September 28, 2012 by Azuka Onwuka
President Goodluck Jonathan|
The detractors of President Goodluck
Jonathan will retort scornfully that he is a total failure, while his ardent
supporters will scream that he is a huge success. But before we decide where to
place him, let us look at a few indices upon which to assess him.
Through the Doctrine of Necessity by
the Senate, President Jonathan was made the Acting President of Nigeria on
February 9, 2010, when it was clear that the de jure President, Alhaji Umaru
Musa Yar’Adua, was seriously ill despite claims to the contrary by his aides.
With that, Jonathan became fully in charge. Upon the death of Yar’Adua on May
5, 2010, Jonathan was sworn in as the President the next day. At the
presidential election held on April 16, 2011, Jonathan polled 22,495,187 votes
to beat his closest rival and candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change,
Maj-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), who polled 12,214,853 votes. And on May 29,
2011, Jonathan was sworn in again as President on the strength of his victory
at the poll rather than on good luck.
Therefore, President Jonathan has
been the substantive chief executive officer of Nigeria for more than two years
now. That is enough time to gauge his performance as the leader of the most
populous nation in Africa and the seventh most populous nation in the world.
What, however, are the minuses of
President Jonathan? His biggest negative, many will say, is his inability to
stop the violence from the Islamic fundamentalist group, Boko Haram. From a
radical group that fought policemen with guns, bows and arrows in 2009 in Borno
State , Boko Haram metamorphosed speedily into a bomb-making, bomb-throwing,
suicide-mission-savvy group that has become a terror in Nigeria. A few of the
institutions the group has attacked include the Nigeria Police Force
Headquarters in Abuja on June 16, 2011; the United Nations building in Abuja on
August 26, 2011; St Theresa’s Catholic Church in Madala, Niger State on
December 25, 2011; and the office of Thisday newspapers in Abuja and Kaduna on
April 26, 2012.
Even though the security authorities
have recorded occasional results against this group, the fact that Boko Haram
has continued to operate in some parts of the North, causing bloodshed and
anguish, is a factor that irritates Nigerians. Nigerians have pointed out that
since the September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda attack on the United States and the July
7, 2005 attack on the United Kingdom, no other attack has succeeded in these
two countries. It is therefore viewed as a failure on the part of the
President.
Another point is corruption, which
has been a sore point facing the Jonathan’s administration. Despite the claims
of the President that he has zero-tolerance to corruption, the fight against
corruption cannot be described as robust since he became the President. The
President has not displayed righteous anger against the pervading influence of
corruption in the polity. Even though the administration of former President
Olusegun Obasanjo was viewed as selective in its fight against corruption, yet
there was a clear sign that the war on corruption during his tenure was fervent
and yielding results. Nigerians, especially public officers, were on their
toes, for the fear of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission led by Mr.
Nuhu Ribadu was the beginning of wisdom.
The economy is another point. Even
though the economy of Nigeria is adjudged one of the fastest growing in the
world, hovering at about seven per cent rate in the past few years, it beats
economic logic that the poverty rate has continued to rise. According to
records, about 70 per cent of Nigerians live below the poverty line. The
unemployment rate is put at 21 per cent, placing Nigeria at the 166th position
in the world. These are pointers to the fact that even though the Nigerian
economy is generating wealth, the wealth continues to disappear and never gets
into the hands of the masses.
But it has not been all woes and
misery since Jonathan became the President. One glaring achievement of his
administration, for which his detractors try as much as possible not to give
him credit, is the level of transparency with which elections have been
conducted since he took charge. Unlike before when it was rare for the ruling
Peoples Democratic Party to lose an elective office, the PDP has lost many
states that it had been in control of. For example, from controlling five of
the six states in the South-West in 2003, the party now controls no state in
that zone. In the election that just held in Edo State on July 14, the PDP lost
too. Not only that it lost, the election was adjudged transparent to a large
extent. But more importantly, unlike in the past when up to100 per cent turnout
of voters was recorded in many states – which was clearly a sign of electoral
manipulation – most of the elections conducted under Jonathan’s watch did not
record up to 60 per cent turnout: a sign that ghosts no longer vote in Nigeria
as they used to do.
There is also the case of revamping
of derelict infrastructure. Even though some may say that the pace is slow,
there is a clear evidence that infrastructure that had been left unattended to
for decades is being taken care of. One is the airports, which were a source of
embarrassment to the nation. Almost all the nation’s airports are currently
undergoing extreme makeover. Roads are also being revamped. Some roads such as
the Benin-Sagamu Expressway and Apapa-Oworonshoki Road, Lagos, which were in a
sorry state, for many years, are being rehabilitated. Electricity supply, which
had been a sore point for decades too, is receiving urgent attention, and there
is a noticeable improvement in that sector. The abandoned railway
transportation is also being revived.
Agriculture, which used to be the
mainstay of Nigeria’s economy before the oil boom, is gradually being brought
back to the front-row. Fertiliser distribution, which was always a thorny
issue, seemed to have been tackled.
Since Jonathan took over, Nigerians
seem to have forgotten that petrol scarcity, especially towards the end of the
year, used to be the norm. Even though there are still unresolved issues about
fuel subsidy matters, evidenced in the current scarcity, buying petroleum products
had stopped being nightmarish in Nigeria for over two years now.
Our foreign policy, which used to
leave us at the mercy of other countries, appears to have received a boost.
Nigeria has put its foot down in dealing with countries that treated her shabbily.
In addition, while the nation had jumped into conflicts in West Africa headlong
hitherto (with the attendant huge loss of men and materials), since the coming
of Jonathan, Nigeria has been vocal and in the fore-front in taking
well-informed positions in conflicts in Africa, as she did on Ivory Coast and
Libya, but our resources and men are no longer wasted fighting for countries
that never give us credit after all our efforts.
In the final analysis, do we then
describe Jonathan as a failure or a success? Hardliners hardly change their
positions, no matter the strength of evidence before them. But for me, I would
neither describe Jonathan as a success nor a failure. Rather, I would say that
he has lost several opportunities to worm his way into the hearts of Nigerians
but has taken advantage of a few. He has the potential to be a great president
but seems to be too cautious not to step on toes. Nigeria’s situation is so
serious that it demands robust and prompt attention and treatment. President
Goodluck Jonathan must increase his pace or he will be out of rhythm.
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