Children of Anger's Reply to Reuben Abati

A twittering, child of anger's reply to Reuben Abati
Normally I do not pay heed to people who go on and on about irrelevant issues BUT I believe for this piece THE JONATHAN THEY DO NOT KNOW, you Reuben Abati deserve a response.


First of all,I would personally appreciate it if you refrained from using derogatory words to refer to me and the rest of Nigerians on twitter, facebook and bbm. It would be better if you referred to us as Ma'am or Sir since we collectively pay your salary. I would hate to remind you again that every dime you get at the end of the month is because of the toil and sweat of those you notoriously referred to as "the cynics, the pestle-wielding critics,
the unrelenting, self-appointed activists, the idle and idling, twittering, collective children of anger, the distracted crowd of Facebook addicts, the BBM-pinging soap opera gossips of Nigeria, who seem to be in competition among themselves to pull down." The irony of it is that you insulted this group of Nigerians then turned right ahead to say that President Goodluck Jonathan "He is on Facebook, Twitter, email, SMS, BB, and he reads. And he writes". So the president is one of the unrelenting, cynical, idle, distracted, soap-opera-gossip children of anger right? Your words Mr Abati…pick an insult and stick to it.


Let me also explain this simple fact to you: when a man contests for public office, he directly says I am better that the others. I am the better option and I will do good. We select officials on that basis AND judge them on their PERFORMANCES (something you seem to have selective amnesia on). When this said official is failing-in this case President Jonathan-he opens himself up to criticism because it is OUR funds and OUR future he is (mis)managing.


You said 'this army of sponsored and self-appointed anarchists is so diverse; many of them don't even know why or how they should attack the President'. This clearly suggests that when you Reuben Abati spoke up against past governments, you were appointed by someone (again, your words). The remaining self appointed (unpaid) ones (me inclusive) actually know WHY and WHAT theye are criticizing. They are criticizing the bad handling of the subsidy removal, the billions spent on 50th anniversary celebration, the stand Mr President took on behalf of MEND in October 2011,  the continuous sheilding of Diezani Allison-Madueke despite numerous reports pointing at her corrupt/incompetent ways, the irresponsible travel, feeding, medical budget for the president and his entourage despite the security challenges in the north he still hasn't put  stop to, the countless committees which Mr President springs up without implementing or utilizing their recommendations, the absurd appointment of ex-kingpins into sensitive security positions, THOSE are just a few of the things we are collectively criticizing.

I appreciate that you took the time to list the different foods that the president eats. My problem is that Mr President spends so much time on rhetoric fighting imaginary 'detractors' that he isn't worrying about the millions who don't have anything to eat. And while we are on the issue, it is no longer WHAT the president wants to do (campaign is over sir) but all we see is what he is NOT doing. The growing rate of unemployment, the lax and deteriorating practices in the petroleum industry, the corruption in the civil service…we want a president that can fix those issues not tell us that those ARE the problems. Errr, we know the problems sir. Can you do the job or not?

Keep in mind, we do not care what part of the country he's from, we simply know that he is running the whole country down. Despite your cry that Nigerians's criticize him out of ignorance and mischief claiming 'the opposition doesn't make things easy at all, maybe I should point it out that it is not the opposition's position to make it easy for him, BUT it is his job to make it difficult for them to find what to critisice. He can do so that by performing his functions dilligently. In such a case, he wouldn't even need to hire people like you to try and sugarcoat speeches.

Additionally, no one cares about how many Hausa, Ijaw, Edo or Yoruba people or women Mr President has appointed. We just care about the type of work they are doing and so far, no one stands out. My advice to you is this: stop comparing Jonathan to David, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Kwame Nkrumah. The earlier you and Mr President throw away those illusions of grandeur and realize that he is Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, a zoologist in whose hands rest 150,000,000 lives, the better it will be for all of us.

As you Abati rightly pointed out, the clear danger to public affairs commentary is that we have a lot of unintelligent people repeating stupid clichés and too many intelligent persons wasting their talents lending relevance to thoughtless conclusions. This statement clearly applies ONLY to you. I will say no more on this issue.

As a kid growing up, my mother told me: If you don't have anything good to say, don't say nothing at all. You should repeat this every morning when you wake up. Maybe, just maybe something worthy may well come out of you and this government.

Leadership is not for people who cry foul and spit out excuses, it is a position for people who can bring results. If you and President Jonathan can not wrap your head around that, then it is high time you find another job.

Cheers

Azeenarh Mohammed (an unrelenting, self-appointed, irritated, angry, tired but NOT idle Nigerian on twitter)