5 Ways President Jonathan Can Become Very Influential By Jude Egbas

Last Friday, shortly before 6pm, a
most disingenuous Tweet found its
way through my Twitter Feed. It was
from Reno Omokri; President
Jonathan’s Special Assistant on New
Media. For the Records, Omokri
does a good job of putting a spin on
every presidential move, especially
the wrong ones. My decision to
begin ‘following’ Reno a few weeks
ago on Twitter was borne out of a
desire to afford myself a few guffaws
now and again. He is that effective.
The tweet read: “President Jonathan
is a nominee on Time Magazine’s
poll of the world’s 100 most
influential people. Pls vote for him
here….”
Now, my love for US based TIME
Magazine preceded my days as an
undergraduate student. I carried
copies with me everywhere I showed
up. For me, ‘TIME’ and ‘The
Economist’ were the oracles—
emblazoned with beautifully crafted
and strongly worded articles I would
devour over and over again. So, my
shock was palpable when I read
from Reno that President Goodluck
Ebele Jonathan’s (GEJ’s) name could
well find its way into one of the
journal’s annual masterpieces: a
glowing profile of 100 persons who
influence lives in different parts of
the world, for good.
As Reno wrote, GEJ was only a
nominee. He would need our votes
to eventually make the shortlist into
an enviable roll call that would
include very powerful people. In my
opinion, Reno and his Boss should
perish the thought of canvassing for
votes, completely. It is a bad idea
and very ill-timed. I can forgive TIME
for not going about a thorough
research to glean that our
President’s influence has not
exceeded the bounds of Aso Rock,
before going public. But if Reno and
his principal must call a spade by its
name, they would put a call through
to TIME Magazine, mutter their
apologies for the misrepresentation
and embarrassment this would have
caused them and get down to
serious work at home.
Those of us who often take the
Government to task on issues of
national concern are always scoffed
at for not bringing any solutions to
the table. Today, however, I run the
rule on five steps Jonathan can take
to really begin peddling his
influence domestically:
1. The Committees Are Becoming
A Bore: President Jonathan ran his
campaign on a ‘Transformation’ and
‘Breath of Fresh Air’ mantra.
Everyone knows thus far that these
pay-off lines have devolved into
misnomers. If anything, we have
woken up to the formation of
committees to look into every
aspect of Nigerian life from the
kitchen sink to the rest room.
History has shown that these
committees have never solved our
problems.
Sadly, the proliferation of
committees in the Jonathan era
points to a diabolical scheme to
create more avenues for ‘the boys’
to have more access to that
proverbial national cake. We know
that there are several ministries and
pseudo ones too. Why inaugurate
committees to carry out the
functions of the plethora of
Ministries and Junior ministries?
What has become of the findings of
various committees and probe
panels in the past? Why create
more committees when the
recommendations of previous
committees have ended up in
Government trash cans?
2. Fixing Nigeria=Infrastructural
Improvements: Trust me Jonny Boy,
the day my Generator quits
complaining of overuse and
interstate roads are no longer death
traps, I would personally pen a
glowing tribute to TIME Magazine
requesting that your name makes
the shortlist of influential people
every month!
Nigeria’s infrastructural decay is
legendary. The power conundrum
remains that: a conundrum. 160
million or more people are yet to
reap the dividends of democracy,
two decades after. No one said all
these problems could be solved by
President Jonathan waving a magic
wand, but “get to work!” has been
the outcry. There should be a
definitive plan of action. Every
infrastructure of note that could
really influence private and public
business is comatose. Influence?
What influence?
3. Fight Corruption: No Nigerian
President has possessed the bottle
to put the monster of corruption in
its place and President Jonathan has
been no different. Yes, corruption is
deep seated, but with the requisite
political will it could be fought to a
standstill. Corruption walks on
several legs in the petroleum sector
everyday ( the president prefers to
call these legs ‘cabals’) and rears its
head in all Ministries.
Last time we checked, these men
who fleece our common wealth are
garlanded with presidential honours
and feted at Government functions.
Those are the chaps who negatively
wield an influence over us, not the
President.
4. Security Challenges: TIME
Magazine should please explain to
us how a president under whose
watch several lives have been lost;
and who is at a loss on how to fix
the security problems that daily
confront his people, has become so
very influential. Yes, every country
is beset by security challenges, but
in our case what is discernible is the
sheer cluelessness of the security
and intelligence agencies and a
glaring lack of tactics. There
appears no strategy or method to
combating terrorism.
I don’t know what the Editors at
TIME were thinking, but our
President could use a little less
distraction from them at this time
and actually make Nigeria a safer
place to do business.
5. Poverty Is Rising and Jonathan
is Influencing?: Let us get down to
brass tacks: Nigeria is one of the
poorest countries in the World.
According to figures from the
National Bureau of Statistics, almost
100 million Nigerians ( out of a
population of 160 million) are living
in absolute poverty. I don’t think
this 100 million people would tell
you they have been influenced by
President Jonathan in any way. And
we are talking about an oil rich
Nigeria here. 80 per cent of
Jonathan’s Nigeria lives on less than
$1 a day.
Even the President’s spin doctors
will find it doubly difficult to gloss
this one over. Poverty stares you in
the face everywhere you turn in this
country. The easiest way to curtail
the specter of poverty is basic—
check the corruption in official
circles and let the people begin to
enjoy their oil wealth.
I would want to believe that the
President did not ask to be on
TIME’s most ‘influential’ list. It must
all have been a mistake; some bad
dream; a printer’s devil. The logical
thing for Reno Omokri and his fellow
media hatchet men to do now is to
stop pursuing the ‘Vote for
Jonathan’ line. It is a scandalous
and embarrassing line to pursue. At
this moment, we all know that
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
is everything but influential at
home.
As for the authoritative TIME
Magazine, I suggest, a mea culpa of
some sort from them to the Nigerian
people for rubbing our misery in
and reminding us of how short we
have fallen as a nation, will be
apposite. We can thereafter dismiss
this as a cruel joke, pretend like it
never happened and get on with
our lives again.

Please do follow me on twitter @
egbas.