Yesterday, September 6, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan turned 100 days in office. As usual, Nigerians are ventilating their views on his performance so far with majority of them expressing disappointment with his scorecard. Group Political Editor, Francis Ottah Agbo assesses his government and concludes that the president is fast losing credibility among Nigerians for performing below average.
When President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan sought for the votes of the electorate in the 2011 polls, he promised to transform the country. The critical elites especially the power elites took his promise with a pinch of salt. One of them was General Muhammadu Buhari, Jonathan’s challenger and Presidential Candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) who never ceased to use every forum to tell Nigerians that Jonathan ‘‘has no capacity to lead this country.’’ General Ibrahim Babangida and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, both presidential aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) aligned with the fiery Buhari. Others who openly buttressed this position were former PDP National Chairman, Chief Innocent Audu Ogbe; former Senate President, Dr Ken Nnamani; former Governor of Rivers State, Sir Peter Odili; former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Professor Charles Soludo; former Governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa and of course the former Minister of The Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasril el-Rufai. They are quick to point to his hasty declaration on the bomb blast that rocked the Eagle Square on October 1, 2010. On that auspicious occasion, President Jonathan had declared that he knew the bombers. Even though MEND had accepted responsibility for the dastardly act, President Jonathan told Nigerians that MEND was not behind the act. He promised to prosecute the culprits. Unfortunately, at the time of going to press, these criminals have not been arrested. To Buhari and the retinue of Jonathan’s critics, this was enough signal of the president’s ineffectiveness and inefficiency and they urged Nigerians to avoid Jonathan like a plague.
But Jonathan’s handlers were quick to dismiss such claim. They said the politicians were out to deceive Nigerians for personal interest. They reasoned that the politicians, especially those of the Northern stock, were opposing Jonathan because they want to cling on to power since these same people had ruled Nigeria for a very long time and plunged the country into the socio-economic paralysis we now find ourselves. They also tried to no avail to taint Alhaji Abubakar as incurably corrupt and ineligible to be president.
Several documents were bandied to that effect.
When the president’s men saw that their message could not make the needed difference in Jonathan’s electoral value, they resorted to all kinds of propaganda. Two of the potent tools used were the ethnic and religious cards. Nigerians were told that since nobody from the Niger Delta has ever ruled Nigeria, the Niger Delta militants would split this country if Jonathan did not emerge president. This card did wonders as former Nigerian leaders of Northern stock adopted Jonathan. Prominent among them were Alhaji Shehu Shagari and General Yakubu Gowon. In fact, Shagari openly asked Nigerians to vote for Jonathan because he hails from the zone that lays the golden eggs.
And before Nigerians could spell Jonathan, all the presidential candidates from the South South withdrew from the presidential race. The aim was to build a united front from the geo-political zone to face the litany of aspirants from the North. Former Governor of Cross River State, Chief Donald Duke; Professor Pat Utomi and Sir Odili were some of the politicians that capitulated. In fact some of the militants took the joke too far when they openly threatened to bomb Aso Rock should Jonathan be excluded from the PDP primary on account of zoning. They shouted to the roof top that Nigeria had reached the stage where nobody should talk about zoning but that the buzz word should be competence and not where an aspirant or candidate hails from.
But the most effective gizmo deployed was Christianity. The argument was that apart from Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, no Christian has ever been Executive President. Men of God and priests were recruited from all nook and cranny to drum up support for the embattled president. Night vigils were held for this purpose. The message was clear: if you are a Christian, you must vote for Jonathan because God has ordained him to be president.
Funds were raised. Those who needed money were literally bought with tax payers’ money. And the Jonathan bug gradually caught most people, spreading across the country like wild fire. And on that day of the primary election, it was a fait accompli as Jonathan defeated Alhaji Abubakar with a wide margin. In the April general elections, he repeated the same feat.
But his goodwill seems to have evaporated. LEADERSHIP checks show clearly that majority of Nigerians whether from the North or South no longer have confidence in Jonathan. They believe he has failed in all sectors.
Corruption:
Corruption in Nigeria walks with two legs untamed. The Federal Government has not done much to fight the monster. No wonder, former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo once said the Jonathan government can not fight official graft. The implication is that monies that should have been used to develop the country go into private pockets and government seems to be silent. Instead of giving the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) free hand to fight corruption, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Mohammed Adoke, SAN is bent on stifling the commission. The cat was let out of the bag when Adoke ordered that the commission must seek permission from his office before prosecuting sensitive matters.
However, the Federal Government believes in the last 100 days of President Goodluck Jonathan in office, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) has recorded a number of achievements. One of its most outstanding contributions to the fight against corruption within the period is the arrest of former speaker of the House of Representative, Dimeji Bankole. The arrest of Bankole and his deputy, Nafada, over alleged mis-management of an estimated N40 billion tax payers’ money mark a turning point in the nation’s anti corruption crusade.
Bankole’s arrest had, so to say, deepened government’s seriousness in the fight against corruption. With his detention and prosecution in court, the Farida Waziri –led anti graft agency has been able to successfully hold a public officer as highly placed as the No 3 man, accountable for his activities while in office. Although the agency is known to be facing an unprecedented amount of pressure on account of Bankole, the fact remains that the commission believes that the former speaker owes Nigerians some explanations as to how the money in question were spent.
In the course of discharging its duties over the last few days, the EFCC had also quizzed the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji. He was said to have allegedly siphoned about N7 billion in proceeds of an illegal financial transaction.
Only on Monday, the 5th of September, the EFCC commissioned 8 blocks of ultra modern buildings housing the anti graft’s training and research institute in Karu, a suburb in Abuja metropolis. The project which was initially conceived during the Malam Nuhu Ribadu tenure has however under a major transformation. Inherited as an uncompleted one-block complex, the project over the last 4 years had transformed into a cluster of edifices, commissioned by President Goodluck Jonathan.
By and large, the activities of the EFCC have continued to sustain the heat in the anti graft front.
Although some hard line critics have accused the commission of being in a hurry to hit hard at suspected financial crime offenders, especially when the judiciary is seen to be back-pacing on certain case files. In spite of these notable achievements, the commission has identified certain key operational challenges. One of this is the reluctance of the judiciary to expedite trial of suspects, whereas the commission anticipates speedy dispensation of justice.
In the end, suspected criminals freely apply court injunctions to stall trials believed to weigh against them. The EFCC has been able to prosecute highly influential persons to court for graft.
With a recent pledge by President Goodluck Jonathan to support the EFCC in effectively carrying out its statutory functions, the war against corruption is very likely to redouble in the coming years. But again, what remains to be seen is government backing its pronouncement with action.
Security:
The security of lives and property is the cardinal duty of Government. But Nigerians are going through hell in their fatherland. In today’s Nigeria, bombs are flying over the country killing thousands but Government appears to be helpless. All Nigerians get is empty promise from its president. The consensus among a cross section of people who spoke to LEADERSHIP is that if Federal Government fails to provide security in the country with the enormous resources at its disposal, then the occupants of Aso Rock have no business clinging to power. But the Special Adviser to the President on Social Development, Mrs Sarah Pane, believes the security lapses will soon be surmounted. She said the Federal Government was putting in place solid strategies that would unravel the plots of suicide bombers even before they carry out the acts. Mrs Pane however accused the opposition of planting bombs in the country just to make the country ungovernable. The motive, according to her, was to create the impression that the president is incapable so that the populace would ask him to resign. But security experts believe the issue was not the source of the bombs but the inability of Government to nip it in the bud.
Infrastructure:
It is an incontrovertible fact that President Jonathan has been in the saddle for over two years. According to our sources, he met major roads for example in terrible conditions and up till now there have not been any improvements. One of such roads is the Lagos – Ibadan and Benin –Lagos Expressways. The roads in Nigeria are death-traps. The thinking is that no responsible government would allow its major roads to be in a sorry state the way Nigerian roads are now.
The Action Congress National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, puts President Jonathan’s scorecard succinctly:
‘‘What has been achieved by the transformational agenda? If anything the prices of basic utilities are still very high. The (electricity) generating capacity is now in the all-time low, unemployment remains very high across the country, inflation rate is also going up.
This runs contrary to the claims of government officials that the economy has been doing well with inflation remaining low. Only recently, the building housing the headquarters of the United Nations was attacked by some people.’’
But Dr. Reuben Abati, Presidential spokesman scored his boss high. While calling on Nigerians to be patient, he said the president has improved on power supply and Energy in the country.
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