GOODLUCK VERSUS GOODWILL

Millions of column inches have been written, innocent blood has been shed, 159,990,000 voices have been raised, and innumerable number of protests staged. Yet, Jonathan defies common sense and is bent on digging in his heels. He has now thrown caution to the wind and defenestrated all logic. He has befriended infamy, courted idiocy and confabbed with unreason. He has not only put his finger on the self-destruct button, he has sat his bum on it. Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make proud. Pride goes before fall, the saying goes . Goodluck, you have just lost all goodwill. You have lost your mojo in spectacular fashion. Not on your nelly will you ever get it back; you have burnt all bridges by your insularity.

You’re afraid to grab the bull by the horn; the repercussiveness of your heady attitude is still muddy to you, but in the fullness of time you will look back and regret that you blinked at the wrong people, and barked at the wrong ones. You baulked at the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do what was right by the people of this great nation. You will be forever haunted, UNLESS you expeditiously make a spectacular reverse of this perverse and most ruinous of strategies. Why you couldn’t substitute your lack of wit and tact with tacit, and consummate, understanding of what really is at stake here, is beyond comprehension. May I reiterate, GEJ (though it vexes me to do so for the umpteenth time), what we Nigerians REALLY, REALLY want:

(1) Get in the face of the corrupt oil cabal and the colluding venal officials; bring them to book and confiscate whatever they have looted for the benefit of Nigerians;

(2) Make this unravelling of the corruption in the oil industry a starting point for a wider war on corruption in our political, public and social lives; accelerate the setting up of special courts to prosecute without fear or favour, and, if found culpable, severely punish wrongdoers even as you confiscate their ill-gotten loot at home and repatriate their loot from abroad. Rejig, retool and reconfigure the EFCC and the ICPC to make them fit for purpose;

(3) Drastically cut the cost of governance, to fall in line with the rest of the free world; and

(4) While you are at it, confront Boko Haram and all the agents of insecurity in our country who present a clear and present danger to our very survival as a people, and as a united Nigeria.

We are tired of being lectured by your scatter-brained cohorts who think they know better than Nigerians; who the heck are they to think Nigerians don’t understand the logic behind fuel subsidy removal? Their feeling of self-importance was actually the chief reason for your rash actions, and the subsequent unreasonable, and obstinate, refusal to execute a much-needed volte-face. Do what is right now and you may yet recover some of your lost goodwill. Nigerians will NOT hang about any longer; we demand total freedom from the scourge of corruption, patronage and unspeakably terrible governance. The merry-go-round at our expense MUST stop; our children must be properly fed and educated; our healthcare system must be revamped; jobs must be made available for the tens millions of the unemployed among us; our roads must be seen to; serious and urgent attention must be paid to power supply. We no longer have the appetite for going hungry amidst plenty. Our patience is at an end.

Keep talking with Labour and the organized civil organisations, and salvation may not be beyond you, after all. BUT YOU’VE GOT TO ACT FAST. A word is enough …………………………