Collins Uma: Blaming it all on Jonathan won’t help our cause (Y! FrontPage)

by Collins Uma

Collins

President Yar’Adua often went to Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj and nobody saw any problem with that. Why now? We have pilgrims’ welfare boards saddled with the responsibility of subsidising pilgrimages in most if not all the states of the federation and nobody raised an eyebrow until Citizen Jonathan decided to go on pilgrimage. Yes, why now?

I am quite surprised that nobody has yet found a way to make yesterday’s partial lunar eclipse seen around Nigeria to be a bad thing or something unheard of in the annals of our history and find a way to blame it all on Goodluck Jonathan. Absurd, but that is what the term ‘opposition’ has been reduced to in Nigeria. Anybody who can afford any GPRS-enabled mobile phone and can open a Twitter account instantly becomes an authority on how a nation should be run or chooses for himself an overlord who knows more than everybody else how a nation should be run and who’s opinion he makes unimpeachable. For these ones, democracy in Nigeria started in 2010, after President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s death, Nigerians enjoyed 24-hour uninterrupted power supply daily until a certain Goodluck Jonathan became President, and, they added this recently, no sitting President has ever gone for pilgrimage.

State sponsored pilgrimages are as old as Akara balls in Nigeria and our Presidents have always gone for pilgrimages. This makes me wonder why it is being made to seem as if Jonathan’s is the first. President Yar’Adua often went to Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj and nobody saw any problem with that. Why now? We have pilgrims’ welfare boards saddled with the responsibility of subsidising pilgrimages in most if not all the states of the federation and nobody raised an eyebrow until Citizen Jonathan decided to go on pilgrimage. Yes, why now?

The blame-all-on-Jonathan dish is becoming stale and very boring. Nigerians are wise enough to know that he is not Nigeria’s only problem. Strictly focusing on bringing him down without giving equal attention to other levels of leadership makes the motive very suspicious. If anything, the scandals coming out of the aviation sector should teach us that a bottom-up approach is the best in ridding this country of corrupt and incompetent individuals and their negative influences. Do we have any idea what our Councillors and Local Government chairmen have been up to? Their actions affect the people more directly than any other level of government. I can bet so many of us do not even know who is representing our constituencies at the states’ Houses of Assembly. If the Jonathan critics love Nigeria half as much as they claim, this is the home their charity should begin from.

Imagine what would happen if Mallam Nasir el-Rufai focused more on what is going on in his Kaduna State and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar asserted more pressure on the Adamawa State government to perform better and be more accountable and Chief Femi Fani-Kayode questioned the Lagos State government as much as he questioned the federal government and Otunba Dino Melaye led Kogi people to the streets anytime he suspects something unwholesome with the governance of his Kogi State. Imagine what would become the sum of Nigeria’s constituent parts if all the state governors and other officials are kept on their toes constantly by people from these states. The Presidency would then be more wary of the strength of the opposition and the seriousness of its mission when these bring their concerted attention to bear on the administration’s actions (and inaction).

Talking about Jonathan at River Jordan without talking about the outcome of his meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu does not cut it. Ranting about the ‘bloated delegation to Israel’ without finding out the actual size and the reason why each member of the delegation was included in the trip is just an expression of PCM (Permanent Critic Mode). Questioning the National Security Adviser’s inclusion in the trip and asking him to stay at home when far-reaching security agreements were being arrived at in Israel only shows how ignorant some critics actually are. It is high time we elevated the discourse.

I wish pulling down President Goodluck Jonathan was all we need to do to save Nigeria. But it isn’t. The rot is all around us. Princess Stella Oduah has just been exposed. Let’s hope Mr Jonathan does the needful. The pilgrimage is over. Let’s turn the searchlight on the next agency. Or the next ministry. Or the next governor.

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Collins Uma is a trained Sociologist with a bias for Developmental Sociology. He is a public affairs analyst and commentator. He is also a husband and father and an ordained Minister of the Gospel. Collins Uma tweets via @CollinsUma

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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