that all the services generated the types of equipment needed, sourced from suppliers most times and after consideration by the ONSA, the President will approve application for payment”.

He boasted that “I am ready for trial on all the allegations in order to prove to Nigerians that I did nothing untoward”.

But weeks after that shameless boast, the picture started to change. Its’ web enveloped quiet, a few politicians, business men, the media etc. Confessions erupted from the lips of some of those who collected large sums direct from the ONSA. For instance, the former chairman of Africa Independent Television (AIT), Chief Raymond Dokpesi confessed collecting N2.1billion. His indecent son defended the contract by saying that former President Jonathan and his former vice, Namadi Sambo were present at the time of approval. To that rogue of a son, was that what the NSA characterized as due process? Another absurd part of the story was the confession and revelation that N4.6billion was disbursed to a former Sokoto state governor, Dalhatu Attahiru Bafarawa for spiritual purpose. The president of Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Nduka Obaigbena, confessed to have received N670million as compensation for impounded newspapers by soldiers in 2014 and for the bombing of This Day newspaper office in Abuja in 2012.

But the charge against him was that he collected the money for his company, Hydrocarbons not NPAN as he claimed.

Amb. Bashir Yuguda, Jonathan’s former minister of state finance, said he doled out N100million to each of the leaders of PDP across the country, but the drama spun into an absurd light when some PDP chieftains, including the notorious ex-convict, Bode George denied. George said the amount was inflated while Jim Nwobodo said he only knew about the cash disbursement not from Yuguda but from PDP former national chairman, Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu. He claimed that when it fell on his laps, it was N500million which he equally disbursed to the five state governors of his zone (South-east).

Dr. Peter Odili representing South-south zone also said he collected only N600million from the residence of Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu not from Bashir Yuguda which he disbursed to the six PDP state chairmen as directed. Attahiru Bafarawa also said, he never collected money from Bashir Yuguda in whole. Part of what he collected was from Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu. The mindboggling question for EFCC is who was the distributor of the sleazed funds? Should the distributor be brought forward to debunk or accept the allegations and attend to his crime with passion? He should be made to state the source of the money he disbursed to his crew members in the sunk satanic ship.

We cannot ignore former finance minister and coordinator of the economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and her confession. She wrote that $322million of the returned Abacha loot was approved by President Jonathan before she conveyed the princely amount to Dasuki for the war against terror. The minister who claimed a regime above board has not explained how the sum was disbursed and why she raised no eyebrows while our soldiers starved and were dying in the hands of insurgents in spite of the huge allocation. What this shows is that this is no more a fairy tale series of allegations. From the confessions, it is crystal clear money passed from the ONSA, and princely amount at that. It refutes the NSA’s claims that they were unleashed on the war against terror, given the purposes for which some of the money was disbursed. Why, for instance, would a former governor collect N4.6billion for spiritual reason while he is neither a cleric nor a man of God?

It is also questionable if the amount passed through due process. Where were the certificates of incorporations of the companies, particulars of directors, tax clearance certificates from 2011, letters of award of contracts, invoices of supplies or services, evidence of payment so far and outstanding balances, personal income tax clearance certificates of directors etc?

The presence of PDP bigwigs in the unfolding drama reveals that national security was the bogey man for the liberal shower of corruption. Is it true as some of the confessions implied that national security was a guise to funnel slush funds for PDP political campaigns?

What that betrays is a fundamental cankerworm in our body polity, and this is not restricted to the PDP alone. The perception of public funds as the entitlement of the power that be, had turned our patrimony into a battleground. Any party or person in power uses the advantage of public funds to energize political campaign, pay off loyalty and overwhelm the opposition.

Now, the former president denied the allegations at the beginning, probably hoping the matter would die like a suffocated lizard. But since the damning revelations, outcries of condemnation and sighs of disgust in the civil society, the main player of the era, Jonathan Goodluck, needs to come clean about what he knows. If he knew nothing, then definitely he was a robot in power. But how could such a huge amount of money move out of the government’s coffers without the knowledge of the Chief Accounting Officer in government?

When Jonathan said he did not “believe” it, did he mean it was a lie, unbelievable or wondered if it was true? If a whole former president spoke in such terms of ambiguous indignation, we have every reason to wonder how he governed Nigeria. Was Nigeria then on a reverse gear under him?

Interestingly, one of those charged along with Dasuki was Warripamowei Dudafa. Dudafa was Jonathan’s Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Domestic Affairs. EFCC said it was Dudafa who collected N10billion part of funds in the account of Dasuki with the Central Bank of Nigeria in foreign currency to wit: $47million and 5.6million Euros which was a criminal breach of trust punishable under section 315 of the Penal Code Act, Cap 532,vol. 4 LFN 2004.

That is why he has to unveil a methodical defense of all the allegations of theft and corruption, even if EFCC is not willing to put him in the dock as one of those criminals that pauperized Nigeria under the guise of service.

The Executive Director, Civil Society Legislature Advocacy Centre, Abuja, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani emphatically stated that, “If Jonathan and his co-travelers are found wanting, they should be prosecuted. The fact that he handed over power peacefully does not stop him from prosecution. The money should be recovered”.

Finally, after retrieving the stolen funds from those criminally minded rogues that abused public trust, let them be immediately posted to Sambisa forest to serve their prison terms. I salute the courage and patriotism of Nigerians for always chasing crooks out of power. If Jonathan had won the 2015 election and retained those criminally minded elite as his cabinet members and political associates, Nigerians could have headed to the garbage heaps of choice areas in cities for crumbs thrown away from the tables of criminals and vandals in power. God save Nigeria.

Muhammad is a commentator on national issues