The Jonathan Presibombcy

"The Jonathan Presibomcy" CredoWriters:Wakdok, Samuel Stephen. No matter the highs or lows that Jonathan's tenure as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria may score, posterity and eventually history will remember it for one thing; the era which ushered in bombs and bombings into the Nigerian mainstream. There may have been isolated cases of bombings in the country before the advent of his administration like the letter bomb which killed Dele Giwa during Babangida's junta or the scattered alleged NADECO bombs which eventually showed the imprints of General Abacha's hit men just to mention a few. The height of it was the October 1st 2010 Independence day bombing blamed on the Niger Delta MEND. The dimension assumed an alarming rate when boko harram took the campaign of bombings from Maiduguri to the Police Headquarters in Abuja, The UN building in Abuja, the Christmas day catholic church bombing in Madalla and other states, the Kano mulitple bombings, the bombing of markets and even school. And just recently Gombe. This is not forgetting Bauchi, Yobe, Kaduna, Jos, Niger, Adamawa among others. The attacks on not only police stations but military barracks and installations in Abuja, Bauchi and Kaduna has made the picture very scary. A brief analysis will show that Nigeria as at press time has the highest number of bombs going off in terms of frequency. Not even in Iraq, Pakistan or Afghanistan do bombs go off at such an alarming frequency. When the bombings started, the government talked tough and did little to the extent many believed the President and/ or his spokesmen had a template ready to respond to the next bombing. Life especially in the North has become very dangerous and uncomfortable. Security check points have turned travelers and other road users into objects of stop and search. Churches which have become major targets now screen would be worshippers, schools, hotels, banks and other places have stepped up searches mostly manual which have resulted into massive hold ups,time wasting and are very inconveniencing. Jonathan as an individual or President is not directly responsible for the advent of bombings in Nigeria since most of the issues preceeded his ascension to power, but his handling of the bomb crises especially in the early stage will be in focus when history judges his regime. As such his ability to succeed or his failure in arresting this ugly development will make or mar him. Unfortunately, as Nigerians live in fear of bombings by a radical extremist fundamentalist group whose motive for Islamist agenda is brazen, Nigerians are also forced to face economic bombs from a regime that once signalled hope if the promise of Fresh Air was to be taken seriously. The inhuman manner the regime attempted to fully deregulate fuel and the manner albeit arrogance in which the fuel subsidy protest was handled was another bomb. The lies and whitewash that followed in the name of palliatives or the SURE program which was never meant to be but was just hurriedly put up to deceive angry Nigerians was yet another bomb. The deployment of troops in a peaceful Lagos against harmless civilians whose only sin was daring to organize peaceful rallies to protest the hike in fuel price was another bomb. The rot in the petroleum sector which the government has not shown serious sign of tackling but chose to pass the bulk to consumers is a big bomb. The President has proven his critics right by now accepting and announcing that the SURE program can no longer work. The questions begging for answers was why the hurry in buying buses as palliatives when negotiations had not been concluded. How much of inflation will the buses have reduced? Will the government not provide infrastructure if there were no savings from subsidy? What of the cost of living which has spiraled since the hike in fuel price. How many Nigerians know that the price of Gas and Diesel which are not subsidized increased because fuel was increased. The effect of the bombings will be worse if Jonathan scores more lows in other areas and will be less if he scores more highs. Unfortunately his promises of fresh air has not materialized and business has gone on as usual for corrupt politicians and their cronies. The recent release by the National Bureau of Statistics which shows a jump in the level of poverty from 54% in 2004 to over 70 % in 2011 is disturbing. What this means is that Nigeria is losing the gains it made rather than consolidate. This clearly tells that despite the rise in government revenue as indicated in the quantity of crude oil and price of crude , despite the radical increase in the collection of taxes, and with increased collection of custom and excise duties, Nigerians must have been short changed by a corrupt ruling class. How else can we explain the relationship between increase in government revenue and sharp increase in poverty level. These two relationship ought not to be positive,because it is expected that as government revenue soars, investment in basic and business activities will boom which will stimulate growth and development. Unfortunately Nigeria's growth is only on paper,while the people are getting poorer. Even the working class are getting poorer because the cost of good and services are increasing faster than their level of income. This is made worse because the few corrupt individuals who have unlimited access to the public wealth unleash their stolen wealth into the same market to compete for products with the average and poor Nigerians. An increase in the supply of money naturally raises costs of goods and services but because the increase in money supply is skewed to only a few, it leaves the majority of people in poorer state since they can not command enough purchasing power. The greatest bomb may come ahead of the 2015 if Jonathan eats his words and decides to run for a second term in office. Though he has the constitutional right to vie for the presidency he has lost the moral right when he gave his words that he will only run for one term.Not that his words matter to some people any more since he has failed to live up to some of them in so short a time. Jonathan must review his actions, utterances and get his acts together. It is not too late for him to turn from the path of a politician and chart the course of a statesman. History may forgive him if he fails but history may never forget him as one who was given an opportunity to turn around the fortune of the country but chose to serve the selfish agenda of a rotten few who have drained the nation of its life. Facing bombs from both terrorists and government is a cross to much for Nigerians to bear. Jonathan can choose to give us flowers or join those who bomb innocent women,children in the name of a lost cause. His handling of the boko harram menace, his management of the economic problems of the country and eventually his ability to resist or his temptation to aim for the number one job in 2015 (after he said he will not) will be the yardstick for evaluating his presidency or Presibombcy. T