By Jide Ajani, Deputy Editor

This is about looking ahead! Pure! Simple!

Whereas it may not be particularly fair to say the last 50 years of Nigeria’s independence represent a total failure, by the same token, it may also verge on foolhardiness not to admit that dreams have turned into nightmares, ambitions have been crushed, hopes dashed and potentials wasted.

The first year in the second half of the centenary that Nigeria is marching towards ended yesterday.  Mind you, yesterday’s anniversary marks the first for President Goodluck Jonathan as an elected President and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria – need we mention, on the platform of Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP.

And, that is where the problem is.  For a party that has ruled Nigeria for some 12years and five months of those 50 years, with palpable public angst oozing forth like a poisonous opprobrium, it is no doubt that a section of the public is taking President Jonathan’s proposition for an agenda for transformation with a pinch of salt and a pinch of every other spice in the land.

To transform, in general terms, means to change the shape of something, radically or thoroughly to another form.

Therefore, when President Jonathan came to town with his agenda, were  Nigerians expected to invest their belief and hopes in the mantra of transformation and the expectation that Nigeria Go Better?

In terms of expectations, can Nigerians safely use the last 17 months of the Jonathan presidency as a benchmark for future reckoning?  That is what this package examines.

To be fair indeed, Jonathan it was who, employing his aura of meekness, humility and withdrawal ensured that the April general elections produced a success ratio that spared the country the seasonal lampoon from foreign observers as a nation of never-do-wells.

But ahead we must look because those who were in their teens at independence and for whom God Almighty has blessed with long life despite Nigerians’ short life expectancy would remember  how, 51years ago, independence was attained, especially the morning after (which is today).

Therefore, ahead we must look.

Now, looking ahead signifies an intention to go beyond the immediate, explore possibilities, change for the better (radically perhaps) and plan for the future.

In short, that is what the Transformation Agenda is all about. But how do you go beyond the immediate when the immediate appears to already be ahead of you (Nigeria is still bugged down by basic needs which at least 40 countries in the world have swept aside)? How do you explore possibilities when the path to exploration is strewn with mines (insecurity remains a problem)? Concomitantly, what manner of plans can, therefore, be put in place to take care of all these?

Turn to President Jonathan’s TRANSFORMATION AGENDA!

Two years ago, Vanguard carried out a comparative study of Nigeria and African countries such as Togo, Benin, Niger, Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali, countries that also had independence in 1960. The egregious commonality shared is that all these countries, including Nigeria, have fared badly, very badly, on the Human Development Index Scale.

Nigeria ranked 154 on a list of 177 countries of the world, just missing the bottom by a mere 23 positions.  Meanwhile, Nigeria possesses almost all known mineral resources underneath its earth.  Nigeria remains the fifth largest producer of crude oil.  Yet, its HDI is one of the lowest in the world.

Still, a country like Gabon, which also got independence in 1960, has a high HDI.  There are even less celebrated countries like Mauritius, which got independence in 1968, or Equatorial Guinea also 1968, with higher HDI.  Mind you, this HDI “is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide.  It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare.  It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing or an under-developed country”.

In terms of feeding its people, Nigeria is one of the largest food importers in the world despite over 74 million hectares of arable land. The country is said to spend an average of N24.5 trillion annually on food importation.   It was Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State who brought this fact home.  Consider this: “The food import bill of Nigeria between 2007 and 2010 was N98 trillion.

In 2010 alone, Nigeria spent N632 billion on importation of wheat, N356 billion on importation of rice. That means we spent N1 billion per day on rice alone, N217 billion on sugar importation and with all the marine resources, rivers, lakes and creeks, we are blessed with, Nigeria spent N97 billion importing fish.” The governor said he got the figures from the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, whom he quoted as saying that Nigeria was completely unable to feed its citizens going by the current trend of affairs.

So, how do we reverse the trend?

Turn to President Jonathan’s TRANSFORMATION AGENDA.

In fairness, making an effort is in itself a measure of good leadership.
Putting the building blocks together to achieve the objective follows.

So, can we say President Jonathan is following a logical sequence in achieving the set objectives of his Transformation Agenda?

Just four months may be too short to assess his moves.

But he already has a distraction causing headache: INSECURITY.  He is grappling with it.  But the burden is by no means light for him and for Nigerians whose lives are meant to be transformed.

It was Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State who told Vanguard in an earlier exclusive interview that whatever’s got to be done has got to be done, explaining that a bad road plied by just 100 motorists that is not rehabilitated or rebuilt would take a longer time, create more hardships and cost more money when that same road is being used by 10,000 motorists. That is the headache and burden of President Jonathan for, had past presidents of Nigeria engaged a sincere transformational paradigm most of the basic, elementary, pursuits embedded in the TRANSFORMATION AGENDA would have been long forgotten and dealt with.

Today, who carries the burden? It is the burden of about 150 million Nigerians including new born babies and, of course, President Jonathan.  His share of the burden is the heaviest because he sought to become our President and Commander-in-Chief.