Second Democracy Day around: Has the transformation begun?

As I said this time last year, President Jonathan sought power to steer the ship of state, with his eyes wide open. He went round the country, albeit without a well-articulated, well-crystallized Manifesto (none of the political parties had a structured, ideologically propelled Manifesto) promising the people good governance, a transformed nation where all will […]

As I said this time last year, President Jonathan sought power to steer the ship of state, with his eyes wide open. He went round the country, albeit without a well-articulated, well-crystallized Manifesto (none of the political parties had a structured, ideologically propelled Manifesto) promising the people good governance, a transformed nation where all will be treated with equity, provided good welfare and made human€ , with a sense of belonging in the country during his tenure. Many believed him, many doubted him, and many still were cavalier. The nation chose Goodluck Jonathan as the President of the most populous black nation. The anxieties and aspirations were high; they appear sagging now, but hope still abounds. The people have a right to demand for his score-card. They have a right to expect exceptional performance from the first person from the South-South whom they consciously elected President (never mind the irritating and dangerous noise being made by an opportunistic group from that region that he is their son and it is they who must claim the benefit of his governance and it is they who can truly protect him!). The Nigerian people have the right to expect mercurial performance from their President and his government. Two years hence, what has happened to all the promises and the great expectations?
These are the critical issues on the front burner as Nigerians celebrate the President’s second  year in office by some  people, fewer than last year I must say. Many are asking in pain and in anger, in frustration and in disillusion, in dashed hopes and wrecked dreams and in dark pessimism and stoic resignation; where is the promise of envisioned and committed leadership made two years ago, amidst drumming and dancing, on campaign turfs across the country? Much of the comments on May 29, the Democracy Day, are unedifying.
The most prevalent vernacular atmosphere of our country today is one of grieving pain over the rapid slide of the country toward the precipice. Insecurity has since attained an emergency status. And rightly, the state of emergency declared in three North Eastern State has been applauded as a critical step in the President’s effort to show his determination to curb terrorism, insurgency and the Boko Haram’s menace in the North. Yet still, there is no certainty of life in our country today. Nobody is sure that he will wake up to see the next day. The menace of Boko Haram insurgency had been thee over-arching certitude in our country today. Lives, innocent lives, are being wantonly wasted by the bombing rampage of Boko Haram. National sanctuaries and patrimonies have been invaded; universities in the north—Gombe, Maiduguri and Kano- have been assailed with numerous innocent lives lost to aimless violence. Students and their Professors are being slaughtered in their institutions. Churches and Mosques are being attacked with mortal consequences. In Potiskum, innocent herdsmen and their cattle have been killed and the cattle market left in disarray. In Baga, Bama, Taraba, Nassarawa, and so on, destruction of lives of both innocent citizens and security personnel have been destroyed in their hundreds. Royal persons, including the Emir have been attacked and only got away with their lives with considerable luck. Military veterans like General Mohammed Shuwa, a great commander during the Nigerian Civil War, was mindlessly slain in his own house. It is not as if other flash points of insurgent violence like the Niger Delta, MEND, OPC, the Plateau, and so on, have finally quietened enduringly. It is just that the Boko Haram menace is the greatest indication of the rapid deterioration of our nation’s security today. What is worse is that there is no clear solution in the horizon, and this is in spite of the Security Committee that the President has put in place and which some notable Nigerians from the North refused to serve on. Government’s response has been painfully incoherent, as numerous, valuable Nigerian lives perish, daily.
As if that is not enough to worry a responsible government, there is, as I once described it on this page, an incredible capacity for mass provocation among our governing elite. The childish fiasco running within the hierarchy of the ruling Party PDP), especially as manifest in the unclear election of the Chairman of Governor’s Forum. The drama is still unfolding as we wait to see who leads the Forum—Governor Jang who is claiming victory or Governor Amaechi who many believed won the election. All of these political parties incoherence sends disquieting signal on the politics of electioneering in 2015.
All said, the economy may have begun to show signs of growing  as seen  in the GDP but has that brought Gross Domestic Happiness. The President assures us, without demonstrable proof or alibi, that the country is intact and will remain so. That is the wish of every patriotic Nigerian. But are wishes horses? Why are beggars still trudging on their hunger-weakened feet? The President has an agenda of Transformation. Many among the electorate have no hint what the exact content of that Transformation project or the strategic plans for implementing are. Th3ere are documents are technical committees are working on that Transformation agenda, but sort of radical change, which transformation implies will come out of all these? What could be gleaned from his election promises are the nearest the electorate can hold and equate to Transformation Agenda. Some of the more palpable aspects of the Agenda include; provision of infrastructure to position the nation for commerce and manufacturing; building of airports in every State where there is none; construction of highways and rail-roads from Lagos to Calabar; building of small dams in the north to facilitate massive irrigation of farmlands; revamping and expanding the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry, the mainstay of the country’s economy; provision of N50 billion for job creation and stemming youth unemployment; resuscitating the old refineries and building new ones; building car manufacturing and/or car assembling plants. And so on. Two years on, the nation awaits even the practical take-off of some of the aspects of the Transformation Agenda, since it is meant to terminate in the year 2015, at the end of the first (?) term of the President, but the President and him mainly comprised by members of the economic team say the Transformation is do-able and will be done.
 It is two years since this nation entrusted their destiny to President Goodluck Jonathan. Two years may not be ample enough a time to expect considerable fulfilment of his promise of Transformation. But two years are long enough to give credible signals of fulfilment. All that is touchable today on our national landscape are crippling unemployment, mass poverty, pervasive insecurity of lives and property. These are sobering happenings for which no feasting can be a sensitive response from government to the people’s aspirations for a rewarding democratic governance. And, no wonder, no wanton merriment is going on, at least openly on the Democracy Day, as our democratic culture is yet to yield credible returns in concrete material terms to the people of Nigeria.