A Tale of Two Transformations... by Segun Ayobolu

Transformation Agenda. That is the favourite buzz phrase of the Goodluck Jonathan administration. His ardent supporters want President Jonathan to continue in office for another four years so he can complete his revolutionary and historic mission of transforming our lives. PDP supporters apparently cannot understand why the majority of Nigerians are so reluctant to believe that Dr Jonathan is undertaking any meaningful transformation in their lives.

Of course, the debonair and ever fluent Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina has incessantly dazzled us with dizzying statistics of how the country’s agriculture sector has been transformed to the extent that Nigeria now exports a broad range of agricultural products. His beleaguered and ungrateful country men and women respond that they remain as hungry as they were four years ago if not more so. You see, rosy statistics cannot fill the human belly.

Or let us take the one and only former Aviation Minister Ms Stella Odua. She regaled us daily with stories of her feats in transforming the Aviation sector by painting Airport Terminals and being generally and vigorously busy doing things of microscopic significance. Her boss, the President, reluctantly let her go when she slipped on the Banana Peel of public opprobrium and disgust at her authorisation without appropriation of the procurement of two armour-plated  BMW cars allegedly for her personal use. The ever vocal Nigerian critics could never fathom that kind of transformation at all. Stella Oduah had to go.

The Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Abba Moro, was not that unlucky. He remains solidly in President Jonthan’s Federal Executive Council courtesy his fundamental transformation of the way the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) recruits new employees into its service. Thousands of unemployed youths were herded into stadia across the country to write so called examination tests after they had been fleeced of N1000 each by dubious private consultants who smiled all the way to the bank. Of course, the shoddy arrangement led to a stampede by applicants desperately looking for jobs. 20 precious souls perished. Several others were injured. But thank God for little mercies, Mr Abba Moro remains a Minister of the Federal Republic.

And what about the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngoji Okonjo-Iweala. Her performance has been no less stellar. Her greatest achievement has been the miraculous re-basing of the Nigerian economy, which has transformed Nigeria into the largest economy in Africa. Of course, she cares little for the late Professor Dudley Seers or even the cerebral Professor Charles Soludo who contend that high growth rates at the same time as unemployment, aggregate poverty rates and inequality are  rising does not amount to much in any economy. As far as Dr Okonjo-Iweala may care, however, it is all well and good for the country to grow richer at the same as the vast majority of her people are getting poorer!

However, this piece is not an attempt to analyse the performance of individual Ministers in President Jonathan’s administration. My mission today is to draw attention to two amazing transformations I have noticed. First, let us go back to the 2011 presidential campaigns. A candidate told us he had no shoes as a child. He said his case was a story of going from a very humble station in life to reach the apex of authority in his country. He knelt before pastors and General Overseers. Wow! What symbol of humility we all gushed. Millions of his compatriots went out of their way to vote emphatically for this candidate. He won decisively. He assured us he would not use his power like a Goliath, Nebuchadnenzer, Herod or any of those tyrants in history.

The people did not know they were in for a shock. One of his first major acts on winning re-election was to increase the price of fuel by as much as 100%. He and his Ministers claimed that the economy would collapse if the purported fuel subsidy was not removed. Angry Nigerians protested.  A man who disdains Nebuchadnezer and other tyrants in history ordered troops on the streets to suppress the demonstrations especially in Lagos. That precisely was the turning point of his administration. Extensive probes by the National Assembly showed that the whole fuel subsidy claims running into trillions of Naira was an elaborate fraud. None of the fuel subsidy thieves has been brought to book and the Petroleum Minister remains firmly in office as imperious as ever.

From then it was one way downhill for a man who once had no shoes. It has been for the man from Otueke, a scandalous squandering of tremendous goodwill. He told his country men and women on national television that he would not declare his assets and that he’ gave no damn about that!’

Now let us look at another scenario. The year was 1983. The notoriously corrupt National Party of Nigeria (NPN) had been over thrown by a number of young turks in the military. To give their coup the desired credibility, the planners of the coup entrusted power to two top Generals. The duo fought corruption ruthlessly, sentenced corrupt politicians to long years in prison, gave three drug couriers retroactive death sentences and launched a fierce War Against Indiscipline (WAI).

Apparently fearing that they could also become victims of the anti-corruption war, the young Turks moved to quickly replace their stern, no–nonsense officers and the era of the ever–smiling Generals set in. There was unbridled deregulation of virtually every sector of the economy and unparalleled indiscipline and corruption. Today the nation is paying the price for several years of profligacy and wantonness. Three times, the austere General had put himself forward to serve in competitive elections on the platform of different parties in this dispensation.

This time around, he is running on the platform of the biggest and most formidable party ever available to him. At 72, he has been wizened and tempered by age and he looks more regal and composed than the too often agitated incumbent.  His popularity soars by the day. The attempt to label him a Muslim fanatic has completely fizzled out. His Running-Mate is a distinguished Professor, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and a prominent pastor of one of the largest Pentecostal churches in the world. How could one candidate squander so much goodwill across the country within four years while another, defeated in 2011 has garnered so much support even among his once most ardent opponents? I think the answer is simple, you must not take any individual, group or interest for granted in politics. The incumbent took so much for granted believing, perhaps, the power of the Nigerian state could guarantee him victory no matter how personally unpopular he was.he was. Again, his Niger-Delta kinsmen behaved as if the presidency was their private property and he never cautioned them as they often abused and insulted the entire nation including some of our most eminent citizens. He may pay very dearly for this kind of carelessness.