PRESIDENT JONATHAN, WILL HISTORY VINDICATE YOU?
I used to hate History and i will like to paint a scenario to Mr President!
In the silent days of 1986, i was promoted to the fourth form for my higher college studies at the prestigious Eko Boys High School in Lagos. At this stage, we all had an opportunity to choose subjects. I wasted no time choosing Government instead of history.
The rigour of remembering dates in the compulsory elementary history i offered the previous year was enough to denounce history- a subject i promised never again! What is my business in remembering the exploits of Othman Dan Fodio with his Jihadist vision in days that were long past before my father was born? Studying the significance of kingdoms of Borno, Oyo, Ashanti and the trans-African trade through the Sahel was a waste of time!
Now, offering government as a subject, i was taught the beginning of communism and the Russian revolution of 1917. I was taken through the elementary history of American democracy, years of industrial revolution and the ensued cold war of the 1930s and 1940s between communism and capitalism.
Still, at the end of my fifth form, i regarded these as academic exercises that would only be useful for taking and passing class examinations.
In the years that followed, precisely from 1991, i enrolled to take a degree in Social Studies education at Ondo State University (now University of Ado-Ekiti).
For those five prolonged years (I stayed longer than four years because of academic closures in those turbulent years of the military), history related courses took larger part of my studies.
Now, ten years into active journalism practice, history has held my career, as a news and documentary photographer, close in its domain! Every event i had covered, in and outside Nigeria, has a taste of history.
Mr President Sir, i have painted this scenario because i know you also have sweet history and that if you would not take cognisance of your old past, the immediate past would still be fresh in your memory as much as it does in the minds of all Nigerians. Unlike me during my college days, Nigerians are not going to avoid history. They have started keeping the records and dates of your actions and inactions! With their highly sophisticated communication gadgets, they are already posting comments on social networks. I remember, you also used these platforms well to seek their votes!
Do you remember May 29, 2011 at the Eagle square in Abuja, when another chapter of your history book began? You stepped out of your tinted-screened car with your fedora-like cap onto the red carpet and made a bold walk toward the podium where the former Chief justice of the federation, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu performed his obligatory function of swearing you in as the third civilian president of the republic, since the end of unpopular military system in Nigeria in 1999.
Did you observed the army of men and women numbering up to 200 with their cameras by the side of the podium, where you signed the presidential oath? What they came to do was well known to you. They had waved the threats of soldiers and the policemen who would not allowed vantage positions, to record the beginning of your immediate history.
However, the unfolding events since the end of your swearing-in on May 29 are too quick to remind us of your historical ‘speech of transformation' these men recorded with their black boxes. A few people who are still overwhelmed with the sentiment of north-south division that brought you to power are asking for more time and patience on your behalf. They say you need time to settle down and choose the right cabinet to work. I was part of those who shared that sentiment during your campaign. It was not because i cared about where the president comes from but i feared the Nigerian nation could derail if a president from the Delta region would not be allowed at least, the first time ever. Beyond that, i also thought you exhibited the hope we were denied in the early days of the 1990s.
But soon, very soon Mr President, Nigerians would be tired of assurances and hope. If countless numbers of people who had lost their lives on Lagos-Ibadan expressway would not be remembered at this time, we can remember June 20, 2011 when a wide pot-hole towards the Lagos end of the road snuffed life out of eighteen people travelling from Kano! That happened only five days after a suicide bomb blast at the police headquarters in Abuja killed a police officer and two others.The United Nations building was also bombed on August 26, 2011.....only weeks after you mounted the podium to swear to an oath. The general feeling of insecurity is growing and the hope you promised may die in no time!
Mr President, let me remind you of an advertorial that bore your smiling photograph on page 81 of The Nigerian Guardian, Thursday, April 14, 2011, two days before the presidential election that peacefully cruised you to power. The words in the advertorial read: ‘I am Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, my goal is the total transformation of Nigeria and i want to ensure that Nigeria is a true home for all its citizens.....a country where there is adequate power supply, a secure environment for business and leisure, and where the infrastructure is comparable to anywhere in the world. I want ours schools to deliver the best education to our children, our institutions must work in the interest of the people. I want a country where no one will go to bed hungry. Vote me in for the next four years and together we will achieve the Nigeria of our dreams. I promise, I will not let you down'.
So far in my journalism career and also as a documentary photographer, i have really come to terms with the connections between truth, time and history. Truth, especially in the academia, has been a controversial subject of time and the constant movement of time has made truth a mere symbol of realism in history. I am sure Nigerians would have no problems reading those words of promises because they are used to such, even in the days when heaven and earth were promised for year 2000. They were still hoping, when the thematic slogan Housing for all by year 2000 failed and they continue to do follow-follow when they were promised Nigeria would be a proud fatherland with ‘Vision 2010'.
Sir, four years you asked for in that advertorial is ticking away; it is getting shorter from the very first second! By 2015 when you are required by law to pass on the baton, we would only have five years left to ‘Vision 2020'. By 2015, we hope that many questions we hypothesised would have been answered.
Would you have corrected an anomaly of a nation that is richly blessed in crude oil but groans under heavy cost of fuel importation? As you are aware, Nigeria is the sixth largest crude oil producer in the world. Will this be a shame you would like to correct with this plenty of time without taking away the fuel subsidy?
By this time then, would you have been able to rebuild our roads to erase fear of accident and boost our economic activities with them?
We hope also, Mr President, that by this time then, no other president would seek medical attention abroad again, even in critical cases! Because you promised in your historic presidential speech on May 29, 2011 that: ‘Over the next four years, attention will be focused on rebuilding our infrastructure'.
With this time left, can you take education out of the doldrums of figurative choice as you promised before the close of your speech on May 29?
Would you apply the intellectualism you may have learnt from Herbert Macaulay, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Great Zik of Africa, Obafemi Awolowo,Tai Solarin and the great Abami Eda-Fela Anikulapo-Kuti in taming the Boko Haram?
By 2015, Would it have been possible to make the defrauders of the state, scapegoats of institutional change we yearn and stripe corruption naked? The corruption case against Demeji Bankole, the immediate past Speaker of the House of Representatives, may offer a clue.
On the occasion of your grand finale presidential rally, held also at the historic Eagle square on March 26, 20011, you made a speech that was very touchy. The ninth paragraph of that speech as published on page 49 of The Punch newspaper of April 5, 2011 reads: ‘Our opponents have done a very good job of reminding the populace about the problems that are still facing the nation, but many of the solutions they proffer are hopelessly inadequate. Some of them even sound as if they wish to turn back the clock and take us to models that have failed repeatedly because they have not really assimilated the investor demands and the new global focus on development and good governance'.
My dear President, your people are anxiously waiting for this new style of governance. The new global focus you mentioned in your speech, which will work with people who have the interest of the commonwealth at heart.
President Jonathan, you have said all these. You have made all these promises! We are already taking records. Your time is ticking. You have no time to ask for elongation of time and terms of office and 2015 is beackoning.
Please take note of the fearless judge- history; will it vindicate you within this space of time?
We are patiently waiting!
