Two years of hopelessness
Yesterday
marked the second anniversary of the ascension of Goodluck Jonathan to the
position of the Executive President of Nigeria. Whilst it was only in the
acting capacity until Umaru Yar’Adua died in May of 2010, he was effectively in
control and evidently his boss was probably comatose and thereby too
incapacitated to have a voice in government.
In the first
few months, the man appeared to have promise and ability, if not the resolve to
bring the change necessary to take Nigeria forward, however, since he received
a mandate of his own from the people regardless of the documented
irregularities, he has become a glaring disappointment leading Nigeria into
even more perilous times.
There are
times when many would prefer the President was struck dumb than to be found
uttering words that belie a sense resignation and possibly cluelessness as to
why he is in office.
We are tired indeed
In a speech given [1] at the commissioning of a
cement plant belonging to Nigeria’s foremost billionaire, he once again made
some statements that should leave many worried about the rudderless heading of
the Nigerian ship of state.
“Story
about commissioning is what Nigerians want to hear; Nigerians are tired of
hearing that there is bomb explosion in Maiduguri or Kano or Bayelsa states.
Yes, we have security challenges in the country. We have challenges in terms of
infrastructure but we are totally committed individually and collectively to
getting the country out of this situation. Our children want a better Nigeria
than this.”
“Our
greatest problem as a country is the rate of unemployment. If anybody can come
up with policy and programmes that will create jobs, definitely, government
will embrace that person and will continue to encourage that person.”
Indeed, the
stories we want to hear are of great strides in industrial progress but we
cannot just wish away the serious security issues that have engulfed the
country over the last 18 months.
An enabling environment
We need to
have confidence in the fact that the government is up to the task of providing
not just security but an enabling environment for growth and development to
deal with the as it were greatest problem that the President has identified.
In terms of
the enabling environment for business, it would appear security has raced up to
the top of the list with reports of Boko Haram attacks hurting business [2] and the business
environment. This has to become a priority such that we cannot afford to have
terrorist kingpins escaping police custody for weeks.
Down in the
South after the manifestly atrocious amnesty programme that appeared to appease
terrorism and militancy presaging a failed state and communities of anarchy,
MEND returned to their skilled expertise of attacking oil infrastructure – for a
President who is primarily from that area, it is shame that this menace has resurrected
to wreak havoc again.
We also are
fed up of government boasts of annihilating the terrorist threat or the
extra-judicial process of killing suspects long before it has been proven that
they are terrorists or where we have not begun to tackle the fundamental issues
feeding the terrorist escalation.
Infrastructure issues
Beyond
security, the government has to address the matters of basic infrastructure
starting with electrical power which for business is a great recurrent
expenditure because each business has to generate their own electricity and
most depend on fuel. The power generation issue has consumed billions of
dollars with nothing to show for it but more promises.
The national
grid to support power generation needs to be ungraded and we need to exploit
power generation sources beyond water and oil to gas, wind and solar options –
w do not have enough food security to go the way of biofuels yet.
Then road and
rail transport need to be developed, the gathering yesterday was intimated of
the need to work on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and Sagamu-Benin-Ore
Expressway, beyond that, the North is still the bread basket for Nigerian perishable
foods – the links with those centres of agriculture need to be improved upon.
Local government
Next is the
matter of education, health and local government development, most of the
deprived areas in Nigeria are more the evidence of failings at state and local
government levels of representation, things need to change.
There are
many people with policies, programmes and ideas for job creation in Nigeria, in
fact, the country is awash with talent and ability but lacking in opportunity.
Endemic corruption
The things
that stifle opportunity in Nigeria are corruption and the lack of ease of doing
business in Nigeria. Only today we learnt that the fuel subsidy issue might
well be the fence for a massive
fraud [3] coming to $12.6 billion in 2011 and this more by government
agencies than by the faceless cabal that was the taking all the opprobrium
until the Occupy Nigeria protests forced a probe into the scheme.
Nigerians are
not confident heads will roll or the purveyors of this corrupt enterprise who
seem to be in cahoots with the leadership that they are untouchable will ever
be brought to book.
From 2010 to
2011 Nigeria fell in the Corruption Perceptions Index from 134
[4] to 143
[5], sadly, the government has not been seen to be ready, willing or able to
tackle corruption. The escalation of the cost of fuel subsidy in 2011 has been
attributed to funding of the electioneering
campaign [6] of the ruling party in 2011 and it hardly paints the President
in any good light but in the ranks of rotten plundering leaders of Nigeria who
have gone before.
Hostile business environment
In the
rankings of the ease of doing
business [7] published by the World Bank Group, Nigeria stands at 133 out
of 183 surveyed countries and ranks at 176 and 180 respectively for Getting
Electricity and Registering Property – these, the President should already know
these are the core impediments to business growth and consequently exacerbate
the unemployment numbers – it is no rocket science at all.
No one is
asking the President to create jobs but there is a lot he can do to create
enabling environments for employment, development and growth with policies,
laws and acts that address security, infrastructure, corruption and governance.
After two
years in office, Nigerians are tired of the Lamentations of Jonathan; he should
start acting like the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Sources
Other references
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