Showing posts with label Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan. Show all posts

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Buhari: How Prepared Is This Absentee President?

By Immanuel Igwu

Within six months of inauguration, the man Nigerians elected in a historic voter revolution has created an alarming pattern of absenteeism. President Muhammadu Buhari, who is hyped as an orator of ‘’body language’’, has been voting with his feet since May 29, 2015.








*Yet another goodbye to Nigeria
An audit of his overseas travel shows that, so far, he has accumulated more than forty days and forty nights of elopement!
Though Buhari begged for and received from Nigerians a clear mandate to help break the free fall of a nation that is disappearing into an economic abyss, a Nigeria that offers the world one of the most frequent and highest death tolls due to terrorist attacks, he shows that he can hardly afford the discipline of sitting down long enough to master the desperate emergencies of the nation.
With the recurring image of a lanky, bespectacled man standing at the door of the presidential aircraft, waving and waving an umpteenth good bye, Buhari has literally compelled the discerning to cotton up to the fact that he would rather go elsewhere than fulfill the sedentary lion-share of his job!
Time is the easiest to calculate aspect of Buhari’s wanderlust: By checking his itinerary and adding small numbers, one can determine that our brand new leader has notched a month plus stay abroad. The monetary cost is different: It is hidden. Nigerian taxpayers do not know the irreducible minimum amount of their money that grows wings whenever he leaves the Nigerian airspace in his presidential glory.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Illiberality In An Age Of Conspiracy

By Dan Amor

For those who have a profound appreciation of power and its most penetrating insight as well, the fact of the matter, as the Italians once succinctly put it, is that power cannot be wrested no matter the paradigm one uses without certain attributes by the group or individual that jockeys after it. Popularized as the Three Cs in political parlance, any group that earnestly seeks power must be cohesive. It must be coherent. And it must be conspiratorial. 
















*President Jonathan 

In an attempt to wrest power from President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, even before the Senate's Doctrine of Necessity following the untimely death of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, some hawks have tried to employ certain machinations including coercion and brigandage to humiliate him from the pinnacle of power.


Few Nigerians have been so persistently, so perversely and so pertinaciously maligned in the folklore of our political evolution. Even before Yar'Adua was officially pronounced dead, there was  cataclysm in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) arising from the sharp division between defenders of entrenched interests who insisted that the North must retain power and those who insisted that the sanctity of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria must supervene.  That is where Jonathan's problem started. With the intervention of the Senate, he assumed the Presidency in acting capacity and later as substantive President. In 2011, northern politicians insisted that Jonathan should not run, which is grossly unconstitutional. Again, the Constitution gained upper hand, and Jonathan, in what was considered a free-and-fair election by local and international observers, won a pan-Nigerian mandate as the country's fourth democratically elected President.

Friday, February 6, 2015

A Humbling Reality!

By Banji 0jewale

One day in the very near future, naysayers of the Goodluck Jonathan Presidency are going to be confronted with the greatest and indisputable evidence of their error and ignorance: the aircraft in which they travel to take care of their vast business empire straddling the length and breadth of Nigeria and sometimes across our shores will be handled by pilots trained under the Amnesty scheme of the Jonathan Administration! When their jets and helicopters would have flown safely through the turbulence of the sky and landed to the applause of both the passengers and loved ones waiting to receive them at well-lit airports maintained by electricians including trainees of the Amnesty school, the critics would be humbled by a numbing reality: Jonathan isn’t “clueless” after all!

















*President Jonathan

But it is not only in that field the president has confounded his captious compatriots. In education he has become the first president of Nigeria to address the vexatious issue of federal universities being the exclusive preserve of some states. By causing the establishment of nine of such institutions in the states that had none, Jonathan has ensured that each state in Nigeria now has at least one federal university either in existence or under actual construction.

Friday, January 16, 2015

2015 Nigerian Elections: Jonathan Will Not Win!

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
                                                      
It is my considered opinion that President Goodluck Jonathan will not win the February 14, 2015 presidential election. But then, he will NOT also lose. And if Jonathan is declared winner after the votes had been cast and counted, it would not be because the people voted massively for him. It would be that Nigerians trooped out to overwhelmingly vote against the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari. 



























*Jonathan

Although, President Jonathan has performed far better than his predecessors in office, especially, his arch-critic, former President Olusegun Obasanjo (who went all out to impoverish and ground the country despite the unprecedented earnings that poured into the treasury during his tenure from oil exports) and whose regime brazenly institutionalized corruption (thereby, proving that it was indeed possible to beat the solid record left by the Ibrahim Babangida military regime), what cannot be  denied is that Jonathan could have done far better than he has done. But, sadly, the APC whose candidate is Jonathan’s major challenger is just incapable of inspiring confidence. Although labouring to present themselves as the “face of change,” the APC people only succeed in making Jonathan more appealing to the people by the way they conduct themselves and their campaign.

And despite all the resources and efforts the party has deployed to market itself as an alternative to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it has only succeeded in solidifying the egregious impression that it is nothing other than the PDP’s dustbin, where mostly frustrated and disgruntled PDP members seek refuge and are heartily received no matter their past records.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Presidency Denies There's Jewish Symbol In New N100 Note

Press Release 
Our attention has been drawn to a press statement issued by the Muslims’ Right Concern (MURIC) in which its Director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola made a number of allegations against the President Goodluck Jonathan, including the mischievous and false claim that there is a Jewish symbol in the new commemorative N100 note which will be officially issued on December 19.
 

(pix:nigeriatell)
President Jonathan is certainly not anti-Muslim as Prof Akintola alleges. As we have often said, the President knows very well that he was elected to office by a representative majority of all Nigerians and he continues to deal with all Nigerians fairly and equitably irrespective of their personal or group religious beliefs.

The allegation by MURIC that President Jonathan is using the highest office in the country to promote Zionism and the state of Israel is completely spurious and unfounded.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Who Will Tame Fashola's Insufferable Arrogance?

By Dipo Abimbola

In a rare show of political vendetta, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State was said to have spit venom on President Goodluck Jonathan recently. In a statement which was published in virtually all the existing newspapers in Nigeria on Tuesday November 4, 2014, Fashola was said to have derided a public advocacy organization,the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) on account of its robust defense of President Goodluck Jonathan's achievements and consequent endorsement of the President to contest for a second term in 2015. According to the report, Fashola who delivered an address as a Keynote speaker at the opening ceremony of Women in Business (Wimbiz) Conference held at the Eko Hotels on Victoria Island in Lagos, lampooned TAN for orchestrating the return of the Jonathan Administration through false claims, saying that Jonathan had nothing on ground to justify his more than three years in the saddle.














Friday, September 12, 2014

Jonathan Will Not Interfere With Ongoing Investigation Against Ex-Gov Sheriff - Presidency

... Former Governor Did Not Accompany The President To Chad 















Former Governor of Borno State Ali Modu Sheriff, 
President Goodluck Jonathan and President Idris 
Derby of Chad in Ndjamena (pix: State House)


By Reuben Abati 
We have noted with surprise, the unnecessary hue and cry raised by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and other bigoted critics of the Jonathan Administration over the claim that the President is “hobnobbing” with the former governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, who was recently accused by the Australian, Stephen Davis, of being one of the chief sponsors of the terrorist group, Boko Haram.
The totally erroneous basis for that charge was the spurious claim that Senator Sheriff accompanied President Jonathan on his recent trip to Ndjamena as a member of his entourage.
Although Senator Sheriff himself has already given the lie to that claim through his Media Adviser, the Presidency wishes to affirm, for the purpose of emphasis, that the former Borno State governor was not on President Jonathan’s delegation to Chad.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Terror Sponsorship: PDP Replies APC

Full Text Of Statement Issued By the People's Democratic Party (PDP) Today 

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has noted yet another failed image laundering stunt by the APC wherein its National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun cheapened his office and person by attempting to use an unempirical statement by Australian Dr. Stephen Davis, to absolve his party of blames for promoting insurgency in the country.



















*Olisa Metuh
PDP's National Publicity Secretary

Whilst we recognize the right of citizens to hold and canvass opinion in a democratic setting such as guaranteed under the PDP-led administration, we hold, and strongly too that such rights must be properly and respectably exercised.

It is therefore shocking and worrisome that the APC National Chairman, in a frenzied effort to extricate his party, could issue a statement completely lacking in validity, character and intellectual content befitting of a National Chairman of a political party.

Oyegun’s statement rather than exonerate the APC has reinforced and underscored its true identity as a party of desperate politicians supportive of violence and disunity through their utterances and body language, a fact that is already well known to all Nigerians.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Obasanjo: A Hypocrite And His Epistle

By Ikechukwu Amaechi 
If I know Nigeria’s former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, well, he will be beside himself now with joy. He has done what he knows how best to do – monkey business. He is a master in the game of mischief and I will not be surprised if some Nigerians hail him over his letter to President Goodluck Jonathan.
 









 *Amaechi

Obasanjo’s Letter To Jonathan — Some Observations 2

OBJ’s letter to GEJ—some observations 2
By Chinweizu

14dec2013

sundoor999@gmail.com

1] Former President Obasanjo, OBJ, is a general. Like a good general he is trying to defend a city under siege by launching a diversionary attack elsewhere, to draw the besieging troops off to defend the target of his diversionary attack and give himself respite to defend his city. That’s a military strategy that’s been in use for thousands of years.
 












 *Presdent Jonathan

I think that’s the strategic objective of his 18 page letter to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GEJ.

OBJ is a diehard defender of the Nigerian status quo, of which he has been a major lifelong beneficiary. This National Dialogue/Conference debate is directing serious attack on the 1999 Constitution and the status quo that is based on it. Presumably, being doubtful that the system can withstand this siege, OBJ has launched this diversionary attack on corruption, which he believes will capture the attention of the, supposedly, gullible Nigerian public and divert them from the issue of the SNC and a new People’s Constitution. We must resist the temptation to follow him and change the conversation to corruption from the issue of the SNC and a new Constitution.

Friday, October 19, 2012

2013 Budget Prudent And Reasonable - Okonjo-Iweala

From The Federal Ministry Of Finance
Press Release
THE PROPOSED BUDGET OF THE FEDERAL MINISTRY OF FINANCE IS PRUDENT AND REASONABLE




Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,
Greeting Labour Leaders

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Odumegwu-Ojukwu: President Jonathan's Unforgettable Tribute

















As Head of State of the Republic of Biafra,
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu Inspects
Biafran Troops in 1968

----------------------

President Goodluck Jonathan Pays Tribute In Abuja on Febraury 28, 2012

After describing the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu as as an advocate of a united Nigeria whose exceptional qualities no words can adequately capture, he said that “the legacy [Ojukwu] bequeathed to the Nigerian Army and the innovations he instituted ... are now the hallmark of military processes and procedures”.

•Soldiers bearing Ojukwu’s remains at the ceremony ... yesterday

•Nigerian Soldiers Bearing Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu’s
Body during a Special Military Ceremony in Abuja on February 28, 2012,
 Shortly after His Body Arrived from London 


...And Then President Jonathan Dropped The Winner... Hear Him:

“Let it not be said that Ojukwu died when the country needed his services most. Let it rather be said that Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu lived and served with all his might when the Igbo and Nigerians needed him most. He stood up and fought for what he believed. He stood for justice. He refused to compromise. He challenged man’s inhumanity to man.
“Faced with the pogrom of his kith and kin, he stood his ground and fought until the last plane left Biafra. His bravery, courage and sacrifices live after him. Whatever perceived mistakes he made, or people think he made, will for forever be interred with his bones.”



The Ikemba Himself

President Goodluck Jonathan spoke through the Vice-President, Mr. Namadi Sambo. The ceremony took place at the presidential wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, and was witnessed by several public officers that included Senate President David Mark, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Pius Anyim, Anambra State Governor Peter Obi Adamawa State Governor Murtala Nyako and several others.





In her own tribute, wife of the president, Mrs. Patience Jonathan who also attended the ceremony said:
“Here lies the remains of a great man, recorded in history for his humility, simplicity, decency and superior intellect, Chief Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. The Ikemba will always command a place of pride in the records of our country, as one who sacrificed his comfort and privileges to identify with the poor and the voiceless. For him, his liberty and privileges were without values, if his folks remained in chains. For him, selective liberty was unacceptable.



















 He was a true patriot, committed to the defence of the dignity of man ... The best that can be given to the dead is to ensure that his legacies live on. Let us continue to pursue peace with all men and be our brothers’ keepers. We must continue to be patient and tolerant, as no meaningful development can take place without peace and security of lives and property. I call on you today to form a vanguard of a new world, build on love and patriotism, always leading the advocacy for peaceful resolution of our differences. This is the surest way to immortalize this uncommon Nigerian, and dignify his memory.” 


-----------------------------

Thursday, November 24, 2011

National Honours Controversy: Chinua Achebe's Reaction...

On November 16, 2011, Professor Chinua Achebe, author of the classic, Things Fall Apart, and Africa's best known writer turned 81.

























Chinua Achebe

While his family, readers and admirers across the globe rejoiced with him on that day and thanked God for his life, Dr. Chidi Achebe,  the President/CEO of Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center, Dorchester, MA, and son of the literary icon, was asked what Professor Achebe's reaction was to the hullabaloo from the Nigerian Presidency surrounding his rejection of the Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) – Nigeria's Third Highest National Honour—offered to him by the Goodluck Jonathan's Administration.

His Reply:
"Today is Prof's 81st birthday, the family and well wishers around the globe are giving thanksgiving to GOD almighty!

The last I saw, Professor Achebe was digging into a delicious piece of cake.

What reaction? I will honestly tell you that Professor Achebe does not know who Reuben Abati is; has not read his reaction nor does he care to do so.

Professor Achebe loves his native country Nigeria; he did what he has done all his life -  told the truth as he sees it. Many will accept it, some will not, and that is the way it is."







































President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice President
 Namadi Sambo


Professor Achebe whose works have been translated into many major languages of the world is the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies, Brown University, Providence, Rohde Island, USA. 


RELATED ARTICLES

Monday, September 26, 2011

Who Cares As Nigerians Are Butchered Daily?

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

Last week, I published an article in this column entitled “Where Are God’s People In This Land?” in reaction to alarming reports of daily slaughter of hapless Nigerians at the ever increasing ritual enclaves across the country.

Almost daily now, we hear from lucky survivors grisly stories of how some men with beastly minds, who have since parted ways with their humanity, would just capture their fellow human beings, take them to some secret houses in the bush, butcher them like fowls or goats, and then display their body parts dripping with fresh blood on tables and counters for sale!

The most saddening aspect of the whole gory and hideous business is, like I said last week, the widespread belief, based on the testimonies of survivors, that the most enthusiastic and wealthy buyers of these human body parts are drawn from the cream of the nation’s business and political elite, who use the flesh and blood of their cruelly slaughtered fellow Nigerians for money-spinning and (political) power-generating rituals.




















President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria

 Now, if it is indeed true that the wealthy patrons of these butchers are the same people whose duty it is to order the security agents to go after them, would it not be naïve to expect them to wage any war against the very source of the very essential ingredients they use for the rituals that guarantee them uninterrupted flow of wealth and extraordinary powers for political ascendancy?

Following that article, a man gave me a shocking report of what happened in Coker in the Orile area of Lagos last week.

It was a bright beautiful morning, and a school bus fully loaded with excited little, tender pupils it had collected from their various homes was heading to school. Suddenly, as the driver slowed down somewhere, may be, due to the countless deep potholes that adorn our streets or for whatever reason, a man rushed at the bus, and with the speed of lightening, opened the door to the driver’s seat, pulled him out violently, jumped in, and zoomed off with the vehicle.

From Coker, he made to connect the Orile-Mile2 expressway through Alafia. But fortunately, near the junction, by Wema Bank, there was a small hold-up, and the children started shouting and calling for help. That area usually witnesses heavy human traffic.

Sensing that he might be apprehended by the people who had been attracted by the screaming of the now frightened children, the man jumped out of the vehicle and ran away.

That was what I heard from the man who also resides in that area last week. And until it is clearly established through eyewitness accounts that the driver of the “snatched” School Bus did not raise sufficient alarm to attract people when the incident occurred  (given that the area enjoys heavy human traffic), it would not be advisable to start making any hints at some likelihood of collaboration.

 But even though the kidnap attempt was successfully aborted, there would still be need for the driver to be thoroughly examined by experienced security agents, at least to reassure parents, who may still be too shocked to even contemplate what would have happened to the very children they had bathed, fed and dressed up for school that morning. All said and done, the Orile/Coker incident of last week should compel proprietors and administrators of nursery and primary schools especially to ensure that at least two other people accompany drivers as they embark on school run.  

Only two weeks ago, Saturday SUN carried this heart-rending story of a woman who had boarded a bus with her three tender daughters. Then the driver changed course and after a long journey took them to a secret house tucked away in a thick bush. There she was forced to take some concussions, after which she fell into very deep sleep. By the time she was woken up, two days later, famished and drained, two out of her three children were gone. Earlier, she had seen some other women and some children, just moping like morons, after some spells had been cast on them. I suspect that, for some reasons, the oracle at the ritual enclave had rejected her and her child, and that was why the men woke her up and sent her away. Now, the latest is that the distraught woman has left home, after leaving a suicide note in which she said she would also kill herself if she did not see her two kids. Since then, no one has seen her.


Commercial buses are fast distinguishing themselves as the most effective means of ferrying unsuspecting men, women and tender children to these slaughter houses. According to the testimonies of survivors, once people board these buses, along the way somebody who had all the while pretended to be a co-passenger would get up, spray some powdery substance over them, and they would all go into a very deep sleep.

By the time they wake up, they would find themselves in a compound surrounded by bushes, manned by beastly guards. And once they take the concussions they usually force on them, they would lose the will to resist, and would follow their killers to the slaughter slab.

Now, it is not only those who patronize commercial buses that are risk. People whose cars break down at lonely spots on the expressway or even at street corners, especially in the evenings, are juicy preys waiting to be snapped up. Even the commercial motorcyclists are not left out in this hideous trade of ferrying unsuspecting people to their most cruel deaths.

 A survivor recently testified that throughout the few days they were at the ritual enclave, commercial buses kept arriving in droves, discharging passengers and taking off again in search of new victims. We are regularly confronted with news of missing people nowadays. And many of the people declared missing may never come home. They probably have since been slaughtered and chopped up as items of lucrative trade.

There is also the report that in some of these slaughter houses, some energetic young men and young women whom they had captured are hypnotized and kept together in some rooms, where their business all day is to engage in ceaseless immorality. And while this goes on, their captors would equally be busy carefully collecting the things they are discharging during the act, which we hear are also in high demand for ritual purposes. They are able to keep the young men and women on this act all day-long with the enhancement concussions they usually give them.

Nigerians crowd during previous census

Crowd of Nigerians at an event

I wonder what would happen if a pregnancy occurs. That probably would be a bonus, because, they would then have both a neck to cut and hapless foetus to remove from the womb and pound to smithereens! Yes, a survivor had testified recently that once victims drink the concussion they are usually given and sleep off, the children among them are collected from their mothers and cruelly pounded to the death in large mortars, crushed and reduced to something like fufu and used for rituals.

What a heartless, cruel gang of beasts! What a barbaric people! Like I said last week: There is no way any nation where this kind of prehistoric savagery flourishes can ever survive and prosper, because, like in the case of Biblical Abel, the blood of these cruelly butchered men, women and tender children cry unto God daily, seeking vengeance.

I want to mention here that despite the proliferation of fakes and charlatans, there are still people in this land who have the ears of God, whose prayers are able to reach Heaven, because in their thoughts and conducts they honour God without reservations. They may not be known and revered by men, but God and His angels know them. They also know themselves.

We know that this human parts business operates under some demonic shield and powers. That is why they are able to turn people into morons and slaughter them without any of them attempting to make any form of resistance. But we also know that with fervent prayers offered from a regenerated heart that has repented of, and confessed to God any known sin, the dark powers that shield and empower these butchers can be neutralized. Examples abound where the mention of the name of JESUS by genuine believers had put the place in disarray and saved the heads of victims from being cut. Why then should the people of God keep quiet at this critical time when they ought to be raising their voices in prayers and exercising spiritual authority to break the dark shield under which this barbaric trade flourishes and run the sons of Belial behind it out of town?

Are we waiting for the government on this matter? Well, we may wait for eternity. Since reports about these cruel murders of innocent people began to appear in the mainstream media, can anyone recall exactly what the Presidency has said about it? Or like I asked last week, how many State Governors have set up special task forces to comb every bush in their domains to fish out these killing joints? Has the National Assembly or any State Assembly even deliberated on it? Would it ever qualify for a matter of urgent national attention? Has the police high command even deemed it fit to raise a special squad to combat the ugly menace?

 As you read this now, some people with flesh and blood like you and I are being slaughtered, cut in pieces and displayed for sale. And no one cares. Flashy cars are trouping in to carte away their chopped up bodies. And no one bats an eyelid. At these killing joints, young men are not even afraid to undress and desecrate men and women old enough to be their parents and slaughter them like fowls.

And no one yells: Hey stop it! Make no mistake about it: this unparalleled barbarism can only continue, unless something decisive is done. And now!

-------------------------------------

First published in 2008 on the back page of Daily Independent (Lagos) in Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye's (now rested) weekly column, SCRUPLES. 

Thursday, February 17, 2011

NIGERIA: What Is Government To Me?

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

As I walked leisurely into my street last Sunday afternoon, trying as much as possible not to think about the obviously enraged sun bathing me with its stinging golden rays, I would have been forgiven if I had thought I had missed my way and strayed into some very busy industrial area. But then, the place I had just gone to was a yelling distance from home, and so, there was just no way I could have missed my way.

I live in a very small street, secured at both ends by two gates manned by some nice Mallams, whose salaries are paid from the Security Levy I unhappily part with every month. As soon as I passed the gate, I was greeted by the tormenting din and clatter of several power generating sets locked in a clearly mad competition to out-roar each other.



Every house contributed to the bedlam. Eardrums came under serious threat. Hypertension cases became more complicated, drawing victims closer to their graves. Sanity struggled to take leave of several people, as the roaring noise from every house tore into the very hot Sunday afternoon with violent rage, piercing fierceness and tormenting loudness.

Very lethal, thick, black fumes also oozed into the atmosphere, targeting the hearts and lungs of men, having successfully turned the area into one huge fatally saturated gas chamber. Why did everybody suddenly choose to set the machines roaring this afternoon? Maybe, this was what always happened every other afternoon, but because I was not always around in the afternoons, the whole thing now assailed my ears with menacing strangeness.

After sometime, I paused and listened, trying to make some form of meaning out of the whole chaos. What came into my mind was: Yes, this is a failed state! Like Prof Chinua Achebe once said: “This is an example of a country that has fallen down; it has collapsed. This house has fallen.”

My mind went to Countee Cullen, the African American poet, whose 1925 poem, Heritage, opened with a very significant question that had bugged his mind at that time, “What is Africa To Me?”

In the same vein, I could not help asking: What Is Government To Me? Or put differently, of what relevance is Government to me in a clearly ungoverned enclave like Nigeria?



If I provide for myself virtually everything Government is supposed to make available to me as a law abiding citizen, how then does Government justify its relevance, or even existence before me?

Take the issue of security that I mentioned earlier, for instance. One of the very basic functions of Government is to secure lives and property. But in Nigeria, this has since ceased to be part of Government’s priority. In fact, it is doubtful if those in authority still remember that provision of adequate security is part of their responsibility towards the citizenry.

Government has since conceded defeat in this area and seems to flaunt with nauseating relish its inability to protect Nigerians. In other words, it has since relinquished the monopoly it ought to exercise over the instruments of violence and coercion, and Nigerians have become mere lame ducks before hoodlums and criminals who invade homes and offices, taking their time to steal and even sexually abuse women with every fearlessness and fanfare. Robbers are no longer in a hurry because they know very well that nobody would dare disturb their operations, and that policemen would rather take to their heels at the sound of their rifles than attempt to repel them.

And so, because we are now “on our own,” we had to, like many other residents of other areas in Nigeria, engage the Mallams to man our gates? But as we all know, our protection is in the hands of God, because, these same Mallams would be the first to beat Ben Johnson’s track records at the first sound of the gun! And where is the Government in this picture? An absentee as usual!

Nigeria presents the best example of how a nation could be in the absence of any form of governance.

Again, what is Government to me? Darkness, Darkness and more Darkness -- everywhere? The clatter of generators I encountered last Sunday afternoon was a very sad reminder of the painful and oppressive fact that for several weeks now, power supply in my area has gone down to almost zero.


When we could be considered lucky, power would be supplied for an hour or two, and that would be all, in a whole week! But the normal thing now is that week after week, no one sees the slightest hint of power supply, not minding that the agents of that useless body of sadists called NEPA/PHCN would keep sending their huge bills with religious zealousness.

We used to complain of irregular power supply, not knowing that that time was our finest hour. Now, total darkness has enveloped the whole place. I know how much I have spent for some weeks now on fuel to generate my own megawatts for my household. That automatically means that I am my own President and Energy Minster, no matter the clearly idle, unproductive fellows pretending to occupy those offices in Abuja.

If then I am doing for myself what Government is supposed to be doing for me, it can only mean that as far as I am concerned, Government does not exist, having since lost its relevance, the basis for its existence. It might as well be scrapped. A tree that bears no fruits only emphasizes its crying irrelevance.


Powerless Power Plants?

 If anyone needs potable water in Nigeria today, such a one must provide it for himself. Reason? Government is on an interminable recess. In the eighties, one could just walk to any tap, even by the roadside, open it and drink clean water. Whoever tries that now, if at all any liquid gushes out from the tap, could be tried for attempting suicide. And I can guarantee that not even a very large-hearted judge would agree to set him free!


Today, because Government only exists in name, people must sink boreholes in their compounds to provide potable water for themselves. Others must make do with the generous typhoid distributor they call “pure water” (or pure gutter).

In fact, it has got to a stage that if my children ask me today the functions of Government, I wouldn’t know what to tell them, because I wouldn’t want to tell them lies. As far as I am concerned, the most inactive and unproductive institution in Nigeria today is the Government. I had to put it that way because I do not want to simply say that it is useless. Well, Government is not exactly inactive. It has duly distinguished itself as that far-removed, very distantly located band of men and women who only exist to plunder and squander our commonwealth.

They only remember us during election time, not because they really need our votes to acquire power, but it makes them feel good to be able to say that we gave them our mandate – something they had already appropriated long before they came to us canvassing for our votes. They also come to us as occasional sources of irritation, demanding taxes or “more sacrifices” from us in the form of punitive policies like fuel price hikes. We equally encounter them when they run us out of the roads with their blaring sirens.



The Radiance Of A King!
 President Goodluck Jonathan


 
Today, in most places, if the road leading to one’s house goes bad, the people inhabiting that area would have to contribute money to fix it, or else, it would be there ruining their cars and giving all of them body aches. Public schools which are supposed to be maintained by the Government have since collapsed, so one has to cough out the very high fees charged by quality private schools if one desires that one’s child should get quality education.

Most Government hospitals have long become very smooth expressways to the grave, which only those who cannot afford any other alternatives still go to gamble with their lives. It is sad, so sad. It is most painful and overly frustrating. It is provocative.

And as I think about these things, I am compelled to ask myself again: What is Government to me? I would have compared it to a refuse dump, but I am reminded that refuse dumps serve some useful purpose. At least, they provide manure for farmers to grow their crops. But as for Government in Nigeria, I cannot readily recall what it stands or exists for, or any form of use it presently is to the generality of Nigerian people, except that it has become a dispensable burden too heavy to bear, and a very easy route for a privileged few to gain entrance into the billionaire club. So sad really.

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March 2008