March 21, 2010
It took so long to come. But as they say, it is better late than never. Everyone had looked forward to the day they will be asked to go. They have become a cog in the wheel of progress of this country. They constituted a nuisance and rather than work diligently towards building a new Nigeria, they wasted valuable time fighting one another and establishing fiefdoms to feather their nests. If the senior ones were not in the trenches fighting the junior ministers, they were fighting some proxy wars against the governors of their states and in the process making governance difficult and disrupting peace and progress.
When he was made the acting President, Goodluck Jonathan inherited a cabinet made up of mostly rabid and insolvent politicians and a few technocrats who soon abdicated from the norms of letter and civility and joined the fray of rabble rousers and political dabblers. Instead of service to the fatherland, they resorted to serving their interest and protecting a faceless but self serving agenda of a sick man, his wife and motley of some arrogant establishment people mostly in the northern part of the country. One Minister who jettisoned his seat in the Senate in controversial circumstances became notorious for nepotism and turned his Ministry into a rehabilitation centre for members of his local political camp at the expense of merit and federal character. The same Minister is known to be the brain behind the endless bout of crisis with his successor governor. The same man snubbed the legislature of his state when he was invited to throw light on the N50billion debt he was alleged to have left behind after his 8-year reign as governor there. This is aside the several allegations of graft running into billions of naira which resulted into a chain of litigation in several courts instituted by citizens of his state.
One of the problems Nigerians had with Yar'adua is that he surrounded himself with people whose antecedents spoke volumes of arrogance, thievery, gangsterism, brigandage, crass opportunism, self-centredness, incompetence and nepotism among other proven cases of outright anti-people postures and bankruptcy. They never failed to fail the country at times when they would have made the difference; their loyalty to the man who appointed them even when it was clearly anti-Nigeria became their greatest undoing. They became a cabal and posed the greatest challenges to development in the country.
Nigeria was about to come to a halt not because it was not in need of some invocation of relevant laws to stop the slide but because those charged with it were fiddling while the country was catching fire. It could as well burn for all they cared so long as their manna was flowing. The danger at the time was glaring and until when the national assembly realised the collective harm of foot dragging and took action, Nigeria was in the hands of a small cabal of rudderless and ruthless vampires who forged signatures, mimicked voices, feigned body mannerisms in order to get their filthy hands on the carcass of the country. Now that they have been fired, we hope it will be the last time Nigeria will be made to contend with shylocks, profiteers, political jobbers and zealots as ministers.
Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has a very rare opportunity to right some wrongs in the country and to permanently etch his name in gold. To begin with, Jonathan does not have anything to lose. He has been told that he will not contest in 2011 and I am pretty sure he will hardly be giving a look-in for the vice presidential ticket. With no interest to work for and perhaps with nothing to long for, it will do him well to deal decisively with the blood suckers, the slave takers and the bald headed thieves who have since independence held this country down. He has, by the dissolution of the federal executive council dealt deadly blow on them. He should follow that up with replacing them with the right calibre of people who are out there fully qualified, willing, prepared and ready to take the country out of the woods. Of course there is no way that Jonathan could discountenance the political class but even amongst them, we have a class that is pro-people and God fearing. Add that class up with a mixture of technocrats both in the civil service and in the professions who have the go-getting instincts, the courage and the vision to step on toes and to bring about the changes required to put the country on the path of growth and prosperity. The potentials are there but the only thing that is lacking is the political will to take those painful decisions; and this has been so because some other interests have, in the view of the leaders, been elevated far above national interests. Jonathan does not have any interest to serve or protect and so must side with the pauperized and squalid citizens who have been at the receiving end in this country for so long.
The incoming federal executive council must therefore be an assemblage of people with the character, the pedigree, the vision and the balls to work in tandem within the perspective of service to the country as well as within the overall world view of the acting president. If the leading lights of the Yar adua administration, his friends, his sidekicks and the land speculators amongst them made a comeback, then the dissolution will be seen for what it is; playing to the gallery; needless; waste of time.
BK Ahmed wrote from 114 Kashim Ibrahim road, Maiduguri. He can be reached at [email protected]
When he was made the acting President, Goodluck Jonathan inherited a cabinet made up of mostly rabid and insolvent politicians and a few technocrats who soon abdicated from the norms of letter and civility and joined the fray of rabble rousers and political dabblers. Instead of service to the fatherland, they resorted to serving their interest and protecting a faceless but self serving agenda of a sick man, his wife and motley of some arrogant establishment people mostly in the northern part of the country. One Minister who jettisoned his seat in the Senate in controversial circumstances became notorious for nepotism and turned his Ministry into a rehabilitation centre for members of his local political camp at the expense of merit and federal character. The same Minister is known to be the brain behind the endless bout of crisis with his successor governor. The same man snubbed the legislature of his state when he was invited to throw light on the N50billion debt he was alleged to have left behind after his 8-year reign as governor there. This is aside the several allegations of graft running into billions of naira which resulted into a chain of litigation in several courts instituted by citizens of his state.
One of the problems Nigerians had with Yar'adua is that he surrounded himself with people whose antecedents spoke volumes of arrogance, thievery, gangsterism, brigandage, crass opportunism, self-centredness, incompetence and nepotism among other proven cases of outright anti-people postures and bankruptcy. They never failed to fail the country at times when they would have made the difference; their loyalty to the man who appointed them even when it was clearly anti-Nigeria became their greatest undoing. They became a cabal and posed the greatest challenges to development in the country.
Nigeria was about to come to a halt not because it was not in need of some invocation of relevant laws to stop the slide but because those charged with it were fiddling while the country was catching fire. It could as well burn for all they cared so long as their manna was flowing. The danger at the time was glaring and until when the national assembly realised the collective harm of foot dragging and took action, Nigeria was in the hands of a small cabal of rudderless and ruthless vampires who forged signatures, mimicked voices, feigned body mannerisms in order to get their filthy hands on the carcass of the country. Now that they have been fired, we hope it will be the last time Nigeria will be made to contend with shylocks, profiteers, political jobbers and zealots as ministers.
Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has a very rare opportunity to right some wrongs in the country and to permanently etch his name in gold. To begin with, Jonathan does not have anything to lose. He has been told that he will not contest in 2011 and I am pretty sure he will hardly be giving a look-in for the vice presidential ticket. With no interest to work for and perhaps with nothing to long for, it will do him well to deal decisively with the blood suckers, the slave takers and the bald headed thieves who have since independence held this country down. He has, by the dissolution of the federal executive council dealt deadly blow on them. He should follow that up with replacing them with the right calibre of people who are out there fully qualified, willing, prepared and ready to take the country out of the woods. Of course there is no way that Jonathan could discountenance the political class but even amongst them, we have a class that is pro-people and God fearing. Add that class up with a mixture of technocrats both in the civil service and in the professions who have the go-getting instincts, the courage and the vision to step on toes and to bring about the changes required to put the country on the path of growth and prosperity. The potentials are there but the only thing that is lacking is the political will to take those painful decisions; and this has been so because some other interests have, in the view of the leaders, been elevated far above national interests. Jonathan does not have any interest to serve or protect and so must side with the pauperized and squalid citizens who have been at the receiving end in this country for so long.
The incoming federal executive council must therefore be an assemblage of people with the character, the pedigree, the vision and the balls to work in tandem within the perspective of service to the country as well as within the overall world view of the acting president. If the leading lights of the Yar adua administration, his friends, his sidekicks and the land speculators amongst them made a comeback, then the dissolution will be seen for what it is; playing to the gallery; needless; waste of time.
BK Ahmed wrote from 114 Kashim Ibrahim road, Maiduguri. He can be reached at [email protected]
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