We are 48 hours away from the year 2014.
2014 would be Jonathan’s last full year in
power, so he has to make full use of it.
That would be his last chance to construct
a meaningful legacy for himself. As it
stands today, he is in a very bad shape.
The legacy he has built so far has been
that of incompetence, corruption and
impunity. But one year is surely enough to
reverse this outlook. After all, the late
Murtala Mohammed spent only six months
in office but he made a clear statement on
competence and the fight against
corruption.
The first thing the president must decide to
do in 2014 is tackle corruption. President
Jonathan must make up his mind about
corruption. On New Year’s Day, he must
make this resolution. And the place to start
is for him to change his current attitude
about corruption. Our president does not
appear to know that corruption is an imp
that stunts the growth of nations. Our
president’s mien suggests that he
encourages, protects and romances
corruption, sometimes even with the life of
his government. President Jonathan must
change his disposition towards corruption.
No nation has ever developed or even
made any meaningful progress without first
tackling corruption. All great leaders who
have made a difference to their countries
have said so.
Second, the president must change his
mindset about security of life in the country.
The first duty of any government is the
security and safety of the people and, in
fact, our constitution states that the security
and welfare of the people are the
responsibility of government. The Nigerian
state has technically failed, if one
considers the level of insecurity that daily
confronts Nigerians. The president only
talks and complains about terrorism
without doing much about it. I have never
seen a nation’s president that sounds so
helpless as Jonathan does. Yet, he wants
to continue as president. Jonathan does
not even comment on the armed robberies
and kidnappings that have virtually taken
over the land. Armed robbers now use
grenades, yet the president doesn’t see an
emergency. Are the robberies and
kidnappings also the handiwork of those
who have promised to make the country
ungovernable for him?
The thing the president must do in this
matter is to first know that the nature of
crime has changed globally, so the
strategy and tactics of their resolution must
change accordingly. That also means that
the government must invest heavily in the
training of security agents who must now
be grounded in new methods. High-
precision equipment are available to
defeat these modern-day criminals, but,
with the level of corruption we see in
today’s government, Nigeria may not
benefit from them. These equipment and
training are available to any serious leader
who is serious about keeping his people
safe and secured.
The kind of poignant stories one hears
from those on the battlefield fighting
terrorism must be tackled at once. Some of
the commanders on the field occasionally
use their salaries to service trucks because
of corruption. For the first time, some
soldiers now abandon their commanding
officers and run away because they don’t
feel adequately equipped. We are courting
disaster as a nation, and, if this scourge of
corruption is not decisively handled by the
president, anything can happen. If his
ministers use bulletproof vehicles, then,
the president must personally ensure that
those on the battlefields are at least
properly kitted with modern weaponry to
confront the nation’s enemies. The
president must personally ensure that this
is done because this is an absolutely
important matter.
Another thing the president must confront
in 2014 is unemployment. About 80 per
cent of Nigerian graduates is currently
unemployed and a total of 52 per cent of
Nigerian youths is without employment as
of 2012. These figures must have
worsened by now. Nobody will need to tell
the president that this situation is
unsustainable. There are several ways to
meaningfully create jobs that will ultimately
boost the economy, and I will name a few.
In spite of the disgraceful security situation
in the country, Nigeria currently has only
about 370,000 policemen. This is
scandalous for a country of 173 million
people. For a start, Nigeria should not
have fewer than a million policemen,
considering its size. And I think the
president should give an executive order
for the employment of one million
graduates from the current 80 per cent
graduate unemployment and give them
world-class training to face the challenges
of a modern society. The second thing the
president should do in creating
employment is to compel the petroleum
minister to produce the $10.8 billion that
even Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala admits has
been unaccounted for.
This $10.8 billion is roughly N1.7 trillion.
Let this whole amount be invested in the
housing sector in all the zones of the
federation. Nigeria currently has an
estimated 17 million housing deficit. This
N1.7 trillion will go a long, long way.
Jonathan should resolve to construct one
million housing units in 2014. This is one
surefire way of tackling the current very
embarrassing unemployment level in the
country. And nobody should say it is not
possible because it is. It has been
estimated that building one million housing
units countrywide would create
approximately 30 million jobs because
almost everybody from architects, quantity
surveyors, estate agents, petty food sellers,
horticulturists, decorator, labourers, block
makers, iron rod sellers, engineers,
furniture makers, insurance agents, cement
sellers and many, many more would be
engaged.
And if the N1.7 trillion missing oil money is
not immediately available because it has
been stolen, while the president is trying to
recover the money through the EFCC,
ICPC, police and SSS, he could loan
money at single-digit interest from the N3
trillion stuck in the pension fund. He could
borrow, because the money would be
repaid from the proceeds of the sales of
these houses anyway. The current
Jonathan government’s policy of a private
sector-driven mass housing programme
will fail because interest rates of over 20
per cent from banks will keep the houses
out of the reach of ordinary people. Only
millionaires will afford them.
Another thing the president must do in
2014 is to finally make up his mind to
tackle the oil theft in the country. For the
first time in Nigeria, and this is happening
under Jonathan, oil theft has been taken to
an industrial scale with the quantity of oil
now being stolen outstripping the amount
left for the country. Jonathan should stop
behaving as if he is helpless. If he is, then,
he should resign as president. And if
Jonathan is serious, he can, before the end
of next year, increase our oil production to
3 million barrels per day. A more serious
president would be able to achieve 4
million barrels daily.
We must maximise our oil production
levels as quickly as we can, because the
world energy order is about to change
forever. With the success of the hydraulic
fracking technique pioneered by the United
States and with about 20 African countries
about to become major oil producers, oil
will lose its princely value in the next 10
years, in any case.
If Jonathan is able to face these and
achieve even half of them, he would have
helped himself greatly and his legacy
would be different from the terrible one he
is about to leave behind. But, again, from
his body language, it would appear that I
have just wasted my time and ink.

I wish oga Jona could read the article and act appropriately, gej would have sailed through 2015 election