By Rotimi Fasan
IN line with the spirit of the times, this column has of late taken an interrogative tone. The title of today’s piece bears this out. There are too many things going on in Nigeria today that demand answers nobody seems ready to provide. Those best placed to provide the answers, those whom history assigns this duty don’t seem conscious of, much less realise, the responsibility thrust on them by their position. Which is where we are today with President Goodluck Jonathan.

There is no way one talks about the President at this time without, at best, sounding like a broken record or, at worst, like a member of the All Progressives Congress. But there is no doubt that President Jonathan has signally failed to rise up to the demands of his office, to say nothing of the times. On very significant points he has failed the leadership test. Nothing brings this fact into sharp focus than his handling of the terrorist siege laid on the country in the last fortnight. Based on this point and many others before now Nigerians can rightly claim to have a president but in dire need of and search for a leader. President Jonathan is, but leader he is not.

Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Alhaji Ahmadu Bello

It might all look so unfair to blame one man for the increasing failures of Nigeria. It may sound foolish to ask questions of him that many of us cannot answer. When we do this, however, it is not because we are irreverent armchair critics who must always look for people to blame for our collective failures. Nobody expects the President to explain how terrorists came to plant bombs in a busy motor park in our so-called seat of power. Indeed nobody expects him to be able to explain how members of, perhaps, wider network of this very same murderous movement attempted a jail break within visible distance of the seat of presidential power- no, nobody expects President Jonathan to know the fine details of such an attack or why there were no hints of it before it occurred. But that is why the President has subordinates assigned direct responsibilities for these duties. One does expect these presidential appointees to be answerable when matters concern their office. Where they can’t satisfy their principal on this score then they have no further business working for him.

While the President often exercises the power to hire he does seem in need of a reminder that the Constitution also confers on him the concomitant power to fire. Or he would by now have sent into deserved retirement many of his non-performing appointees, including those in the intelligence and security community. This class of Nigerians appears to have taken their professional cue from the President who doesn’t seem to know what to do with the power his position confers on him or the right time to admit he has failed and should genuinely seek help or give up his position.

Under the watch of this president terrorist attacks have become routine. Terrorists destroy properties, schools and houses; maim and abduct children and women, and send security personnel to their early death. The terrorists boast of their exploits. They provide graphic details of their attacks, aware they are dealing with a man who was carried, piggy style, into the presidential villa and so lacks both the knowledge and experience to hold that office. The spate of attacks in the last one week alone is meant to register this point loudly- that they, the terrorists, are winning the battle against state institutions and the people while the state looks on bemused.

To add insult to the injury caused by a president who cannot protect his own people though he has authority over the use of the means of providing such protection and other supports- to further cause anger in the country, the President and his subordinates go around with the baloney that Nigerians are not being vigilant, urging them to be ‘security conscious’. The very people under the siege of criminal and murderous groups are now being blamed for the failures of so-called leaders who lack the balls to lead. With more than 80 Nigerians killed in one fell swoop, mangled beyond recognition while going about their businesses, and many more injured in the Nyanya, Abuja, bomb attack; with the abduction of more than 100 school girls in Chibok in Borno State and the murder of many young Nigerians on their way to sit the last university matriculation examination, it beggars belief that all the President had to say during his so-called sympathy visit to the scene of the Nyanya attack was to repeat the worn promise to bring perpetrators of the attacks and series of criminalities to book.

Even worse for the President, he embarked on a campaign trip for his re-election to Kano in just about 24 hours after the massacre in Abuja. Apparently while nearly 100 people got herded into the world beyond, the President couldn’t wait to go on with his re-election bid. He was caught in living colours joyfully dancing and frolicking with other members of his party. He seems in a constant state of celebration even when everybody around him is in sackcloth. Only days before the Nyanya attack he gave his daughter away in a lavish marriage ceremony. To imagine he could still have the stomach for any celebration after Nyanya is beyond reason! What then was the meaning of the long face he wore during his sympathy call when he couldn’t wait to be gone to Kano? Has the President reduced all he does to mere politics, believing that what he does mean nothing to Nigerians and he can simply fool around with their emotions while labeling as political any criticism of his performance?

Is it mere politics to expect some ‘milk’ of human kindness from the President? Is somebody telling the President that Nigerians are not fools; that Nigerians are getting wise to the fact that the so-called humility by which he got and still gets many sold is a mere put-on?. That he is making too many mistakes, genuine or not, that show him in equal measure to be both inexperienced and lacking the qualities of a leader? The conduct of President Jonathan in his response to his handling of corruption matters by his appointees, his lack of a sense of direction in the governance of Nigeria and social missteps in the face of grave challenges to the legitimacy of his presidency and the security of the country makes clear all the point I’m making about the difference between a president and a leader. President Jonathan is indeed our president. But he is, unfortunately, not the type of leader we need at this time.