Nine issues around Jonathan

I know some people will murmur that the issues around Jonathan are more than nine. I am borrowing a leaf from a German student. His teacher asked him to write a 1,000 word essay on milk but the boy submitted a 200 word article. The teacher was furious. He said, “I asked for 1,000 words […]

I know some people will murmur that the issues around Jonathan are more than nine. I am borrowing a leaf from a German student. His teacher asked him to write a 1,000 word essay on milk but the boy submitted a 200 word article. The teacher was furious. He said, “I asked for 1,000 words on milk and you are giving me only 200 words!” The boy looked at the teacher and said, “Sir, I wrote about condensed milk.”
The first issue here is the drawn out declaration for re-election when it was always clear that Jonathan will seek re-election. Up until this weekend the president’s aides were still putting up an Abacha-like pretence. Last Thursday, the president notified PDP leaders that he would seek re-election and he raised a committee to plan for his public declaration. He even gave it the week within which to pick a declaration date. The committee later picked November 11 for the declaration. Yet, its chairman Dr. Bello Haliru Mohamed said “Jonathan would face Nigerians [on that day] and say yes or no to their calls on him to declare interest in the 2015 elections. The president has not said anything yet, but it is like all Nigerians have called on him. It is our honest hope that he will come out and say yes to the demand of multitude of Nigerians. We expect he will say yes, but we cannot say yes for him. We will wait for him to speak.” Very much like Sani Abacha.
General Buhari has been lampooned for returning to the race after saying in 2011 that it was his last race. Jonathan too said as much in 2011. He said so while addressing the Nigerian community in Addis Ababa. Probably acting on advice, he did not repeat the pledge again afterwards and he began to slide away from it as soon as he won the election.
Now, the defining event of Jonathan’s current tenure has been the Boko Haram war. The Boko Haram war did not start under Jonathan. He inherited it but his administration bungled the war against insurgents. The problem was accentuated because it took a long time for regime chiefs to shake off their belief that it was all the work of political opponents. However, the military and security agencies’ inability to overcome the insurgents was not entirely Jonathan’s fault. The war revealed a weakness in the military that most Nigerians did not know existed; we were used to seeing them easily put down student unrest and communal riots. It is noticeable in four years the Jonathan regime failed to come up with a grand new strategy to combat the insurgency.
Right now, his impending declaration for another term in office is somewhat brightened by the ceasefire announcement and the expectation that the Chibok schoolgirls could be released. If that happens and if the war does end, Jonathan would have scored a major political victory. It may not change many opponents’ view of him but it would rob them of a potent propaganda weapon.
Before Boko Haram, everyone believed that corruption is this country’s number one governance problem and the Jonathan regime is defined by a total reluctance to tackle it. Under him, EFCC and ICPC are virtually comatose. The serious allegation made by Speaker Aminu Tambuwal that Jonathan’s body language encourages corruption rings true in many people’s ears. While Presidency strategists would rather believe that General Buhari’s electoral appeal is sectional and religious, his supporters’ main argument is that he will fight corruption, and indeed he looks like the man who can do it. That puts Jonathan doubly on the spot on this issue.
Indeed, the ineffectual manner in which the government handled the Boko Haram challenge was attributed by many people to pervasive corruption in public life. After the Boko Haram war ends, corruption will quickly crawl back to the top place on the national agenda. Jonathan must find a way to place himself on the right side of this issue.
Even without the heavy distraction occasioned by Boko Haram, Jonathan’s rule was off on a wrong footing due to the nebulousness of his cornerstone program, the Transformation Agenda. Prior to Jonathan’s advent, Nigerians complained that President Yar’adua’s Seven Point Agenda was nebulous. Hard as it is to believe, the transformation agenda is even more nebulous. It has no clear goals, direction, method or tactics. Instead, ministers and heads of government agencies try to help by attributing every small program or policy step to the Transformation Agenda, everything from digital broadcasting to fertiliser distribution.
Lack of tangible progress in key sectors such as roads, bridges, power generation, health and education projects was such that when former Information Minister Labaran Maku embarked on his good governance tour, he hardly showcased Federal Government projects. Instead he shifted the spotlight to the work of state governments.
Jonathan’s tenure has been marked by petty squabbles, such as wrecking of the Nigeria Governor’s Forum, the heated reply to Obasanjo’s sensational letter, accusing  Kwankwaso of “not giving a kobo” to any convention delegate, and egging on Police Commissioner Joseph Mbu to scatter the Rivers State government. The First Lady’s overbearing encroachment  into governance, allowing Bamanga Tukur a free reign to wreck the ruling party, refusing to call henchman Asari Dokubo to order for inflammatory remarks and allowing godfather Edwin Clark to go overboard with his public remarks were also defining issues. Others were closing airports to prevent opponents from landing; grounding of opponents’ planes; selectively opening airports for political allies, not to mention suspension of the CBN governor and encouraging the impeachment of recalcitrant state governors.
His administration has been a basket of scandals and missteps such as the $15m smuggled into South Africa; Stella Oduah’s purchase of armoured cars; the fuel subsidy payments scandal; refusing to remove SEC boss Ms Oteh despite a National Assembly resolution; looking the other way while the Petroleum Minister blocked a National Assembly probe of the N10 billion allegedly spent on chartering aircraft; cozying up to Buruji Kasamu when he is wanted in the US for drug charges; dining with Ali Modu Sheriff despite the allegation that he is a Boko Haram sponsor; and allowing Femi Otedola to remain on the economic advisory team when he was embroiled in a bribery scandal.
President Jonathan is also prone to gaffes. The two worst gaffes he made were the October 1, 2010 remark that MEND did not carry out the Independence Day Anniversary bombing, and the “I don’t give a damn” remark to public declaration of assets. The latest addition was his reference to the Ebola importer Sawyer as “that crazy man.”
Jonathan’s tenure was bereft of grand gestures. His reluctance to visit the beleaguered North East states until APC governors stole the show by walking on Maiduguri streets and his refusal to visit Chibok or even meet with the grieving parents were cases in point. Compare his serial visit to churches, for example, with Obasanjo’s presiding over an appeal fund launch to renovate the National Mosque.
Nor is it clear what Jonathan will do with another presidential term if he gets it. The committee now in place to plan for his declaration is likely to spend all its time on logistics, on filling Eagle Square with crowds of “supporters” and on lining up governors and other influential people to speak in support of the president’s re-election. History will not record any point for all these. What is needed is for the president to use the occasion to unveil a short, sharp, exciting, well thought out and easily measurable program of rule for another term. If all he will do at the November 11 rally is to claim that his current term has been a smashing success and he intends to repeat it, then he does not deserve another term.