JONATHAN OR JUDAS?

President Jonathan’s administration has transformed me to an avidly ardent news freak! So many issues have been popping up these days. Issues have swollen into a vortex potent enough to lift off my self-imposed writer’s retreat. Gladly, we live in a world of expressions.

With Boko Haram’s gain of momentum during this political dispensation, the sect has moved-on from being ruthless squanderers of human life to hideous agents of religious and national disintegration. Never before has the unity of Nigeria been so threatened; never before has the ineptitude of the Security Agencies been so blared; never before have Nigerians lived in so much paranoia. How can Boko Haram (or is it ‘Banza’ Haram?)^* become history when this basic question remains unanswered – Who is Boko Haram? How do you outwit a faceless enemy?

On fuel subsidy removal, so much has been said; so much has been done and much more is on-going. While it may theoretically garnish Nigeria’s economy (as the experts claim); what will become of a nation whose people plunge deeper into impoverishing paucity? There are limits to sacrifice. The labour of our heroes past, I am not even sure have not gone in vain. Must Nigerians go through this to build a better nation?

The magic turn-around of the economy which proponents of the subsidy removal policy claim to achieve via the SURE-P^* is a mirage; not when the age-long monster lives on – CORRUPTION. The SURE-P appears so unsure.

At status-quo ante, Nigerians paid N65 per litre. Even then, the government made roughly N25 off every purchaser. Accumulations of theses excesses have not yielded returns over the years. How the cost of subsidy metamorphosed to 1.3 trillion Naira per annum in GEJ’s tenure, I still cannot discern; especially as it costed Obasanjo’s administration only 300 million Naira for the same time-span. Nigeria’s hitherto foreign debt was paid fully by the OBJ^* administration. Today, we are owing again. Excess Crude Account has been depleted from 23 billion dollars to NOTHING. The money has been ‘squandered and the account scrapped’. Foreign reserves continue to deplete.

GEJ’s has only succeeded in creating more bottle-necks for his administration through his conspicuous show of greenness. 25% reduction in basic salaries of public office holders is tantamount to meager sums, when we know that the allowances account for the huge sums wasted. Why not cut down the cost of running the government? Why have so many irrelevant agencies? Isn’t it smarter to reduce petrol price by cutting down the cost of producing refined petrol? Bottom line: how did we ever resort to refining oil abroad? Why subsidy in the first place?

GEJ should make efforts to reclaim all the monies that have ‘missed roads’. The funds realized should suffice for infrastructural development. In essence, his administration lacks funds because of extensive misappropriation, embezzlement and corruption. I could go on and on…

JONATHAN or JUDAS?     Time will Tell!

Footnotes:

Banza – an Hausa word meaning ‘stupid’, or ‘useless’

SURE-P – Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme

OBJ – Olusegun Obasanjo. Ex-President, Federal Republic of Nigeria