For leading Nigeria to its present comatose state, one cannot be far from the truth if one says that President Goodluck Jonathan is a colossal failure in terms of his leadership of our nation. This view is shared by many Nigerians and some key actors of world politics.
For example, Dr Peregrino Brimah, after the Jos bombings of Tuesday, May 20, 2014 which claimed more than 200 lives, according to latest counts, have pushed Nigeria to formally occupy the first position in the ranking of nations with the worst governments in history. He went further to present other criteria which recently moved Nigeria up the list as follows: A recent World Bank report listed Nigeria among the five poorest countries in the world. A report from the World Bank in April listed Nigeria among the five poorest countries in the world, with the largest number of people said to live on less than $1.25 a day. The others are India, China, Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of Congo. President Jonathan instead of addressing the issue on poverty as raised casually dismissed the report by saying: Nigeria is not a poor country. The rebasing of Nigeria’s economy, setting Nigeria as the largest economy in Africa, while revealing the true economic position of Africa’s largest nation, simultaneously re-certified Nigeria as the nation in the top position for worst leadership in social welfare and opportunities for the people. With 70 per cent of the nation living under a-dollar-a-day, economically factored, Nigeria has the poorest people of any nation in the world today. With the rebased economy rating, Nigeria has the most unparalleled HDI (Human Development Index) to revenue and economy ratio of all nations. Poorest people in the Nigeria case, is derived from or correlates with poorest leadership. Is it not surprising that Nigeria, at the end of 2013, surpassed Mexico in kidnapping, recording the cruelest and second highest single abduction events in recent history. By the end of 2013 and the first quarter of 2014, Nigeria surpassed Syria, Libya, Iraq and Central African Republic (CAR) in deadly acts of terrorism and sectarian violence. The Nyanya bombing was ranked the fifth worst bombing of its kind in world history, post 1970, by the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI). The Jos bombing, with over 200 reported dead in one attack, is second only to 9/11 and the disputed Syria chemical weapons attack.
In combined values, with about 80,000 people killed in four years of largely unchecked Boko Haram violence, and with over 4,000 killed in the first quarter of 2014 alone, Nigeria has fast outpaced other nations of the world in deadly terror. Nigeria’s leadership in December of 2013 secured the world’s top position in insecurity and failure to protect life and discourage terror. Current rankings put Nigeria’s leadership second only to Hitler, after surpassing Saddam Hussein, in the current century, in terms of deliberate internal wastage of life.”
With Nigeria’s leadership admitting that they could not account for up to or more than $20 billion oil revenue earnings discovered missing in a single 18-month period examined; the nation’s finance minister admitting this to BBC and the official government engagement of Price Waterhouse, an international accounting firm, which further confirmed this financial mishap, Nigeria secured its position as the most haplessly and a ver unserious nation.
According to Mrs. Hillary Clinton, former U.S. Secretary of State, in separate events in New York City, said the Nigerian government under President Goodluck Jonathan squandered its oil resources, and indirectly helps corruption to fester in the troubled country. Her words: “They have squandered their oil wealth; they have allowed corruption to fester, and now they are losing control of parts of their (own) territory because they would not make hard choices.” The former U.S. Secretary of State at the function organised by the International Crisis Group also emphasized that: “The Nigerian government has failed to confront the threat, or to address the underlying challenges. Most of all, the government of Nigeria needs to get serious about protecting all of its citizens, and ensuring that every child has the right and opportunity to go to school.” While to Sarah Saawall, US Under Secretary of State, “Corruption prevents supplies as basic as bullets and transport vehicles from reaching the front lines of the struggle against Boko Haram”.
