By William Reed - - Thursday, March 5, 2015
Nigeria has a date with destiny as March 28 and April 11 draw
near. These are two significant dates that, on one hand, present
Nigerians with an opportunity to strengthen democracy through the
ballot.
These dates, on the other hand, are also beaming scaring danger
signals. No thanks to politicians who are beating drums of war,
stumping across the country, making campaign statements full of
fury, with little about issues of concern to most Nigerians. As is
typical of Nigerian elections, the tension is thick in the air, so much
so that the putrid smell of Armageddon has enveloped the country.
Fears are palpable, generating serious concerns among Nigerians
and within the international community.
Nigeria has traveled this route before, not once. There are however
reasons for genuine and heightened concern this time. The last few
years have seen widening cracks along the Nigeria ’s well-known
fault lines of religion and ethnicity. The security situation,
especially in the northeast, has been a huge sore on the reputation
of the Africa’s most populous country. The abduction of more than
200 girls from the Borno State community of Chibok nearly one
year ago, and the perceived lack of enough effort from the
government of President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure they are
rescued, are making the prospect of a peaceful poll a tall dream.
President Jonathan has had to take the blame for virtually
everything going wrong in Nigeria . Admittedly, there are issues
that currently feed this perception. They include the security
situation, corruption and poor living standards of most Nigerians.
Ordinarily, the buck stops at the desk of the president. The
opposition seems to have succeeded in creating the impression
that Mr. Jonathan merely wakes up on daily basis and does
nothing. But things don’t always seem as they look in Nigeria .
That the president has been doing nothing would not pass the
muster of nonpartisan scrutiny. What would be correct is that the
president has actually done little to publicize the many things he
has been doing. In the last six years, the government has been
confronting more fundamental issues of growth and development
with the type of vigor and single-mindedness uncommon in
Nigeria .
The Jonathan administration would trump any previous
administration in the effort made to tackle the near-complete
collapse of infrastructure such as roads, transportation and power
supply. The same can be said of employment generation and
capacity development. Nigeria ’s economy has not only survived
major shake-ups affecting most advanced economies, it has
actually also been growing in leaps and bounds, emerging as
Africa’s largest.
He has perhaps taken an ingenious route to fighting corruption. He
understands the difference between the symptoms of corruption
and the underlying causes. While many had expected a frontal
attack at the symptoms through demonstrative — even if unlawful
— actions by deploying anti-corruption forces in a frenzy of mass
arrests, media trials and public sentencing of suspects, Mr.
Jonathan has chosen to allow the justice system the space to
work.
He hasn’t stopped at that. He is, with the skill of a surgeon,
identifying the underlying causes of corruption and taking them out
one after the other. This is what he did with a fertilizer distribution
scam, which had hampered food production and diversification
effort for decades. Perhaps, he did not make enough noise on this,
but the result of his approach is loud enough for the thousands of
Nigerian farmers who now have easy access to fertilizer,
completely eliminating the meddlesome middlemen. The action is
equally loud enough for the vested interests to fight back and join
the now-profitable president-bashing choir.
The security challenge is a bit more complicated. Mr. Jonathan ’s
emergence represented a paradigm shift in the Nigerian political
arrangement. He was the first person with no strong political
background or affiliation, and from a minority tribe to become a
democratic president in Nigeria . He had not benefited from any of
the important pillars of power such as the support of a major
ethnic group. The template for success in the Nigerian environment
requires much more than the timing of response to a security
situation, such as the Chibok abduction saga. It requires the
willingness of the players within the affected area to put the safety
of lives and protection of properties of the people ahead of their
own immediate political advantage. It is not going to be easy
trimming the hair of someone who continues to run. It could take
time to either catch up with him or get him to willingly agree to the
need to solve a problem. The ability to keep calm rather than adopt
a knee-jerk and high-handed approach in the face of treachery and
impunity is a great asset the president is endowed with. This, as
the opposition is wont to do, can also be mistaken for weakness or
incompetence.
Mr. Jonathan ’s civilized approach to tackling issues is built around
the need to ensure social justice, equity and the rule of law. This
should, ordinarily, be worthy of global acknowledgment and
commendation. But the concerted noise from the opposition camp
and the penchant of some international observers to rush to
judgment without taking full account of peculiarities of an
environment are a bit deafening and blinding to the reality on
ground.
As elections are getting closer, the president is faced with the facts
that Nigerians are in a hurry. They’ve waited for too long. This is a
situation that is being exploited by opposition leaders, who have
been calling for mob actions as against the rule of law. Mr.
Jonathan has equally shown that he understands that Nigerians
are expecting a leader with a magic wand, who could with a snap
somewhere, turn age-long and deeply rooted social decay into an
instant state of bliss. But the magic wand could actually be a
possibility if current efforts are allowed another four years to take
root, grow and bear fruits.
• William Reed is president of the Black Press Foundation.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/mar/5/william-reed-goodluck-jonathan-steering-nigeria-wi/#.VPrVkhGE-tI.twitter

Mods front page please

Sai to ma amiable president, d commander-in-chief of d armed forces, Dr. Ebele Jonathan!

0key:
By William Reed - - Thursday, March 5, 2015
Nigeria has a date with destiny as March 28 and April 11 draw
near. These are two significant dates that, on one hand, present
Nigerians with an opportunity to strengthen democracy through the
ballot.
These dates, on the other hand, are also beaming scaring danger
signals. No thanks to politicians who are beating drums of war,
stumping across the country, making campaign statements full of
fury, with little about issues of concern to most Nigerians. As is
typical of Nigerian elections, the tension is thick in the air, so much
so that the putrid smell of Armageddon has enveloped the country.
Fears are palpable, generating serious concerns among Nigerians
and within the international community.
Nigeria has traveled this route before, not once. There are however
reasons for genuine and heightened concern this time. The last few
years have seen widening cracks along the Nigeria ’s well-known
fault lines of religion and ethnicity. The security situation,
especially in the northeast, has been a huge sore on the reputation
of the Africa’s most populous country. The abduction of more than
200 girls from the Borno State community of Chibok nearly one
year ago, and the perceived lack of enough effort from the
government of President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure they are
rescued, are making the prospect of a peaceful poll a tall dream.
President Jonathan has had to take the blame for virtually
everything going wrong in Nigeria . Admittedly, there are issues
that currently feed this perception. They include the security
situation, corruption and poor living standards of most Nigerians.
Ordinarily, the buck stops at the desk of the president. The
opposition seems to have succeeded in creating the impression
that Mr. Jonathan merely wakes up on daily basis and does
nothing. But things don’t always seem as they look in Nigeria .
That the president has been doing nothing would not pass the
muster of nonpartisan scrutiny. What would be correct is that the
president has actually done little to publicize the many things he
has been doing. In the last six years, the government has been
confronting more fundamental issues of growth and development
with the type of vigor and single-mindedness uncommon in
Nigeria .
The Jonathan administration would trump any previous
administration in the effort made to tackle the near-complete
collapse of infrastructure such as roads, transportation and power
supply. The same can be said of employment generation and
capacity development. Nigeria ’s economy has not only survived
major shake-ups affecting most advanced economies, it has
actually also been growing in leaps and bounds, emerging as
Africa’s largest.
He has perhaps taken an ingenious route to fighting corruption. He
understands the difference between the symptoms of corruption
and the underlying causes. While many had expected a frontal
attack at the symptoms through demonstrative — even if unlawful
— actions by deploying anti-corruption forces in a frenzy of mass
arrests, media trials and public sentencing of suspects, Mr.
Jonathan has chosen to allow the justice system the space to
work.
He hasn’t stopped at that. He is, with the skill of a surgeon,
identifying the underlying causes of corruption and taking them out
one after the other. This is what he did with a fertilizer distribution
scam, which had hampered food production and diversification
effort for decades. Perhaps, he did not make enough noise on this,
but the result of his approach is loud enough for the thousands of
Nigerian farmers who now have easy access to fertilizer,
completely eliminating the meddlesome middlemen. The action is
equally loud enough for the vested interests to fight back and join
the now-profitable president-bashing choir.
The security challenge is a bit more complicated. Mr. Jonathan ’s
emergence represented a paradigm shift in the Nigerian political
arrangement. He was the first person with no strong political
background or affiliation, and from a minority tribe to become a
democratic president in Nigeria . He had not benefited from any of
the important pillars of power such as the support of a major
ethnic group. The template for success in the Nigerian environment
requires much more than the timing of response to a security
situation, such as the Chibok abduction saga. It requires the
willingness of the players within the affected area to put the safety
of lives and protection of properties of the people ahead of their
own immediate political advantage. It is not going to be easy
trimming the hair of someone who continues to run. It could take
time to either catch up with him or get him to willingly agree to the
need to solve a problem. The ability to keep calm rather than adopt
a knee-jerk and high-handed approach in the face of treachery and
impunity is a great asset the president is endowed with. This, as
the opposition is wont to do, can also be mistaken for weakness or
incompetence.
Mr. Jonathan ’s civilized approach to tackling issues is built around
the need to ensure social justice, equity and the rule of law. This
should, ordinarily, be worthy of global acknowledgment and
commendation. But the concerted noise from the opposition camp
and the penchant of some international observers to rush to
judgment without taking full account of peculiarities of an
environment are a bit deafening and blinding to the reality on
ground.
As elections are getting closer, the president is faced with the facts
that Nigerians are in a hurry. They’ve waited for too long. This is a
situation that is being exploited by opposition leaders, who have
been calling for mob actions as against the rule of law. Mr.
Jonathan has equally shown that he understands that Nigerians
are expecting a leader with a magic wand, who could with a snap
somewhere, turn age-long and deeply rooted social decay into an
instant state of bliss. But the magic wand could actually be a
possibility if current efforts are allowed another four years to take
root, grow and bear fruits.
• William Reed is president of the Black Press Foundation.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/mar/5/william-reed-goodluck-jonathan-steering-nigeria-wi/#.VPrVkhGE-tI.twitter

Only a handful has eyes that can see