MAKING A HERO OF KANU

President Buhari breathed legitimacy into every agitation for secession in the South East and South South regions of Nigeria when he promised to favour those who voted him en masse ahead of those that didn't shortly after assuming office.There couldn't be a better justification than the President pledging to make them 2nd class citizens in violation of their Constitutional right to freedom of association and from being discriminated against.

The strong will of the majority of the people of both regions to remain a part of this nation especially the South East,which seemed to have waited forever to get its first non-ministerial appointment must be commended.

When Nnamdi Kanu,the arrowhead of the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB) was arrested at a hotel in Lagos about 2 years ago,no one would have ever thought he would step out of Kuje Prisons on bail in the manner he did.He has gone from whom many thought a semi-lunatic spewing what even a lucid him wouldn't make any sense of on radio to a man that has had people like Prof.Charles Soludo,Pat Utomi,Peter Obi,the entire South-East governors and virtually every human rights activist call for his release.Ayo Fayose was in court on the day his bail application was being ruled on and he was dressed in red to show solidarity.The Buhari administration made a hero out of a villain.

At every point it kept denying him freedom after being granted bail from the magistrate court where he was first arraigned to the subsequent orders for same by other courts,it had more people rooting for him.For an addendum, his followers were massacred in Port Harcourt, Rivers State for doing nothing other than celebrating Donald Trump's inauguration as U.S President.

This administration by its flagrant disregard for the rule of law, has swapped places with its adversaries in the fight between good and evil.A lot of people are starting to forget this man started a radio station with the sole aim of disuniting this nation.He distorted facts and used highly unsavory words in propagating his message of a Biafra nation.What people now see is a man oppressed by the Buhari regime and one that deserves some sympathy for his travails.What we now see is a man who is starting to garner more support from his people as his 'oppressed' status has pumped an air of righteousness into his struggle.

A lot of us have been calling on the government for the last 2 years to put a halt to its human right violations and abide by the dictates of the laws governing us because of the possible far-reaching consequences.

I took up this matter with the National Bar Association President in person and even suggested lawyers go as far as boycotting courts until court orders are obeyed.It amounts to double standard for a government to claim the judiciary is uncooperative in its bid to sanitize the system when it doesn't obey the courts lay down.

The negative implications are starting to manifest and I sincerely hope they don't spiral out of control.

With Kanu decked in the caparison of the oppressed, everything seems to be attracting sympathy to his plight and even the worst PR specialist will tell you how crucial a role sympathy can play in moulding public opinion.And in this case where the man wants to disunite Nigeria,that is most undesirable.

The stringent conditions attached to his bail last week by Justice Binta Nyako only made matters worse as it only sprang up conspiracy theories of the government interfering to ensure he stays under lock and key.That a man granted bail for the purpose of seeking proper medical care would be required to produce a jewish high priest, 'someone as highly placed' as a Senator and someone who owns a property in Abuja as sureties to deposit N100M each is ridiculous.It is despicably sad that the conditions didn't reflect the dire need to allow him go and look after his health and if not for the compassion the authorities had managed to spring up on his behalf,the man could quite easily have been still locked up in his ill state.

Word is the South East Caucus of the Senate met in a bid to help perfect his bail conditions and that tells you the extent to which Kanu's popularity has soared.He has come a long way from someone whose cause didn't seem likely to spread any farther than the container his radio station was transmitting from to having the system justify that cause with its excrescences.The villain has become a hero.

HAVE THE JONATHANS BEEN GRANTED IMMUNITY?

The decision by the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating allegations of corruption and breach of due process in the sale of the OPL 245 oil field more popularly referred to as the Malabu Scandal,to consider inviting Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to answer questions on the role he played in the saga elicited joyous reactions from a lot of Nigerians.The status quo which suggests Mr and Mrs Jonathan have no case to answer with the authorities despite been mentioned in a couple of investigations is totally unacceptable.The Buhari administration has shamelessly looked the other way on the occasions the Jonathans' name have come up.

Revelations after Dame Patience Jonathan filed an application through her lawyers to have a freezing order on her account with Skye bank overturned showed the EFCC knew or ought to know at the time it arrested persons associated with the account, that she had the ATM card for the said account and had been withdrawing money from it since 2010.These facts were ascertainable at the most preliminary stage of investigations and it was obvious the EFCC had deliberately skipped her.The woman had been overlooked and saved possible jail time and humiliation but it was nothing to be grateful about.

The audacious public claim of ownership prompted many to think her and her husband had Buhari by the balls and were not scared of squeezing hard if need be.Moreso when the EFCC as a face-saving measure, began to seize her assets without ever inviting her to answer any questions talk more prosecute her.Facts available to the anti-graft agencies were enough to necessitate the seizure of her properties but not enough to warrant prosecution. How rational does that sound?.

During investigations into the $2.1 billion arms deal,the former National Security Adviser,Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) said every payment he made was authorized by ex-President Jonathan and Doyin Okupe,a media aide of the former President said his former boss approved the sum he received.No questions were asked of GEJ, we just went about our lives like it was no big deal.There has been a nauseating disinterestedness and incuriousness on the part of our anti-graft bodies towards the Jonathans whenever a significant need to look into their activities has risen.

President Buhari promised to prosecute any one found culpable of embezzling money including those who return their loot and even though he has chewed back those words, if such a will ever truly existed and even if the Jonathans were among the exceptions, then he ought not to have condoned Patience Jonathan's arrogance in overlooking the 'favour' done to her because of the need to send a strong message to those who think they can take for granted,the benevolent gestures of his government.

He should have still held on to the funds returned (if any) and gone ahead to prosecute her.Everything adds up to the fact that the Jonathans,who ran the most corrupt government this country has ever seen seem to be enjoying a special immunity sanctioned from the highest of places.

Even after the promise by the House of Reps committee Chairman,Hon.Razak Atunwa to look into summoning President Jonathan to clarify his part in the lingering Malabu scandal where a Russian middleman,Ednan Agaev who helped negotiate the transfer of OPL 245 to SHELL and ENI by the FG, told the FBI and Italian prosecutors that Jonathan may have gotten as much as a $200 million bribe, a disturbing report emerged hinting that the committee has succumbed to pressure mounted on it by 'concerned' Nigerians to dispense with his attendance and accept a written submission instead because of the negative implications inviting him could have on the polity.Though it has stayed a rumour, it serves as a perfect illustration of the lengths to which GEJ and those covering his backside can go to thwart the only genuine effort made at looking into his dealings as leader of the most corrupt government we have ever had.

President Buhari's emergence in 2015 was more down to Jonathan's inadequacies than the belief majority of Nigerians had in a 72 year old's abilities to turn things around.If there was any consolation, it was his stance on corruption.A lot of people didn't really believe every indigent Nigerian would get N5,000 monthly or that the naira would rise to equal the dollar as was promised by the APC.Fighting corruption sounded the most realistic of their targets and it was the one a lot of Nigerians eagerly looked forward to but so far, the war hasn't been as straight as expected and it is really sad that the leader of the most vicious gang of pen and paper bandits ever known to us seems to have been shielded.