9 Reasons For #GEJs Return in 2015 (Part 1) Oses, Oses, Oses, how many times did I call you? a friend asked me some days back. 3 times, I quipped. Any qualms? A thorough yes. You want to write on why our President must return. Knowing you, I believe its going to be a mischief..... Well, I know the following articles might sound mischievous but hey, what else can I do when campaigns have not begun and Ill have the agents of government by my side like INEC (the battle for 2015 by the #PDP had since begun with the President visiting different churches and traditional rulers unannounced, holding party unity rallies across the 6 geopolitical zones and arming himself with a Federal cabinet of kill-and-go ministers) #Caution: Dont be fooled. I have not suddenly found love with the President. Im writing a satire. Now that we are clear, we begin. I noticed in all the rallies the PDP faithful have held in 5 geopolitical zones that President Jonathan had continued to hammer on the fact that his party, the PDP have not changed their logo, slogan or party colours. Others had. This is true. Others evolved, he smirked, because they have no vision and focus. Fine. But a situation where he points repeatedly to this fact will fail to sell when campaigns begin in earnest by September. No one cares about that if there are dividends. You should remember the I had no shoes campaign in 2011. Now, he will never fail to have shoes for life. The times have changed. Deep in his heart, there is no more selling point. Nigerians may be docile but they are not blind to the obvious. This is my focus. What can he really point out that has banished pains from the electorate? Today, the opposition has become fierce and daring. Therefore, I pretend in this series to be in the position of any of his mouthy Special Advisers. If I were to see him now, the following are what Ill draw to his notice. Wait! These 4 issues- Job Creation (read as unemployment), Corruption, Terror whether by Boko Haram or Herdsmen, and Power Supply or Reforms- will not be included in this series. Why? I cannot defend him and unfortunately, they will surely outlive his Presidency. It is not doom-saying. If after 5 years of his being President (since April 2010) and the notorious 4 have no marked improvement, 4 more years will change nothing. Let me briefly explain: (A) For unemployment, I dont need to say much. Only the NIS recruitment madness of last week show that Nigeria is a ticking time-bomb. It isnt about the people that died, no, its the number of the applicants that showed up. As I write this piece, statistics suggest at least 40 million Nigerians are unemployed. That is more than the population of Canada, Iraq, Ghana, Venezuela or Saudi Arabia. And these are not small countries by any standard. 54 per cent of Nigerian youths are unemployed and more than 80 per cent of those who graduate from universities and other tertiary institutions every year do not find employment. If the president does not see a coming disaster, then, he should not have been president in the first place. Even those who are employed are not gainfully so. 110 million Nigerians live below $1 a day. That means 110 million Nigerians are desperately poor. Why did we cite more universities without commesurate hope for employment after graduation? As the government is primary source of employment, what happens when it fails with a comatose private sector to boot? And you know, after every budget presentation, the cabinet members notoriously tell us 10 million jobs will be created. .............Series continue......
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 14:25:34 +0000
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