Jonathan’s July to December power promise

 

Erasmus Ikhide, a public affairs analyst based in Lagos, Nigeria, laments that mid-way into his tenure, President Goodluck Jonathan is well off the target in fulfilling his promise to Nigerians in the critical power sector, and urges the government to walk the talk…

To say that President Goodluck Jonathan is showing disdain to the plight and aspiration of Nigerian masses is an understatement. Nigerians are getting tired of the President’s unfulfilled promises. His assertion last year in several quarters that there would be additional 4,500 megawatts in the next six months and that power would continue to increase astronomically has turned out to be a ruse.

It is as good as a promise made to the gigolo in the fainting frenzy of the night at the frick of alcohol.
Early last year, the President told a news magazine: “We don’t need to generate electricity. By the middle of next year, you will dash me your generator. I will send it out of the country, because we won’t need it anymore”. Promise of any sort flowing from the nation’s highest echelon of power, such as the nation’s Presidency should not be tainted with dishonesty and virtual falsehood.

President Jonathan by now ought to have taken the populace into confidence as to what he can achieve or what he is incapable of achieving within a time frame. That way, no one can accuse him of defaming the office of the President, playing to the gallery or unpreparedness for leadership.

As it stands, the President power promise is not merely a debt in the conventional sense of the word, but a grand deception and indicates atrocious docility on the part of his Presidency. It is a calculated scheme to keep the nation’s poor in the dark as much as possible while the rich and powerful exploit the system to their advantage.

 

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