Last night, Christiane
Amanpour, the prestigious Journalist and CNN Chief International Correspondent
and Host of AMANPOUR, the Foreign
Affairs Interview Programme on CNN
International interviewed via satellite, Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan
who is in Davos, Switzerland attending the World Economic Forum. She
interviewed the President on a whole range of critical issues as terrorism and
Boko Haram, the energy sector and corruption. The President was skirty,
sketchy, evasive and at best untruthful. On issue after issue, he lied; except
for one or two. He did finally admit that Boko Haram is a terrorist
organisation and not a product of poverty and underdevelopment as some would
have us believed, but he pathologically denied the extrajudicial tortures and
murders of suspects, innocent citizens and unharmed civilians, which are
patently evident, and are the hallmarks of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF)
modus operandi. And he further derided the United States Department of State
shrewd situation report, maintaining in substance that they are works of Civil
Society Organisations, Interest Groups and Individuals who have access to the
State Department; as if to say that Organisations, Groups and Individuals in
Nigeria are full of lies and that the US States Department no longer have the
capacity to sieve information and design the true from the untrue or separate
facts from fiction.
The President also staunchly defended his anti-corruption
drive and efforts, using his electoral reforms policies as a justification. To
that extent, he might be right, but there is still a lot more room for
improvement as the 2011 general elections, which key actors and observers cite
as a milestone wasn’t totally free and fair; indeed, those who understands
Nigeria very well and could go to the hinterlands knew that there were
systematic intellectual rigging in that election. However, this is only with
respect to elections and not the pervading corruption in the nation. In fact,
the level of corruption has risen dramatically in this dispensation and the
President appears to have lost control of the wheels in combating this
monstrous octopus.
However, the most amazing and appalling of all, is the
President’s take on the energy issue. He said electricity generation and
distribution has greatly improved; that the power sector was relatively stable
and that if you ask Nigerians on the streets of Lagos and Abuja, they will
testify to that. But that is totally untrue, and residents in both Lagos and
Abuja, as well as elsewhere, will confirm this. In short, there has been no
improvement in power supply at all; a close look at the indices will reveal
that the nation is yet to exceed the 4,000megawatts (MW) it was generating
three to four years ago. There has been no increase in megawatts; what we have
got is simply a change in energy distribution policy. The present government
has simply re-allocated distribution of more megawatts to select areas around
the country; so if one is living in those choice areas, it will create the
false impression that there is improvement in electricity generation and
distribution. Yet, the nation is still on 4,000MW.
In the final analysis, the AMANPOUR Interview further revealed that the President is neither
in charge nor on top of issues; he seems to have lost touch with reality, and
he clearly have lost control, because the Nigeria
he spoke of last night certainly does not exist; it exists only perhaps in his
dreams.
Eneruvie Enakoko
Editor in
Chief & Chief Executive
(+2348094648891, +2348033188864)
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