On May 29 2007, President Umar Musa Yar’Adua took over as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in a questionable election yet to be resolved by the court. One year after, President Yar’ Adua, surrounded by men and women of questionable characters continue to plunge Nigeria into the abyss of economic and political woes, leaving Nigerians hoping in what is obviously a hopeless hope.

As a man who appeared unprepared to lead the world most populous black nation, President Yar’Adua in the last one year has displayed all the attributes of an ill-prepared leader whose actions are dictates of sycophants and men and women whose idea and knowledge of leadership is to loot the treasury while invoking the name of God.

We have watched in the last one year as this government carries on without any policy focus on how to at least ameliorate the sufferings of the Nigerian people. The business of governance has either remained stand-still or totally collapsed in the hands of the katsina State born president.

From anti-corruption war, the power sector to the economy, President Yar’Adua has left no one in doubt that his ill-gotten presidency, courtesy of former president Olusegun Aremu Okikiola Obasanjo is yet another sham in the political history of Nigeria.

President Yar’Adua came into office with a bogus promise to declare a state of emergency on the power sector. Instead, he declared a state of emergency on himself, jetting off to Germany for medical treatment and leaving Nigerians wondering if he himself is healthy enough to tackle the power sector that gulped over $10 Billion under former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Up till now, Mr. President cannot explain why he has not been able to declare the state of emergency.

Nigeria has an installed output of 3, 200 megawatts of electricity. But this dropped to 1,200 in the first quarter of 2007 due largely to shortage of gas and pipeline vandalization. The Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, put it more succinctly when it revealed that power generation went down from installed capacity of 5, 200 MW to 1,750 MW as compared to a load demand of 6,000 MW. This was because only 19 out of the 79 generating units were in operation.

Besides the power sector, President Yar’Adua promised to make the Niger Delta issue a top priority. Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, a son of Niger Delta, reechoed the administrations resolve to tackle the crisis in the region within six months. It is one year now and the region has metamorphosed into a zone characterized by militancy, pipeline vandalisation and hostage-taking for ransom. Not even the Senator David Brigidi’s committee for Peace and Reconciliation has been able to create an impact and on the President’s list, “it is a top priority.”

Infrastructure is in total decay. No sector seems to be functioning except the Presidency, The State Government Houses, State Assemblies and the National Assembly where loots are shared on a daily basis. The education sector remains in decay. The Health sector is not even in the agenda of the government as Nigerians in their millions roam the street with no form of health insurance or any form of coverage. And Yar’Adua carries on like the “Baba Go Slow” that he is!

On corruption, President Yar’Adua came into power promising zero tolerance to corruption. It is now an open knowledge that the institution charged with prosecuting corrupt persons, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been dismembered and rendered powerless to shield corrupt politicians and lately, Farida Waziri, a former Assistant Inspector General of police, AIG, known to have hobnobbed with some corrupt Governors, is now in charge of EFCC. Since the removal of Nuhu Ribadu, the agency is now a toothless bull-dog now mocked and laughed at by those thieving politicians of no conscience.

In the last one year, none of the former Governors whose stolen monies have been traced to various foreign accounts have been prosecuted. They all walk free under the protection of Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice.

With a dashed hope, Nigerians have continued to live under a President whose only achievement in office is his sing song “rule of law” which have continuously been employed as a political tool to give legal face to an administration that parade politicians with the highest degree of economic crimes.

President Yar’Adua never applied the so called rule of law to himself when he was declared winner of an election that have been adjudged the most despicable since the history of Nigeria by simply abiding by the same rule of law, a constitutional principles that requires government to be conducted according to the law of the states and which forbids election rigging, to reject the outcome of the Presidential election.

Alas! He never did. Rather, he accepted the dubious election and when everyone cried foul, his foot soldiers came up with a solution. And rule of law slogan was it!

President Yar’Adua’s chorused rule of law has allowed his friends and financiers to hide under it to seek legal protection from answering questions bothering on the act of stealing public funds that has contributed in no small measure to cripple the state of Nigeria.

Under President Yar’Adua’s rule of law, the likes of Orji Kalu, James Ibori, Saminu Turaki, Lucky Igbinedion and others whose legendary stealing style can only be equated to dictators such as Mobutu Sese Seko, Sani Abacha, Charles Taylor and a host of other maniacs roam the streets of Nigeria as free men when they are supposed to be cooling off in jail for plundering the resources of their various states, leaving there people impoverished more than they met them.

However anyone sees it, for the last one year, this government has been a photo trick, a deception and a sham that will fade away like water vapor without any meaningful contribution to salvage the drowning ship called Nigeria. God help Nigeria!

Jackson Ude is the Publisher of Pointblanknews.com

Robot  # 1 | 27.05.2008 23:15

On May 29 2007, President Umar Musa Yar’Adua took over as the President of the Federal...Read the full article.

nijalaw  # 2 | 28.05.2008 00:22

If Yaradua has failed in his first year of governance what would the remaining 3 years left be like if his health does not fail him. A catastrophe? Majority of Nigerians shouted down skeptics like me, saying give him a chance, he will do well, he is a graduate, incorruptible, see how he ran Katsina state for 8 years. Many failed to see that this man lacked the ingredients to run Nigeria. Nigerians are always full of vain hope & fail to see the facts on ground. From the process of his selection as presidential candidate of the PDP to the flawed 2007 general elections & his lackluster ministerial cabinet were pointers to disaster. God help us.

Oguguo Yakere  # 3 | 28.05.2008 00:23

Jackson, Yours is a well written pointblank truth. It is well known to Nigerians. But Nigerians do lack the necessary outrage to bring about any change in entity. They will rather go into praise singing to recieve the crumbs from the table. The question that remains unanswered is if there is actually a nation in the first instance. What we did not know when UMYA's slogan was being blarred, that has become clear today, is that he meant application of "the rule of law" in such a way as to set free those who made him the president along with others whose activities were probably no different from his while he was a governor. Until the people look at the current mess differently, nothing will change.

planet1899  # 4 | 28.05.2008 01:55

This is a grossly flawed assessment - one year is not enough to move the hand of the clock - not even 10 years - the writer must have selfish motives to arrive at such premature conclusions only after one year.

dem  # 5 | 28.05.2008 02:57

I admire the resilience of this writer. I was going to do a write-up myself on YD's first year, but I found no achievements or anything to assess...

Franklyne Ogbunwezeh  # 6 | 28.05.2008 05:12

That Yar Adua came into office at all is because Nigerians are politically emasculated. And that Obasanjo got away with imposing him on us to cover his monumental indiscretions; and that he has ambled aimlessly for one year in that office can only be thanks to the fact that Nigerians have this infinite propensity to endure evil. If not, what Jerry Rawlings did to crooked Ghanaian leadership, or what the peasants did after storming the Bastille in 1789 France would look very much like the antics of spoilt kids in comparison to what Nigeria would have witnessed.

employlawone  # 7 | 28.05.2008 06:13

=planet1899;4295047180>This is a grossly flawed assessment - one year is not enough to move the hand of the clock - not even 10 years - the writer must have selfish motives to arrive at such premature conclusions only after one year. Really? 'grossly flawed assessment'? Emphasis on the word 'grossly'. May I refresh you with recent history and point you in the direction of Murtala Muhammed (less than a year)? Mohammadu Buhari (little over a year)? A year is sufficient to give indication of the direction of a government, maybe not to crucify it on a platform of hoplessness. The point must be that if the alarm is not raised now then the prediction maybe proved to be correct.

FoxCatcher  # 8 | 28.05.2008 08:28

=planet1899;4295047180>This is a grossly flawed assessment - one year is not enough to move the hand of the clock - not even 10 years - the writer must have selfish motives to arrive at such premature conclusions only after one year. Then every reasonable Nigerian must also have 'selfish motives' since a visit to any 'roadside parliarment', 'molue confab', 'peppersoup joint arena' et al will reveal that most share the author's perception of this govt. Of course, they can be understood, if not forgiven who do not know the current pump price of fuel, kerosene and diesel; or are insulated from the vagaries of PHCN/NEPA; or who can afford to ride thru our cratered and watered filled roads in the lap of sirened luxury. Such may see nothing but business as usual in the current motion, no movement that has been elevated over the last 12 months, into governance art form. The only areas of speedy governance we have witnessed is this govt's response to the cries of its' 'thiefing' cronies and sponsors and its dexterity in seeking legal loopholes to extricate them from the long arm of the law. If such perception appears to some as 'selfish' or 'grossly flawed', then so be it. Ciao

truthsayer33  # 9 | 28.05.2008 09:03

Please leave our wonderful President alone.He is doing his best under the awful backdrop of his imposition on the nation. His insistence on the rule of law is no easy trick in lawless Nigeria.He allowed the rule of law to drown the greedy speaker Patricia....the same stance saw Iyabo doing long jump and high jump. As far as I am aware he is not involved in dubious sexual scandals and neither is he tangled in ritual slaughter. He is quietly trying to tell Nigerians that the country does not belong to Christians.I have no dispute with that but I expect him to speak up when his fellow Muslims become lawless killers in their hatred of Christians.

truthsayer33  # 10 | 28.05.2008 09:15

Oh,and thank you for showing your face in the square.It takes me back to the early days of the NVS when guest writers were required to provide brief bios. I wonder what Mr Frisky Larrimore looks like? Also what has happened to beautiful Halima Mahmud?

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