25 May 2011

By Bukhari Muhammed Bello Jega

It is a sign of relief to Nigerians as the curtain draws nearer, marking the end of yet another democratic experiment in Nigeria. Relief in the sense, that, Nigeria and Nigerians in the last four years have being struggling to stability the political and economic sectors of the country; due to various centrifugal forces that almost derailed the democratic process in the wrong direction. First, was the sudden disappearance of the late President Umaru Yar'dua. Secondly, was the inability of Nigerians to know the truth state of their President's health none the former president being able to communicate to his fellow countrymen and women on his true state of health. Thirdly was the inability of the then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to act in an active capacity before the return of the ill president. These crises almost destabilized the mutual co-existence among the various ethnic and regions in the country; until nature decided to settle the crisis for the overall good of the country, when the former president gave up the ghost. Good in the sense, that, there were some political opportunists and evil forces that were profiting from the general confusion, which enable them to loot the treasury of the state dry since there was no man in charge.

The emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan was a relief to the country, but, also ignited another around of crisis, especially with the PDP zoning arrangement, which rotate power among the two region i.e North and South. The north was of the opinion that since the late President Yar'adua was flying the zoning ticket from the north, it will be morally right, for the newly emerged president to respect the zoning arrangement. The northern politicians were of the opinion that; the zoning arrangement is aimed at maintaining the peaceful co-existence of the country. But, the President and his political band of political opportunists felt otherwise. The zoning issues became the major political issues in Nigerian history since the June 12 crisis. The crises linger on until the PDP primary, where the northern consensus candidate Alh Atiku Abukar was defeated by the incumbent president. The north saw the defeat as bad omen for a region that was known to have control political power for decades. Also the conduct of the president's kinsmen and the southern politicians also ignite insecurity in the mind of the northern politicians and the people on what possible future for the region. This insecurity was carried over to the general elections, which the outcome did not go down as expected with the masses in the region, that resulted in the postmortem crisis and killing that unfortunately took place in the region in a retrospect.

As the president begins a new term in office, it is an opportunity for the man who rise to power was basically as his campaign organization coded it, as result of "Good luck" to be his man and navigate the ship of the state in the right direction. Most people often argued that, Goodluck had no opportunity to be his man throughout his short live as the president, due to the way he came in (although I wonder how someone with all executive powers will not be able to be his own man). But, if given the opportunity, during the 2011 elections, Nigerians will see the real Goodluck Jonathan. Now that, Nigerians has bought into this political shenanigan, it will be an opportunity for the president to provide the free air he promises Nigerians. But, fundamentally, the President must end profligacy in governance. Government and official profligacy has been the major obstacle to Nigerian development in the last 12 years of democratic experiment. A situation where government recurrent expenditures outweigh capital expenditures is simply on unacceptable style of governance for a country face with challenges of national development. The cost of running government in Nigeria is the highest in the world.

The last four years has witness the biggest profligacy in governance, where officials of government appropriate large allowances and larges to themselves while the people they promise to governed and uplift their living standard are living in abject poverty and confusion. From local government, to state and federal level governance, the rate of impunity and profligacy in governance is simply unacceptable. Going through the records books of what our elected and appointed elites earned only portend an irresponsible and unproductive ruling class, that really do not understand the flights of the people they promise to improve their living standard. For example, a senator is said to be paid around 250 million naira for practically doing nothing, while the workers that are contributing to national growth and development are still fighting with the government to implement a paltry N18, 000 minimum wages. To further complicate the growing impunity and profligacy in governance, our outgoing National Assembly members are perfecting plan to share over 3 billion naira as severance benefits, couple with the fact that, the House of Representative under the Leadership of Speaker Dimeji Bankole and his group of patriots had borrowed N10billion on behalf of the House of Reps to pay certain allowances. The same profligacy or more is going on in the Presidency and various states across the federation.