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It Is Morally, Legally and Financially Wrong For Jonathan To Put Himself Forward For A Second Term


|| An eminent Northern figure once trumpeted that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan built schools to address the menace of Boko Haram. However, this strategy is so inept to be typified as a security-risk management strategy. Even history tells us that such strategy was unsuccessful when it was used to address the “rampaging infrastructural-vandalization” perpetrated by the currently hibernating Niger delta militants.

- Written by Davies Ibie
Every Nigerian citizen has the right to life as outlined in the 1999 constitution. Further in the constitution, it was profoundly cast and set in stone under "the executive" that the president shall be the Head of State, the Chief Executive of the Federation and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federation.


If we tie-in the two constitutional provisions mentioned above, I won't be wrong to unambiguously state that the burden of responsibility is weighing heavily on the shoulders of Mr President to make our country secure and safe. Which means the president owes every Citizen of Nigeria a moral duty of care. All proactive steps that are reasonably possible are expected to be taken by Mr President and his security team to ensure the safety, health and wellbeing of citizens of Nigeria as they go about their daily business.

It is common practice globally for an individual who is accountable and responsible for the safety of people to apply "security-risk management system" in tackling security risks related issues.

Security-risk management system is a robust, proactive and overarching security strategy that is used by security experts to carefully identify security risks posed on people, deciding who might be harmed and then judging how likely it is that something can go wrong and how serious the consequences could be. Once the security risks are identified, the process gravitates to the extent of eliminating the risks by effective counter actions or putting control measures in place to reduce the risks, or reduce the likelihood of an undesirable event happening, which ultimately minimises the security-risks.

I am very confident that if a thorough and comprehensive security-risk management strategy had been put in place early enough to confront the scourge of "Boko Haram," the apex predator and its hatchlings would have been addressed and tackled head-on from the outset, and consequently reduced to a manageable level or completely eliminated.

An eminent Northern figure once trumpeted that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan built schools to address the menace of Boko Haram. However, this strategy is so inept to be typified as a security-risk management strategy. Even history tells us that such strategy was unsuccessful when it was used to address the “rampaging infrastructural-vandalization” perpetrated by the currently hibernating Niger delta militants.

When it came to light in 2007 that President George Bush Jr. and Prime Minister Tony Blair illegally conspired to start the Iraq war, the top echelons of the Labour party intervened by pressurising Tony Blair to step down, Bearing in mind that several British foot soldiers died fighting a war peddled by lies and immorality. Tony Blair was forced to step down on moral grounds. Affirming the fact that although he was the Prime minister, Tony Blair was neither bigger than the labour party or above reproach.

It is logical to buttress that "Boko Haram" is undoubtedly one of the consequences of turning a blind eye to longstanding youth unemployment and under-employment. It is highly irresponsible of government to have only recently put the issue of Boko Haram on its front burner, after the menace created by the insurgents had escalated and been well publicised by both social and international media.

Mark Carney is the first non-Briton to be appointed to the post of the Governor of the bank of England. He was appointed in July 2013, after the UK Chancellor of Exchequer went global in his search for an economic-delivery-messiah that could help the UK grow out of recession. These are developed minds that have grown beyond settling for mediocrity in the aspect of moving the nation forward.

Unfortunately, our own president did not embrace such a global recruitment strategy and was unduly hesitant and indecisive before giving international community the nod to join forces with us in combating the Islamic extremists.

When Nigeria started suffering from the initial whipping effects of Boko Haram, the president, national security adviser, minister of defence and the necessary security stakeholders had a reactive roundtable discussion to address and put a lasting solution to the rising security risk. The consensus was that massive military recruitment should be carried out and for AK 47 rifles and sufficient bullets to be procured and flooded into the military to confront the issue of insurgency.

However, need we remind ourselves that when the world superpowers combined forces to flush out terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq, they never imagined that they were going to end up spending beyond a decade in Afghanistan and Iraq without successfully arresting the issue of terrorism.

It is unfathomable to be informed that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is nursing a second term presidential ambition notwithstanding the uncountable loss of lives in states where Boko Haram have carried out their deadly terror campaigns, which took place under his watch. If we go down the responsible road as a country, probably a minimum of one hundred million naira per victim should be given to the family members of the dead victims involved. At the end of the day, the compensatory payments will run into billions, which will just keep growing as the attacks are ongoing and unstoppable just now. I sincerely hope Mr President Is not by any means telling Nigerian tax payers to pay for his incompetence and consistent security failures.

Perhaps, he might be operating under the illusion that getting away with catastrophic failures is a common norm in the ministry of works and housing; therefore, it won't be any form of news for him to get away with another catastrophic failure pertaining to the issue of Boko Haram.

It is constantly obvious that innumerable Nigerians have suffered deaths as a result of the death-traps imposed on us by past and present ministers for works and housing etc. May I remind us that previous and serving ministers of works and housing built "deadly roads" in Nigeria that killed loads of Nigerians and were not held accountable. The ministers were not taken to court and the family members of the victims involved were not compensated. Worst of it all, the construction companies move about brazenly without facing the wrath of the law. Very painful to even realise that the government ministers in agreement with the construction companies refused to incorporate into the contract a "road guarantee-incentive period" due to the fact that members of the Cartel had finished sharing the money among themselves. Maybe Mr President feels he'll get away with these Boko Haramic holocaust in the same order.

Mr President and his team have failed to proactively assess the security risks facing Nigeria from the outset and also failed to put suitable security controls in place when the alarm bells were ringing.

It is just unacceptable for innocent Nigerians to suffer gruesome deaths while going about their usual daily business, bearing in mind that Mr President is accountable and responsible for making the nation secure.

Clearly, Mr President has failed in his moral duty to ensure the safety of Nigerians. It is legally wrong to continue to use an incompetent person to discharge the duties of a high profile office especially that which concerns the security of the Nation. It is also financially burdensome to keep such an individual on the Job as the country will consistently keep paying compensatory claims to family members whose loved ones suffered fatality.

Mr President's position is untenable just now, as it is very clear that he is not suitable for the job. He is incapable of assembling the right team to deliver Nigeria out of this "Boko Haramic led security recession."

This is the time to shop for a proactive president as against a reactive president. Assuming Israel had our kind of reactive president, I guess the country would have been wiped out from the face of the earth. Fortunately for Isrealis, they are blessed with a proactive prime minister that constantly sets his gaze on Hamas, and one that has identified the security risks facing them and has put down all the counter-attack measures in place to eliminate the security risks or reduce the effects to a minimum.

It took true guardians of probity in the UK labour party to confront Tony Blair to step down after being found wanting to have discharged his duties immorally, illegally and also for attracting avoidable multi-billion pound costs in keeping British defence forces in Iraq.

If the heavy weights in PDP fail to stand up to confront this brazen act of elevation of immorality, illegality and reckless spending, that leaves us as Nigerians to think deeply about the kinds of leaders we have at the top of government and at the top of a leading political party (PDP).

Notwithstanding, PDP heavy weights should know that no matter how long they continue in practicing "blind loyalty", that won't in anyway make the masses accept that a man that is competent to lead his party is also competent to lead the nation.

May the good Lord help us in setting Nigeria free from predation; by removing "Nigeria" from the stranglehold of political predators operating under the guise of elected public officers.

Davies Ibie
meeyes2001@yahoo.com

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