A tale of two blasts
By Sam Omatseye

There is nothing dramatic about the mien of President Goodluck Jonathan. He looks meek, gentle and incapable of invoking the wrath of God or man. Perhaps that was why the clergy, in their misguided spirit to anoint a leader, laid hands on him and poured him blessing after blessing when he ran for president.

But today, few call him the Lord’s anointed. Few pastors come to Jonathan with the wrath of Jonah. Rather, they are wrapped in holy silence. But the streets rumble with the wrath of the people. Was it not the Bible that said when the wicked is in power the people perish and when the righteous reign the people rejoice? Is any pastor on the pulpit invoking scripture?

No one is talking of good luck these days since the price of things leapt giddily. In our hearts, we have distinguished between good luck and Goodluck. The quiet man seemed to have cast a spell on both priest and people. Was it not the case of the blind leading the blind, with both of them heading for the ditch? You can fool some of the people some of the time, crooned Abraham Lincoln, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

Within one week of the last begotten year, the graphic story of the Jonathan presidency was engrafted on history. On Saturday, December 25, 2011, we had a bomb blast. On January 1, the next Saturday, we had another blast. The first bomb blew up at the instance of the shadowy group called Boko Haram and made a lot of sound. The other bomb came from President Goodluck Jonathan and it also made a lot of sound. It was the removal of the so-called fuel subsidy.

The December sound was from shrapnel and led to buildings collapsing, cars exploding, trees snapping, feet scampering for safety, human flesh smearing as bones cracked. The January 1 blast was the groan of the people. The December blast was to celebrate the birth of a saviour, but many did not see salvation, like part and whole families wiped out. Remember the case of Mrs. Williams Dike, whose husband and five children perished in the inferno!

The perpetrators of both blasts believed they wanted to save the people: Boko Haram on behalf of God, and Jonathan on behalf of his cronies and political elite. Jonathan would say he did it on behalf of the people. In both, the people did not see any salvation, only the perpetrators have the eyes to see.

The first blast was tangible and the second metaphoric, but the effects are real and devastating to the people. But which of these blasts is worse? It makes no sense comparing. But what is terrible though is that the Boko Haram people did not seek the consent of the people. Jonathan barnstormed the entire nation, soliciting votes and promising transformation, although it was more a gimmick and catch word than intention. The people’s fortunes have been transformed from stark poverty to deeper distress.

Jonathan left the more important issues to make unforced errors. Jonathan’s treachery was to assure Nigerians two things he did not fulfil. One, that the date for removal of the so-called fuel subsidy had not been fixed. Two, that the removal would come with palliatives. He was holding consultations, sponsoring Town Hall meetings and presidential chats. But like a thief in the night, and a serpent with a chameleonic love for green grass, he struck when Nigerians were not looking. He bit us in the middle or afterglow of merriment.

He struck us without palliatives. Nigerians are suffering. Costs have soared of the basics: transport, food, medications, etc. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) leader, Omar, said the President warned that he would remove the subsidy even if they shoot him. Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala wailed why we should bother about the removal, when 70 per cent of Nigerians trek. Just like Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis the 16th, who was reported (though falsely) to have wondered why French people would not eat cake since bread was not available. The minister, who claimed to be an economist, did not understand a critical branch of behavioural economics. She should understand that a policy has effect beyond those originally targeted. So a policy on aviation can spin off to a maker of cosmetics. This is the sort of people around the president. The minister does not understand the Nigerian economy because she does not understand Nigerians. She should return to her IMF and World Bank crowd.

Now, the palliatives. Jonathan said they would include provision of loans, jobs, buses, erecting of infrastructure, etc. At the weekend, he cut the wages of political office holders by 25 per cent. All of these show the President was focused on the so-called fuel subsidy removal and not the impact on the people. How long does it take to build infrastructure? Years. How long will it take to get the loan to those who deserve it? No one can tell since they will just begin that process. The persons will register their names, claims will be verified, guarantors processed, money approved and disbursement, etc. The buses are not around and how many routes can 1,600 buses cover in Nigeria? When will the buses arrive? We know slashing politicians’ pay means nothing. They make money through other means. He is now asking ministries to cut cost. Let him begin by slashing his N1 billion bill for Aso Rock entertainment and food.

The Kolade committee will have to worry over its legality, as no law supports entrusting the money from federation account to any group arbitrarily constituted by the president. While all the palliative work is in progress, the people will suffer. Those who will die will die, those who cannot afford two meals a day will have to survive on one, those who cannot afford medications will seek shelter under quacks and die, those who cannot afford transport fares may not even go to work if they have one, etc. If and when the palliatives come, they will come over corpses. The operation would have been successful, even if the patients have long been buried.

The president cannot manage the bomb he imposed on us. Tragically, he cannot also manage the bomb Boko Haram imposed as well. He declared a state of emergency on four states; everywhere, soldiers, tanks, weapons, border patrols, etc. Yet, bombs went off, Deeper Life worshippers suffered T.S. Eliot’s murder in the cathedral. Southerners are leaving town. I warned about this in this column only last week. The declaration of a state of emergency would not work, I warned. The state of emergency ought to be declared on the security services, who are as clueless as he is, and an economic team, which needs to take a course on the Nigerian economy, with emphasis on the Karl Polanyi school of economic anthropology that emphasises society over textbook rigidities.

French leader Clemenceau once said war was too important to be left in the hands of generals. Jonathan should heed that in the war on Boko Haram. He should get to the root, using consultation, friendship with those aggrieved over zoning and the last elections. It is after resolving these that generals matter. One of the reasons that the Cold War thawed between the U.S and the Soviet Union was the initiative from President Nixon to undertake visits with Soviet leaders. Even though tensions persisted, such meetings forbade World War fears until the USSR fell. When walls collapse between enemies, better understanding occurs.

During the 1982 world economic recession, Henry Kissinger invoked Clemenceau and wrote that the economy was too important a matter to be left in the hands of economists. So, Jonathan should see what the others are saying rather than hold on to a strait jacket of unpopular policies.



Governor Sylva, PDP and the Court



The Court of Appeal ruled on Saturday against the PDP, over the high court injunction on the military-style Bayelsa primary that crowned Seriake Dickson as its candidate. This ruling exposes what I have affirmed in this column: that Jonathan acted as a snake in the politics of the state. While denying he knew anything about it, his army, police, air force and navy presided over one of the worst acts of electoral brigandage with official fiat in our history.

When he should have focused on more important matters, he fished in the troubled waters of his state. Pastor and political elite anointed him openly as presidential candidate last year. In his own case, Jonathan, by stealth, anointed Dickson as a candidate of lawlessness and impunity, and only in a jungle can the so-called primary stand. It was a primary of barbarous proportions. I called him His Excellency the Snake over the Bayelsa matter, but we now know I was right. See how serpentine he has been by sneaking in the oil subsidy removal. We shall see in the coming weeks whether the plot against Governor Sylva can hold legal water.


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Mr President should look at the handwriting on the wall