MR. PRESIDENT, FIND SOMETHING TO DO WITH YOUR TIME

I can’t help but pity President Yar’Adua at this time. The man is in deep mess! Everything seems to be going wrong for him. It’s so difficult to hear any good news from his Govt. He used to be Baba Go Slow, then became Baba Standstill and has now become Baba Controversy. He seems to court trouble like it’s going out of fashion. And the troubles seem to be coming in their legions.

Some rascals in the House of Reps have been talking tough about impeachment over non-implementation of the budget. I just don’t understand Bankole and his boys. If they really care about the impact of this govt. on the people, they should work quickly on the constitutional amendment and electoral reforms to give Nigerians the power to truly choose their leaders and leave the decision of getting rid of Yar’Adua to them. I can assure him that they will not only be sending Yar’Adua away but along with all the members of the National assembly. However the truth is that this particular trouble, like the others, is self-inflicted by the President. Since he could not convince and lobby them to pass the budget the way he wanted it, having now signed their own version into law, I would remind him to ‘nudge’ his Govt. to the part of constitutionality and be guided by its rule of Law and implement the law as it is. It is not only when Ibori and girlfriends are involved the he should weep up rule of law.

As the wahala at the National assembly was playing out, another one was erupting in the Niger-Delta. Now this one again was totally avoidable. Or rather could have been curtailed before it got to the shouting match we are witnessing now. At the heart of the agitation of the people of that region is the lack of development and total neglect. It was this neglect that led to the demand for resource control. So this Govt. has been trying to assure the region that it means well for them. But they have only been trying because every time they have pretended to make an attempt, it has always had some sinister motive behind it. I would think that 'meaning well' will either be to give them resource control or turning the region into a construction site with developmental projects, but clearly none of this is happening. Instead they are being stripped of the little development that they have got. The mistakes in every major action that relates to the Presidents policy in the region are becoming too many for comfort. First his summit on Niger-Delta was botched, then the blunder with the NDDC board, the creation of a Niger-Delta Ministry, his defense pact with the British Govt., the oil wells between Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers states, the amnesty offer and now the Petroleum Industry Reform Bill.

This latest trouble with the Petroleum Industry reform bill is the most annoying. Sitting the new Federal University of Petroleum in Kaduna? What for? And then reversing the upgrading of the Petroleum Training Institute in Effurun into a full university as approved by OBJ? What was Yar’Adua thinking? That the militants in the creeks will applaud him and maybe send a delegation of traditional rulers and politicians to pay him a ‘Thank You’ visit? Unfortunately No! The militants have screamed to high heavens and threatened to pull out of the amnesty agreement. The Niger-Delta students – who have been quiet about this struggle - have risen strongly from their slumber with a massive protest in Warri issuing the FG a seven day ultimatum to reverse itself. The Governors have been talking like militants too, threatening to pull their support for the amnesty. I don’t want to remember what JRC’s spokeswoman Cynthia Whyte thinks of Ministers from the region.

The most disheartening of all these is Rilwan Lukman who is at the center of all this. It is very unfortunate that Mr. Lukman, the Petroleum Minister has been talking like a child. If the people of the region can produce the low-level manpower required in the oil and gas industry, the can produce the management-level manpower too! I won’t blame Mr. Lukman for wanting the Petroleum University in his village, after all the Petroleum Ministry has become his father’s OBI where he consults his CHI year in, year out! Assuming Mr. Lukman did some research or survey to arrive at his choice of Kaduna, I would like to know the parameters used in this survey. Is it that the oil majors have their offices or operational bases in Kaduna or its environs? Or that oil has been found in Kaduna or that there is prospect of finding any soon? Or is that Kaduna is the economics base of the country? Or is it that managers in the industry told him that they have fallen in love with the serenity of Kaduna? Or because Kaduna is the safest place they can comfortably learn security wise? Or that Kaduna is easy to access from any part of the world? Or that Kaduna can support the kind of research that the university will be embarking upon? Mr. Lukman, please how did you arrive at this your choice of Kaduna? Must every decision be based on political balancing? Even this one does not balance anything. In countries that work, Mr. Lukman would have either resigned or be sacked for committing such a blunder on a major Govt. decision. That’s in countries that work anyway.

As the Niger-Delta boiled, no one heard President Yar’Adua speak; no one received any letter from him about the issue. He was busy with Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Michael ‘I don’t Care’ Aondokaa writing letter to Governor Fashola. By deciding to threaten Fashola and start another round of troubles for Lagosians. This confirms that President Yar’Adua has got his priority twisted. He has no business being our President. That Lagos is working is no longer news. Even the blind can see it and the deaf can hear it, except Yar’Adua and Minister ‘I Don’t Care’. Of all the troubles bedeviling Lagos, the only one worrying him is the issue of LGs and LCDAs. Not even the collapsed Apapa/Oshodi Expressway got his attention except an issue that’s been settled by the Supreme Court. By citing the decision of a lower court after the Supreme Court had spoken shows how shallow the advice he receives are. In fact, in line with his avowed rule of law stance, one would have expected him to go to the Supreme Court for clarification, but instead he chooses to threaten a hard working Governor with Federal might. I like the mature way Fashola responded to this childish talk.

I am only concerned that Fashola can do without this unnecessary distraction. If any Govt. needs to be ‘nudged’, it is the FG. Mr. President needs to find something to occupy his time. Nigerians are begging for electricity, the Lagos/Benin Expressway need to be attended to, ASUU is on strike among so many other problems facing this nation. I want to beg him to find something to do with his time. If you can’t belittle yourself to solve these problems, I am sure you still have some beautiful daughters, try and find them a Governor suitor and then spend some time planning their wedding. Just go and find something to busy yourself with but leave Fashola alone. I want to remind Yar’Adua of the opinion poll published by Guardian Newspaper on Sunday. It clearly showed that both you and the National Assembly are not very popular with Nigerians. You came down from an approval rating of 79% to just 25%. One day in the history of polling of Presidents, this will surely rank as the lowest a President ever received. It’s ironic that if that opinion poll had compared Fashola to Yar’Adua nationwide, Fashola would have ranked far higher than the President. If not for the type of regional and zoning politics that we play in this country, I would have asked Fashola to challenge Mr. President for that office come 2011. He would roundly thrash this confused President.