BY JIDE AJANI

It can not be said again that it is early days yet in the administration of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (a little over a year in office) but his level of entanglement in sundry issues is assuming a legendary and embarrassing level. This report traces the many issues – some needless, others foisted by necessity; yet some totally pedestrian and ridiculous – that the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan has allowed to weigh heavily on its capacity to deliver on good governance.

What would it take for President Goodluck Jonathan to appreciate the enormity of contemporary challenges confronting his administration?  Discuss!

For a demure demeanour President and Commander-in-Chief who rode to power on a crest of massive goodwill, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan is today saddled with a plethora of issues that are on their steam packed with the capacity to impede a smooth running of his administration.  Yet, on a weekly basis, there appears to be no clue on how to stem the tide; rather, it has become one-a-week bungling.

For those who still ask why there appears to be a stasis, the very seeds of incapacity and shambolism were foisted on President Jonathan by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.  Now, having completely sent the wrong signal about zoning and insisting on the candidate that would become the Speaker of the House of Representatives last year, former President Obasanjo it was who went for broke when he attempted to impose a speaker of South West geo-political extraction from a list of just six members, in a House of 360, on the nation.

The attempt failed woefully as the young Turks in the House re-wrote the zoning arrangement of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, by electing a Speaker from the North West zone.

But that was not the only issue in President Jonathan’s early days.

He dropped the hint of his favourable disposition for a single term of five or seven years for elected public office holders in the executive arm, as against the four years, two terms as enshrined in the 1999 constitution.  The timing of that presentation, barely a month after being sworn into office was not only wrong but insensitive. That generated its own heat.

The latest is the entanglement of the Presidency on the budget implementation.

Waffling between deceptive statements and outright lies, Minister of Finance and co-ordinating minister in charge of the economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is now fond of mis-representing facts, earlier declared that 56% of the 2012 budget had been implemented,  but what is turning out is that the actual implementation is just about 11%.  Even in the face of the realization that this was just in three months which represents a quarter, when you quadruple the 11% in three months, what Nigerians would be left with would be 44%.  Yet, considered, a N1.56trillion budgetary allocation, with a N404billion funds release, of which N324billion is cash backed; and of the N324billion cash backed, 56% of it has been utilized (N184billion); the actual 2012 budget implementation would stand at between 11% and 12%.  The question to ask is: Why would the Presidency, through Okonjo-Iweala, go to town claiming that 56% of the 2012 budget has been implemented?  That was how the nation was swindled on the issue of subsidy.  That is why the tango between the House and President Jonathan over budget implementation would not go away.

President Goodluck Jonathan

But away from the budget controversy, the joint statement issued, last Sunday, by the duo of former Presidents Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida, as a wake up call to President Jonathan, sums up the general frustrations of Nigerians.

To start with, it calls to question the level of degeneracy of the administration much so that it is now an Obasanjo who spent 139months, spanning 11years plus as head of state and Babangida, who spent 96 months spanning eight years, with the attendant crises that followed, are the ones now counseling President Jonathan that “efforts are scaled up to be more involving and inclusive. In this regard, whatever robust security measures are put in place to contain the situation, as is normal in such circumstances they must be complemented with an equally intensive process of community involvement.”

Memories of what Obasanjo’s eight -year rule as civilian president left behind are still fresh; for Babangida, had he not become a victim of forces and allowed MKO Abiola’s victory to stand, Nigeria, perhaps, may have become a better country.

While their concerns are indeed needed at a time of national stress, the signs remain ominous.  With the insurgency in the North along with the ethno-religious killings in Plateau State, the tango with the House, the perception in some quarters that governance is becoming irrelevant in the lives of many Nigerians, talks about national conference, resurgence in the Niger Delta and the continuing crude oil theft, President Jonathan should indeed scale up.

Obasanjo and Babangida  said: “Uunfolding events in our dear motherland, Nigeria, over the last few years are threatening to unravel the nearly a century old labour of our founding fathers and subsequent generations in building a strong, united, peaceful nation that can accommodate and cater for the needs and aspirations of our diverse communities. ‘’Internecine crises are raging across the land unabated with damaging consequences on the social, political and economic life of the nation. And in the process untold hardships are being visited on all citizens in one form or another on a daily basis. The loss of innocent lives being experienced by the day across the nation is simply unbearable. Currently, the nation is gripped by a regime of fear and uncertainty that virtually all citizens have difficulties going about their normal day to day lives without great anxiety and trepidation. This cannot be allowed to continue!

‘’A deeply worrying trend that is emerging from this terrible situation is that a pervasive cynicism is beginning to set in, so much so that millions of true Nigerian patriots are starting to question the platform upon which the unity of this country rests. This is simply untenable. The people of this country must not allow whatever sense of frustration, fear and despair we are experiencing now to supersede our hopes for a collective destiny which lies in our continued existence as a nation. For us, and we believe for millions of other Nigerians, the continued unity of this nation is not only priceless but non-negotiable”.

The baggage being carried by President Jonathan is largely made up of the perception challenge that was created for him during the dying days of Yar’Adua.

Never in the history of Nigeria has a President suffered so much unfounded ignominy in the hands of citizens.
Well, President Jonathan should, by now, come to terms with the realization that all things are working together based on the orchestration of some politicians whose eyes are firmly focused on 2015.

As an executive president, there are quite a number of things President Jonathan can do and should be doing to tackle the myriad of challenges confronting his administration.  This is about power politics. The real danger confronting his administration is the number of needless controversies that he allows to distract his attention.  Some are choreographed, others are foisted, but most are self-inflicted (See Box).

From the issue of second term, to the way he manages the First Lady, as well as the issues surrounding his PDP, President Jonathan should disembark from his demure posturing.  And whereas he once declared that he would not operate as a bully-president, it is high time the generality of Nigerians begin to see in him a man they can look up to; enough of being entangled in matters transient and pedestrian.

ENTANGLEMENT APLENTY
*Controversy over 2015 and single term of five or seven years
*Controversy over non-attendance of a session at the CHOGM
*Subsidy scam and Otedola/Lawangate
*PIB and fake online version: By who?  For what purpose!
*First Lady as Permanent Secretary in Bayelsa State
*Tenure elongation and pursuit of amendment to the constitution
*Insecurity and firing of Azazi
*Jetting out of the country in moments of serious national crises
*The now infamous “I don’t give a damn” comment on public declaration of assets
*Involvement of President’s people in illegal collection of subsidy funds
*Turai Yar’Adua/Patience Jonathan tango over land
*Budget and impeachment threat
*Inaccurate information about budget implementation from presidency
*Now IBB and Obasanjo virtually accused his administration of being clueless

Whenever Obasanjo speaks, doom looms

*Rattled the Babangida administration when he declared that SAP (Structural Adjustment Pogramme) must have human face and milk of human kindness.  The then Lagos State military governor, Okhai Mike Akhigbe, responded by saying Obasanjo’s comments were ranting of a frustrated farmer.

*At the height of the confusion that occasioned the June 12, 1993 presidential election annulment and the seeming unwillingness of then military President, Babangida, to relinquish power, Obasanjo described the situation as one where Babangida represented a bull in a Chinaware shop and needed to be goaded to leave and not by force – soon afterwards, Babangida gave the famous stepping aside speech.

*The same Obasanjo, while scheming to be Head of Interim National Government, HING, declared in far away southern Africa that Abiola was not the messiah

*Sani Abacha may have been wiser and smarter.  Just as Obasanjo began to run his mouth against that junta, Abacha had him entrapped and tried for coup plotting, before he could cause more havoc. The tribunal judgment was for Obasanjo’s execution but he was given a life sentence. But for Abacha’s death, may be Nigeria may have been spared the tragedy that Obasanjo’s action wrought during his eight-year rule as president and leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

*When in December 2009 Obasanjo returned from Saudi Arabia where then convalescing Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was, the former made a public statement admonishing Yar’Adua to resign if he couldn’t continue to operate as President and Commander-in-Chief – indeed, Obasanjo had just been allowed to visit the sick Yar’Adua in hospital. If the family had known that Obasanjo would turn round to embarrass Yar’Adua, perhaps Turai Yar’Adua would not have consented to his having access to him.