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Open Letter To Former President Goodluck Jonathan Part 2 By Dotun Oloko

December 16, 2015

During the time when you thought Nigeria was your personal fiefdom to loot at will, we were working assiduously outside Nigeria to ensure that you and your cohorts both domestic and foreign, were brought to account. When we first started we were acutely aware from the responses that we were getting from the Western jurisdictions that there was a lack of political will to act on the matters that we were bringing to their attention.

My dear former President,

You may recall that I wrote an open letter to you which was published in Sahara Reporters on 18 January this year, when you were still President. In that letter I referred to you as a fraud and an impostor and advised that any notion that you were above the law and could act with impunity was frankly risible. Well Mr. Fortunato what say you now. We thank God that the year is not yet finished but you are and, Nigeria is beginning the long march to good governance and accountability.

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During the time when you thought Nigeria was your personal fiefdom to loot at will, we were working assiduously outside Nigeria to ensure that you and your cohorts both domestic and foreign, were brought to account. When we first started we were acutely aware from the responses that we were getting from the Western jurisdictions that there was a lack of political will to act on the matters that we were bringing to their attention. However, we later noted a change of mood in these foreign jurisdictions particularly the US and UK. They started to reassure us that they were doing everything possible to bring you and your Nigerian cohorts to account. They were particularly insistent that your oil minister, who is now on bail in the UK would be brought to book. They seemed to have become affronted by the scale of the looting that she was undertaking on your and her behalf. Needless to say I was somewhat sceptical about their change of heart and suspected that they were reassuring us of their determination to bring you and yours to book in an effort to divert attention away from our accusation that their efforts were skewed to shield your Western cohorts from investigation as they did with that of the US private equity firm, Emerging Capital Partners (ECP) in the case of James Ibori.

It is only now in the eye of Dasukigate that the penny has dropped and with the benefit of hindsight, it appears to me that the pendulum swung against you in the West because of your failure to deal with the security challenges posed particularly by Boko Haram, for the egregiously malevolentreason that you were busy looting the funds that should have been used to secure Nigerian lives. It is difficult for me to convey the level of open contempt for you and your administration that they felt free to display in my presence. Your rapacious greed for public funds has led you to your waterloo.

It is a sweet irony that your cohorts at home and abroad are now lining up to indict you. Your NSA appears to be disingenuously offering a puerile defence that he was diverting security funds on your instructions. Your finance minister has also thrown you under the bus by writing the memo which she thought would absolve her in the event that your chickens should one day come home to roost. It is only a matter of time before the CBN governor that you appointed to cover up your money laundering falls. Yes, I am aware of the circumstances surrounding your appointment of Emefiele. Outside of Nigeria, the ENI Italians are doing everything that they can to distance themselves from the allegations that they had knowledge that the OPL 245 funds would be shared by you and others. Their rationale appears to be that the case against you is so strong that they should abandon your sinking ship. Various criminal investigation agencies in the West have led me to understand that they restructured and expanded their capacities with a focus on you and yours. Can you imagine that? If you are deluded enough to believe that I do not know what I am talking about, ask your finance minister, she can vouch for me.

My dear Fortunato do not let the fact that before filing our complaint on OPL 245 with the Milan Prosecutor, we took into consideration the fact that he was the person that successfully prosecuted the former Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, cause you to lose any sleep.

Do not let the fact that your successor’s reputation will fall or stand on whether he allows the various multi-jurisdictional criminal investigation agencies to follow the evidence wherever it leads cause you to stay awake at night. 

Perhaps you might want to look to Lady Macbeth to steady your resolve. I would strongly urge you to think long hard about which countries you visit in the foreseeable future lest you make the same mistake that Ibori and your oil minister made. But then you may want to weigh up whether your fate is better embraced at home or abroad. Please extend my regards to your finance minister.

Yours sincerely,

Dotun Oloko