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The Jonathan Presidency: A Call for Caution

We have a new “Acting President”, after almost eighty days of delayed tactics, confusion,misinformation and misinterpretation, political chicanery, outright lies and criminaldeception, forgery, self interests over national interests, all culminating ina grand farce, such as has never happened in the history of Nigerian politics,and which, based on the repercussions and what we went through, Nigerians wouldwish and pray never happens again.

Everybody, every Nigerian, seem to heave a sigh of relief, when on Tuesday, 9thFebruary, 2010, the Senate and the House of Representatives in Abuja seemed tohave come to recognise the importance of the Constitution of the FederalRepublic of Nigeria, and now passed a motion recognising Vice PresidentGoodluck Jonathan as the Acting President of Nigeria. The politicians thoughtthey have managed to overcome and resolve an increasingly thorny and embarrassingissue. Everybody will live ever happily after. They thought they have satisfiedthe cries and demands of the Nigeriapeople. They said that “expediency and pragmatism” had informed their decision.

But No! What they had done was still illegal, presumptive and they have managed, once again,to hoodwink and cheat the Nigerian people. “Oh yes, we have given the peoplewhat they want, and let them rejoice”.

The fact is, the evil, corrupt, barely educated political elite, especially those in theruling party, PDP, had played a sleight of hand to subvert the rule of law anddoing away with the provisions of the constitution. They thought they had fooled us, but becauseof their own shortcomings as true democrats, unversed in constitutionalmatters, they failed to reckon, to their peril, the brains of the Nigerianpeople. What happened on Tuesday was not a resolution; it was more of areactionary thing.

The state of the nation was in dire straits; the people are restive; protests home andabroad, and even, the conduct of governance was severely affected. TheGovernors would fail to get their allocations and hence no treasury to loot forthe month, while Yar ‘Adua’s aides and so-called kitchen cabinet were insistingthat the man was well enough to rule, and according to our Chief Law Officer,Michael Aondoakaa, Yar’Adua could rule from anywhere in the world. (I wouldlike him to give me an example of this in the history of the modern world)

So the inept and corrupt National Assembly based their spurious resolution on the word“transmit” and quickly and cleverly latched on to the fake BBC interview ofPresident Yar ‘Adua. They said the interview “transmitted” to them theincapability of the President to continue ruling the country from his sick bedin Saudi Arabia.See, my people? The BBC is running the country now.

And is that enough? Their resolution was not based even partly on the Constitution, whichshould have been their guiding manual for the past 80 days. What the Constitutionsaid is that such resolutions must be based on a letter, or any form thereof,sent by the ailing President to the National Assembly, asking for a leave ofabsence to take care of his health. Yar’Adua obviously did not do this, and this confirms his incapacitationfurther, thereby a major breach of the constitution has occurred. The nextlawful thing to do would have been for the National Assembly to inform theFederal Executive Council to obey Section 144 of the Constitution or perhapsfor the National Assembly to impeach him. However, the National Assembly, evengiven that such situation had never occurred in the history of Nigeria, hadchosen to ignore the constitution, or interpreted it to suit its own purpose.Hence, the Constitution has again been subverted.

And please do not forget that the National Assembly only acted when the 36 State Governorsdecided to walk in on them (mindfulof their monthly Allocations); there was a crack in the solidarity of theFederal Ministers who had hitherto been passing legality on the President’sabsence; and more importantly, after many civil protests in Abuja, London, NewYork and even in the Ukraine.

Nigeria is greater that any individual, but unfortunately, our leaders and politicians have never seen it that way. Theything they are greater than the country.

So who the culprits in this matter? Michael Aondoakaa is number one. The man is simply aliar, a forger and a master in disinformation. He is either deliberatelydeceptive or basically an ignoramus, a charlatan of the learned profession. Atbest, he is a mediocre. And this is not just by judging him from what happenedthis time with the absence of the president, but by his past records in hisalmost 3 years as the Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Federation (Please see Paul TAdujie’s article – Michael Aondoakaa, Former AGF Should Be Investigated andTried - http://www.nigeriansinamerica.com/articles/3971/1/Michael-Aondoakaa-Former-AGF-Should-Be-Investigated-and-Tried/Page1.html)

The man is an embarrassment to Nigeriaand the law profession. And see the way he was crudely trying to blackmail hisfellow Minister, Dora Akunyinli? The man lacks goodness; he lacks decorum andit was a good thing he was removed immediately as AGF. Better still, he shouldbe sacked, investigated and tried for his role in this Yar ‘Adua farce.

And Mrs Turai Yar ‘Adua? Though she is not elected, the role she’s has played was ifshe was the President of this country,; she was the head of the kitchencabinet. How can a wife like that, seeing her husband so sick, still insist onher husband carrying on? I know there are more to it than this. But there sheis.

If I were to advice Mr Jonathan, and if the Constitution allows it, I would suggest tohim to get rid of all the Ministers, Special Adviser and Assistants that he hasinherited from Yar ‘Adua. These arepeople who insisted that he could not become the Acting president and tried toprolong the inevitable to suit their own nefarious agenda and selfishinterests. They will stab him in the back. (This is assuming that President Yar‘Adua will not be coming back to his throne, and I honestly think he should notcome back,; let Jonathan continue the rest of his tenure and if Jonathandecides to run on his own ticket in 2011, by all means, let him try his luck,afterall he is aptly named)

Other people, who in a normal democratic society, should fall on their swords, orshould not even see the light of day in politics, are the Senate President,David Mark and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole.They were very partisan, ignorant of the Constitutional procedure, or chose tobe, and even out rightly and actively encouraged the impasse. They must notseek second terms.

Those who said they took the 400-page Appropriation Bill to SaudiArabia for the President to sign and brought it back to Nigeria withinhours must be arrested and charged with forgery and criminal deception, as wellas those who connived with the BBC Hausa Service, to unsuccessfully try, thankGod, to dupe a nation.

The President himself must be brought to the book as soon as he gets well enoughand come back to Nigeria.He must be impeached for heating up the polity, abandonment of responsibilitiesand duty, not following the Constitution and for allowing other inept, corruptand deceptive people to perpetuate deception and grand larceny on the people ofNigeria.He owes us big time, for allowing the country to free-fall during his absencewhich could easily have been avoided.

The undertones of tribal sentiments isthere, and those who believe that only a certain section of Nigeria must ruleNigeria should be cautioned very seriously that Nigeria belongs to 140 millionpeople and not just a section of it.

So what about the new “Acting President” himself? I hate to bring this up, but there remains a “small” matter “of acorruption scandal involving Jonathan's wife, Patience Jonathan who wasinvestigated for her involvement in the illegal movement of $13.5 million. AsJonathan now wields executive power, he has the means to tacitly or bluntlyensure that nothing ever comes of the corruption scandal involving hiswife. Considering that Jonathan had to be pressured to reveal his assets,unlike Yar'Adua who willingly did so, there is a cloud of suspicion on thenow-acting President with regard to corruption, a problem that has plagued Nigeria for fartoo long. Plus, considering the outcome of the James Ibori case whichresulted in accusations that the nation's anti-corruption body 'bungled thecase on purpose', and many who have been fingered (at home and abroad) ascorrupt are yet to face justice, it is not a stretch to worry that ascandal tied to Jonathan will simply disappear”. (Solomon Sydelle - http://www.nigeriancuriosity.com/2010/02/jonathan-is-nigerias-acting-president.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+nigeriancuriosity/fpFU+(NIGERIAN+CURIOSITY))

There are extra unknowns, such as when will thePresident return, if at all? And, if he does, will he gain back control of thegovernment and how will he do this? What does the Constitution say on this,assuming those ignorant, corrupt and charlatan legislators will notmisinterpret it again) Or, will Jonathan act as President until the nextPresidential election in 2011 and will he run for President? I would rather support Mr Jonathan to carry onwith the business of government for the next 18 months, unencumbered with allthese political intrigues. “The political vacuum experienced by Nigeriaover the last few months must come to an end to instil confidence in a peoplealready weary and sick of all these political chicaneries”, as SolomonSydelle, that greatest of blogger stated.

Nevertheless, constitutionally or not, Nigeriansare surely hoping that this seemingly quiet man, whose very name rhymes withLUCK will bring in a new hope for the country and will address their problems.

But the crises and problems are far fromover. In fact they are just beginning.Constitutional crisis, corruption scandals, unabated treasury looting;miscarriage of justice; electoral reform; tribalism; nepotism; religious riots;police brutality and extra-judicial killings; MEND and the Niger Delta; shortageof petrol; lack of good roads, basic andgood healthcare for all; quality education; political assassinations; lack ofsecurity, just mention it. Will Jonathan be able to leave his imprintpositively on Nigeria,or will he, like many others before him, fritter away the chance to be a truestatesman?

We can only hope for some good luck!

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