“Jonathan’s Government is Irrelevant, Confused and Incompetent,” Says Femi Falana
Posted: June 9, 2012 - 14:11
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Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Femi Falana has described one year of President Goodluck Jonathan’s government as irrelevant, confused and incompetent. He made the damning assessment last weekend on the SaharaTV news program, the Roundtable.
This special edition of the Roundtable looked at 13 years of democracy in Nigeria which was commemorated as Democracy Day on May 29th.
Appearing on the same program, Prof. Wale Adebanwi of the African American Studies at the University of California at Davis described President Jonathan’s first year in office as a “scandal” calling his understanding of governance very “elementary.”
"There is not much to be said about his first year because it is a national scandal," Prof. Adebanwi said to SaharaTV’s Rudolf Okonkwo. "The President [Goodluck Jonathan] has shown absolute incompetence, absolute lack of vision."
Mr. Falana described what had changed in the last 13 years as a move from military rule to civil rule. He regretted that the forces of change failed to compromise during the transition process in 1999. Falana said that if progressives had followed the advice of former President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa that Nigeria could have formulated a descent government of the South African mold, a government which transitioned from an apartheid era government to its current democratic one.
Responding to SaharaTV’s question on whether the struggle and sacrifices for democracy were all in vain Mr. Falana said, ”We now have an opportunity, periodically to choose every four years our own oppressor…it’s no longer a military dictator calling the shots…that’s development.” Falana stressed that under military junta Nigerians could not go to court to challenge or file violations of human rights. “Today we can demand the rights of our people,” Falana said. “We have no regrets for shoving off the military.”
On the way forward, Prof. Adebanwi maintained that there is still the need for Nigerians to come together and discuss. "[The government needs to] create the environment for Nigerians to begin to talk about how we are going to have the ultimate discussion because we have to have that discussion at some point." Prof. Adebanwi said.
Discussing the $6.8 billion dollars fuel subsidy, the N155 billion naira Malabu oil block, and the N36.8 billion naira police pension scam, Femi Falana lamented that corruption has taken over every facet of Nigerian life.
"[In the newspaper] all you read about is the disappearance of billions of naira. In the last 5 months or 6, all the National Assembly has been doing, it's not lawmaking; it's one scandal after another," Falana said.
On the priorities facing the president, Falana suggested the security situation be addressed, reduce level of criminality involving spats of kidnappings and robberies, improve welfare of public and also focus on the many unemployed youths.
"The mass unemployment in our country which has driven our youth to criminality...should be tackled by the government," Falana said.
Prof. Adebanwi on his part expressed pessimism on the president’s ability to turn things around. He charged President Jonathan to show some ‘measure of capacity to even govern the state.” He suggested that the president should begin with ‘cosmetic examples’ by tackling the road situation, unemployment, electricity problem as a way to show his commitment to national development.
"We can't see signs of hope but certainly there is an opportunity to change things." Prof. Adebanwi said.
This weekend’s Roundtable on SaharaTV program will feature novelist Chika Unigwe and commentator, Chido Onumah.

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