A window into the President’s mind
The chat as an avenue for government to explain its policies virtually disappeared during the tenure of late President Umar Yar’adua for the understandable reason of debilitating illness which virtually kept him, for much of the time he governed, out of public eye. If the presidency during OBJ’s time was visible and accessible; Umar Yar’adua’s […]
The chat as an avenue for government to explain its policies virtually disappeared during the tenure of late President Umar Yar’adua for the understandable reason of debilitating illness which virtually kept him, for much of the time he governed, out of public eye. If the presidency during OBJ’s time was visible and accessible; Umar Yar’adua’s was characterised by secrecy and silence. And typical of a situation like this, rumour mongering was given free reign; the more the nation was denied access to information, the more heightened the rumours became, particularly the one about his health.
Goodluck Jonathan did not see the need to resuscitate the chat immediately he took over the presidency after the passing of Umar Yar’adua. Perhaps he felt he had nothing to tell Nigerians about a tenure that was not essentially his, which he was merely completing. Whatever it was, he succeeded in keeping Nigerians guessing about who he was then. Well, not anymore. A few days ago he held the first chat of his presidency, apparently to coincide with his 100 days in office. I must confess I missed most of the programme because I only saw the tail end, particularly that bit on the judiciary. However, I have since read the published version and it is on this that I am basing the following comments.
Over all, the president came across as overly cautious and excessively guarded in his expositions as if he was wary of starting an unnecessary controversy. For instance, all he had to say on the important question of the judiciary at war with itself and the bad image actions of its former officers have cultivated for it, the president said tersely that the Judiciary should be able to correct whatever it was that plagues it. One would want to think that being the first in a series of chats, President Goodluck Jonathan must have demanded to know prior to the programme what manner of questions he would be asked. If so, then this answer and subsequent ones we shall come to shortly leave much to be desired.
The judiciary is an important organ of state, particularly so in a democracy. Surely, he must have been aware of the immediate causes to which the judiciary owes its unflattering odious image—particularly the suspension of judgement of the election tribunal sitting in Sokoto—from which much of the brouhaha in the judiciary ensued and the cloak and dagger dispute between the former Chief Justice of the Federation– Alloysius Katsina Alu and the former president of the Appeal Court- Isa Ayo Salami. Surely, it is not enough to glibly dismiss the matter with a non-committal notion that the judiciary will sort itself out. A dispute on a core principle of law and its practice between two of the nation’s top most Justices should not only interest the president. It should agitate his mind because somewhere down the road it may come to haunt his presidency.
One would have expected a comment or two about the need for the judiciary to always strive to hold fast to the age old values upon which its credibility rests and on which the peoples’ confidence can be sustained. By not doing so, the president missed a big chance to show that his administration cares about running a country where values matter, notwithstanding the political underpinning of the whole matter.
President Jonathan’s explanation on the intractable nature of power generation and supply is well taken. He alluded to variables that were not considered when power projects were commenced—for example, a bridge that would not be able to carry the weight of the power equipment to location—therefore stalling the whole project. Still, considering how much money has been spent on the elusive quest for power supply, some would say it shows the tardiness with which things are done in Nigeria. It is therefore not a surprise that not much headway is being made on it.
What was surprising however is the fact that as important as power is, he couldn’t tell Nigerians straight away how much has been spent so far on the power sector. He merely said he would ask the finance and the power ministries how much has been expended so far. This is not good enough. There are certain areas of nation’s development effort that should not be a guessing game. Power is one of them. Its non availability is causing Nigeria to de-industrialise as companies emigrate to other places where they can get power readily. The value in the ability to reel out facts and figures will portray the president as not only on top of the issues but also depict him as able to grapple with them in a hands-on manner.
President Jonathan told Nigerians in his chat that ‘’he prefers to keep quiet about what he would do about corruption’’ and urged them to watch for what is in the offing. Well, no one needs telling, least of all the president himself about the bad name corruption has given Nigeria. Transparency International (TI) and similar such bodies have consistently ranked Nigeria as one of the most corrupt countries in the world; moreover its cost to good governance is best imagined as it constitutes a major clog in the wheel of industrial development. For how long therefore are we going to wait for this cankerworm to be confronted frontally and summarily?