Let’s Try A Female President

By Uzoma Ahamefule 

Fellow compatriots, lovers of Nigeria and friends of Nigeria, the precarious security situation in Nigeria after the declaration of Dr. Ebele Goodluck Jonathan as the president of Nigeria in 2011 has worsened. As a result of that so many Nigerians do not go out for their legitimate daily activities anymore without the fear of assassins, kidnappers, armed robbers or hoodlums attacking them. The situation continues to look hopeless on daily basis. Consequently, western nations had on different occasions warned their citizens not to visit some parts of Nigeria or Nigeria as a whole till further notice.

Dear concerned people, let us put a square peg in a square hole because people are judged based on performance and not merely on self-praise or sycophantic, ethnic jingoism that is synonymous with Nigerians. Since our independence in 1960, in my humble opinion, past Nigerian heads of state or presidents have all raped Nigerians to impunity and abandoned them like a child without a guardian. In view of this, let us relegate the male leaders to the bench as it is done in football clubs and bring in our second eleven, our women. You saw how Emmanuel Amunike came in from the bench and destroyed the Zambian national team in 1994 Nations Cup final tagged “Tunisia 94”. Because he was on the bench did not make him inferior to those that started the match. Same can be said of our women who have been relegated to the background all these decades even though they could rule this nation better than the men who have been at the helm of affairs since independence but failed woefully.

As a patriotic citizen that flew from Austria to Nigeria just to vote Goodluck Jonathan without expecting any return except good governance, it is with heavy pain in my heart to say that I am highly disillusioned at the turn of events in his administration. Even though he may not have performed as badly as he has been painted, I had hopes that he would make a very drastic change, I believed that he would approach issues holistically because of his background and boasted about it because I believed in him so much. Looking at the security situation in the country today and his approach to it, how wrong was I? Nevertheless, I refused to be deceived by the activities of some unpatriotic group of people and their agents who believe that the presidency is their birth right or that if their son is not the president of Nigeria that Nigeria must be ungovernable just to portray the president before Nigerians and the international community as he is incapable or as they have tagged him.

Frankly, these unpatriotic groups have succeeded greatly in painting the image of Nigeria black. Where were Boko Haram members during the time of Shagari, Babangida, Abacha, Abdulsalami and Yaradua? Or did they suddenly realize that they needed an Islamic country under a president from Southsouth? There is a big problem in this country.

I am simply disappointed in President Jonathan because of his non-declaration of his assets and his statements about it. Responding to press men on his assets declaration, the president had this to say: “Asset declaration is a matter of principle. I have nothing to hide; I declared my assets as Vice-President because the President then did it. It is not proper to ask public office holders to declare their assets but if I must declare publicly, it means that every other public office holder in the country must do so and it is not right. It is not the President declaring his assets that will stop Boko Haram. And what is the difference between when I was the vice president and president; what have I acquired since then?” He ended the statement by saying he won’t declare his asset and he did not give a damn about it. This is one of the most un-presidential statements I have ever heard in the history of the world that is only second to a statement made by yet another president of Nigeria Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo in 2007 when he said that the 2007 general election would be a do or die affair.

President Jonathan has cast too many doubts on his administration and his campaign against corruption with this statement and I would not be surprised if he loses some of his supporters with conscience. He may be far from where his detractors must have placed him but definitely his idea of raping the constitution and telling anybody that cares to go to hell is not only shameful but a slap on Nigerians and anybody who knows this and keeps quiet or defends it is evil. In a civilised world any leader who makes this kind of statement may never win any election again.

The problems of Nigeria started immediately that name Nigeria was imposed on us and pronounced without our consent by the British colony for their convenient administration in the name of amalgamation in 1914. But unfortunately our men have not been able to deal with these complex, multiple and diverse issues that emanated from this forceful marriage that needs not only prayers to solve but sincerity and political willed leaders. History will never forgive Lord Lugard and his British colony for this heinous crime that wasted millions of innocent souls and is still painfully going on in this part of Africa.

But how long shall we continue to lament and blame all our problems on our colonial masters that left us about 52 years ago? Is a 52-year old person not old enough to know wrong from right? The conclusion is that our male politicians have failed us woefully and as a result of that, let us give our female compatriots a chance. As mothers, I strongly believe that they will not promote corruption, political murder and ethnic war like their male counterparts have done till now. Even though they are not saints considering what a few of them have done in their various official capacities recently in Nigeria, events have equally proved that they could do better owing to their motherly nature if given the opportunity.

Our female compatriots are like spare tyres, you put the spare one when the main one punctures, and currently our men are the punctured tyres, let us change them and stop the risks of running with ordinary wheels. It has never paid and it will never. Events support my thinking that it will work because our men have destroyed every segment of Nigeria by all ramifications since 1960 and as such have lost the moral ground to build again. They corrupted the executive arm of the government, made the legislature arm an epitome of corruption, turned the judiciary a place for cash and carry judgment, they corrupted the police, the army, the customs and they have even threatened and have in fact subdued our pressmen/women to submission that we now get adulterated news against their conscience. When the British people left us in 1960, even though they were evil, they left a good transport system including working railways but our male politicians corruptly destroyed them, they left us with potable water and steady power supply but our male politicians corruptly destroyed them, they left a standard education system behind with respected certificates but our male politicians corruptly destroyed them, they left standard hospitals but our male politicians corruptly destroyed them, they left good roads but our male politicians corruptly could not maintain them, they left a good working system with discipline and order but our male politicians corruptly made sure that nothing worked. Please they should pack and go because they have failed us and our women have warmed up enough.

Scientifically speaking, we have not been told by experts that women are intellectually inferior to men, and since the political game is not about physical strength, it would be primitive and outdated for anybody to think that if our men could not do it, our women cannot even try it. We cannot keep on trying a faulty engine when we have brand new ones in our women. Please this is not a men’s world alone anymore because our women have arrived.

But before we give the mantle of leadership to women we must first cleanse ourselves from the polluted air of bribery and corruption by our male politicians before they also get swallowed up. Furthermore, we must restructure our political system, change our kickback mentality and ethnic mindset and then try a female president, and who says that she cannot do better, after all what a man can do, a woman can do better. What is impossible is that which has not been tried. It is not impracticable to have a female president in Nigeria. Male politicians have tried since 1960 till today without any tangible results if not chronic ethnic discrimination and epidemic corruption. Please, swallow your egos for our women seem to be our redeemers and they are ready and capable. We have refused to be forced again to accept what they want us to believe that they are and not what we are seeing that they are. They are abstract thinkers and that is why they are only theoretically powerful and pragmatically failures. They have vision to hoist Nigeria’s flag in the moon before 2020 but they have not been able to provide electricity and food on our tables. Please pack and go, our women are ready for the rescue mission.

•Ahamefule, a patriotic citizen writes from  Vienna,  Austria. E-mail; [email protected]. +4366o4659620