Welcome to Tokunbo Jaiye -Agoro

Welcome to Tokunbo- Jaiye-Agoro http://www.jaiyeagoro.com


This is where you will find out about my interests and be able to contribute to discussions about them with me. They will be topical and I hope that you will enjoy the visit.

Sunday, 1 August 2010

What is going on?

There’s this worn out joke about an angel complaining to God about the creation of the world asking why does Nigeria have everything? Oil, all kinds of natural resources including pleasant weather and God answered wait till you see the people I will put there! Why do we marvel in the cumbersome exception and abandon the simple rule? For instance why have we abandoned our refineries which should all be working at optimum capacity and prefer to import fuel at budget draining cost with its related problems of storage, demurrage and the ever present “Nigerian factor”.

This brings me to the topical issues at present. If a voluminous supplemental budget can be signed by President Umar Yardua on his sick bed then why can’t we just do the simple thing as signing a half page letter handing over the realms of Government to the Vice President. This will cure all the speculation. We would have been spared the hassle and debate over the swearing in of the Chief Judge, the legitimacy of holding a Federal Executive Council meeting without the President, budget and other constitutional matters.

Why did the USA hurriedly and in my view wrongly include Nigeria in their list of “interested countries”? I think it was firstly to cover their embarrassment over their security lapses after the senior Abdulmutallab reported his son’s strange behavior to the US embassy and they failed to pass on or share the information with the appropriate corresponding agencies. Simply put, Farouq Abdulmutallab should not have been on the aircraft. Now with all the pressure and world coverage, President Obama would have wanted to speak with our President or at least someone with constitutional authority fairly quickly. But alas we have none. A USA commentator was forced to ask “where the hell is the Nigerian President”. The situation required a swift and surgically precise reaction but none came from Nigeria at the appropriate time. It was after the horse had bolted out of the stable and Nigeria had been black listed that the noise began as usual. It is said that we are a reflection of our leaders and a Nation deserves their leaders. I am not sure if this is accurate as the average Nigerian is asking what is going on. We are mostly unhappy and to put it mildly embarrassed by this unwarranted situation we find ourselves. Don’t get me wrong anybody can be sick and it is not a man’s wish to be ill but for people around him to play politics with his condition is just unacceptable.

The other day I read in one of the dailies that the PDP Governors commended the vice president for the good work he was doing. Can someone please tell me what good work can he possibly do in the circumstances without any constitutional powers? He is surely limited to only duties initially assigned to him by the President. Maybe it is those duties he is doing well. However, your excellencies this may be good enough for you individually but not for Nigerians as a whole. Laughable also was the Vice President’s comments recently about how they averted anarchy by swearing in the chief judge so as to avoid the situation where one arm of Government does not have a head. How hypocritical, talk about pot calling the kettle black. Who might I ask currently heads the executive arm of government?

The State of our union has become the preverbal basket case of the tick being bigger than the dog. We leave the simple solutions and desperately try to maneuver the difficult path unnecessarily for selfish reasons.

As this ship Nigeria continues its voyage in cruise control without a captain just maybe the people will cease the opportunity and take their destiny in their hands collectively since our leaders are hell bent in leading us astray. We need to show others that indeed Nigeria has everything including good people on the average. Meanwhile where are our law makers? God help us all!

12th January 2010

Tokunbo Jaiye-Agoro practices law in Lagos.

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