Jonathan: So far, so bad

May 29, 2012 by Niyi Odebode

When President Goodluck Jonathan was taking the oath of office at the Eagle Square, Abuja on May 29, 2011, hopes were high in the country. Nigerians hung on to the President’s promise of positive transformation. In his inaugural speech, he declared, “The leadership we have pledged is decidedly transformative. The transformation will be achieved in all the critical sectors, by harnessing the creative energies of our people. We must grow the economy, create jobs, and generate enduring happiness for our people. I have great confidence in the ability of Nigerians to transform this country.”

With the promise, the thinking of Nigerians was that the Jonathan administration would mark a wide departure from the bad governance of the past. Central to the President’s transformation agenda is stable electricity supply. Nigerians have been made to believe that if it is the only thing the administration can achieve, the country will be on the path of economic growth. The President has been reiterating his determination to pursue the power sector reform. At the inauguration of the Roadmap For Power Sector Reforms, on August 26, 2010 in Lagos, he said, “By God’s grace, by December 2012, Nigeria will not only celebrate one day of uninterrupted electricity supply, but we would celebrate one week, one month and so on of uninterrupted electricity supply.”

But it is doubtful if all parts of the country can celebrate one day of uninterrupted power supply in December going by the rate the power sector reform is moving. The Federal Government, will on June 1, 2012, introduce a new electricity tariff in spite of the fact that the Minister of Power, Prof. Bath Nnaji, himself admitted the failure of government in the sector. At a meeting with labour leaders, Nnaji said there was gross deficit in electricity supply. The President of the Trade Union Congress, Mr. Peter Esele, must have spoken the minds of many Nigerians, when he said that it was difficult to trust government because its repeated promises had not translated into improved power supply. “If after spending billions of dollars, the sector is still not attractive, why should we trust government? We have not been given reasons why the billions did not improve the sector.”

With the government’s poor scorecard in the power sector, it is not surprising that the economy is in the doldrums. Just on Tuesday, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, alerted the country to the impending collapse of the economy. Threats to the economy, according to him, include slowdown in domestic output; especially sharp decline in oil and gas output as a result of crude theft and the decline in agricultural output, imminent increase in the electricity tariff and bomb attacks in the country. He disclosed that the country lost N7bn to crude oil thieves in 2011. This, he explained, made the oil sector contribute only 4.1 per cent to Gross Domestic Product in the first quarter of 2012. Sanusi stated that with the new electricity tariff, inflation level would rise.

Already, the inflation rate is high with the increase of fuel price from N65 to N97 per litre and from all indications; government is planning a total removal of fuel subsidy, which will lead to a further hike in petrol price. In 2011, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, the average inflation rate was 10.9 per cent. Currently, it has increased to 12.9 per cent. When Jonathan was being inaugurated on May 29, 2011, he said he knew the pains of Nigerians. But based on government actions, it is doubtful if he understands the suffering of the people that gave him their mandate. Contrary to his promise last year, he has asked them to bear any pain they feel for now. On October 4, 2011, while canvassing support for fuel subsidy removal during the Presidential Media Chat, he appealed to Nigerians to make “painful adjustments.” According to him, there is no gain, without pain.

Nigerians would have believed the President, if members of his government are also making “painful adjustments” which he asked other citizens to make. Besides the paltry 25 per cent cut in the basic salaries of the members of the executive, efforts of the government to reduce the cost of governance have not manifested enough. In spite of the advice of the Gen. Theophilus Danjuma led Presidential Advisory Committee, the number of ministers are more than 40. Ministry of Foreign Affairs alone has three ministers. The President recently appointed another minister for Youth Development, while the former minister, Bolaji Abdullahi, was transferred to Sports ministry. Efforts of the government to set up the Stephen Oransaye-led Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation must be acknowledged. The committee, which submitted its report last month, discovered that many of the government’s 400 parastatals and agencies are performing overlapping functions. It recommended the reduction of the existing 263 statutory agencies in the country to 161. The President has set up a White Paper committee on the Orosanye report, but Nigerians are waiting if the government would implement at least some of the recommendations.

Above all these, the greatest threat to this administration is bomb attacks and other forms of terrorism in the country. It will be unfair to accuse the government of inaction, but its efforts have not stemmed the tide of terrorism, particularly in the North. In the 2012 budget, security takes the lion’s share (N921.9bn) and government has beefed up surveillance across the country. It has also declared state of emergency in 15 local governments it considered hotbeds of terrorism. In spite of these, terrorism has continued unabated with terrorists attacking the United Nation building in Abuja, the police headquarters, Saint Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger State and multiple blasts in Kano. Terrorist attacks have become daily affair in Maiduguri and many other towns in the North-East. Nigerians were taken aback when the President, early this year, said that members of the militant Islamic sect, Boko Haram, had infiltrated his government, but they are still waiting for him to fish such people out.

For the corruption fight, lull is the word in the last one year. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission have not successfully prosecuted many cases in the last one year. A report of Human Rights Practices compiled by the United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, aptly captures the Jonathan administration scorecard on corruption. “The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption; however, the government did not implement the law effectively, and officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. Massive, widespread, and pervasive corruption affected all levels of government and the security forces,” the report stated. Nigerians are still awaiting the EFCC to prosecute people indicted by the report of the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on fuel subsidy payments. The committee, had in its report submitted on April 18, stated that the subsidy administration was heavily compromised. It recommended that N1.7tn be refunded by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation; Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency; the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and 72 firms. The report also criticised the Chairman of the Board of the PPPRA from 2009 to 2011, and other members of the board during the period for allegedly opening “the floodgate of the (subsidy) bazaar.”

When the committee submitted its report, civil rights organisations, including the Save Nigeria Group, gave the Federal Government a two-week ultimatum to ensure the prosecution of those indicted. However, there were indications that the report would be thrown into a dustbin. The President’s Special Adviser on Political Affairs, Alhaji Ahmed Gullack, had dismissed the report, saying it lacked credibility on the grounds that a former Petroleum Minister, Dr. Rilwan Lukman and an ex-Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Alhaji Mohammed Barkindo, were not interrogated by the committee. But the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, raised hope of Nigerians, when he said that the report had been forwarded to the EFCC for further investigations and prosecution of those indicted. Adoke advised Nigerians to “have faith in the process being undertaken and to patiently wait for the outcome of the investigations and subsequent prosecutions that may flow from the fuel subsidy probe conducted by the House of Representatives and ongoing probe by the Senate.”

As the minister advised, Nigerians are awaiting the outcome of the investigations into the subsidy scam. They are also looking up to the President to fulfill his promise on stable electricity supply and other forms of positive transformation. But with three years remaining, will hope be lost?

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Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE

Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner