MR. PRESIDENT, IS THIS THE BREATH OF FRESH AIR THAT YOU PROMISED NIGERIANS?

This question “Mr. President, is this the breath of fresh air that you promised Nigerians?” is quite pertinent in view of many strange events which have been happening in the Nigerian polity ever since the April 2011 elections in which Dr. Goodluck Jonathan was elected the President of the country.

It would be recalled that prior to the elections, giving the nation “a breath of fresh air” was the mantra of the Goodluck/Sambo Presidential Campaign Organization, and this phrase was conspicuously written on the campaign organization's campaign materials including posters, handbills, T-shirts, vehicles, billboards and other campaign items.

The Goodluck/Sambo Presidential Campaign Organization and its foot soldiers sold to the Nigerian people the idea that if elected, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan's administration would better the lot of the citizenry. One of the media adverts went to the extent of featuring the President as he was making reference to his impoverished, ugly past.

Of course, the people fell for the idea of the President's campaign organization and as a result, he got a pan-Nigerian mandate to pilot the affairs of the nation.

From east to west, and from north to south, there was a pervasive clamour for Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to win the election, even to the extent that majority of those that voted for him at the election including myself, remained at the polling stations after casting their votes, until the votes were counted, ostensibly to ensure that the votes that they cast for the President counted for their choice, their choice being Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

Of a truth, the people had a very good reason to vote for Dr. Goodluck Jonathan: He promised the nation a breath of fresh air. The people had suffered a lot and as such, they needed a new lease of life.

Unfortunately and regrettably, that new lease of life that Nigerians laboured for at the 2011 elections, is yet to come. Instead of giving the nation a breath of fresh air as was promised Nigerians, the air seems to have been polluted by the economic policies of the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan administration, most of which are outrightly obnoxious and anti-people.

Take for instance the issue of social infrastructure. Most of the nation's social infrastructure are in a dilapidated state. They had been in that state before the 2011 elections, and the hopes of the citizenry had been raised with promises that the decayed infrastructure would be fixed after the elections, but up till now, more than one year into the President's tenure, they are still in a very bad shape. Two very good examples are the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway and the Aba-Ikot Ekpene highway which are death traps par excellence and which have taken the lives of many innocent citizens. The story is the same in many other federal highways across the length and breadth of the country.

Another issue that is worthy of mention is the increase in electricity tariffs which is due to take effect in June this year. It is common knowledge that the power supply situation is poor, yet bogus electricity bills are being given to hapless citizens on a monthly basis. Instead of first stabilizing the power supply situation, the Federal Government rather approved the increment of the tariffs, a case of putting the cart before the horse, one might say. Up till now, the nation's anti-corruption body, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (E.F.C.C.) has not been sensible enough to know that it should prosecute the Power Holding Company of Nigeria PLC or the Electricity Distribution companies-whichever is the right organization-for extorting money from Nigerians without giving them value for their payments, for that is what exactly it is: EXTORTION (CORRUPTION).

Last year, the Federal Government entered into negotiations with the nation's organized labour unions after which the national minimum wage amount was mutually agreed between the two sides with the subsequent passing of the National Minimum Wage Law by the National Assembly and the concomitant assent of the Law by the President. Up till now, only a few states have implemented the Law; even the states which have implemented the Law, did it with their own respective formulas with the inherent motive of short-changing the hapless civil servants. Ironically, political office holders are smiling to the banks with their jumbo salaries and allowances, and it does not matter to them that failure to implement the National Minimum Wage Law, or implementing it with a dubious formula, are illegal.

Sometime after the inception of the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan administration, the pump prices of petroleum products were increased. The initial increase affected only diesel, but the price of petrol was mindlessly increased from N65 to N141 on 1st January this year after months of equally mindless debates and agitations by the Federal Government's apologists for the deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector through the removal of the subsidy on petroleum products, in spite of the fact that the more sensible way to flow was to first fix the nation's refineries so as to provide a rational basis for the fixing of the prices by market forces.

The entire nation is still expecting an explanation from the so-called economic experts who are managing the economy, as to how a mindless increase in the price of petrol is synonymous with deregulation.

The whole nation was thrown into chaos as a result of that mindless price increase, as riots and protests broke out across the country, until the President reduced the price increase to N97. Through the Federal House of Representatives probe of the downstream petroleum sector, it has been confirmed and proved that there was really no justification for the fuel price increase; rather, what the government needed to have done is to deal decisively with the endemic problem of corruption which is ravaging the sector.

As expected, that mindless fuel price increase led to the corresponding increase in the prices of goods and services in the country. Up till now, no official of the Federal Government has deemed it expedient to apologize to Nigerians for misleading them.

The recent approval of the bill empowering the Federal Road Safety Commission (F.R.S.C.) to collect money from hapless citizens for new vehicle plate numbers, and driver's licence, is another way through which the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan administration fouled the air that it promised to freshen, as it will obviously compound the woes of the citizens when it is eventually implemented.

Recently, the election into the post of the President of the World Bank was held, and the Nigerian Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who seemed more functionally qualified than her opponent, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, lost the post to the latter, a medical doctor, ostensibly because of the feeling of the global community that the former who is the coordinating minister of the Nigerian economy, is not doing a good job back home; this is just to state the facts mildly.

With the air already fouled by the anti-people policies of the Federal Government, there is angst across the nation; people are suffering, and the only way for Mr. President to freshen the air that has been unduly polluted, is to lessen the yoke of economic hardship on the neck of Nigerians. It is only then that Mr. President can restore the confidence of the people in his administration; for now, the citizens who went through thick and thin to give him the mandate to lead them, are disappointed that instead of enjoying the breath of fresh air that he had promised them, they are being inundated with stale mess in the guise of transformation.

Will Mr. President heed this advice? Only time will tell.

BY OCHIABUTO KALU OKORIE