A Harvest Of Presidential Blunders

A HARVEST OF PRESIDENTIAL BLUNDERS

A plethora of feasts of sour grapes seem to have been precipitated of late with some odious developments wafting from the corridors of power. Take the recent scenarios where a high official of education ministry acting on the name of the president berated and threatened university lecturers recently at a convocation ceremony for their monumental exploitation of students.

 Everyone seemed very happy at that development thinking that some official helping hands and caveats were becoming available to rescue the helpless, long-exploited students. But lo! the president came quickly on air to disown the highly commendable pronouncements. Was this a case of unmitigated bureaucratic blunder at its irascible zenith? A president’s duty among others is to mitigate human miseries, protect the weak and exploited, ensure social justice, extol exemplary standards etc. So why did he do otherwise instead of at least keeping quiet? Is he really in real touch with the magnitude of problems of the people?

The above incidence is reminiscent of the unimaginable blunders in that sector which Mr. President, formerly said to be a lecturer scientist should have known better and understudied. The unnecessary reversals of great educational reforms by former minister Dr. Oby Ezekwesili that was ready to propel Nigerian educational system five decades ahead  are too sad and lachrymose to be mentioned here and it was as if some half baked and fastidious illiterates were brought to head and surpervise the annihilation of  the educational sector. Recent developments as earlier mentioned showed unequivocally that government has totally lost real informed touch with this important sector and the press must not allow this most fundamental national enterprise to go down the drain. Take another scenario in this symphony of blunders where the dynamic former head of NAFDAC Prof. Akunyili was expected to be appointed health minister in order to totally revamp and reposition that very sick sector in a nation that has among the highest global maternal and child mortality rate, dilapidated primary health infrastructure, industrial actions and other unprintables but was rather given information ministry. Perhaps her resplendent garland of international awards, honours and citations informed Mr. President’s decision to use her as a Nigerian “poster-girl”. She should accept that job,turn it to blessing and use her usual dynamism to make a significant difference in that ministry. She showed launder the natural image in international media through properly place advertisments, place well-articulately designed jingles on air to educate the populance on such fundamental issues as wealth and job creation, health and food hazards, environmental protection, human rights, family values, 7-point agenda, leadership qualities, meaningful home video production themes e.t.c.

There is yet the vexed issue of the unbecoming ill-treatment meted out to former EFCC chairman Ribadu that is likely to communicate a socially malignant signal that the anticorruption war is a past-tense through this edifying fillip to its pioneer. What was needed was nothing but to fine tune and widen the anti graft campaign and also to institutionalize transparency in every facet of nation building as the only oxygen that can sustain this democracy and prevent ultimate national disintegration. Presently corruption is running wild out of control by the day and some tiers of governance like the L.G.A’s seem like mere theaters of corruption and one wonders their ultimate relevance without a functional anti corruption governance system. In essence Mr. President should be better advised to recall Ribadu back to Police force and should ask the police to concentrate more on its law enforcement mechanism including checking ritual cases and kidnappings which have grown astronomically out of hand and some too involve a few police bad eggs and some politicians too.

Time constraints one from marshalling out the full dimensions of official blunders that need urgent rectifications including the presidential over rule of the proposed visionary naira denomination programme by the dynamic central bank governor that could have helped this country absorb some economic shock waves in this time of tempestous global depression and it’s anathema but the alarming thing now is that our external reserves, the last hope of generations to come is being looted so fast presently and someone should try judicial litigation means to stop the looters now before it is too late.

This is very important if the nation is to weather the global economic typhoon. And the extremely slow tempo of the presidential work pace could take the nation centuries to attain any meaningful economic leap forward. Not the least worrisome is the seemingly undeclared war on the press by the executive and this does not augur well for a democracy that can only grow by transparent, articulated opinion-moulding which the poeple of the fourth estate can appropriately engender if given an enabling environment.

Finally I see the president as honest and sincere but he needs focus and dynamism to overcome his mistakes and achieve meaningful goals to carve his name in the sands of history.

 

CHERECHI UDEMBA ( OWERRI)

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