Tag: 2015 elections

President Goodluck Jonathan deserved our sympathy to climb to the Presidency in 2010, after the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua. That was understandable, considering the bad-testing cookies from the staple of the late President’s kitchen cabinet, shortly before his death. Again, in 2011, the tale that Jonathan was a shoeless boy from a minority national, in Nigeria, sold like a hot pancake. That again was understandable, as he represented a David, staking against the Goliaths. But as 2015 approaches, I canvass that competency instead of sympathy should be our common guide, in our country’s best interest.

Indeed if it were possible, the position of the president and the vice should be advertised on the international wire service, as Nigeria desperately needs a competent leader more than ever before. Were it not down to a constitutional requirement, that position ought to be given to any person considered most competent, regardless of his or her nationality. But that will be an anathema, so we have to make do with Nigerians, and luckily there are a handful of competent players. This step is key, to give our best shot, to the intractable crises facing our country, in security, infrastructure, education, and energy among others, after the 2015 presidential election.

Nigerians going to the 2015 elections must ask themselves, who among the gladiators has the best competence to solve our numerous security challenges. While no doubt, the Boko Haram insurgency, mainly in the north-east is the most arduous task, it is certainly only a part of the problem. There is kidnapping, armed robbery and the cattle herdsmen killing and maiming all across the other zones in the country. While I agree that political and economic mismanagement by the ruling elite constitute a major cause of these problems, it is not correct to seek to pin it, to the northern political opponents of President Jonathan. That argument is a lame blackmail, by the beneficiaries of the Jonathan presidency, sold to the ignorant.

The Boko Haram insurgency is a greater malaise, than fallout of the political disagreement, between the northern political elites and the Jonathan presidency. As many have correctly argued, the armed insurgency is an attempt by very dangerous international forces, spanning across the Arab countries, the North Africa and now sub-Saharan regions seeking swaths of political empire across these regions. That explains the sophisticated weaponry and financial resources available to these incendiary elements. While many countries across these regions, including now the Central African countries, are really in trouble arising from this insurgency, our own country’s challenge is compounded by decades of incompetent political leadership.

So, to really attempt to solve our challenge in this respect, we earnestly need very competent hands at the highest level. And the honest question should be, whether Jonathan’s presidency has shown such competency or even the potentials in the past four years? The same competency needed in solving the Boko Haram insurgency is also required to solve the other security menaces like kidnapping, armed robbery and now the strident Fulani cattle rustlers and armed attackers. While I concede that President Jonathan is not the major cause of these security challenges, it is his primary responsibility to solve them. And if he lacks the capacity to deal with the challenges, then we need a change.

With respect to infrastructure, it is also fair to ask whether the Jonathan presidency and indeed his party, the PDP, which has ruled Nigeria for 15 years, have been fair to our country. Starting from President Obasanjo’s years, to Yar’Adua’s interregnum, and the four years of President Jonathan, have Nigerians been given a fair result from the resources expanded over the years on our physical infrastructure. We must not hurriedly forget the billions of naira spent under the party’s political leadership since 1999, to provide the roads that are still death traps to Nigerians. Also, we can not fail to take into account the billions of dollars spent to resuscitate our electricity, without any measure of success. Recently, I watched in utter humiliation, the celebrated contraption running at about 20 kilometers per hour, on our antiquated rail lines in a 21st century; when other third-world nations were travelling on more modern rail lines at above 200 kilometers per hour.

While the Jonathan presidency is touting the privatization of the electricity generation and distribution companies, as one of his major achievements; we must do a simple arithmetic to determine what our nation was able to realized from the sale of our electricity infrastructure to mainly PDP party members, in comparison to the humongous sums that President Obasanjo’s regime expended on the same infrastructure that his protégé, President Jonathan, gleefully sold few years down the line. If we have suffered the deprivation of electricity, despite the huge sums expended over the years, and now we have sold the same infrastructure at a loss under President Jonathan, would it be fair to expect Nigerians to give fresh four years tenure to the same political cabals.

While we may not begrudge President Jonathan, his tact in rebasing our GDP, to place us first in Africa, we must keep our eyes on the main issue. Which is; what has changed in the quality of our lives, since PDP took over political power in 1999? If our lives have become worse, under the PDP leadership, would the celebration of a rebased GDP save our souls from the perdition, arising from a mismanaged economy? If under President Jonathan, corruption and ineptitude has become a permanent feature of political leadership, must we continue on the same road to Armageddon? I encourage those with the requisite competence to run, regardless of religion or tribe. For me, Jonathan must not win again, on mere sympathy.