President Goodluck Jonathan appears to be in the eye of the storm, as several financial scandals continue to haunt his administration. There are two cases in South Africa, leading to the seizure of $15million of what was said to be Nigeria’s money.

Now, a bribery case involving Malabu Oil and Italy’s ENI-SPA, is smouldering with accusations by Italian investigators that half of the $1.1 billion paid by the Italian company was used to fund bribes to government officials. To boot, the Italian investigators said the hefty bribes were used to buy private jets and exotic cars.

President Goodluck Jonathan: a query from opposition over Malabu oil scandal

Now the All Progressives Congress (APC) has challenged President Goodluck Jonathan to urgently speak out on the monumental Malabu oil scandal that is rocking his Administration and again putting Nigeria under the global searchlight as a corrupt nation.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said President Jonathan must end his silence on the matter since half of the 1.1 billion US dollars paid to Malabu Oil and gas for oil field OPL 245 by two oil majors was allegedly used to bribe Nigerian officials, who in turn used the proceeds to buy private jets and armoured limousines.

It said that since the deal to pay Malabu the huge funds was brokered and passionately defended by the Jonathan Administration, it stands to reason that officials of the same Administration will know one or two things, and perhaps are part and parcel, of the whole scandal.

”The only way to know for sure is if there is an independent investigation of the allegation, which has been published by the international media after Italian prosecutors intensified their probe into the deal. This is where President Jonathan comes in: He must allow an unfettered probe of this scandal that has again put Nigeria in bad light. Whatever happens, however, the names of those who received the bribes will soon be known, thanks to the determination of the UK and Italy to show that no one who violates their laws will go scot-free.

”There is no better way to say this. The Jonathan Administration is swimming in corruption and the President has contumaciously allowed it to fester because his government is feeding fat on the proceeds of graft. He has even tried to use semantics to cover up the extent of sleaze, saying stealing is not corruption,” it said.

”Just like the Halliburton and Siemens bribery scandals that were also exposed from abroad, this Malabu scandal has again damaged Nigeria’s standing in the comity of nations. While US, France, Italy and Germany have jailed officials and imposed fines on the foreign firms that gave bribes to Nigerian officials in the Halliburton and Siemens scandals, none of those who received the bribes here in Nigeria has been touched. The Malabu scandal must not go the same way,” APC said.

The party said Nigeria has never had it as bad, in terms of runaway corruption that has cost the nation billions of dollars in money that would have gone into national development, as it is having under the prodigiously-corrupt Jonathan Administration.

”There is no better way to say this. The Jonathan Administration is swimming in corruption and the President has contumaciously allowed it to fester because his government is feeding fat on the proceeds of graft. He has even tried to use semantics to cover up the extent of sleaze, saying stealing is not corruption,” it said.

APC said apart from the Malabu, Halliburton and Siemens scandals, the Jonathan Administration has done nothing to tell Nigerians what happened to the 20 billion dollars in diverted oil money; the multi-billion naira fuel subsidy fraud for which no single persons has been brought to justice; opaque crude oil swaps at the expense of encouraging domestic refinery; payment of billions of naira in kerosene subsidy without appropriation and the gargantuan police pension fraud.

”Under your watch, Mr. President, there is massive looting of the commonwealth by the same people being paid by taxpayers to ensure a judicious utilization of the scarce national resources. There is a growing culture of impunity because no one is punished for the looting. Now you have another chance to turn things around for the better.

”The Malabu scandal provides such a chance. All those who collected millions of dollars in bribes in the illegal transaction must be identified and brought to justice immediately. We must not always allow foreign countries to be the ones exposing corrupt Nigerian officials. Our government must act like a responsible government by demonstrating it will not allow violation of its laws or encourage corruption,” the party said.