In a soothing evening Chat on the national television with the most patronised journalists, carefully selected for one of the most biased chat since the idea of media chat came on board, Jonathan had passively and jokingly told Nigerians that he would be the best President at the end of his tenure. In the most comical and down-played media chat, with the President who tried to be more humorous than ever, the invited journalists, in the persons of Gbemi olujobi; editor, Saturday Mirror, Ikeddy isigudor; Chairman Vanguard Editorial board and Martins Oloja: EDitor, Guardian newspaper had played along with Mr. President in the well rehearsed Presidential chat. It was a point of realisation for many Nigerians who will no doubt understand the fake reality of their country.
Responding to the question on the Sovereign National Conference and the constitutional review in the most relaxed and confident manner, Jonathan had said that putting up a conference without necessarily going through the law making process would jettison the position of the law and the constitution. Even as convincing as his position appeared, the journalists failed in their thespian approach, as they probed no further. If the drama was well rehearsed, and perfected, there would have been few agreements and disagreements to make it a little credible, but because the director failed in his directorial concept, the actors(journalists) could not totally make it larger than life. We were disappointed.
In his swift response to an irrelevant question asked, seeking his opinion on the state police and state creation, the president swiftly dismissed such early personal view, saying that even though he has personal interest and opinion, the position of the people supersedes. No answer would have been better than that. We are sure that even Martins who asked the question knew the answer that would follow suit because such question was clearly not necessary with other serious political questions begging for answers.
The president used the opportunity to defend himself of taking side in the Bayelsa/Rivers’ land dispute affirming that a committee comprising National Boundaries Commission and others has been set up to look into the matter, and that at the end of the day, the report of the finding would be handed over to the Vice President, assuring Nigerians that he was not going to take side on the matter. But one wonders who controls the Vice President and National boundaries Commission. One wonders if National Boundaries Commission is not a parastatal under the States’ House.
Defending the proposed 70 percent benchmark of the 2013 budget, Jonathan had declared that the decision was reached by the best economic experts led by the Finance Minister and others, hence cannot be faulted. It was another opportunity for Mr. President to promote his economic team. One wonders what the Journalists were seated there for, as they could ask no further questions. Every question seemed to have had a perfect answer, with the journalists agreeing with every word from Mr. President.
Of course, the panel of journalists knew Jonathan was going to still say PDP was on course even when they had lost in Imo, Edo and Ondo state in the most recent election. One wonders what correlation such question had with the present economic crisis of unemployment and queues at fuel stations. But in a reaction to the ‘christmas’ questions, Jonathan said that it was not expected that PDP wins all elections, believing that the party would bounce back in the next election. Of course, last night was Christmas for Mr. President.
No serious questions were asked on Boko Haram issue apart from the speculated ongoing negotiation which the president had denied, stating that the government cannot dialogue with a faceless group. So, what happened to all other Boko Haram related questions as well as other security issues? What happened to the long queues at Filling stations? Jonathan had to asked himself a question on fuel scarcity when such question was not coming from any of the journalists. He had asked Nigerians to bear with the Federal government as it was working towards returning sanity to the oil sector.
The participating journalists can best be termed jokers. It’s better to assert that if Jonathan must be supported to achieve his target, it’s only by sincerely conveying the truth to him, and not about being patriotic with pressing political questions.
Every question picked from twitter and short messages was carefully selected in line with what the president could quickly attend to. Most of the questions were yanked off.
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