Patience Jonathan's fear of prison finally makes sense

The former First Lady campaigned vigorously against President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 and in almost all her speeches, she announced that she did not want to go to jail or have to visit her husband there.

“If you vote Buhari, na your prison; if you vote APC, na your wahala.” (If you vote Buhari, it’s your prison, if you vote APC, that’s trouble for you.),” Mrs Jonathan said on Tuesday, March 3, 2015,during a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rally in Lokoja, Kogi State.

“If you vote the PDP and Jonathan, it would be better for you. If you vote the APC, you will go to prison. How can you jail somebody for 300 years? I’m not ready to carry food to my husband inside prison oh!” she said on Monday, March 16, at rally in Ekiti State.

Mrs Jonathan’s frequent comments about prison led Buhari’s wife Aisha to caustically assure her that there was no need to fear.

“For those that are campaigning, saying that he (Buhari) is coming to jail Nigerians, I don’t know what their fear is. But they shouldn’t be afraid because we are all yearning for change,” Mrs Buhari said on March 19 in Edo State.

However, it appears that Mrs Jonathan does need to be afraid of jail, because if Nigeria was a decent society, that’s where she should be.

Mrs Jonathan has admitted to owning $31.4 million which was found in 5 bank accounts and frozen by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The former first lady even had the nerve to write EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Magu asking him to release the money because she needs it for medical bills.

“However, our client has been operating the said accounts using the cards for her medical bill payments and purchases for her private purposes without any let or hindrance,” a letter by Mrs Jonathan’s lawyers, Granville Abibo (SAN) and Co, read.

“It is in the light of the foregoing that we urge you to use your good offices to vacate the ‘No Debit/Freezing Order’ placed on the said accounts. Despite the foregoing, our client, who is a law-abiding citizen, has watched with surprise how efforts are being made surreptitiously to indirectly harass or harangue her and short-change her of her personal funds in breach of her fundamental human rights.

“We urge you sir, to kindly intervene to stop the untoward and wrongful actions of your officials to embarrass, inconvenience and short-change our client," the letter adds.

The blatant disregard and lack of remorse expressed in Mrs Jonathan’s letter would have been shocking but for the fact that Nigerians’ senses have already been numbed by the monumental corruption which occurred during her husband’s tenure.

How can anyone with good conscience, most especially someone who has no vocation to speak of, claim rights to $31.4 million which was suspiciously stashed in accounts named after phony companies and domestic servants?

Has Nigeria’s justice system become so useless that public thieves can call themselves law abiding after being caught with funds that are no doubt stolen? Has corruption become so inbred that a person with no explanation for how she made such a ridiculous amount of money can claim that the seizure of her “personal funds” are in breach of her rights?

Patience Jonathan is not the one who has been by embarrassed, inconvenienced and short-changed in this case, rather it is Nigeria and its systems that she has made a mockery of by coming forward to blatantly lay claim to such a huge stash of looted funds.

The former first lady has never been the brightest kid on the block, but this action is akin to committing murder and walking to a court with bloodstained hands.

ALSO READ: 5 times Patience Jonathan tried to warn us about Buhari's change

If the Muhammadu Buhari administration is truly fighting corruption, then Patience Jonathan must see the inside of jail cell and watch her greatest nightmare become reality.

Dear Patience Jonathan, it’s time for you to Go to Jail. Go directly to Jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $31.4 million.