If these occurrences were diseases induced by germs or viruses we would have raised a national alarm for them to be eradicated. Since August 15, 2010 when a loaded trailer sent 42 people to early graves, nothing less than 50 others have met the same fate courtesy of the monsters on wheels.

For the sake of those who might not be familiar with the way trouble started let me quickly summarise. Mrs Jonathan was a guest of the people of Okrika because she is (emphasis mine because this has an important bearing on the case) an indigene of Okrika. As protocol, or “apple polishing”, demanded, the Governor accompanied her and even planned a dinner for her after the visit to Okrika.

“Why not “step aside”, to borrow the words of another failure, and let Nigeria march to her destiny? Perhaps, his departure might even help to undo the harm done by a cynical former president”.

As usual, his supporters wanted to know if there was something personal in my remarks. They could not, of course, accuse me of tribalism that time. Yar’Adua/Jonathan followed with the unwieldy seven-point agenda; I counseled three – power, roads and resolution of the Niger Delta conflict for the first term and others for the second –if ever there was a second.

In the year 1987, after an exhaustive study, personally funded, I sent a detailed report to Babangida’s Minister of Transport (name withheld for personal reasons) pointing out that in a few years, motorcycles (okada or achaba) would become the major means of urban transport on account of SAP.

“Of course you cannot know a man completely, his character, his principles, sense of judgment, not till he shows his colors, ruling the people, making laws. Experience, there’s the test”.

In all my years in the US, I never read of a president “commissioning” a state project. Jonathan seems set to break the “Mugu record” laid by Obasanjo. Is this leadership, given that no Ministry or parastatal this year has an approved capital vote mid-July?

We were mostly wrong. But, we discovered we were remarkably right on one point – never appoint someone as Chief Executive Officer, CEO, for a giant, multinational organization, employing hundreds of thousands of people and impacting the lives of millions who happened to be the last man standing after an accident – for the simple reason that they generally don’t know how to manage simple, not to talk of complex organizations.

That is their kind of leadership. In June, without a budget for the year, our President was in South Africa waving flag in a stadium. That is our kind of leadership. From South Africa he went to Delta and will soon run off to the G-8 Summit and who knows it will be Akwa Ibom next. Still, there is no 2010 budget. And this is the nation the dreamers, including Jonathan, expect will be top 20 in 2020!!! He got a No1 shirt in Toronto fit for jesters.

“Those who spend their time on small things usually become incapable of large ones”.
Rochefoucauld, 1665.
Let a perfect fool mysteriously become the president of Nigeria today and all of a sudden individuals and groups will spring up singing his praises; investing him with qualities he would not ordinarily claim for himself and Youth Earnestly Asking for Buffoon (let’s call our fool that), YEAB, will surface to organize two hundred million man marches.

The real truth was, President Jonathan was lured to Oyo State to attend the 60th birthday anniversary of the Governor of Oyo state. Akala stood proudly between a former and an incumbent president and the result was a photograph to frame for life by the Governor. It is quite possible that it finally dawned on the President of Nigeria that he was wasting precious national time on frivolity of the worst kind at a time the nation still did not have a budget for 2010 and he has not given the nation an idea of how he intends to lead.

President Goodluck Jonathan specifying requirements for the nation’s enduring democracy.
Last week, this series ended with a poser, “how can we ever develop when every four years we go through the orgy of election induced violence master-minded by our political leaders?” In 2007, it was “do-or-die” according to someone who, if he were not the occupant of the innermost corridors of power, would have been considered fit for a straight jacket. Now read and read again the first statement.

President Goodluck Jonathan specifying requirements for the nation’s enduring democracy.
Last week, this series ended with a poser, “how can we ever develop when every four years we go through the orgy of election induced violence master-minded by our political leaders?” In 2007, it was “do-or-die” according to someone who, if he were not the occupant of the innermost corridors of power, would have been considered fit for a straight jacket.

If I read you right, you said Jonathan has a way out if only he has the courage to make that choice…What is that way out? What is that choice he has to make before he goes far wrong, you owe the president and the nation the duty of stating the way forward. I say this because your views are always accurate! Austin Oti Obilor”

This column could easily have been entitled HOPE RENEWED IN JOS and it would have been just as apt. For three days last week, I was back again in Jos because it is an enduring story and it represents one of the many puzzles we must solve as a nation for unity and peace to prevail.