FG suffering from ‘celebrating too soon syndrome’
President Goodluck Jonathan must have been a generous lecturer in his years at the Rivers State College of Education. In spite of the abysmal performance of his government on many fronts, the President still gave himself a pass mark in what was supposed to be his speech on the occasion of the country’s 52nd Independence anniversary, last Monday. Indeed, his self-assessment reminds one of the lizard which falls from a wall and nods in self-appreciation of the ‘feat’ it has performed since the people around were not willing to acknowledge same.
Let’s start with President Jonathan’s claim on security. Is it not surprising that the President who always tells Nigerians that his government is ‘on top of the security situation’ has not celebrated the last two Independence anniversaries at the usual Eagle Square in Abuja? His aides are never short of excuses; no matter how illogical. I am sure if you ask them why this is so, they would readily tell you that it is because the celebrations have to be low-key; or that the President could mark the anniversary anywhere in the country; he could even choose to do it in his native Otuoke in Bayelsa State. But low-key or high-key, Nigerians want to see their President in a place they can connect with, like the Eagle Square, and not Aso Rock where only the privileged people attend cocktail circuits on behalf of themselves.
This year, the President still could not come out of the ‘rock’ to felicitate with his ‘fellow Nigerians’ on Independence Day; yet he was decked in full military ceremonial uniform. If someone promises to borrow one a dress, we have to assess what he is wearing before knowing whether to take him seriously or not. How does the President expect us to believe that his government is ‘on top of the security situation’ when he keeps waving to us from the safe confines of Aso Rock on Independence Day? Or, does he not give a damn about that, too?
If he has security reports that ‘danger looms’ if he goes to Eagle Square for the event, what of the rest of us that are not privileged to have such reports? The best people to score the President on security are the relatives of the many victims of the Boko Haram crisis, as well as the over 40 students massacred in Mubi, Adamawa State, hours after the President had beaten his chest that the security situation was improving.
Perhaps the most astonishing claim in the President’s October 1 speech was that alleging that Transparency International (TI) rated Nigeria second after the United States, in anti-corruption efforts. This claim has been denied by TI and it has remained a source of embarrassment to the country. What the TI alleged claim has shown, further still, is the penchant of our government officials to do selective exposure, selective perception and selective retention. What do I mean? These people see only what they want to see. Take the case of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) that recently alleged that some 800 companies closed down in the country between 2009 and 2011. The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (apparently in cahoots with the Federal Government, countered this and said, rather, that some 249 more companies had registered to operate in the country. They did not specify any time frame. Interestingly, it was the MAN statistics that the President referred to in his speech. In other words, that is what constitutes sweet music to the government’s ears. But the government would be making a big mistake if it thinks that Nigerians believe such manipulations. Again, they are the ones whose children left schools years back and are still roaming the streets in spite of the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) 13-year rule in the country. So, they are in a better position to know whose statistics to believe, NACCIMA’s or MAN’s.
The truth of the matter is that the kind of indefensible claim that the government made about its anti-corruption efforts is the way Nigerian officials bandy figures and claims; they had been doing it within for long, it is only that the attempt to begin‘charity’ abroad this time has backfired. They said they found the claim in Business Day newspaper. Would they have seen the report (even if published in the New York Times or Times of London) if it had been negative? Even if his aides had included such a claim in his speech, the President ought to have been truthful to himself to know that it is a bogus claim. Whatever his government is doing to fight corruption is based on pressure from Nigerians; it is not a thing the government initiated of its own volition. Perhaps the fuel subsidy scam is about the most important anti-corruption war the government is fighting, and we know what it took Nigerians to make the government rise to the occasion.
Even then, we are not sure if there would be any gain from the efforts if the matter is left completely in the hands of the present government. TI is not a frivolous body, neither are its scores as cheap as the President’s when it comes to assessing countries’ corruption profiles. Rather than apologise for misleading the President, one of his aides who should know said we need not lose sleep over the claim and that “People should focus on the message, namely that a lot of progress has been made and is still being made to tackle corruption in the system”.
In the first place, this is in itself debatable; to now claim that Nigeria is the second country after the United States, in anti-corruption efforts, is taking a silly joke too far. Isn’t there a gulf between sleep and death? Let no one make any mistake about it, the so-called ‘notorious facts’ that the President relied on in his anti-corruption claim was just a reflection of the shoddy manner the country is being governed. When government is honouring people, the medals would not go round; the next year when the medals go round, other arrangements would be mismanaged and recipients would be stranded on arrival in Abuja for the ceremony.
Another example is the Gross Domestic Product that the President claimed to be growing at 7.1 percent annually in spite of the global economic crisis. The question to ask is how does this translate to better life for Nigerians? Nigerians reject to live by figures alone; even though they know that that is what they are as far as their government is concerned – mere statistics!
Also, President Jonathan’s claim on free and fair elections suffered from the same ‘celebrating too soon syndrome’. The President had a free election last year because Nigerians overwhelmingly voted for him. If there is another poll today, the story would be different because the result would be significantly different from last year’s.
Perhaps the only area that the President could claim to be making some progress is power supply. In spite of the phenomenal increase in the amount of megawatts available in the country, it is yet too early to lay claim to any credit in this regard. Let’s see how far this can be sustained so that we don’t dance ourselves lame even though we may never have an opportunity of having the real dance later.
All said, President Jonathan is not competent to count his blessings yet. He is too generous with marks in his self-assessment. What we need is an impartial external examiner in Nigerians to rate him appropriately. They are the beasts of burden carrying the brunt of the country’s many challenges.
