By Gbenro Olajuyigbe
‘We must judge a form of government by its general tendency; not by happy accidents’- Thomas Macaulay
They were trampled upon and killed in Nigeria Immigration Service’s Job Market at various stadia last year. Nobody paid the price of that indiscretion. Not even the merchants in the name of Minister of Interior and others that criminally organised the death party called ‘interview’! Last month, relatives of the killed, protested that the President had failed to fulfil him promise of giving them jobs in lieu of their killed kinsmen. Election is here; and this is its eve! The president did what he could not do in the last one year last week. He did not only give jobs to the relatives; he added Five million Naira to it. With no thoughts and visit to these bereaved families until election failure became staring, humanity is lost in this guilt offering.
Of more obscene are those who get ‘paid’ for the ‘works’ not yet done! The dollar for votes guys! The Dollar beneficiaries; some Obas, Obis, Afenifere and other Violence Entrepreneurs that have become power elite in the corruptive environment that now pervade. The most tragic time in the life of any man or woman is when s/he plans to spend the money s/he never works for. That is the definition of stealing and corruption the President has been struggling to put together. These are trying times in our country. Lie is becoming our ‘truth’ just as falsehood has become the standard of fact. Rulers have lost touch with ethics and the examples of their practices have become moral calamity.
In the risky business of life and leadership there are requisites for risk reduction and leadership mechanism that take destiny away from bicycle lane of Goodluck to highway of consciously planed success and victory. They include; vision, hard work, sacrifice, morality, character, integrity, wisdom, good conscience; and courage, as the coordinator of all other virtues! A good Christian knows that Goodluck does not take anybody to heaven; and that is the reason God did not recommend it in the Bible as one of the great virtues. For instance, the Bible says ‘my people perish for lack of knowledge’; not for lack of Goodluck! This means Goodluck without knowledge will end up in disaster. Goodluck is the Gambler’s version of sudden success. Victory not fought for; a laurel not sweated for! No wonder the Yorubas say ‘o hun ta ba sise fun, ki npe lowo eni’, meaning, you cannot keep what you did not work for; for long! Goodluck has a way of fictionalising serious issues. He told Jonathan he would be President, he did not tell him that his job description includes securing lives and properties. He told him that transformation of a once-upon a time shoeless boy into Presidential Jet Rider is part of the package, he did not tell him that fortification of the economy for all residents and citizens of Nigeria is the first line of action in building a land of liberty. Goodluck told Jonathan about transformation, he did not tell him the meaning of transformation. He did not tell him that example that is close to what transformation means in the area of power is South Africa, a country with just one-quarter of Nigeria’s population but generating 44,000 Megawatts of electricity and not Jonathan’s Nigeria that is episodically rising and falling under the yoke of 4000 Megawatts, and with a population, four times that of South Africa. These lessons that Goodluck did not teach Jonathan has today turned every allegations of corruption, incompetence, unemployment and insecurity to cause for laughter. How serious they are, has been lost in Presidential ignorance and the mass- tom- foolery of the impoverished citizenry. Hysterical sensationalism has become the state response to serious policy concerns. Riddles of ‘goat and yam’, controversy between ‘corruption and stealing’ among others are the newly opened asylum to mindless criminals who rush in droves to elastically tolerant corridor of power that was founded on Goodluck. The contradictions are many. The figures of the so touted transformation are not adding up. The supporting theories of his economic marabouts are failing street’s authentication and every day life’s validation. The claim of a Four thousand Megawatts- powered – economy being the largest economy in Africa flout common sense! The lie can only fly on paper! In spite of the cooked statistics, no harbour around the globe is opened to the vain glorious ship to berth on her shore. I guess this is the reason this government, in the words of Harry Truman, has gone for ‘’a one-armed Economist so that the guy(lady?) could never make a statement and say, ‘but on the other hand’’. Any economist that cannot say ‘on the other hand’ is a magician; and we have many of such coordinating and managing Nigerian economy. Deceiving and being deceived. They have become impervious to reasoning and glued to self-manufactured data and indices. They have excluded people and human conditions from the economic radar and removed land, labour, capital and entrepreneur from factors of production. They are building castle on the air, forgetting that solid foundation and good premise are vital ingredients of enduring monument. No matter the manipulation, two plus two can only be four, not anything these face-jaded economists say it is. Beliefs, policies and practises that shape Nigerian Economy under Jonathan is Goodluckism. Understanding this concept could be the barometer to measure its pressure on the people and the consequences on the future of the Nigeria State. The foundation for the claim that Nigeria is the biggest economy in Africa is anchored on the ‘Rebased Economy’ which fraudulently accommodated lots of non- performing sectors and sub-sectors of the economy. Quantification of sectors of the economy that merely expand the consumption space and further the thirst for economy of consumerism without opening space for production in the so called Rebased Economy is a calculated step to package the rotten corpse in a beautiful casket! A growing economy where government by its own admission claimed that 1.8 million graduate enter labour market every year; a monocultural economy that export its chief product, petroleum, in crude form and import refined petrol and allied products has no advantage over any economy of equal comparison that is not in the same self- set snare. Economy with rising Interest Rate and falling Naira value has will fall like empty sack in comity of strong economies. The greatest task for the next government of Nigeria is rebuilding this economy that has been deliberately bastardised. The ill-managed enterprise whose fabricated meteoric rise continue to fall flat on ‘Prosumers’ (fusion word for producers and consumers) street! The economy where production is hardly possible because of hostile environment that is unfriendly to low cost of production and at the same time frustrating the choices of consumers because of high cost of living.The next managers of Nigerian Economy cannot afford to rely on Goodluck. They must learn from what Goodluck has done to Jonathan. Goodluck told Jonathan that his mission was to take him to the top but he did not tell him he would abandon him to his own vision when he gets there. Goodluck told Jonathan that he would make him sit on the throne; he did not tell him that only courage, wisdom and integrity will sustain him. Goodluck got a Job for Jonathan; he did not tell him that he has to do the it himself. There is no happiness in writing this piece if it does not serve as warning to the next government that Goodluck will not do its job for it! The next government must hit the ground running immediately it is sworn in. God forbids that it waits till the last second of its tenure, the eve of another election before jumping into a speed- crazy- Jetliner to Baga, Mongonu to belatedly re-awake with desirable weapons after twenty thousand of his citizens have been cruelly and gruesomely killed; and shouting, catch Sekau alive, nearly a year after over two hundred Chibok girls were abducted and carted away under his watch with no hope insight for rescue or recovery!
Gbenro Olajuyigbe is an Abuja based Human Security Expert and a Human Rights Activist.
E:Mail: gbenroolajuyigbe@yahoo.com