At this time in Nigeria’s history no change or transformation will be complete without a lasting political solution. I hope to continue to write again about Nigeria but only under a new dispensation, otherwise it will not be worth it.
Six Jonathanic Years Of Waste
By Adeola Aderounmu
Adeola Aderounmu
In 2010 when Umaru Yar Adua died l wrote an article on my blog lambasting all his supporters who were creating obstacles that could disrupt the smooth emergence of the vice president Mr. Goodluck Jonathan as the next president of the federal republic of Nigeria.
At that time l was enraged that democractic principles could be thrown away if Mr. Goodluck Jonathan was not allowed to continue as the president of Nigeria as stipulated by the constitution.
My support at that time was for the continuation of an imperfect mandate.
During his short reign as the president of Nigeria Umaru acknowledged that he became the president of Nigeria through a fraudulent process. He was probably swept off his feet by the PDP rigging machinery courtesy of Obasanjo and Ibori.
The PDP which emerged as Nigeria’s ruling party under Mr. Obasanjo in 1999 until the time of Yar Adua’s death was already a great disappointment.
To the chagrin surprise of ordinary Nigerians, after the military left in 1999, corruption was re-entrenched in Nigeria’s civilian reign just the way it has always been since independence in 1960. Nepotism became rife and the dividends of democracy stayed mostly with the politicians, their families, their friends and acquaintances.
Mostly too, the business of governance was neglected as the presidency, the executive members of government, the ministers, the governors and even local government chairmen raked in monies into their personal accounts in Nigeria and abroad.
Crude oil production and marketing became complete mafia affairs. Subsidy scam, pension scam and employment scam escalated with time. The diversification of the economy was put into coma.
There were occasional pockets of good news but overall the expectations of more than 90 m Nigerians who live below the poverty level and unsure of the next meal remain largely unmet. They continue to suffer and continue to live hopelessly even to this day.
It was against this backdrop of disappointments that Nigerians gave a popular support to the candidacy of Goodluck Jonathan in 2011. They thought he was a new kid on the block.
But they got it wrong. If the track records of political office holders are relevant in Nigeria and the laws correctly enforced, Goodluck Jonathan would have been a prisoner at the time he was contesting for the office of the presidency.
This is because he had used his wife as a front in looting the funds that belong to the people of Bayelsa State when he was deputy governor and later governor.
Goodluck Jonathan was not fit for any political office. This is actually true for more than 90% of Nigeria’s politicians. Many of them are criminals waiting to plunge the state and national treasuries. So it is not as if Gooldluck Jonathan is an isolated case.
When Goodluck Jonathan started his own mandate in 2011, it suddenly became clear that the largest black nation in the world had been handed over to a clown. Goodluck Jonathan is not only clueless, he is also grossly incompetent and lazy.
The ridiculous nature of politics in Nigeria in the hands of fraudsters cannot be overemphasized.
The fact that the Nigerian National Assembly could allow such a disaster on Nigeria reveals that national assembly is also full of individuals who are after their own selfish interests. To call them criminals too is fair enough considering that their inactions have continue to send children, unprotected people, the elderly and the several other categories of Nigerians to their early graves.
Where lies the hope of the common man and the ordinary people in Nigeria?
Since 1999 the return of civilian rule in Nigeria has revealed the criminalities of civil administrators and their actions and inactions together have contributed enormously to crimes against humanity.
Since 2011 Mr. Jonathan did absolutely nothing to curb corruption.
His antecedents provide a useful base for comparison. He was corrupt as a deputy governor and later governor. He allowed all the corrupt people under him to flourish. He released murderers from prisons, he pardoned convicted persons and he embraced them publicly. Jonathan promoted drug dealers and put them in position of authority.
Jonathan’s affinity for criminals and crimes has no bound.
The latest were the re-enthronement of a thug one Mr. Fayose as the governor of Ekiti and a known criminal Mr. Obanikoro as a minister of the federal republic of Nigeria.
Mr. Goodluck Jonathan up till now is the worst president Nigeria has ever had. The previous political and military rulers are all crooks and corrupt people. But Goodluck Jonathan took corruption to a new dimension. His simply laid it like a spreadsheet program.
They should all been prosecuted and it is never too late to recover Nigeria’s stolen wealth.
A president who does not understand that stealing is corruption is a source of international embarrassment to Nigeria and Africa.
Goodluck Jonathan does not also understand the importance of courtesy and decorum. The way his wife have been screaming, crying and lately campaigning across Nigeria adds to the embarrassment that his family brought to Nigeria.
Mrs. Jonathan graduated from the looter of Bayelsa to the looter of Aso rock and she runs her mouth faster than her brain cells.
The Jonathans have not represented Nigeria in good light.
Nigeria is blessed with courageous people and some of the most brilliant and sound minds in the world, yet the country always manage to bring insane people to serve in public offices as politicians.
The process that produces the likes of Jonathan and his lousy wife has also over the years produced thousands of similarly unfit people in various public and political offices.
This is one of the sources of the challenges that Nigeria faces. Wrong people who should be receiving counselling and psychological supports have been elevated to run politics and policies.
The lack of electricity, the lack of functional public schools, the lack of good roads and the absence of social justice did not start with Mr. Jonathan. Under him things that did not start with him just went down the spiral curve.
He is always emphatic about these issues and he is always repeating the obvious- that Nigeria’s problems did not start during his administration. He is so clueless not to even take one issue head on and solve it as an evidence that he can perform.
It is not only the oil sector that is in tha hands of mafia, even Nigeria’s electric power sector has been sold to the mafia. Billions of dollars were spent by the wasteful PDP government since 1999 when Obasanjo came to power but the power generation became worse. It can only be criminals who stole the money and left the work undone.
The population of criminals in government increased in the last 6 years because Jonathan had no plan and no clue about what governance is all about. It may also be that he got too drunk often like he did in Addis Ababa and forgot the task before him at the AU meeting.
I long for a country where social justice will reign.
One day l hope the judiciary arm of government will ressurect and that the police will become the institution it should be. My hope for Nigeria is that no matter the political party that any politician belongs to, that they will never be protected from the law by any form of immunity.
My hope is that Nigerian politicians, the mafia in the oil sector and in other sectors hindering the progress of the country through corruption will all be brought to their knees at the court of law, to face justice and to return looted monies.
My hope for Nigeria is that a day will come when crazy people will be bundled out of political and public offices so that normal, unright people with sense of responsibility and accountability will start to run things.
In many countries around the world, it is those few sane people in government that have kept the system working. Unfit people are never elected and they are bundled out through due process when they have been errorneously put in public office.
Nigeria can become that country where the best brains, the trusted hands and the brilliant public administrators can be saddled with nation building. The judiciary must work so that when brilliant minds become criminal minds, they can be quickly shown their room numbers at kirikiri.
At this time in Nigeria’s history no change or transformation will be complete without a lasting political solution. Nigeria must return to true federalism or regional government. The power at the center even if the judiciary is working must be removed and made unattractive.
Politics cannot be a business adventure for lazy or criminal minds and the task before a government and the people as well is to make politics unattractive for those who think that it is a means to acquire wealth for themselves and their unborn generations.
The emergence and the reign of Goodluck Jonathan were an insult to the intelligence of the Nigerian people and to Africa in particular. He and his wife brought Nigeria to ridicule and together with the loads of corrupt people in the government they made Nigeria a laughing stock in the comity of nations.
Under Jonathan Nigeria remains as one of the most corrupt country in the world.
I will hope that the 2015 elections bring a new government. It will be interesting to see the other side of the coin.
Without a change of government through another political party we will not be able to know if the 1999 to 2015 pdp years was an avoidable waste.
In subsequent essays l want to evaluate a new government at the national level because the PDP is a known disaster.
I hope to continue to write again about Nigeria but only under a new dispensation, otherwise it will not be worth it.
aderounmu@gmail.com
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