Jonathan Extend Pardon to Bode George, Tafa Balogun

SIR: Whoever says President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is not conscious of the federal character principle when doing his things should check the list of those recently granted pardon to see how magnanimous the president was in ensuring that the beneficiaries were drawn from almost all the geo -political zones of the country.

But the truth of the matter is that President Jonathan would still have to do more; if he could be so good to Alamieyeseigha, what precludes his goodwill from flowing to his contemporaries in the crime of money laundering and abuse of office?

Mr. Tafa Balogun who was Inspector General of Police, Chief Lucky Igbinedion, former Governor of Edo State and Chief Bode George, former chairman of the National Ports Authority would have appreciated the goodwill more than the dead paraded on Jonathan’s list, after all, these individuals are still alive and kicking.

The President may have forgotten that extending such gestures to them would be a good tactic of preparing towards 2015. If he is truly the president of all as he claims, then he should not have been selective in his choice of money laundering convicts to be pardoned, after all, ‘all convicts are equal’ or is it that Alams is more equal than the others?

Chief Alameseigha’ pardon is no doubt a presidential endorsement of illegal accumulation of wealth; the whole scenario is a mockery of the administration’s fight against corruption which has been shown to be bogus in its entirety anyway. It has only shown that public officials who loot public treasury can freely succumb to the warm hands of temptation, all they need do is to steal as much as they can, strike some plea bargaining deal with the prosecution in the event of one, get some very light sentence (which substantial part is to be served in the hospital), go home and enjoy the loot for some years and thereafter apply for state pardon. All they need ensure is a that they are in the good books of His Excellency, once that is guaranteed, there would be no problem.

One thing that should be kept in mind is that Alamieyeseigha’s pardon is just a gateway for others that are still being hatched in the nooks of the presidential villa. Tafa Balogun, Lucky Igbinedion, Bode George and others of their kinds may someday carry the day as Alams has done now.

• Vincent Adodo

Legal Aid Council, Ilorin, Kwara State.



-- The Nation