Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan declared his bid for re-election to the Nigerian presidency yesterday in a ceremony where thousands of his supporters were treated to patriotic music, dancing and speeches. A day earlier, 46 teenage students were blown up in a suicide attack at a school. The event, dubbed the “mother of all rallies”, saw Jonathan ask the electorate to give him another opportunity to develop the nation in a speech that made pledges to defeat terrorism and ‘bring back the girls.’ A minute of silence was observed for the dead schoolchildren. Jonathan has launched his reelection bid for the presidency amid a rising insurgency in the country’s north-east, which is virtually ruled by militants belonging to the Islamist group, Boko Haram.
How does Jonathan intend to sound sincere in his pledge to fight insurgency when he couldn’t wait for a few more days to launch his re-election bid? The fact that the country was mourning the teenage boys killed in a suspected Boko Haram suicide attack should have made Jonathan desist from talking about elections. Instead, he launched into a speech exhorting his supporters to elect him president once more.
Incidentally, the elections would be held on February 14, which is celebrated world over as the day of love. One can argue there is no love lost between the president and a chunk of the Nigerian population, which suffers the pangs of development and poor governance.
Jonathan is seen to have done little to rein in Boko Haram that continues to threaten the stability of the oil-producing nation.
Days ago, the Nigerian president was in Burkina Faso as part of a group of African leaders who visited the country to tell the military leader not to usurp power and effect a peaceful transition to a civilian government. Yesterday, he showed haste in announcing his bid for power. A Boko Haram continuing its destructive streak bodes ill for the future of the most populated nation in Africa. The Nigerian ambassador to the United States has rapped Washington for not selling it lethal arms to contain the insurgency.
US is bound by law not to sell weapons to a military accused of human rights abuses. The Nigerian envoy also took a dig at Washington for being unable to help contain the militancy despite its presence in Nigeria. “We find it difficult to understand how and why in spite of the US presence in Nigeria with their sophisticated military technology Boko Haram should be expanding and becoming more deadly,”the Nigerian envoy told the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. The Nigerian government should look inwards and find ways of strengthening domestic political institutions to curb militancy. Instead of blaming a foreign power for not helping to fight militancy, Jonathan’s government should find out the reasons behind the emergence of Boko Haram and its destructive streak.
