It is no longer news that the tenure of Nigerian President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has been a colossal failure, due to the corruption and recklessness of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as well as Jonathan’s own specific political missteps. This is evident with regards to the energy, education, security, corruption, political and healthcare crises as well as the endemic poverty in Nigeria. Considering that Nigeria is rich in natural resources and, indeed, in the top three wealthiest countries in Africa (by GDP), the fact that a large proportion of its citizenry live in poverty (around 70% approximately) demands explanation. Nigeria’s principal resource is crude oil.
According to The Daily Mail Nigeria’s oil industry is ‘highly corrupt’: with ‘136 million barrels of crude oil worth $11 billion’ being ‘illegally siphoned off in just two years from 2009 to 2011’. Such staggering misappropriation – partly under Jonathan’s presidency – points toward multilevel corruption. Millions of barrels of oil do not go missing without at least some official observance or deliberate absence thereof. Billions of dollars stolen from the country and inserted into the black market of course has deeper and more troubling repercussions than a mere monetary deficit. Such funds tend to go toward unsavoury causes to say the least. As one might expect, then, high level corruption – whose political mainspring is the presidency – has long been a problem for Nigeria. The problem is of drastic proportions. The Daily Mail reports, that, a number of the cabinet ministers have either been indicted or involved in questionable transactions especially the petroleum ministry. Such figures make for an unwholesome picture of the body politic (of which Jonathan must be considered the head). In addition, a 2012 Transparency International Global Corruption Report (GCR) ranked Nigeria 37th most corrupt in the world, a lamentable ranking. All in all, therefore, on a broad scale, Nigeria’s political situation is not promising at the present time.
In spite of Nigeria’s economic problems and President Jonathan’s proclamations of ‘austerity’, according to The Economist ‘Nigerian cabinet officials control the highest ministerial budgets in the world, whereas the per capita income is only $1500’. This does not ipso facto condemn the regime but it does suggest economic irresponsibility as well as something of the crooked political mechanics at play under Jonathan’s leadership. In all events, the situation could hardly be described as ‘fair’. At best it sets a far from inspirational example for a self-impoverished nation. Using the treasury for personal enrichment amid endemic corruption and widespread privations appears to be the status quo in the ruling party’s politics.
Another feature of leadership corruption sees the ruling elite treat the country as a personal commercial enterprise, privatising profits in favour of a select few. Thus questions might reasonably be raised about Nigeria’s dealings with the Jonathan-led privatisation of the beleaguered electricity/power industry. In a country so hobbled by corruption, a country-wide industry suddenly opened to the free market – a country with a thriving black market – surely makes for a lucrative prospect to the criminally minded.
Jonathan’s pledge to personally oversee the privatisation of electricity hardly reassures seeing as his own credentials are far from unassailable. In any case, any hope of an in-depth scrutiny of this or any other organ of state is currently deeply problematic because, as Transparency International puts it, the Nigerian government’s financial transparency is virtually non-existent. Such guarded finances cast suspicion on all transactions at the federal level for they inevitably raise the question: what are they trying to hide?
Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency, then, has done nothing to lift the country’s standing in terms of economic wellbeing or international integrity. Besides public acts of buffoonery, such as Jonathan’s attempted two-year ban on Nigeria’s football team competing internationally, the President has personally endorsed backward and even draconian policies. The President pursuing such ill-considered and superficial political ends damages Nigeria’s standing on the world stage. This has the second-order effect of severing or at least attenuating potential diplomatic ties. From a global perspective, economic and social developments are increasingly being driven by the advancement and application of knowledge. Yet the potential of higher education systems in Nigeria to fulfil these responsibilities are frequently thwarted by Jonathan led self-inflicted problems of finance, efficiency, equity, quality and governance. It is the height of insensitivity for this government to continue politicking as usual despite the fact that all public universities in the most populous black nation in the world have been closed and locked down for over sixty days and counting.
Education in general and higher education in particular, are fundamental to the construction of a knowledge economy and society in all nations. According to Porter, knowledge has become the most important factor for economic development in the 21st century. Through its capacity to augment productivity, it increasingly constitutes the foundation of a country’s competitive advantage. In contrast, Nigeria under President Jonathan has neither articulated a development strategy linking knowledge to economic growth nor built up the nation’s capacity to do so. Although it is Africa’s largest country with 20 percent of the region’s population, Nigeria has only 15 scientists and engineers engaged in research and development per million persons.
In spite of substantial oil revenues, per capita income is lower today than it was in 1970s. The non-oil economy is stagnant especially the agricultural sector. Despite the billions spent on the sector and millions of hi-tech mobile phones claimed to have been distributed to ‘ghost’ farmers by Dr. Akinwunmi Ayo Adesina, fertilizers and needed agricultural equipment are still unavailable. A survey of international businesses working in Sub-Saharan Africa found that Nigeria is one of the most difficult countries in the world for private business (Center for International Development 2011). On balance, the material conditions for development appear to be available, but the human and cultural conditions that enable development to occur are not yet in place.
Research from the African Development Bank echo the damning findings of other international organisations: ‘Nigeria has a low Human Development Index (HDI). The country has made some progress towards attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), albeit slowly and unevenly.’ This general downward trend in federal efficacy is not simply reflective of a few misfiring pistons in the machinery of state; rather it bespeaks deep systematic problems in Nigeria’s overall infrastructure. Said failings extend to the very fundaments of the social order. A key example is Nigeria’s addled health service of which a recent World Bank report laments the ‘decay in public infrastructure – leaking roofs, heaps of garbage, broken down equipment, and stock-outs of drugs and disposables for months on end in public health centres’. In other words, the health system is in shambolic order.
This must be considered as dismally remarkable for one of the wealthiest nations in Africa. A country that fails to address its people’s fundamental wellbeing is broken in the core.
President Jonathan has been an ineffective and incompetent leader. He cannot be absolved from responsibility in the manifold problems afflicting Nigeria. Thus he MUST be voted out come the 2015 presidential election. Nigeria clearly deserves better. One must ask why Jonathan has not concretely pursued the anti-corruption line he espoused during his electoral campaign. If Jonathan seeks any glimmer of legitimacy in his office he should champion prosecutions regardless of the accused political position. None of the oil subsidy suspects have been successfully tried or convicted. Recently, the president claimed and paid homage publicly to his political godfather, an ex-convict, who was subsequently rewarded with a state pardon. Without trustworthy administrators, the country, Nigeria, has no hope of progress. Consequently the next election should be fought on terms of a complete overhaul of the usual PDP politics. This is the only way endemic corruption will be rooted out. The PDP have proven incapable of such change; clearly they are not up to the task of running a nation. For a country to command integrity it must be seen to have an independent judiciary, one in which the public can hold confidence. Jonathan and the PDP, who have already meddled in judicial procedure, evidently cannot be trusted with ensuring an independent judiciary. Summarily, Goodluck Jonathan’s presidential performance has been greatly wanting in statesmanship, even-handedness, innovation, insight and tangible progress. He represents the continuance of a malignant tradition of venality in Nigerian politics; he is unfit for high office. The President has devalued Nigeria’s global standing on cultural and diplomatic terms by a spate of ill-advised acts of irrationality and political backwardness. Taking all the above into account, Jonathan’s performance can only be judged as an abject failure. The only logical solution therefore is a complete transformation of Nigeria’s political landscape, beginning with the key players involved.
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