Some Nigerians are honourable!

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NOBODY on this earth is perfect, so I don’t always agree with my Governor, Rotimi Amaechi and I’ve criticised him on this page on a few occasions.

But I told you last week that I understand Amaechi’s current annoyance with the Presidency because Presidency officials have treated me shabbily in the past…and have led me to conclude that Dr Goodluck Jonathan should personally take responsibility for the fact that he has chosen to be surrounded by negative folks who don’t bother to make or keep friends on their boss’s behalf.

My thesis was that Amaechi (who went out of his way to ensure that Mr President triumphed in Rivers State during the 2011 election) would not be rebelling against the PDP establishment now – or stressing our Niger Deltan Big Brother Jonathan _ if the Presidency had been better at managing relationships.

Managing relationships

Several Vanguard readers reacted to my remarks about Amaechi/Jonathan tensions and most of the responses were amicable. But some were hostile.

A fellow called Victor Williams (arabambiwilliams@gmail.com) sent me the following email (which I’ve summarized): “Donu…I can authoritatively say that you have been bribed by Amaechi because your write-ups are…full of bias”.

This is not the first time that detractors have accused me of zero integrity. I’m often informed that every pro_Amaechi opinion I express in writing must be “sponsored”…and that he must be paying me millions of naira to support him.

I have also been accused of complaining about the Jonathan administration at intervals because I have not received a substantial slice of the national cake.

These allegations distress me because nothing could be further from the truth.

I HAVE gained benefits from Amaechi because he made me a member of a Rivers State Government Board four years ago. But – trust me! – this appointment is not hugely lucrative, not least because I live in London and pay for my airline tickets with my own money whenever I fly home to attend Board meetings.

Nigeria is a pathologically corrupt country that is full of scarily soulless, intensely materialistic and unrepentantly unprincipled individuals who either suck up to VIPs, so they can milk them for cash…or viciously condemn VIPs only because the VIPs in question haven’t provided them with juicy jobs or contracts.

But there are decent Nigerians who don’t have cynically transactional mind-sets and honest Nigerians who aren’t for sale or entirely motivated by self_interest.

In a nutshell, some of us mean what we say, don’t have to be paid to say it and are simply not willing to praise or attack anyone for morally suspect reasons.