Ahmad
The definitive outcome of the events of the past few weeks in Nigeria would summarise as the need to save Goodluck Jonathan from himself. The man seems prone to self-destructive statements that have become a hallmark of a gross leadership deficiency in a country with the complexity of Nigeria. So worrisome has been Jonathans predilection (orfaux pas, that a group of his Northern Nigerian retainers, headed by Chief Solomon Lar, paid a visit the other day, to implore him to talk less than he has done, since the tragic bombings of October 1st. MEND claimed responsibility for the bombings, but Jonathan exonerated MEND.^\ ‘terrorist organization based outside of Nigeria was responsible, according to our man at the Aso villa; these ‘terrorists were being used by ‘unpatriotic’ elements.
The wind was taken out of the sails of an elaborate project to rope-in politicians opposed to Jonathan, when MEND leader, Henry Okah, told Aljazeera television, that he received a call from quarters close to the presidency requesting MEND to retract responsibility for the Abuja bombings, in order to use the tragedy to build an anti-Northern hysteria, which can then be exploited to strengthen the dubious platform erected for a Jonathan presidency next year. The response to Okah’s allegation has been unconvincing, with minders of Goodluck describing Okah as a drowning man, without refuting the allegations. In more recent days, Jonathan has continued to defend the Niger Delta ‘militants’, with the dexterity of “Jomo Gbomo” (the infamous spokesperson of the terrorists), almost as if he forgot that he took an oath as (an unelected) president of Nigeria! A president who turns himself into a spokesperson of the criminals from his region frankly should not rule our country, and that is what Goodluck Jonathan has continued to do since the bombings of Independence Day. Yet the regime arrested MEND operatives and is trying them secretly; while South Africa, in tune with democratic tenets, tries Henry Okah in public, demonstrating superior policing and intelligence abilities. It was probably in pursuit of the agenda of appeasement, that the regime unconstitutionally transferred off-shore oil wells to his Bayelsa state, while promptly passing the buck to the National Boundary Commission. The frightening level of ethnic narrowness of the Goodluck regime will soon make the stuffy provincialism of the Yar adua era seem like a golden age of governance. Unfortunately for Nigeria, our fate resembles an Aesopian fable, with the fcwist that they never get better but worsen with each succeeding regime!
A simple analysis of the situation today shows that Goodluck Jonathan’s ambition, karfi da yaji, is the only game in town, and it has become almost as lucrative as issuing oil block licenses in Nigeria. The Jonathan-must-run project is like the Who-is-Who of Nigeria’s greedy and unprincipled, helping to put in bold relief why things are the way they are in our country. The people that Jonathan press-ganged into the service of his presidential ambition are turning out to be his worst enemies, because of their indecorous language, their inability to convince people without resorting to Area Boy language (exemplified by oldman Edwin K. Clark) or the issuance of threats of violence and crisis in the Niger Delta, if Goodluck Jonathan is “denied presidential ticket”, in the words of Labaran Maku, one of Goodluck’s ministers. According to the ex-journalist, ex-activist from Nasarawa, “denying ‘the owners and producers’ of Nigeria’s wealth the opportunity of also producing the country’s president in 2011 means danger for the
people” To stress further his line of threat to Nigeria, Maku lapsed into Hausa: “Gaskiya, Najeriya zai samu problem fa” Apparently we are to deduce from this not-so-subtle threat, the plans to hurt our country UNLESS Goodluck Jonathan willy-nilly gets the ticket of the PDP and by extension, “wins” the 2011 election, BY ANY MEANS, OTHERWISE..!
But the issue is that Goodluck Jonathan cannot face the Nigerian people on the basis of his record of leadership because he has little or none and the personality that has crawled out from behind the bowler hat, in recent weeks is one that is so frighteningly immature and too prone to unpresidential gaffes, that it cannot be put to public scrutiny. As if it cannot worsen, last week, according to THISDAY newspaper, “Fitch Ratings lowered its sovereign credit outlook on Nigeria, citing the depletion of windfall from oil and heightened political uncertainty…. The new BB-minus is three notches below investment grade”. The negative rating came just as figures released by the Energy Information Administration (IEA) of the US Department of Energy showed that Nigeria topped eight other OPEC members by earning $48 billion (N7.2trillion) from . oil exports in 2010 alone. In the meantime, the 2010 budget has not seen 20% implementation yet the regime wants to take foreign loan of $5billion to . finance items of the unimplemented budget, despite huge earnings from oil exports! What seems rational in our circumstance is to save Goodluck Jonathan from himself. The best way to do that is to ensure he does not become a candidate in the 2011 election. Let us ease the bull from our chinaware shop. The patriotic duty we owe our country and the man, is to ensure Jonathan does not get a whiff of presidency in 2011, warts and all! What is the relevance of baroness Lynda Chalker to Nigeria?
One of the absurdities of the disgraced despot, Olusegun Obasanjo, was a so-called honorary investment council, which was packed with colonial oddities like the former British minister, Baroness Lynda Chalker. Obasanjo suffers a huge inferiority complex, and always relished hobnobbing for photo-ops with the imperialist jet set of the Western world. It was in that circumstance that he brought Baroness Chalker to serve in his so-called advisory council. Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday this week carried a picture of the dour Namadi Sambo, Nigeria’s vice president, sitting like an awe-struck student, in the presence of that colonial oddity, Lynda Chalker. Nigeria does not need Baroness Lynda Chalker, or any other imperialist fossil, to teach us -investment lessons. In our 50th year of independence, the characters ruling us don’t appreciate they should not touch with the longest pole, oddities like Baroness Lynda Chalker, in any aspect of our national life. The struggle for independence was precisely that: to get rid of oddities and colonial fossils like Baroness Lynda Chalker that Obasanjo deludes himself are his friends and are therefore needed to help develop our country. Baroness Chalker is not relevant to our national development! One of the tragedies of Nigeria today is the enthronement of ignorance and inferiority complex at the highest levels of our national life. It is almost as if the struggle against colonialism did not take place on this African soil!
David Mark doesn’t speak for me Last week David Mark called a meeting to support Jonathan
Goodluck’s presidency. At the ehd of the conclave, they called on Bukola Saraki and IBB to withdraw for Jonathan. He can’t make the demand! We are not ‘Middle Belt’, but North Central and Mark is not our leader. David Mark was an unrepentant supporter of Obasanjo’s Third Term Agenda; he is undeservedly Senate President but he does not speak of me.
