The Jonathan presidency got a bloody eye Wednesday in Lagos, when
Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, characterized the state pardon granted
former governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, by President
Goodluck Jonathan, as both a corrupt act and an example of state
impunity
Mr. Soyinka, who made the comments while opening this year’s edition
of the Lagos Black Heritage Festival, also slammed comments made by
President Jonathan’s spokesman, Reuben Abati, that those criticizing the
immorality of the pardon were suffering from “sophisticated ignorance.”
“On the state pardon granted the former governor, I want to join the
bandwagon of the ignorant persons. I am happy to be counted among them.
For me, this kind of impunity is not unconnected to the controversy
which has been surrounding the N4bn allocation being sought by the First
Lady Mission. It is part of the same corrupt mentality,” remarked the
professor of literature and renowned author.
Mr. Soyinka said it was odd for Jonathan to equate Mr.
Alamieyeseigha’s case with those of the other people he granted pardon
because, according to him, the cases of other ex-convicts were largely
political, being victims of the late Sani Abacha junta who set them up
in a phantom coup.
“What is going on right now gives the picture of a government that is
floundering and justifying the unjustifiable. It amounts to
encouragement of corruption. The United States Government wants the
felon. We have a case of an officer of the law – a governor – who went
to another country and broke the law of the nation. He jumped bail.
“I believe that such a person does not deserve a state pardon. So, I
have joined the league of the ignorant persons condemning the act. I
criticise and deplore President Jonathan for granting pardon to the
former governor” he said.
President Jonathan has been the butt of national and international
outrage for his controversial state pardon on convicted high profile
felons like his former boss, Mr. Alamieyeseigha, and Shettima Bulama a
former chief executive of the defunct Bank of the North.
He has also drawn public anger for the pardon of a former army major,
Bello Magaji, a homosexual rapist who the Supreme Court of Nigeria
jailed for 5 years for serially sodomising four teenage boys.
