By Rotimi Fasan

ONE wouldn’t know if this is a sign of political ineptitude or an admission of failure but with his claim that his government is being distracted by insurgent activities in parts of the country- activities that have crippled his ability to deliver on his electoral promises, President Goodluck Jonathan increasingly appears to be at a point between a reluctant president and a confounded one.

In the past when the President made such apparently artless claims many tended to praise him for his humility but that line can no longer sell.

Not since the President made his now-notorious statement that he declared his assets publicly in 2007 but only because President Umaru Yar’Adua did (which he believed was not right anyway) and that he, indeed, doesn’t now give a damn what Nigerians thought of his refusal to fulfil the moral obligation of publicly declaring his assets in a country where public officers clearly couldn’t be bothered between the difference between personal and public property and have turned the national treasury into personal purse from which they routinely help themselves- not since the President drew the battle line on public declaration of assets can he present a humble face to Nigerians any more.

The boy without shoes from Otuoke has grown feet too big for any made-in-Nigeria shoe. He has lost all that assumed artlessness that many thought was a sign of political honesty and innocence. Here is a president as clever and foxy as any we’ve ever had. Which made his statement that security issues have swamped his administration’s capacity to meet his electoral obligations quite a damning self-appraisal.

At the 60th National Executive Council meeting of the PDP last week, President Jonathan told his gathering of party faithful that at the inception of his administration their primary focus was to make power more available to Nigerians and generate more jobs.

But now, the President went on to say, his administration’s gaze has been shifted from these twin objectives to security, no thanks to the activities of insurgent groups across the country who have made life and property very unsafe.

This is to put the matter rather mildly because in truth what seems to be the case, really, is that large parts of the country are gradually railroaded into a state of total chaos and turned into killing fields by terrorist groups that have taken a measure of this administration and come to the conclusion that it is weak on many counts.

What President Jonathan has said, without seeming to realise it, is that his political agenda has been changed and he has been handed a new script by a motley crowd of miscreants, party thugs, common thieves and hardened criminals all united under the anarchist agenda of fomenting both ethnic and religious war in the country.

According to the President, his administration is being distracted by the activities of the insurgents who now force him, he appears to be saying, to concentrate on addressing the security challenges thrown up by these anti-social elements rather than improving the country’s power sector and providing employment for more Nigerians.

Viewed from one angle, both power generation and provision of more jobs are one and the same objective-one drives the other. A major reason industries have folded up and relocated to other parts of the world was because of the parlous state of Nigeria’s power sector.

It’s been a long time goal of government since the return to civil rule in 1999 to set things right in the sector. But while many have raked in billions of Naira, funds meant to increase the country’s power-generating capacity, into private pockets, Nigerians get enveloped in thicker darkness.

At a point, the Yar’Adua administration of which Jonathan was a part, declared a state of emergency in the sector, making it an area of key attention but nothing came of it beyond the hot air that was blown around the issue and more billions that went into private accounts.

Then President Jonathan came on the scene and pretended to be going ahead with the Yar’Adua plan in a vacuous attempt to create a sense of continuity between both administrations. Again, nothing doing.

The President pussy-footed so long on the power sector issue- he dithered on the matter without showing any sign that he knew what should come next until the mindless groups, ranging from herdsmen, ethnic jingoists, religious and political revanchists to common criminals and killers, in different parts of the North, to say nothing of armed robbers down South- all of these came on the scene to muddle up the already fouled river of national stability.

Now the President wants us to believe that the observable failures of his government were borne of the distractions caused by the outlaws that threaten both the peace and national cohesion of this country.

Well, President Jonathan would need to do more than come up with lame excuses such as this. Ensuring security of life is a major task of any administration. It is routine requirement.

A state that cannot secure the lives and property of its citizens has failed a crucial test of relevance. It follows, also, that a leader that cannot make the citizens feel safe cannot continue to lay claim to the allegiance of the people. What Nigerians want to see is action not listen to idle words that have no practical effect.

More than any other time in the past, the President now sounds like a repeating clock, a stylus caught in a groove with his parrot remarks and promises to end the activities of terrorists across the North and other category of criminals in other parts each time a new tragedy is unleashed on the people.

While we still have a semblance of governance in some of these places, government will need to act fast to halt the slide into mayhem. Soon it might be everybody onto themselves. Each new attack gets deadlier than the last and all we hear are words. Whole villages are sacked and towns and cities are shut down and all we hear are the same dry, uninspiring words.

One begins to wonder if this administration has any thing to offer beyond the worthless words and excuses that lead one to question the preparedness of the present administration to rise to the demands of the times. Yet in the midst of these clear failures which the President admits to, he still had the presence of mind to engage in party talk, slamming the perceived opponents of the PDP who want them out of power.

Surely, this President doesn’t seem to appreciate the enormity of the challenges before us all. Wake up Mr. President and smell the coffee!