The Presidency: Mediocrity and the Dangerous-Good News
I set off writing this piece wondering if Goodluck Jonathan's administration will be remembered a one of false knowledge or that of ignorance. I concluded this believing that GEJ administration is not just one of poor moral level of leadership and competence, but also one with blurred vision. Vision blurred by intellectual dullness and moral depravity.
Since the end of civil war, majority of Nigerians do not know what it is like to be led well. Today, the series of troubling dangerous-good news have turned this administration into one that is equipping Nigerians that are incapable of spotting the difference between a bad idea and a good one. Instead of showing a way out of the present state of mediocrity and boredom, this administration through their daily barrage of dangerous-good news is simply reinforcing rapid deterioration in the polity.
I will start with the most obnoxious dangerous-good news, which is that 2011 presidential election was free and fair, and the best elections since Nigeria returned to civil rule as confirmed by multitude of independent electoral monitors. Really? So, the fraudulent 5.1 million votes (with less than 30% turn out) from the southeast (almost a quarter of the total valid votes) and the near 100% turnout in South- south represent free and fair election?
I recently met one of the so called independent electoral monitors in Washington DC who boasted that at the 2011 election the ReVoDa Mobile app allows voters to report results from their respective polling units with rigging totally eliminated. Meanwhile, my friend in Obeludu waited the whole day at the pooling station without any material arriving (a replica throughout the South East) as APGA chairman colluded with Peter Obi and other PDP politicians in the Southeast to massively rig the election in favor of PDP.
The bad news is that presidential elections have been consistently rigged by the ruling PDP since the return to civil rule in 1999; to suggest that the systematically manipulated election results from Southeast and South-south (as Abati did) is the template for 2015 is not only delusional but dangerous. Dr. Abati is has been using his silver tongue to lie with such sincerity that he still looks charming, yet dangerous.
For Martin Luther King Jr; nothing is more dangerous than conscientious stupidity and sincere ignorance. The more you listen to President Goodluck Jonathan talk about how confident he is in the direction he is taking the country, the more you marvel at his sincere ignorance. The more you listen to his “smart” advisers and policy makers, the more you understand their conscientious stupidity.
The mouth piece of the president - Reuben Abati - a couple of weeks ago said that; “President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has implicit confidence in the ability of the current crop of ministers to deliver and has no plan to undertake any replacement at the moment.” The press release was a classical case of straightforward dangerous-good news. So, with the continued decay and corruption at NNPC, the oil subsidy scam, the continued misappropriation of billions in the power sector, the corruption in the ministry of education, the mayhem by Boko Haram, the president still has “implicit confidence in their ability?” How Can I tell President Jonathan that he is protecting incompetence and corruption? GEJ have surrounded himself with a crop of cabinet members that have stalled or failed to initiate any meaningful progress in their respective ministries.
Another dangerous good-news; “God will surely respond positively to the situation in the country.”
That was our president speaking through the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, at second session of the 8th Synod of The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) Diocese of Abuja. He urged the church to continue praying for peace. Isn't that a broken logic? Praying to God for deliverance while engaging in 'political fornication' and corruption?
Sometimes, dangerous-good news are fed to Nigerians in form of slightly distorted truth - the argument that private investors are wary of the current low tariff being charged for electricity and are not willing to invest. That may be valid to an extent but the said low tariff is presently commensurate to the epileptic nature of power supply. Does one need to remind Nnaji and National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) that for years, Nigerians have been robbed by PHCN under the estimated billing system? Does it not bother them that the problem of Nigerian power sector is beyond tariff and that the interest of consumers needs to be protected as well? What do they think about increasing and freezing the implementation of the new tariff until customers can get the services they are paying for?
Finally, Goodluck Jonathan, just declared that the numerous problems confronting the nation did not start from his regime, which commenced only two years ago. We know, but what has he set out to do? Let me remind President GEJ of what Abraham Lincoln said in his second annual message to the Congress, December 1, 1862; "…the quite past is inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise to the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew…and then we shall save our country". Unfortunately for Nigerians, our President is not even thinking, so how can he rise to the occasion?
A leading contributor to Nigeria's poverty is poor governance, manifested in corruption, political instability, violence, absence of the rule of law and ineffective government. So with a seemingly ignorant president (though corrupt) with advisors consistently disseminating false knowledge to Nigerians; the result is dangerous-good news. Money without brains is dangerous according to Napoleon Hills. Since the start of the oil boom in the 70s, we've had all the money, but unfortunately not the brains to take the country in the right direction. And that is the dangerous news.
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