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Uyi Edogamhe
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The president should let the visible short term performance do the electioneering campaign at this point. It is a widely accepted age old adage, that “action speaks louder than words”. Political chess game calculation will not be able to achieve as much as a robust positive performance.  Fashola, Ameachi and Goje, know a thing or two about this. Real performance will definitely guarantee the political leverage to overcome any sectional  or regional opposition. The Nigerian masses should be courted. The President has the goodwill of the real Nigerian people, he needs to still work on gaining their trust.

 

GOODLUCK JONATHAN: A REALITY CHECK.
 by Uyi Edogamhe
 

We have been inundated with daily reports of what is fast becoming a hallmark of the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s administration in the past few days. Fiscal recklessness it is. This is fast assuming a  frightening proportion and currency now, and as such, every responsible and concerned  Nigerian should be worried about this.  Parsimony and fiscal responsibility have been thrown to the back burner for now. Common sense too, have been replaced by political placating calculations. The president needs to be jolted back to reality.

President Goodluck Jonathan since mounting that rostrum, have been desperately pandering to all and sundry. In so doing, the President have unavoidably become a prisoner of his political calculations. The Nigerian government, in three months plus under President Jonathan’s watch, is on a spending frenzy. The government has been spending and appropriating like a drunken sailor. These kinds of unchecked spending only helps heighten the cravings and urge for corruption and official malfeasance in the Nigerian political environment, as this have always been the case. Things are made worse by a lame duck EFCC  that lacks any residual gumption for action.

The current extra budgetary approvals and the recent sleazy spooky revelations about the  National Assembly members are troubling and mind debasing. A N89 billion rushed budget approval for INEC, with all it’s duplicitous  overlapping details, was hardly questioned and thoroughly vetted by both houses of the National assembly. The President’s economic team, would not even bother to give such a huge budgetary demand by a government agency for whatever motive it might be, the serious analytical scrutinising attention to details it deserves, so as to trim the pork barrel laden in this budget, before passing it to the National Assembly for approval. A N70 billion allocation to the Ministry of Police Affairs for police reform, without a clear cut mandate as to what to specifically do and what is expected in return in a specific time frame.  The rumoured approval of N23 billion for the purchase of 3 aircrafts for the presidential fleet, at this critically inopportune time, begs the question of the president’s mission and sense of purpose. The President must have lost touch with reality if this is true, and it will be a political suicide if he goes ahead with this jumbo stupidity.

The President’s relentless pandering and kowtowing has become embarrassing. It makes the President come across as a political neophyte (which he still is) that can be intimidated and railroaded. His body language and that chubby cheek patronising smile gives an impression of a man with an irresolute sense of duty. The president still needs to absolutely assert himself. The political jockeying and camaraderie should be secondary. It is not a factual means to his sought after political end.

An immediate short term pragmatic tangible result, with a corresponding impact in the lives of the average Nigerian, is what the president needs for a general political acceptance and transformation. The “Goodluck” of providence will have to earn the “Good-trust” of the people, and that won’t come on a platter. Real political sagacity, resoluteness, bravery in the face of intimidation, and political dynamism with a populist life altering and life changing and physically discernable democracy dividend will make that happen. Happenstance and incoherent policy formulations is a sure death bet, on the political fast lane.    

The president should let the visible short term performance do the electioneering campaign at this point. It is a widely accepted age old adage, that “action speaks louder than words”. Political chess game calculation will not be able to achieve as much as a robust positive performance.  Fashola, Ameachi and Goje, know a thing or two about this. Real performance will definitely guarantee the political leverage to overcome any sectional  or regional opposition. The Nigerian masses should be courted. The President has the goodwill of the real Nigerian people, he needs to still work on gaining their trust.

The prevalent cynicism by the average Nigerian is understandable. People have been let down times too many to trust anybody in leadership. The recent revelations of the monumental self serving allowances and salaries  the National legislators take home annually have badly compounded  this trust deficit for people in leadership positions. The legislators from local, state and national level, have proven to be in their respective positions to represent their pockets and not the electorates. They are there to feather their nest. How else can all the spurious allowances be justified?

President Goodluck Jonathan must choose his fight. He cannot continue to pander and kowtow ceaselessly. It is empirically impossible to please everybody. Great men have never been constrained by circumstances or time. They have rather turn around unfavourable circumstances and left their imprint on time. Probity, fiscal responsibility and the general well being of the under privileged Nigerian cannot be held hostage to political calculations and power tussle.  The Nigerian people have to be shown they come first  in all political back dealings and calculations.

The fight against corruption has to be reinvigorated.  The EFCC is now a national embarrassment, and something drastic has to be done about that. The President cannot pander to some rogue representatives of the people who have copiously diverted their “constituency project allowances” for their personal use or have short changed their constituents with phony projects of inferior value. The Nigerian People wants to see their goodwill  towards the President pay off, and then after, their trust can be solicited. They want to know the President is fighting for them and not just wholly immersed in the fight for political survival.  All the Federal security agencies, including the Police, the EFCC and the ICPC, must investigate all of these elected officials  and clear them of corruption before they can contest their  next respective party primaries.

Words or articulated intentions are unfortunately not enough this time. The President is condemned to deliver immediate imparting results that people can see and relate to, and there is no going round that. Time constraint is no excuse either, as people’s goodwill and belief is starting to wither  and the President is beginning to be seen as an 'extenuation'.  This tag can be dispelled, if the president will pick up the courage to stamp his foot down and get things done.  His political destiny is in the hands of the Nigerian people and not necessarily the behind the scene marauding “political jobbers” who are by all means seeking relevance and fat cheque pay back.

The President alone through his team, with his practical accomplishment, can woo the Christian,  the Moslem, the Traditionalist and people of other faiths to himself  and not through spent forces  in search of another meal ticket.  Tangible results will make every other political calculation secondary, as pragmatism has it’s reward.
 

 

 

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