Niger Delta

Northern Nigeria: It is Finished!

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By Adeola Aderounmu

Terrorists continue to rein terror on Northern Nigeria. It is impossible to keep track of all the attacks and killings in Northern Nigeria.

A bus exploded in Kano killing mainly easterners of Igbo descent, probably about 30 of them.

There were attacks in Borno and the list goes on.

In Northern Nigeria, the lazy governors all collect security votes every month from the oil revenue of the south. What do they do with the security votes when terrorists have taken over the government?

Northern Nigeria is probably a lost region and that makes the segregation of Nigeria on course, or not.

Well, I want to be on the side of the people who have suggested that the clueless Goodluck Jonathan will be Nigeria’s last president.

I will change sides if someone can tell me how elections will be successfully conducted in Boko Harm Northern Nigeria. Perhaps Goodluck is
counting on Obama’s drones to eliminate the terror. That could work anyway and it means the drones will be there forever.

How I wish the people of western Nigeria can start to think ahead and rescue their people now and forever.

My twitter updates coming in says that there have been more suicide bombings and all sorts of terror attacks in the north…you can’t even finish writing about one before the next comes in.

Please divide this nonsense country and let me know where to place my worries for the Yoruba race.

Patience and Goodluck Jonathan, Stop Telling Lies..!

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By Adeola Aderounmu

A few weeks ago, that should be in January 2013 Nigeria’s ruler Mr. Goodluck Jonathan went on air on CNN to tell the world that electricity has improved in Nigeria.

Specifically he mentioned Lagos and Abuja as places were things have gone better.

In a follow up report Amanpour was able to prove that Goodluck Jonathan lied. Lagosians were interviewed and they completely denied the report that power supply has improved in Lagos.

I’d been listening more to Nigerian Radio in recent weeks and one of the daily programs on many radio stations is that callers are allowed to report traffic and power supply in their area.

Usually you hear very tragic reports about the poor traffic and almost complete absence of electricity.

Nigerians are living in almost complete darkness. It is possible that Nigerians have the worst power supply system in the world. Syria is at war and probably approaching similar situation in some areas of the country.

I wrote a blog sometimes ago describing NEPA as the worst government institution in Africa. I stand by that report. What is more damaging in this situation is that Nigeria’s ruler has become a very serious liar.

In a country where there is no shame that is not unexpected. With all the lies and looting that Goodluck Jonathan has perpetrated, you will be amazed what kind of country Nigeria is. You will be more shocked how Nigerians think really!

In a slightly normal society, even if all of Jonathan’s previous atrocities are covered, the ones that he has openly committed in recent times are enough to chase him out of power by force or by constitutional means. But Nigeria is a very abnormal country where evil reigns and stupidity rules. You’ll hardly find a thing that is normal about the government-its formation and operations.

I remembered when he was on his campaign trail and saying times without number that Nigerians should give him only one term and he would change things around for them. Under Jonathan, corruption got a new high. He gave power and position to the people from his region and they continue the usual process of milking Nigeria, the same atrocities that have crippled a potentially great nation.

It is difficult to comprehend the madness of Nigerian political class. It is even more unbelievable the disconnection that the people are sufferng from, thereby making the country a complicated rat race. Nigerians don’t care about the government and consequently Nigeria was rated as one of the worse places to live in the world. Because of the disconnection mentioned above, the political class and the wealthy see something different from the over 100 million people living in absolute poverty.

Jonathan and his spokespersons can deny anything and everything that Jonathan said on his campaign trails. It will be abnormal if Okupe and Abati do not tell lies. Nigerians may die of shock if the politicians and their handlers become truthful.

Around August 2012 when Patience Jonathan was terrible sick and had to be flown out of the country, the useless Nigerian presidency as usual lied and said that Mrs. Jonathan was on holiday, resting.

But in February 2013, she reportedly wasted N500 million of tax-payers money during a thanksgiving ceremony where she said that she was “dead” for 7 days and that she did 9 surgeries to correct her “unknown ilment”. She did not say exactly what happened to her but she was under the knife 9 times. At the same time, Joanthan, Abati and Mrs. Jonathan’s spokesman (whatever his useless name is) all came out and said that Mrs. Jonathan was resting because she has been tired from her activities. Who send her message?

Anyway, like I mentioned earlier all of these lies and atrocities are enough to pursue Mr. Jonathan out of Aso Rock. But he is there, he reigns over the Kingdom of lies. And some Nigerian think Amanpour went too far? Really? Ask yourself, “how am I thinking”? It’s not that CNN is a saintly organisation but did Jonathan speak the truth?

Nigeria is a fraud manufactured by the British 100 years ago. This country will not make it as a unit. The unitary form of government is a disaster. The overall intelligence of the people called Nigerians is at test. It has always been at test. How can they allow a system that doesn’t work? Nigerians pretend that they love one another whereas the real purpose of their political agenda is self-enrichment.

Nigerians should stop, think and look for the truth. The truth is that the different tribes don’t like one another. Jonathan will continue to lie until his time and days are over. The persons who came before him lied and the ones that are coming after Jonathan will also lie and vanish. The system does not work and will remain rotten.

The people will live hopelessly, believing lies.

Under a regional system of government a man like Obasanjo quite evidently would never have emerged from western Nigeria. He has never won elections in his constituency and the surroundings. But he was Nigeria’s ruler (thrice!) because of the rotten political and military system.

Unitary system has ensured that fools, thugs, idiots, robbers, nonentities and pretenders rule in Nigeria under military and pseudo-democratic dispensations.

The time is now to stop this political nonsense, lies and hypocrisies. The greatest challenge is how to sensitize Nigerians and get them connected to the system. For as long as they remain disconnected as they are now, the lies will continue, the corruption rate will rise, the poverty and absolute failure of the system will become more visible. Nigeria will continue to benefit only the few-the rich and the connected.

With Somalis returning home from around the world, if something drastic is not done, Nigeria will go from one of the worst places to be born on earth to actually becoming the worst place to be born and live.

Nigeria at 50: Two Wasted Generations!

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By Adeola Aderounmu

This post should now read: Nigeria at 53, third generation on the wasteline!

Goodluck Jonathan and his crew are further driving this country into everlasting perdition.

Nigerian politicians are still looting and stealing the country blind.

Impunity is at a record high, executive recklessness unabated, corruption without equal on a global scale, militants are lords and terrorists are on the loose. They just murdered more than 50 students in their sleep.

Lawlessness abounds and the animal kingdom syndrome persists.

Nigeria is on the expressway to hell.
_______________________________________________________

Original article from 2010 below:

One of the major inexplicable factors that continue to keep Nigeria in the doldrums is the myopic tendency of the general population including surprisingly the literate sector. Suddenly we kept quiet despite the fact that we know that (USD110) N17b earmarked for Nigeria’s 50th anniversary celebration is not only ostentatious but also wicked, malicious, ill-timed and very unnecessary.

The non-essentiality of the expensive celebration at the national level is not related to the wealth of Nigeria. There are retired army generals in Nigeria who boast of more wealth than some nations in Africa. Money is not Nigeria’s problem. Those who continue to rank Nigeria among the poorest countries in the world must develop better parameters for defining their expressions in relative terms.

When describing the nature of poverty and penury among the populace it will be worthwhile to present them against the backdrop of what has been done to the resources and oil revenues since 1960. Nigerian rulers, dictators, politicians and tyrants have stolen more money from the national coffers than probably any other country on the surface of the earth. Nigeria is therefore not a poor country per se. But the people are impoverished no thanks to the extreme mismanagement of the various rulers, the current ruler being no exception in any way.

Nigeria is 50 years on October 1st 2010. This time in our history does not call for any national celebration. It ought to be a time of sober reflection. Nigeria used to be the giant and pride of Africa. That was back in the days. Today, Nigeria’s economic and politics portray sad pictures. Our educational system is so bad that several Nigerian students are now trooping to Ghana for tutorship.

Those who have looted, stole and destroyed the country have several of their children and family members abroad for education and comfort. To be sure, some people who have genuinely attained economic sufficiency also travel abroad for educational reasons.

It is not only the educational system in Nigeria that has suffered. Almost every aspect of our lives in Nigeria has suffered tremendous setback in such a way that the overall quality of life for the ordinary Nigerian is below the acceptable level for humans.

In the Niger Delta for example where most of our revenues are generated life is far from being a beauty to behold. National and international conspiracies have transformed the rich oil fields to killing fields and a valley of death and despair. Even the locals have not helped matter. As governors, fake elders and senseless followers they have contributed to the devastation of their heritage.

In Nigeria electricity generation is near 0%. Millions of Nigerians and thousands of businesses, big and small, depend on power generators that also generate toxic fumes and devastating noises. Nigerian businesses are growing and developing faster in Ghana than in Nigeria whereas the Nigerian environment is now widely videoed and used in documentaries to emphasize environmental disasters.

Health care has been so neglected that almost every Nigerian politician travel abroad to seek medical help. Last week both Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan took their doctors with them to the US. Where should the ordinary Nigerian people go for medical help? They have no money and still depend on the dilapidated health facilities scattered around Nigeria.

Apart from education and health there is a general breakdown in the provision and availability of other basic infrastructure. Water is scarce and Nigeria made the global news in August 2010 as a result of deaths related to cholera. Toilets are primitive in many localities and the level of sanity is extremely low.

[As I write 2 days to our 50th anniversary, an avoidable flood situation is sweeping people away in Northern Nigeria and people are swimming to safety on calabashes. Millions are displaced. The news and images spread internationally but NTA’s cameras continue to shy away from the disaster. The focus is on the billions of naira been wasted on parties here and there to mark Nigeria’s failures].

In addition to cholera, malaria also remains a threat to human lives especially in children under 4 years of age and pregnant women. Nigeria is likely the only country in the world with records of polio incidence. While the politicians and the corrupt public and private individuals continue to amass wealth, the generality of the masses-more than 70%-continue to live in abject poverty. They suffer neglect and live day-in-day-out in hopelessness.

Politics in Nigeria is the greatest source of our national shame. It is one area that exposes us internationally as “incapable” of governing ourselves successfully. Somewhere along the line we threw away merit and replaced it with mediocrity.

Tribal politics rose to unassuming heights and corruption ate deep into every fabric of the society. The concept of politics-for-the-belly, self-enrichment, inexplicable insatiable, evil urge for stolen wealth and the complete absence of morality in public offices ensured that Nigeria moved from grace to grass with lightening speed. Nigerian politics to this day is dominated by criminal minds and nonentities because of the violence and deadly tendencies attached to it.

While the other nations of the world including neighbouring countries like Ghana and Benin Republic made progresses and giant leaps forward, Nigeria shamefully headed in the opposite direction. Development became stagnated as some individuals made away with the country’s wealth. The military men and the politicians alike stole with impunity and in such dimension never seen before among the human races.

The most disheartening aspect of the looting of Nigeria is that almost everyone who stole got away. Nigeria has one of the weakest anticorruption agencies in the world. The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) started well and gave Nigerians hope but with the emergence of the third-term agenda of General Obasanjo in 2006 the agency went wayward and has never recovered. General Obasanjo made a mess of Nuhu Ribadu’s reputation by allowing Andy Uba-then presidential aide-to travel on presidential aircraft with looted funds without any consequences. Nuhu Ribadu did not resign as the boss of EFCC even when it was certain that the mission of EFCC was derailed. Today Mr. Ribadu is a presidential candidate courtesy of stolen funds. Who is fooling who in Nigeria?

Fifty years after independence Nigeria’s democracy remains in shambles and is highly disgraceful. In 2011 Nigerians are faced with presidential election which in my own estimation is a catastrophe waiting in the wings. In several essays I have argued that we don’t need elections in 2011. What we need are the structures to deliver free and fair elections in accordance to international standards. The starting point is a valid forensic-based identity registration for every living Nigerian. The arguments on these issues are available elsewhere notably on my blog.

While the government of Goodluck Jonathan will be wasting N17b (or more) on parties and prodigality millions of Nigerians will continue to live from hand to mouth and unsure of the next meal. Nigerian rulers are characterized by low levels of cognitive abilities. It doesn’t matter how little or much the education they received. It’s always the same sad story.

The amount of funds planned for this “celebration of failures” in 2010 is unwarranted. It should have been low keyed and time for sober reflections. We should have used this golden moment to evaluate where things went wrong and write genuine blueprints of how to emerge from our present pitiable predicaments.
Moreover this anniversary should have been dedicated to arresting and prosecuting all those living large as emperors with our stolen wealth. Not so.

Nigerian embassies across the world will waste funds this season to mark our ineptitudes and the world will pretend to laugh with us. In Nigeria on October 1 2010 Goodluck Jonathan will preside over the most expensive party in Nigeria’s history and cut the biggest cake ever made by man. No greater deceit. Shame is a virtue in my country of birth.

Nigerian rulers are fond of propagating lies and falsehood. They are so cut away from the realities of our lives one would think they live on another planet.

It is not a secret that most of the N17b would end up in private accounts at home and abroad because the funds have been inflated in the first place and contracts awarded to families, friends and fair-weather acquaintances. Nigerian rulers and politicians are also notorious for their capabilities to directly divert funds regardless of the original pretentious intentions. This is common in Africa and it’s a sad situation.

For the avoidance of doubts it is morally wrong for Nigeria to celebrate the 50th year anniversary in an ostentatious manner because of the resounding failure of the various governments since 1960.
Arguments against such a shameful charade have fell on deaf ears.

When Goodluck Jonathan planned or decided to execute a plan to celebrate with 10b Naira. We complained. We suggested that the money should be used to procure cancer testing machines for our dilapidated hospitals.

Mr. Yar Adua who was declared winner of the fraudulent 2007 elections died of kidney and heart problems earlier in 2010. The government of Nigeria should consider millions of Nigeria suffering/dying daily for the same/ similar reasons and procure kidney dialysis machine and other instruments relevant to the testing and treatment of kidney and heart problems.

It will also remain a human mystery why our rulers fail to see the need to divert money into the health institutions so that we can increase the life expectancy of Nigerians with figures less than 50 years. A friend of mine is planning to release a research report which amazingly revealed that the life expectancy in Nigeria is probably lower than 40 years. I have stated in several articles as well that the situation in Nigeria represents one of the hidden tragedies of modern era.

One man told me that if Goodluck does not do the party that some other persons will embezzle the money. This is the level to which the Nigerian mentality has descended. We have been brainwashed so much that we can’t think right most of the time. In our dear country several people believe in the principle of “embezzling turn-by-turn”. They think that government is a venture that will at different times benefit a few people directly and directly. This illusory mindset unfortunately and tragically is dominant in Nigeria. The essence of life is almost completely eroded.

The heavily corrupt men and women in Nigerian House of Assembly confirmed the stupidity in the Nigerian political space by reviewing upward the money for the party. We forget so easily that we live in a country where scavengers make less than 200 naira a day and they have families to feed. Sometimes they earn nothing over a long period of time.

Our politicians in Nigeria are special. We are complaining that we should have a low key celebration and use this time of our 50th anniversary to map out strategies that will make us emerge a developed country in our second jubilee and all we can get for the calamities in Nigeria is a party worth N17b or more.

The money is not a big deal to those who approved it because they can steal, loot and cart away millions through exaggerated salaries and bonuses while the rest of us can go to hell.

These people who think and act foolishly owe us no apology, no probity and no accountability because we didn’t vote for them. Our politics is jungle politics where the fittest survive and win everything. The weak and losers lick their wound and beg for favours.

We are in trouble and constant dilemma.

It is hard to believe how we reason and how corruption had destroyed the essence of our lives. Invariably the issues affecting Nigeria as a 50 year old crawling nation are huge and inexhaustive in a single essay.
Has anyone even thought of how much a N17b education endowment fund would avail if it is not looted?
Curse apart, suffering will persist on the African continent and even elsewhere in the world until social justice and true freedom are fought for.

They always say the best things in life are free. Social justice and freedom have not yet made the list. They are definitely not free. The oppressed must rise, fight and take what is theirs.

For Nigerians and several countries in Africa the days of true independence and liberation are still ahead.

aderounmu@gmail.com

follow me on twitter:@aderinola

Nigerians and their foolish rulers

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By Adeola Aderounmu

On May 22 2007 I wrote a famous article titled Nigerian leaders are fools. It made headlines and appeared on a BBC review.

The title of that article should have been Nigerian rulers are fools. We have shortage of leaders and the country is in a big mess.

Nigerians are living in denial because they carry false hopes.

I continue to have arguments with a few groups of people who think that my views are extreme and think that we should be optimistic about a better tomorrow. These people and I near our graves and we have not known what it means to live under normal circumstances in Nigeria.

Millions of Nigerians have lived and died without knowing the true meaning of life. They were denied the essence of it by thieves and looters who have occupied the Nigerian political scene in uniform and agbada. Those unfortunate Nigerians had no access to the basic things of life and simple infrastructure like constant electricity was never a part of their short miserable lives.

Yet millions of Nigerians living nurse (false) hopes and aspirations under a system that calls for nothing other than a bloody revolution.

It doesn’t matter now into how many pieces Nigeria should be divided. It doesn’t make sense to worry about the outcome when the alternative that I’d known for over 3 decades is not different from living in the biblical hell.

What should make sense is how to stop the stupidity and senselessness of both politicians and military rulers in mufti.

Politics is Nigeria is an insult to the intelligence of man. It questions the superiority of man over lower beings.

No Nigerian government has made the total elimination of corruption an open and targeted agenda. This is because all the people in government are corrupt. All these people include past and present rulers of Nigeria, and in various capacities. Almost invariably they are all birds of the same feather.

It doesn’t matter how lazy or hardworking Nigerian politicians and public servants are: they are all thieves and looters to varying degrees. Even Lagos that we thought was a pace setter has been opened up a nest of foolish looters.

I have argued all these years that N1 stolen from public funds or N1 taken without accountability has a snowball effect. It adds to the poverty and impoverishment in the land. In Nigeria funds are looted in billions of dollars and the looters walk free. Ask Mrs. Waziri the figure head at EFCC. Even ask Ribadu the talkative before her. It’s all mess.

Nigeria is one of the most blessed countries in the world but it is home to some of the world’s poorest people who ironically live in the Niger Delta Oil Region. Northern Nigeria has one of the highest illiteracy levels and their women can hardly write their names. Some can’t!

Nigeria has been run like a gangster business. At the federal and state, at the local and municipality levels, it’s all the same. The country has been on a free-fall since 1960. How the country remains one is an aberration.

There is no other country on any planet where people have looted and stolen so much that there has not been a revolution or a war or series of it. Nigerians are living in captivity. It’s a sad situation. Yet they are not fighting on a scale that will topple the system of things.

Boko Haram and the Niger Delta militants are chasing selfish interests. In a way they should actually be allowed to carve their own niches away from Nigeria. Who says they must be within Nigeria?

There is a big difference between terrorism and a revolution anyway.

MASSOB wanted BIAFRA. Why not now? Why the silence? Why the timidity?

The Oduduwa Group is emerging stronger. It was about time.

It doesn’t matter how many groups or nations emerge from Nigeria. What will be relevant is that people should belong to a nation where their rights are respected and where they have absolute freedom to pursue happiness, peace of mind and unlimited or limited resources to achieve their life goals.

These are not going to be the end in themselves because the stupid people who have ruined Nigeria are from all the possible regions you can imagine.

But when we have gone our different ways, I am sure there will be greater control within the regions to check the sort of absurdity now being perpetrated by the aimless Jonathan dynasty.

The president of Nigeria and several of his Ministers should actually be cooling off in a forgotten prison by now. They have all stolen! They are still stealing!

We didn’t need the revelations from the wikileak cables. It helps though. We already know that these things exist.
The crimes that Nigerians have continued to commit against themselves include doing nothing about all these nonsense. Their decision to tolerate and live with these aberrations negates the essence of life. It deters the pursuance of happiness and it deprives one of the fulfilled life.

Every year funds are looted as infrastructure are neglected. Roads, schools, hospitals and other basic things like electricity and water have been sent to the archive as far as common people are concern.

There is no one checking the system.

Several Nigerian journalists are interested in government jobs. Good people are rare in Nigeria. The men and women with the pens know it is their own way to the treasury. Many Nigerian journalists are crooks and serving a corrupt government makes them accomplices in this great crime against humanity.

When journalists have become beggars in the presence of the politicians, then information reaching the people will continue to be that of fake hope in a hopeless country.

In other professions people are interested in short cut to wealth and fraud is prevalent. What is more definite in expressing a banana republic or jungle existence?

The problems in Nigeria have reached a scale such that there is no going back. As far or as long as Nigeria exist as one country poverty will remain above 70% and unemployment among youths may exceed 50% in the nearest future.
No one man sitting in Abuja and overseeing corruption daily can tackle the national problems facing over 140m people.

The system is so bad now that it is a permanently hopeless situation.

When you have a country where corruption is legalized and madness is allowed in public offices, where then are you heading?

In Nigeria all the corrupt rulers and murderers are living as free men. It is pure insanity when the laws of the land are inadequate. It is more than insanity when the judges up to the Supreme Court accept millions of dollars in bribes to give false verdicts.

In that sense Nigeria is not a country. It is an aggregation of confused people enslaved by the junta and tropical gangsters.

That order designed by the colonialists and mastered by the tropical gangsters posing as rulers must be dismantled in order to set people free in their various regions.

It is from that point that groups and tribes can start to figure their ways forward. No one should care how long it will take to find the way forward. It may take 100 years but not starting at all is the greater evil fostered by fear.

No one should even care how things will work out or not.

The present order of things in Nigeria cannot continue. It is just not thinkable to imagine that Nigerians now more than 140m people have been zombied for the past 50 years by a clique that has managed to self-perpetuate itself in several forms and under several disguise.

From the bottom of my heart, I believe no more in one Nigeria and I refuse to accept the oneness of it. I believe that my roots lie in the Oduduwa Kingdom or Empire.

It is time for change. No matter how long we delay, it is inevitable and it is our key to freedom.

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

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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.