By Emeka C.Ifesieh
LAGOS MARCH 5TH (URHOBOTODAY)-It is clear from President Jonathan’s actions that he has a good vision for Nigeria. He has demonstrated a great deal of forthrightness in many undertakings of the Federal Government, of which he is the Chief Presiding Officer.
Many months ago, he mentioned some of the landmark achievements of his administration: construction of roads, entrenchment of rule of law and democratic principles (peoples’ votes now count, which accounts for the emergence of a strong opposition party and the rising interest of the polity in the forthcoming general elections), bringing the aviation industry generally forward to meet international standards, combating corruption through robust policies and legislations as evident in the agricultural sector of the economy, a well calculated approach to fighting terrorism, powerful economic plan and execution, which has made Nigeria the number one economy in Africa, the unbundling of National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) following due processes, building of many power plants and subsequent the increment in the national grid, tackling the ideological base of Boko Haram terror group through the founding of Almajiri schools in the northern Nigeria, working towards balancing out educational inequality between the northern and southern Nigeria by building Federal Universities in the states where they were not, of which the north was seriously affected, construction of bridges etc..
Besides these, one outstanding, though latent quality of President Jonathan’s led administration is consistency in working towards building powerful institutions: he ensured that the Freedom of Information Bill (FOI) was passed by the National Assemblies. He then signed it into law without hesitation. Therefore, ab initio, he knew that for powerful institutions to be established, the citizenry should have unfettered access to information. This would enable them to critique administrations. Through the criticisms, the government is checkmated by the polity.
President Jonathan lives by example. If one considers what happens between the President Jonathan’s led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government at the centre and certain opposition party politicians, one might be tempted to think that President Jonathan is weak, because he refuses to use force or the Federal powers to crush the opposition. But he is focused, he rather prefers going by the rule of law and due processes. That is what makes President Jonathan a hero and endears him to millions of people the world over.
Now, because President Jonathan is not corrupt in relation to the past civilian Heads of State, the opposition party, All Progressives Congress (APC) and some others capitalize on the President’s incomplete definition of ‘theft’ as ‘not necessarily being corruption’ to imply that he was corrupt. But, they fail to contextualize the definition. As a matter of fact, President Jonathan’s working concept and definition of corruption is very elaborate wherein theft can be seen as a marginal part of corruption. To President Jonathan, corruption is ‘non observance of the rule of law and due process in carrying out official duties’. This operational definition influences to a great extent, President Jonathan’s actions and inactions. Take for instance, he requests all his Ministers, who he usually appoints based on Federal character and good track records to sign a performance contract.
Subsequently, once a Minister fails to perform satisfactorily, he or she is shown the way out. One feels strongly persuaded to believe that the Nigerian opposition political parties are yet to present to Nigerians a healthy and competent politician that can measure up to President Jonathan’s pedigree. One is quite optimistic that Nigerians will unmistakably vote for President Jonathan via PDP on March 28, 2015 as the next Nigerian President.