The election into the office of the
president of Nigeria is due on 14th of February. The two major
contenders are the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples
Democratic Party and General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress.
If President Jonathan wins the election, there is no better
way to predict the future of Nigeria for the next 4 years except by looking at
his last 6 years of leading Nigeria.
President Jonathan’s government in the last 6 years in my
opinion is one full of dreams and in those dreams are pictures of a great
nation. However those pictures have only
remained at the dreams stage. The way to turn the dreams into reality is
completely non-existent for the past 6 years. No noticeable sense of direction
at all.
Nigerians would agree with me that the administration has
not done enough to affect the nation positively. Looking through the last 6 years of President
Jonathan’s administration, only those benefiting directly from his government
by means of their ‘stomach infrastructure’ that would think otherwise. Not much needed progressive changes have been
recorded for the last 6 years; it all appears that things are getting worse.
Most Nigerians are really struggling to cope with life and the President
Goodluck Jonathan’s government does not appear to have taken notice of the
intensity of the sufferings and if they do, do not have a clue as to causing
the needed changes.
Nigerians are dying daily in their thousands from
preventable diseases, religious violence, lack of clean water, lack of
electricity, bad road network, poor standard of living, extreme poverty, poor
medical facilities and many more. The
life of an average Nigerian is worth less than a chicken and they die in
unbelievable large numbers. President Jonathan and his crew do not appear to
understand the size of this pandemic and have often exhibited high level of
indifference to the plight of Nigerians.
President Jonathan had often said that Nigerians would see
how well he had performed when he must have left office. I can’t but wonder how Nigerians would see
what President Jonathan’s administration had done, when his gone, if we cannot
see them now that he is still in power. His utterances most often comes across as very
patronising and seeking of Nigerians pity, not to talk of those of his
wife.
This is not what we need; we need a president who has got
the bite to cause the change. To help the President understand this better, we
all can see his performance now and it is nothing but shambles.
This is the reason Nigeria’s successive governments would
repair a 10 kilometre road and invites CNN to cover the launching of the road;
they would build a bridge or make a well in a village and invite Aljazeera to
cover it. They’d call a big musician;
make party in celebration of a project that should be a normal daily
occurrence.
It is shameful to read local and foreign news showing
projects that the successive Nigerian Governments class as achievement. They
spent millions on project that should cost a lot less and make loads of noise
so this is seen as if the administration is working miracles. The projects are made more obvious because
successive Government have greatly under-performed and every little thing done
by the incumbent government is blown beyond proportion.
Since Independence on 1st of October 1960, every
Nigerians had advocated for a better nation. They have asked for their basic
needs to be met by successive governments, however due to high level
corruption, lack of accountability, wickedness and greed have not allowed the
expectations to be met; it has been disappointments and setbacks from the
successive governments.
By all standards, any government not able to protect and
provide the basic needs of its citizen is a failed one. Nigeria so far is a failed nation, only its
very resilient citizens have kept it going.
Nigerians voted for President Goodluck Jonathan believing he
is the god, sent to deliver the mostly poor Nigerians from the web of poverty
and introduce the change they have long waited for. He came across as knowing what poverty is,
having experienced poverty at its worst himself, this is the reason that
Nigerians voted for him with all their heart in large number, believing he is
the messiah. However his case is like that of a poor man who got drunk for one
night and forgot about his poverty, he failed to realize that when his drunk
stupor wears out, he would be back to his status quo.
President Jonathan is yet to do what he promised Nigerians
in the past 6 years, yet wants another 4 years to complete what he has not
started, can’t get that. Although being
a president, President Jonathan may never be poor again, but he should
understand that what goes around comes around.
As much as the problem of Nigeria did not start with
President Jonathan’s administration, he came to power promising to fix things,
but has not done that over the last 6 years and has not shown he’s in the right
direction to start fixing Nigeria. I believe
Nigeria is too big for him to handle; he is highly incapable to comprehend the
enormous task involved and how to prevent or avert the disaster we are in. If a football team is not performing, the coach
gets sacked!
Can I trust President Jonathan with another 4 years? I would say not, can you?
Nigerians by now should be enjoying adequate security,
stable power, comfortable transportation, good policing, quality health
services, good road network, general clean environment, increased jobs, transparency
within the various sectors, technological innovations, reduction or complete
eradication of poverty and many more to give every Nigerians a fairly good life
cycle. Nigeria is rich enough to provide
these basic services and I do not think these are too much for Nigerians to ask
for. I cannot get as to why we are still
where we are today. It must be a curse too big for President Jonathan to wave
off.
In the next part, we’ll discuss about the old horse, General
Muhammadu Buhari, see you soon.
Abiola Olaifa writes from UK
Visit abiolla@gmail.com, write to abiolla@gmail.com
