President
Goodluck Jonathan will be stepping down as Nigeria’s number one citizen
on May 29 – that is less than 72 hours from today. But the outgoing
President will be leaving behind a country in deep economic and social
crises.
Not that Nigerians have had any moment of respite in
the lacklustre years that Jonathan presided over the affairs of our
country. If anything, however, the crises of his final days in power and
his characteristic “I don’t give a damn” response have only confirmed
that Nigerians did not make a mistake when they rejected his re-election
bid in the 2015 presidential election.
As our
country grapples with the debilitating fuel crisis, power shortage and
huge debt burden, nothing else symbolises the lethargic years of
Jonathan’s presidency than his response to the crisis of his last days
in office. His unnerving silence as Nigerians face one of the worst
moments of their lives as citizens is typical of his attitude in the six
years he has been in power. Yet, his supporters have hailed him as a
hero. Pray! What is heroic in a leader who leaves his people to bear the
burden of his administration’s incompetence?
That the President
has refused to address the lingering and asphyxiating fuel scarcity
more than a month since it began demonstrates the disdain he has always
harboured for Nigerians. That he has kept mute as citizens groan under
the weight of the crisis is not a surprise. It fits into the character
of this outgoing President to fiddle like the Roman Emperor while his
“Rome” burns. Nigerians are just glad that President Jonathan will quit
power in a few hours from now. It is indeed a welcome relief. Where does
one start to catalogue the failures of a President who has never placed
priority on the welfare of the people? For over a month that the fuel
crisis has crippled the entire country, the President has not considered
it necessary to address Nigerians.
What we have seen is that
old tendency to abdicate his responsibilities to the Finance Minister
and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. But
Okonjo-Iweala has done nothing but engage in a blame game and
unnecessary confrontations. Where does the buck stop? As the economy
grinds to a halt and the President continues to hire and fire even in
the twilight of his administration, somebody once remarked that he did
not expect the President to “give a damn now than he ever cared.” It
becomes worse now he is leaving power. While I consider it callous and
myopic of any leader to turn a blind eye to the sufferings of his
people, I will not put it past the President to behave in a way that
portrays him as insensitive. Is it with corruption, Boko Haram, or the
Chibok girls’ kidnap?
One of the insensitivities of President
Jonathan is his approach to corruption. The President condoned it – he
even defended it. What do we call that? Truth be told, the unbridled
corruption and recklessness of his administration is the reason why
Nigerians are suffering today. I have recently been following the online
argument by the so-called “Jonathanians” who argue that Nigerians
deserve to suffer fuel scarcity because they blocked the removal of
subsidy in 2012 by the President.
They are blaming
#OccupyNigeria protesters. It is myopic reasoning like this that has
allowed the Jonathan administration to get away with “blue murder”. They
miss the point. While it is true that government cannot continue to
subsidise fuel importation through subsidy scam, the scheme also became a
drain pipe to siphon trillions of funds under Jonathan. Subsidy claims
became riddled with unbridled corruption. Why is that for the first
time, subsidy payment rose to trillions of naira under Jonathan? Why
were the indicted subsidy thieves not prosecuted successively? These
questions have still not been answered since 2012. The subsidy issue
became a debacle because the outgoing government was not transparent in
its dealings.
As the Jonathan administration trudges to its end,
the entire country is on a lockdown. Since his loss at the election,
one has noticed the absence of leadership. The country seems to be on
auto-pilot. Well, some have argued that it has been for six years. Every
aspect of governance has been put on hold expect for the last minute
hiring and firing which are being done for obvious reasons. I have also
heard insinuations that the incoming government is being set up for
failure. I still will not put the allegations past this administration.
Only
recently Nigerians were told that Nigeria owes a debt of $60bn! What
exactly the money was used for nobody knows. It has become glaring that
the profligate Jonathan administration has been borrowing money to
service the insatiable appetite of the ruling elite. Now they cannot
tell Nigerians that they used the debt to pay for infrastructure, or
power or education, health care, etc. because there is nothing on the
ground to show for their years in power. Infrastructural projects remain
uncompleted; many road networks across the country are still a in bad
state. Medical trips abroad have increased; public education is still in
a bad shape, and the power situation has worsened. What then does the
country owe so much money within a short time? The only explanation is
corruption. Yet, Okono-Iweala keeps defending the indefensible.
In
the twilight of Jonathan’s era, power generation has dropped to all
time low. Civil servants are owed a backlog of salaries. With the
current situation, our country seems to be back to ground zero and we
may need just to rebuild from the scratch. Not that we have ever left
the drawing board but the hopes and aspirations at the inception of
Jonathan administration have long been dashed. We are worse off today
than this President met us in 2011. He is leaving Nigeria high and dry
and Nigerians angry, frustrated and disillusioned. Jonathan is leaving a
country in the throes of severe economic and social crises – a country
groaning under debilitating local and foreign debts. Now the entire
country must pay for his profligacy. Like Ola Rotimi, the famous
playwright, wrote in his Greek adaptation of Oedipus Rex, The Gods Are
Not to Blame, “We have left our pots unwashed and our food now burns.”
As Jonathan quits power, Nigerians say goodbye but they will never
forget the tragic lessons of his presidency.
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