Dear President Goodluck Jonathan, You Need A Reality Check
Dear President Goodluck Jonathan, You Need A Reality Check
Dear President Goodluck Jonathan,
You need to face the facts in your administration and stop living in denial of the short comings and failures of government since your ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) won the presidential election in May 1999 and with majority in the election of the state governors, legislators and local government areas chairmen and chairwomen and thus giving you more powers in control of the Nigerian government than the opposition since 1999 to date. But what have you all achieved so far?
Even your boss and godfather the former president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo said things were better when he was in office compared to you and your predecessor the late Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua and for majority of Nigerians things are getting worse and not better. And you always say you are not the cause of the woes of Nigeria, that they were already plaguing Nigerians before your election. But what have you done to address them and implement your so called Transformation Agenda?
You have told us your agenda since over 18 months ago, but where is the transformation?
I have already enumerated all the shortcomings and failures of your administration in several articles which none of your hired political sycophants could refute and again how come that illegal bunkers have been stealing more of our crude oil now that you are in power than before as Nigeria is losing over $5 billion (N780 billion) yearly to crude oil thieves when your own self-appointed ex-militants have been paid millions of dollars to protect oil pipelines and other installations?
Did you know that Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) said that Nigeria can end illegal bunkering of our stolen crude oil in 30 days if your security agencies stop being the accomplices and partners in crime with these notorious crude oil robbers?
Who were the sea pirates that killed Captain Romeo Itima, Managing Director of Global West Vessel Specialist Limited, an oil bunkering surveillance company owned by ex-militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo who was contracted by the Federal Government to provide security and monitor the nation’s coastal waters against oil thieves?
How come ex-militants are now doing the job of the Nigerian Navy?
If you are really transforming Nigeria as you have boasted, why is your beloved wife First Lady, Aunty Dame Patience Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan flown overseas to a foreign hospital and now being treated for an undisclosed ailment in Germany and not at the National Hospital in Abuja?
How many million of naira of Nigerian Tax payers’ money have you spent so far on foreign medical trips for yourself, wife, families, relations, ministers, other public officials and your beneficiaries, including your unofficial first lady?
Do you know how many millions of dollars Nigerians spend annually for better healthcare overseas, because Nigerian hospitals don’t have the modern medical facilities to care and save the precious lives of majority of Nigerians?
Sir, do you know that there is only 1 doctor to over 33, 000 Nigerians when the global recommendation is 1 to 1, 000 people?
Is this not enough to declare a state of emergency in the health sector?
Why not give full scholarship to all students of medicine in Nigeria and send brilliant medical students to America, the UK and Japan to be trained at modern schools of medicine and teaching hospitals of world class standards?
Or you have no such plans in your transformation agenda?
How many government hospitals have MRI Scanners?
How many of the consulting rooms in general hospitals have Sphygmomanometers?
If your ministry of education is really being transformed, then why should Nigerians spend N160 billion annually on university education in Ghana, more than Nigeria’s annual budget for education in 2011?
If you are really performing as you claim, why did 800 companies shut down in Nigeria due to harsh and insecure operating environment and others have relocated to Ghana?
Why have you not revived the textile industry that can employ millions of jobless Nigerians?
How many jobs have you created so far to employ the 33 million jobless Nigerian youths?
Have you seen the Al Jazeera documentary on Nigeria: The Young And The Jobless?
Do you know how many innocent Nigerians and others who have been killed since you became the the 14th Head of State and current President of Nigeria?
Are you saying the Boko Haram is stronger than the Nigerian Armed Forces of which you are the Commander-in- Chief?
What have the governors and legislators you recently gave national honours achieved so far?
Are you honouring them for doing the duties for which they have even been paid jumbo salaries and for their misappropriations of public funds?
Have you seen the Kafkaesque nightmares of those living in the states and local government areas of these governors and legislators?
Lest we forget that in 2011, you failed to nominate and appoint at least 36 indigenes (one for each of the 36 states) which is a breach of article 147 subsection (3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999: "...the President shall appoint at least one Minister from each State, who shall be an indigene of such State".
This was enough to impeach you!
Then you claimed the unprecedented record of being the most criticized President in the world, which the Guinness World Record has rejected, because it is a lie.
You have accused the opposition of masterminding the nationwide protests against your undemocratic removal of the subsidy on petrol on January 1, 2012, in a very wicked way to wish Nigerians Happy New Year. But no one from the opposition gave me any of the bottled water or packaged food you alleged before I joined the masses that trooped to the streets in public demonstrations to reject your bad New Year present.
Majority of Nigerians, including your fellow Niger Delta indigene, former Petroleum Minister Professor Tam David-West joined the protests of the Organized Labour in nationwide strikes from 9–13 January 2012 and then on January, 16, you made the pump price of petrol N97 naira per liter and Nigerians cooperated with you. And what have they gained from it?
Dear President Goodluck Jonathan, the list of the shortcomings and failures of your administration will bore my readers, because it is no longer news since the public opinion poll of majority of Nigerians shows that they will prefer a better president who can guarantee them three square meals daily and security. And that is not too much to ask for!
Please sir, your critics are not your haters, but your best friends telling you the truth which the majority of Nigerians can testify of as the evidence of your maladministration is overwhelming.
I have no apologies or regrets for not flattering you and your incompetent public relations managers Abati and Okupe Limited should be sacked!
~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima
About the Author
Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, aka Orikinla Osinachi, is a prize-winning Nigerian writer born on January 30, 1963 on the Lagos Island in Nigeria. He is the second son and third child of Mr. Sunday Eke and Mrs. Gladys Eke, who migrated to Lagos from Umuahia in south-eastern Nigeria. He is the author of Children of Heaven (1987), Scarlet Tears of London (2006), Unveil Me My Love (2007), Bye, Bye Mugabe (2008), In the House of Dogs (2010) and other books and the most prolific African blogger since 2005 to date. He has been one of the most published illustrators in Nigeria, commissioned by Johns Hopkins University’s Population Communications Services (JHU/PCS) and Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) for the Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria (PPFN) and National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwifes (NANNM). He later became an IEC Officer for the Centre for Education on Population, AIDS and Drug Abuse (CEPADA) and a program consultant for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) which he combined with his occupation as an artist, independent scriptwriter and production manager for TV from the age of 18 to when he was 37 for the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and DBN TV in Lagos. Presently, he works as a literary and media consultant in Lagos as well as also running his own companies as the Publisher/CEO of International Digital Post Network (IDPN) Limited, the largest Nigerian online news and information media network and the founder of the annual Eko International Film Festival and Screen Naija Open Air Cinema’s “One Village, One Cinema” Project to take cinemas to the urban and rural communities in Nigeria.. Michael Chima is committed to his Christian faith and charity for the benefit of humanity.
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