The demeanor of the President as well as his simple-minded response to issues was as hilarious as worrying.
President Jonathan was on air again yesterday on the Presidential Media Chat, the occasional show that Nigerians have begun to enjoy only for the hilarity of the President’s incoherent jabber on grave national problems to which he does not appear to have answers. Yesterday’s appearance was expected to be better for many reasons. Coming after a rigorous electioneering campaign which has played up the sob story of this government, many had expected more articulate, whole-hearted and politically correct responses from the President on front burner issues such as corruption and insecurity. Sadly, it was a shoddier show diminishing whatever is left of public confidence in the ability or political will of this government to deal decisively with the problems undermining the destiny of our nation.
The demeanor of the President as well as his simple-minded response to issues was as hilarious as worrying. Interesting stuff! Discourse at the level of the Presidency descended to an all-time low. If you listened to Mr. President yesterday, you now know that the President only eats chickens and does not like turkey. You should also know that your gift of turkey to Mr. President would be given out like he gave “two turkey” (sic) out to someone once upon a time. You should also know that to him, the much-awaited election to choose a leader for Nigeria is like a football tournament; and INEC like FIFA can postpone the match for whatever reasons.
On the criticism that his government is not committed to curbing corruption, the President went on a homily of the “goat and yam”. Don’t start wondering where Jesus Christ narrated this parable in the Bible. You will only find it in the transcript of the President’s chat. It is the President’s own construct to justify his belief that it is normal for people to steal and cheat unless you take away the opportunity away from them. Not being corrupt is for lack of opportunity; not a result of any enduring personal commitment to the values of basic honesty or a moral resolve to act right for social good.
According to the President, you cannot put a goat, yam and plantain together and say that the goat should not eat yam. In parallel, you cannot put the President and his cronies in power in charge of our state resources and say that they should not steal or act dishonestly. Corruption by public office holders is inevitable as you would naturally expect your goat to eat yam if kept with the yam. As such, the Jonathan administration, rather than ensuring that there is consequence for corruption, is working with “digital people” on how to use technology to prevent people from having the opportunity to be corrupt.
Prior to the media chat, the President had made a song and dance of fighting corruption with technology in his campaign. He does not believe that people can be incorruptible and believes that technology in itself is an end in curbing corruption. The critical questions are: who will manage Jonathan’s anti-corruption technology? Will the technology configure itself and run without any human intervention or will it be developed and operated by the same “goats” that should not be left with the yam? For a President that has never made any articulate statement on what corruption is, what will his anti-corruption technology classify as corrupt practice? Could the much-vaunted technology have regarded the theft of $20billion oil revenue or Alison-Maduekwe’s N10billion private jet fleece as corruption when the President himself and his men have never admitted that all these were corrupt dealings?
It should be a concern to everyone that Mr. President, rather than showing an impressive scorecard on fighting corruption in the last five years, has only resorted to a self-incriminating rhetoric that suggests that there should be no punishment for corruption at certain thresholds that are below the level of corruption under his administration. The President also bungled a golden chance to correct his “stealing is not corruption” mantra and left everyone more confused. I had always thought that what the President intended to say the first time he dropped that quibble was that grey is not black but is a shade of black. At the end of the Presidential chat, I started thinking that what the President was saying is that corruption has no linguistic expression in Nigeria and what we mostly elevate to such degree of heinous criminality is “mere stealing”. The significance of Mr. President’s distinction would be lost on you until you remember his various campaign speeches where he publicly denounced the Buhari military regime for the trial and conviction of second republic Governor, Jim Nwobodo, for the embezzlement of $5.2million dollars. He had asked rhetorically, “how much did Nwobodo stole?” (sic). With this, we understand the President better. We can also guess why EFCC and ICPC have remained lame ducks under this government and why all the people of questionable fortune that should come under the scrutiny of anti-corruption agencies are by happenstance associates of Mr. President.
In what is ostensibly an admission of failure, the President is assuring Nigerians in his campaign that corruption would be no more by 2019 if he is given another chance. At the media chat, the President cited no record of successful conviction and he really has none. He also did not say one single thing that would be done differently to punish corruption if he is retained in office till 2019. Can we even wait till 2019 to see an end to corruption in the face of our dwindling economic fortune? How can this government be trusted to eliminate in 4 years the endemic culture of corruption it further entrenched, condoned and celebrated in 5 years?
The goat and yam parable is a self-indictment of the Jonathan-led government. It raises a serious question of how this government perceives its own morality and ability to work for common good in spite of the lure of materialism. Corruption has become so pervasive, and still rising with such a phenomenal pace so much so that even Ibrahim Babangida felt morally justified to say that he feels like a saint seeing the level of corruption under Jonathan’s government.
In this latest parable of the goat and yam, we the people and the abundant wealth of our nation are the “yam”. We unleash the “goats” on our “yam” when we choose leaders that do not believe that people can be incorruptible and have no willingness to punish those of their own who help themselves to state resources. To break the spell of this grinding poverty that is making the poorest of the poor poorer in Nigeria, we must repel the misfortune of corrupt leadership at the next election. Integrity should define the relationship amongst us, the way the government views its responsibility to the people and how the business of governance is conducted. Another four years of a debauched leadership will further estrange us from this glorious position.