Keyamo to Jonathan: You have no appetite to fight corruption

From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos

Lagos -based human rights lawyer, Mr. Festus Kayemo yesterday said President Goodluck Jonathan would be remembered as the president who destroyed his country and his political party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Keyamo in a press statement issued in Lagos said President Jonathan has no single appetite to fight corruption.

“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.

“The President only mouths anti-corruption. The other day (December 23rd, 2014, I think) the President said he would like to erect a Hall of Shame for Nigerians who engage in corrupt and unwholesome activities that bring the country to disrepute. But he was the same person who brought a convicted criminal, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, out of the Hall of Shame to the Hall of Fame by misusing his power of Prerogative of Mercy when he granted pardon to this self-confessed ex-convict. Imagine the pain, the efforts and resources that go into securing a single conviction for corruption in this our clime. Yet, the President decided to spoil the party for anti-corruption campaigners. On top of that, he displayed corruption within corruption by selective pardon when the likes of Tarfa Balogun, Lucky Igbinedion and others who were convicted about the same period did not enjoy his Presidential pardon.”

Kayemo further challenged leading citizens of the country to stop sitting on the fence ahead of the presidential election and, instead, speak out for the betterment of the country and for posterity to judge them positively.

“My message to those silent elites today is that whilst they are sitting on the fence, people are being killed like flies in some parts of the country on a daily basis; whilst we are on that fence, our foreign reserves are going down, corruption is growing like cancer, poverty is growing even in the face of dubious economic theories and figures, and we continue to live without adequate power supply”

Keyamo said apart from the fact that the president is from the Niger-Delta and thus a South-south person, there had been no other reason why some people in the region want him re-elected.

Those in the area who are agitating for the President’s re-election, Keyamo said, are only interested in what they can get from the President and not in the interest of Nigeria.