Does Jonathan Deserve Nigerians’ Votes?

Tunde Fagbenle

March 14, 2011

As I read the excerpts of the interview with Oronto Douglas, the Senior Special Assistant to Mr President on Strategy and Documentation published in The Nation newspaper of Sunday March 6, I could not but feel sorry for my brother and friend, lawyer and activist Oronto. What a damn hard job he has selling a damn hard product!

The interview was headlined “Why Jonathan Deserves Nigerians’ Votes” but at the end, it read like “Why Jonathan Does NOT Deserve Nigerians’ Votes. Entirely out of no fault of Oronto, I must say. He had a job to do and “a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do”. I’m not sure I could’ve done any better if that sad lot had fallen on my shoulders.

For completely different reasons, the job of selling Jonathan is akin to that of selling Obasanjo, and I remember expressing the same feeling of pity for my friends who were hitting their heads against the brick wall for President Obasanjo, the man with a cruel knack of immediately jumping into muddy pond the moment he’s been dressed in white garment and made to look “new and improved”!

Obasanjo made nonsense of democracy and more nonsense of federalism. He altered passed budgets in his bedroom, inserted strange clauses into bills already signed into law, undermined the National Assembly exploiting their greed and spinelessness to change the leadership at will, disregarded court judgments not in his favour, unilaterally withheld state allocations, called anyone not in his favour a thief even as his own hands are deep in the till – his aide caught with a plane load of dollars flying into America, his presidential library and third-term projects gulping billions without batting an eyelid, added the ministry of petroleum to his own portfolio of non-accountability, etc. But as excuses were being given by his image handlers for one abuse or another, Obasanjo pushes the limit even further – OBJ, the ultimate image-maker’s nightmare!

But this is not about Obasanjo.

Jonathan has not made life easy for his handlers and image-makers. The picture he cuts is one of cluelessness and guile at once. Our president brandishes a PhD yet sounds every moment mediocre, even simple. He’s not the sort of President you can show off, knowing he can stand his own in any circumstance or occasion with eloquence and brilliance – unsalutary aspect that makes the avoidance of a political debate on national TV a wise counsel indeed.

But yet Mr President evokes sympathy with his ordinariness, and, lately, believability in his preachment. And after so much effort and a lot of words, those are the two selling points for President Jonathan that Oronto could come up with as far as I can see: ordinariness and believability.

“The president rose from a humble background to this position…he never had opportunity of wearing shoes to school…he had to trek several kilometres,” says Oronto Douglas of his boss, as if it’s some badge of honour.

Well, I have news for my friend: the “Poor Parentage Association” already has a ‘chairman’, OBJ. I have it on authority that OBJ did not know where his next meal would come from when he was growing up such that even MKO in his own penury had enough to show mercy on his destitute classmate! But with what OBJ turned out to be, I doubt if coming from a poor background makes a great selling point after all.

There were a few other things that Oronto said about GEJ in the struggle to sell him:

“Nigeria needs a man they can give the country to and go to sleep; a man that will not sell the country.”

Really? Somehow late President Umaru Yar’Adua didn’t think so of his vice or he wouldn’t have turned the country unto Yayale Ahmed, the Secretary to the Government, rather than GEJ, when he was ill. Umaru may have his own, probably unholy, fears but whether we can “go to sleep” with Nigeria in GEJ’s hands happens to be one of my many worries; his story so far, those he is beholden to, is not comforting.

“Wonderful achievements” of Jonathan since he assumed full powers as president on May 6, 2010 which Oronto could point to include: banishing of fuel queues; uniform fuel prices all over the country; appointments of credible persons to sensitive positions, like Prof. Jega as INEC chair, Gen. Iherika as Army chief (first Igbo in donkey years), Prof. Afolabi as Head of Service (first Yoruba in monkey years).

Beyond that, my brother Oronto could only remind us of “the three Es” which the president launched when he assumed full powers, namely: Electoral Reform, Electricity, and Energy Security. We are also told that a fourth ‘E’ for Education has just been added, and proof of that is the sudden creation of 12 federal universities in one fell swoop to add to the existing, albeit poorly funded and ailing, ones.

We must grant that Mr President has made effort, even if halfway, to persuade us of his sincerity on “Electoral Reform” and having a violence-free and fair election. At least he mouths it at every opportunity even if he has been unable to persuade his handlers to adopt fully the Justice Uwais recommendation on meaningful electoral reforms.

We must also give credit to Jonathan for throwing money at electricity and education more than ever before.

But that is precisely the point: a lot of money is being thrown around, pretty much haphazardly and without sound logicality. Hence, the pace of change in those fundamental aspects is pitifully slow.

And there is money in Nigeria!

In the last month or so of the upheavals in the Middle-East, not only has the price of oil more than doubled our budget benchmark, our production level has risen far above the 2 million bpd mark. What that means is that the country has earned stupendous surplus running into hundreds of million dollars, enough to make any sane country meet existing challenges faster.

Not so in Nigeria, a country of huge blessings turned into huge opportunities for profligacy and plunder; sans accountability, sans sanctions.

There is one thing going for Ebele, he is from Bayelsa in the South-south, an area that produces the bulk of the nations oil revenue but yet suffers (until lately) the most neglect. If GEJ fails to get it, in all probability, giving the geopolitical structure of the country, no one from his area would be president for another 50 or more years.

On the South-south basis alone and in a country where anything goes and the desire for progress as a nation isn’t uniformly given, Ebele qualifies for our votes and four more uncertain years!

What a life!





Nigeria’s Romoke now ranks No. 1 in Africa!

Whao!

Since last year when I happened upon that young tennis prodigy, Sarah Romoke Adegoke, in her Ibadan base I have kept apace with the quarterly ranking on the African tennis circuit as published on the Confederation of African Tennis official web site.

I have news for my readers and the many Nigerians home and abroad who have also been keen to know of Romoke’s progress: Sarah Romoke Adegoke is now No. 1 (14 & under) in Africa!

In the latest ranking of 28 February 2011, Osun State origin Romoke leads the pack with 477.5 points, ahead of Nicole Dzenga of Zimbabwe on 473.75 and Ghana’s Elizabeth Kapari on 457.5. The ranking lists the top 135 in Africa.

A committee to help organise funding to get Romoke into a full-time tennis Academy in America was put together after my column exposed her last year, whilst a number of my readers wrote in to pledge donations when and if a box is opened for contributions in her aid.

The estimated cost for Romoke to attend the GABE International Tennis Academy (one of the best in the world that have turned out world champions) and meet other expenses is $90,000 per year. Romoke would have three years in it before moving into college on a full scholarship and/or turning Professional.

We implore banks, corporate bodies or individuals to help Nigeria get her probable first tennis world champion.

I may be reached on my email: tundefagbenle@aol.com; or Mr. Dapo Adegoke on 08034155858

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