by Bunmi Awoyemi
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is an unmitigated “badluck” infection for Nigeria: Vote him out on March 28, 2015
His Name is Goodluck Jonathan but his presidency has been an unmitigated badluck infection for Nigeria – Law 10 of the 48 Laws of Power: Infection: Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky
According to Law 10 of the 48 laws of Power:
“The infector possesses an inward instability that radiates outward drawing disaster to all that they touch. How to Recognize an Infector:
1. They draw misfortune upon themselves.
2. They have a turbulent past.
3. They have a long line of broken relationships.
4. They have an unstable career.
5. They have a forceful character that sweeps you up and makes you lose reason.
6. They have a desire to destroy and unsettle and is chronically dissatisfied.
7. Look at the effect that they have on the world around them.”
Although his name is Goodluck but as Rev. Father Ejike Mbaka said “everything that GEJ touches turns to badluck.”
When he was Bayelsa State Governor his badluck enveloped the Bayelsa state government in a cloud of corruption that cost the Governor of the state his job and led to GEJ taking over as Bayelsa State Governor. When he was the Vice President to President Umaru Musa Yar Ardua his unlucky aura led to the death of his boss and he became President.
Before he commenced the privatization exercise of PHCN most parts of Nigeria used to enjoy 12 hours of power supply. After his badluck enveloped PHCN after the privatization exercise PHCN can now barely supply 30 minutes of electricity per week. Now Power Generators have become the only source of power supply in Nigeria.
When GEJ’s unlucky aura hit the education sector strikes by lecturers and non-academic staff became the order of the day. When GEJ’s unlucky aura hit our petroleum sector crude oil prices plummeted. A multi-billion dollar Petrol and kerosene subsidy scam became a permanent feature of the oil sector. When GEJ’s badluck infection hit our daily crude oil sales, Nigeria began to lose 500,000 barrels per day to oil theft perpetrated by his greedy wife, Dame Patience and their ex-militant mentors who he awarded multi-million dollar contracts for the supply of war ships, military hardware for the military and pipeline protection. These were the same militants that stole around 700,000 barrels per day of Nigerian crude oil during the MEND insurgency.
This translates to a loss of over N19 trillion over a five year period to Nigeria. GEJ’s badluck infection also led to the loss of over $20b that is yet to be accounted for by the GEJ administration which led to the sack of whistle blower and CBN Governor at the time Sanusi Lamido Sanusi who is now the Emir of Kano.
When GEJ’s badluck wrecked havoc on Nigeria’s Excess Crude or Rainy Day Account and our Foreign reserves it took the former from a whooping $36 billion to just $1 billion and took the latter from over $60 billion to just $32b. In the last 30 days alone the foreign reserves were reduced by $2 billion.
When GEJ’s unlucky infection hit the job market the number of unemployed graduates under his administration quadrupled, with less than 10% of graduates of higher institutions getting hired 4 years after graduation.
When GEJ’s unlucky infection hit the Nigerian stock market it recorded unprecedented losses the kind that Nigeria has never seen before. This has led to huge divestment by foreign investors in Nigeria’s stock market.
Because GEJ’s badluck hit the sovereign credit rating of Nigeria, Nigeria has been notified of an impending reduction of her sovereign credit rating to junk credit rating. A combination factors are responsible for this, including rising internal and external debt burden of Nigeria, failure of the United States to buy Nigerian crude since mid-2014, a non-diversified economy, plummeting value of the naira, political risks occasioned by uncertainty about the outcome of the election which was worsened by GEJ’s postponement of the election via the instrumentality of the service chiefs who were GEJ’s alter ego in a move that one can call a civilian coup d’etat against the will of the Nigerian people.
When GEJ’s badluck descended on and infected Nigeria’s national infrastructure its ranking plummeted and Nigeria became affixed to the bottom of all known development ranking league tables including those put together by the United States’ State Department, Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the United Nations, the African Union and various globally recognized research institutes and foundations.
GEJ’s PR merchants have fabricated statistics indicating that he GEJ’s administration has rehabilitated 25,000 kilometers of Nigerian roads when in reality they have not rehabilitated up to 1,000 kilometers of Federal Roads. GEJ’s Special Adviser on media was so badly in need of projects to claim for his boss that he had to steal pictures of projects or Federal roads completed by state governments with state government monies that the Federal government has refused to refund. A case in point is one involving a picture of the Northwest University temporary site multi-storey building which GEJ’s Special Adviser passed off on Twitter and Facebook as a University built by the GEJ administration when in fact it was built by the APC Government in Kano state led and powered by Mr. Capital Projects, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso who has turned Kano state into a mini-Dubai in just 4 years.
When GEJ’s unlucky aura hit the foreign exchange market the naira plummeted and is now trading at N215 to $1. The pounds sterling is trading at N315 to 1 British pound.
When GEJ’s badluck aura hit the health sector, regular strikes by medical doctors and nurses became a normal occurrence.
When GEJ’s badluck infection his the car dealership business the cost of buying imported new and used cars shot up to between 50 and 70% of the purchase value of the cars thereby putting the ability to own a car beyond the reach of many Nigerians who could afford to buy them in the past. Those people are now confined to a transport sector that is comatose and which GEJ lied that he would resuscitate with thousands of buses for an elaborate mass transit program which is one of the reasons he set up SURE-P. The buses GEJ promised are no where to be found.
When GEJ’s unlucky aura hit the aviation sector air crashes started occurring again and unbridled corruption took over the whole sector. The aviation sector in Nigeria is ranked as one of the worst in the world despite the aviation ministry budgeting over $1b for the sector. Almost all the monies were stolen and substandard airport rehabilitation projects were carried out with most of the structures constructed falling apart within weeks of their construction. A case in point are the rest rooms at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos as well as the roads leading to the airport which has become a source of shame to Nigeria’s national pride. GEJ’s badluck has brought shame on Nigeria.
When GEJ became the National Leader of the PDP his unlucky aura overwhelmed the PDP and the once formidable political party began to fall apart with many of its governors and ex-Presidents dumping the party for other parties and other tasks.
When GEJ’s unlucky aura hit Nigeria’s war on corruption it died a natural death. The EFCC and ICPC have become a laughing stock among Nigerians who now see it as an appendage of GEJ’s presidency for the sole purpose of relentlessly hounding the political opponents of GEJ to submission. It is under GEJ’s badluck aura that drug barons and cross border criminals wanted for their crimes abroad are regional campaign mobilizers for his reelection campaign.
When GEJ’s badluck hit the Pension Funds in Nigeria as well as the UBEC Funds it left in its trail a massive corruption stench stinking to high heavens and running into billions of naira. When the culprits are taken to court the badluck aura of corruption perpetrated by GEJ arranges a slap on the wrist judgment for them where the judge imposes a fine of N250,000 on them and tells them to go and sin no more. GEJ’s badluck aura also makes him pardon criminals convicted of stealing government funds and making them front line candidates for top elective posts.
A case in point is that of the former governor of Bayelsa State who was convicted of stealing government funds but was pardoned by GEJ and is now running for a Senate seat. In his campaign posters he wrote: “tested and trusted.” Of course all discerning minds know what he means. He means that he has been tested and trusted by the corrupt cabal in Nigeria headed by the champion of the badluck aura, GEJ.
When GEJ’s unlucky infection swept through the House of Representatives, the PDP lost its majority to the APC.
When GEJ’s bad luck aura hit the security sector unprecedented national insecurity, the kind that this nation has never witnessed took over the country’s Northeast geopolitical zone.
When GEJ’s unlucky infection hit the armed forces the once feared and respected Nigerian armed forced became a shadow of itself to the extent that 14 Local Government areas and 5% of the territory of Nigeria has been lost to a rag tag army of extremists. Nigeria that once rescued Liberia and Sierra Leone from civil wars that appeared intractable and is known to be a leader in global peace keeping missions now relies on poor African countries like Chad and Niger Republic to help safeguard her territorial integrity.
GEJ’s badluck infection has reduced the Nigerian armed forces to an appendage of the PDP and an enforcer of rigging plans as witnessed in the Ekiti audio tapes in which one Brigadier General Momoh was recorded secretly by one of his subordinates and in which he indicted himself as being complicit in the rigging of the Ekiti Governorship election along with GEJ’s dream team of election riggers including Adesiyan, Minister of Police Affairs, Obanikoro, Minister of Defense, Senator Omisore and Ayodele Fayose, returnee Ekiti State Governor.
GEJ’s badluck aura enveloped the armed forces to the extent that he manipulated them to force INEC to shift the date of the Presidential election originally scheduled to hold on February 14, 2015.
Because of the GEJ’s badluck infection, the army broke from its rich tradition of respect for its retired Generals who fought to keep Nigeria one by issuing a press statement calling one of the most respected and celebrated Nigerian retired Generals, Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo an embarrassment to the armed forces.
GEJ’s badluck infection also hit the Nigerian police force taking it to the deepest abbys of indignity and shame when it invaded the hallowed premises of the House of Representatives late last year because it wanted to help GEJ execute a script that would have led to the impeachment of the Speaker of the House of Representative Aminu Tambuwal.
GEJ’s badluck also infected the way politics is played in Nigeria by introducing religious and tribal bigotry to a level or degree this nation has never witnessed before.
GEJ’s unluck aura hit the umbrella bodies of Christians, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) and tore these umbrella bodies apart to the extent that these once highly respected bodies have become divided from within and without. Most Christians no longer see these Christian bodies as representing them.
There are so many other sectors that GEJ’s badluck or unlucky aura has destroyed but all the readers of this opinion piece will be able to identify the other sectors not covered in this piece if they look back at the failed presidency of GEJ critically and objectively.
GEJ has all the features of a badluck infector:
1. GEJ draws misfortune upon himself.
2. GEJ has a turbulent past.
3. GEJ has a long line of broken relationships exemplified by his broken relationship with those who tell him the truth like General Olusegun Obasanjo and a long list of ex-stalwarts of the PDP.
4. GEJ has an unstable career.
5. GEJ has a forceful character backed by filthy lucre that sweeps the greedy and pauperized off their feet and makes them lose reasoning .
6. GEJ has a desire to destroy and unsettle and is chronically dissatisfied.
7. GEJ has had a cataclysmic effect on the world around him.”
As Rev. Father Ejike Mbaka recommended in his watch night service of 31st December 2014, Nigerians should avoid the unlucky Goodluck Jonathan so that the infection he has infected Nigeria with does not increase in geometric proportions. BUHARI/OSINBAJO is the antidote to GEJ’s badluck infection of Nigeria. On March 28th, 2015 vote out badluck and the unlucky aura of GEJ so that a new course of prosperity, law, order and national pride can be charted for Nigeria.
Let us use our votes to reset Nigeria!