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9ja Needs Revolution by msay: 6:21pm On Dec 04, 2011
For the first time since he was sworn in, I had a reason to agree on one subject with President Goodluck Jonathan last week. Speaking at the grand finale of PDP campaign in preparation for Saturday’s gubernatorial election in Kogi State, the President declared that there will be a revolution in Nigeria if jobs are not created for the army of unemployed youths roaming the streets. However, in making that statement, the president didn’t convey any sense of urgency to reflect the enormity of the lurking disaster. The president sounded like the eruptions he foresees is in the distant future. He hinted that the revolution is likely to take place four or five years from now. This certainly is my point of dissidence.

Here’s the second experience: The day after Muamar Ghadafi of Libya was killed, I boarded a commercial bus from Lagos Island. The driver, a young man who looked like he was in his early thirties, practically quarreled with almost everybody in the bus. He was accelerating beyond a limit the passengers could condone and they called him to order. He ignored their concerns and continued. Most of the women in the vehicle, who already weren’t happy with him for insisting a price slightly higher than the regular fare for the route, tore him to shreds.The driver picked on the only man in the vehicle who joined the women in the exchange of words with him. Then when he got to the garage, he told the man, “See you, Ghadafi. No be unadey send police and agbero come collect money for our hand? Una don dey form now like say nothing dey happen. We go soon do unawetindem do Ghadafi!” I turned to look at him and clearly observed the seeming excitement with which he vented his frustrations on a passenger in his bus.

These two cases mentioned above were those of the people who have something that keeps them busy. They are not like the millions of graduates who are idling away at home because they have no jobs. I know so many of them. I also know one – a graduate of Petroleum Engineering with Second Class Honors, Upper Division, who is, right now, a bricklayer. It is dangerous for a country to wittingly create- through unemployment – a mass of hopeless people who may not feel they have anything to lose if they revolt against the system.I have friends on Twitter who have shown willingness to protest on the streets of Nigeria if subsidy is removed by the Federal Government. Members of the government’s intelligence unit are on Twitter, and if they know their job, I expect that they’d have given him a report of the level of enlightenment going on there. If they did, he wouldn’t have sounded like the imminent revolution shouldn’t be considered an emergency by his administration.

An overwhelming majority of Nigerians are frustrated. They are victims of failed leadership in a country so blessed by God. They have been impoverished by the same people who steal their money. Governance in Nigeria, at all levels, has become known by the ordinary people as just an avenue for amassing wealth. If you want to become a billionaire, then being in government is the surest means to achieving that aim. This is why financial scandals have become a constant in the government circles.

Yet every day, further facts emerge that render previous scandals minute. Take for instance, a recent revelation by one of the national dailies on how this administration grants customs duty waivers indiscriminately to importers. An administration which wants money for the development of critical infrastructure could afford to, in just eight months, grant import duty waivers , worth up to N150 billion, to a handful of companies whose owners are considered cronies of top administration members, for the importation of agricultural products. This revelation further underscored the fact that this administration isn’t committed to do what they preach. The regime feasts on lies and deceit.

The signs are ominous, yet the president’s handlers haven’t demonstrated that they are interested in the man’s good. Of course they would try currying his favour by telling him those who are his enemies and those who are not. For instance, each of my dissenting comments – and those of other friends with like minds – on Twitter, is seen by those who claim they love the president as a sign of hatred for him. Opposition to his unpopular policies (and they are many here) are seen as the handwork of the president’s enemies. This is very unfortunate.

I am not bothered that I am branded an enemy to this administration. No. I am troubled that the known friends of the president might be his unknown enemies.  They keep lying to him about his popularity. The sad truth is: no president in post-military era Nigeria has been so unpopular just within six months of assumption of office.

There’s a Christian yearly programme called “Experience”. It held on Friday 2nd December. Those who were present narrated a worrisome scenario. The congregation of about 3000 members was asked by one of the officiating Ministers to indicate their willingness to pray for President Goodluck Jonathan. Various reports I got indicate that less than 50 people showed were willing. The man of God was startled. He then went into sermonizing the godliness of people praying for their leaders before an improved number reluctantly indicated their interest to be part of the prayer.

There is a serious meaning to this. Even with a biblical injunction to so do, a Nigerian Christian congregation’s refusal to willingly say prayers for a Christian president should keep a president with a discerning mind on his toes. This is even more so when the president in question rode on such sentiments as region and religion to the seat. The interpretation of this is simple: that congregation, and others like it, will not stop anybody from revolting against this government. And that congregation’s cold reaction to the mention of the president’s name mirrors exactly the pulse of the average Nigerian.

The grip of religion and ethnicity on our polity is gradually weakening. Those factors which fought – and defeated – reason to install Mr Jonathan are starting to show substantial weakness against reason as this admi
nistration races towards its own failure

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