WANTED: A Tough President! On the failing Nigeria state and its dancing President!!! Written by Olu Akanmu and published in the Punch Newspapers of January 2, 2012! The mangled bodies as seen on the Internet were an ugly sight. Smoking skies as dark backgrounds to the wailing of women and men with forlorn faces. On a Christmas morning. Those parishioners of St Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla in Niger State must have worn their best Christmas dresses. Those dresses are torn now. Many even burnt with their owners. The festivities are shredded. A dark Christmas indeed. And what followed was the usual refrain from the Chief Protector of the people, “We will not let it happen again”. Of course, we heard that before, one two, three, four times and counting. Even at the temple of our national security at the Police headquarters, a finger was poked directly into our eyes. And as if our blood shot eyes were not enough, a big slap and clubbing of our peaceful psyche at the United Nations building came. And the usual again. “We will not let it happen again.” Nothing has been done beyond that half-hearted and unsure assurance. The Nigerian state is failing in its most basic contractual obligation with the masses; to guarantee the security of their lives and property in exchange for their willing obedience. Effort is nothing. It means very little. Result is what counts. That is one of the maxims that have driven organisations and countries to success. Whatever effort that has been made is not yielding result. The Nigerian state is failing. There are many who can swear that it has even failed. Are we going to become a Northern Ireland in the 70s when people had to carry guns and rifles to protect themselves in their places of worship before the Nigerian state will stop failing its people? And if we have to carry guns and rifles to protect ourselves because the state could not protect us, would we not have a lawless country where the law is suspended and rifles and bombs become a right? Is this looking remote? We are not far from this anymore. Those who live in Plateau State know this. They have learnt that they must protect themselves and their communities on their own as many can no longer put their faith in the state. It was Plateau, then Bauchi, Gombe, Kaduna, Yobe and Borno, then Abuja. Lawlessness is spreading and it’s becoming the norm. It is important for the managers of our state to ask themselves: ‘If this were to be the United States or Britain, what would the President or the Prime Minister do’? I can see a tough-talking George Bush, for instance, saying to the American public, that ‘my number one duty is to protect the American people’. He does not need to be as articulate as President Barack Obama to instill confidence in his people. His body mien flowing from his inside shows that he is determined. A calm Margaret Thatcher coming close personally to being bombed at the Conservative Party conference many years ago, unruffled with the tough mien of the mother hen said “We will never negotiate with terrorists”. Or, I can imagine the younger David Cameron or Tony Blair speaking tough in the British parliament. People watch their leaders for confidence. In the Nigerian situation of today, where terrorists are at the neck of the state, seeking to draw Christians and Muslims against each other for an unending internal strife, President Goodluck Jonathan must be tough both in his action and his body language. He must be the general he does not want to be. Nigeria is at near internal war with terrorism. Our Pearl Harbour of Peace has been attacked one, two, three, four times and counting. What is war than the fact that nearly 2,000 lives have been lost to religious lawlessness in the last two years? The nation expects its President to lead it with the character and mien of a war President, a tough Commander-in-Chief, instilling confidence, leading his nation to a battle against those who seek to divide us and set the country on fire. Just as we expect the President to be tough on terrorism, we also expect him to be tough on corruption, another frontier in the enemy’s battle against Nigeria that seeks to reduce it to a failed state that cannot guarantee a descent living for its people. Unemployment is rising. Additional two million Nigerians joined the unemployment queue in the last six months. No roads, no water, no school. No security. And no jobs. Per capita income (national revenue per head) just about a decade ago used to be just about $300. Now that per capita income is well above $1,000, the conditions of the people seem to be worse than yesterday. Where has the national wealth gone? How could a country whose economy grew at an average of seven per cent annually over the last decade (one of the fastest in the world), not be able to translate this into prosperity and jobs for its people? The national wealth has gone into repairing refineries that were not meant to work. The national wealth has gone into subsidising corrupt oil barons for importing what we produce. The national wealth has gone into inflated cost of government expenditure. So much is spent but so little to show. We expect a diligent prosecution of corrupt public office holders. Former governors are being docked. We have seen this before. We expect that it is not just the typical charade, a mere theatre just to show that something is being done while very little is done. As it has been pointed out, the Federal Government controls the largest share of revenue allocation in the country. It must also control the largest share of national corruption. Hence, we expect that it would have the largest share of public officials being docked for corruption. This is not so at the moment suggesting that the prosecution of corruption continues to be political or still largely moderated by federal political connections. Many years ago, a coach of our national football team in his response to his failed expectation of the nation said that, “We shall wobble and fumble to the finals”. Since that time, our football has wobbled and fumbled into permanent descent. Nigeria is wobbling, fumbling and descending into a weak state. Watching Iraq and Afghanistan and their bombing stories on television used to feel so remote. Now, stories on Nigeria are beginning to sound like Iraq. If we got this far in so short a time, it could be imagined what our stories would sound like in another few years if we do not arrest the current lawlessness, senseless killings and terrorism. Arrest it, we must as it cannot fizzle out on its own as the President was reported to have said recently. History beckons on Jonathan not only to make efforts but to get results. The nation expects him to display the desired toughness that the situation requires and deal with the Boko Haram menace as it has gone beyond a problem. He must combine this with active engagement of the leaders of the North who seem to have been intimidated by the terrorists to speak openly against the rape of our collective peace. The President has a burden to be tough and wise this time. We pray for the Commander-in-Chief. - Akanmu, a company executive, wrote in from Plot 1502 Adeola Hopewell, Victoria Island, Lagos
Posted on: Fri, 18 Apr 2014 19:09:25 +0000
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