Today, President Goodluck Jonathan has 550 days left on his oath of office.



I would like to suggest resignation to him as a patriotic
and honourable course of action, but I use both
adjectives with a deep sigh.
When I first penned my first Countdown Calendar on his
presidency, in July 2011, he had almost 1400 days. On
November 27 of that year when I offered the reminder
again, he had 1,278.
In the past two years, I did not bother to write the
calendar at all in order to avoid sounding like a heckler.
Today, with just one and a half years left, most of which
will fall into the no-man's land of preparing for the 2015
election, I think it is only fair to remind him again that
Time does everything but wait.
What Mr. Jonathan does next, politically, could maim his
legacy, or make it. In my view, the only way for him to
make a significant impact on Time may be to resign his
office, or at least resist the temptation to seek re-
election. If he respects his country-and his party, the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-more than he loves
himself, he ought to consider these options.
For certain, nobody in the presidency will tell him that
under his leadership, Nigeria is a defeated country and
the laughing stock of the international community. Nigeria
is defeated because Mr. Jonathan is defeated. And the
irony and the agony is that he has been defeated more by
his friends than by his opponents.
As he left for London last week for a meeting of the
Honorary International Investors' Council (HIIC), Mr.
Jonathan held in his bag his latest defeat, by his own
Minister, Stella Oduah. The HIIC aims to advise Nigeria
on development issues, in the course of which it is heavy
on political corruption and other challenges to investment
such as crime, violence, poverty and political instability.
Mrs. Oduah has been embroiled for nearly two months in
extremely scandalous corruption allegations that have
taken on a life of their own internationally. But even
while the thunderous allegations went off hourly like
bombs on an old Beirut street, Mr. Jonathan neither
fired nor suspended her.
Even when he finally succumbed and set up a presidential
panel allegedly to probe the matter, he took the Minister
with him on a foreign tour for the first of the panel's
two-week lifespan, along with a member of the three-
man panel.
You did not need anyone to tell you the president was
not really looking for the truth, and it is no surprise the
panel has since receded into irrelevance, with no report,
no presidential action, and no resolution. The Minister
remains a member of the federal cabinet, and Nigeria is
the butt of jokes around the world, many of them
certainly heard by members of the HIIC Mr. Jonathan
was due to meet in London last week.
Perhaps it was no surprise the Nigeria leader opted for
the safety and security of a London hospital bed. Had
that event been in Nigeria and he had to contemplate a
hospital bed, I am certain he would have leapt off the
ambulance into the conference hall like the Under-17
football captain Musa Mohammed after a crunchy tackle.
In other words, while Mrs. Oduah may well be innocent,
corruption, incompetence and indolence again won the
latest battle.
Regrettably, under Mr. Mr. Jonathan, they have won
every conceivable ethical confrontation so far, and I
challenge any presidency official to contradict this.
This is why no government official dwells on the
Transformation Agenda ruse any longer. As I continue to
say, there is neither transformation nor agenda, certainly
none of an ennobling or positive character.
I have no love for the PDP, everyone knows, but anyone
who tells Mr. Jonathan the PDP-old or new-can win the
next presidential election is lying to him. Worse still,
anyone who tells him he can win re-election is merely
flattering him. Nigerians who voted for him in 2011 did on
the basis of his potential, but also because of his ruthless
armada of political promises.
Those conditions have changed drastically, and I do not
see Nigerians falling for any further "I once had no
shoes" stories. Mr. Jonathan's demonstration of
considerable weakness, along with his romance with the
seedier dimensions of politics is certain to yield only grief
at the polls. The PDP, like Nigeria, would have a far
better chance with someone else that has a chance at
seeking believability on his own.
Once upon a time, Mr. Jonathan dismissed WikiLeaks
revelations about the corruption in Nigeria of which he
was a part, as "beer parlour gossip." At the time, the
Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of
Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, also called the
revelations, one of which involved her, "fiction."
There is neither fiction nor gossip about Ministers who
face extensive fraud allegations, just as there is neither
fiction nor gossip about looming anarchy because a chief
of state cannot summon the character to enforce
discipline.
Not only is Mrs. Oduah neither "beer parlor" nor
"fiction," the menace she represents can damage Mr.
Jonathan's presidency irretrievably. She confirms the
advancement of Nigeria's lootocracy while Mr.
Jonathan's inability to act decisively confirms the worst
possible advancement of his political impotence, and his
defeat.
The quality of Mr. Jonathan's defeat as a leader is even
more pronounced when one considers that he is unable to
identify the relationship between his inability to lead and
his unsuitability for leadership.
I am prepared to cheer a leader who pursues the best
interests of his country, but when a leader is dragging
that country into the depths of despair, the only thing a
citizen can do is ask to be set free. That is why I
advocate for Mr. Jonathan a graceful, quiet exit.
Think about it: anywhere else in civilization, Mrs. Alison-
Madueke, claiming to be "deepening reforms and rooting
out corruption" would be one of those hilarious jokes to
which you wake up laughing in the middle of the night, but
not in Nigeria.
I have written elsewhere that Mr. Jonathan's biggest
fear on the corruption file is that he cannot control what
might fall off the branches should he shake the tree.

Nigerians who wonder about the future may want to
keep in mind that during the street protests of 2012, the
Nigerian leader actually sent armed soldiers into the
streets in what I thought was a dangerous power-sharing
arrangement with the military
And yet…and yet this is the year, 2013, that he promised
Nigeria would see performance wonders from him. At his
Media Chat in June 2012, he dismissed his critics as people
who would be humbled in 2013. "No matter the abuse, we
must plan. And after the abuse, people will see the
results by 2013 and things will change," he said.
Really? 2013 is all but over, and Nigeria is doing worse,
not better. Mr. Jonathan may want to remember that it is
the mark of a man to be able to look into the mirror and
simply say, "No more!" No more recycling of hopes and
promises.
Save yourself, Mr. Jonathan: resign. Alternatively, please
remember that with 550 days, miracles are still possible.