Corruption

The War on Fuel Subsidy: Isn’t It Time for Jonathan To Get Out of the Way?

/ Adeola / 2 Comments

By Adeola Aderounmu

By removing subsidy Mr. Jonathan and Mrs. Iweala are trying to save N1 000 000 000 000 but together with others before them they have all stolen more than N60 800 000 000 000. Is it not wiser to try to recover the stolen monies by fighting corruption TOTALLY? So much for Iweala’s Havard Education and IMF employment.

If Jonathan and PDP remain in 2012, I won’t recover from the shock..!

Nigerians should resist by any/all possible means the proposed removal of the subsidy on petroleum products.

If the pump price of petrol hits N140/per liter Nigerians have a duty and the obligation to make the country ungovernable for Mr. Jonathan. Since Nigerians insisted in April 2011 that they voted for Jonathan and not the PDP, then a moral obligation here is to ensure that they remove the evil they accidentally or stupidly voted for.

At that time, Nigerians should demand for the sack of Ngozi Iweala. This is the same woman who in connivance with Obasanjo ensured that Abacha’s loots disappeared into thin air. Now she is the champion for the removal of subsidy.

No Nigerian politician or Minister will be affected by this policy because they steal and loot as they like. Instead it the people who are already poor that will become poorer. More than 90m Nigerians live from hand-to-mouth, mostly on less than 2 dollars / day.

Already since many years now, many civil servants don’t go to work daily because of insecurity and the cost of transportation. With the removal of subsidy the cost of transportation will be one of the highest in the world on some of the world’s worst roads!

When the cost of transportation increases, the cost of food will increase and hunger will become more rampant. A spiral effect will ensure and the cost of housing increases. In a country where unemployment is a way of life, crime will increase and insecurity will reach an unprecedented height.

And the thieves in Aso rock and other government houses will continue to merry and loot. This is probably the last chance for the Nigerian revolution!

It is time for the people to seize their regions and stop this homage to Abuja. For the government that has always denied the people an open referendum for how to lead their lives, there will probably be no better opportunity for self-determination than now.

Jonathan as a typical corrupt Nigerian politician has refused to confront the hydra-headed problem which itself is corruption. If you are corrupt or you have skeletons in you cupboards, then it is clear you cannot fight corruption.

The same goes for Mrs. Iweala and the zeal with which she is pursuing this evil agenda.

Otherwise all the corrupt people in NNPC should have been prosecuted by now. All the corruption around the Nigerian oil should have been tackled by now. Jonathan came to power in April 2011 and it is business as usual.

Instead of rolling out a blue print for Agriculture and how our mineral sources (including Uranium) will be used in 2012, Mr. Jonathan and Mrs Iweala are reading out riots acts. Jonathan stated that he is ready to confront the demonstrations that will follow.

It appears that N921.9 billion for “war” in the 2012 budget was not only for BOKO HARAM war. Part of it will be used to fight the people and kill the voters if possible. The evil in PDP will be manifested more than ever before in 2012.

Iweala and Jonathan want to save N1 Trillion. I challenged both to them to prosecute all the corrupt politicians in Nigeria, they will emerge with more than N60 Trillion.

They can start with the USD12 billion that Babangida cannot account for. They can then proceed to the N16 billion that melted away under Obasanjo while pretending to be fixing the power problem.

Even Abacha’s loot should be retraced and Iweala can tell us what exactly happened to the recovered loot. What she must not say this time is the lie she told a few years ago: that the money was used to execute projects that pre-dated the recovered loot.

In several ways and through several avenues, Nigeria can recover billions of dollars of stolen funds that will make the proposed removal of fuel subsidy a useless adventure.

In that sense Nigeria needs strong men who can take actions and prosecute thieves and loots. We are tired of weak men and weak women like Mr. Jonathan and Mrs. Iweala.

Nigerians have only one major obligation in 2012, to end the PDP Regime in any way they can as a way forward..!

Nigeria’s EFCC, Toothless Bulldog Just Fooling Around..!

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

It does not matter..!

EFCC is not about Ribadu who Obasanjo messed up with the third term wahala. It is not even about Waziri who like her boss Yar Adua wasted both space and time. And who is the new, old guy in the hermaphrodite commission.

Let’s get it straight. We have a system that needs to be overhauled. This means that 99.9% of the people ruling Nigeria today need to be swept aside and sent to kirikiri or mental homes for their incurable lootocracies!

All these stories about change of EFCC bosses every now and then are meant to create distractions and media entertainments. Imagine the parties and ceremonies that would have been thrown by those whose candidate is now the head.

In a country where the police are efficient the likes of the people ruling Nigeria today will be cooling off, marking time. They won’t even be there to change the redundant and figure head anti-corruption bosses.

We know that no country is free of corruption but when the thieves are known and walking free, even oppressing us, it is too shameful and over scandalous!

When the Jonathans were still in Bayelsa Mrs. Jonathan was twice accused of stealing. The tragedy is that the two cases were inconclusive. What would have been the true stories if all the corruption cases in Nigeria are allowed to run conclusively?

Who knows where the Bankole story will end.

Many things trouble me, even the thoughts of David Mark and his presence in the looting business since the days of Babangida or before. Incomprehensible it is..!

The euphoria of the change of baton will soon simmer and looting as usual will continue. As the years go by, the loot increases and the poverty level in Nigeria gets bigger and more devastating. This is the greatest pain ever in my heart, to see a people suffer in the midst of plenty and doing nothing about it.

Nigerians are not too serious. They are not demanding. Else the 12 billion from the gulf war will surface tomorrow morning because Babangida who stole or took or kept them is still alive.

If that new, old guy at EFCC wants me to take him seriously he should open the case and put Babangida on his toes, not just for the 12 billon dollars oil windfall but for all the looted funds that covers 8 wasteful years.

When he is done with that, then he can proceed to the next big deal which is the open files that Obasanjo and Atiku made available to the press during the third term roforofo fight. Everyday in the newspapers we saw original copies of looted funds by Obasanjo and Atiku. It was a fight to finish but we let them off the hooks, just like that!

So if EFCC has no work, they should at least open those files and bring these thieves to judgement.
After that he can even arrest or press Ribadu so that he can release all the files about all the corrupt governors that he promised to prosecute when the immunity shield was over in 2007.

What I am trying to say is that the EFCC is a toothless bulldog and has no real function or meaning compare to the scale of corruption, looting and impunity in Nigeria.

The EFCC will never be able to deviate from his selective prosecution process. Somehow some people are mildly punished like Bode George and Tafa Balogun and Igbinedion. They get to keep most of the loots after plea bargaining or 6 months to 2 luxurious years behind bars.

EFCC cannot deviate from selective prosecution because of the way Nigeria’s primitive politics is operated. The system is completely jagajaga. Sanity is an aberration in the Nigeria’s corridor of power.

There is no genuine anticorruption war that the EFCC will start that will not consume all the past and present governors, past and present Ministers, past and present legislators-federal and state, past and present commissioners, past and present local government chairpersons. Even personal assistant and media spokespersons will be consumed, they are all corrupt o jare !

I state boldly and categorically that there is no genuine anti-corruption war that the EFCC will start that will not consume the past presidents and the serving president in the person of Goodluck Jonathan.

Why are we fooling ourselves?

In Nigeria corruption is a way of life.

Nigeria’s needs to be straightened up and this must start from the top. If the head of the fish is rotten the entire body is bad, smelly and cannot be eaten.

Nigerians should do all they can to replace their “heads”. The heads should be cut off or replace every time it goes bad so that the body is not infected or contaminated.

Nigerians are the ones who need the power, not the EFCC. It is sad though because Nigerians don’t know how to utilize people power which is a function of numbers.

Until Nigerians learn to use their numerical strengths to change the order of things, 90% of the population or more will seep deeply into poverty level. They may never recover!

So the debate is not about EFCC but what the people can do to save the regions or the country itself and make it habitable for the unborn generations.

Have a good life Mrs Farida Waziri. Enjoy all the money you stole or recovered loots that have no traces. It is not different from Abacha’s loot that Obasanjo and our imported finance Minister did abracadabra with.

Enjoy all the gifts and all that.

What a country..!

I agree with Reuben Abati: It is Time to Stone Those in Power

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

In 2009 Reuben Abati recommended that it will soon be time to start stoning the economists in the corridor of power in Abuja. In 2011 I strongly recommend that everyone in the corridor of power and all those who are called stakeholders who have supported the removal of the subsidy on oil and oil products should be stoned.

Goodluck Jonathan has pinned the reactions of Nigerians to the proposed removal of subsidy on those who want to throw him out of office. I say that he fired the first rounds of shots on his legs. If this will mark the beginning of the end for his insensitive regime, let the occupation starts.

I want to ask the same questions that Reuben Abati asked in 2009: How? Where is this subsidy that government talks about? How was it disbursed?

Reuben Abati wrote in that headline that Nigerians will soon be trekking. Sadly enough Nigerians have actually been trekking before 2009. I remembered trekking from festac town to CMUL during the 2001/2002 fuel scarcity. I had obligations that couldn’t wait.

In 2011 Nigerians are not only willing to trek, they appear ready to march down the Jonathan government that has come to be characterized by weakness in all its ramifications.

From one generation to another, the Nigerian government presents a constant image of a permanent aggregation of dubious elements. In my personal opinion I have concluded that no amount of additional suggestions or written essays can solve Nigeria’s problems.

Are there problems facing Nigerians that the solutions have not been proffered here in the Nigerian Village Square or elsewhere where Nigerians display their intellectual capabilities? Do we have problems in Nigeria that we have no discussed about openly? What has happened to their implementations?

I believe so much in the solution proffered by Reuben Abati. Even so because when it is carried out it will consume people like him. I like such solutions that will not spare the hypocrites, the pretenders, the sycophant and the famously corrupt people in government, many of whom have recently been rewarded by meaningless national awards over several years.

I can’t imagine how people receive national awards in one of the most corrupt countries in the world. How does it feel to receive national awards in a country with one of the highest child and maternal mortalities in Africa? How does it feel to receive awards in a country where electricity is almost absent? How does it feel to receive national awards in a country where public education is almost grounded?

If Nigerians obey Abati’s call by simply rising up and stoning the people in the corridor of power, I am convinced that the revolution we long sought will start. It might be ultimate the clean-up we have waited from since 1960.
It is sad how things have turned out for the ordinary Nigerians. On a poverty wage of USD 113/ month, a Nigerian is expected to pay his rent, bills, and sundries. There is no greater miracle on planet earth than a Nigerian living on N18 000 per month.

In a country where more than 20% of the population is unemployed, I have found it hard to find a greater tragedy against the back drop of the immense natural resources and potential human resources.

If there is any country in Africa where the government should be giving relief packages to her citizens after 50 years of misrule and leadership failure, that country is Nigeria.

In a twist of test of resiliency the ordinary masses will be insulted further. For failing the build or maintain functional refineries, for failing to fight or curb systemic corruption, for failing to deliver on the so-called dividends of democracy, the insensitive Nigerian government now headed by Goodluck Jonathan will make Nigerians suffer even more.

Rather than relief package the economic team of Goodluck Jonathan, his executive council and the so-called stakeholders will deliver loads of additional burden onto Nigeria.

The arguments are hinged on the famous textbook concepts rather than the realities on the ground. There are no arguments that the Jonathan government has put forward that is different from what Obasanjo and late Yar Adua proposed. In all the previous partial or total removal of subsidies that have been used to increase the pump price of petroleum products, there has never been a corresponding increase in the quality of lives of the Nigerian people.

There is absolutely no reason to believe or trust the Jonathan government. It represents the PDP government that has held sway since 1999. The PDP is the largest aggregation of corrupt people in Africa. Under the PDP the quality of life has declined sharply at the same time that the cost of it has continued to increase unhindered.

This, as Jonathan feared in his recent utterances that the opposition wants to bring down his government, must be the last test of resiliency for Nigerians. Any attempt to increase the burden of Nigerians should be met with the highest possible resistance. The opposition that I see is the over 90m Nigerians living below the poverty level.

The argument that the state governors are in support of the removal of fuel subsidy does not hold water. Which governors? We know they want more money from the 52% that the federal government has been looting for several years because they are all the same birds. Why should what the governor wants be a benchmark for what the people want?

Why do the extremely rich but corrupt people in the corridor of power think that they know what is good for the suffering masses? When will the voices of the people start to matter democratically, if truly we are under a democracy?

I think it is sad and disappointing that Jonathan think that only the people in the middle class who have 4-5 jeeps will be affected by the subsidy removal. A lot of middle class Nigerians are even still struggling to maintain their statuses and to continue to pursue a happy life.

The dynamics of the Nigerian economy certainly reveals that the masses are the end-receivers of failed policies. When the subsidy is removed there is no doubt that the cost of transportation that is already exorbitant will increase further and the prices of dietary and other consumable products will follow the same curve.

We cannot live in denial and allow those who are shielded from the reality of everyday existence since they got to the corrupt corridor of power speak for us any longer. Reuben Abati and the other advisers cannot speak for the masses. Nigeria has not improved since this administration started wasting our time. Policies or parameters that neither put food on the table nor increase the quality/standard of living are abstract and worthless.

The practical situation in Nigeria today is worse and even more deplorable compared to 2004. Someone, an ordinary Nigerian who knows where the shoes hurt, wrote today that Nigerians should be ready to turn sand to food. In all sincerity he was not joking and he didn’t think we should laugh about his comment. People are suffering.
Nigerians need relief packages and they should be brought forward now.

If this virtual subsidy on oil products is removed and Nigerians remain resilient, it means our collective “suffering and smiling” will continue. It also means that People Deceiving People Party and the team of political and economic looters who are blind to the reality of a daily Nigerian life have succeeded again. Our glory is not yet come and that is so sad and disheartening.

aderounmu@gmail.com

No One is Safe in Abuja and Northern Nigeria

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

Adeola Aderounmu

I doubt that even president Jonathan is feeling safe in Abuja. Let us imagine that he is attending a ceremony at Sheraton in Abuja say in February 2012 and suddenly the entire building blows up. Let us imagine that no one comes out alive from the ceremony.

Is it worth dying for what you don’t believe in? I don’t think so. I think it is senselessness and stupidity to waste one’s life and that of others.

Nigerian politicians and other stakeholders who are beneficiaries of the senseless situation in Nigeria are hiding away from the truth. But with the security situation out of control and Nigeria gradually and slowly nearing that chaos that would ultimately tear it apart, isn’t it more reasonable to give Northern Nigeria to the Northerners?
Isn’t it time for us to go back to our regions and leave Abuja alone?

No, they always argue because they are beneficiaries of a corrupt system where stupid people and morons hold sway. They think the rest of us are unfortunate and that we are their slaves.

Boko Haram has come to stay not only because of the weakness of the Jonathan administration but also as a result of 51 years of extremely bad governments. Corruption and outright madness prevails in the Nigerian political experiments.

External terrorist forces are now established in Nigeria and we must find a way to ease them out.

With Nigeria in mind and the wars around the world in the name of freedom, democracy has come to represent the hallmark of human failures. Liberia is nearing another round of chaos in the name of bad elections and foreign interferences.

President Jonathan of Nigeria must know that a burning house has no master or lord. Nigeria is burning and the rate of combustion is remarkable. How long before Abuja goes up in flames?

All the people living in Abuja and Northern Nigeria are now no longer safe. They are constantly exposed to danger and threats that can consume them and their loved ones at any time. Is this the life we chose?

The longer Nigerians wait before they return to regional government, the more catastrophic the disintegration will be when it finally arrives-with full force.

An idea whose time has come, or an idea whose time for return is near, cannot be stopped.

It is time to return power to the regions. President Jonathan and his army of corrupt men and women at the National Assembly can still try hard enough to redeem what is left of their almost irredeemable corrupt images. They can stop stealing and face the reality of the lives we live for once.

They can call for referendum on the way forward or they can call for sovereign national conference. In that case Boko Haram will have no excuse. They will send representatives who will speak for them on how they want to lead their lives in North-East Nigeria. At that time, the failure of Boko Haram to make representation can then be met with a full scale war and possible outcome can be the wiping out of anything Boko Haram.

Obviously we had regions before the stupid creation of states by the military. It is easy for me to argue that people should belong to the regions they were in before the creation of states.

In the case of arguments and rife, long negotiations should set in and in the end agreeable compromises can be made, no matter how long it will take.

Not doing anything about the current situation in Nigeria is even worse. It is as worse as anybody or anyone including the selfish politicians and rest of us can be consumed by the Boko Haram phenomenon.

We are already consumed by many evils and anomalies, including lack of water, lack of road and lack of electricity. Our life expectancy is below 40 years. A dose of Boko Haram is adding salt to our sored injuries. The dilemma in

Nigeria is one of the biggest crimes against humanity that I know.

Nigerians should wake up and for once have a say in how they want to lead their lives in their various regions. If the wave of Boko Haram spread to all parts of Nigeria, it may be too late to discuss. At that time, we will be fighting fresh rounds of civil war. The devastations will be worse than the Biafra war.

I don’t think we can afford that. Even Africa and the world cannot afford a full blown war in Nigeria.

So, let’s talk and act immediately now and stop pretending that all is well.

1999-2015 PDP Years May Be The Worst Of Our Lives

/ Adeola / 5 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu

The problems facing Nigeria are huge. They are also many.

The solutions are not easy to define because for over 50 years the country has been neglected as successive governments looted and stole just the way they liked.

Both military and civilian administrations in Nigeria neglected the people and plundered the country like emperors and tropical gangsters.

There is no federal government in Nigeria that has successfully planned for the future or made long-term plans to ensure national growth and development.

In 2011 Nigerians followed their minds while neglecting the power of deep cerebral thinking as they voted massively for Mr. Jonathan. The votes-Nigerians claimed-was not for the PDP.

Unless something is done in the days ahead the next 4 years may add to the previous 12 as the worst years that Nigerians alive have ever seen.

Security is at its lowest ebb since the end of the civil war. Terrorism is fully established and Boko Haram can take Borno, Kaduna and even Niger States if it so desired.

Food has never been so expensive in the history of Nigeria. The prices are increasing daily and the purchasing power of the Naira remains low as its value continues to tumble.

The worst express roads and highways in the world are still in Nigeria. One Minister cried at Benin-Ore road but she could not repair 0.1km of the stretch. One former Minister of Works and Housing is from Benin and his cerebrum could not connect to his nerves to get the simple messages: repair, build, restore, maintain.

The chronicle of Nigeria as a failed country is also very evident in the education sector, health department and area of infrastructure.

Lack of housing schemes and absence of water for majority of the population joined with the high cost of food in making Nigeria a country inhabited by more than 90m impoverished citizens. This, though hardly spoken about widely, is probably the worst man-made tragedy of our time.

With the near complete absence of state-supplied electricity Nigeria is among the worst places on earth inhabited by humans. We near Somalia, so precariously!

In addition to a President, Nigeria has Ministers, (including the unnecessary, wasteful and redundant Ministers of States), Lawmakers, Governors, Commissioners and even Councilors. For all the PDP dominated years, very little has been done to touch the people’s lives.

Nigeria has been left in the hands of Special Advisers, Special Assistants, Expert Facebookers and PR Consultants. Nigeria probably runs the most expensive government in the world and nothing is in the pipeline to change the status quo. Looting continua..! It is also not a joke that a governor in Nigeria appointed a special assistant for Lagos Matter and another special assistant for Lagos Affairs.

The ordinary citizens and people of Nigeria are suffering like mad as billions of Naira are wasted daily on side attractions including one useless talk of tenure elongation.

A 3-month genuine anticorruption program to arrest and prosecute all corrupt people in and out of government will avail more than the senseless debate about tenure elongation. Such a genuine adventure will settle for all time the question of accountability and probity. It will make elections less adventurous.

But all the governments in Nigeria including the government of Jonathan have been dominated by corrupt people many of whom have been recycled. This cycle of idiocy makes it impossible to fight corruption but relatively easier to distract with irrelevant issues like duration of looting tenures.

But in any case the government of Jonathan has promised to do wonders. It promised a lot during the election campaigns in 2010 and early 2011.

The office of the Nigerian president is too powerful. It’s like what the Yorubas called Kabiyesi (no one can question you?). The Nigerian presidency offers room for both laziness and lackadaisical attitude.

At this stage of post-election 2011 what should Mr. Jonathan be doing?

His schedule should be taking him round all the Federal Ministries in Nigeria and probably all the states of the Federation for the fulfillments of electoral promises.

In the Ministry of Transport he should be commissioning several kilometers and stretches of federal roads and rail lines all around Nigeria. It is very important that such projects are everlasting projects with regular maintenance included in the contracts.

In the Ministry of Education he should be restoring all the Federal schools including the Federal Universities. The competition will be to ensure that all Government Universities are more efficient than Private Universities that have been established with looted funds or collections from congregations.

In the Ministry of Water Resources Jonathan should be using his knowledge of science to work together with the Minister he has appointed. Millions of Nigerians are living without access to pipe-borne water. Water-borne diseases and malaria are giant killers of Nigerian children and adults too.

I remember that in Yar Adua’s village women fetched dirty water from deep wells and they sold the water. They are still probably doing that while Sambo is likely drinking imported water.

There are quite a number of natural sources of water in Nigeria and the south coast is lineated by the Atlantic Ocean. Clean and affordable water should flow in every home in Nigeria and 4 years is good enough to accomplish that.

In Ogoniland gradual poisoning of the population commenced since 1959 or so through polluted water and soil and when the full effects will become manifested, extremely poor Nigerians from the extremely rich oil fields of the Niger-Delta will face one of the worst human-induced health crises the world has seen.

Jonathan is asking the UN to help rid his region (Niger-Delta Ogoniland) of the devastation of oil spillage. A report stated that it will take about 3 decades to clear the mess. It has taken more than 5 decades to create it.

Why ask the UN? What about our EIA specialists in Nigeria? They should be on the next flight to Abuja and then the next one to Ogoniland to start working. Sincerity of purpose is the keyword. UN will not clean Nigeria. Nigerians will cleanup Nigeria when people like Jonathan start putting square pegs in square holes rather than buying 3 presidential jets for one person in a nation where poverty wage is negotiated.

What has Jonathan thought about concerning providing houses and flats for Nigerians? What is the function of the Federal Ministry of Housing? When was the last time that the Federal Government of Nigeria embarked on aggressive and rapid housing programs?

What is wrong with the Federal Government working together with private construction companies and well established banks to ensure that decent flats and apartments become affordable and accessible by 2014 or 2015 as Jonathan’s parting gifts to Nigerians?

The number of Nigerian politicians and public figures dying in foreign hospitals is increasing. This is a disgrace I am so ashame. The Babangidas and the Yar Aduas of this world know better by now that health is wealth and that having quick access to quality health services is very important. But they were so daft and myopic not to make such services available to themselves at home in Nigeria.

One hopes that the sad omen will not hit the Jonathans. It is now time to do something once and for all about our health institutions from the community levels to the highest spot. Our University Hospitals must also be revived immediately. We can’t wait for the next state-sponsored treatment abroad before we open this discussion again.

All the things that take Nigerians abroad for treatment including the twisted ankle of Mr. Atiku should be highlighted and corrected in the next 24 calendar months at most. Even the children with holes in the heart should have corrective surgeries in Nigeria and not in India. How long shall we express inferior intelligence by the things we do wrong? Just how long?

I can go on with what Mr. Jonathan should be doing. It is not the least that he must work together with the Minister of Youth, Labour and Productivity to ensure that the problems of employment and national productivity are tackled and solved. It will be recklessness not to re-introduced government-organised farm settlement schemes across Nigeria under the control of states or regions. Cocoa, groundnut, oil-palm and cassava must hit the export again.

The Minister of Natural resources under Jonathan must have his or her hands full with the type of promises that Jonathan made. Has anything progressive been done in the last 2-3 months in the coal and steel industry for example?

Most of the things above will not work in the absence of electricity. Kaduna State Governor Patrick Yakowa said that power will be constant by 2015. We have heard that before. Mr. Jonathan must make electric power supply a priority and ensure that we light up Nigeria by the end of his first year in office. If this means destroying the generator importers cartel, so be it!

Mr. Jonathan has a moral obligation to keep permanent tabs on all the ministries under his rank. Nigeria must move away from the textbook-forms of administration where Ministers read out their plans every 4 years from what they have read in books or on Google and do nothing after the recitations.

Mr. Jonathan took a record time to appoint his cabinet. After wasting our time he cannot place people into positions and let them do what they like. What Nigerian politicians like is to do nothing. They love to steal and loot.

We cannot afford that carelessness any more. Mr. Jonathan should not oversee another 4 years of wanton looting and he must not orchestrate one. He must put his house and office in order.

Mr. Jonathan should get out of the comfort of Aso Rock. He can’t spend 4 years meeting people and holding endless discussions. When is he going to hit the roads? Four years is such a long time in human existence. Some people’s lives were changed in 4 seconds, some in 4 minutes.

Nigerians said they voted for Mr. Jonathan and not for the PDP. I’m still laughing. It is left for Mr. Jonathan to prove Nigerians right or wrong. 1999-2007 was a complete waste of our lives. We became a GSM society. And so what? The world has since moved on. Our debts were cancelled. Where does that leave us now? Abacha’s loots were partially recovered. But the Nigerian bookkeepers under Obasanjo stated that the money was spent on projects executed a few years before the loots were recovered. The chief bookkeeper is back. A country of abracadabra..!

Even if Mr. Jonathan is a new magician he will never achieve half of the lies he promised during his nationwide campaigns. Those are elections jives and they are full of deceits and thoughtless moments. The greatest legacy Jonathan can leave behind as his single tenure runs a countdown is to ensure that as much as possible is done out of his debts of promises.

He must get somewhere commendable in the race and targets he set for himself. The task before and after The Jonathan Era are huge. Nigeria definitely needs a transformation borne out of honesty and patriotism.

I cannot end this essay without stating my support for regional governments. Instead of tenure elongation what we should be seeking on the long-term are constitutional changes tied to eradication of corruption, devolution of power, regional productivity, growth and development.