Amazing Nigeria
When Ambassador John Campbell predicted that Goodluck Jonathan may as well be the last President of a united Nigeria, hell was almost let loose by those who ‘know it all’ and it was a reign of abuses and insults on the Ambassador that same people once said was an angel. In my view, as I […]
When Ambassador John Campbell predicted that Goodluck Jonathan may as well be the last President of a united Nigeria, hell was almost let loose by those who ‘know it all’ and it was a reign of abuses and insults on the Ambassador that same people once said was an angel.
In my view, as I have repeatedly said, Ambasador Campbell’s prognosis may after all not come to pass, but one thing that is a statement of fact is that he wasn’t flippant. As an individual, he may not have any benefit to derive from a possible rupture in Nigeria but his views might simply be a reflection of a scientific study of events in the country.
Instances in the last few days will suffice to drive home this point. For example, typical of the hypocrisy of the Nigerian Press, it was only the papers from the North that reported the percentage of State revenue that the federal government has spent in the six states of the Niger Delta area. According to the Trust, about 75% of the year’s appropriation is spent on the Niger Delta. Is that a reflection of how much is gotten from the oil explored from the area?
This is a critical national issue which must be addressed, and immediately, if the nation is to avoid more social explosions arising from the gross inequality in the distribution of national wealth. I think those in positions of political authority from the rest of Nigeria must rise to the occasion so that unwarranted eventualities are averted now and in the future.
Also during the week, the Sheikh Ahmed Lemu committee on post-election crisis submitted its report to the President and what most papers from the South of Nigeria chose to report was that Buhari, the presidential candidate of the CPC was indicted for inflammatory statement before the elections which, according to them, led to the bloodbath after the charade of an election.
None of these papers, apart from a few, caught the finding of the report that desire for change and the manipulation of election results in certain sections of the country precipitated or were the immediate cause of the revolt in the North. Nobody identified the questionable millions of votes given to President Jonathan from the South East. Nobody identified the more than 90% turn out of voters in Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross River and Akwa Ibom States as clear reflection of the massive electoral fraud which caught the people in the three zones of the North and even the South West unawares.
To them all these were normal because the beneficiary was Goodlcuk Jonathan, a Nigerian from the South. Such blatant senselessness and gross injustice to self often shakes my conviction that this country could continue to swim across the tide of division and balkanization unscathed. The views on issues are not just selfish but utterly inhuman, I would say, and unless we do something about this by redrawing the cantors of justice and injustice as they truly are, the nation is heading for an unfortunate destination.
Acting as if everything is okay, the President’s remarks after receiving the report further exposes his very weak political and administrative credentials. I believe it is not too late for Mr. President to find new handlers who will help repackage him so he can deliver good governance to Nigerians as their president.
Listen to the President, ‘We have to issue a white paper, heavens will not fall’. What a President! What a way to speak on a very contentious political issue, inferring guilt on political opponents whose constituencies are not just larger but above all populated with people nursing grievances arising from poverty, illiteracy and dearth of access in proportion to their size and contribution to the Nigerian alliance.
I am worried that neither the President nor his handlers seem to understand the level of anger and frustration amongst the dominant Nigerian populations. What one would have thought of was an effective President who will understand the dynamics of national intricacies and deploy sufficient skills to address them so as to keep the nation in good order. Failure to understand such dynamics is the price of political primitivism that we will have to continue to make do with as those in power last.
Certainly, all is not well in our polity and the earlier we acknowledge this fact, the better for us all. Nigeria needs to be salvaged from the mismanagement of those who preside over our affairs if we are to have what one may call collective peace and stability, which ironically is in the best interest of all, both the people and those who rule over us.
I live Nigeria so much and I will want it to remain as one entity, just the way I found it, but certainly not at all cost, especially if those who reap from our labor are bent on the politics of mutilation. What those in authority need to know is that when there is peace and stability, they enjoy the bounties and spoils of office the more. They must reduce to the minimum areas of conflict that will take part of their sleep away. But these leaders are not like that. God forbid.
God bless Nigeria and Nigerians.