{"id":7235,"date":"2013-07-28T05:40:03","date_gmt":"2013-07-28T05:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigerian-newspapers\/exercising-state-power-on-important-things\/"},"modified":"2013-07-28T05:40:03","modified_gmt":"2013-07-28T05:40:03","slug":"exercising-state-power-on-important-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/exercising-state-power-on-important-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Exercising State power on important things"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There are many critical areas where the enormous political power resources of the Nigerian State should be effectively deployed to check the proclivity and inexorable slide of the nation into a relentless catastrophe. The three most important, in my view, are the war against terror in the north-eastern part of the country, the fight against crude oil theft and oil pipeline vandalism in the southern part and the Niger Delta region, and the elusive battle to fix electricity power infrastructure. The first aspect is now being ferociously prosecuted by the Joint Military Task Force \u2013 JTF\u00a0 except that it is getting unduly protracted with heavy casualties and fatalities on both sides, with a tendency to degenerate into a full blown civil war if not concluded with dispatch.<\/p>\n

The second area of great concern where Nigerians expect the National Assembly and the Presidency to be closing ranks to nip in the bud, rather than working at cross purposes, is the phenomenon of crude oil theft and oil pipeline vandalism, which now threatens to wipe out the income from the sale of crude on which the nation precariously depends for its daily operations and survival. It is difficult to fathom what the Federal Government is doing in this regard. A matter that touches on the purse of government is not something to be treated with levity.<\/p>\n

For should government be unable to pay workers\u2019 salaries from October as it is being reported, the labour crisis that will trigger would be so horrendous that it may combine forces with the terrorist onslaughts of the Boko Haram to cripple the activities of government. That would be politically and socially very dangerous.<\/p>\n

At the last count, the Federal Government has acknowledged that well over 400,000 barrels of the nation\u2019s crude oil is stolen everyday by oil thieves, indicating the huge revenue leakage from the national treasury. In the circumstance, how can government have the fund to discharge its budgetary obligations in the financial year? Why is government watching helplessly as oil thieves are undermining its financial base and strength? What is stopping government from apprehending and dealing mercilessly with oil thieves and economic saboteurs daily eroding confidence in the financial strength of the nation? What is at stake if government deals ruthlessly with those who are sabotaging its efforts to fix the numerous problems besetting the country? Why should government find it convenient to visit the acts of vandals, saboteurs, and thieves on the toiling masses of the people through tariff hikes on petrol and electricity?<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, the hope that electricity power infrastructure would improve significantly with the takeover of the unbundled distribution and generation companies by the new power investors dims everyday with endless increases in tariffs even as electricity supply situation deteriorates nationwide. A significant improvement of electric power supply would have boosted economic activities that, in turn, could have usefully occupied more idle hands waiting everyday to be engaged by just anybody for whatever purpose.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, neither the executive arm of government nor the legislature overwhelming majority of which is controlled by the ruling party, appear to be in control of anything. Rather, the dispensation is either the National Assembly is working surreptitiously to undermine the efforts of the executive or that the Presidency and his party leadership are sweating unnecessarily over the Chibuike Amaechi distraction in Rivers State; and everybody is clapping for the rude errand boy of the party and watching helplessly as the nation slides inexorably into the low sink of debauchery and perdition.<\/p>\n

The Federal Government does not need to be told that it is in for real trouble. What it needs to know is that running a country as complex and as difficult as Nigeria is not a bread and butter business. Government needs also to know that it has power, craft and tact which it can muster to navigate out of the turbulent waters that it is currently sailing through. It is absolutely impolitic to allow the crisis in Rivers State to get out of control to the extent that the Presidency is now complaining of people over-heating the polity.<\/p>\n

The political leadership of a country should always be in charge, always be in control, and always in constant touch with those who brought it into power. In addition to delivering dividends of democracy to the people, political leadership should be focused on what it is that it wants to accomplish. We have been hearing of transformation agenda, but it has not translated to efficient electric power supply to the people who need it badly to buoy their economic activities, social comfort and happiness.<\/p>\n

The government must rein in all forces of discord and disharmony and guarantee security of life and property. That is what should be uppermost in the minds of the leaders, not just how to retain political power. If the country appears ungovernable, options have been suggested for both this government and previous governments about getting the Nigerian people together to tell government how they want to be governed to be happy and cooperate with government.<\/p>\n

The greatest feat the Jonathan government can perform is to get the people together to decide how they want to co-habit. Russia has done it without bloodshed. The National Assembly cannot do it with the patch-work of a constitution amendment they are working out with embarrassing retention of child marriage and wanton abuse of the sensibilities of the female gender. The National Assembly is ill-equipped to properly diagnose and provide meaningful and lasting remedies for the nation\u2019s ills.<\/p>\n

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Posted in Nigerian Newspapers. <\/a>A DisNaija.Com<\/a> network.<\/p>\n

Source: National Mirror Newspaper<\/p>\n

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