'On Sanusi, the Opposition and Fifth Columnists' - By Reno Omokri

Article written by Reno Omokri, Special Assistant
to President Jonathan on New Media. Find
below
The recent suspension of the erstwhile
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria has
ignited a debate on Social Media and as
has become typical with many pundits, the
discourse has been dominated by
sentiments rather than facts.
As Sanusi has indicated that he will be
challenging his suspension in court, I will
not make this piece about him and recent
events surrounding him. Yes, I will cite
some examples of double standards as
regards the approach taken by some
analysts, but in my view, the matter is now
best left to the courts.
What I will say however to those who are
propagating the propaganda that the President
suspended Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to stop
him from speaking is this: it was Sanusi’s job
that was suspended, not his mouth and anyone
who knows him knows full well that he will not
let anything come between him and a
microphone.
Opposition politicians and fifth columnists have
continued to pay the price for underestimating
President Goodluck Jonathan’s leadership
abilities. They confuse analysis for paralysis.
In the first month of the year 2014 for instance,
there have been several positive events that
benefit everybody in Nigeria. Nigeria's economy
overtook South Africa's as Africa's largest
economy. Not a squeak from the opposition.
Internationally renowned firm, Renaissance
Capital, revealed that Nigeria is the number one
destination for Foreign Direct Investment in
Africa. Still not a squeak from the opposition.
The United Nations officially certified Nigeria free
from Guinea Worm in January. Radio silence
from the opposition.
But within the same month of January, the
opposition have clung on to every rumour,
innuendo, gossip and careless talk that has the
capacity of painting the president in bad light.
And where there is no negative rumour to
spread, not to be undone, they make one up!
A most embarrassing example of this
'opposition magic' was the news circulated by
the opposition to the effect that former military
president, Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida,
had upbraided the President for permitting the
arrest of an APC operative who said that should
the party lose elections in 2015 due to rigging
(knowing the opposition, any election they lose
is an election that has been rigged) "the only
alternative left to get power is to take it by
force; this is the reality on ground".
Eventually, it turned out that ex president
Babangida had said no such thing. The
statement was a fabrication which was traced to
the Facebook page of the same APC official who
said the taking of power by force is the only
reality on the ground.
It should now be obvious to all Nigerians that
these persons are setting the stage for a plan B
should their plan A fail to materialize. The thing
about a plan A though is that you have to have
one for you to even have a fighting chance of the
plan being realized, thus, an opposition that
focuses on insulting the President instead of
formulating a winning plan and sharing it with
Nigerians obviously has no plans and therefore
plans to fail.
And it is this lack of planning and coordination
that fixates the attention of the opposition on
attacking the President instead of his policies.
Why do they do this? Those who are discerning
know that the only way you can effectively
attack policies is if you have alternative policies.
But where you don't have alternative policies,
you are left with no option but to go ad
hominem .
The same people who were online attacking the
President for allegedly budgeting a billion Naira
for feeding at the Presidential Villa (and they
deliberately suppressed the fact that hundreds of
police and military officials feed at the
Presidency) are today justifying the 1.257 Billion
Naira that the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN,
under Sanusi Lamido Sanusi claimed it spent on
Private Guards and lunch for police men.
The individuals who took to Social Media to
attack the Presidency’s proposed travel budget
of 2.4 billion Naira in the 2014 Appropriation Bill
are today justifying the 9.24 billion Naira spent
by the CBN on training and travel expenses for
the year 2012.
Thank God the Presidency did not spend even up
to 1 billion on legal services. If it did, the hired
social media hounds would have used this for
propaganda. The question should be why are
they silent on the 20 billion Naira the CBN under
Sanusi claimed it spent on ‘Legal and
Professional Fees’?
It is because these voices are procured. There is
nothing wrong in offering your services to
politicians, but do not hide this fact and pass off
yourself as an objective and independent
activist.
Alas, many in the opposition have successfully
blinded the eyes of the public to their duplicity.
I cite an elementary example of the nature of the
opposition. At the beginning of the year, I
devoted the first few days of 2014 to tweeting
about the achievements of the Jonathan
administration and projecting the positive things
that were already happening in Nigeria. When I
tweeted, I had expected opposition sponsored
elements (and there are many on Twitter whom I
have christened Politwitters) to contradict these
achievements. Not unsurprisingly, they chose to
insult. When I provided evidence that Nigeria's
Per Capita Income in 2009 (the year before
President Jonathan ascended to power) was
$1091 and that this amount had improved by
70% to $1721 in 2013, what I got thrown back
at me was " na that one we go chop?" or "how
does that affect the price of Garri?"
They scoffed at the Jonathan administration's
new National Automobile Policy, saying it was
laughable to imagine that Nigeria would be a car
manufacturing nation within a year. Well, Nissan
has announced that their first made in Nigeria
Nissan SUV would be rolled out in April. They
criticized the President for declaring a State of
Emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states,
yet their own governors found that the
emergency had significantly eroded the
terrorist’s ability to launch terror attacks
ensuring that there was enough peace for them
to visit Borno state.
And so, greeted with one success after the other
of the President's policies, the opposition has
realized that they cannot compete with him on
the level of ideas. And what do they do?
They have carefully taken into consideration the
President's personality and have come to an
awareness that he is a man that would not go
negative or attack personalities and their
conclusion is that that is the only front on which
they can overwhelm him.
But they have not reckoned with the connection
the President has with ordinary Nigerians. This
is a President that does not keep secrets from
Nigerians. A President that is secure enough in
himself and his position to allow them to
dialogue without any boundaries.
In fact, from studying President Jonathan's style
of leadership, I have come to the conclusion that
the Jonathanian key to growing one's influence
is to speak to the public in a way that makes
the public want to listen to you and listen to the
masses in a way that makes the masses want
to speak to you. That is why Nigerians are
excited about the impending National
Conference. They know that their President is
listening. After all, he listened to them in 2010
when they asked him not to ban the Super
Eagles from international soccer tournaments.
He listened to them when they overwhelmingly
asked him to run in 2011. He listened to them
when they said they did not want Nigeria to
succumb to the practice of gay marriages.
The President even said it himself on his first
Presidential Media Chat that he has a great
capacity to listen to people, even if they are
talking rubbish, without betraying emotion, thus
communicating with his listeners that he is
giving the fullness of their being his focused
attention in order to understand them which
does not mean that he agrees with them.
And you know what that does? It ignites the
type of folksy connection that the President now
enjoys with Nigerians because they know that
their President seeks first to understand them
before he asks them to understand him. With
President Jonathan, there is no monologue or
dialogue of the deaf. With him, Nigerians can
always count on a dialogue of interested parties.
Nigerians know that their President will never
threaten anybody, be they human being, dog or
baboon. Citizens of this great nation know that
the man of peace they elected to pilot their ship
of state will never tell the down trodden to 'go
and die'! In fact, they know that even if they are
in a war torn nation thousands of miles away,
their gentleman President will send planes to get
them out of harm’s way. They know that their
President will never celebrate his birthday with 1
billion Naira. Instead, they are certain that when
they are hungry, their President will ensure that
the down trodden of society get billions of Naira
worth of grains and food staples so that they
can hunger no more. This is why the 2013
Global Hunger Index of the International Food
Policy Research Institute applauded Nigeria for
her significant reduction of hunger levels.
Nigerians further know that they have a
philosopher king who reads regularly and who
has encouraged Nigerians, through his personal
initiative (The Bring Back the Book Project,
launched on December 20, 2010) to read.
Readers are leaders and the President doesn't
just read, he also donates books to schools
through the bring back the book project since he
believes readers become leaders because the
mind is a muscle and reading is the only
gymnasium in which you can build up your mind
muscle.
It is precisely this mind muscle that many of
those who attack the President with ad hominem
words lack. Instead of having highly defined
mind muscles, they have built up their ego
muscle. Alas, the worst possible combination
you could ever find in men is to have a weak will
and a strong ego. Unfortunately, this is the case
with those who throw stones because they are
attuned to destroying rather than building.
So, let them keep insulting and casting
aspersions on the person of President Jonathan.
Those who engage in these ad hominem attacks
on the President only prove the truism that you
can take the man away from the gutter but you
may not be able to take the gutter away from
the man.
The thing that they forget when they indulge in
that type of behavior is that as Chief MKO
Abiola of blessed memory said 'even if you
change the name of honey it would still be
sweet'!
And for those who wonder why the President
does not ever respond to such opposition
attacks on his personality, I would also use
another proverb to try to assuage their
wonderment. A man who is carrying an elephant
on his head has no need to squash an ant with
his toe.
Regards,
Reno