Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - No, Jonathan Wouldn’t Have Been Better!

Wow, Okey, Nazi references? I'm speechless. Anyway sha, I wasn't speaking for myself specifically as I can be described at best as a lukewarm supporter of Buhari's candidacy. For me it was about getting rid of Jonathan as I was convinced that the nation might not survive another Jonathan term. As a political scientist, you should know that people do not always make political choices based on historical antecedents. Were that to be the case, Donald Trump would never have won the presidency of US. Elections are more often than not referendums on incumbents and on the promises and programs proposed by the alternative. Often leaders are embraced despite their history and because they are perceived as a lesser of two evils.

Buhari and the APC did have a platform, a very robust one for that matter. So, you're wrong to say candidate Buhari had no policy proposals or platform. In fact the problem was not an absence of proposals but that of too many promises and proposals--most of them fantastical at best and deceptive at worst. You can read my assessment of the APC/Buhari presidential election platform in my contribution to the ebook on the 2015 election which was published before the election here. I wrote thus: "Furthermore, an argument can be made that most of the policy prescriptions are over-determined by the debatable premise that all of Nigeria's current challenges are reducible to corruption. Nonetheless, many prescriptions and promises are radical departures from the status quo.....Questions remain about how the APC purposes to implement some of these impressively crafted programs in light of the falling price of crude oil, the major source of national revenue, the attendant depletion of Nigeria's foreign reserves, and the collapse of the Naira." I was even more forthright in calling the Buhari/APC platform a scam in my social media interventions.

You're a student of democracy, so you should know that people often look to imperfect candidates, even those with bad histories of leadership, to bail them out of a disastrous status quo. That's what happened in 2015. Is that now that brought Matthew Kerekou back to power in Benin Republic after the dictator was initially voted out? And Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, among several others?

Anyway, I admire those who supported Buhari's candidacy but are now holding him accountable and not making excuses for him, not conceited Jonathanians who insist that Jonathan and his disastrous administration was worth supporting. Some of us started going after Buhari's incompetence only a few months after he took over, when it become clear that he had nothing to offer and had no clue about governance. 

Save your outrage for those who have seen the administration unravel and yet support Buhari. Those are the people that deserve criticism and condemnation. But they are the same as Jonathanians who supported and wanted Jonathan to continue despite seeing and living through the spectacular failures of his administration.

Happy new year to you and yours!

On Sun, Dec 31, 2017 at 12:00 PM, Okey Iheduru <okeyiheduru@gmail.com> wrote:

"The administration should be criticized for its many failings independently on its own demerits and not by invoking the Jonathan administration." --- Moses Ochonu.

Sorry, Moses, isn't the opposite exactly what you and Farooq just did?

"... have the audacity to castigate those who desperately, perhaps naively, supported torment by fire without knowing that this is how their choice would turn out?" -- Moses Ochonu

Yes, Moses, you're a student of logic, but what sort of logic is your claim that you naively supported and preferred "torment by fire" when you were warned and provided historical and contempranous evidence that you'd be roasted in the "torment by fire"? You not only chose torment by fire, but you also drowned out any attempt to see the logic of contrary views. What is the purpose or outcome of "logical" or rational thought, if I may ask?

Several times in this forum during the 2014-2015 election campaigns, Buharideens were hard pressed--and failed-- to provide a single policy statement made by Buhari as candidate other than hortatory remarks about "fighting corruption" and "when we were in power 30 years ago..." All the noise from the fake southwest media loudmouths about "Change" manifesto were promptly repudiated by incurably inept and dangerously provincial Buhari upon assuming office because he had no clue --and could care less -- what they were talking about. 

You're the historian, Moses, and you know very well that those who provided intellectual legitimacy, support, cover and/or rationalizations for the Nazi regime were held culpable, and have continued to be hunted till today. So, don't be upset if you're reminded of your self-admitted naivete. So many "naive" promoters of idealized, fake Buhari have made sincere mea culpa to Nigerians and the international community elsewhere. Perhaps, we could have the same contrition on this forum, even as we move forward to seeking ways of salvaging what would be the charred remains our dear country, by the time this horrendous "torment by fire" comes to an end in 2019.

Okey Iheduru

Peace as Always (especially in the New Year)! 

On Sun, Dec 31, 2017 at 7:24 AM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:

Chidi,

You're probably right on all counts, but I think Farooq's overarching point is that the Jonathan administration should not be allowed to become some sort of nostalgic standard by which to criticize the current Buhari administration. The administration should be criticized for its many failings independently on its own demerits and not by invoking the Jonathan administration as though it was better or would have been better had it continued. Besides, I think Farooq recently referred to the Buhari administration as cluelessness on steroids, having earlier referred to the Jonathan administration as clueless. So, knowing what we know now, Farooq himself is willing to say that this is a level of cluelessness that is a tad higher than what we saw with Jonathan, although no one could clairvoyantly know that this would happen unless they are arrogantly and retroactively claiming predictive insight.

A favorite retort of Jonathanians as Buhari's administration has unraveled is to troll those who supported the candidacy of Buhari by saying that they brought this disaster to Nigeria. Not only is this a disingenuous insinuation that the Buhari supporters could see into the future or could predict that he would be such a disaster and still supported him over Jonathan, it also seeks to establish the Jonathanians who supported a familiar, ongoing disaster as some kind of sages. The chutzpah is incredible. I am a student of logic but I don't know how those who supported a present, ongoing disaster can claim a moral or intellectual high ground over those who wanted to move in a different direction hoping that it would be better--without the ability to see into the future. How can you support an ongoing torment by frying pan and have the audacity to castigate those who desperately, perhaps naively, supported torment by fire without knowing that this is how their choice would turn out?

On Sun, Dec 31, 2017 at 2:39 AM, Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi.opara@gmail.com> wrote:

(1)Would it have taken the Jonathan administration three years to come up with a list of board appointees with names of six dead persons?

(2)Would it have taken the Jonathan administration nearly six months to put together, a cabinet that includes characters like Solomon Dalung, Kemi Adeosun and Lia Mohammed?

(3)Would it have taken the Jonathan administration that long to suspend the SFG who cleared an IDP camp with millions of naira.

One could go on, but for the sake of time.

The Jonathan administration was corrupt and rudderless, but not to the magnitude we are seeing today.

A whole lot of things, would have been done better than it is done now by the Jonathan administration. An example is the current fuel crisis, the Jonathan administration would have at least addressed the nation on the issue.

CAO.

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