Keyamo: Jonathan Lacks Capacity to Secure Nigeria, Fight Corruption 19 Jan 2015 Views: 5,838 Font Size: a / A 101014F-Festus-Keyamo.jpg - 101014F-Festus-Keyamo.jpg Lagos lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo By Tobi Soniyi Lagos lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo, has said President Goodluck Jonathan lacks the capacity to secure Nigeria and fight corruption. In a statement he issued yesterday, Keyamo called on the elites not to sit on the fence and urged them to explain to the masses the many failings of Jonathan. He said: “My real worry is that many Nigerians who are the elites can see through some of these outright falsehoods but have decided to sit on fence and keep an embarrassing silence. “They forget that millions of ordinary Nigerians who are confused and hoodwinked by these falsehoods and who do not have access to facts depend on their voices and guidance to make their choices.” According to him, it would be wrong for Nigerians to re-elect Jonathan as president. He accused the preisdent of failing in the areas of security, economy and infrastructure development, critical sectors that are fundamental to the continued survival and growth of any society. He said the resort to ethnic and religious sentiments by the president and his campaigners would not help his cause. Keyamo faulted Jonathan’s claim to be fighting corruption, insecurity and to have improved the economy. He argued that the president’s claims could not be supported by any facts as he (Jonathan) was only paying lip service to corruption while insecurity heightened and economy going from bad to worse. Keyamo, who is prosecuting the case of money laundering against former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, wondered why Jonathan was comfortable among people whose integrity were under question. He argued that the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen Muhammadu Buhari, was a ready and better alternative to Jonathan. He said: “We have a president who has no single appetite to fight corruption – yes, none. Imagine a campaign that is dominated by the theme of corruption, yet the president has decided to appoint a person facing trial for money-laundering as his Director of Media and Publicity. “If nobody would say it, I will say it because I am the one prosecuting the fellow in court and the case has been adjourned to February 23 and 24 for trial. “Part of the lies told is that the fellow has been freed whereas some of the counts in the charge were just struck out and the court held that he has a case to answer on some other counts. “Yet nobody is asking the president these hard questions. Before Jonathan’s administration, Boko Haram was nothing but a rag-tag group of extremists living in enclaves like Sambisa, while our proud military boys patrolled the towns. Now, under Jonathan, the reverse is the case. “One obvious flaw is that our president has lost control of the military and the top hierarchy of the military is merely feeding fat on this unfortunate situation and the president seems to be totally helpless in the face of this. “The president is already sounding like a broken record. He says he has made the rails to function again. He mentioned this so much that you imagine that he was primarily elected to revive a few train lines. It sounds very funny when you hear such things, whereas the primary duty of government is the protection of lives and properties. “If that primary duty fails, then the government has failed. It is like an undergraduate hoping to be promoted to the next level by barely scraping through the ‘electives’ and failing the core courses. It will never happen. So, is the president providing train coaches to be transporting the dead bodies from the North to the South? Are the trains to be occupied by living human beings or dead human beings? “All the personal attacks on the person of Buhari in the last few weeks have only convinced me that he is the best available option at this time. Anyone on the weaker side in any argument always resorts to personal abuses and attacks. Have you noticed that on corruption, the only accusation against Buhari is that, he was too high-handed in fighting corruption in the past? In other words, nobody can/has accused him of lacking the courage, zeal and will to fight corruption. “On the other hand, the president eats, sleeps and wakes up with corruption. In one of his famous interviews, he did not even see stealing as corruption. That is why he does not see the point why he should not appoint a person standing trial for corruption as his Director of Media and Publicity. He just does not care. “So, Nigerians, we must decide what we want. When Buhari fought corruption and was supposedly high-handed, he was ruling with decrees. Now, he has the constitution, the National Assembly, and the udiciary without ouster clauses to guide him. “It is therefore only an idiot that will believe the propaganda that he would throw everyone suspected of corruption into jail. I feel so sorry at times for the gullible masses of this country who fall for such cheap propaganda. But it is his type of appetite and revulsion against corruption that we so dearly need at this time. “You may say whatever you like about Buhari, but in terms of the character, the steel, the competence to lead the nation out of this period of insurgency, nobody can compare a Jonathan to a Buhari. Just imagine the service chiefs (who were probably in secondary school when Buhari and others fought the civil war) sitting in front of Buhari to brief him about the situation in the North-east, and attempting to mislead him about movements of artillery, brigades or troops and, the strategy against the enemy,” Keyamo said.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 20:05:21 +0000
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