• Says Jonathan an accomplice in N10b plane charter scandal
Former Petroleum Minister, Tam David-West, has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to prove his innocence in the alleged N10 billion plane charter saga by ensuring that Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, faces probe.
Jonathan dismissed the allegation during his presidential chat earlier this month, describing it as politicking by the House of Representatives.
The lawmakers have adjourned the investigation till June 17, but Alison-Madueke and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) have filed a new suit to stop it.
David-West argued that “If a head of state appoints a minister and a minister misbehaves and the head of state refuses to discipline the minister, then he is an accomplice. He knows what is happening.
“Jonathan should mind what he does. Let the normal process go on to show whether she is innocent or guilty. He should allow a public probe and let her name be cleared.”
He spoke to TheNiche in an interview.
To David-West, it is appalling that Jonathan has not taken action against Allison-Madueke despite the weighty accusation against her that she spent N10 billion to hire planes.
“Jonathan should have told her to step aside long ago and allow free investigation of the matter and a public hearing because we are talking about N10 billion public funds.”
David-West recalled that during his own tenure, he travelled only on commercial flights, because “it was (Head of State, Muhammadu) Buhari’s policy that public officers must travel with Nigeria Airways once it covered that route.
“Throughout my stay as minister – I was at OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries), Vienna, Geneva – I travelled on public transport.”
He insisted that Buhari is the only Nigerian who can end corruption in the country.
When asked if Buhari’s age at 71 would not be a setback, he argued: “(Ronald) Reagan was older than Buhari when he became President of America. (Nelson) Mandela was older than Buhari when he became President of South Africa. Age has nothing to do with this.
“Julius Caesar became the head of Rome at the age of 18. And my own grandfather, David-West, was head of the David-West family at the age of 18.
“What of (Yakubu) Gowon? He was Head of State at 31. (Alfred) Diette-Spiff was Governor of Rivers State in his twenties.
“What are we saying; (compared with Buhari) Jonathan (aged 56) is a young man, what has he done? They are afraid of Buhari because he will stamp out corruption in this country.”
David-West also took a swipe at former militant leader, Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, who argued that schoolgirls were not kidnapped in Chibok when the news first broke.
Asari-Dokubo, who he said has a history of rascality, even led a public protest claiming that the case was a Northerners’ plot to bring down Jonathan’s government.
“Somebody told me that Asari-Dokubo abused me on Facebook. I don’t want to talk about him. Asari-Dokubo is my cousin. He has stayed with me in my house on Sankore Avenue, Ibadan. I used to give him pocket money.
“Now he has made so much money without ever being employed for an hour. He was thrown out of university two times. He was thrown out of the University of Port Harcourt; he was thrown out of the University of Calabar.
“Asari-Dokubo has never worked one hour of earned salary. So if anybody is saying no girl is missing, he should be sent to a psychiatric hospital.”
David-West also faulted Jonathan’s extension of emergency rule in the three states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.
His words: “The government can send troops to any part of the country for security without declaring emergency rule. When (former President Olusegun) Obasanjo sent troops to Odi, was emergency rule declared there?
“If there is trouble anywhere and the commander-in-chief feels that it is beyond the control of the police, troops can be sent there without declaring emergency rule.”
In David-West’s view, declaration of a state of emergency creates another situation of anxiety and tension, noting that if emergency rule has not solved the problem of Boko Haram for one year, “if you have it again for another one year, it cannot solve it because the basic issue has not been addressed.”
He argued that the basic issue of Boko Haram is not religion because the jihadists destroy mosques, churches and even attack emirs.
The basic issue is unemployment and frustration among the youth, since an idle mind is the devil’s workshop, he added.