Custodian Debate: Goodluck Jonathan is no longer worthy of the Nigerian Presidency.

“Leaders are judged by results, not intentions. A failure to produce desired results is still a failure. Stop settling for less.”

-ElDeeTheDon

I stumbled upon the quote on Twitter and I felt like it represented the archetype of African leaders. They might enter office with brilliant ideas but then let the position they are put in to influence them.

In 2011, I stood behind Goodluck as I believed he could rescue the country. I have definitely seen some things done correctly in his tenure; for instance electricity and infrastructure have improved. In the same vein, our government has failed us in numerous instances.

First and foremost, I feel that the most important task a government has is to secure its territory and ensure safety and security of its citizens. Since 2011, the country has been treated to the sordid spectacle of skulls being blown to pieces, territories being lost, and kidnappings becoming the order of the day. The Boko Haram insurgents have been stretching the military. Arguably the most controversial issue of 2014, the kidnapping of over 200 Chibok Girls, testifies to the failure of the Nigerian government in its primary task of protecting citizens.

Kenechukwu Eke claims that “GEJ handled this whole Boko Haram thing like a true member of academia. He ignored his assignment till the night before the deadline, then crammed and handed his paper in late, but still wants full marks. Red biro all over his paper, abeg. Red biro!”

Many people will agree that the government performed woefully in terms of security between 2011 and 2014 before the military went on a major offensive at the start of 2015. The quick victories and ability of the military to reclaim most territories in under six weeks showed that the military was well equipped and able to fight the insurgency however never saw it as a major issue and only fought it in an attempt to clean up and save its bad image.

In the cases of World Powers like Britain and USA following a major breach on their security, the 2005 tube bombing and 9/11 respectively we saw both countries increase the security measures around the country and while there have been much smaller incidents, cases on such a grand scale have never again occurred. I believe that Boko Haram have committed great atrocities in the past four years with the Chibok girls, Baga, the United Nations building in Abuja, This Day bombing and the Police Headquarters in Abuja being the most notable but our forces only showed capability of fighting this insurgency when elections came around.

The typical narrative is that whenever a more significant attack occurs our forces step up their efforts only to relent in their efforts and then a few months down the line Boko Haram come back bigger and stronger. In November 2014, Chibok was taken by Boko Haram, however, the military recovered the town in record time. I believe this was because of the strategic importance of Chibok. The town had already been brought under the spotlight following the kidnapping of the girls and so it was important to quickly recover Chibok to make it look as if the military had been on top of their game. Was Chibok the first town being taken? But why was it in the case of Chibok that in days the town was recovered? What happened to all the larger towns that were not strategically as important as Chibok?

Leaders must be accountable for anything that goes on under their jurisdiction. Too many things have happened without the federal government demonstrating any mastery of the situation. The result is that there are happenings and citizens are being left out of the loop on what is going on. That communication breakdown between the government and the people is a reason the Goodluck tenure should end in 2015. In January, Baga was taken by Boko Haram insurgents. It took a week before government commented on it, claiming the casualty figures of 2000 deaths was no more than 150, only to be embarrassed with satellite images that suggested the government was being less than candid and that there was a mass underestimation of the figures.

Satellite images of the damage done to Baga.

Many Jonathan loyalists will say to you that President Goodluck did massive work in the agricultural sector however I don’t feel that is backed up by the actions of these farmers he has supposedly done so much for. I recently saw an advert by PDP in a newspaper which stated that “Yam farmers contribute N5b to Buhari’s campaign. Clearly, President Jonathan’s agricultural reforms are working.” And at first I thought to myself what a brilliant advert however after some thought and a tweet I saw, it dawned on me that President Jonathan’s reforms were not working because if they were then farmers would not have been donating so much to the opposing candidate. Or would they be satisfied with all that has been done for them and still turn towards the opposition?

The readiness of our president to show clear disregard for the constitution is another reason why come May 29th, President Goodluck should not be re-sworn in. The past year has been vital in shaping my opinion on President Goodluck. The invasion of the National Assembly by the police late in 2014 to prevent the Speaker from sitting bore all the telltale signs of government endorsement shows executive lawlessness. The seizure of former Central Bank Governor, Lamido Sanusi’s passport is another issue that displayed scant regard for the laws of our country. It shows unwillingness to stomach criticism and indeed provides cover for corruption.

Shortly before his sack, Mr. Sanusi gave a TedxYouth talk in Maitama. He spoke about corruption in the oil industry stating that in 2009, Nigeria’s oil subsidy was N291b but that by 2011 it had jumped to N2.7t. He claimed that this was likely due to the fact that many people had been paid for supposedly bringing in oil on certain vessels when in fact the named vessels had not been in or around Nigeria on the said dates. This man was doing nothing but his job and in doing so turned out to be exposing some of the dirty and corrupt acts of our government. He lost his job as a result of this as far as I am concerned.

Lest I forget, is Abba Moro another testimony that this government has encouraged corruption? He was Minister of Interior and stood behind a scandalous recruitment drive which allowed a consultant keep all the funds raised. In case you have forgotten the details, over 500000 citizens were charged to take a test for an Immigration service job while there were only 5000 openings. The applicants were charged a fee to write the test. This payment gave the government an obligation to provide good service to all such as adequate security, comfort, which will all go to show the government had respect for them. Nothing like that happened. Instead many of the applicants lost their lives arising from the shoddiness of public officials. No one is reported to have been sacked by the Jonathan administration.

Many may not know this but all Nigerians now pay a N2000 fee for delivery of their passports regardless of whether or not you want your passport delivered to your home. All those who prefer to obtain their passports from the Immigration offices indeed are just wasting their time seeing as they have paid for a service they do not desire to use. To top it all, the company which was handed the contract (Greater Washington) was the exclusive choice of Mr. Moro seeing as there were no advertisements asking those interested to apply. Furthermore, research by icirnigeria.org  suggests that Greater Washington own no more than three staff and two motorcycles in states they own offices which means that if indeed people decide to use the service they have paid for there will definitely be problems in satisfying the citizens.

One thing I hear a lot is that “Nigeria has become the fastest growing economy in Africa.” My reply to this highly misleading statistic is, what do Nigerians have to show for all this “economic growth.” On May 6th 2010 when President Goodluck started ruling Nigeria, the U. S. Dollar-Naira exchange rate stood at $1= N150.25, on March 10th 2015, $1 was bought for N199.05. How much of the growth to the economy are the Nigerians seeing, when in fact our currency’s value has depreciated in such extreme manners. The effect of the Naira’s depreciation on Nigerians is staggering, take for instance Aliko Dangote who was valued at $21.6billion on November 7th 2014 but come March 10th 2015, his value had fallen a distressing $5.7 billion to $15.9billion and he had fallen a disturbing 44 positions down the Forbes Billionaires List. It’s coincidental that oil prices hit lows during Jonathan’s tenure but as our leader for close to six years he ought to have ensured that there were other forms of raising revenue and destroy the reliance on oil due to it’s highly volatile prices.

I choose to look at the elections from the perspective of a man in Borno or Yobe who has been displaced from his family and possibly lost his daughter to Boko Haram. Believe me, because you sit in Lagos and have not suffered does not mean other Nigerians have not. (Even those who live in Lagos have been in one way or the other affected by rising prices amongst others) Millions of Nigerians have been rendered homeless, look beyond religion and tribe in voting and look at the candidate who is most likely to solve the problems that have been created in the past 16 years. Do not sit at home and refuse to vote because that is simply as good as voting whoever ends up winning the elections.

Vote wisely.

God Bless Nigeria.