Beyond Partisanship, Beyond April 2011, and Regarding the First 100 Days

Today is February 14. Next elections are on April 9 2011, which means that the elections are 2 months away.

Two months away, and I have no idea what Mohammadu Buhari is promising the people of Imo State. I spoke to one of my non-graduate cousins yesterday. The good news is that he registered, along with his mother and his sister. The bad news is that he doesn't know the difference, and I am talking about difference in IDENTITY, not ideology, between Buhari and Ribadu and Shekaru or Utomi. He has merely heard that -onye isi ala- the incumbent, is contesting against 'some Hausa and Yoruba people' ! He doesn't know who those people are.

Even with free and fair elections, what kind of democracy can we expect from that kind of electorate?

Most of us here are political geeks. Yet, with two months to go, not many of us here can articulate what Jonathan's main platform is. Two months to go, if Ribadu has a running mate, nobody knows who he is, or where he is, or when they plan to hit Abakiliki, Warri, or Kafanchan. Two months to go , and even though he is running for the third time in 10 years, if Buhari has a plan for Electricity, nobody has ever heard it. What does he plan to do in his first 100 days?

But the presidential contestants are very lucky! They enjoy Adebayo Adejuwon's hyper-active attention, and Idowu's Bobo's ceaseless prattling on what 45 million Igbos should do or not do. Consider the legislature. Although that body consumes 75% of the recurrent expenditure, none of us have even bothered to discuss who is contesting, who is not, who can do a good job, who can not! The next pair in Aso Rock could be as honest and as unassuming as Shagari and Ekwueme, and the legislature alone would still send the country to blazes! The Legislature in the next republic -their salaries, their entitlements, what Bills they should pass and when, is a conversation we need to have. Our failure to do so does not augur well.

Then there are the State Governors, and the State legislatures, and the local Governments that are supposed to be delivering most of the services to the people. Those ones too no dey show up on our conversational radar at all!

There is also the judiciary, the last hope of the do-and-die politician. Can you you believe this Katsina-Alu guy parading himself as a whole CJN? That man is corrupt from head to toe! Can you believe the insolent Ayo-Salami, the Tinubu minion parading himself as an independent President of the Appeal court? Ibori purchased his own Bini Judge; Tinubu purchased himself the Appeal Court; and GEJ has the CJN and the Supreme Court in his bag.

O di too much!.

We can not continue this way ooo! Like a drunken man staggering from place to place, even our online commentary lurches from one issue to another, with neither plan nor purpose nor destination. We are spirited and energetic, and we are just as wasteful.

Jonathan can win, if he wants;
Buhari can win, if he wants;
Ribadu can win, if he wants.

But until the rest of us start drawing the line on the sand and setting some expectations for our leaders, nothing will change. Vigilance is the price that society pays for good government, and as the Arabs are showing, the failure of leadership is only made possible by the failure of fellowship. If we want it, we have to ask for it.

Fellow Nigerians at home and abroad, have you had enough? We gotta get get organized, RIGHT NOW! Adebayo Adejuwon and myself will never agree on the candidates, but we gotta make it clear that, starting May 2011, not even Jonathan will get away with idiocy. No matter who wins, we must make them work for Nigeria. If they are not competent, they must learn it by force, or hire people who are, because that's what they signed up for and that's what we them for.

Let us draw up our a list of 10 things we want the next Federal Government to accomplish in the first 100 days. Throw up your suggestions ... and if we have enough, I will do a pool and you we can all vote! Let us make it clear that we are watching and that, like the Egyptians, enough will soon be enough if our needs are not met! This is for the Federal Government. We will get to the States shortly ... but no Governor should assume office with a list of clear demands from the citizens!

FIRST 100 DAYS

1. The Next President must annouce his entire cabinet within the first 5 days -meaning he must be putting his cabinet together NOW, and not with cronies either!
2. That Cabinet must contain a Super-competent Finance Minister, and the Finance Minister must assemble a core Economic Team, with a clear agenda, within his/her First 30 days.
3. President Must Submit a Bill Untying the EFCC from the Executive branch within 30 days.
4. He must get the FOI Bill passed within 60 days
5 Establishment of apparatus for the implementation of SNC
6 Independence, Empowerment and Strengthening of EFCC, remove EFCC from under the authority of IG
7. Plan to restructure Nigeria health care system/Universal Health Insurance.
8. Enforcement of the law, you do the crime you do the time-restructuring of the judiciary too.
9. ???
10. ???
11. ???
12. ???
13. ???
14. ???


Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." --Thomas Jefferson

"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." -- Elie Wiesel


But you know, as far as restructuring Nigeria, Jonathan, with this animal called man Obasanjo standing behind him, said, that was 96 years late. So, you count Jonathan out as far as meaningful bills addressing key issues of the country is concerned. Who is there for him to put in place of responsibility? Everyone in PDP has gummy fingers; you can talk about finding foxes - PDPians to guard and protect chicken coops....


Isn't it funny that any man who wants to be president of Nigeria - this Great Nigeria - did not know
his vice a year before today? Nigerian president ke? People make a Yahoo! of this nation!

Only Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, among those candidates now standing on the presidential rostrum,
can handle the program listed hereunder by Mazi Dominic Ogbonna.
Again, PDP is the only national political party with a galaxy of intellectuals from all parts of the country.
It will be easy to assemble Nigeria's astute patriots to put the nation on the path of peace, development
and progress (pdp).
It is interesting to recall that the first thing Dr. Jonathan did during his first few weeks in Aso Rock
was to reform the Obasanjo PDP that had the trappings of militarism that General Buhari rubbed
off on the Nigerian nation during his spell as head of state via a military coup d'etat. Buhari was tossed
out by IBB! Nigerians are now looking forward, fast tracking April 2011 to usher in Jonathan/Sambo administration for the new democratic order. In education, experience and judgment,
Dr. Jonathan is the Nigerian leader the democratic world is beckoning with both hands!