18th December, 2014
At last the much awaited primary elections of the various political parties have been concluded. The major parties have announced their standard bearers and their running mates in the presidential election billed for 14 February, 2015. At party level, the contests for the various offices have also been put to bed as the race for the general election gears to crescendo. The conduct of the primaries and eventual emergence of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has now posed a new challenge for the incumbent, who virtually strolled through as the sole candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as only a single form was initially printed for him.
It is the conclusion of these processes that have exposed even more the challenges before President Jonathan. If for anything, his party is yet to shrug off the toga of an emerging autocracy. Many discerning Nigerians were appalled that a chunk of those who wanted to stand for the party’s primary election were deliberately shut out because of the interest of the president. Some of these countrymen are still seething with rage and have joined the rank of those who probably want to see the president out of office through the general election.
We believe as many people do that governance which has largely been in deep freeze under the present Nigerian leadership will constitute another reason Nigerians will not look or even touch the president twice with their votes. All developmental indices regularly released by foreign and domestic watchers have painted a bleak future for the country. Progress has been abysmally slow. Corruption has flourished and the country pitifully polarised along ethnic and religious lines. Yet this administration keeps reeling statistics to show how economically buoyant the country has grown.
Trouble is, this figure never has a connection with the reality on the ground as the majority of Nigerians scavenge, scramble and scratch to earn a living in the face of massive joblessness, insecurity, bad government policies, lack of health care facilities, etc. The seeming inability of government to stem that tide is the very weapon a large proportion of Nigerians need to shoot down Dr. Jonathan’s dream of governing the country beyond 2015.
Nigerians understand that the current system of government is a democracy and as such do not expect so much military gallantry from the leaders. But at least, Nigerians expect the country’s territorial integrity to be respected. They demand to be safeguarded as this is a key fundamental and deliberate state policy of government. Unfortunately, analysts believe that the Goodluck Jonathan government has scored extremely low grades in this regards.
That Boko Haram is annexing Nigerian territories and establishing their caliphate in parts of the country is unheard of in the history of Nigeria. The fact that 219 girls who were abducted by Boko Haram from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State since 14 April are still unaccounted for is indicative of government’s failure to protect its citizens. Many other citizens have been quietly abducted without trace in places like Adamawa, Yobe and Borno with the sect also making deadly beeline to Gombe, Niger, Kaduna, Abuja in the past.
Recently, the president himself admitted hat over 13, 000 people have been killed by Boko Haram .This is the very challenge his government faces. Nigerians appear to be yearning for an alternative, a government that will be up to grips with Boko Haram and indeed provide maximum security for the country. It is absolutely true that we cannot blame the President for all of Nigerians’ woes. But as the leader, he deserves to provide the leadership by galvanising his people to find a panacea to their problems.