Jonathan and the rough road to 2015 by Niyi Akinnaso

President Goodluck Jonathan

“We pray to you God, to help our President win the election and come out tops in 2015 in Jesus name.Father, we pray that the crisis in the party would stop and that the President would lead us well in the name of God.”

 

—Prof. Wale Oladipo, National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party

 

 If you don’t believe that President Goodluck Jonathan plans to run for re-election in 2015, just read his body language (spoken and unspoken) and that of the people around him. Still unsure? Then, consider the above prayers said recently by the National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prof. Wale Oladipo, before the inauguration of the Caretaker Committee of the Kwara State Executive Committee of the party, to which leading members of the National Working Committee answered with a roaring “Amen”.

The PDP leadership is concerned about the internal crisis within its party, partly because of the defection of party members to the rival All Progressives Party and partly because of the erosion of confidence in the PDP that both the crisis and the defection entail.

 

What the PDP leadership has failed to recognise or acknowledge is that the “crisis in the party” is only one of the many stumbling blocks to Jonathan’s re-election in 2015. The internal crisis within the party is nothing but power struggles involving individuals or factions within the party.

 

True, the factional struggles have affected governance at federal, state, or local levels, their resolution cannot guarantee adequate and steady power supply, increased employment, adequate staffing and equipping of schools and hospitals, and the eradication of corruption. Yet, these are among the key factors that informed voters, youth and adult, will consider before deciding on whether or not to vote for Jonathan in 2015.

 

About this time three years ago, Jonathan’s road to Aso Rock was literally lined by youths cheering him on. For at least two reasons, they had identified with him on Facebook, when he declared his candidacy for President in the 2011 election. First, they believed his promise of mass youth employment. Second, they found his “shoeless” childhood story appealing.

 

It is a different story today as the same youths are ready to jeer at him should he decide to seek re-election in 2015, having been disillusioned by mass youth unemployment and profligate spending by the Jonathan administration. On one youth forum, the writer mourned the disappearance of the “shoeless” boy as he learnt about the addition of another plane to an already bloated fleet of 10 presidential jets.”The cost of maintaining these jets (estimated at about N9bn a year) is enough to hire millions of us for many years”, mused another youth.
 

If Jonathan’s PDP thinks that its one-time empowerment project of distributing motorcycles and other token gifts to selected youths is an adequate substitute for employment, then the party is living in a fool’s paradise. What about millions of youths who may not be reached by the one-time empowerment bonanza? And how can a motorcycle substitute for salaried employment that could lead to a life-time career in a nation of over 30 per cent unemployment?
 

Besides, if the PDP thinks that a motorcycle is all the youths needed, what about adults, particularly the elite, who view Jonathan as a weak and under-performing President, especially in the fight against corruption, which Jonathan voluntarily promised to wage on assumption of office? Today, the Jonathan administration is viewed not simply as one which threw in the towel in the fight against corruption but largely as the most openly corrupt administration since 1999.
 

No wonder then the people now talk about going to Abuja not to work but to make money. Today, state nominees for federal appointments are allegedly subjected to the extortion of millions of naira in bribe for processing their papers. It is all part of the initiation into the cult of corrupt government officials at Abuja. It is against this background that we must understand the Jonathan administration’s dismissive attitude towards various corruption scandals, including the fuel subsidy scandal, the capital market scam, the police pension scheme fraud, and Oduahgate. They are all part of the culture of Abuja politics these days.
 

The impunity with which corruption is practised by the Nigerian political class today contrasts sharply with the standards of accountability witnessed in the United Kingdom in 2009, when the British parliamentary expenses scandal broke. Many Members of Parliament resigned over allegations of the misuse of permitted allowances and expenses, while those found guilty were indicted and jailed. Yet, Jonathan has turned deaf ears to the recommendations of investigative panels and the press consensus that the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, be sacked over Oduahgate.
 

But, why should he sack anyone for corruption when the PDP party leaders do not consider pervasive corruption under Jonathan as an electoral bump? Nor are they concerned about unemployed youths, about bad highways, about inadequate power supply, or about poorly staffed and unequipped schools and hospitals. Their only concern is “the crisis in the party”. And that’s the only problem they want God to solve. It is as if once that problem is solved, they are on the way to victory in 2015.
 

Yet, there may be no better way to describe Jonathan’s road to re-election in 2015 than to liken it to Nigeria’s rough, rugged, congested, and bloody highways. Jonathan’s contributions to the deplorable situation of the physical and political highways have been the focus of the media for months. The annual pothole-patching strategy employed on the highways is emblematic of the tokenism that pervades Jonathan’s approach to problem-solving. Just as the major highways remain unrepaired, so do major national problems remain unresolved.
 

Perhaps, no sector has so far experienced token gestures more than the economy. Take, for example, the fight against corruption. Jonathan began with personnel changes in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Nothing much has happened since then. Indeed, the EFCC recently cried out for funding to enable it to carry out its basic functions.

 For virtually every publicised report of financial impropriety, Jonathan or the National Assembly sets up a probe. Since 2011, at least 70 panels, probes, and committees have been set up under Jonathan. None has been followed through just as no major project begun by his administration has been completed. The goal post for stable power supply has been shifting every six months or so.
 

This, of course, is the trademark of the PDP-led Federal Government, which has not completed any highway, power, or petroleum project since 1999! As a result, there are over 1,000 awarded projects that remain uncompleted. Like filling potholes on the highways, contract awards, probes and investigative panels are mere tokens intended to placate the citizens, if only temporarily.
 

It will be unfair to conclude that Jonathan has done nothing or is doing nothing. The problem is that whatever he has been doing or is doing remains unrecognised or unknown. True, he seems to have contained terrorist acts by limiting their operations to the north, but the insurgency still continues and nothing has been done about other acts of violence, such as armed robbery, kidnapping, piracy, and vandalising of pipeline.

The highways are bad. Schools and hospitals are substandard. Power supply is inadequate and unsteady. Housing and food costs are rising. Above all, there is nothing one could point to as a distinctive achievement of the Jonathan administration.

The question then is: What exactly will Jonathan be running on?

Copyright PUNCH.