President Goodluck Jonathan has made himself a potential port stirrer in recent times. Events at the moment have call to question Mr. Jonathan’s ability to master his own presidency. The presidency seems stranded in all front like an ill-equipped platoon finding itself suddenly on a battlefield. No person of his status – a nation’s president – would squander the immensity of his power and influence on a combustible conflict of disputable merit as that of Rivers State political crisis.
Mr. Jonathan has stamped his frenzied drive for forceful domination, a clear testament to the horror the nation is bound to face in 2015 presidency election. The presidency is quick to dismiss all that, calling the predictions “doomsday prophecies”. It’s only a backward looking and unimaginative leader that would allow political crisis to spiral dangerously to such an alarming and boiling point. As he tightens the grip on Governor Rotimi Amaechi and the crisis spreads, so does threat to nation’s instability.
Even now, no action has been taken to rein in the feuding parties to peace by the president. Without doubts, there is a dictatorial manual the presidency is acting out religiously – knowingly and unknowingly – to thwart our present democratic wobbling enterprise and drive the nation to the precipice. This mischievous exploit for uncanny crudity can only lead the country in one direction: violent bloodbath and eventual disintegration. And this is particularly a sharp thorn in the nation’s flesh. Galling enough, the awkward moment is such that consumes all the nation’s virtue.
The President had overtly sided, and still siding with the anti-Amaechi 5 leprous members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and the 27 others who visited mayhem on the hallow Chambers a few weeks ago. While insisting that Mr. Mbu Joseph Mbu must remain the Police Commissioner in Rivers State through the Inspector General of Police, after igniting the crisis, the presidency covertly sponsored one of the injured notorious 5 for medical treatment abroad.
One had hoped that Mr. President would genuinely sort things out for the squabbling legislators, rather he smashed whatever confidence we had that things could be put right as we watched the 5 renegade elements left off the hook. This is reminisce of the Western Nigeria crisis of 1965 which threatened to split the country at its seams.
Regrettable there is no attempt to draw a line between what is permissible in a democratic space and what is not, what is possible in a civic society and what is not and, what is acceptable and mutually beneficial, politically and what is not. All of this raises the question on how a president with grand ambitions and shrinking horizons can use his office. Truly, Mr. Jonathan is a student of Machavellism, where the end justifies the means, no matter who gets crushed along the way. And the reason for this is clear.
Here is a piece of heresy: The notion of “goodluck” presidency entrusted by providence no matter how wrongly he applied himself to the job or what anyone may say, however constructive, is at the heart of the blatant impunity playing out as politics across the country. This zero some game may well consume his taunting ambition beyond 2015 and the existence of his crisis-prone party, the PDP at the center. From the dawn of time to now, no one or kingdom survives arrogation of Godheadship or invisibility to himself in a game of numbers, especially in a democracy. Perhaps the President must have persuaded himself that “luck”, not merit, which has been responsible for his meteoric rise will still levitates and retain him in Aso Rock beyond 2015.
This is where President Jonathan got his permutations wrong, there by singing his political Nunc Dimittis! It’s the failure of his presidency if he is not aware that the sand is shifting beneath his feet and his behemoth of a party, the PDP. Since the hot-blooded anger against Governor Rotimi Amaechi over his rumoured Vice- Presidential ambition, Mr. President has further stunted governance by the ever existing ineptitude, distracted more by power games.
Now let it be said: The electorate who gave Mr. Jonathan a Pan-Nigerian mandate, like the building in anticipation of the relief of torrential rains after a season of scorching hot Harmattan winds and bush fires have been tragically disappointed. But President Jonathan has disappointed himself the more. He has undone himself, constituting himself into a squalid nuisance to those who considered him literate enough to lead the nation that has never been so lucky to have a Ph D holder as her president.
President Jonathan has reenacted his benefactor’s narrow mindedness and the bitter politics of former President Olusegun Obasanjo who hunted and hounded his perceived political foes out of existence. The President, if you will recall, sent the Code of Conduct Bureau after Senator Bola Tinubu when he rejected the offer made to the ACN to participate in the Government of National Unity, until the President was disgraced in court. He chased Mr. Dimeji Bankole with the EFCC when he refused to support his nomination of a candidate for the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Rivers State Governor is under the fervent hunt of the EFCC as much as the former Governor and Senator, Bukola Saraki of Kwara State for given credence to the newly registered APC. The question is how kindergarten or boyish should President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan get to actualise his retention of power?
It’s disheartening, to say the least, that instead of arresting the burning issues that are setting the country on edge the floundering President is fiddling while the nation is on fire. But his minders wouldn’t have any of such. His Special Adviser on Media Affairs, Dr. Reuben Abati says the President is having sleepless nights, working tirelessly, day and night. What is the use of useless hours waisted on useless egoistic grandstanding against perceived political enemies? What is the use of Presidential hours waisted by power-besotted President who can not differentiate between politics and governance? What is the use of sleepless nights in the life of a nation by a thoughtless leader who occupies his brain with divisive politics other than actual governance?
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been on industrial action for the upward of two months and the supposed leaders of tomorrow have been shot out of studies and the sleepless president sees nothing wrong with that. The ASUU strike came after the academic and non-academic staff unions in Nigerian Polytechnics, under the umbrellas of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUPS), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIPS) and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) called off theirs after three-month! Why the paralysis in education sector is going on, the insensitive government that pounded her chest that it is not broke a few weeks ago, through the same Minister of Finance and the supervising Minister for economy toned that it cannot meet ASUU demands!
If i may ask: What does the sleepless President think about the power generation output at night with increased daily reduction? What therefore is there to celebrate in a presidency under which power generation has fallen to 2,500MW? What is there to celebrate in a presidency that has only given Nigerians widespread insecurity, unemployment, dilapidated infrastructure, oil theft and unbridled corruption? Of what use is the touted sleeplessness of a President when the people he sworn to provide electricity, protect and give jobs are sleeping in the dark with one eye closed on empty stomaches?
That Chief Bisi Akande, the APC interim Chair alludes to the fact that President Jonathan has ludic intent – kindergarten – to governance is not far to seek. The deadweight Of entrenched cluelessness and on-your-face insolence emerged last week when Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, the Minister of Finance and supervisory Minister for economy told the striking ASUU that government to go to hell.
Today, it is difficult to tell whether Goodluck Jonathan is Nigeria’s President or anyone answering the name. There is nothing for any one to suggest that we are likely to emerge from these pages in one peace in a far more favourable light. Everything is wrong when a seating President sees himself as an emperor. We want a president in both symbolic and actual status, and not a mice in an elephant cage.
Written By Erasmus Ikhide
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