Uthman Akinbola [07/11/12]
President Jonathan continually makes a mockery of the Nigerian State with his actions, statements and lack of meticulousness! He unwittingly shocks us all the time, painting pictures that are not real. His performance is a far cry from his mandate i.e. people’s overwhelming confidence in him and the vastness of state resources at his disposal. Furthermore, he oppresses us by verbally assaulting us, pouring invective on us through his ‘attack dog’ Doyin Okupe. He, no doubt douses the confidence of the people in the Nigerian Government. At present, the bane of our belief in the Nigerian Project is President (Dr) Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GEJ! Events surrounding the 52nd Anniversary of Nigeria are a pointer to this. His recent speeches (as regards the 52nd Anniversary) make a serious joke of the Presidency!
His speech on the 18th of September 2012 after former Ghanaian President John Kufour, delivered the 52nd Anniversary lecture sparked enormous public outcry. The Punch of 19th September 2012 reported that:
Kufour in his lecture identified imbalanced development as a major cause of insecurity in Nigeria. “Naturally, imbalanced development that involves horizontal inequalities is an important source of conflict and that is costing Nigeria the opportunity to be the giant nation that it can and should be,” he said.
The former President said only a government that delivers on security and development could earn its continued stay in office.
Source: The Punch of 19th September 2012
Instead of addressing the issues raised by former President Kufour, President Jonathan decided to take a swipe at the Nigerian people!
“Look at the demonstrations back home, look at the areas these demonstrations are coming from, you begin to ask, are these the ordinary citizens that are demonstrating? Or are people pushing them to demonstrate?
“Take the case of Lagos, Lagos is a critical state in the nation’s economy, it controls about 53 per cent of the economy and all tribes are there.
“The demonstration in Lagos, people were given bottled water that people in my village don’t have access to. People were given expensive food that the ordinary people in Lagos cannot eat. So even going to eat free alone attracts people.
“They go and hire the best musicians to come and play and the best comedian to come and entertain. Is that demonstration? Are you telling me that that is a demonstration from ordinary masses in Nigeria who want to communicate something to government?
“I believe that that protest in Lagos was manipulated by a class in Lagos and was not from the ordinary people.”
Source: The Punch of 19th September 2012
Wow! So Nigerians are fools who cannot think for themselves! Dr Jonathan and his logic!
The President does not cease to amaze Nigerians with his direct attack on our sensibilities. His 52nd Independence Day address, on 1st October 2012, also lived up to that billing. The Premium Times online newspapers even went as far as verifying a claim in the President’s broadcast. The President said –
‘In its latest report, Transparency International (TI) noted that Nigeria is the second most improved country in the effort to curb corruption.’
Premium Times later that day published ‘President Jonathan lied in Independence anniversary broadcast’ after checking with Transparency International about the veracity of the claim.
The Presidency responded that Mr President‘s statement was based on ‘notorious facts’ published by Nigeria’s BusinessDay newspapers. What an amusing defence! You take information from one source, and then cite another reference without cross-checking! Was that how the doctors in the Presidency bagged their doctorate degrees?
So a National Address on the most important day in the history of Nigeria – Independence Day – should be handled with such levity! A speech that would rebound through the global air should be based on ‘notorious facts’!
Anyway what struck me most, in the broadcast, was the President’s assertion on ‘insecurity’ and ‘corruption’.
“Fellow Nigerians, in recent times, we have witnessed serious security challenges in parts of our country. We have taken pro-active measures to check the menace…
Our security agencies are constantly being strengthened and repositioned for greater efficiency. Many Nigerians have acknowledged that there has been a significant decline in the spate of security breaches…
Even as we remain focused on the issue of security, the fight against the scourge of corruption is a top priority of our Administration. We are fighting corruption in all facets of our economy, and we are succeeding.”
The ‘significant decline in the spate of security breaches’ is corroborated by which studies or statistics?
Monday night, October 1st 2012, the same day President GEJ made his claims, the gruesome massacre of students in Mubi, Adamawa State happened, as if to disprove or show the falsity in the President’s assertion.
In other words, the claimed pro-activity of the GEJ government against terrorism is not clear, considering the brazenness with which terrorists carry out their attacks. For instance, the dreaded Boko Haram (BH) sect on national radio addressed the nation on the 20th of September 2012 about the ongoing ‘backdoor dialogue’ with the FG and the hope of a ceasefire. However, shortly after the broadcast on Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), another horrendous attack rocked Bauchi state. So, what hope and assurance of safety of our lives and property can we get in this situation? The Federal Government (FG) is hardly decisive with our security challenges! It is even surprising that the President did not mention the ‘backdoor dialogue’ in his Independence Day broadcast. Also, Nigerians were not informed the BH that the FG is in ‘dialogue’ with, since it was reiterated by the President, in his speech after the Kufour lecture, that there are three kinds of BH – the Religious, Political and Criminal BH.
Also, it was insulting for the President to say that he is ‘fighting corruption in all facets of our economy’. The question Nigerians are asking is ‘how is he doing it?’ The common phrase of the government is ‘nobody is above the law’, but how many, out of the scores, of the influential people accused of corruption in one form or the other has been concretely prosecuted?
But what answer did we get? GEJ’s attack dog, the inverted-reasoning Okupe called Nigerians ‘stupid’, in an interview on AIT, saying we are afflicted with ‘cerebral inattention’ for refusing to be fooled with fantasy, i.e. fictitious claims. Okupe, the public office misfit, is definitely suffering from extreme hallucination! He is gradually making a monster of GEJ, digging a grave for him, and he would eventually ‘latch onto’ another master once he is done.
Anyway, Nigerians do not have any contract with Okupe, for he does not hold the mandate of the people, only President Jonathan does; therefore GEJ must heed the people’s call.
‘If GEJ truly has good intentions (as I used to believe), then he does not need an attack lion, or rather, dog…’
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