Mustapha Abdulrahman


Words they say are cheap and nothing is as
sweet as beating up the weeping boy as all,
including weaklings suddenly gain strength and
bury their own weaknesses in the collective
attack. Unfortunately, it bellies current failures
and provide a ready platform for discuss even
when we know the lie in it.
No situation affords the above assertion better
expression than what has become the order of
the day in casting former President Goodluck
Jonathan in bad light; selling him as a total
failure even in the face of realities. We know that
the heart does not lie but the tongue is deceitful;
so one wonders why even respected men choose
to live the lie because that is the vogue.
Examples to prove the point are legion and
glaring for which one would have been tempted
to gloss over them except for the fact that
Nigerians have started acting too early as if we
are suffering from collective amnesia on the issue
of Jonathan’s performance given the
circumstances.
Most painful is the fact that we have soon
forgotten the accolades that attended the
reformation of our international gateways and the
advertorials that graced newspapers showering
praises on how things had changed. The question
that rushes to ones lips is “Are we being fair to
Jonathan by painting him with the tar of general
lack of performance? Can we stand the pricking
of our conscience over the issue of realities of
crediting one man with the success of another
just to scurry favour?
There were certain things that had left our
memories which the Jonathan administration
restored to our collective psyche and never in the
annals of the country’s history was freedom of
expression given such a handle as under his
regime. He paid dearly for it with the abuses
which it appears people have been fixated on
long after he gracefully left the stage.
It is incontrovertible that in every sense of it, his
transformation agenda really transformed the
country in all sectors though the rot in the system
which had endured over the years seemed to taint
his efforts; but if truth be told, he left giant
marks which his traducers have been working
assiduously to rubbish without success and in the
process; celebrate their own ignorance and lack
of direction.
Rather than fall into the common mistake of
attacking ideas and people, it is more honourable
and respectable to take some issues and address
them to prove that Nigerians will be lucky to have
President Muhammadu Buhari leave marks on the
political and developmental space like Jonathan
did. Without even starting, cries are all Nigerians
are getting from the present regime which
unknown to them, is preparing grounds for the
explanation of its would be failures.
Jonathan approached governance with a
developmental mind with the best intentions for
the country. He placed national interest above
self, a reason he chose a different path by
conceding victory no matter how it was won just
for the country to be at peace. A retrospective
look will reveal how his opponents in no distant
past took their losses at the polls and the
hundreds of Nigerian lives, property and
animosities that went into it. That alone places
him head above all Nigerian politicians and bellied
his considerations for the country. Simply put, he
transformed the Nigerian psyche, giving us an
opportunity to think straight once more.
Another funny thing that has become the order of
the day for example is the praises being showered
on President Buhari over the improvement of
power supply across the country. Yes, power
generation and distribution have generally
improved but it was not a feat that was achieved
overnight because it is not like putting on your
generator at home and getting light immediately.
Power involves intricate processes that include
building of infrastructure, the turbines, gas supply,
the generation, wheeling, transmission and
distribution before Nigerians get the power in their
homes. The question is what has the present
administration done from May till now to have
put those things in place? It is simply the result
of what Jonathan did that Buhari is getting the
praises for. It is like a hunter who shot a game
that in the thrashing of death goes somewhere
else to die and picked by a nursing mother and
everyone starts to sing her praise for killing a big
game. Jonathan updated the transmission
backbone of the country which was unable to
carry above 3000 megawatts; built substations,
massively brought in transformers and completed
generating stations across the country that
radically increased the generation capacity of the
country.
At a point, notwithstanding that gas is not like
crude oil that thieves could puncture the pipelines
to steal, yet each time power peaked within his
tenure, saboteurs would cut the gas supply and
power will drop. What has the present regime
done to stop that other than those who were
doing it have simply stopped because power has
changed hands? Anything that is seen in
improvement of power in the coming years
remains a credit to Jonathan; even Buhari knows
that.
Another funny assertion is that refineries in the
country coming back on stream three months
after the new regime took over were the
handiwork of Buhari. The simple question to ask
is how long does Turn Around Maintenance
(TAM) of a refinery take? What for example is the
average time and process of replacing the
Catalytic Cracking Unit (CCU) of a refinery like
happened with the Port Harcourt refinery?
Answers to these questions would show that it
takes an average of 18 months for TAM and even
longer to procure and install CCU since it is not
an on-the-shelf part; yet gullible Nigerians are
plied with sweet stories of what is not. The fact
again is that Jonathan’s regime turned around
the refineries and any result coming in that sector
goes to only one person, Jonathan.
Prior to the coming of the Jonathan
administration, road travel had but died across
the country. How many kilometers of motorable
roads did we have before then? Travelers between
Lagos and Benin, Edo State slept more on the
road than the days they made the journey in a
day. The Ore axis if it had mouth, would have
testified to how many travelers it swallowed
through accidents, not to talk of those it hosted
in traffic snarls while armed robbers had field
days. Yet those who ply the route now can attest
to the difference. Soon too, maybe, those would
be credited to the vaunted “change”. Roads
across the northern parts of the country are even
better now as more works were done there. Some
bridges conceived in the 70s and left in the
drawing board breathed the air of realisation
under Jonathan while the South East which has
the worst roads also got some relief. There is no
part of the country that did not feel the road
rehabilitation and construction. We await Buhari
to surpass those records.
Airports across the country could be said to have
had the best of it as modernisation spread evenly
for the first time since our independence under
Stella Oduah as Minister. Even today, no one can
without covering his face in shame; say Jonathan
did not reform our airports from Lagos to Kano,
Sokoto to Kaduna, Calabar to Owerri, Benin to
Abuja and Enugu airport which started enjoying
international flights. Jonathan had a fair mind so
much that developments other heads of State had
vowed would be executed over their dead bodies
are now functional when they are still alive.
Rail transportation which is supposed to take
pressure off our roads died long time ago. Also,
the political and military class used it as the
worst conduit pipe to drain resources for years
without anything to show for it. Infact, rather
than shop for tar list to nail Jonathan with, one
thought that the present regime would probe the
rail contracts prior to the time Jonathan revived
it. Today, Lagos to Kaduna, Kano route is back
on stream, Port Harcourt-Maiduguri is also back
on stream among many long hauls. The speed rail
between Kaduna and Abuja is nearing completion
while modern coaches and heads have been
brought into the country, yet people are behaving
as if they are not seeing.
Can one remember the amount the country lost to
food importation even with the land mass that it
is blessed with? Have we forgotten that fertilizer
importation, allocation and distribution created
emergency billionaires while the real farmers that
needed them never had access to that necessary
farm input? Can we remember how rice farmers
craved for patronage and milling machines
without getting positive response from the
required quarters? Do we not know now that we
are inching towards self-sufficiency in rice
productions? How many people know that Nigeria
is the highest cassava producer in the world? So
many milestones the mind could not fathom in
the past were achieved in agriculture under
Jonathan. We thank God that Buhari is a farmer;
we shall see how far he would consolidate on
what Jonathan did.
One thing that needs be said is that even though
the achievements are like work in progress, the
effect of those projects are going to be positively
felt decades from now and therefore beyond
Buhari’s tenure, so posterity should be kind
enough to credit Jonathan with his good works.
Coming to the issue of statesmanship, he still
stands head above everyone which has lionised
Jonathan in the African continent and beyond.
How many sitting heads of state ever conceded
defeat at a poll they superintended? What would
have happened if he decided to contest the
results with all the proof of underage voting and
the lopsided distribution of permanent voters
cards? Have we forgotten the assertion of the
“baboon and the monkey to be soaked in blood”
should a particular candidate lose the elections?
He is not in the category of desperate politician
who wants to be in power by all means. We can
remember not in the distant past, the sharing of
the treasury to elongate constitutional given days
in power by some who today are masquerading
as political saints, yet Jonathan sacrificed the
office for peace.
He had the army, police and other security
apparatchik at his control to have foisted himself
in power or even put up credible challenge to the
election results but refrained from doing so
because of the thousands that would have died
from the aftermath. Putting the nation first, he
saved lives.
From the foregoing, should we attack a man
because he refused to pull punches? Should his
peaceful disposition be taken for weakness and
therefore pummeled with the notion that he lacks
power to go into an offensive or defend himself?
Caution should be exercised when aiming a
sledge hammer on the skulls of the innocent.
Every Nigerian has been a victim of the fraud in
government; while some looted the treasury
within very short periods of time and are
answering statesmen today, others try to hide
theirs in bantes and aso oke, casting the
impression of piety and modesty but we know
that their worth when they assumed power is not
what it is today after selling our common
patrimony to themselves and cronies in the name
of privatization and yet they bask in the euphoria
of being protected from probes.
Probe is good but why not being fair to all and
probe every regime, at least within the era of
democratic rule? It appears the probe is just
another name for going after Jonathan who pre-
scientifically had warned his ministers to brace
up for persecution. Apply the golden rule and
probe all instead of picking and choosing
In the event the suspicions of reasonable minds
that Jonathan is the target hold true, know that
the seed of discord has been sown unless the
plot is to tar a certain section of the country in
order to exclude them from power in the future.
Humiliating Jonathan is humiliating the office of
the President and the consequences can be dire
after all, there had been probes without
consequences in the past.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/how-unfair-can-we-be-to-jonathan-/218105/

But he is still a thief.

From a northerner:

“Are we being fair to
Jonathan by painting him with the tar of general
lack of performance? Can we stand the pricking
of our conscience over the issue of realities of
crediting one man with the success of another
just to scurry favour?

Mogidi:
From a northerner:

notin special..he did wat he is supppose to do...What gej did is lyk 1 step forward and 2 step backwards

kkkp:
notin special..he did wat he is supppose to do...What gej did is lyk 1 step forward and 2 step backwards

GEJ moved one step forward, Buhari is taking 10 steps backwards and you all know it.

He tried his best. GEJ is not a saint, so is Buhari.

Aksonman:


GEJ moved one step forward, Buhari is taking 10 steps backwards and you all know it.

typical wailer

kkkp:
typical wailer

Wailing with Pride.

Gej meant well for the nation. He is naturally a man of goodwill. Itz only inconsiderate nigerians and blind foreigners that castigate him without recourse to conscience.

HungerBAD:
But he is still a thief.

your father is a thief

I beg all these people should go absurdity down jare. The better we can forget about Jonathan, the better.

Whatever he good he may have done has been cancelled ten times over by the amount of looting of our national treasury and damage to our economy under the reign of GEJ. A President under whose reign a petroleum minister looted six billion dollars. Under whose reign over 11 trillion dollars was shortchanged the Nigerian people. What exactly are we thanking him for?

A president under whose reign lawless and impunity became the order of the day. effc and other law keeping bodies became practically useless and irrelevant.

We should be thankful this man has been removed from power and that's end of it.

Don't mind those Gimmicks and demonic lying liars.. they know the truth quite very well..


GEJ's administration was favourable to the us all (doubt it and die of chronic hypertension)

He did well in all ramifications!!...

buh these broom wielding Crabs can't just admit it!


bunch of repulsive Neanderthals!