JONATHAN: THIS MESSIAH IS SPENDING FAR TOO MUCH

JONATHAN: THIS MESSIAH IS SPENDING FAR TOO MUCH 

                                                                                              December, 2010.

       

By the time Jonathan finish his term maybe next year or 2015, and some of his ‘achievements’ are assessed, some Nigerians will do what they know how to do best; lament after a deed is done. Rarely do you find Nigerians taking on government when it is in power. It happened in the first republic when everyone knew that our politicians then were spending far too much than their salaries, but no one complained. The greatest African writer, Chinua Achebe, in his novel, A Man of the People, chronicled this period. When the military took over in 1966, everyone started talking about the profligacy of the previous government, the obvious corruption and other vices of the defunct government.

This also happened during the last Obasanjo’s regime. When Obasanjo was in power, everyone was talking about this achievement or that one. Only the opposition parties and some journalists voiced concern. But when Obasanjo left, all Nigerians became public commentator over night lamenting the excessive corruption of the regime. The reason why this happens will be a discussion for another day.

 This is what is happening again now. In our euphoria of celebration of the coming of our ‘saviour’, messiah and God’s sent prophet, all of us are turning the other eye to the extravagance of this administration. Though the spending of this abysmal public fund started during Yar’adua’s rule, Goodluck has continued on a higher and dangerous note.

Today, Nigeria foreign reserve is highly depleted. Our local debt is over $32 Billion which is actually more than the Paris Club’s debt Nigeria was forgiven during Obasanjo’s period. The respected World Bank managing director, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, recently admonished the government to arrest this trend. So did Charles Soludo (who government later ‘named’ prophet of doom). But instead of government arresting this terrible situation, government came out and gave a rosy picture of the economy. Government said the present debt level of Nigeria is just 16% of the GDP and until the debt is 25% of the GDP no one can say the economy is choked. Few days later, government said it was planning to borrow more than $4 billion from various donor agencies.  With this, one would tend to believe that Goodluck is bent on squandering all of our reserves and acquire debt for the coming generation just like Babangida did.

We wouldn’t have had any right to criticize the government for borrowing if those monies have been used in developmental projects. But findings show that only 20% of the money has gone into capital projects, the remaining was shared among the three tiers of government.  The inflation rate is not decreasing and is well over 10%. The unemployment rate is very much alarming and businesses are dying every day. Even the power project the government claimed it is spending on is anything but improving. The sector is riddled with unnecessary controversies. So the question we should all be asking now is how we are spending the money. Or rather how are they spending our money?

But you can certainly trust Nigerians; no one will ask any question now. We are all busy marvelling at the political career of Jonathan. Nigerians, young and old, are singing the song of our messiah has come. Just because Goodluck Jonathan has prospered at the expense of two his boss made most Nigerians see him as a special person. Our rather unfortunate belief in luck has continued to be our undoing. No country has ever been run on luck. It takes far more than that. When some people accuse Goodluck of inexperience, one tends to agree with them. His conduct in office since May has been anything but inspiring and if we were under a saner clime he wouldn’t be thinking about contesting for any election.

Let me conclude by saying that Nigerians should acquire the courage of critically assessing the government of the day. We should learn not to allow our emotion and religious belief to over cloud our sense of judgement. If Goodluck is the messiah then he is spending far too much for a messiah. GOD SAVE THE FEDERATION!!!

This article was earlier published in the NATION newspaper of december 30, 2010