The confusion consuming Nigeria
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- Category: Within the nation
- Written by Kabir Mato
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In the last few weeks, several unprecedented things happened across the country. Some were gruesome while others merely reflected the un-seriousness of our government and how unprepared we are to get things right as a people.
I don’t see any positive thing happening in this country come 2015. Nigerians do not seem to be learning any lessons from their present and past mistakes. I am almost sure that when elections come, the same fault lines used previously would take center stage and at the end of the day we may have a worst than Goodluck Jonathan take over in Abuja and the meaning of that is that more calamities for the nation and its peoples.We saw flood across the Northern parts of the country for many months. In September/October precisely, it went South. Adamawa, Sokoto, Kogi, Kaduna, Kano and Plateau states had experienced flooding on an annual basis and the best attention we saw was from the respective governments in the states affected and some other kindhearted individuals.
Not sooner than floods began in Bayelsa, Delta states in the Southern ‘hemisphere’ the issue became a federal government affair. On Thursday this week, President Jonathan inaugurated a flood relief committee under the chairmanship of Aliko Dangote. The aim is to alleviate the sufferings and difficulties that floods have caused Nigerians. As I write this, the president is said to be visiting areas hit by the disaster.
I wonder why the sudden presidential attention to an issue that had become endemic and yearly routine in certain sections of the country but little or no presidential sympathy was ever seen apart from the number of times that NEMA would send in blankets and other relief materials.
Is the recent attention given to the disaster by the president a product of reckless political acumen or merely an expression of the insensitivity and thus incapacity of the president to be free, fair and just to all the peoples and sections of Nigeria?
Why would flood disaster which has consumed lives and property for years and months be recognized just after a certain section of the country has become affected? This is wicked and a clear expression of the difference with which Nigerians are treated by this government.
I will need some explanation on this gap in the treatment of the different peoples of Nigeria by a president who is supposed to be for us all. As I see it at the moment, President Jonathan is more sympathetic to the plight of the peoples of the South than he is with those from my own part of Nigeria.
In fact, there were flood disasters in Lagos in the past and I am not sure if the same attention that is deployed to the South-South flood was ever given to it. This shouldn’t be discretion but a necessary political and administrative requirement that any Nigerian under threat or disaster deserves from an impartial government.
Again, this bias is a clear pointer to the thinking of both the president and those who hang around him. It is unfortunate and unbecoming of a government that desires unity and progress of its peoples.
In the last few days, also, several other national calamities occurred. First was the massacre in Mubi Polytechnic which remains more of a mystery. When we argued in the past that there was a growing slide by the nation’s security forces to attributing any crime to the only game in town, the ‘Boko Haram affair’ some citizens thought we were been protectionary, but the reality of today in Nigeria especially in the North is such that anytime any crime or criminality occurs, the ready answer is Boko Haram. This has made the security apparatuses lazy, brutal and extra judicial.
The killings in Mubi are a national embarrassment and clear indication of the level of degeneration and decay in contemporary Nigeria; an ugly picture of a people in dire need of leadership and way out of the logjam.
Not sooner than the Mubi affair was reported that we saw fine young men burnt to ashes in Port Harcourt on charges of theft of Blackberry phone and iPad – another disgrace to the nation and its leadership.
In my view the Port Harcourt barbarism is again an expression of the character and nature of young people Nigeria is breeding: hungry, illiterate, angry and vicious. The schools are collapsing. On the immediate past, Nigerian students would go to war with the state if any of its own was touched. Now we see how they kill each other without regard to life and its sanctity.
All these translate to one thing: bad governance. I’m beginning to hate the term incapacity because I believe sincerely that an incapable president with sound surroundings is likely to steer the ship of state with necessary direction. I think what befalls us a nation is not necessarily and incapable president but a tragic array of lieutenants. Yes!
This new view was corroborated by President Jonathan’s seeming humility to own up to all the issues raised by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal after the budget presentation on Wednesday. The president’s personally collecting the original manuscript read by the Speaker in my view says much more than the ordinary.
He needed to study the issues and possibly act as appropriate. I wish he can. There is confusion all over the place and the need to walk out of them is critical. Governance must be taken seriously especially when placed against the backdrop of the mess that Nigeria is in.
I agree it may not have been the creation of this government but it is responsible because those in power and authority have since carried out a cost benefit analysis before asking for and walking into relevance.
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The confusion consuming Nigeria
Category: Within the nation Written by Kabir Mato Hits: 1123
In the last few weeks, several unprecedented things happened across the country. Some were gruesome while others merely reflected the un-seriousness of our government and how unprepared we are to get things right as a people.
I don’t see any positive thing happening in this country come 2015. Nigerians do not seem to be learning any lessons from their present and past mistakes. I am almost sure that when elections come, the same fault lines used previously would take center stage and at the end of the day we may have a worst than Goodluck Jonathan take over in Abuja and the meaning of that is that more calamities for the nation and its peoples.We saw flood across the Northern parts of the country for many months. In September/October precisely, it went South. Adamawa, Sokoto, Kogi, Kaduna, Kano and Plateau states had experienced flooding on an annual basis and the best attention we saw was from the respective governments in the states affected and some other kindhearted individuals.
Not sooner than floods began in Bayelsa, Delta states in the Southern ‘hemisphere’ the issue became a federal government affair. On Thursday this week, President Jonathan inaugurated a flood relief committee under the chairmanship of Aliko Dangote. The aim is to alleviate the sufferings and difficulties that floods have caused Nigerians. As I write this, the president is said to be visiting areas hit by the disaster.
I wonder why the sudden presidential attention to an issue that had become endemic and yearly routine in certain sections of the country but little or no presidential sympathy was ever seen apart from the number of times that NEMA would send in blankets and other relief materials.
Is the recent attention given to the disaster by the president a product of reckless political acumen or merely an expression of the insensitivity and thus incapacity of the president to be free, fair and just to all the peoples and sections of Nigeria?
Why would flood disaster which has consumed lives and property for years and months be recognized just after a certain section of the country has become affected? This is wicked and a clear expression of the difference with which Nigerians are treated by this government.
I will need some explanation on this gap in the treatment of the different peoples of Nigeria by a president who is supposed to be for us all. As I see it at the moment, President Jonathan is more sympathetic to the plight of the peoples of the South than he is with those from my own part of Nigeria.
In fact, there were flood disasters in Lagos in the past and I am not sure if the same attention that is deployed to the South-South flood was ever given to it. This shouldn’t be discretion but a necessary political and administrative requirement that any Nigerian under threat or disaster deserves from an impartial government.
Again, this bias is a clear pointer to the thinking of both the president and those who hang around him. It is unfortunate and unbecoming of a government that desires unity and progress of its peoples.
In the last few days, also, several other national calamities occurred. First was the massacre in Mubi Polytechnic which remains more of a mystery. When we argued in the past that there was a growing slide by the nation’s security forces to attributing any crime to the only game in town, the ‘Boko Haram affair’ some citizens thought we were been protectionary, but the reality of today in Nigeria especially in the North is such that anytime any crime or criminality occurs, the ready answer is Boko Haram. This has made the security apparatuses lazy, brutal and extra judicial.
The killings in Mubi are a national embarrassment and clear indication of the level of degeneration and decay in contemporary Nigeria; an ugly picture of a people in dire need of leadership and way out of the logjam.
Not sooner than the Mubi affair was reported that we saw fine young men burnt to ashes in Port Harcourt on charges of theft of Blackberry phone and iPad – another disgrace to the nation and its leadership.
In my view the Port Harcourt barbarism is again an expression of the character and nature of young people Nigeria is breeding: hungry, illiterate, angry and vicious. The schools are collapsing. On the immediate past, Nigerian students would go to war with the state if any of its own was touched. Now we see how they kill each other without regard to life and its sanctity.
All these translate to one thing: bad governance. I’m beginning to hate the term incapacity because I believe sincerely that an incapable president with sound surroundings is likely to steer the ship of state with necessary direction. I think what befalls us a nation is not necessarily and incapable president but a tragic array of lieutenants. Yes!
This new view was corroborated by President Jonathan’s seeming humility to own up to all the issues raised by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal after the budget presentation on Wednesday. The president’s personally collecting the original manuscript read by the Speaker in my view says much more than the ordinary.
He needed to study the issues and possibly act as appropriate. I wish he can. There is confusion all over the place and the need to walk out of them is critical. Governance must be taken seriously especially when placed against the backdrop of the mess that Nigeria is in.
I agree it may not have been the creation of this government but it is responsible because those in power and authority have since carried out a cost benefit analysis before asking for and walking into relevance.