A Smooth Road to Hara-kiri

By Sam Onimisi
The humble mien of President Goodluck Jonathan ordinarily elicits the admiration and support of the common citizens of Nigeria before the 2011 general election. This support presumably translated into votes when he contested for the Presidency, which he won. This was seven months ago and now; the same common citizens are facing serious threats of abandonment by the very government they elected. Three swords are dangling against the head of the ordinary citizen and would certainly chop-off his head, come year 2012: the impending increase in pump price of fuel (deceitfully called subsidy removal); the newly commenced high tariff of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and, the advertised return of toll-gates on high-ways-all of which translates into less money in the pockets of the Nigerian while he will be paying through the nose for black-out instead of light.
While contemplating the effects of all these on the take-home pay of salary earners and net profit of self-employed citizens, I relapsed into a snoop and dreamt of a rag-tag army of the masses chasing Goodluck out of the State House back to his village. I woke up only to hear over the radio that Boko-Haram invaded an Air Force secondary school in Kano and killed some airmen after which they escaped. Could the Boko Haram be the same rag-tag army I saw in my dream? I have no means of telling, but Steve Osuji of the Nation newspaper put it differently when he wrote that “you don’t have to be a genius to guess right: it is the same story of some people insisting they must rule or anoint the ruler. I wager that there would not be a bomb-hauling Boko Haram today if a Buhari or Atiku or Babangida instead of a Jonathan, was president. At best, it would remain the harmless, itinerant religious sect that it was up till two years ago. This explains the deafening silence being observed by the northern elite on this particular Haram.” It is obvious that Osuji sees the Boko Haram as the arrow-head of the total rejection of the Southern-Christian rule or leadership by the Islamic North. That may well be the case.
However, “how does this Boko Haramites challenge box the President into somnambulism?” asked a university don. I had to go on my knees to ask and understand the baban grammar of the professor. He meant to say that the President appears to be sleep-walking in his approach to the serious business of governance; and that this attitude couldn’t have been injected into the President by the Boko Haram. I tried or attempted to rationalize the President’s approach as that of a humble servant leader whose modus operandi is that of a quiet unassuming leader who feels for the poor and shares the pains of the citizens with regard to the harsh economic policies the government would have to impose on the people. “His modus Vivendi, even when he was a deputy governor, a governor or even as a vice-president was always the same; a kind of lackadaisical approach to serious or threatening issues of the economy or security. It is more of lack of capacity or courage even than a way of life. He needs to get tough or serious”, the don said. It is a long resolved riddle that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party was not the attraction to vote Goodluck Jonathan. Majority of the voters voted for the person of the president rather than his party as many see it as a cult or occultist society rather than a democratic party. What it adds up to is that the people voted for a president now held hostage to the dictates of his party instead of our desires. However, it is also now clear that President Jonathan seems to understand it the other way round; that his party was the choice of the people and not himself. No one else is deluded that the PDP is not a peculiar damsel people seeks after but a porous disposable platform of political jobbers and power brokers. Need we remind him that he is the President of a country and not of a party? And that he must listen to us more than his party?
May be what we are now seeing is the physical remains of a humble leader but who is now a different person from who we thought we know. Political office is a deadly hardener and without good luck, Jonathan may have been hardened to become impervious to our real needs and wishes. He ought not to have forgotten too soon that most Nigerians suffer from hard-core poverty, what with the all pervading chronic unemployment, under-employment and crass deprivation. The fresh air we were promised has suddenly turned a foul air by the blood-spilling Haramites, aside from the palpable inertia which has pervaded the public service, hijacked by needless power-play and power-politics of the anointed god-fathers and area-mothers.
The President’s homilies on the reasons why oil prices must be increased are understandable but unacceptable. The ruling class or party who is responsible for the past thievery and waste is well known and identifiable. Instead of holding them responsible and making them to account for their theft, they are being treated as ghosts which cannot be reached or touched. For as long as one can remember, leaders have had to impose austerity measures, belt-tightening programmes, structural adjustment programme (SAP), partial removal of oil subsidy etc. In so doing, they had promise to use the money saved in Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) which turned out to be Obasanjo Farms Nigeria Limited; Green Revolution of Shagari which ended in the pocket of the likes of Umaru Dikko, the various phantom projects of the Babangida regime which were used to settle the infamous IBB boys etc. All through the Abacha, Abdulsalam, recycled Obasanjo regime, the lack-luster Umaru Yar’Adua government and now, the Goodluck Jonathan administration, it is the same old story. If the past governments could not fulfill their promises, what guarantee do we have that this government will make any difference? These are the reasons for the lack of trust or confidence in any government, including the present one. This back-drop of leadership failure alienates the citizens from their governments or leaders, and no amount of preachment can change that. To begin a new year with increase in oil prices, with the return of toll-gates and a new NEPA tariff cannot come from a government that promised the people fresh air, especially when the government is generally perceived to lack the capacity to turn things around. The National Assembly may continue their games of pretence, angling for settlement but pretending to object to oil subsidy removal. Mercifully, Nigerians have come to know this Legislature/Executive game, which is often ‘settled’ through lobby and all forms of inducement.
The inability of government to embark on and carry out far-reaching reforms in the electoral process, in the Judiciary and in the Civil Service teaches us that the economic reforms will also fail. An economy driven not by any visionary or patriotic zeal, but by the voodoo economic principles engineered by the World Bank and IMF can neither grow the economy nor bring relief to the people. I am almost convinced that Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala-led economic team will lead imperceptibly to more serious social chaos. Some people believe it could bring about the political revolution now being experienced by the Arab World; but I doubt this. My doubt is based on the knowledge of the differences between the various ethnic nationalities, the gulf between their world views and religious beliefs and the cowardice prevalent among the people. They may kick-off what looks like a nation-wide protest but along the line, our divergences will abort it as it will be exploited or manipulated by the various cabals. It doesn’t take anything for Mrs. World Bank (sorry, Mrs. Okonjo Iweala) to return to her job in New York. After all, she is not accountable to the people as she was not elected in the first place. For a President against whom a war had been declared by a terrorist group, increase in oil prices, return of toll-gates and a higher electricity tariff amounts to a smooth road to political harakiri.