Apart from the numerous promises which Goodluck Jonathan broke shamelessly before the people of Nigeria, the Niger Deltans are upset and disappointed that nothing tangible was brought to their door steps. Without mincing words, the sinful neglect of the Niger Delta will remain a huge albatross on whatever achievements Goodluck Jonathan claims to have. This is the real tragedy of President Jonathan’s rule over the affairs of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Pebbles with Igbotako Nowinta
With less than two weeks to the expiration of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan’s administration, the cruel reality that the Niger Delta region is still the way it was in May 2010 when presidential power suddenly fell on his lap makes me very distressed.
It is absolutely unbelievable that President Jonathan will be exiting supreme power on May 29th 2015, without recording any reasonable achievement in the whole of the Niger Delta.
This is really beyond pardon, given what the region has gone through in the hands of successive administrations in the country.
This is what I called the tragedy of President Jonathan! I am going to share an equally nasty reality with readers of this column today before I fully thrash the tragedy which the Jonathan Presidency has become.
Precisely May 14, 2015, I embarked on a journey to Jos with my colleague and friend to attend a three-day workshop for Nigerian Development partners organized by a Germany-based international donor agency called Bread for The World.
What confronted us as we were just entering the major road leading directly into the city of Jos from the Kuru end of the road from Kaduna was utterly shocking.
I was particularly disturbed that the out-going civilian administration of Jonah Jang, that ruled Plateau State for eight solid years could not fix the major road (Bukuru/Nasko/Yakubu Gowon axis) leading into the heart of the famous tin city.
I wondered how Jonah Jang succeeded in pocketing the entire people of Jos in a democratic setting; now the state government owes salaries of civil servants up to seven months and he is using military tactics to keep them at bay, even as the entire state went on strike.
So much for Governor Jang. I think the lesson to learn is for the civil society and the opposition political parties to wake up and battle Jang as he prepares to vacate power. Or is it too late?
President Goodluck Jonathan in recent years is the biggest beneficiary of the collective traumatic situation starring the people of Niger Delta in the face, yet he betrayed the region without any qualms.
Here is a region that produces the golden eggs that the whole nation is feeding upon with relish. The amnesty thing and the Ministry of Niger Delta came on board before the Jonathan Presidency.
It is unfortunate that Goodluck Jonathan can simply not boast of anything to point to as concrete achievement in enhancing the lives of the poor people of the region.
The East-West Road is still lying in deep mud, the popularly acclaimed Ogoni Bill of Rights, the Kaiama Declaration and other noble intellectually inspired initiatives and programs conceived to drag the Niger Delta from the abyss of neglect, environmental degradation and crushing poverty were never given attention by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Instead celebrated miscreants and political jobbers who carried the flags of militancy, kidnappings and illegal refineries were and are still being courted by the Jonathan administration. What a betrayal of trust!
Without any shadow of doubt the legendary Niger Delta environmental activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa would be turning in his grave that his brother, (Goodluck Jonathan) who was placed divinely to correct decades of neglect in the region simply chose to erect a university in his own backyard at Otuoke, Bayelsa State, and went to sleep.
Along with gargantuan corruption that has plagued his clueless regime, the Petroleum Industry Bill, the Railway Bill etc., that would have turned the economy around and created thousands of jobs were abandoned to fate.
The fuel Subsidy scam that became a conduit pipe for siphoning trillions of naira is the greatest evil that any government in Nigeria’s history has used to stab the masses in the back.
President Jonathan threw a wonderful opportunity he would have used to immortalize his name away in the minds of the poverty-stricken people of Niger Delta.
By a combination of reckless behavior, inexplicable arrogance displayed by his wife (Dame Mrs. Jonathan), sordid ambition and sickening vanity President Jonathan managed to miss an opportunity of a life time.
Few days to the March 28th Presidential Election President Jonathan allegedly took millions of dollars to the South West and squandered the money in the name of wooing the voters to his side, money that never even got to the poor masses.
That kind of largesse would have been enough to fix the East-West road in the Niger Delta.
Apart from the numerous promises which Goodluck Jonathan broke shamelessly before the people of Nigeria, the Niger Deltans are upset and disappointed that nothing tangible was brought to their door steps.
Without mincing words, the sinful neglect of the Niger Delta will remain a huge albatross on whatever achievements Goodluck Jonathan claims to have.
This is the real tragedy of President Jonathan’s rule over the affairs of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Now the challenge before the Niger Deltans is to vehemently refuse to continue to walk behind the Chief Edwin Clarkes, Godsday Orubebes, Tompolos, Asari Dokubos and other parochial and self-seeking gluttons.
Instead they should take on the incoming Buhari administration to take a holistic approach to the overall development of the region.
Nowinta wrote: WHERE WE ARE – A CALL FOR DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION IN NIGERIA
