Has President Goodluck Jonathan heard
about the tale of “The Emperor’s New
Clothes?” If he has not, I will tell him. The
story goes like this: A long time ago, a
vainglorious emperor, who did not give a
damn about his people except wearing
beautiful clothes and robes, was
approached by two liars (like some of the
people around the Nigerian president
today) who promised to weave the finest
clothes ever made for the emperor. The
emperor was excited. The swindlers told
him that the new clothes would be so
magnificent and so esoteric that only the
very smart and worthy among the people
would be able to see them. The robes
would be invincible to idiots, stupid and
obtuse people. The clothes would also be
invincible to ministers unfit for their offices.
The emperor then paid the swindlers large
sums of money to start weaving the
magnificent clothes at once. “If I wore
them,” the emperor thought, “I would be
able to know which men in my empire are
unfit for their posts. And I could tell the
wise from the fool.”
The swindlers set up two looms and
pretended to weave, though there was
nothing on the looms. They requested the
finest silk and purest old thread which all
went into their traveling bags, while they
worked the empty looms far into the night.
It was a classical 419 case.
After the “clothes” had been woven, the
swindlers went along to “dress” the
emperor in the imaginary clothes. The
emperor himself did not see anything. He
was confused. Is it that he himself was not
worthy of being an emperor? But he said
nothing. The ministers who also did not
see anything pretended they saw the
esoteric clothes for fear of being labeled
unfit for their offices and incompetent. The
swindlers then led the emperor in a
procession before his subjects to show
them these new wonderful clothes. The
people played along, not wanting to
appear foolish and stupid. This lie
continued until a little child in the crowd,
too young to understand the scam that was
going on, screamed that the emperor was
stark naked. At this point, a few others also
started crying out. The emperor shivered,
suspecting that they were right but he
proudly continued nonetheless.
Watching President Jonathan and his
band of praise singers present their so-
called mid-term report last week eerily
reminded me of “The Emperor’s New
Clothes” or “The Emperor Without Clothes”
as some writers prefer to call it. Minister
after minister, PDP bigwigs of all sorts,
liars and scammers one after the other
praised what Jonathan has so marvelously
achieved within such a short time since he
became president. All of them concluded
that it has never been so good for
Nigerians. I have never seen such level of
shamelessness. You would think you were
watching some horror movie. The act of
shamelessness was unbelievable. If you
did’t live in Nigeria and you were listening
to those clowns, you would think that
Nigeria really had never had it so good
since the amalgamation of 1914.
But the reality on ground is clear, Mr
President. Nigeria has never had it so bad.
Security of life and property, which is the
first responsibility of every government, is
at its lowest ebb. The north, south-south,
south-west, south-east are under the siege
of kidnappers, Boko Haram, armed
robbers, ritualists, Ombatse, MEND and all
sorts of militancy. Last week, in a damning
report on the Iraqi government’s inability to
get a handle on the militancy in the
country, a US news organisation declared
that, since January, more than 2,400
people had been killed in Iraq. For that
reason, Iraq qualified to be termed a failed
state, it said. In Nigeria, we have lost more
than 6,200 innocent people to Boko
Haram, armed robbery and all sorts of
criminality since January. We must then be
more than qualified to be called a failed
state, by that news organisation’s
assessment.
Stealing in government has never been
this brazen, with a few pension thieves
protected by the presidency itself.
Government officials are now so
audacious in their corrupt practices that
they do not give a damn about who is
watching and they do not in the least fear
the president one bit. Presidential
directives are routinely flouted by the three
most powerful ministers, who incidentally
all happen to be women — they are now
famously referred to as the “Bermuda
Triangle”. The nomenclature of Bermuda
Triangle for these women should be
ominous for the president if he knows the
first thing about the Bermuda Triangle.
Things are indeed very, very bad and the
president appears absent, or at the very
least impotent. The absence of the
president is far worse today under
Jonathan than the period when President
Yar’Adua was physically absent and
nobody knew where he was.
President Jonathan needs to look around
himself. He has no clothes on and yet
some palace courtiers are telling him that
he has the most gorgeous clothes on. The
mid-term report is now the subject of very
angry conversations among Nigerians. But
no minister will tell him the truth and he
has tragically lost touch with reality. In
other words, this naked president does not
have the advantage of that little child who
screamed that the emperor was actually
naked. It is so ironic that a president who
claimed to have grown up without shoes
can be so out of touch with the common
man.
First, this corruption has to stop. The level
of stealing in government has become
maddening. It is simple common sense
that there is no way to achieve anything
meaningful with the kind of stealing going
on in government. There are some in this
government that import their food items,
including beef, from Harrods in London
virtually on a weekly basis. Yes, the
insensitivity is that bad. About 150 private
jets have been purchased since Jonathan
became president without a corresponding
economic activity to explain this. And while
all these are happening, our oil production
has plummeted from 2.6 million barrels per
day to 1.7 million due to stealing of the
crude clearly with cover from some people
in the government. Those who steal this
crude oil are now telling us that they will
kill all of us if we do not vote Jonathan for
another term in 2015. But we will leave that
until we get there.
I have been a critic of President Jonathan’s
government for what I see as
incompetence and a lack of focus and
seriousness on the part of the president. I
have done this with the fervent hope that
President Jonathan would sit up and lead
the country in a way that would benefit the
greatest majority of Nigerians. I have all
along been living in delusion that the
president could and would change even if
for the sake of his 2015 ambition. But after
watching the mid-term report of the
characters who make up his government
and his associates, and the self-
congratulatory way the president was
smiling to himself, I have come to the
conclusion that this president cannot
change. He is too far gone!
EARSHOT
Didn’t The US Hear That Jonathan Has
Pardoned Alams?
Last week, the United States authorities
confiscated a mansion in Maryland
belonging to former Bayelsa State
governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha,
claiming that his assets were proceeds of
corruption. They have also declared that
they are waiting for him in the United
States. Apparently, the American
authorities have not heard that our
president has forgiven his former boss for
everything he stole. They obviously do not
give a damn about Jonathan and his funny
definition of corruption. And it would
appear that, so long as we have the wrong
people presiding over the affairs of this
country, so long shall we depend on other
countries to fight crimes for us. It was the
UAE authorities that arrested James Ibori
and it was the British authorities that jailed
him. And we depended on South Africa to
get Henry Okah. To teach other crooks like
former attoney general and minister of
justice Michael Aondoakaa (still remember
him?) a lesson, the United States a few
years ago revoked the former AGF’s visa
for which he has been sulking.
It would appear that all these foreign
countries have more stake in Nigeria than
our leaders have. We have become a
byword and a laughing stock in the
international community. But Nigerians
needn’t be this helpless. We must take our
destiny as a nation in our own hands in
2015. We need to deliver our country and
liberate ourselves and our progeny
By
Sam Nda-isaiah
Publisher leadership newspapers

Too long. That's all!

Short cuts are the reason nigeria is in its current state of wahala

The entire NL comedy cast will be here soon to berate you for daring to suggest GEJ isn't Christ returned to transform Nigeria.

Better go get a Kevlar vest

nuclearboy: The entire NL comedy cast will be here soon to berate you for daring to suggest GEJ isn't Christ returned to transform Nigeria.

Better go get a Kevlar vest

The  thing is that most of them hav low IQ and won't be able to comprehend the "long" write up...am safe

Nigeria a prototype of russia's democracy.
After yeltsin a GEJ type, they saw hope in putin.