Letter to GEJ

Dear President Jonathan,

Greetings from disappointed Nigerians.

Yes we are disappointed, not with Mr Ebele Jonathan "the teacher" but with Jonathan the "President". We are disappointed because for months on end prior to the elections in April, we did all we could to sensitize youths our age to come out and vote. I for one, did not fail in telling every one around me how we can make a change if we vote this time and not just vote anybody but vote you, GEJ. Our opinion was that judging by where you are coming from, you would have seen the demons sucking Nigeria's blood from the everyday Nigerian man's perspective. How wrong we were!

I do not doubt that you are a good man and my opinion has not changed with respect to that but I now doubt if you were really qualified for this job in the first place. Don't get me wrong, politically speaking you are qualified, you have the minimum education standard, you belong to a political party, you have god -fathers and now we know you have become god -father to so many whom you must feed their insatiable appetite first, before you look around, but are you the Leader that will spear head the change that we need?.

The type of leaders nobody in Nigeria wanted after April 2011 are: the type that will stick to Status quo and drive Nigeria from stagnation to death and decomposition; the type that will retain some officials and appoint others, as soon as they take over office solely for the purpose of being thought how best to steal the money without being caught; the type that Nigerians spit at the mention of their names. Is this your career goal?

Why have you refused to do things differently since you assumed office?  There is a concept about justice, that it does not only have to be done but also seen to have been done, so please do not start with all the projects you have initiated or contracts that have been awarded and  signed that only exist on paper and in the media world ( not like the media is even reporting them with elation,they are merely doing their job).

When you were in the classrooms and your salary was delayed or left unpaid, I bet you thought to yourself " If I become governor of Bayelsa, I will do it differently" But now , you have long surpassed that stage, we have given you the highest platform to make the biggest changes, what are you waiting for?

Why can't you see that the only leaders who succeed are the ones who have an independent people oriented dream/love for their country, do you even have a personal affection for Nigeria and all it stands for?

Why can't you see that the biggest challenge to governance in Nigeria is corruption and  the multiplicity and duplicity of organs, bodies and offices in the system. How come we have ministers ,directors and chairmen of one body who themselves have Special advisers, personal assistants, chief security officers and protocol officers. The Assistants themselves, employ assistants whose job is to help them hold oga's handkerchief while they hold his 5 handsets...it is madness.These people have assess to our money one way or the other and so the number of thieves are even more staggering, than the normal Nigerian knows.

How about my friend here? Did it have to get to this before he can get a job?

Camera pix on a friend's FB page

No matter how absurd it sounds, this is the plight of most Nigerian youths. And yet, job creation was the foremost on your list of promises.

When you talk about public offices, is there even a machinery to check their excesses? How come people who have been in office since 1960 are not getting out and yet our universities produce millions of graduates at the end of each session?

About Roads,

The Nigerian Tribune on 5 Aug,2011 had this to say,

"According to a report; Completed and Substantially Completed Projects and Projects Awarded under 2010 Appropriation between 2002 and 2010, the total sum of N308,13 billion were released for 37 contracts involving the rehabilitation and expansion of some federal roads in the country."

"An example is the Benin-Shagamu road for which a N36.3 billion contract was awarded. Contract for the expansion of the Abuja- Abaji road was awarded to three contractors since 2006 at the cost of N42.3billion. The Kano Western bye pass road was awarded in May, 2007 at the cost ofN15 billion while the sum of N30 billion was reportedly spent to rehabilitate the Onitsha - Owerri road and construct and Eastern bye pass for the Onitsha road."`

"Some of the things one gets to hear and read being done in government makes one to always wonder if there are still any sensible, or patriotic civil servant left in the ministries. Did all the professionals in that big ministry not see this deficiency before the contract was awarded? Who gave the go ahead without visiting the site to compare the drawings with the reality if we must assume that he has in all his growing up years never travelled that road before?"

"Despite this huge waste, the report noted that Nigeria will require the sum of N700 billion Naira to fix the roads between now and 2013 due to ‘past neglect, lack of adequate maintenance and competing national agenda for limited resources".

Why can't those Failed Contracts be investigated and  prosecuted under our laws? Most of those construction companies dare not overstay their project deadline by a day in their home countries, why are we like this?

Do you even read the news? No I doubt! You have toed the party line, you are busy with oil money.

I wrote on your Face book page once, that if you have run out of ideas ( assuming but not conceding that you had any), please do not feel too high up there to talk to Babatunde Fashola, I read that he conceived his blue print for Lagos when he visited Singapore, the New Lagos city was modeled on paper and if you get a chance at that blue print even you will be amazed at how much he has followed through with it. Now that is a man with a vision.

Why can't other governors be checked, why can't they account for what they do with their state allocations? Governors like Theodore Orji, the ignoramus you put in Abia State.

The truth of the matter is, you are no magician, we do not expect you to conjure up everything that has been destroyed in Nigeria by unscrupulous leadership/follower-ship over the years in one split second. But if you make even the slightest attempt that Nigerians can point to, believe me you will no longer be under pressure to prove yourself, you will have enough time to achieve your set goals with ease.

God bless GEJ, God bless Nigeria.