Jonathan in charge
Let me review the things I have written about the political situation in over the last month leading to the conclusion in the news today that the Acting President has dissolved the cabinet [1] and will be presenting new names to the Nigerian Senate soon.
February the ninth - Nigeria: After 78 days of buffoonery, progress as the Nigerian legislature creates a precedent allowing for Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan to act as President.
February the tenth - Nigeria: Good Job! Jonathan his first act is to remove the most interfering nuisance in the government, the flawed Attorney General.
February the eleventh - Nigeria: The hope for an FEC with backbone one hoped with his act the day before the FEC would fall in line to the new dispensation but I suppose that was wishful thinking, the positions were both entrenched and compromised to act with any conviction or initiative.
February the twelfth - Nigeria: Goodluck left the PDP out appears the President has an independent streak of making tough decisions preventing interference in crucial matters, but no one gives him credit.
Yar’Adua not coming back
February the thirteenth - Nigeria: The "success" of the Jeddah delegation it now appears the President is too incapacitated to be seen, allowing for well-meaning Nigerians to bolster Acting President with needed support to move decisively on more substantive issues, but people are still obsessed with seeing the comatose President.
February the eighteenth - Thought Picnic: Giving the benefit of doubt, indeed, the popular view is to be cynical and be caught in the wave of sensationalist speculation.
February the twenty-fourth - Nigeria: Yar'Adua returns unfit to be seen, apparently, the return of the President intended to upset the grasp the Acting President has on power fails to rock the boat, but the opinion pool is agog with hysteria whilst is simply confirms Jonathan is in charge.
Jonathan is quiet but at work
February the twenty-sixth - Nigeria: In the hands of a good doctor, methinks, the Acting President seems to have an education that prepares him for the bear-pit of Nigerian politics.
February the twenty-seventh - Nigeria: Logical conclusions require no intrigue, the facts are clear but why let them get in the way of fantasies and stories that are yarns to sell papers – meanwhile, the audience is captivated with the Acting President still needing support from the impatient pundits proffering interesting opinions on all forums.
March the fourth - Nigeria: The need for a Nigerian leader, whilst the ruling party schemes on how to section leadership in the next election, the Acting President finds his inherited cabinet is inimical to the plans he might have for the probably 1 year tenure he has.
There are too many people who think Nigeria should be split up more into states or countries whilst the right thing is to move towards greater amalgamation to generate better talent pools – it is a position I continue to maintain, splitting Nigeria would never follow a Czechoslovakian agreement, it will suffer a Yugoslavian skirmish that would make Biafra childsplay, but they fantasise for the dangerously debilitating with idealist panache.
Jonathan needs support
March the ninth - Nigeria: Enough is Enough, my new appeal to give Jonathan support to make Yar’Adua insignificant fails because of the obsession on a situation that would never produce the expected result – the demands were behind the curve, the only big deal was they had the mien to gather not a consensus of great ideas for the future.
March the tenth - Nigeria: Yar'Adua cannot resign because of 2015, once again, the call to give Jonathan the support he needs to act with all the executive authority he needs without having to bother about the spectre of a comatose President in the background is ignored.
The evidence of actions of the ruling party point to a stitch-up lurking in the year 2015 not the closer election of 2011, but we are too occupied with circumstances to look up from the melee.
Yar’Adua is history, forget him
March the fifteenth - Nigeria: General T. Y. Danjuma - a very influential Nigerian, the subtext is really how Jonathan installed an influential General in the background to ward off the snagging at his heels. That Presidential Advisory Council might well have come up with the new list of ministers to help Jonathan carry out his agenda for a new Nigeria.
March the fifteenth - Nigeria: Enough is Enough! March, the marched, they brought down barricades but never got to submit their official letter to anyone in authority, some progress indeed, but not really a result – we can only hope for better, in my opinion, it was a missed opportunity to give Jonathan the support he needs, he is in charge now, not Yar’Adua – if we can stop obsessing ourselves with him.
Are you convinced about Jonathan, yet?
Today, the Acting President dissolves the cabinet and far be it from me to suggest Jonathan has the balls and everyone is cock-a-hoop [2] and suddenly throwing some support to Jonathan.
But then, before you know it, they will all be suggesting who should be appointed to what post, where the person should come from and become interfering advisors hoping to appear prescient and ahead of the game.
I believe Acting President Jonathan will do the right thing and it is not the first time the ruling party has ditched its vice-President for someone else, but in the one year he has now, I just hope we would give him the support he needs and consign President Yar’Adua to history.
Case closed.
Sources
[1] BBC News - Nigeria leader Goodluck Jonathan dissolves cabinet
[2] Jonathan dissolves cabinet | Next – Review the comments, now well over a hundred and compared to others before today … well …
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