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| President G.E. Jonathan |
By The Editor-in-Chief
An adage says that a nation gets the leadership it deserves. In the case of Nigeria, a nation with so much promise, but with so little of it realized thus far, it could not be more apt.
Most neutral observers would however argue that the overwhelming majority of Nigerians are principled, honest and hardworking and thus deserve better.
For over half-a-century since the Federal Republic of Nigeria got its independence from Britain, the country has vacillated between democracy and anarchy, but has somehow managed to steady the ship while still tinkering on the edges of total chaos and ultimate collapse.
When Goodluck Jonathan was sworn-in as Nigeria's 4th democratically-elected President (preceded along those lines by Shehu Shagari, Olusegun Obasanjo and Umar Yar' Adua) and its 14th Head of State, there was so much hope from Nigerians across a divergent spectrum of ethnic nationalities and socio-economic strata.
Unfortunately, three years into Jonathan's reign, the wheels of hope, transparency and progress have essentially fallen off the rickety wagon he (Jonathan) had sold to Nigerians as a sturdy vehicle of purpose, conscience and promise.
There is no questioning the fact that this is the lowest at which Nigeria and the Nigerian psyche have ever been, regardless of the rejigged economic numbers and scattered successes in sports, business as well as the arts and sciences.
While Nigerians are a resourceful and resilient lot, there is a limit to which a people can continually aspire to greatness in all fields of worthy human endeavor with debilitating and spuriously corrupt leadership at the helm.
In Nigeria's over 50 years of existence as a sovereign nation, this President (Jonathan) is without question the most corrupt, inept and repressive the nation has ever been saddled with as a civilian administration, second only to the tyrannical Abacha mal-administration in terms of its repressive and brutish disposition.
Whether it is related to the Boko Haram uprising that has seen a more violent upsurge since Jonathan came into power with over 13,000 Nigerians killed thus far, State Gubernatorial elections, elections into sports associations such as the Nigeria Football Federation, dealing with the opposition or the press, Jonathan's approach has been to misuse organs of State power such as the State Security Service (Secret Police) and Military Intelligence to terrorize and in some cases, silence adversarial voices for good.
Under Jonathan's watch, we have a 'democratically-elected' governor (sponsored and supported by Jonathan's ruling PDP) supervising the physical beating of a judge enshrined with the office of jurisprudence and the legitimate President of the Nigeria Football Federation arrested, humiliated and detained several times by the Secret Police (at the urging of Jonathan's Minister for Sports with obvious orders from Aso Rock), among other innumerable actions that would serve to brand Jonathan as essentially a dictator.
Under Jonathan, the politics of gangsterism has become the daily staple and Nigerians have been the worse for it.
Jonathan must however realize that sooner than later, the winds of corrective recourse and natural retribution will catch up with the perpetrators of injustice and wickedness.
The sooner he pauses to think for a moment with a view to changing course onto a road less traveled but much travailed by men and women of purpose and wise conviction, the better for his diminishing legacy and the future of Nigeria as a corporate entity.
The last thing Jonathan would want to be a signature on his legacy, I believe, is that he was the man that led Nigeria into the abyss of anarchy..... one the nation may never recover from and may ultimately lead to the disintegration of that great nation.
Jonathan is probably at his very core a 'good' man (although prone to parochial and inordinate tendencies), but he is surrounded by ravenous wolves and charlatans.
It is imperative that he acquires the much needed wisdom to change course while time (though preciously little) is still on his and Nigeria's side.
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