A group of people loyal to President Goodluck Jonathan, in one of its meetings recently, have come out and spoke exclusive on Jonathan's administration as the most misunderstood and misrepresented ever in the history of Nigeria.
Though the group admitted that President Jonathan has committed what is to be best described 'strategic error', as he didn't lay his cards on the table at the beginning. They stated that, at the initial stage, President Jonathan preferred to be a silent achiever who did not allow his achievements to be showcased. A move that has continue haunting his administration.
But they however argued that the some things the general public should know as far as Jonathan's administration and it's policies are concerned.
A top member of the group said that the major undoing of this administration is the fact that, "out of ignorance, we have lit a major candle and put it under a bushel", as is it stated in the Bible that you don't lit a candle and put under a bushel.
Speaking further, the PDP member confirmed that, '‘about a month ago, I was in Las Vegas and one of my partners who is very vast with what is going on here told me that ‘if Nigeria misses that man, it would be such a big shame'. I didn’t understand so I asked him, ‘who are you talking about?’. He said President Jonathan and I was like, where are you coming from? How? And he said “when you look at certain indices that have been put on the table, today, we have the largest economy, being one of the fastest growing economies, being one that has been declared the preferred destination, there is a reason: we don’t want to go into an investment in a country where we are not really sure of what is happening. But your president is one person who has come and has been able to lay certain things on the ground that makes it easy for you to understand what exactly you are going to do and have a reasonable projection because foreign companies work best on definite projections.” And he said, “that has attracted so many of us, that is the reason we are having the stuff that we are having. Before now, I would not have made that mistake”.
The group also spoke on the systems and structures and certain things that are being put in place, especially about the rule of law. While comparing the Jonathan administration to what obtained with past administrations, they pointed out that “Nigeria has not had the spate of impeachments that became a characteristic feature of Nigerian politics years ago.
Under President Jonathan, the rule of law has also been more pronounced as the country has seen several reversals being made on several offices including governorship and senate. Issues such as those are believed to have been translated into “weakness” of the president. PDP members have however opined that it is indeed part of what should be counted as the strength of the president because the rule of law is something that shouldn’t be traded for anything in the world.
In the area of education, they were quick to point out that “it is only once that we have talked about strike in the academic sector in which case our children are almost sure of when they would graduate”.
They also pointed to the issue of handling of the Ebola crisis as another major achievement of this administration. “Certain things have defined destinies in humans or continents or in nations and a little thing can actually make a man to win or lose election but in Nigeria, how do we treat the case where the whole world, faced with a global crisis, comes to your house to learn how to combat that problem. How can we for goodness’ sake dismiss with a wave of the hand, the Ebola victory? The US, Great Britain, Russia, all these countries came to Nigeria to say please, how did you do it?
The capture of Osama bin Laden was enough to say let the man go back. We all know, an event, it redefined the parameters. When a man wins a global battle and we look at him in the eye and say “for what, it doesn’t matter, I don’t care”, we are not being fair to ourselves.”
The leader of the group went further to say “we got to a point where insurgency was really killing us, was taking over the landscape, of course the head of the country takes responsibility. Now if it all happens that all of a sudden, miraculously, call it fate or anything, the man is winning the battle, will we be most unfair to ourselves if we say it doesn’t matter?.
"We have found out that we have a man who has largely been misrepresented and that is our principal Mr. President", he said.
"I am one of those that believe that probably the word Transformation was not the right word for Mr. President but probably the word ‘future”. "If you want to build an 18-storey building, the foundation is going to be different from if you want to do a bungalow and it is going to probably take you so long and you have got to be a man of the future, a man of insight for you to be willing to lay the foundation of an 18-storey building because all you are doing on a daily basis is burying rocks on the ground, burying cement in the ground but the other man, you can see his house. The walls are coming up, the walls are being painted, the roof is coming up, everything is coming up and you are passing this other man and all he is burying are rocks in the ground. "He ought to have communicated to his people that he was building an 18-storey building. If he did not communicate to people, they might lose patience with him.
"A man comes at the turn of the century, when Nigeria was faced with that almighty threat of disintegration, and a man who is assumed to be weak, a man who is assumed to be clueless took the bull by the horn and said we must get to the table and sit down and talk about this. Past administrations were scared to do it and because we could sit down and talk about it, because we could vent our spleen and then let our differences come out, we could talk. And because we could talk, have we realised that a hundred years have passed and we are entering a new century? The threat of disintegration is no more staring us in the face the way it was before. Somebody took the bull by the horn. This is a major victory in being able to keep this country one, and somebody says rubbish, I don’t care, and so what? We are not being fair to ourselves. And they say we should change. I said change what? Where is the direction?
"I would blame us that we have not communicated the direction but whatever it is, they say better late than never. “
"A member who supports the Almajiri School initiative pointed out that one of the challenges that we have had all along which is the problem we are still having today is that the North is not being educated the way it should be'. "There is a certain culture that the northerner might not be able to break but a southerner might be able to break. It is the situation where one man is the lord and all others are his subjects. They come to him and he doles out his largesse, you know, everybody bows to him. You have that in one section, whereas the children in the other section are going to school, re defining their future, they don’t care whether government exists or does not exist, they are doing their thing and running their stuff. A day will come, they will become men. When these children in the South become men, running their businesses, what will the children in the North become? If you can’t have education, you must have power. And those that have gone to school will wake up one day and say excuse me, this country belongs to all of us and there is going to be a struggle. And that struggle is not going to end easily.”
He continued that ‘the “born to rule” mentality is inculcated into some people from childhood and that child meaning no harm, grows and see you as unsurping his powers, his right, his birthright. It’s like you are in your house, you are playing a video game and you have a visitor and you say play one game and the guy plays one game and decides to play a second game. By the time he goes to the third game, you will ask him that “my guy what is the problem? This is my right; can you just respect yourself and leave?”
He stated further that, "the only way to counter that is to massively and aggressively embark on the education of the child of the North from the first grade schools. That is what the President is trying to do. Why has this not been done all along? It is because the intelligence is a little different. What he is seeing the others have not seen. So, it is the only way the Nigeria of the future will live in peace and harmony where the Northern child is no longer a beggar, is no longer dependent on the largesse of the rich. He is empowered through education, empowered through what comes through education, and he becomes a man whether he becomes the president or he doesn’t become the president is not his cup of tea.
"There will be a Nigeria where nobody will be born to rule and others are born to be subjects in their fathers’ house on their fathers’ land"
He also said few things about the opposition, the All Progressive Party (APC). He advised them that, “what we need is a step up from Jonathan. Let us not out of annoyance, out of our offences, take action that will not work well for us. I believe the APC needs to appreciate the broom concept. The broom concept is that if I stand alone, you can break me but if we are together, you can’t break us. How can we build a party on one man who has integrity? It just doesn’t add up because one man can never change this country and we all know that. And the hawks are just waiting for him. The day you get into office is the day you will realize that a democracy and a military dictatorship are different worlds". "You find this man corrupt, the first thing you are going to realize is that there is no military tribunal, except for the police to investigate him and you are going to wait for the report of the investigation of the police. When they finish the investigation, you take it to the court and you are going to wait for the report of the court. Tell me what you as Mr. President would do?.
I believe that Jonathan, in being able to put road-maps and structures and processes may be slow but the man has looked into the future and has said for me to keep this man in jail will give me two problems, number one, I have to build the jail to put the man, number two, I have to keep feeding that man with the little resources that I have. So what do I do? If I can put a barrier that will stop that man from stealing, what do I do? I have saved myself the cost of taking care of him, and also free him to become resourceful", he concludes.
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