DEAD ON ARRIVAL?

Anytime I watch the Nigerian television and I hear government officials talk about vision 2020, how Nigeria will be among the first 20 economies come year 2020, the President Yar’Adua 7-point agenda, the glory and the seeming utopia we will attain come 2020, I can’t help but wonder-are we not deceiving ourselves? Are we not building our castle in the air? If not, then we are best described as a nation of dreamers. Do not get me wrong, there is nothing bad in dreaming. Afterall, it is often said the future is what we create in our mind all by ourselves. It is all good to set goals with deadlines but when I remembered that our leaders in the near past have set same vision but I guess not goals, because GOALS as I understand, are vision with feet, they are a set of specific measurable steps to achieve a particular vision. do not forget Housing for all by year 2000, Vision 2010 by the immediate past administration, and so many promises of Obasanjo’s administration. I often tell friends and colleagues that if we are to go anywhere in this country we must start with telling ourselves some home truths, sometimes very bitter and frank. I always say the time we need promises and plenty of talk is the period of campaign, when you are in power as a government we need performance and service and not promises aplenty.

During Obasanjo to Yar’Adua transition, we witnessed a different kind of campaign. The ex-president went about telling us what he has done, what he has achieved, how he brought GSM to Nigeria- as if he bought one for everybody and buy recharge cards for us weekly, and he was busy introducing Yar’Adua as the presidential candidate-I almost thought the poor man was deaf and dumb or something because he would giggle and smile almost all through the campaign period when Obasanjo in his usual manner would start reeling out stories after stories punctuating his talks with old school jokes- the aides had no choice but to laugh anyway. I don’t have anything against Obasanjo and Yar’Adua persons but I have a big problem with their kind of leadership. Before we delve into so many things, let’s examine what Yar’Adua government has been able to achieve and if I don’t remember any you can please remind me in your comment.

When Yar’Adua assumed office, he promised that state of emergency will be declared in the power sector, almost 2 years down the lane we are worse for it, I don’t know about your area or state of residence but where I live, its been from frying pan to fire when it come to PHCN. I was watching the Lagos Light Rail Mass Transit and Investors Forum that was held in Lagos, London and Dubai on television and one of the investors/partners, to our collective shame, A white man, who I couldn’t get his name on TV in response to a question of how they are g

oing to deal with the issue of electricity was saying they can not embark on such project costing about $600 million and rely on our present PHCN, which means they will be running on alternative power supply- I don’t know which one. Unemployment has been on the increase, we still have electoral violence- especially the recent one in Jos that claimed the lives of three youth corpers- may their soul rest in peace. And a whole lots of sector going from bad to worse, since his inauguration, the executive and legislature have increased their salary with about 300% - correct me if I am wrong pls. we are constantly having square pegs in round holes in federal appointments, Obanikoro was compensated at the start of this administration with the juicy position of an ambassador because he lost Lagos gubernatorial election. I don’t understand what Abba Sayyadi Ruma, a PhD holder in International Relations is doing as the helmsman in the Ministry of Agriculture while another PhD holder in Agriculture, Mustapha Shettima is heading the Ministry of Defence. Alhaji Ibrahim Bio, a qualified pharmacist, is to fashion a means of actualizing Yar’Adua’s “mass transportation” agenda. If this is the way America and other world powers who are getting it right are making their appointments, I bet our leaders will not be traveling there for their bogus medicals and the rest. The one I cannot understand and I need someone to please explain to me is the appointment of Dr. Dora Akunyili who we all know has performed in a sensitive agency as NAFDAC. I can’t remember anybody who has done more than this courageous woman in that agency. She is now the new Minister of Information, what a right person for a wrong job and sadly, she was quoted by the press as saying, her appointment is a divine calling. I don’t have any problem with people being religious but what has God got to do with her appointment as a Minister of information in a country where it has taken the national assembly forever to pass the Freedom of Information bill and this means Akunyili with all her zeal, energy and sense of patriotism has now become just a trumpet for Yar’Adua government, blowing whatever the government puts into her. WHAT A MISAPPOINTMENT- if there is any word like that. It is not about getting few round pegs in few round holes but a situation where we will be ready as a nation to do it right most of the time, and in this country of ours where we have talents and competent hands abound in every sector, we do not have any excuse for making wrong choices repeatedly and no one should tell me otherwise because running a country as big as Nigeria is not for people who do guess work, it is for people who know how to take deliberate steps to achieve deliberate goals. This present government has failed us and personally, I have given up on them, I have promised myself not to talk about them anymore except if the need arises and because I have not and will never give up on Nigeria, my only country, I don’t have dual citizenship like so many young people now have, maybe my kids will do, I do not know. Infact, I feel we should all just sleep and wake up in May 2011 but we can not afford to do that, we are the future of this country and we will make it happen come next election period, it is our time for CHANGE and we must be bold enough to stand up for it. But, with this government, I can aptly say whatever vision it had and is having is DEAD ON ARRIVAL. Anyone with me?