In a traditional Igbo community, an accused person walks with shame and does not enjoy the cooperation of the kinsmen and kinswomen till he or she cleared his or her name from the indictment. This is why one cannot understand the basis of President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration shying away in a most blatant form, but are relatively standing tall in a most flagrant manner, to tell the world what it knows about the so-called squandered $67 billion (about N10.6trn) in Foreign Reserves that the former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili has been talking about that the governments of Presidents Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan should give account for. Upon that she has been challenging them for a debate, they are still barefaced to come out; but rather, are very far throwing tantrums and mud at such a glaring claim, as if Ezekwesili was speaking from a nightmare.
It has become apparent that the government of Jonathan has something to hide. If not, how could the garrulous Minister of Information, Labaran Maku describe the Ezekwesili’s allegation as “outlandish and clearly fictitious”, when the government is not supposed to be taking such master-claim with a pinch of the salt? Jonathan’s government should stop diverting attention with its unwanted laceration into the era when Ezekwesili was Education Minister. Jonathan and his agents should first engage Ezekwesili in the much invited debate before their backyard speech-making. How come the like of Okupe and the awful Maku who always open their mouths and talk, are now running away from the almighty debate, where they could have outshined Nigerians measure of them? They cannot convince the world henceforth if they do not accept this challenge of a debate.
It is understandable that Nigerians are not ready for blood revolution, because going by this, both politicians, civil servants, students, businessmen, husbands and wives, religious leaders, just name them, will not go off the hook. Without doubt in the mind, some individuals have channeled their energy, using literature as a tool for revolution, and some people are on the run. Just as it took Ezekwesili courage and integrity to speak out, where is Jonathan’s touted dignity to defend his ‘transformational’ government?
By Jonathan-led administration shrugging back from this debate, there would be no gainsaying the fact that he does not want Nigerians to be proud of Nigeria as long as she lasts, because his lackadaisical approach to the debate is not of hope, but of shame to Nigerians. If Jonathan in earnest wants Nigerians to eschew corruption, this is the time he has to come out to the public and raise his armpit up, to enable Nigerians to see if he is hiding something there or not. Ezekwesili is not just a loafer in the street, so for her to make such a statement and stand by it, means that her eyeglass has not expired.
What Ezekwesili is about to teach Jonathan and his agents is that they don’t understand the links between “macroeconomic variables and economic growth”. If they do, why are they running from the claim that Nigeria’s Foreign Reserves has nosedived, not by the ‘common’ person in the street, but by those who were supposed to protect Nigeria and Nigerians, but preferred retrogression in terms of dwindling economy, unfortunate quality of life, and so on?
It has developed into evident that the Federal Government preferred to inflict pains on Nigerians, when it cannot account for how the inputs and outputs of the country are managed. Jonathan and his agents always told us that they wanted macroeconomic stability, but we know better now that what they meant was macroeconomic sabotage. Can we say that this administration lacks the intellectuality, when its pilot holds a PhD? Or, has somebody or group found Jonathan’s weakness (of course we all have weaknesses) and is/are voyaging on the inglorious discovery to pillage the country, but today is/are running from a simple debate that secondary school students do not even shy away from?
The reform that Jonathan has always talked about has come, so why is somebody running? The thing is that Ezekwesili, perhaps, holds intimidating facts to her claim, and Jonathan and his agents are aware of this, and would not like to come to the public and be rewarded with public booing. But it is time pressure groups, students, activists and co. mounted pressure on this government, to tell Nigerians what it did with the said money, or what it knew about it. If some of the people in government can comprise, it has become palpable that not every Nigeria can compromise.
In spite of this, the writer of this exposition is just supporting Ezekwesili as a person, not as a professional, because the writer cannot attest to what she might have done when she was in the government. But the truth is that if somebody like Ezekwesili who had worked at the World Bank and had insight to Nigeria’s Foreign Reserves could be irrevocably asking President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration of the so-called squandered $67 billion (about N10.6trn), she was not holding water in her mouth and was talking. But the annoying thing is that, unlike in a traditional Igbo community where the accused walks with shame, Jonathan administration is playing the opposite?
Odimegwu Onwumere, Poet/Author, Media/Writing Consultant and Motivator, is the Coordinator, Concerned Non-Indigenes In Rivers State (CONIRIV);
