The Leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the
Niger Delta, MEND, Henry Okah, has blasted President Goodluck Jonathan from his
prison cell in South Africa.
Okah who was
sentenced to 24-years in prison in March 2013 for terrorism, says Jonathan is
“timid and a coward.” In an interview with The Nation, the man who President
Jonathan once accused of masterminding the attempt on his life during the 2010
Independence anniversary in Abuja said he found it difficult to speak about him
(Jonathan) without “saying something uncomplimentary.”
Going down memory lane, Okah told The Nation, “I have
met President Jonathan. I knew him though not closely when he was the Deputy
Governor of Bayelsa State.
My cousin Chief (Diepreye) Alamieyeseigha was then
governor. “I had a meeting with Jonathan in Pretoria in 2007 when the late
President Musa Yar' Adua sent him to speak with me. He was accompanied by Chief
Timipre Sylva.
I have spoken to him on occasions. “In one instance,
he was traumatized emotionally by the attack on his country home which he was
misled into believing I had a hand in. The last time I spoke with him was in
April 2010 when he asked for my support personally.
Since my recent arrest, I have had no direct contact
with him. “It is difficult to speak about President Jonathan without saying
something uncomplimentary. I truthfully find him timid and cowardly. His
discussions are unintelligible revealing a lack of intellectual depth.
“As governor of Bayelsa State, and a man whose home
had been violated, I expected him to be angry and indignant at this
sacrilegious act. Rather, he was physically trembling, terrified and incoherent
as he spoke weeks after the attack.”
Okah also said he has been vindicated by Jonathan with
his performance since becoming President six year's ago. “I warned Nigerians
about Goodluck Jonathan but some people assumed I was speaking in anger and
arrogance,” he said. “Nigerians have now seen President Jonathan for exactly
what I told them that he is. There is little difference in his speeches and
that of Asari.”
Drawing a comparison between Jonathan and his main
rival in the March 28 presidential election, General Muhammadu Buhari, Okah
said, “I was quite young when General Muhammadu Buhari was in power so I am
compelled by this fact to look at him in awe.
This has
nothing to do with his personality. General Buhari kept quiet for a long time
and I have not kept up with him since after he was deposed in a military coup.
He does not appear vain and would very likely be a more prudent civilian
leader.
This is not to say that I would vote for him in any
elections as much as I respect him. I am disillusioned with Nigerian politics
and have never voted or participated in any form of politics at any level.”
He prayed that “Nigeria gets a responsible and
sensible president who sees the need to properly address the situation of the
North and South in the face of Boko Haram and the Niger Delta issue.”
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