The President After My Heart

Did you listen to Obama's State of the Union address?

Give me a BHO and I'll put GEJ up for barter. I mentioned in my review of GEJ's inaugural speech which was published in Punch Newspaper and OU Journal - Only once in Mr. President’s inaugural address did we see a [seeming] firm active voice, “The urgent task of my administration is to provide a suitable environment, for productive activities to flourish. I therefore call on the good people of Nigeria, to enlist as agents of this great transformation.” But even that was vague. A leader must have integrity and must be accountable; I mean a real active and vibrant leader.

Nigerians must be able to hold our president accountable. But how can we do that when manifesto and inaugural speech was filled with sensational statements? The entire 20-point inaugural speech can be broken into the following key messages:

1. Gratitude and appreciation for votes and promise of being worthy of our trust. Special appreciation of Nigerians for collective commitment to building a democratic country, of course PDP was specifically mentioned.

2. Acknowledgement of “brother heads of state and government” or representatives, chair person of African Union, world leaders, development partners and guests.

3. Salutation of his friend and brother, Mr. VP Sambo for being a pillar of support, First Lady, Madam Peace for galvanizing and mobilizing Nigerian women for the cause of democracy and salutation to his parents. Congratulations to elected Governors, Senators, members of the House of Representatives and those of the States Houses of Assembly.

4. Tribute to the late President, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and to Nigeria’s founding fathers for their enduring sacrifice

5. Acknowledgment of the over 70M that registered to vote and those who struggled against limitations and challenges to vote, and of the spirit of resilience to build a strong nation

6. Affirmation of Nigeria’s unity, unshakable determination to unite our nation and improve the living standards of all our peoples. Mr President’s confidence that a people that are truly committed to a noble ideal, cannot be denied the realization of their vision and an assurance that Nigeria’s dream that is so deeply felt by millions will indeed come to reality. An affirmation of the sacrifice that gave the people’s mandate to a candidate from the minorities.

7. A note of sympathy for a fan that overwhelmed by the joy of victory, after campaigning enthusiastically, collapsed and passed on three days later. A sympathetic acknowledgement of the many patriotic and diligent souls especially members of the Armed Forces and the NYSC that were lost in re-birthing our democracy

8. A charge to those elected for patriotism and passion, demonstrable leadership, statesmanship, vision, capacity, and sacrifice, to transform our nation to match the hopes and aspirations of the great people. We must strengthen common grounds, develop new areas of understanding and collaboration, and seek fresh ideas that will enrich our national consensus. It is the supreme task of this generation to give hope to the hopeless, strength to the weak and protection to the defenceless.

9. A promise of transformation in all the critical sectors, by harnessing the creative energies of our people.

10. A promise to grow the economy, create jobs, and generate enduring happiness for Nigerians and trust in the ability of Nigerians to transform Nigeria. “The urgent task of my administration is to provide a suitable environment, for productive activities to flourish. I therefore call on the good people of Nigeria, to enlist as agents of this great transformation”.

Unfortunately, we have had in the recent past, presidents who never chose to be president. Jonathan got their by luck, Yar'adua was a response to the North's prayer...

So we have occcupied Nigeria, occupied the media and even occupied external territories with protests that only seem to have made our corrupt learders position themselves to be innovate with regards to how they fool the citizenry. Despite the government’s win, the protest got a huge buy in this time because it went beyond organised labour.

But take a moment to trace to the past and you'd see a tradition... price hike, brouhaha, silly negotiations, back track to the actually intended hike which in this case was N100. So those in the corridors of power are actually laughing hopefully we can make them laugh from their behind.

The turnout was unprecedented so we should have insisted on N65 or nothing. But again, few corrupt folks in the corridor of power, a bunch of rich and equally corrupt supporters and a group of security dogs who feed on Naira outsmarted a country with over 150m people.

If nothing else, we must celebrate the little milestone we have made. Today, Nigerians are wiser especially considering the huge outflow of information that made it across the country and all over the world virally. The can of worms we have opened will keep crawling. I hope these worms will crawl all over every corrupt person and crawl over their humanhood and force them to be accountable and join the fight against corruption.