As Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan is inaugurated on the 29th of May 2011, for a fresh tenure of office, it may not be presumptuous to declare that the task ahead of him is an onerous one. Starting with the pre-election politics and even the elections that brought him in as President, the cumulative events that produced him as Nigeria’s President brought out the entrenched cleavages and fissures that have held down the progress and development of the most populous black nation on earth. And this is where President Jonathan has his job cut out for him. He has to make concerted efforts to heal the wounds and unite a divided nation. The poignant lessons of the election results that declared him as President, shows that Nigeria is still very much divided along the primordial sentiment of religion and ethnicity. With the south voting overwhelmingly for him and the north voting overwhelmingly for his closest rival Muhammadu Buhari. Hence his actions in the next 4 years should be geared at making his mandate a Pan Nigerian mandate.
The general high rate of insecurity in the country characterized by sporadic bomb blasts across the country, kidnapping and armed robbery in the south, violent ethno –religious conflicts in the north and the recently unresolved cold blooded murder of 10 youth corps service members who were unjustly killed during the presidential elections should also engage his utmost attention. He must resolve to do everything his powers to solve these problems.
The rabid and massive unemployment particularly among young school leavers should also constitute a major fulcrum of his agenda for Nigeria in the next 4years. The imperatives of providing jobs for every willing Nigeria who is able to work cannot be underemphasized as the country is currently sitting on a “keg of gunpowder” with the high rate of unemployment and it shouldn’t be surprising if the doomsday prognostications of experts of an imminent demographic disaster implosion is not going to start before the end of his tenure.
The epileptic power supply in Nigeria, which has constituted serious embarrassments to all and sundry making the country a choice destination for all brands of power generators manufactured from all parts of the world including obscure locations should be addressed with the utmost seriousness and sense of urgency and responsibility it deserves. The President should realize that at the point we have reached with this intractable power problem in Nigeria, he may need to step on powerful toes and make out scapegoats if necessary. He also needs to realize that he needs a lot of political will to do what is necessary as far as the power sector in Nigeria is concerned.
The incoming administration of President Jonathan, should also take a holistic look and assessment of the three vital sectors of Agriculture, Education and Health of the Nigerian economy. He may want to know why these sectors and particularly their supervising ministries have turned into a cesspool of graft, massive corruption, nepotism, indolence, mediocrity and ineptitude. He should also be interested on why these important service ministries have nothing or little to show in terms of measurable service delivery in spite of the quantum of resources that have been sunk into them over the years. The President may need to enact a “broom revolution” so to speak in order to sweep out all the corrupt elements and tendencies that have made these ministries large “empires” and “dynasties” of corruption and nepotism. Even if the President is constrained in appointing technocrats into his cabinet, he should at least see to it that these 3 ministries are over seen by tested technocrats in the mould of the Oby Ezekwesili’s, Nuhu Ribadu’s Okonjo Iweala’s Pat Utomi’s El Rufai’s Lamido Sanusi’s and so on.
A Jonathan Presidency should also begin to set in motion modalities for the practice of true federalism in Nigeria, starting with fiscal federalism as the present unwieldy structure of the country continues to threaten good governance and cannot be sustainable in the long run.
In conclusion, it is hoped that President Jonathan availed himself the opportunity the ambience the Obudu Cattle Ranch in Calabar provided during his retreat, to read valuable books on the History of Nigeria. As a firm grasp of the history of Nigeria will help him navigate the intricate web of complexities that is associated with governing Nigeria, in the next 4years.
