The Presidency has been left furious by what it believes are attempts to smear President Goodluck Jonathan, in the run up to the presidential election. First, President Jonathan was insinuated to have unleashed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on the PDP state governors perceived to be opposed to his ambition to run in the election. Second, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, the owner of the Africa Independent Television (AIT), cried out in the course of the week, alleging that the president has dispatched kidnappers after him and his son, as well as fishing for areas where he had defaulted in taxes to nail him. This, Dopkesi claimed, is over his decision to work for former dictator, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, to become the PDP presidential candidate for the election.

The financial dealings of a number of state governments are currently being investigated by the anti-graft agency, based on petitions received from individuals. But the claims of the use of the EFCC by President Jonathan was accentuated by the utterances of Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, who thinks that the action in his state is due to a difference in his political views from that of the President. This is something that Jonathan should be worried about as the leader of the PDP. But for the EFCC, its action is merely in furtherance of its statutory duties to check financial crimes. Based on this, the commission vowed that it would neither be intimidated nor distracted by the wild allegations.

The Presidency is also maintaining that it will not unjustly interfere in the activities of the EFCC which, it argues, is an independent body under the law. It appears to have stuck to this position. However, perhaps in realisation of the damage the allegations may do to the reputation of the president, as well as his fledgling presidential ambition, the Presidency has decided to take the extra step of examining the issues raised against the governors, which have become the subject of the EFCC’s investigations and seems to have discovered that the petitions are spurious and are deliberately engineered to make Jonathan look bad.

Feelers in the Presidential Villa suggested in the last few days that President Jonathan has authorised an investigation into the petitions to unravel the intention of the authors who, the Presidency has reasons to believe, are wilfully working to thwart the chances of President Jonathan in the election.

To say that the Dopkesi issue is also ruffling feathers in the seat of power is merely stating the obvious. There is a sense of righteous indignation towards the Edo high chief, in view of his recent disposition towards President Jonathan. Chief Dopkesi was a frequent caller in the Villa; he was part of the trio of politicians who headed the ill-fated PDP Reform Forum which campaigned for the ouster of Prince Vincent Ogbulafor as the National Chairman of the party. The others are former Senate President Ken Nnamani and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari. They apparently had the ear of the president at a time when their interest of tinkling with the leadership of the PDP supposedly merged.

Once that was achieved with the coming in of Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, it would appear that the president had no further need of their services and therefore discarded them. In the same National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the PDP, where Dr. Nwodo was inaugurated, the forum was outlawed and the members were directed to make their suggestions for reform as individuals, rather than as a group within the PDP. This is not what anybody will be happy about.  Subsequent developments indicated that the forum protagonists indeed found this a hard pill to swallow. While both Nnamani and Dopkesi have aligned with IBB, Masari has joined the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).

President Jonathan has been left to contemplate the motive of Dokpesi in associating him with kidnap, even as he is resolute that he would not be moved by “the tissues of lies” and that if, indeed taxmen are knocking on Dopkesi’s doors, he has nothing to fear so long as he is up to date in his taxes. All this should not detract from need for a thorough investigation of his allegations.