Sunday, August 18, 2019

Measurements of Mediocrity: President Jonathan vs President Buhari as Umpired by Mr. Sonola Olumhense

Some Excerpts
"So effective has Buhari been at futility that Jonathan is emerging as an improbable “hero”. For instance, the election he conducted in 2015 which produced Buhari has been praised not only internationally, but consistently by Buhari. On the contrary, the presidential election conducted by Buhari in 2019 has been exposed for alleged rigging and allegedly denounced internationally and is being challenged in court."
"We didn’t think much about it at the time, but Jonathan was not averse to exposing his own work to interrogation or to report on it. That is: he was not afraid to speak in the past tense, as people do when they address what they have attempted or what has been accomplished. In 2013, for instance, Jonathan published his midterm Transformation Agenda report."
"In contrast, Buhari does not report on anything. He prefers the colour and sound of future tenses where words are free, but accountability is not. 2014? “I will,” Buhari said. 2016? “I will,” Buhari said. 2019? “I will…”
"Sadly, this is the only language he appears to command. That is why no projects are completed; sometimes they are barely even continued."
"It is, therefore, the saddest of ironies that there are Nigerians who, in 2019, are choosing between Jonathan and Buhari. We are now measuring not achievement or excellence, but levels of mediocrity."
"Five years ago, Jonathan lacked credibility, but Buhari had boatloads of it. Today, Jonathan’s place in Nigerian history has not really changed, but Buhari lacks credibility in every category of measurement, making people forget why they rejected Jonathan."
"One of the related lessons is that you cannot transform society or change it unless you can inspire. And you cannot inspire unless you have credibility. You cannot have credibility unless you have character."
"As weak as Jonathan was, he did not fear men and women of intellect or ideas or character. Buhari does, and this weakness is why his era has seen not one novel idea since he took office. Not one. On the contrary, he tramples on good ones unless he can manipulate them. Jonathan disbursed National Honours to corrupt Nigerians, for instance, but for Buhari, no Nigerian of character exists save for himself."
"That is why, despite 30 years of his bragging and his bravado to reclaim the country’s leadership, Nigeria under his control essentially and systematically what it always was: if you have it or can capture it, it is yours."
"Only last Friday, the indolence and incompetence of his government cost Nigeria over $9 billion damages in a British court for its failure to honour its contract with Process & Industrial Development Limited (P&ID). Until the government chose to stink up the matter, that sum was $6.6 just two years ago."
"This is another illustration of the abysmal governance that is taking Nigeria to unprecedented depths of poverty, dissonance, and conflict. Except that at home, such issues are masked with blackmail, propaganda, and manipulation."
"It is exactly what happens when standards are so low that we use mediocrity as levels of measurement."
Copyright PUNCH.

PUNCHNG.COM
Sonala Olumhense On second thought, it is not true that President Muhammadu Buhari is an incompetent underachiever. He has a big accomplishment, and I concede it to him. Let us go back to 2015. ...

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