Thursday 5 January 2012

Jonathan, bad move. Bad, bad move!

We have been very unfortunate with leaders in Nigeria. I will, however, contend it has nothing to do with ill-fortunate and everything to do with us. Weren't we the ones that installed thieves and looters and unqualified individuals as leaders? Imagine, for a second, how many time-proven administrators, and managers, and executives, and professors and brains... we have both in Nigeria and abroad...And all we could come up with were clueless persons like Yar'adua (let's ignore OBJ for now, we all were smarting from the military rule we were only too eager to accept anybody as a democratic leader), Bankole Dimeji, like Jonathan and the different mediocres we have at the state level. How does one explain that?
Someone tell me, how much does the government plan to expend on the planned massive procurement of mass transit buses? Let's remove that amount from the $8bn they said would be saved from the removal of the subsidy; how much do we have left? Who are the individual contractors to import these mass transit buses if not the very families and friends of Jonathan Looter and co.? Then, why do I feel like this decision for mass transit buses is only merely an afterthought? Or why did the government not clearly lay out the plans before so whimsically removing the subsidy?
Ample examples have been cited of countries like USA and all where there is nothing like government subsidy on petroleum products. These countries have some form of social security or the other. In our case, Jonathan removed subsidy and sent the price of commodities and services rocketing through the roof overnight without a kobo increment in income. If you were earning #50,000, before the subsidy, per month and you're lucky enough to save #10,000 every month. Now, the government has removed that with a single stroke of its callousness. Not only will you not be able to save a kobo from now on, you are also now officially in debt. Not with the fact that you have to pay about double for every article now. Thanks to Jonathan Looter & co. And guess what? The friends and families of Jonathan are already lined up for the contract to import the buses, some more redundant millions in their already uncontainable personal accounts while Nigerians daily languish in pain. And all the government could do was install a shifty hope in front of us that it will eventually be to the benefit of Nigerians, say in 10 years. If you starve the people from now on, how many of them do you wish to see 10 years? We all understand perfectly the mystery of goal settings in Nigeria, how so easily we retreat further into the future once we have failed to deliver. MDG Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger in Nigeria. My foot! Seven Points Ageda. NEEDS and SEEDS. And now it is Nigeria Vision 2020.
Who is fooling who?
It's high time we reminded the government that this is the government of the people for the people and by the people. Even with the extremely fat salaries and allowances they pay themselves, the executives are still no more than the ministers (meaning servants) of the desires of the people. They are our staff, our employee. This executive has failed the mandate reposed in them. And just like any business owner should not hesitate to fire a self-serving employee, we should put in motion an engine for the prompt removal of the president and any such persons that facilitated this assault on the Nigerian populace. It is not done, that only fewer than 1% Nigerians will determine the living condition of 150 million people.
Our contention does not stop with the reversal of the subsidy removal, we as well, as a matter of national urgency, want the president gone. He has failed on many fronts already, this is only an anticlimax. On his watch about 500 Nigerians were murdered in 2011 alone, and he did nothing about it. Not even firing the service chiefs, the IG and all. He is not fit to be a president. He is simply too weak, too dazed and too clueless. He himself recently confessed to being slow, and when he would eventually act, it was to insult out collective sensibility. Now tell me, how many of the profiteers of the subsidy have been made accountable for the loot? How many corrupt officers have been prosecuted during this time of his colossal inactiveness? How many Nigerians have been killed while some misguided sect daily grew stronger taunting the powers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? How many people still collect less than #20,000 (<€100) during his time? How much improvement have we in the power sector? How many jobs? How much has the price of cement being left to the exclusive mercy of one of his friends? How much failure and mediocre has he inherited from Yar'adua's adminstration? And Jonathan, be sincere and tell us, how much you have profitted from your unrepentant failure, from the squandering of your stewardship while Nigerians, hardworking Nigerians far better than you, struggle on the steets of Lagos selling banana chips and children toys, roaming the scotching heat of Katsina in search of non-existent jobs, or labouring on building sites in Okigwe hauling bricks and sand and water on in order to feed the next morning? While you and all other politicians receive millions for sleeping through some meeting needing to do no more than say, "Aye", to the, "Say nay!" We do not only demand the removal of the president and his accomplices, nor just insist on the reversal of the callous removal of the subsidy at a time like this. We also want a comprehensive review of the pay (salaries and allowances) of all public office holders-all politicians. If they collect no more than average Nigerians, their heads would work more correctly, they would get their economics right, and they would understand what we mean when we say the price of bread has doubled. They are meant to represent us in all things, and when the majority of Nigerians are poor, it is only proper that these too should reflect the general state of our poverty. Nigerians should de-monitise politics. Without this we can never ever be rid of corruption. For one thing it will ensure individuals that go into polititcs do so not because their fathers or uncles or brothers (the Sarakis of Ilorin, the Yar'aduas of Katsina, the Obasanjos of Ogun, the Patience of Jonathan and all the first ladies we never voted for) hold political posts, but because they are competent at effecting plans to improve the lives of Nigerians...
For, that, is their first and last assignment. Improve our living conditions.