By Bashir Adefaka

WHEN it was said, recently, that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s pardon was aimed mainly at favouring only his former boss, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, little did many know about it.  The public opposition was premised on the sniffed intention of the president, who laboured hard to save a former governor from the hooks hung around the neck of his ability to hold public office by the tag of ‘ex-convict’. That was major reason for the huge cry, which attended the announcement of pardon for the former Bayelsa governor.

Others affected by the pardon were former number-two citizen Lt. General Oladipo Diya; former Minister of Communications and General Officer Commanding, GOC, Three Division of the Nigerian Army, Major-General Tajudeen Olanrewaju; former Minister of Works and Housing and Military Governor of old Oyo State, Major-General AbdulKarim Adisa and others. The pardon was granted in March this year.

Diepreiye Alamieyeisegha

Many of the people who registered their anger and opposition to that presidential decision and pronouncement, said that they were doing so because they were convinced that it was not about pardoning the generals whose offence was merely as a result of political footballing arising from a phantom coup allegation. They wondered why General Ishaya Bamaiyi, who was Chief of Army Staff and was severally mentioned as arrow-head in the phantom coup was left off the hook? Critics of President Jonathan’s state pardon said he only added those Generals’ names to the list to give credence to the pardon of Alamieyeseigha.

That claim is today more than explicit in the sense that the presidency has continued to foot-drag on the release of a gazette to that effect. The problem with this is that, where the mere presidential pronouncement may have shielded Alamieyeseigha from the ‘ex-convict’stigma, Diya, Olanrewaju, Adisa and others of the military angle of the issue have not been so lucky because a pronouncement without an official gazette to back it up has hampered the Army Council or Army High Command from effecting the release of their benefits, which had been withheld for sixteen years now.

In a newspaper report recently, an Army General was quoted as saying that Generals Diya, Olanrewaju, Adisa and others are fine officers who had contributed well and immensely to the general good of the country. He added that their entitlements had already been computed ready for release but that the Army was constrained by the fact that there had not been official information or communication from the presidency to enable them restore their military status and release those entitlements to them.

If the state pardon for Generals, outside the one for Alamieyeseigha, was truly a pardon, why is it that while the former Bayelsa governor is already enjoying the benefits accruing to him from the pardon, the Generals are still not able to access any of the benefits expected of the pardon? It is, therefore, important for the President  to do the needful by directing the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, whose office, it was gathered, is responsible for the publication of the gazette, to release the official publication stating out the names of the pardoned without further delay.

It may be pertinent to implore Mr. President to bear it in mind that it is only better for him to finish the good thing he has started with the pardon instead of allowing somebody else to come later and complete and then take the glory.  No matter what the pressure is against doing it, he should give his directive and let the whole thing rest one and for all.

This is importantly said here because, one is aware of pressure from some inside-power opposition, which perhaps has amounted to the delay in the release of the official gazette by the Office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General.  Ironically, this unfortunate opposition is coming from those who themselves should by now have been forgotten in the history of Nigeria if not that they too were products of a state pardon.

This dragged pardon is one thing President Goodluck Jonathan should perfect if truly he does not want Nigerians, especially some of those, who had gone all out justifying his position on pardon for Alamieyeseigha to develop change of thought.  Once he, by this delay in the release of the gazette cast doubts in people’s hearts, who then would remain for him as friends?  He should do it and doing so is believed to have a way it helps him in resolving many of the issues and allegations of marginalization against his government from certain sections of the country.

No gainsaying that the president has many battles confronting him as a person and his administration as a system.  These battles, the way they look, appear to be gaining grounds in rubbishing his commitment to good governance and the best and only available missile he can deploy to strike them groundslide is to make more friends with people, the Generals: Diya, Olanrewaju and even AbdulKarim Adisa (in death) inclusive. Once again, Mr. President should listen to the voice of reason which says, a stitch in time saves nine!