Date Published: 02/15/10

AGENDA FOR ‘PRESIDENT’ GOODLUCK JONATHAN By Yakubu Ahmed BK

These cannot, by any means be the best of times for the army of name droppers, influence peddlers, establishment contractors and other sundry political jobbers and their co travellers who have found favour in the corridors of power based on their association either as relatives, political associates, sidekicks or friends of the ailing president Umaru Musa Yar Adua. No one that has mouthed pro-Yar adua sentiments amongst the motley of associates has convinced me one bit that he or she is motivated or deeply worried about the president’s deteriorating health condition. Of course, some of them have shed crocodile tears while others have assaulted our sensibilities with outdated balderdash and jaundiced rhetoric about how related they are to the president... just on account of marriage to his daughters. Curiously, members of the Federal Executive Council, all of them employees of the president but who were nonetheless saddled with the responsibility of initiating proceedings to bail the country out of the constitutional quagmire and crisis which the Yar adua absence has thrown us into, had by their complicit foot-dragging, out of self preservation agenda, nearly caused a political melee in a nation that has lost steam and any character of indivisibility.

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan is today acting president not on the basis of the invocation of the relevant provisions of the constitution by those charged with it, but almost by the default of an unwilling national Assembly which itself has tottered and faltered on end until an apparent national consensus on the need for Yar adua to step aside looked capable of assuming a national crisis proportion intent on not just causing Yar adua his job, but also the entire political and democratic structure altogether. Now that Jonathan has effectively taken over and has demonstrated the guts and audacity to call the shots going by the twin actions of reshuffling the cabinet and swearing in some permanent secretaries, time has come for the acting president not to be kobo wise, dollar foolish. He needs to read the mood of the nation, listen to the cries of the masses, distance himself at least for the time being with the power mongers that are currently baying and spoiling to take the centre stage and manipulate him and evolve pro-people policies to ingratiate himself into the hearts of the voiceless downtrodden majority who have suffered all forms of indignities arising from government’s insensitivity to their plight. Identifying with the people and doing their bidding will in the long run be in the interest of the acting president.

 Let us assume, out of human compassion for the ailing president, that he gets well and come back: if this scenario becomes the case, Jonathan will have succeeded in winning the hearts of the masses and eventually would have carved a niche for himself as an icon and a reliable leader in a nation that is craving for, but out-rightly short of credible leaders. He will have joined General Buhari as about the only leader the people would vouch for; and the sky will just be limit for him. In the event that the inevitable happens, I will be the first Nigerian, and I know millions of the voiceless squalid and despondent Nigerians will be on the blocks ready to raise hell until Jonathan becomes the PDP presidential flag bearer in the 2011 general elections. The north and those who primed themselves as its leaders may pose the greatest problem because they will threaten to bring the roof down on everybody’s head if one of them is not fielded in the spirit of the PDP’s power sharing arrangement. Those of us in the north who have long discovered that these riffraff and nincompoops are nothing but paper tigers would fill the void and reach out to all Nigerians to present a common front to ensure continuity for Jonathan come 2011. This may appear like a movie, but the truth is that Jonathan has the opportunity to do the right thing, dissociate himself from the rogues, vagabonds and blood suckers of our politics, win hearts and minds, come down hard on the thieves, chase the baldheads out of town, deliver dividends of democracy, make PHCN work, provide infrastructure for economic growth, work hard for peace and cut the unmanageable 17-point agenda to a manageable and achievable figure.

He should make no mistake about it, Nigerians want a clean break from the past; if not completely but even if tricklingly in order to rekindle hope, get the people to his side, send the right signals to the international community and more importantly to surround himself with people whom he can trust and work with to ensure his safety, confidence, national unity, democratic development and national cohesion. The national standing ovation which the minor reshuffling of the cabinet generated is a case in point. Since the advent of the Yar adua administration, no single decision taken by government has enjoyed such national agreement and unanimity and brought so much joy as this singular act. Which one single act will top this one? In my view, Jonathan’s date with history is the very day he announces the dissolution of the federal executive council. The essence is to weed out those that have dragged us back simply because they are either related to the president, are his associates or just found themselves close to the old order to bring untold hardship to the nation through acts of mindboggling thievery. If you ask me, just two or three of them at most would survive it. Jonathan has my vote and the votes of the majority to act fast, send them the fraudsters away and constitute a people’s assembly of credible juggernauts who have no attachment to any insidious and godless agenda. That day will kick start the launching of the peoples campaign for JONATHAN FOR PRESIDENT 2011. Our motivation is that a Jonathan presidency will be far better for the north in particular and the nation in general than the rudderless contraption that has tied us down under the canopy of regional sentimental trash.

BK Ahmed wrote from 114 Kashim Ibrahim road, Maiduguri (beekayyaks@gmail.com)