The Ignorance Of Jonathan On Poverty And The World Economic Forum

By Adeola Aderounmu

If the forum goes ahead as planned, there will be tight security all around Abuja while the conference last. The security will be heavy and water-tight at the Sheraton Abuja Hotel, Transcorp Hiton Abuja and the Abuja International Conference Centre.

Somehow this conference in Abuja will showcase the low cognitive mentalities of some African rulers. The government of Nigeria will ensure the security and safety of foreigners. It is the same government that has not been able to protect her own citizens and is yet to issue any official statement on the circumstances surrounding the missing school students in Northern Nigeria.

Who abducted the girls? How many of them were abducted? Who are the gangsters responsible for this human trafficking? What efforts are being made to curtail or prevent a re-occurrence of mass kidnap of children, men and women? Why was it possible to carry our double terror attacks at the same spot at such a short interval of time? The answers to these questions lie with the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, men of the armed forces and the investigative arm of the security agencies, not with some “money-siphoning committee”. Silly!

The other angle to the economic forum came as a bang on the 1st of May 2014. The ruler of Nigeria revealed himself as one who has no sense of economics and growth measurements. What benefits is Nigeria getting from the WEF when poverty is measured by the number of people appearing on Forbes list of rich people or by the number of people who flew private jets to Kenya? Jonathan does not get it; his level of reasoning is so kindergarten and appalling. Now we know how Nigeria’s economic has overtaken that of South Africa-it is by private jets and Forbes report.

Poor Nigerians! They are in a permanent mess! With his line of reasoning, like a mad king, there is no way out. All those comments about Aliko Dangote, private jets and giving money to a Nigeria shows that Nigerians have thrown away their hope of a better future with the type of rulers they get at all levels of government. The relegation of intellectuals and the elevation of agberos and touts across all strata of governance in the affairs of Nigeria are revealing very devastating consequences.

When some people argue about not blaming the ruler of a country for the lack of security in the country then I don’t know who is going to accept the blame or responsibilities. Somebody must take responsibilities for the security breakdown in Nigeria and that person whom the bulk stops at his table is the ruler of the country.

It was not the South Korean PM who tilted the ship that capsized yet he took the blame and the responsibilities and stepped aside instead of finding blame or passing it around. So, I am sorry the security problem in Nigeria is for the government to solve irrespective of whether the government knows the sponsors or not. Innocent people are dying everyday! Children and women are kidnapped and used as slaves and sex objects.

Let me hasten my essay, Boko Haram successfully bombed a car park area in Abuja twice in a period of less than one month. The group vowed that it would remain in Abuja to unleash more terror attacks. Nigerians are asking for the arrest and prosecution of the sponsors of Boko Haram because Mr. Jonathan has mentioned several times that he knows the sponsors.

What investigations have been done by the police and the other security agencies? When will the arrest or interrogation of suspected Boko Haram terrorists begin? Is the judiciary independent enough to run these cases if this government gets the “liver” to start this show? Are the skeletons in Mr. Jonathan’s cupboard the hindrances to the end of terror in Nigeria? Who or what is he afraid of?

Who are those in his government that he said are “Boko Haram” members? Why is the Nigerian Army playing a double role in this whole deadly drama? People are asking the Nigerian army “if you can lead and win in Liberia and Sierra Leone, why is it impossible to lead in ordinary Northern Nigeria? Who controls the Nigerian Army today? What is in their way? Why are they being killed and slaughtered by Boko Haram so easily?

The WEF is ill-timed. Nigerians are asking about missing students and several murders and senseless killings by Boko Haram terrorists. Nigerians are asking for protection, they won’t get it! Nigerians do not have security for their lives and property. The luxury of security will be given to foreigners and coincidentally to Boko Haram terrorists who said they are already in Abuja. Are they lodged at the various expensive hotels in Abuja?

If this World Economic Forum conference is rolled away from Nigeria, the consequences and embarrassment (if this government ever get embarrassed) might help to start finding answers to the several unanswered questions that now include the global #bringbackourgirls campaign.

Who knows? The implications might be heavy enough to wedge stricter security measures to keep all Nigerians (and foreigners) safe while not ignoring the effects of the appropriate use of the rule of law as short term palliatives.

On the long term, it would be of historical and educational significances to look at the circumstances that led to the rise and success of Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria especially the role of underdevelopment, ignorance, poor education and outright failure of governance in the region notwithstanding the several years of hold on power by the selfish rulers from the Northern Nigeria. The lessons learnt can be useful for the future generations. Two post-independence generations of Nigerians are already wasted! Tragic!

aderounmu@gmail.com

[photo, world economic forum and AFP photo]

2 thoughts on “The Ignorance Of Jonathan On Poverty And The World Economic Forum”

Nice article, man.

President Jonathan really has no business in hosting this WEF, his economic credentials as I’ve mentioned previously are a sham. There is one individual whose fortunes are shining brightly, but he is not the president and he is not symptomatic of the general economy of Nigeria, and is highly unusual (he makes things and guess what he exports things). That man is Alhaji Aliko Dangote.

One does have to ask, how is Nigeria governed? Even a simple thing as saying how many people were abducted. The government can’t give a simple figure, it is always changing. This is a simple matter of going through the registry and contacting the parents, to find out if their daughters are with them or not. Nothing to difficult in that. We then hear of the bogus claims of the military that they rescued some girls. The truth of the matter, is that those that escaped correctly deduced they would be better off jumping from a moving truck in the dark, in the wilderness and facing the gunfire of Boko Haram whilst trying to escape, than waiting for the armed forces to “rescue them”.

We saw in South Korea, one of senior members of staff hanged himself, out of guilt, shame and of a profound sense of having let the parent’s down. The prime minister resigned. I’m not advocating than anyone should commit suicide, but you can see that these people have standards. No one in Nigeria apart from Abubakar Shekau has put their hand up to take the blame. So this form of conduct by the armed forces and the government is acceptable, this is unbelievable. The armed forces are behaving like they don’t want to rescue anybody. The president waited 3 weeks before confessing that he needs help. The truth be told, if he had surrounded the kidnappers in the first week, they could have released the hostages by now. The trail has now grown cold and the girls probably have been dispersed, so tracing them will be a whole lot more difficult. Can you believe that no one has motioned for a vote of no confidence in president Jonathan? Even worse he wants to run for president again in 2015. What next?

President Jonathan has reduced Nigerian armed forces to the level of that of the Central African Republic, ie not very good. Boko Haram are not in the upper echelons of terrorists, yet the Nigerian army are being hampered from dealing with them effectively.

I read an article that was drawn up through experience in combat operations fighting the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. I would not say it has all the answers, but I’m pretty sure if adopted Boko Haram, would be considerably diminished. Here is the article

Some possible measures to deploy

The way things are going, if the shopping complex siege that occured in Kenya happened in Nigeria, I’d dread to think what the outcome would be. At the very least, the Kenyan armed forces were able to contain and eventually extinguish the situation.

Algeria, which has bas been fighting a severe form of terrorism for years, unaided. When a hostage situation occurred there, it was dealt with and since then we’ve not heard of any further terroism incidents there.
Here is the incident I’m referring to, it’s called “In Amenas and occurred on 16 January 2013 “. Compare that to how the Boko Haram situation is being “dealt” with there.
Here is a link
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Amenas_hostage_crisis"<How Algeria deals with terrorists

This business of using poverty as a reason for terrorism to increase in the North is convenient but it not totally true. Before Obasanjo had taken power, the North was poor and the North East was still the poorest region. No one said anything, people are quick to point the finger at Obasanjo or Jonathan and blame them (simply because of where they came from). Why does no one ask what the governors did with all the money that was handed to them on a plate? Why are none of them being probed? Why isn’t the money being returned and used where it is needed. What measures are being put in place to prevent this from re-occuring? The real reason behind this terrorism thing, is that it is political. What happened to the money that was returned from Switzerland from the late General Abacha’s account? What happened to the $20 billion that vanished? All uncomfortable questions that no one wishes to answer. Yet people say poverty is the reason for terrorism. We can’t be selective, and overlook these things if we are to really honest in dealing with this situation. No questions are asked and as such these things repeat themselves.

Thank you Adeola.

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