Dr. Goodluck Jonathan once described himself as the world’s most criticised president . In this report, Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, takes a look at why he attracts so much criticism and the issues raised by the critics.
Since his dramatic emergence in 2011 as the elected President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has been a subject of seemingly unending scathing remarks and virulent public criticism.
At the beginning, when he first served as Acting President, later President and then elected President, it was mainly his known political opponents that raised alarm over his style of governance, describing him as “slow” and “weak.” Their criticism was understandably dismissed, by his associates and supporters, as a fruit of political intolerance, but when former national leaders, including the president’s political mentor, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, and other known associates within and outside his political party, (the People’s Democratic Party) joined others to publicly condemn most of his actions and policies, it has been a source of public concern.
Even Jonathan, in a bid to correct public perception of his person and that of his style of governance, has occasionally come out to explain the reasons behind his criticised actions and pace.
But so far, this has not succeeded in stopping such harsh criticisms as the number of Jonathan’s critics seem to increase by the day. The critics have also become more blunt and daring.
For example, during the grand finale of the 2013 Police Week celebrations at the Eagle Square, Abuja, Jonathan had tried to exploit the opportunity to explain the peculiar circumstances that have hindered the efforts of his government in its fight against insecurity in the country. He had said rather poetically, “This is quite a trying moment for this country in terms of security. A number of our police officers have lost their lives while serving their fatherland. We have challenges from the South to the North and from the East to the West.”
Reacting to that explanation however, former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, cautioned the president to stop lamenting over the deteriorating security situation in the country and take appropriate steps to tackle the menace.
This, in a way, represents the current relationship between the president and his many critics. As he and his aides try desperately to explain what the critics consider his failures, they, in the opinion of his political opponents and some other Nigerians, fertilize more grounds for condemnation.
As a result, the question in the mouths of many Nigerians today is whether the President is completely unaware of how to get anything right or his critics are mainly being unduly harsh and intolerant?
To answer this question, it seems necessary to take a cursory look at the personality of the major critics and some of the issues they have raised.
Olusegun Obasanjo
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is today considered as one of the major critics of President Jonathan, was once his major political mentor. At the twilight of his eight-year tenure in 2007, Obasanjo had single handedly picked the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Jonathan to succeed him. At the demise of Yar’Adua, it was reported that Obasanjo remained a major pillar behind Jonathan as he volunteered his wide political connections to ensure the emergence of Jonathan as President.
Things have since changed as Obasanjo has been at the forefront of critics who have expressed disappointment over Jonathan’s score card in the anti-corruption crusade. Some of his latest verbal attacks on the Presidency include his views on the government’s plan to set up an agency to guard pipelines and fight against corruption.
Just last month, at a book presentation in Lagos, Obasanjo said of federal government’s fight against corruption, “The poor enforcement of anticorruption laws in turn makes the citizenry less enthusiastic to act positively on any call by the government to (make) sacrifice(s).”
He contended that corruption remains the most serious factor undermining economic growth, regretting that African leaders know what to do, but that they have self-made constraints perpetuated by an elitist few in the political and bureaucratic class. “This class,” he said, “which forms less than 10 per cent of the population, consumes a whopping 90 per cent of the available resources. Their decadent orientation of personal opulence and conspicuous consumption is poisonous to growth.”
A few weeks later, at the 50th birthday ceremony of former World Bank Vice President, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, Obasanjo, also faulted the move by the Federal Government to set up an agency for pipeline protection, saying it was another way of stealing from the government coffers.
“When I was coming from Abeokuta, I was listening to the radio and they said they are going to set up an agency for pipeline protection. Now, what are the police there for? All the security agencies that we have, what are they for? This is another chop-chop,” he said pointedly.
Mallam Nasir El Rufai,
Asides his recent advise on the need for the president to stop lamenting and concentrate on finding solutions to the security challenges of the nation, former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, has for some time remained a major critic of the Jonathan administration.
For example, shortly after the Baga tragedy, El Rufai accused the Federal Government of being insensitive to the plight of the people of Baga, in Borno State.
He described as “saddening” the fact that the government disputed the number of people killed in a clash between members of Boko Haram and a military task force. According to him, the government should have instead found ways of alleviating the sufferings of the people.”
It would be recalled that in that incident, government said only 25 people died but some reports put the number of the dead at 185 or thereabout.
El Rufai had said, “It is unfortunate that we place so little values on human lives that we will be arguing whether six Nigerians have died or 185 or 200. When three people were killed in Boston, Obama left the White House to go and commiserate with the people of Boston. Perhaps more than 200 have been killed here and our own President is still sitting in Abuja. It then shows the kind of government that we have. It is pathetic, it is disappointing and God will make them to account.”
Also, when he featured as a guest on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, recently, El Rufai challenged Jonathan over the identity of Boko Haram leaders, alleging that the Federal Government knows much more about the sect than what it is letting out to the public.
“I think President Jonathan knows the leaders of Boko Haram because at one point he said that Boko Haram members are in his government. Who are those members that have infiltrated his government?”
He was reacting to Jonathan’s comments at a town hall meeting during his visit to Damaturu, Yobe State. The president had reportedly said “You cannot declare amnesty for ghosts. Boko Haram still operates like ghosts. So, you can’t talk about amnesty for Boko Haram now until you see the people you are discussing with. When you call the Niger Delta militants, they will come; but nobody has agreed that he is Boko Haram; no one has come forward. If amnesty can solve the situation, then no problem, but nobody has come forward to make himself visible.”
Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili
Former Vice President of the World Bank, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, an influential former minister, who presided over the Due Process Office during the civilian government of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, is another top flight leaders who has openly criticised the current federal government.
Her latest arsenal was when she alleged that Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan’s government wasted $67 billion (about N10.72 Trillion) left in the Federation Account by the Obasanjo’s administration.
Assessing the democratic government in Nigeria, she lamented: “Neither our thirty four years of cumulative military governance nor the nineteen cumulative years thus far of our democratic governance provided us “inclusive and accountable governance.”
“Instructively, a person, or as in our own case; a nation, is counselled to “stop digging when in a hole”. Lamentably, in our case, we have consistently rebuffed the wisdom behind that counsel. We have instead dug deeper and the more we have dug, the deeper into the hole we have sunk and all because of political misadventures.”
On corruption in Nigeria, Madam Due Process had this to say recently, “My general overview is that we are going through the throes of challenges that require a very strong sense of sacrificial leadership. The whole problem of a corrupted environment, the corruption in the society right now is so endemic, it has been democratised. And that is going to sink us. We need to tackle corruption and tackle it as you will tackle cancer. It can kill.
“ There is no need pretending that this country is burdened by the weight of a cancerous phenomenon. Every Nigerian knows that we have a problem. This is a broken society and it has permeated every aspect of our national life. So, we must have to do something about it.”
Urged to comment on recent controversial statements attributed to her, Ezekwesili said during her golden birthday, “Am I controversial? I don’t think. I am not one bit controversial. I am hard on the government. Is it probably because of the excess crude? No. you should say that the government did not handle its citizen who have served this nation with all her heart and my speech to the young people at the graduation ceremony was not picking on the government. It was picking on the act of the governance system in the petroleum sector on that fact that the oil sector has not delivered any benefit to the poor and that it was needed to be tackled. That was what it was about. I am not controversial.”
Apart from these critics, other outspoken leaders that have openly expressed disappointment over the policies and performance of Jonathan- led Federal Government or are openly opposed to it include the leaders of the major opposition political parties like the Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu- led Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and General Muhammadu Buhari-led Congress for Progressive Change [CPC] who have repeatedly declared that the government has failed.
Other major opponents include some Peoples Democratic Party state governors like Governor Aliyu Babangida of Niger State and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, among others, whose opposition are traced to either 2015 succession bid or the leadership of Nigeria Governors’ Forum.
As the opposition increases, observers are urging the Jonathan-led government to seek ways of building more understanding and confidence as a way of easing political tension ahead of 2015. Dr Boniface Awah, who gave the advise in a chat with The Nation, said, “no meaningful development could be made under the current situation.”
