Sunday, November 3, 2013

Jonathan's regime:Politicking or Good Governance?

Can you point to 3 MAJOR achievements of the Jonathan's regime? Please note that the completion of road projects and the privatization of the PHCN cannot be taken as achievements. Unless the road is NEWLY constructed from scratch,whatever you do on it would be put under maintainance not achievements and the sales of the PHCN in itself is not an achievement on its own,until we begin to experience 24/7 electricity supply as a result of the sales,it remains an on going project not an achievement.
I don't know how you evaluate achievement but you would agree with me that any project that has no DIRECT impact on the lives of average Nigerians remains an on going project, not yet an achievement. IT HAS TO HAVE DIRECT IMPACT ON THE LIVES OF THE AVERAGE CITIZENS OF COUNTRY.
In a situation whereby people like Ngozi the Minister of Finance would come and tell us how much our foreign reserves have grown and how much is being traded on the stock exchange market and present them as achievements is unacceptable. Even the SURE-P projects of the present regime,how many lives has it touched,how many people are directly affected by SURE-P? A few thousands at most....they can't even boast of half a million! Now,is that an achievement? I don't think so. This is not about criticizing Jonathan's regime,no,rather,its about counting the cost of democracy and trying to harmonize achievements of democracy with its costs.
So far so good,in my opinion,the costs by far exceeds the achievements. Nigeria pays EACH of 109 senators more than Obama,the PRESIDENT of the USA to whom Nigeria as a whole is a loyal servant. If each senator get paid more than the US President,one cannot but wonder how much Jonathan is paid for doing next to nothing as the President of Nigeria. The major thing I have seen and observed so far is criticisms and counter criticisms.
Today,its about Nigerian government forum leadership,tomorrow,its about impeachment moves next tomorrow,we are either talking about how the first lady went for a rest and not a  medical checkup or how she'd replied her critics....or wether Jonathan would contest come 2015 or not. No one's talking about improved health care system,the boosting of agricultural production,creation of cottage industries to add more value to our agric products or even the establishment of food banks and reserves for the country....talkless of improvment and further development of our education systems. Jonathan's regime has been much more concerned about politicking than National development.
However,this is not the issue of the president alone. When you enter states controlled by the opposition parties too,the story is still the same although to a very much lower extent,the bottomline is still the same - politicking is taken much more seriously than the delivery of good governance. The reason behind this unfortunate development is not far fetched...its the people.
People have IGNORANTLY submitted their dignity,pride and birthrights to the political class. This is why you would see people,old and young,men and women,literates and illitrates are turning politicians and loyal servants of political leaders. Who cares about due process these days,is there anything called professionalism in today's Nigeria? Carpenter dey construct bridge in Nigeria so long he is well connected politically. Everyone is in one political party or the other not for good governance and the delivery of democratic dividends but for their selfish interests alone. This is why I don't blame Jonathan for everything... in fact most of the problems we face today are not his fault but those of others like the governors,LG chairmen,Councillors,Senators and honorables among other VIPs.
In case you haven't observed,our democracy is so structured that the impact of political leaders that are indigines of the land is far more felt than those that are not.5 out of the 7 of our political leaders are indigines namely;your councilor,LG chairman,state rep,federal rep and Senator are all indigines of your locality,its only the governor and president that might not come from your place DEPENDING on the state. Now,IN A SITUATION WHERE POLITICAL LEADERS THAT COME FROM YOUR AREA REFUSE TO DELIVER GOOD GOVERNANCE TO YOU,WHY CRUCIFY JONATHAN FOR THE SAME OFFENCE???
My message,therefore,is that Nigerians should pay less attention to WHO WINS THE ELECTION  and pay attention to WHAT SUCH A LEADER OR PERSON ACHIEVED DURING HIS TENURE!!!

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