Jauleru Nchokoh: Candidate Goodluck Jonathan: A Man To Trust?

Jauleru Nchokoh: Candidate Goodluck Jonathan: A Man To Trust?: "CANDIDATE GOODLUCK JONATHAN: A MAN TO TRUST? Now that Goodluck Jonathan has summoned the courage to let the poor folks he leads as president..."

Jauleru Nchokoh: Candidate Goodluck Jonathan: A Man To Trust?

Jauleru Nchokoh: Candidate Goodluck Jonathan: A Man To Trust?: "CANDIDATE GOODLUCK JONATHAN: A MAN TO TRUST? Now that Goodluck Jonathan has summoned the courage to let the poor folks he leads as president..."

Jauleru Nchokoh:

Jauleru Nchokoh:

Candidate Goodluck Jonathan: A Man To Trust?

CANDIDATE GOODLUCK JONATHAN: A MAN TO TRUST?

Now that Goodluck Jonathan has summoned the courage to let the poor folks he leads as president what everybody knows since November last year – that he wants to be the president of Nigeria post 2011. Politicians all over the country must, of necessity, restrategise, realign and to some extent replan.  With his declaration, it is no more possible for a free and fair election to hold in the country next year.  His action has also slanted the playing pitch in his favour with his opponents trying to play the game on an undulating field resembling the creeks of the Niger Delta.  With the declaration, I hope we will now be spared the orchestrated cacophony of appeals for GEJ to come out and contest.  We were even treated to the ridiculous when women threatened to stay away from their husbands’ beds.  That is how low Nigeria has reached – the depth of the pits of depravity all in the name of “persuading” a president whose mind was already made up before his late principal died. 

We have had the privilege of living through GEJ’s administration in the past five months or so and seen his idea of governance and therefore are honoured to have a sneak preview of what to expect from him when (or if) he is eventually elected to office on his own merit.  Our ear drums were constantly bombarded with Goodluck’s “achievements” by his court jesters. But from where I am sitting I only see a candidate whose sole success constitutes of unearthing political dinosaurs to be his arrowheads in repudiating an agreement that he was a party to in a language that is not fit for any ballroom.  I only see a candidate whose stock-in-trade is reminiscent of Obasanjo’s third term misadventure – blackmail, intimidation, insults and where all these fail, bribery.

In the past four months we have been inundated with why Goodluck can be trusted and be voted as president in next year’s general elections.  We were constantly reminded that his is a divine candidature and that he is the best man for the job; that Goodluck is the only truly pan Nigerian candidate while the rest, particularly those from the north are just tribal champions; that voting Goodluck is the only politically correct thing to do; that if Goodluck is not allowed to contest or even if he decides on his own not to contest then Nigeria will disintegrate.  While all these nonsense were going on, Goodluck feigned disinterest in running though the whole world knows he can give his right arm for the chance.  We all knew well before his declaration that he will contest, even if it means he will be the last president of Nigeria as we know it today.  In the background, Obasanjo, Clark and Anenih were busy pulling the puppet strings of which jobbers like Mantu, Abba Aji, Ali Gulak and Sambawa are dancing.

I have tried severally to see if there is anything about Goodluck that is trustworthy, but fail to see one redeeming feature in him apart from the fact that luck has played a very crucial role in his life.  What I see is an ambitious man who, in his impatience to succeed his boss heated the polity unnecessarily to create an environment that gave the impression that Nigeria was on auto-pilot when ‘Yar Adu’a was sick and we know all the while that he was in charge.  All I see is a man who is not averse to bribing governors and national assembly members to have them support his coup, dressed in a legalese known as “doctrine of necessity”.  I only see a man who is not averse at demonising his sick boss by giving the word cabal a new meaning.  I see a man who has depleted $7billion dollars in less than six months and we are told he is prudent and focused.

The zoning debate that preceded Goodluck’s declaration was twisted and mangled so much so that at the end of the debates you may think zoning was introduced by those insisting on its implementation for the benefit of the north and not the other way round.  We are reminded that the ‘Yar Adu’a/ Goodluck ticket will not expire till 2015, yet we are not sure if ‘Yar Adu’a is alive and were to contest next year whether he will do so with Goodluck as his running mate.  We are told that Goodluck can be trusted – how can I trust a man who can sign an agreement today and repudiate same tomorrow?  If Goodluck can demonise the late ‘Yar Adu’a while the later was fighting for his life, how can I trust him with my destiny?  In a recent advertorial recently in Thisday newspaper, some people from his own Niger Delta region accused the president of appointing only Ijaws, his ethnic kindred, into government offices.  They listed ministers of petroleum, Niger Delta, Foreign Affairs and Power which he retained.  If the president is not capable of doing justice to fellow Niger Deltans who are not Ijaws, how can I, a poor Fulani man from Yola, expect justice from this “pan Nigerian?

Dissecting the man’s declaration speech made me doubly sure of his dubiety and lack of sincerity of purpose.  I became more convinced that he was acting some other peoples’ script, directed by no other than the old despot, Obasanjo, who still believe he ain’t yet done with the north.  Listen to Goodluck, “As president and leader of this government, I decided not to place partisan politics above the immediate needs and priorities of our people”.  Non-partisan my foot!  While Abba AJi and Ali Gulak, two Special Advisers to the president were running roughshod over anyone opposed to his barely hidden ambition, I can’t remember him telling them to back-off.  He was their Abacha and them his Kalus.  Again listen to Mr. President, “The past four months I have served as president of Nigeria have opened my eyes to the vast potentials of this office as a potential instrument for the transformation of our country...”  I would have trusted him had he said his eyes were opened to the enormous potentials for self – transformation and self-enrichment through periodic dipping of the hands in the public till.  The level of depletion of the Excess Crude Account (ECA) and our foreign reserve since he took over can attest to that.

Again Mr. President, “In the last few months, I embarked on monumental projects in our road infrastructure to end the carnage on our federal highways”.  Very laudable indeed.  Only the only road contract awarded by the government of Goodluck is in the Niger Delta which costs about N1.5trillion.   the Kano – Maiduguri dualisation project started by Obasanjo is now abandoned while $500million Chinese loan for the Kano –Abuja railway project is diverted for a project not known to any Nigerian.  As a matter of fact while acting as president over N45billion meant for the River Niger dredging was diverted to some projects in the Niger Delta.  On the rampant insecurity in the country the president had this to say, “I have taken bold steps to confront the security situation...” the results of our presidnt’s bold steps in this all important sector could be seen in the increase in the number of kidnap cases, the invasion of Abuja by Niger Delta militants and the successful prison break by Boko Haram members in Bauchi.

The president also beat his chest on his courage in empanelling an INEC commission made up of men of integrity.  In his own words, “I set the stage for free and fair elections by constituting an electoral commission comprising of Nigerians of impeccable credentials for firmness and incorruptibility”.  The president forgot to tell us that after empanelling the INEC, he also constituted his “rigging commission” made up of service chiefs and the Inspector General of Police.

Going to school during his time without a school bag or shoes was made to look as if it is a courageous and rare thing then.  We all went to school bare footed but we were lucky there was school for us to attend without having to pay through the nose.  Millions of Nigerian school-age children are roaming the streets because they can’t afford to pay while government officials are patronising private schools which are way beyond the reach of the poor.

I am expected to trust a president who is ready to sow the seeds of discord among the people he governs and seek their support to extend his tenure in the Aso Villa.  Sorry sir, I cannot in all honesty trust or vote for a man whose principal achievement in four months is to widen the chasm between the Christians and Muslim population of his fiefdom.  Suswan of Benue State unwittingly let the cat out of the bag during the declaration – that Goodluck is a candidate of the minority.  Alas, I am a Fulani man.

Babayola M. Toungo

Kaduna - Nigeria