Africa
First Year of a Failed Presidency
By Jackson Ude, Pointblank News 14/7/08
Jul 16, 2008 - 9:07:27 AM

As a man who appeared unprepared to lead the world most populous black nation, President Yar’Adua in the last one year has displayed all the attributes of an ill-prepared leader whose actions are dictates of sycophants and men and women whose idea and knowledge of leadership is to loot the treasury while invoking the name of God.

We have watched in the last one year as this government carries on without any policy focus on how to at least ameliorate the sufferings of the Nigerian people. The business of governance has either remained stand-still or totally collapsed in the hands of the Katsina State born president.

>From anti-corruption war, the power sector to the economy, President Yar’Adua has left no one in doubt that his ill-gotten presidency, courtesy of former president Olusegun Aremu Okikiola Obasanjo is yet another sham in the political history of Nigeria.

President Yar’Adua came into office with a bogus promise to declare a state of emergency on the power sector. Instead, he declared a state of emergency on himself, jetting off to Germany for medical treatment and leaving Nigerians wondering if he himself is healthy enough to tackle the power sector that gulped over $10 Billion under former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Up till now, Mr. President cannot explain why he has not been able to declare the state of emergency.

Nigeria has an installed output of 3, 200 megawatts of electricity. But this dropped to 1,200 in the first quarter of 2007 due largely to shortage of gas and pipeline vandalization. The Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, put it more succinctly when it revealed that power generation went down from installed capacity of 5, 200 MW to 1,750 MW as compared to a load demand of 6,000 MW. This was because only 19 out of the 79 generating units were in operation.

Besides the power sector, President Yar’Adua promised to make the Niger Delta issue a top priority. Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, a son of Niger Delta, reechoed the administrations resolve to tackle the crisis in the region within six months. It is one year now and the region has metamorphosed into a zone characterized by militancy, pipeline vandalisation and hostage-taking for ransom. Not even the Senator David Brigidi’s committee for Peace and Reconciliation has been able to create an impact and on the President’s list, “it is a top priority.”

Infrastructures are in total decay. No sector seems to be functioning except the Presidency, The State Government Houses, State Assemblies and the National Assembly where loots are shared on a daily basis. The education sector remains in decay. The Health sector is not even in the agenda of the government as Nigerians in their millions roam the street with no form of health insurance or any form of coverage. And Yar’Adua carries on like the “Baba Go Slow” that he is!

On corruption, President Yar’Adua came into power promising zero tolerance to corruption. It is now an open knowledge that the institution charged with prosecuting corrupt persons, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been dismembered and rendered powerless to shield corrupt politicians and lately, Farida Waziri, a former Assistant Inspector General of police, AIG, known to have hobnobbed with some corrupt Governors, is now in charge of EFCC. Since the removal of Nuhu Ribadu, the agency is now a toothless bull-dog now mocked and laughed at by those thieving politicians of no conscience.

In the last one year, none of the former Governors whose stolen monies have been traced to various foreign accounts have been prosecuted. They all walk free under the protection of Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice.

With a dashed hope, Nigerians have continued to live under a President whose only achievement in office is his sing song “rule of law” which have continuously been employed as a political tool to give legal face to an administration that parade politicians with the highest degree of economic crimes.

President Yar’Adua never applied the so called rule of law to himself when he was declared winner of an election that have been adjudged the most despicable since the history of Nigeria by simply abiding by the same rule of law, a constitutional principles that requires government to be conducted according to the law of the states and which forbids election rigging, to reject the outcome of the Presidential election.

Alas! He never did. Rather, he accepted the dubious election and when everyone cried foul, his foot soldiers came up with a solution. And rule of law slogan was it!

President Yar’Adua’s chorused rule of law has allowed his friends and financiers to hide under it to seek legal protection from answering questions bothering on the act of stealing public funds that has contributed in no small measure to cripple the state of Nigeria.

Under President Yar’Adua’s rule of law, the likes of Orji Kalu, James Ibori, Saminu Turaki, Lucky Igbinedion and others whose legendary stealing style can only be equated to dictators such as Mobutu Seseseko, Sanni Abacha, Charles Taylor and a host of other maniacs roam the streets of Nigeria as free men when they are supposed to be cooling off in jail for plundering the resources of their various states, leaving there people impoverished more than they met them.

However anyone sees it, for the last one year, this government has been a photo trick, a deception and a sham that will fade away like water vapor without any meaningful contribution to salvage the drowning ship called Nigeria. God help Nigeria!


Source: Ocnus.net 2008