Kindergarten President, Childish Handlers – A response to Jonathan’s lying, divisive cohort Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai
Kindergarten President, Childish Handlers – A response to Jonathan’s lying, divisive cohort Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai
I still recall how one of my sons behaved
before going into kindergarten. He did not know how to share toys or food, threw
tantrums whenever he failed to get his way or insulted his siblings or sulked
when criticized. With years of parental effort at home, and intervention of
handlers in nursery school, our son learnt the virtues of sharing, inclusion and
getting along with those that he disagreed with. I guess this is the experience
of many parents. I have always wondered what manner of person would resort to
abuse, bigotry and division when his or her conduct and utterances are
interrogated, instead of simply responding in civilized language. APC chairman
Bisi Akande’s characterization of Jonathan as a kindergarten president
explained everything. And surrounded with equally parochial, morally-flexible
handlers, one is bound to read the kind of falsehood that emanates from the
likes of Reuben Abati from time to time.
It was Aeschylus, the ancient Greek dramatist who
said, “In war, truth is the first casualty”. Thank God, despite the provocations
of the Dokubos and the Clarks, Nigeria is not at war, but the presidency and
presidential hangers-on have distorted democratic politics into some sort of
warfare. President Goodluck Jonathan’s response to an interview I granted over
the weekend is indicative that truth has become a casualty in his shoddy attempt
to belittle the salient issues concerning Nigeria that I spoke about, and the
weighty fact that the president is the promoter and apostle of ethnic and
religious division of Nigeria, purely for political gains!
For the records, I was featured on Liberty
Radio’s Guest of the Week where I spoke on a number of issues, including the
fact that the proceeds from crude oil theft (as confirmed by the Bayelsa state
governor, Seriake Dickson) were being used to procure arms to wage war on
Nigeria in the event that Jonathan lost his re-election bid in 2015. I also
stated that, “PDP has become a virus that is infecting and destroying the
country because they are not doing anything productive. They have changed our
politics into that of ethnicity and religion to divert attention from their
incompetence, lack of capacity and looting of the treasury”.
Instead of addressing the issues I raised,
presidential spokesman Reuben Abati chose to muddle the discussion and confuse
the public. According to a report issued by Governance and Sustainable
Initiatives Ltd., entitled Analysis and Lessons of the Current Geopolitical
Distribution of Federal Appointments, the Jonathan administration is said to
have favoured his home state of Bayelsa 200% times more than the next states
with the highest federal representation – Delta, Edo and Anambra. If Jonathan is
not playing the ethnic card, can he possibly explain to Nigerians why Bayelsa
which has the smallest population in Nigeria and the fewest number of local
government areas, has more than double the number of federal appointees measured
by population and weight of responsibility than that of the next state, whilst
the most populous states of Lagos and Kano were at the bottom of the
representation ladder. What is the president’s response to that?
If President Jonathan is not playing ethnic
politics, why was he quick to exonerate those he called “my people” in the
aftermath of the October 1st 2010 bombings in Abuja? Did Henry Okah,
who was eventually convicted of the offence in South Africa, not reveal in court
that he was contacted by a high-ranking official from the presidency who told
him to implicate some northerners in the bombing?
A year later, after his highly divisive election,
he told a delegation of the Ohaneze that he believed that the only votes he got
from the North were from Igbo residents in the North. Are those the words of a
patriot or an ethnic bigot? This was after an election where he received nearly
100 percent of all votes cast in the South South and South East states, in some
cases getting more votes than there were registered voters or even residents.
The presidency did not respond to these facts, but chose to distort the matter
in order to sweep the issues under the carpet. It may interest the president to
know that Nigerians are much wiser now and will not be deceived by the antics of
a drowning president and his desperate aides.
The president, rather than responding
intelligibly to my charge that Jonathan has a deliberately evil strategy of
using religion to divide the country for electoral gains, decided it was story
time, and proceeded to announce that the president also fasted along with
Muslims. It may interest him to know that former president Olusegun Obasanjo
also fasted while in office, but did not broadcast it for any political gain.
Incidentally, fasting goes beyond abstaining from food and drink during daylight
hours; it is an intrinsic spiritual contact between man and his Creator to
strive for higher ideals including truthfulness, honesty and keeping promises.
Which promise has Jonathan kept? Where is the integrity in this government?
Where is the genuine fear of God when looting is the order of the day?
Nigeria, by the will of the people, is a secular
state. But of all Nigerian leaders, no one except Jonathan makes policy
proclamations from his place of worship. Perhaps, the irony is lost on the
president, but not only is it religious politics to make policy statements
before only a section of the populace, the implications of making those promises
in the house of God, then refusing to fulfil them are serious. Are we not told
not to take the name of the Lord in vain?
As testimony to the fact that truth has become a
casualty in the presidency, Abati went beyond that and concocted a lie that I
said Christians were behind the Church bombings that took place in Nigeria. I
never said anything like that. All I wrote was that the late National Security
Adviser to the president, Gen. Owoye Azazi, and a small group known to him, were
behind the dastardly acts, and I pointed out the fact that the moment he was
removed as NSA, the church bombings virtually stopped as mysteriously as they
started. I would have expected the president to set up an independent panel to
find out and tell Nigerians the truth about the horrific church bombings. Why
the conspiracy of silence?
I am keen to know why the presidency chose to
keep quite on my charge that President Jonathan is the godfather of the oil
thieves. If that is not the case, how come oil theft jumped from about 100,000
barrels per day before his election to a staggering 400,000 per day now? Can
Jonathan explain why he ordered the removal of recognised maritime security
officials from the creeks and handed over pipelines and oil installations
security to militants? In what country does a bank employ a former bank robber
to guard its vaults? Is there not a grand strategy to ease oil theft and procure
arms for the militants to use against their fatherland? Why is there no response
to this issue?
In the interview, I mentioned that the vice
president, Namadi Sambo left massive debts as governor of Kaduna state with
little to show for it, the same attitude that permeates every facet of
Jonathan’s government. Anyone in doubt should check with the Debt Management
Office. Kaduna state has the second highest debt of all states in Nigeria,
thanks to loans that Sambo pursued as governor for projects that no one can see
on the ground. Kaduna is a short drive from Aso Rock, so Jonathan and his
cohorts can take a quick drive to see things for themselves. Nothing beats
personal experience.
One of the largest and longest ‘ongoing’ projects
in Kaduna state is the Zaria Water Supply Project, which was awarded to Sambo’s
company before he became governor. Though Zaria is his hometown, he did not
complete the project as contractor despite payments, did not conclude it as
governor despite his office and is today uncompleted, despite his position. Up
until last week, most of Zaria does not have potable water, yet Sambo lists the
award of a N7billion Government House contract among his achievements.
Indications are that the final figure may reach N20billion before it is
completed. Is that an achievement or an appropriate priority? Which 300-bed
hospital did Sambo build in Kaduna State when the KASU Teaching Hospital is far
from being a centre of excellence? The former governor has a penchant for
confusing awarding contracts that remain forever “ongoing” with delivering
public services to the citizens. How sad.
When the circle around Yar’Adua decided to play
sit-tight, unconstitutional politics with his ill-health, we described their
actions as that of a cabal and subjected them to public opprobrium. Whether the
cabal existed as one unit or several cabals sometimes even working at
cross-purposes is not the issue. We waged a war against saboteurs of our
constitution through lawful means. Who is the primary beneficiary of that cabal
narrative if not Jonathan?
I have had my differences with General Muhammadu
Buhari, and that explains the context of my 2010 statement. Despite my strong
views on issues, I do not suffer from the egotism that prevents reflection,
reconsideration and the ability to adjust to new information. The general and I
have moved on from those differences and we are working with like-minded
compatriots to contribute to providing Nigeria the quality leadership it
desperately needs. Those fixated on that to divide us are free to waste their
energies.
As for Abati, I understand his problem. I will
not bother to mention his writings in his previous incarnation where he
thoroughly abused the president, his wife and others from whose dining table he
now eats, on several occasions. Managing the public image of the inept and
incompetent president that Jonathan has proved to be can be a demanding task.
That task is further compounded when a medical doctor begins to angle in on the
same job, especially as Jonathan has demonstrated clearly that he does not have
any idea on how to tackle Nigeria’s massive unemployment challenges. So to keep
his job and prove that he is more loyal, Abati thinks that the more he insults
the president’s critics, the better he would look.
Unfortunately, he has a lot of people to insult,
because his boss has nothing to offer Nigerians, which is why he is using ethnic
and religious sentiments to play politics. A thinking president would know that
stoking ethnicity and religious affiliation is not only unpatriotic, but
dangerous in a country like Nigeria, but as desperate as he is to remain in
office, nothing seems too low for this president. No wonder Chief Bisi Akande
referred to him as a kindergarten president, while Lagos state governor called
him a roadside mechanic that cannot be trusted with any vehicle. If only the
presidency could hear the truth of what majority of Nigerians who feel betrayed
by his agenda of deceit and corruption are saying!
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