A former Taraba State Governor, Jolly Nyame, has revealed what he learned while serving his jail term at the Kuje Correctional Centre, Abuja.
Nyame, who was pardoned by former President Muhammadu Buhari, said he learnt a lot and also promised to be a better leader if given another opportunity to govern the affairs of Taraba.
He spoke at a Thanksgiving service that took place at the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Secretariat in Jalingo, the State capital on Thursday.
The former governor said the prison experience bestowed him with invaluable lessons. He advised Nigerian leaders to stand strong in the face of challenges.
“I learned a lot while in Kuje Prison and the hospital. If given another opportunity to lead the people of Taraba State, I will do better because of the experience I have gained,” he said.
In 2018, Justice Adebukola Banjoko of a High Court in Abuja sentenced the former governor to 14 years imprisonment for acts of criminal breach of trust and misappropriation of the sum of N1.64bn.
CorrectNG recalls that Nyame recalled how he allowed former Plateau state governor, Joshua Dariye to share his bathroom in the correctional facility.
The pardoned politician said the reason was for them to use it as an avenue to discuss about their situation and other sundry issues.
Nyame said; “There were times we sat and deliberated on many issues. We came to a conclusion at one of the sittings that we all did well for our states, but we asked ourselves, ‘Why us?’ We heard about other people being charged with offences involving N10bn, N20bn and so on, but at the end of the day, their case gets missing or withdrawn.
There are instances too where they say instead of convicting you, let’s do a plea bargain. So, we asked this question: why us? Why is ours different? At the end of the day, we came to the fact that what President Muhammadu Buhari did was to show an example of good leadership.
I’m sure that he must have seen that these people (Dariye and myself) are the birds of the same plumage, so why them alone? Getting us off the hook is a plus to the government and the judiciary because if you compare what’s happening now, ours is just a child’s play. We didn’t even agree with all the charges.”
