By Donu Kogbara
Many Nigerians, me included, have complained about the fact that President Jonathan did not hit the ground running as soon as the polling season ended.

Toghanro Toju Xtian, a reader who resides in Agege, Lagos State, sent me the following text message a couple of days ago and spoke for many when he said:

Please tell GEJ to forget about six-year tenure. Let him fix power and roads if he wants us to have faith in his PDP. A lot of people believe that the PDP government is not working. Let him prove his critics wrong by his good work.

We who desperately want our country to be dragged out of its rut as soon as possible had hoped that Mr President would roll up his sleeves the minute his electoral victory was confirmed in April and to quickly appoint a credible cabinet and announce – and start to implement – an impressive development programme.

Ministerial choices

We were extremely disappointed when all we got out of him in May, June, July and the first half of August were overly flashy inauguration celebrations and premature talk-talk about non-priorities like his six-year tenure idea. It also didn’t help that quite a few of his ministerial choices raised eyebrows.

But it looks as if Mr President is, at long last, ready to make up for lost time and about to embark on some serious nation-building activities.

He has just constituted a 24-member Economic Management Team that will be coordinated by the famously dynamic and widely respected Minister of Finance and former World Bank Managing Director, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Mr President also announced, earlier on this week, during a farewell dialogue with the outgoing Japanese Ambassador, that he is working on a policy that will require certain categories of imports to be produced locally in future…a measure that will create jobs and greatly enhance our manufacturing sector.

I don’t blame anyone who is sceptical about politicians’ statements because so many fine-sounding promises have been callously broken by various leaders since we gained independence from the British colonial authorities in l960.

But let’s give Mr President and his entire team the benefit of the doubt, for now at least. We may not currently have much (or any) faith in some of the individuals with whom he has chosen to work closely. But none of his ministers, DGs, etc, are daft. All of them have OK or above-average academic credentials or employment experience. And they are all capable of excelling.

The trouble with Nigeria is that VIPs are allowed to get away with nonsense and rubbish. But leopards can sometimes be compelled to change their spots!

Human beings can, as a general rule, only fulfil their potential if they are disciplined. And because so few of us were born disciplined, most of us only do our very best when we are operating in controlled environments.

If Jonathan decides to forever silence the growing band of detractors who constantly accuse him of weakness, he will put his foot down and demand high standards from his subordinates (as opposed to mouthing meaningless platitudes about transparency, reform, growth, etc).

If Jonathan provides the strict and inspirational leadership we need, old hands who have generated outrage in the past will stop messing around unless they wish to lose their prestigious positions or go to jail; and newcomers who were planning to elevate their selfish interests above their duty to handle their portfolios honestly and effectively will either abandon their nefarious plans or be totally disgraced.

A lot of support has drained away from Jonathan since April. His approval rating has taken a huge nose-dive within my circle of friends and professional associates; and I keep bumping into strangers who bitterly inform me that they feel betrayed and wish that they hadn’t voted for him. Even within his core South-South constituency, dissatisfaction with his performance abounds.

But he CAN turn the tide and go down in history as a rare African Head of State and Niger Deltan icon…if he does whatever it will take to make Nigeria rise above crushing mediocrity and embarrassing failure.

Jonathan is not one of life’s natural revolutionaries. He is basically an easy-going and pleasant person who is not into aggressively rocking boats or throwing his weight around. But he is ruthless and stubborn when he feels like being ruthless and stubborn; and this capacity for doggedly doing as he pleases on occasion can become a positive thing if he channels it into running Nigeria properly.

Electricity outages

Having said all this, let us please not be too impatient. It is understandable that citizens who have suffered so much from poverty, electricity outages, poor infrastructure, etc, yearn for instant results and react angrily when a new captain of the ship of state does not immediately deliver the prosperity, security and enlightenment we deserve. And I know that I will never be able to resist the temptation to scream about slow progress from time to time.

But let’s face it: Slowness is inevitable. Cleaning up a society and galvanizing an economy are arduous tasks that cannot be achieved in one generation; and it simply isn’t fair or realistic to expect decades of irresponsible neglect and wanton destruction to be undone overnight by one mere mortal.

All we can reasonably expect from Jonathan is a strong start and a sustained commitment to transformation. A Chinese philosopher once said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with single step. And most Nigerians will enthusiastically rally around their President if he begins to take some firm and courageous steps in the right direction.

A THOUSAND PARDONS!

Last Friday, alongside a glowing tribute to the late great Justice Anthony Nnaemezie Christopher Aniagolu, OFR, we at Vanguard were under so much time pressure that we accidentally published a photograph of Justice Kayode Esho.

Sincere apologies to Justice Esho – another distinguished jurist who is still very much alive. Sincere apologies, also, to the bereaved Aniagolu family.