What is wrong with our rulers now apparently re-clothe and disguised as leaders to the peril of the rest of us whereas they are all one and the same. The last time we had elections just three plus months ago, I believe amidst all the distractions with zoning and the Peoples Democratic Party internal combustion, President Goodluck Jonathan managed to tour the country and presented Nigerians with a slew of campaign promises. As a result of the unwarranted PDP internally generated controversies which eventually engulfed the entire nation, we did not have a real opportunity to question President Jonathan on his promises, how he intended to see them through and what assurances we would have that if he was the chosen one, he will not deviate from those promises and an outlined agenda. In the end, many Nigerians who voted, voted not for the Peoples Democratic Party but cast sympathy or what may be termed anti establishment votes in favour of President Jonathan hoping and praying that as an educated man with a PhD, he would be different because he will operated from a more informed and intellectual vantage point. However, three months into this Presidency with a highly questionable team of party loyalists and their cronies being settled with cabinet positions assembled as the purported miracle workers to rescue Nigeria, instead of celebrating baby steps of success in the right direction, we appear to be fast speeding down a highway taking us nowhere but simply like a perpetual merry-go-round with no plausible destination in sight.
What is Mr. President thinking? Who sent him on this stupendous errand of a single six year term Presidency? Does this man know what he is doing and what our priorities are as Nigerians at this critical time? Going down recent memory lane for a moment, more particularly the events leading up to the last general election in April, as many Nigerians pondered who to vote for as President and Commander in Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, many quickly resolved to vote for the incumbent, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan because they believed at the time that of all the candidates presented, he appeared to be best suited for the job. Key phrase here is “appeared to be best suited”; the reason many had second thoughts and hesitated even though the general view was that Jonathan was more appealing for a variety of reasons was because no one could say for sure what the man Jonathan really stands for. He appeared to be just there, smiling with his half shy star struck wave saying, “trust me, I am a nice guy.” Nigerians merely accepted the fact that as a result of the unique circumstances that led to his becoming President, he had to make a lot of compromises and probably cut deals with all types of characters just to survive. Nigerians on the contrary held a firm belief that once this man was freed from the shackles of compromise necessitated from a desire to survive late President Yar A’dua’s death, he will come of age and take care of the business of governing Nigeria the right way. Unfortunately, what we have witnessed thus far is a president that is not committed to any of the promises he made but seeking new distractions with this nonsense about a single six-year term Presidency and the National Assembly talking about creating new states.
I think it is time to remind these cartoon like characters that our world is real and not make belief, our national issues are eating is up slowly but surely like terminal malignant cancer. There is no time for this unproductive rigmarole. We voted or allowed President Jonathan to come back into the Presidency because we believed he understood the issues clearly but unfortunately for us Nigerians, his party the Peoples Democratic Party directly benefitted from his seeming victory at the polls and to a large extent has hijacked the government of the day yet again. Let there be no mistake about it, Nigerians to the best of my understanding did not vote or desire the Peoples Democratic Party as an entity but rather, they wanted President Jonathan. President Goodluck Jonathan should be well aware of this fact, consequently, if he decides to sit on his hands and allow his party, the Peoples Democratic Party take away his mandate, that becomes his personal problem for which he will be accountable to Nigerians one way or another. Although he promised to deliver everything under the sun during the campaign including the kitchen sink, I cautioned the president and alerted Nigerians that there was no way he could deliver on all those promises. I also stated that there was no need for him to make such unfulfilable promises because, given where we are as a nation, we should not expect to correct all the ills in our society in one swoop. I stated then that Mr. President only needed to provide us with two things and with those deliverables, his name and legacy will go down in the history of our nation as the greatest leader, ruler or whatever you wish to term it. I still stand by that assertion today and those two deliverables are simply “security and power.”
Why just security and power you may ask! Let me explain it thus: with security of persons and property, we have people free to go about their different businesses; free movement of goods all over the country and by implication commerce will generally thrive. Just take a look at the Boko Haram quagmire, need I say more! Power is the engine that drives the real sector of the economy. With power industries are able to function and produce goods and services at relatively cheaper prices while everything else trickles down from there and that is why economists believe strongly that the best economic policy a nation that can adopt is that of trickledown economics where the private sector is allowed to drive or be the engine that drives the economy. For instance, with electricity readily available, there will be no need for our industries to spend huge amounts of money, sometimes taking up as much or more than 75% of their entire operating budget. While the rest of us fell asleep, the government removed the subsidy on diesel while leaving that on petrol because they believe that the public is much more likely to react negatively to tampering with petrol. The part we overlooked was that diesel is used by industries to produce goods and power their equipments; it is also used in transportation of goods, consequently, the astronomical rise in the cost of diesel has resulted in untold and inexplicable hardships on the masses showing up in high cost of goods and services. The governors have now come up with a clever idea to eliminate the subsidy on petrol. While I am definitely not against a free market economy, the proper checks have to be put in place to ensure that those that are least likely able to bear the burden are not left helpless. For instance, if you want to remove subsidy on petrol, you must ensure that you have refineries that are working and remain working with an ability to produce these products at reasonable and affordable prices. I am certain the people in positions of authority know what to do but they just do not want to take the pain for the gain. There is no reason why we are endowed with so much crude but are unable to process for very affordable local consumption. When you remove subsidy and turn around to rely on importation of a finished product for which you are the custodian of the raw material, this is nothing but a combustible formula for catastrophic failure of your local economy. We need the right policies in place for a short term sacrifice to engineer our structures, our priorities and our psyche as a nation for a long term remuneration rather than always looking for a quick fix because those in positions of authority are bidding their limited time in those offices, consequently, they become engulfed in personal financial gratification over and above a desire for a true nationally sustainable lasting solutions.
In addition to what appears to be a complete abandonment of campaign promises, we have a serious looming labour crisis for the second time in two weeks. The presidency may say that my assessment is wrong since the President has a cabinet to execute his agenda and he does not have to personally man the ship. Well, they will be totally wrong on that score because the president is like a manager or in American football, the role of a quarter who has to execute the plays whether he makes the calls or they come from the sidelines. The President must be engaged with each member of his team receiving and assessing information and making informed decisions based on the quality of information received from his team members. He cannot abandon ship and wash his hands off to seek other distractions such as “a six year single term Presidency” because he thinks he needs something else to do while his original assignment has not even begun. Nigerians are not interested in these shenanigans at this time at all. This will only lead to more waste of time and resources on something that certainly will add zero value to our already complicated lives and economy. What Nigerians want to see at this time is a president who will sit his butt down and hunker down with his team to find lasting solutions to our already overwhelming problems. Granted that the president and his family; members of his cabinet and the National Assembly are already comfortable spending our money as they please, a majority of us are not and they need to urgently get serious with the business of state and stop fooling around with unnecessary distractions.
Conclusively, I wish to reiterate the fact that what Nigerians need at this time are two primary things, security and power. Although infrastructural development will follow suit, am compelled to add the issue of labour to the list of immediate priorities which has now become an emergency as a result of sheer incompetence and mismanagement of opportunities by government. Mr. President, please forget this crap about a six year single term presidency; Nigerians are not interested and nobody sent you on that message. You are a messenger and servant of the Nigerian state, you have not even started on the message we sent you on, consequently, there is no need to begin distracting yourself because Nigerians will hold you fully accountable.
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