The Mistakes of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan

Comrades,

When Goodluck was elected the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria little did he know that he will one day become the president of Nigeria. His journey to the throne of presidency was a tortuous one and we will spare this paper the scheming that brought him to the throne. The only significant point was that he had no contribution to his emergence as the president of Nigeria signifying that he has no conviction. Leaders are neither dreamers nor opportunists rather every known leader that has achieved had a conviction and it is their conviction that drive them. During the primary preceding the general election Goodluck was undecided until Mathew Aremu Obasanjo announced to the nation that zoning was not in the constitution of PDP. However it was the same zoning that made Obasanjo the democratic president of Nigeria as the stage was set for Alex Ekwueme who was the leader of the G34 that gave Abacha the worst battle of his life to succeed as the president of Nigeria. Let it be said also that it was the zoning formula also that made Goodluck the vice president as he was an underdog during the election, but the president was from the north therefore we needed a southern vice president. Even Aremu could not change that. Goodluck succumbed to the stooges, sycophants and power brokers surrounding him to ravage the laid down rules of the PDP. If Goodluck were a statesman he could have conducted election and hand over power or shift base to another political party to contest election for presidency. It is true that the powers that be at PDP could not have allowed him to change party since he was a sitting president but that too is tantamount to seizing undue advantage. Call it opportunity cost if you like. Friends Goodluck bargained but power like freedom are the two things you don’t bargain, rather the have to be fought for and conquered by the interested people. That alone makes him a weak president and it is already seen in the enlargement and delay that followed the appointment of the ministers. He said he is going to focus on economy and light but what of other sectors like infrastructure, agriculture, education just to name a few. It is a game of give and take. That was his first mistake that gave root to the succeeding ones.

Preceding, during and after the general election was a crisis that led to the slaughter of numerous people including youth coopers. Mr President again compensated the families of the coopers and nothing was heard of the numerous others that were slaughtered in cold blood. Few days later the president roared that enough is enough but the killing continued and is still going on. The only known action was the inauguration of a commission of enquiry that was as well dead before the inauguration. That was another mistake. Mr President is weak.

The Boko Haram had been unleashing terror among Nigerians for months. They have killed numerous police officers and military. The attempted to blow off the police headquarter and numerous other places. The government offered to dialogue with this sect but they refused to dialogue rather imposed a condition that their leader Yusuf was killed by the police and demanded apprehension of the people that killed their leader. Last week Mr President initiated the trial of 7 police officer among who were assistant police commissioners. This is the worst thing that can happen to a nation. The point I am trying to make is not that Nigerian police officers are saints but this is one injustice too many. Trying police officers for the death of a man that invaded police station killing numerous police officers not to talk of Nigerian citizens. There is a lacuna in this trial jamboree because I wonder who have tried or will try Yusuf and his group the Boko Haram for the thousands and hundred of Nigerians the have killed. I wonder the spirit the police will continue to work with if an APC is tried for killing a killer. No other officer had ever been tried anywhere in the world for killing even another officer not to talk of killing a member of a sect. This is the extent of decay our beloved nation has reached. It is tantamount to treasonable felony to subject a police officer to such dehumanizing process of annihilation just because he is performing his duty. History will not exonerate us of a wilful sin of omission if we fail to stop this process of derobing these officers in the name of legality and order. These are the consequences of bargaining. Mr President it is another fatal error.

Good time

Paul

Italy in a pot of soup

Comrades,

As you know a few days ago the appeal court sitting in Milan ordered Silvio Berlusconi’s Finivest to pay  Engr. Carlo Benedetti the sum total of 560 million Euros as compensation for trickily taking away Mondadori press. As usual the sycophants around Berlusconi are crying wolf. Some of them say that it is another act of persecution by the Italian Judiciary, while others say it will be wrong to ask a company to pay such a huge amount of money in this trial times. The ‘paretto equilibrium’ says completely a different thing, but we shall come to that later. What these stooges surrounding Berlusconi has failed to tell the world is that, Berlusconi corrupted a Judge to take away Mondadori from De Benedetti. Again all the people involved in this saga including Berlusconi’s lawyer Previtti and the Judge had been languishing in Prison. Berlusconi escaped prison through one of those self serving laws he made for himself. The national tragedy is that for another while or months the politics of Italy will be directed towards the services of the Prime Minister while the good people of Italy will continue to suffer. In what is now termed the ‘black Friday’ the stock market went crashing just 2 days ago from the time of writing (The last time we such episode was in 1987 in United States and it was called ‘Black Monday’). It was recorded that the market lost about 13 billion on Friday due to what the government termed speculation. Yes!! In the financial circle we know speculation usually have a devastating effect on the market. But, how can we attribute the Italian situation to speculation when the government lacked the will to address the crisis that hit the globe in 2007. All other government have adopted measures to re-direct the economy towards the part of growth but the Italian government had been busy organizing the sex party at Arcore, the residence of the premier. Italy has a growth rate of less than 1 percent and a national debt of 1863 billion euro. The commercialista turned finance minister had no initiative because as every conservative economist he believed that the economy will recover on its own. Although all the rating agencies like S&P, Modus had been signalling a danger in the Italian economic direction the yes master at the Italian ministry had continuously told us not to worry. Unfortunately economics is not sex party, or the policy makers do what they are supposed to do or there will be severe consequences. My fear then is that sooner or later Italy will join the Greece, Portugal and Ireland league of Nations. If United States takes the right step they might be salvaged.

Good time

Paul

Nigeria Still Limping

Despite the impresive election of the federal Republic of Nigeria the country has not found its fit neither has the government taken off. This is the consequent effect of a naivity of the president elect. Obviouly the thinking of the people is that GEJ will make a good president but the point is that a president should have a conviction and will which GEJ obviously does not have. The handling of the Boko Haram has proved this and none the less the lack luster attitude towards the picking of the minister spells doom for the country,

Paul