Mr. President, This Air Still Isn’t Fresh Yet!

By

Maikudi Abubakar Zukogi

mandzukogisawaba@yahoo.com

President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan perhaps represents a breath of fresh air, at least politically, in Nigeria. In a country where the power equation is said to be held by the three major tribes, getting GEJ, a minority from the Niger Delta, into the once allegedly impenetrable fortress of power truly translates into the President’s campaign slogan: a breath of fresh air. Therefore, as far as Nigerians are concern, the President has breathed some fresh air. He has been able to penetrate the fortress of power, hitherto undreamt of by especially a south-south minority. How he was able to do it; whether he did it all by himself or was catapulted there by some benevolent spirit, is immaterial now. The point is that he is there, and he has been there now for three months; a time that is enough to sieve the grain from the chaff, cook the food, feed the hungry and wait to see them come back to life. The truth is that Nigerians are terribly hungry; they are as hungry for food as they are for change. And maybe, just maybe, that must have been the reason why they innocently bought into the President’s campaign slogan of a promise of a breath of fresh air. And may be, why surprisingly, even shockingly, everybody see himself as Goodluck Jonathan, from the barefooted school children, the shoe-shiners, the street hawkers to the road side mechanics, including of course those high up who have taken the self appointed role of seeing the way for the remaining Nigerians but  who initially threatened fire and brimstone. But even for those who didn’t see themselves as Goodluck Jonathan or dreamt of becoming like him, the mere thought that it is possible, that if he can make it, you can also make it, is intriguing and awe-inspiring. All of this is by the way, especially as Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, the Kenyan writer, argued in his highly satirical novel, Matigari, that ‘there is no night so long that does not end with day break. The day has broken but not with the usual early morning breeze.

The basis for the above background is to call to question the philosophy on which the President’s campaign slogan is anchored. To be fair to the President, he came from a background of deprivation and want, as were other Nigerians, including yours sincerely, but was able to rise to the level where he found himself aspiring, not dreaming, to become the president of the most populous black nation on earth. Therefore, as he took the mantle of power, we expected that he will not be quick to want to erase his past; we expected that, instead, that past which he shares with so many Nigerians, should serve as his recurring guiding principle. Too early to judge, you would argue, but three months is enough to demonstrate difference, which is what he promised us. Nigeria has been suffering from so many deficits, ranging from infrastructure, power, health care, water, insecurity, education to tribal and religious tensions and conflagrations. These problems have always been there. And after twelve years of uninterrupted democratic rule, it has become increasingly puerile and unacceptable to continue to pin them on the military. The Peoples Democratic Party has had an unbroken hold to power these past twelve years and thus cannot use the military as a scapegoat for its failure. The President is, if you like, the son of the soil, true son of the Peoples Democratic Party. So, he is an extension of the party’s hold on power. Thus we expect that what should occupy the mind of the President at least for now should be the concrete and not the mundane things. First, he should think of how to get good and safe drinking water to the nooks and crannies of this country where those who aspire to be like him lives. Water is an essential need of life that is still a luxury in these symbolic places where these people who earnestly pray to raise to his position lives. So also are accessible and functional health care centres to meet their health needs. Without these two as well as well equipped schools, I doubt if they will be able to actualise their dreams. And then next to occupy the mind of the President is the issue of insecurity that is threatening to tear this country apart. When his late boss came to power, the greatest security challenge then was the militancy and kidnapping in the Niger Delta. It was so serious that it was already taking great toll on the mono culture economy of the country. Thanks to the swiftness and foresight of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua, the Niger Delta issue is the less threatening of the security challenges the country faces today. In fact, the success of that brave singular effort is all too glaring as a number of the leaders hold different government positions today and can drive in and out of the seat of power without giving securities any sleepless night. We know that quite recently a committee was set up to look into the Boko Haram issue but it requires more than passing attention; it requires concerted effort on the part of government to get to the root of the problem and to proffer lasting solution to it. The military solution is only exacerbating the problem, as many recent reports have indicated. And the President has not; is not thinking of visiting Maiduguri any time soon to see firsthand the devastation and dislocation that the crisis has caused Nigerians. What affects the nose affects the eyes too. For the past couple of weeks President Obama almost suspended everything to concentrate his energy on how to solve and to negotiate the threatening debt profile of America.  In the end he succeeded but not without frustrating high-wire negotiations between his party and the majority Republicans in the senate.

When the President promised us a breath of fresh air, we thought that he will concentrate on things that will win back the confidence of Nigerians in the government and in their country. We thought that politics will not overwhelm selecting the best people, and there are many around, to serve as Ministers from across the country. We thought that the eighteen thousand minimum wages for civil servants will be a foregone conclusion and not be subject of the usual dilly-dallying and subterfuge of government. We thought that the President will concentrate on issues that are of immediate benefit to Nigerians and not issues that will further heat up the polity. The single tenure thing is good but that is not what millions of Goodluck Jonathans out there are expecting from their President, at least for now. It is not simply for one to mouth difference as the President has done; he needs to demonstrate it. It is not simply for one to say that he is a tiger and go to sleep; he will be run over by a cat. As our own nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, once argued vehemently, ‘a tiger does not show its tigritude, it pounces. In other words, it says I’m a tiger and I truly am one by demonstrating as such. Thus the President promises us a breath of fresh air and should begin to demonstrate this through policies that will readily impact on the people.  It is not enough for the clouds to form; to rain, they need to be driven by a fresh chilled breeze. And air needs to be fresh before it becomes chilled.