#NigeriaDecides II: Goodluck Jonathan is a good man

He showed promise

Goodluck Jonathan is a good man, I have heard many people say. I have no doubts about either the goodness or niceness of the out-going President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He has had a 5-year stint at the job and that was good for him.

However, a good man is someone you ask to watch over your bag if you wanted to go to the toilet, hardly someone you ask to run a country.

When he took office in March 2010 as Acting President and then substantive President at the demise of his predecessor, he appeared to have promise. At least, I thought he did when he acted decisively to rejig the cabinet and when that cabinet did not seem to be working to his agenda, he sacked the whole lot and brought in new faces, all within a month. He had good luck and goodwill.

A meteoritic rise

You could say, he was both in power and in office that by the national elections in 2011, even though we were not too enamoured by his political party, we were willing to give him a strong mandate. He became president in his own right for the very first time standing as the main candidate.

A man, more or less plucked out of obscurity to be a running mate in one of the Niger Delta states of Nigeria, where his boss looted the state treasury as if it was his piggy bank, he rose to governor on the impeachment of his boss, and then was plucked from that role to be the presidential running-mate of the ailing, but nice, Umaru Yar’Adua. [AkinBlog]

He had the good luck of succeeding his bosses and urban legend suggests he has had this run of eponymous good luck from as far back as history can glean of his humble beginnings.

He failed himself

Yet, it got to a point where the most academically qualified leader of Nigeria in history with the amazing profile of having been in a number of executive governance roles, just remained a generally good man, but never good enough for the job that he finally got.

He surrounded himself with conflicted and compromised counsellors and preachers whose Christian principles were too questionable for any in-depth analysis to be important, the choose bad advisers who too easily got power drunk, his media team was a constant disaster of atrocious invective and most of his ministers literally had no scruples.

It would seem, Goodluck Jonathan had no good luck in choosing really good people, he seemed to constantly find recycled political deadbeats, institutional fossils, rent-seeking dinosaurs and worse. This led to claims that he was clueless, ineffectual, poorly briefed and quite badly informed too. In that, he woefully failed himself.

Not good for your girls

Having reached the pinnacle of academic achievement, he did not seem to open himself to new learning and so where he could have grown into his role as President of Nigeria, he shrunk into it, developed a cocoon of siege mentality within Aso Rock and was left exploited by chancers and sycophants who painted the wrong picture of his domain to him.

At least that became evident when the Chibok girls were abducted by the menacing Boko Haram insurgency that was left to fester that it became a formidable force able to sack barracks and towns in North-Eastern Nigeria. He eventually admitted that they never initially took Boko Haram seriously.

Indeed, Goodluck Jonathan is a good man, but probably not one you could entrust the security of many ordinary Nigerians to, for about 20,000 lives have been lost to the insurgency, girls and women abducted and millions internally displaced. Life is hellish for those within the sphere of Boko Haram’s influence, even with the imposition of the State of Emergency in the three states affected most.

Unguarded to a fault

Goodluck Jonathan was mostly reactive rather than proactive, and that usually after being embarrassed to act accordingly. Notable statements like ‘I don’t give a damn’ and ‘What they call corruption is just stealing’ appeared to be cues for his people to act with impunity and in fear of no consequence.

The divisive rhetoric from his representatives and people close to him with their personal agendas and hope for reward from the Nigerian commonwealth precipitated the development of an effective opposition to match the ruling party of 16 years at a national level.

A personal good luck charm

In the end, Goodluck Jonathan could not succeed himself, there was no further role he could rise to from being president and I guess that was the end to the power of the talisman that brought a good man from humble origins in the creeks of the Niger Delta where he once had no shoes to the highest office in the land.

To himself, he did well, for Nigeria, it was not particularly good luck, he was limited by his own capacity to grow, his sloganeering had become vacuous and the ruling party had become a haven of entrenched attitudes, all inimical to the progress of Nigeria.

The umbrella (the symbol of the ruling party) was no more wide enough to shelter those who needed help the most, the poor, the child, the masses and the powerless could not look to the government for anything than to be exploited for political gain.

Thank you for coming

Aso Rock had become a cosy place of irresponsibility and obliviousness, a comfortable place to enjoy the comforts of office and nothing else.

The time for change had come and as we send the good man and his wife home with our very best wishes, like any good man, once he knew he was defeated, he called his worthy opponent and conceded.

Goodluck Jonathan is a good man, whether he was a good enough to be the President of Nigeria is one we should leave history to judge.

Nigeria: Jonathan takes Aso Rock to vacate Presidency

Nigeria of promise

Nigeria is as eventful and exciting a place as ever, especially when it comes to power, money and politics.

The big surprise was however rooted in the expectations of 2015, about who would run and for the big prize, the Presidency.

With the National Conference in full play as delegates snooze themselves through serious deliberations that has Nigeria sleepwalking into an uncertain future, more certain things exist.

Safe in the knowledge

Aso Rock survived an incursion on by insurgents along with a successful defence of the armed forces against a jailbreak close to the seat of power.

This seems to have given the President great assurances for his future and that would be wonderful news to his beloved spouse, Dame Patience who some people uncharitably think her title is of similar provenance to the roadside procurer of abortions that labels himself a doctor and consultant gynaecologist.

Then the President having successfully apportioned blame where it is due, the world overblowing Nigerian corruption, the Northern leaders exacerbating Boko Haram terrorism and much else that it would appear he is responsible for nothing, it became evident to the man to concentrate on his future.

Aso Rock, going for a song

In a deal to make the eyes water, for not running in the Presidential elections of 2015, Goodluck Jonathan has apparently agreed to receive Aso Rock, the Presidential complex, with two jets of the Presidential fleet assigned for his private use, four assistants of cabinet rank, whilst retaining the respect and graces of an ex-President along with the emoluments of retirement generously doubled to assuage the loss of office.

In essence, the new elder statesman would suddenly be catapulted into the stratosphere of eminent world leader and consequently it would put him in the front running for the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership.

A great man is born

To many of Dr Goodluck Jonathan’s detractors, this would be a most dramatic turnaround of status, standing and credibility giving Nigeria an ex-leader in the class of ex-US Presidents who have gone on to do greater things than when they were in office.

It is necessary that we have new Presidential quarters as we have over time replaced the accommodations of senior political officers with even gaudier expressions of kitsch architecture. Aso Rock needs a new Aso Villa with better isolation from the realities of Nigeria to allow new leaders concentrate on the job of leading their lives in oblivious awareness of little Nigerian lives.

It can only be said with this deal that President Jonathan has like a visionary that he always was put himself before Nigeria in a way that deserves commendation and praise we cannot find the words to express even if inebriated.

In the end, we can only say, long live Nigeria and the greatest good luck in Nigeria has surely without doubt gone to Goodluck Jonathan, the boy without shoes who has walked away without as much as a forced shoo.

Nigeria: Tackling the Northern Complex

It is not elementary

Nigeria is a complex conundrum and for all the facets of life that come up for discussion it is easy to end up with a series of single stories which might skew the issues but they all add up to the narrative called Nigeria, its history, its problems, the solutions, the criticisms from nasty to constructive to the outlook to the future.

One typical example of the jumbled narratives is the North, taken as a homogenous entity in terms of religion, ethnicity and economy for simplicity sake and packaged as such for media consumption but it has probably the most diverse and heterogeneous demography of Nigeria.

Child Hunger of the Almajiri

Recently, I clamoured about [1] the fate of the Almajiri from the perspective of human and child rights, suggesting that certain controls and inspection regimes need to be put in place to arrest the unconscionable and despicable case of children and adolescents being in boarding schools of a certain persuasion but having to be beg for food.

The more heart-rending aspect was the case of a boy ill with malaria and typhoid fever that was not in hospital and had not eaten since the night before; to suggest the head of that school was criminal and irresponsible would have been a heartless understatement – it is a pervasive problem.

The Borno State Government has taken the first step towards addressing this problem by supporting 10,000 Tsangaya schools [2] to tackle the problems of feeding and to take the Almajiri off the streets thereby curtailing the begging menace.

If government money is going into such institutions it should then translate into gaining control to regulate their activities, inspect their facilities and introduce a curriculum that will allow the Almajiri who in that setting will now be pupils and students to learn a trade or some vocational skill along with their religious schooling. If successful, one will hope that this concept will spread out to other states pulling Tsangaya schools into a structured educational regime that upholds child rights preparing them for viable and productive careers.

Talking Poverty Alleviation

In the Nigeria Poverty Profile released by the National Bureau of Statistics, we are presented with the stark detail that relative poverty has increased between 2004 and 2010 with the North-Central, North-Eastern and North-Western zones revealing increasing levels of poverty compared to the three zones in the South.

Courtesy of the National Bureau of Statistics - Nigeria Poverty Profile, Page 17 [3]

The Northern Governors then thought to redress this imbalance by demanding a review of the revenue allocation [4] from the centre; this threatens to draw a dangerous fault-line giving credence to that age-old North-South divide that has become the basis for analysing problems in Nigeria.

Looking at the numbers, there probably is a case for a review but the problems are more fundamental than that. The Niger Delta oil-producing area probably has the highest per-capita allocation but the governors have not been judicious in the use of the funds for the development of their states. Most of the communities are poor, their lands polluted, infrastructure lacking and the travesty gave rise first to activism and then militancy without much improvement towards tackling the environmental disasters or the future prospects of the masses.

Likewise, governorship in the North has not taken up the responsibility to create enabling environments and offer the essential impetus for development that can pull their people up from abject poverty and it is unlikely that throwing more money at the region with yield the results required but that is a subject for negotiation and debate between all affected parties.

Stilling a brewing storm

The demand however called for cool and wise heads to comment from the Presidency. Until recently on matters of security, power or policy, the President has been handed speeches that has left a good many readers and listeners in despair, complete forlorn as to where the country might be going that clueless had become the description of President Goodluck Jonathan’s grasp of issues.

One can only suppose the President had sacked his uninspiring speechwriter and acquired one that could capture the mood and set out a range of opinions that make sense and give people, especially the governors a sense of responsibility and purpose, though we still have to wait and see what comes of it.

However, in response to this demand, the President in a speech recently given [5] on a visit to Makurdi had this to say.

"We have resources in all parts of the country to sell. All states of the federation have products they can export. The governors should work with private sector operators to produce and sell what they have not only to Nigerians but also to export."

"Nigeria is an agro-based economy even before the civil war and that is why they did not borrow money to prosecute the war. We should be able to revive this process like it happened in those periods when oil was not an issue."

"If we create the enabling environment and liaise with the private sector, people will not need to steal or go into 419 before they can make it."

Making governors more accountable

In other words, state governors should work better at realising potential in their states and seek to exploit such as if there were no oil revenues to rely on.

The national cake is no more big enough to go round effectively, the states that to generate more income internally by doing the best with the resources they have and seek markets for their goods for their states to prosper.

One interesting element of history that we seem to forget about Nigeria that the President alluded to in his speech is that Nigeria might well be that only country in the world to have prosecuted a civil war without running into debt, it harks back to a can-do spirit of fiscal prudence that Nigeria apparently once had, which means it can be rediscovered again.

In all, all governors have serious work to do having escaped the fury of the people during the #OccupyNigeria protests and deep scrutiny of their policies until after their tenures the President has laid down the modalities on which governance accountability will be based, this should be the first of many to get them to sit up and start delivering solutions to their people.

Sources

[1] Nigeria: Letting Our Children Live Like Dogs | Akinblog.nl

[2] Borno Govt to Support Tsangaya Schools

[3] ACF backs northern governors on revenue allocation review | Punch Online Nigeria

[4] Nigeria Poverty Profile: [Image Captured from Page 17 of PDF] | The National Bureau of Statistics

[5] Jonathan tasks governors on revenue generation | The Nation

Other references

Nigeria Poverty Profile [PDF] | The National Bureau of Statistics

Editorial: Nigeria - The North, Religion and Politics | Akinblog.nl

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review X - The North | Akinblog.nl

Editorial: How do we capture the desire we all have for Nigeria?

A desire we all have for Nigeria

Great is the wish and desire for better topics than what I am about to write about Nigeria. This is a great country with amazingly unrealised potential that appears to be continually rundown by those who we have elected to represent us at all levels.

The problem is however not just that of leadership, it includes the people too and sadly an inability to grasp the fundamental truths of a situation, an idea or a conversation if there is something emotive to offer upon which they can gorge their sentiments on.

Nigeria cannot be doomed, there is prospect and promise beyond compare and ability that needs to be nurtured to wrestle power from the malefactors in charge and command the heights whilst mentoring those coming up to occupy and take Nigeria to where it rightly belongs – a prosperous thriving country with people willing and able to pursue their goals in happiness with all opportunity and ability at their disposal to succeed.

Those who hold us back

Things need to be uprooted, overturned, jettisoned, condemned and completely excoriated. These things are exemplified and personified in people – men and women who present no glowing future for the entity Nigeria or the identity Nigerian. They clog the corridors of power and need to be bulldozed out of the way, swept into ignominy as light gets shone on their opinions, activities and alliances.

Today, it was the turn of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory to be readied for the scrapheap of odium so vile that it cannot be countenanced by rats cavorting in a metropolitan sewer.

“May I suggest to the Executive Secretary of FCDA, who has the Abuja Master Plan and the Coordinator of Abuja Metropolitan Management Council to rename this place as Goodluck Jonathan District.” He started [1].

“This is because we have not named any district after any president in the past. The president I know is President Goodluck Jonathan and the president I know that is bringing good luck to me and to Nigerians is President Goodluck Jonathan.” He then said.

“Therefore, by the powers conferred on me, I change the name of this district to Goodluck Jonathan District.” He concluded.

Is there just cause?

Now, there is nothing wrong with naming places after past leaders of Nigeria, we have universities, airports, roads and buildings named after many of our heroes past, many long gone but with places in the history of Nigeria.

In most cases, these naming acts though unilaterally done by those in leadership do have popular appeal and support with many Nigerians knowing why.

It is quite strange to rename a district in the Federal Capital after a sitting President who has only been in office for two years and yet to prove himself as an effective master of his brief, talk less of being an all-embracing and inspiring leader of all Nigerians.

Maybe I am being harsh with my assessment so let us hear the citation the Minister gives to make the President worthy of such an honour.

Of the many deserving

"A district has never been named after a President ..." – that is a valid point but we have had many, 14 in all [2], starting with Nnamdi Azikiwe, the 1^st Governor General and the President of Nigeria; Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, the 1^st Military Head of State or Murtala Mohammed, the 4^th leader of Nigeria assassinated in 1976. Sani Abacha for his despotic reign is not offered a podium of honour but he is one of the 4 who once ruled Nigeria and have since died.

Other leaders of distinction, I use distinction with a bit of levity are Yakubu Gowon who lead the country through a civil war, ruling for 9 years or Olusegun Obasanjo who ruled the country twice, first as a military ruler and then as a civilian president altogether for 11½ years.

Only last week with full military honours and all the state accoutrements, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was buried, he led the civil war for the secession of Biafra and had long been revered as the leader of the Igbo tribe, it would appear he was the next for the synonymous and eponymous but you cannot curry the favour of the dead. – Surely, there is much to be said for these people.

Really?

The Minister goes on to say, “The president I know is President Goodluck Jonathan …” This could mean the Minister is completely oblivious of Nigerian history or cynically one might be persuaded to suggest this was blatantly currying favour since he is minister at the pleasure of the President.

He concludes the citation by saying, “… and the president I know that is bringing good luck to me and to Nigerians is President Goodluck Jonathan.” Is that all? You ask.

The President is honoured in a shameless display of sickening sycophancy as a fawning minister is innocuously 'bribing' the President to maintain his post by flattering the President and appealing to his ego, building graven images of district renaming like we have returned to the Babylonian times of King Nebuchadnezzar.

The Court of Goodluck I

We sometimes forget we are in a democracy and we operate like an absolute monarchy because it can only be the reason why a Shaykh kanti Aiki Ibrahim Zuru has a calling card with the title Loyalist to His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GCFR).

Obtained from a tweet by @Seedorf with thanks.

This whole charade of leadership in Nigeria is playing out like the Court of Goodluck I where patronage is rife and obsequiousness that can provoke extreme emesis is the norm, as for corruption, that is the currency of the gaining audience with the potentate whose name might soon be emblazoned on anything that can be named or renamed just before our prayer beads are replaced with the mini-busts of Goodluck Jonathan.

Impunity without a care

To crown it all, the Nigerian Senators who receive 350% of their annual basic salaries as car loans payable over 6 years at the annual interest rate of 4% were given cars [3] all same at additional cost of N1.3 billion to the public purse on the premise that they will be used for committee activities. It is illegal and criminal but impunity is the name of the game and accountability is as unAfrican as let’s say homosexuality.

We cannot be sentenced to this travesty of a democracy which is in fact fawning kleptocrats at the head of an unconscionable kakistocracy – Nigeria deserves a lot better than all this.

Sources

[1] FCT Minister renames Abuja’s Maitama District as Goodluck Jonathan District | Channels TV

[2] List of heads of state of Nigeria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[3] Senators receive N1.3billion new cars | Premium Times Nigeria

Other references

Nigeria: Prince Ade Adesanya is expecting your call

Nigeria: The Court of Goodluck I - Special Advisers

Nigeria: Presidency seeks the nth opinion

Nigeria: Disabusing the false premises in our discourse

Hecklers on Twitter, I presume

Hardly had my blog of yesterday been up 10 minutes before I got a Tweet suggesting I had offered no specific solutions. Obviously, I was not surprised that this had come out of Twitter’s woodwork, probably a heckler attempting to interrupt me in the flow of debate or an assassin poised to gun me down.

Basically, at least from my point of view, I had never engaged this person before and unfortunately I have not carried over the real life response to this type of activity which is, if a stranger accosts me on the street playing familiar that I have no connection with, they usually get ignored especially if the hour is the witching hour – it was well past midnight on my clock.

I have decided to address the matters as premises at the top of this blog and push the background to the latter part of the blog.

Premise: Article suggests no specific solutions.

The blog was written as an analysis of a speech given, which appeared to signal resignation and confusion as to why the principal was in the job he was doing. We are well beyond analysis paralysis of the problems that affect Nigeria; it is expected that those who assume leadership of the country are versed in those issues and are ready to tackle them effectively, not lament on the impossibility of their circumstances.

Fundamentally, I am not the President, he is the President – it is a job that has the micro-management of scrutiny from everyone affected by his decisions, he has had the executive fiat to select his ministers and advisors – surely, they cannot all be bereft of ideas and solutions to take the country forward that we end up with a President who appears to have thrown in the towel.

Premise: This is not the time to coach Goodluck Jonathan to be a good President.

Whilst I am slightly annoyed with the idea that this man is learning on the job, I am much more annoyed that it appears he is not learning anything at all. However, if we are to live through another 39 months of this presidency, it calls for an intervention.

The Occupy Nigeria movement started off something, the House of Representatives probe on the Fuel Subsidy scheme appeared to uncover what might be a massive fraud, and it should become the watershed for this Presidency.

I dared say that since the vocation of my assailant was motivational, it was time for him to pen something about arresting a failing goal.

Goodluck Jonathan has a number of options; to honourably resign for the fact that the responsibility he has is overwhelming and beyond him, he be asked to step down for more competent hands or he pull himself up and get into the job of being a fine President – all of which are possible.

For all the promise that 2015 presents, we are in the now, the present and these present times require radical and effective action – performance is required, trying his best just not good enough – over to the excellence merchants, bring forth your success potions and get him drunk on the brew.

Premise: People are not hungry enough for change

I think Nigerians have taken enough insults from “know-it-alls”. Pressed with the need to survive, most just go about their business and seek comfort through extreme religious devotion with the hope that things change.

Obviously, a good deal of change will have to be led by the people, and it will not be easy, but we do not have to be reminded that we are caught in the grip of an unconscionable kakistocracy.

Premise: Most people who criticise Goodluck Jonathan have never led anything in their lives

That might be true, but does one have to have once been a leader to know whether they are properly led or not? This is a false premise and a fallacy. It is like saying, because we are not pilots, we have no right to complain if the flight is in a manoeuvre that appears to endanger the passengers.

In fact, I consider this argumentum ad hominem; there are many vantage points and perspectives on issues, and there is much that can be seen by those external to the circumstances whose input can at times help. It is like having someone who cannot drive being the eyes of the driver backing into a parking space – well, that premise has fallen apart already.

The fact is, many of us have assumed some sort of leadership in various ways, and how we have commandeered situations has determined either the success or the unfortunate failure of those endeavours – there are expectations of leadership, and where that leadership appears to be falling short, the qualification to criticise should never be predicated on the critic having been in that position before.

Premise: We all have to be change agents

“Change agent” for me has become a worn cliché; it is the jargon of purveyors of snake oil remedies. The main ingredient for change is knowledge and information, the possession of facts and a good analysis of issues. Some of that will include praise, criticism, fawning, excoriation and indifference.

Honest and frank observation must be key to furthering the discussion and debate whilst engaging other minds in the common goal for progress.

I am convinced a majority of Nigerians want change for the better, but each has to hear a message that appeals to their drive to effect change, and because personalities differ, there is no “one size fits all” approach to achieving that.

I have never been a “glass half full” person because I enjoy the good things of life; it all depends on the content. If the glass has fine wine, I will expect it to be half-empty, having drunk a bit, and I will be waiting for the sommelier to top it up. My glass will probably be half-full if it were bad wine – Go figure.

The background continues from the end of the second paragraph

However, on Twitter, I am much more mellow, quite accommodating and usually responsive, probably too good-natured and too much of an English gentleman for my liking.

So, I responded, the purpose of my blog was not written from the premise of “If I were President” but to ask that he begin to act like the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Meanwhile, I was reviewing the Twitter profile of my assailant, glad to know that he was a bit travelled and schooled; the long and short of the profile was as I have found on many Twitter profiles – Snake Oil Merchant on the Bleeding Obvious.

Motives in motivation

Don’t get me wrong, motivational speakers have a market, each person has a modicum of an inferiority complex that needs addressing, and there is enough pulp fiction to teach success, leadership and how to make money out of thin air – I have bought a few and junked much more.

However, you can hardly get the thickness of a Chinese wall between confidence tricksters that portend to have all the tricks to make money, especially ritualistic and religious ones and the more refined success merchants of the Un-impossible.

I knew I had my work cut out, mostly in disabusing the premises that govern their God complex of knowing why and how, having found ‘sheeple’ to eat their grass.

What my blog said

In the context of my blog, I doubt he had read more than what I wrote yesterday evening, considering I had at least covered this topic for over two years, and it was evident from my writing yesterday that I was expressing disappointment in someone who, at the onset, appeared to have promise.

In my view, President Jonathan definitely has rotten speechwriters, but speechwriters need to be inspired by the speechmaker to craft messages to convey a mood, a purpose or a situation. Both the speechwriters and the President have failed to inspire, and Nigerians, as passengers on a cruise ship about to be shipwrecked, are left confused as the captain and crew seem to have abandoned the ship long before the rescue has commenced.

The incredulity of it all is captured in speeches he made in January and February, which I reviewed in opinions published as blogs; the President was not pulling his weight and announcing to the world that he could not.

In my exasperation, I asked him to stop his lamentations and start to preside, I have had my fill of Nigerian politics but surely there must be better brains and more capable Nigerian hands to run that great country if the system is not warped against them for the benefit of the few who have mercilessly run that amazing country of great potential into the ground and we have to endure the sophistry of “glass half full” snake-oil success merchants who think the President’s best is the best Nigeria can have and all is well.

I am neither a coach nor a footballer, but I do not need to be told when a goal is scored and which side appears to be winning. The false premises have been debunked.

Nigeria: We're Tired of the Lamentations of Jonathan

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

[1] allAfrica.com: Nigeria: We're Tired of Bombings - Jonathan

[2] Boko Haram attacks in Nigerian hurting business | The London Evening Post

[3] Nigeria Probes Possible Fraud Over $12.6 Billion Subsidies - Businessweek

[4] Corruption Perceptions Index 2010

[5] Corruption Perceptions Index 2011

[6] Nigeria: Power outage - FT.com

[7] Ranking of economies - Doing Business - World Bank Group

Other references

Nigeria: Why #OccupyNigeria should matter to all

BBC – A Nation Divided – The Health Demographic Map of Nigeria [Graphic]

BBC – A Nation Divided – The Literacy Demographic Map of Nigeria [Graphic]

Editorial: #OccupyNigeria for reforming our democracy

Personal Goodluck, Nigeria’s bad luck

Nigeria has been caught in the wave of revolutionary fervour as some might suggest and this has all been triggered by the amazing deftness of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Like King Midas of old his wish to have everything he touched turn to gold had been granted only that what has gained affinity to his touch is the Nigerian coffers. As the proverbial 1^st Lord of the Treasury he has presided over a profligate and wasteful consumption of resources all to maintain a life of unseemly opulence along with his cohorts rather than address the matter of progressive leadership of Nigeria - He is both prodigal and a spendthrift.

An overly costly government

The expansion of government that allows for three-quarters of revenue to go into recurrent expenditure is untenable, unsustainable and unconscionable but his government fattened on the largesse of Nigeria’s good have neither the discipline nor restraint for a diet that will cut government excess, government waste and corrupt expense.

For the past few months, they had set their eyes on fuel subsidy with the view to completely removing it and promising to invest those proceeds in public infrastructure, primary health and social development schemes.

The fact is the government has no track record in concluding any of those schemes in Nigeria, in most cases the government has majored in vacuous good intentions offered as promises, none of which ever get to see the light of day. Goodluck Jonathan sadly leads a hopeless and hapless clinging to forlorn hope; there is no reason or basis to find any iota of optimism in anything he has to say to the Nigerian people.

Guessing and paying off the charts

Three months ago, I wrote Editorial: Nigerian Government Dishonesty About Fuel Subsidy in which I noted the discrepancies between the estimated cost of the subsidy and the actual cost that was inflated 5 times more than the budgeted cost.

Besides, it appears no one is sure of what the cost of subsidising fuel is, the Central Bank in its MPC Meeting minutes suggested that the cost was about $6 billion, the on-going debate in the Nigerian Senate suggests the Federal Government budgeted NGN 240 billion ($1.54 billion) for subsidies in 2011 but have found that cost inflated to NGN 1.5 trillion ($9.6 billion) in what is a looking like a typical Nigerian scam. [CBN (PDF) Page 3][All Africa]

What is amazing is how the legislature or any vested party is not in apoplectic rage at this malfeasance in the executive by carpeting those involved and prosecuting the principals for the fraudulent misuse of Nigerian funds – the idea that the executive could overspend by 500% and no one be called to account beggars belief but also shows how complicit the whole democratic system is in the endemic corruption that makes the cost of this Nigerian democracy unsustainable.

Incubating #OccupyNigeria

I feared that the government might expect the so-called “resilience” of Nigerians to allow them implement this blatant corrupt enterprise to feather their over-pampered nests on the premise that they were doing Nigerians some great good that I did suggest that if the people will not take to the streets the army should come out of the barracks and reset this brigandage of wanton debauchery masquerading as the government of the people.

Goodluck Jonathan however forced his hand just like King Midas of old when he touched his beloved daughter and she turned to gold. He announced that he was removing fuel subsidy on New Years Day and that set in motion the movement called #OccupyNigeria.

Nigerians came out to protest against their government that the usually indolent and overpaid legislature came out of recess to discuss the matter.

Meanwhile ministers and stooges of the government took on the airwaves to threaten the people and make pronouncements that could only sound acceptable in Nigeria, because most of those pronouncements if spoken by Western politicians who are regularly our examples of convenience would have those politician blabbermouths out of a job before sundown.

Stop the killing

However, other knowledgeable and articulate Nigerians countered each and every claim the government put forward, as they set their dogs (security personnel) upon the people killing some by reason of the savage and barbaric Force Order 237 which according to the Amnesty International report “instructs police officers in “riot” situations to “single out” and fire at “ring-leaders in the forefront of the mob” ”and “directs officers to fire “at the knees of the rioters” and explicitly prohibits firing in the air.” [Amnesty]

It makes you wonder how policing has been allowed to thrive in Victorian impunity for the convenience of presumably 21^st Century politicians, it is shocking and a shame that we have policing standards that make the Apartheid massacres look tame.

Global Nigerian unrest

With Nigerians in civil unrest that has taken on a global significance with demonstrations in Europe and America as well and the labour unions acquiescing by ordering indefinite strikes one can only hope that the people who matter are not enticed by unscrupulous means that the government has adopted in bribing the hungry and the unprincipled to speak up for the atrociously untenable.

There is no doubt that the fuel subsidy should go but only after we have achieved local sufficiency of the refined product; the government should address the real problem of the corrupt nexus of officials and companies robbing us blind whilst facilitating the development and effective functioning of our local refineries working to capacity.

Beyond fuel subsidies

#OccupyNigeria is however now beyond the matter of fuel subsidies, it has to go the heart of the cost of our democracy that demands swingeing cuts to not just basic salaries but to allowances and perks that are beyond belief. All allowances should be cut to a fraction of the basic salaries of politicians which are in any case already excessively huge.

Going into politics in Nigeria should lose the allure of untold riches paid for sanctioned indolence, politics should be about selfless service with Nigerians only meeting basic middle-class needs of our politicians – if these people need more they should go get a job elsewhere, Nigeria’s udders have been milked to incurable sourness by political jobbers at all levels of government.

Sadly, the government of Goodluck Jonathan with the once excellent but now terribly disappointing Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala are incapable of implementing reform but one hopes that after they have been stunned by the forceful and determined reaction of Nigerians they will move to cut costs, cut waste, prosecute the frauds, restore the subsidy, lay off the majority of advisers, cut unnecessary ministries and ministerial posts, impose economy on the legislature, partner in building working refineries that will obviate the need for the subsidy and dare to earn our trust.

We could not have imagined a Nigerian version of the Arab Spring but today we have a Nigeria of all tribes and persuasion united as one for that entity called Nigeria and the identity that is Nigerian - #OccupyNigeria is our Nigerian Harmattan of Discontent and long may it continue until our democracy begins to represent its people, our aspirations and our hopes and the people we have elected to lead us begin to serve.

Tweets of interest

RT @resourcedat: DOWNLOAD KPMG REPORT ON NNPC: http://is.gd/JkOXaw Need to read this - Favourite it. An embarrassing catalogue of corruption, ineptitude and waste that should have had ministers, officials and company executives shot in a former time.

@ElRufai Interview on AIT on Fuel Subsidy – YouTube bit.ly/ye1xWz He takes it all apart and the government has no comeback. Someone to be credited for knowing the workings of the Nigerian government and exposing its failings.

RT @disgeneration: Fuel subsidy removal: Nigeria’s Finance Minister speaks to Al Jazeera http://bit.ly/yTxaBZ I could not help but notice her fluency in the parseltongue.

BBC News - Nigeria fuel protests: Union threatens oil shutdown http://bbc.in/w2sITG The government is far from embracing humility.

RT @OKShorty1: @BukkieSho Oil production will be shut in. Nigeria will lose $200m/N33b everyday. < Brought on by government incompetence.

#OccupyNigeria is no more just about reversion of subsidies, it demands a root and branch reform of our government & governance.

Yes, let us end the #OccupyNigeria strikes by getting the government to cut spending, cut waste and restore subsidies.

#OccupyNigeria has gone global - We, the people of Nigeria are out to take our representative democracy back from hoodlums.

…as AGF reads riot act to protesters http://is.gd/pIr8F2 No, we are reading the Riot Act to the Nigerian Government.

The end of paternalism in Nigeria, we'll not be threatened by the people we have elected to serve us, they're accountable to us.

OPS decries effects of strike, urges NLC, TUC to call it off http://is.gd/loz9hA Address the problem head-on, it's the government.