by Olaitan Ajiboye

That absolute power is what Nigerians want Mr President to ‘ACTIVATE’ on Boko Haram and paralyse them. Yes, unleash that ‘absolute power’ on Boko Haram and indeed to guarantee the people of Nigeria security of lives and Property.

President Jonathan said during the Presidential Media Chat on Monday 24th, February that he’s got ‘absolute power’ to Suspend the CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. Was he really right? Does the constitution give him the ‘absolute power’ he was referring to? As the President, Mr Jonathan is the Commander-in-chief of the Armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I am really glad he said so, what he said reminded me of the dictators we’ve had in the past, or does he mean he’s a dictator? Or did he say that to remind us of how enormous that ‘POWER’ could be?

Let me quickly remind Mr. President that that absolute power is not only to suspend or sack those he perceives as his enemy. The absolute power should be used according to the purposes as enshrined in the constitution. That absolute power, I believe, amongst other things, is to administer the best to the people of Nigeria. To administer what they really craved and yearned; to effect change in the lives of people he’s leading. It’s not to randomely use it for his selfish interest.

“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. – Lord Acton

That absolute power is what Nigerians want Mr President to ‘ACTIVATE’ on Boko Haram and paralyse them. Yes, unleash that ‘absolute power’ on Boko Haram and indeed to guarantee the people of Nigeria security of lives and Property. Unleash that ‘absolute power’ to creating jobs for the millions of unemployed youths, unleash that absolute power to provide stable and un-interrrupted power supply. Yes, we wouldn’t complain if Mr Jonathan could least work on these things.

In the North-Eastern part of Nigeria, the terrorist group called Boko Haram have killed over 800 people. Many are still being slaughtered almost every day including innocent children and women. This week alone in Yobe, we have seen horrible graphic images of slaughtered young, vibrant future leaders of our dear country. I mean, they were killed like mere animals! This is not good for anyone to see let alone the parents of these young students. These are children in their prime for goodness sake! How could they be so heartless?!

The most annoying thing is that; most Nigerians went about their normal businesses as though nothing happened. But how could I blame anyone when the government is insensitive to things of this nature, the Federal Government have shown how irresponsible they are, they seem comfortable with this disturbing scenes. This is not Normal. Something is wrong. I think there’s more to this than meets the eye. It’s only an insane government that will go on and celebrate centenary (that means nothing to an ordianry Nigerian) only few hours after 60 innocent youths and children were slaughtered. If Mr President’s child was among those who were killed, will he go on with centenary celebrations as planned? If it were Ijaw people that have been massacred, will he keep quiet and remain passive?

Apparently, the Federal Government have failed to protect its own people from all these danger. They have chosen to close their eyes and ears to things that matter most, things that require urgent attention, all the calls through the social and print media are nothing. They choose what they want to see or hear and give attention only to matters that rewards their bank accounts.

Recently, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State, in the heat of the moment said the Boko Haram are “more armed and motivated than the Federal Military” and calls for more troops to be deployed, and below was our President’s response:

“If Governor of Borno feels the military are that useless against Boko Haram I can pull out the military for one month and see what happens there and after I can send the military back to take charge. The Governor should be sensitive in his choice of words. It’s unfortunate.” 

Coming from a President? It’s a shame, what on earth was he thinking when he said that. The president was reckless and insensitive in his choice of words.

Our President goes about his normal businesses everyday as though nothing is happening. Mr Jonathan sees a tragedy as normal. He’s not doing anything different on this matter, he seems clueless and he keeps doing the same thing and expecting a different result. There has to be a different approach, there has to be a new strategy to stopping these terrorists. President Jonathan and his cohorts think they’re actually doing their best, but if they think they are honestly doing their best and we keep losing precious lives of our loved ones day-in-day-out, it simply means they’re not doing enough.

There are many sins of President Goodluck Jonathan and his sycophants. The reckless spending of the public funds is no more a secret, but Nigerians are not asking for too much if  this government can wake up for once, get cracking and respond to the cries of its own people.

Mr Jonathan owe Nigerians, especially the parents and families of the innocent students murdered in cold blood an unreserved apology for such negligence.

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The article was published with permission from Omojuwa.com

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.