It was interesting to read the other day that the people of the South-South had endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan for a second term barely a year into his tenure. They did not say whether he had done well to deserve a second term, as is the case on other forward-looking countries of the world.
But they were primarily concerned about the possibility of the region losing the slot to another part of Nigeria should the president makes real his earlier intention not to run for a second term.
The leaders and elders of the region were aghast that the president made the unfortunate declaration not to seek a second term without consulting them and the gods of the Niger Delta.
But they seemed to have also realized that there is nothing they can do to their most important son for his ‘infraction’ and avoidable slip of the tongue given the enormous power that he now wields.
One of the elders, Joshua Fumudoh, who spoke on the issue, stated clearly that Jonathan should have sought their opinion on the matter before making any statement on 2015 because, as it has emerged, the region does not intend to let go of the crucial post before 2019.
But these people appear to be jumping the gun because the nation is already awash in enormous problems that Jonathan has so far not been able to proffer any solution. In fact, it is a pity that the president, whose campaign slogan was ‘Fresh air in Nigeria’, has not been able to add real value to any sector of the economy to give the skeptic citizens any sense of hope and direction.
The administration appears to have run short of ideas on how to fix the decrepit sectors of the nation’s life and the people have a forlorn hope in the system, which in the main has successfully driven away hope and confidence from the people and infused them with a sense of cynicism. They do not and cannot trust the government for failing them most of the time.
They cannot understand a President, who promised to run for only one term only for his aides to begin to sing songs such as ‘when we reach the bridge we will learn how to cross’ and ‘it is the constitutional right of Mr. President to complete his term’ and so on.
But who can stop Jonathan from running in 2015 if Boko Haram allows us to be alive till then? One of their leaders, Sheikh Abubakar Imam Shekau, has threatened to consume him and the country within three months.
In a message on You-Tube on Thursday, the sect leader warned of further attacks to eliminate Christians and Christianity from Nigeria. Well, that is a threat taken too far and I believe the relevant agencies saw the message relayed in Arabic.
Thus, without the BH sect disfiguring Nigeria before 2015, I don’t see anybody that can dislodge the Otuoke prince from his exalted post for myriad reasons. It does not appear to me that the forces that manipulate crucial elections in Nigeria to the admiration of foreign observers are not in a hurry to change their nefarious tactics in favour of any of the opposition candidates.
If we are alive till then, the man will, with the aid of INEC and other election actors return to the Villa with even a wider vote margin than we saw in 2011 not because Nigerians will be willing to vote enthusiastically for the fish biologist, but because the instruments of election rigging are still tightly and jealously controlled by the same people who have been doing the magic in previous polls.
We are imperiled because the institutions that are empanelled to provide checks and balances for Nigeria, like the judiciary, the anti-graft agencies and the security agencies always see themselves as an extension of the man on the saddle of power.
This failure coupled with the influence of illicit funds that have already been stolen and stockpiled for the election year, is likely to swing the vote in the direction of those who are keeping the cash.
But before the next president is sworn in, it is my prayer that the leakages in the land, which have given the natives a nightmare, would be plugged. First prayer: let the security agencies wake up from their slumber and confront the forces that have the potential to tear this country into shreds so that the citizens can sleep with their two eyes closed till 2015.
Beyond that, let the government not continue grab available land space in Abuja for the use of the rich and the powerful by pricing them out of the rich of the poor and the middle class, most of whom have been forced to return to neighbouring states to face the wrath of the aborigines of those areas.
The idea of renaming important places for a sitting president is to say the least, uncivilized, mean and selfish because our president is still young and not known to be beggarly. Those who changed Maitama Extension in the FCT to ‘Goodluck District’ apparently to curry his favour, should stop embarrassing him with such ungodly offer.
I am of the opinion that the administration will earn the respect and goodwill of its citizens if it stops measuring economic development on theoretical basis and give us real figure based on the number of people employed by the government and the private sector per specific period, as is done in other countries.
It will also be good for the administration to tell Nigerians in concrete terms how many barrels of oil the country is producing per day and what it is importing daily to put an end to the sad tales that emanated from the subsidy probe, whose report, appears to have been ambushed by the cabal that has been benefitting from the illicit subsidy deals.
It is laughable for some elements to sit down in their offices and proclaim Nigeria as the third fastest growing economy in the world, at a time when the country’s poverty index is giving some Nigerians ghost pimples.
Nigerians who will vote for Jonathan or any other presidential candidate in 2015 need to be assured that the nation’s oil wealth and other assets will not be shared to the most loyal party faithful as we have so far seen in the so-called privatization and commercialization of Nigerian enterprises.
They want to be assured that the much talked about transformation agenda of the present administration does not end as a mere campaign slogan but will translate into concrete action in the areas of power supply, free and compulsory education from primary to secondary schools for Nigerian children and will be able to check the unmitigated corruption in the system that has resulted in direct stealing from the nation’s treasury either by way of pension funds or by way of inflated and abandoned contracts.
If these measures are put in place before the next presidential election, I am sure even the skeptic Nigerians, including Boko Haram members, would happily line up behind the president at every polling booth to give him their maximum support.
But if the nation’s pitiable condition, which has seen many Nigerians sleeping under the bridge and feeding from the gutters in most Nigerian cities, including Abuja, where Mr. President lives, persists, he may need to think twice if he should run for a second term or keep to his promise to do a single term.
If no significant change takes place in the way things are going in this country, I would advise the South-South elders and kingmakers to ask their most beloved son to bury the idea of a second term and go home and enjoy what he has already benefitted from Nigeria. At least he now has many shoes, unlike before.
Soni Daniel.
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