By Erasmus Ikhide
President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan can now see clearly his
triumphs and errors as the 2015 general election firmly stirs him in
the face. Now, he is striving militantly with a burning sense of
mission anew – for himself and for Nigeria – from which all doubts are
not excluded. His new campaign strategies seems to have exerted a
strong appeal on the sentimentally induced nation.
In his exalted spirit, he is pointing the way toward a glorious
Nigeria destiny where there would be power stability, elimination of
Boko Haram, job creation, zero tolerance for corruption and the like.
Will Mr Jonathan be able to achieve these, even if he tarries on to
2019? To think of it, is it actually useless to speak guilt of a man
who in the bottom of his heart is devoted to his nation with studious
love, and who only missed or failed to understand the common road to
her destination?
There is no doubt that the President has done some good, his best. Is
his best enough for Nigerians? He has fixed Ore-Benin Express Way, and
has continued to fix the Lagos-Ibadan axis of the same road. He has
minimally upgraded some major airports, even though they are not
amongst the best 10 airports in Africa and are still leaking each time
it rains.
He is rehabilitating the locomotive rail system, and he is at the
verge of releasing N9.2 billion to Nigerians to buy cooking stove as
his re-election approaches. He had also built a number of destitute
(Almajiri) schools in parts of the North, and had promised to build
the Second Niger Bridge in the South East, even though it was his 2011
electoral promise.
But Nigerians are asking questions. They will continue to ask
questions as their feeble nation totters down to the making and
breaking day of February 14th. They will be asking President Goodluck
how well he tackled barefaced corruption in the last six years of his
government. They would want to know what happened to the $3 million
Farouk Lawal bribery scandal, the $6.8 billion Petroleum Subsidy Scam,
the N60 billion Police Pension Scam, the Oduah N225 million Car
Scandal, the N10 billion Allison Madueke’s Jet Scandal, N10 billion
laundered by Lamido, Jigawa State Goveror, the missing $20 billion
from the Federation Account.
They will certainly ask questions about the abducted Chibok girls who
remained missing to date, the NNPC Scam, the $9 million and $5 million
Arms Deals, the petroleum pump price hike, the devaluation of Naira,
the oil theft, the power outages, the skyrocketed PHCN bills, the
National Assembly tragedy, the cold-blooded killings by Boko Haram
insurgents in the North, the N75 billion Abuja CCTV that was stollen,
the suppression of personal freedom, the depravities of civil rights,
the massacre and slaughtering of school children in the North.
The questions would continue about the Haliru Mohammed £1 million
bribe, the $1.1 billion Malabu Bribe Scandal, the $180 million
Halliburton Scandal, the $32 billion ill-equipped Defence, the $713
billion Nigerian Port Authority Fraud, the Bart Nnaji PHCN scandal,
Dame Patience Jonathan dollar laundry Scandal, the former President
Olusegun Obasanjo latest allegation of $55 billion mismanaged, the
Youth Employments fiasco and more.
Unfortunately, for President, his discipline, zoology offers a
definite judgment on morality. To situate corruption properly, it must
be replaced by two concepts borrowed from zoology: the taming of a
beast and the breeding of a specific species. But he didn’t apply his
studies to tame corruption!
Though inherited, Mr Jonathan has been mushrooming on the country’s
misfortunes, after inspiring the hope of brightening a nation under
tension, turmoil and depression in 2011. Things had grown worst from
what they were as at the time he picked up the threads of the
withering country’s life from the edge of precipice. He couldn’t
tackle the misfortunes of the immediate past, the eclipse of the
present crises and the strengthen of the future he ambitiously
promised to secure.
One of the most annoying episode is the job scam where 19 Nigerian
youths, including pregnant women were trampled to death at the
nation’s stadia across the 36 States of the Federation, Federal
Capital Territory inclusive. The President deadened his feelings and
acted like a monster – filled with joy – after returning from a
fearful season of murder; arson, rape, and torture with the same joy
in his heart, the same contentment in his soul as if he has won a
trophy! No one hears anything about the Commission of Enquiries the
president sets up on the matter till now.
I raised some pertinent questions at that time in March 2014 when the
horrific incident occurred thus: “Shall we expect President Goodluck
Jonathan to “get to the root of the present stage managed killing” by
the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS and its allied? If he does, shall
we ever know the purpose the killing serves in his government?
Could the government findings assuage the feelings of many Nigerians
who linked the deaths of the job-seeking youth to serving ritualistic
purposes? Would the enquiries truly reveal the Administration’s
intension that was attended with showmanship? How many more Nigerians
will pay the ultimate price if the aim of the brutal stampedes is to
elongate certain person hold onto power beyond 2015?
Isn’t it shameful that over 6 million youths paid N1, 000 to chase
less than 5,000 jobs in a single department across the country? The
same blood-soaked racket raked over N6 billion for the Nigeria
Immigration Service, which they claimed was meant for the consulting
firm. Ironically, the Interrior Minister, Alba Moro who supervised the
tragic trampling underfoot of the Nigerian youths is stilling holding
on tenaciously to his ministerial position.
It’s hoped that Nigerians will be approaching the polling units across
the country with the mind set of righting the wrongs visited on their
beloved country by a gang of politically ill-equipped leaders who are
Providentially thrusted on the nation by dint of luck.
In the last Sixteen years, the PDP has laid waste Nigerians’ heritage
in the guise of political patronage. It’s time to change all that with
our votes on February 14th.
Erasmus Ikhide writes in from Lagos, Nigeria.
ikhideerasmus@yahoo.com