Monday 28 May 2012

JONATHAN IN THE BELLY OF THE BIG FISH CALLED NIGERIA


President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, in the presidential inauguration speech he gave May 29, 2011 said “we must grow the economy, create jobs, and generate enduring happiness for our people. I have great confidence in the ability of Nigerians to transform this country. The urgent task of my administration is to provide a suitable environment for productive activities to flourish”.
            I guess his Excellency was not thinking straight when he wrote this speech considering the fact that nothing has being done after good 365 days of ruling the nation. He promised transformation, he said he was going to make a change. And he said he would; hit the ground running, once he got into office.
The questions to ask are: how far has his transformation agenda gone? Or is he still on ‘honey-moon’?
            The number one problem the country is facing is insecurity. The Boko Haram insurgency clearly stood out of all defining issues of the Jonathan presidency. The unrelenting destruction of lives and properties occasioned by the activities of insurgents especially in the Northern part of the country, whole a section of that self same the leadership watches, creates an impression that Nigeria as a nation can as well go to hell.
            I think the president is in state of total confusion. I guess he has now realized that the role of the presidency isn’t as easy as he thought. The roads are still terrible in many parts of the country. The cost of living gets more expensive daily.

I am horrified that the president who ought to lead by actions and words that will inspire and rouse people for change has projected the image that he is not in control or has lost control.
            Before the April 2011 elections, Northern political leaders with the connivance of some southern politicians had vehemently opposed Jonathan’s bid in 2011 on the basis of what they claimed as ‘infringement of the PDP’s zoning configuration".
Let it not be lost on Nigerians at all, the PDP is not Nigeria and Nigeria is not PDP. But the implication of a shambolic PDP, with its preponderant spread in the firmament, makes it easy for Nigeria to catch cold anytime PDP sneezes.
            The 150 million Nigerians who live in Nigeria have continues to suffer needlessly since Jonathan Goodluck became the president of Nigeria. Poverty and unemployment have increased. There are no infrastructures: good federal roads, good security and stable electricity. People die daily from preventable diseases due to lack of medication and access to medical care.
            The president is no different from the Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein of Nigeria that have ruled us in the past.
Despite good advice to the president from sound Nigerians that oil subsidy should not be removed, the president removed it as a New Year gift to Nigeria. That singular act has brought enormous pain and suffering to Nigerians.
Nigerian youths protesting the oil subsidy removal
 
            In fact everything about Jonah’s era of transformation is sham.
            I hate it when people just talk, talk, talk and don’t act. Our leaders do not lead by example. These politicians are self-centered.
The Nigerian economic environment is becoming more capitalistic. If not, why should government allocate oil blocks to private individuals instead of communities which will take advantage of it to spread national wealth?
 The impoverished people across the globe have realized the destructive profile of capitalism and have come out en masse into the streets. The “occupy” syndrome is now everywhere and may still be in Nigeria.
#Occupy Nigeria
There is nothing to celebrate in democracy. What laws have been passed since 1999 that resulted in improvement on the lives of Nigerians?
            Nigerians have been promised to make sacrifices and that they would enjoy the dividends of democracy. Nigerians have been making these sacrifices since 1999 till date and has not enjoyed a ‘tiny-little bit’ of anything but suffering.
With the “occupy” syndrome in Nigeria, who will deliver Jonathan from the belly of this big fish called NIGERIA.
            Three years is enough for any formidable government to fix some salient infrastructural development that can enhance economic growth and development. Jonathan is yet to fulfill the promises made to avid Nigerians that he had no shoes and school bag and today is being democratically elected as the president of Nigeria.

The president must consciously look into the Federal roads, health, water supply, security, electricity, education, jobs and all that he had promised us.
But his leadership qualities are glaring and demand magical touch to convince Nigerians to return him in 2015.

(credit:dailypost.com, vanguard newspaper)