Jonathan Must Go: - Aliyu U. Tilde

Insurgents Operated for 12 hrs in Gamboro-Ngala Freely, Killing 300 and Carting Away With 8 girls – and Lucky Jonathan is Still the President!

In a recent interview with BBC Hausa Service, Senator Zanna informed the public how insurgents operated for close to 12 hrs without any help coming the way of the defenceless citizens there. About 300 Nigerians lost their lives in the attack. Shops, vehicles, houses, police and custom stations were burnt.

Where was the military that oversees the state of emergency and has the constitutional duty to protect these citizens? Were the soldiers in far away Lagos or in nearby barracks of Bama, Maiduguri, Mubi, etc? The boys on field often complain that they do not have heavy weapons like those that the insurgents are carrying. Then can’t Nigeria, with over a trillion naira security budget afford to supply our soldiers with such heavy guns, given that an insurgent group can do so to its members? And can the number of insurgents compare to that of the Nigerian army? How many officers do the insurgents have? How many jets, tanks, bombs, surveillance equipment, etc do they have compared to what we have as a nation? Haba! Something is plainly amiss, definitely.

Later in the day, the insurgents attacked Waranbe village in Gwoza local government, repeated the arson, killings and looting, and carted away with eight girls, unchallenged. They effectively blocked the Gwoza highway throughout the day without any resistance from the military. Where were the soldiers? I can imagine the poor villagers crying: “Nigeria, where are you?”

The absence of answers to this type of questions leaves Nigerians with no choice but to discern that the government is not keen in ending the insurgency. If it were, it would have equipped our soldiers well and, by now, Boko Haram would have been history. The money is there as well as the weapons, but the will is absent.

God! I have never seen citizens so abandoned by their government. Is it how supporters of the President would like the country to continue for another five years? Let us be sincere. This President has deliberately failed the country. No rational mind can arrive at a different verdict.

Jonathan is a total disaster. Imagine that he, his family and the sycophants around them were even thinking that the abduction of our girls was fabricated to discredit the President and could go so wild and power-drunk as to order the arrest of protesting women. How can he be so removed from reality? Nigeria never had it so bad.

If it were before, our ears would have long been entertained by the surprise of martial music. However, democracy has given us two better solutions, unless we fail to pick either: The first is more immediate: Jonathan deserves to be impeached, now, except for the fact that our legislators in both chambers lack the stomach to carry the process to its conclusion. Obfuscated by money, regional and sectarian interests, those heedless political vultures are too compromised to summarily dissmiss him from office.

The second is the next presidential election, which places the choice at our doorstep. In 2015, both his party and the opposition owe their country the duty to present more patriotic candidates for the Presidency than Jonathan. Otherwise, none of us can imagine how horrible things will turnout at the end of his 10-yr rule. Horrific crises of various types and magnitude will consume this nation.

Why must PDP insist on Jonathan? I believe there are from different parts of the country better members of the party than him who can lead the country effectively. Why must it be a person that has failed this country on every turn of events?

For the sake of this country, PDP must come to its senses. It must start looking at all possibilities for presenting Nigerians with a better President, regardless of which part of the country he or she will emerge. I am not an advocate of any party or zoning. I am just like any other Nigerian who wants to live in peace and the prospect of a better tomorrow for all citizens. PDP must understand that there is a limit to our elasticity as we cannot sit aside and see the personal ambition of one man ruin this nation. NIgeria is bigger than any individual, party or region.

The second solution is more immediate: Jonathan deserves to be impeached, now, except for the fact that our legislators in both chambers lack the stomach to carry the process to its conclusion. Blinded by money, regional and sectarian interests, they may not be strong enough to conclusively dissmiss him from office.

I believe the occasion has come for Nigerians in various spheres of life to rise and be counted. Jonathan must go.

Jonathan Must Go: - Aliyu U. Tilde