IN his rather flattering self-assessment
of his first three years as President,
Goodluck Jonathan recently, unwittingly,
highlighted the ever-widening gulf
between Nigerians and their leaders.
While public opinion unmistakeably
writes off the administration as inept,
vacillating and soft on corruption,
Jonathan and his team have repeatedly
awarded themselves pass marks. His
latest challenge to the electorate to set
performance yardsticks for him will have
many takers. Chances are that the
results will not be so flattering.
Already, comments have flowed in
torrents from stakeholders that
overwhelmingly contrast sharply with
the rosy picture that the administration
has conjured up. Jonathan was unusually
assertive as he presented a 234-page
"mid-term report" of his stewardship
since taking office in May 2010 (first as
acting President) and challenged critics
to "develop their own yardstick" to
appraise his performance. By his own
assessment, he has done remarkably
well, achieving giant strides in tackling
insecurity; revamping the economy, the
electoral system and power sector;
taming corruption and improving
infrastructure.
He went on to reel out figures of growth,
roads built or rehabilitated, plans
ongoing or in the pipeline and how the
lives of Nigerians had been "positively
affected." Gratuitously, he rose in
defence and praise of his ministers, most
of whom had been found wanting in
several surveys in the mass media and
by diverse stakeholder groups. The
President challenged Nigerians to
"...develop criteria because, without a
marking scheme, you cannot mark
anybody's paper."
It is within his rights to engage in self-
adulation, as is within the rights of his
ministers, many of whom have followed
his lead in claiming "achievements"
where there are very few. Jonathan can
rightly claim credit for finally taking
tough action against the Boko Haram
insurgency in the North. He also
deserves credit for appointing an
independent-minded don, Attahiru Jega,
as head of the electoral commission;
curbing the fertiliser racketeering and
belatedly restarting (though slow and
untidy) the long-stalled privatisation of
the power sector. While growth has also
been steady at 6 – 7 per cent, the
recovery of the financial sector, begun a
year before he took office, has moved
ahead.
However, the taxpayer, critics and
opposition groups are also entitled to
assessing those who occupy public office.
And the President has obviously missed a
very crucial point: the majority of
Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora
have actually set parameters by which
they adjudge their government and,
sadly, Jonathan and his team have been
found wanting.
On the most crucial criteria, such as
security, the energy sector, education,
health, privatisation, infrastructure and
corruption, the jury has returned
verdicts. Through sheer ineptitude and
lack of resolve, the government allowed
a fringe sect like Boko Haram to grow,
link up with global terrorism and unleash
a ferocious terror campaign on the
country. The state of emergency that the
clay-footed government finally imposed
on three North-Eastern states last month
was over two years overdue. Decisive
action since 2010 would have crushed
Boko Haram and spared the nation the
horrors of mass killings, bombings and
arson that have claimed 5,000 lives and
shattered the economy and the social
life of several northern states.
Kidnapping, armed robbery, sectarian
and communal strife are rife. The recent
massacre of 102 security men in
Nasarawa State by a tribal cult
accentuates the insecurity in the land.
Education is also in crisis. With adult
literacy at 57 per cent, overall illiteracy
at 66 per cent and more than 10 million
out of the 30 million children of primary
school age not in school, no serious
government should be comfortable.
When 40 million adults in a population of
170 million are illiterate, the country is
ranked 161 out of 180 countries in the
United Nations Comparative Index of
Literacy 2012, and has an
unemployment rate of 23.7 per cent,
chest-beating is rather inappropriate.
In January, the influential Economist
Intelligence Unit released a report
ranking Nigeria as one of the worst
places on earth to be born in. In May, the
global charity, Save the Children, named
Nigeria among the 10 worst countries in
the world to give birth to a child. The
failure of our government to make
appreciable progress was highlighted
afresh in the Human Development
Report 2013 published by the United
Nations Development Programme,
where Nigeria was ranked 153 out of
186 countries on the Human
Development Index, using life
expectancy, income, access to health
care, school enrolment and security,
among others. Our health care delivery
system is poor and those who can afford
to do so seek treatment abroad, while
our infant and maternal mortality rates
are among the highest in the world.
Nigerians feel the pains of the energy
crisis where power supply is less than
4,000 megawatts and we keep
importing refined petroleum products at
great cost to the treasury.
Unemployment put at 23.7 per cent by
the National Bureau of Statistics hides
the reality that 42 per cent of the
graduates of our tertiary institutions
cannot find jobs. The claims by the
President and ministers of having
rehabilitated roads sound like a fairy
tale. Although contracts are awarded
during the weekly Federal Executive
Council meeting, the major federal roads
such as Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Benin-
Sagamu Expressway, Enugu-Port
Harcourt and Lokoja-Abuja highways are
in a terrible state of disrepair. The
advertised repairs are either minimal or
non-existent, just like the claims of job
creation are not born out by reports
from the private sector and the NBS.
Corruption has reached an
unprecedented height, featuring the
theft of N1.7 trillion on spurious fuel
subsidy payments, looting of special
funds, fraudulent budgeting and
impunity at all levels of government.
In effect, Mr. President, Nigerians have
already set criteria and this government
has failed the test. But the remaining
two years of the mandate he won in
2011 provide him an opportunity to
redeem his scorecard and leave lasting
legacies. He can roll up his sleeves and
get cracking or he can continue to
delude himself. The choice is his.