It Is with amusement, turned to shock, that I watched President Jonathan dancing ‘Shoki’ and ‘Dorobucci’ away in front of journeymen entertainers and unemployed youths at the Eko Hotels, all in an infantile effort to convince Nigerians that he is ‘young and energetic’, while his opponent in the upcoming elections is ‘old and tired’.
Even the normally disingenuous mis-information cabal of our president, could not find a more ‘dignified’ way to spin the public folly of our President this time around, other than to say “Nigerians can see how fit our president is. Can his opponent dance like that?” I almost puked when I saw one of the otherwise intelligent apologists for the Jonathan Misrule, actually post this ‘explanation’ on his wall!
No doubt, ‘Doro Jonathan’ rocked the rhythms and danced like a 50 year old in the midst of youths, most of whom were under 30 years old. Truth be told, if he were not the President of a country at a crossroads, with very serious issues to deal with at this point in time, , I would have been inclined to recommend him to contest the ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Competition, with his favorite stars like Genevieve or Omotola, when he gets back to Utuoke.
However, with the myriad of problems facing our country, I believe it is very much in bad taste for the President, who just set the nation back 6 weeks with his forced elections postponement, to jump on TV dancing shoki to the embarrassment of many Nigerians. Is he mocking the suffering masses or NIgeria or what??
Appearance is VERY TELLING in politics and life too. Nigeria is indeed in a somber mood right now, and most Nigerians do not need to see a President, who should be busy working to put our country back on track, dancing like he has no care in the world. Businesses are folding up right and left as a result of his failed policies. Most contractors and consultants have not done a single job in the last 6 months as economic activities remain frozen pending the outcome of this crucial election.
Virtually nothing much has happened in the first 3 months of this year as almost everything not directly related to the election of Mr. President, got suspended for an election cycle that refused to come. Ministries are paralyzed as the President ordered his top officers to go back to their home bases to work for his reelection. It must also be remembered that most Nigerians also never really got any business done in the last 3 months of last year too, as parties were busy selecting delegates and kicking off their campaigns.
So for about 6 months now, most businesses and government activities have been frozen because of this election cycle. Yet, our President insists on dancing Dorobucci on National TV.
On the national scale, there are queues everywhere as fuel scarcity threatens to shout down even the little economic activities taking place in the country at this time. Unemployment among youths remain stubbornly at over 70%. There is a hot war going on with Boko Haram insurgents in the North East and Boko Haram continues to detonate bombs on innocent members of the public. Our 200+ little girls of Chibok still remain missing. The whole world mocks us for our bumbling efforts to restore security in our land by using terrorists in the South South to buy warships we are going to use to fight a war another set of terrorists in a landlocked terrain, with no sea for the ships to sail through.
Yet, the most important thing to our president right now is to take up residence in Lagos for the last 10 days hopping from one asinine gathering to another dancing ‘Doro Jonah’ and ‘Shoki’ with entertainers and jobless youths.
This thoughtless clubbing by the President of a Nation in crisis is equivalent of Emperor Nero dancing his life away even as Rome burns.
This thoughtless clubbing by the President of a Nation in crisis is equivalent of Emperor Nero dancing his life away even as Rome burns.
From what I can see so far, it appears that either Doro Jona did not understand the serious pain and palpable feeling of despair in our country, or did not care.
Yet when some of us complained about the attitude of our President dancing on TV when the nation is in a state of crisis, many of his apologists reminded us that after all, the APC people too danced skelewu at their own convention in November. Serious, the idiocy of the Jonathan group befuddles my mind sometimes.
In the first place, even if the opposition chose to dance skelewu all day long during their convention way back November, that is not a justification for our president to indulge in such a copy-cat frivolity at this time.
In the second place, Dancing Skelewu in November, 2014, at the conclusion of a festive National Party Convention, is definitely a very different thing to dancing Shoki in March of 2015, when people are upset at the postponed elections, and when business everywhere seemed to have been paralyzed for the last 6 months for most people.
This shameless jamoboree of our President Jonathan, who by the way is hoping to secure a second term mandate from a suffering populace, most of whose lives have taken a backward step in the last 4 years, is further demonstration that President Jonathan is totally clueless about the sentiments in the nation.
Surely the President must understand that spending so much time with paid entertainers, (he has been in Lagos for over 10 days!), and surrounding himself with unemployed youths, that he should have provided meaningful employment for in the first place, is rubbing wound on the already injured spirits of Nigerians.
Surely, with the current sentiments on the streets, this ‘Shoki dance exhibition’ may very well be the final coffin in the nail of the Jonathan government, from a thoroughly abused citizenry.
President Jonathan’s public irreverence for the feelings of the populace begs the question: What happened to priorities? What happened to common decency, and the expected empathy of the ruler for the mis-ruled?
Most Nigerians are sweating and gnashing their teeth over the excruciating misery imposed by an economy devoid of basic necessities like power and good roads, access to capital by SMEs, etc. Surely, they didn’t deserve to be mocked on National television, by their own President dancing shoki with a band of journey men entertainers.
This may be HardTalk but it is True Talk all the same
Dr Ope Banwo
Publisher, HardTalk Naija
Ceo, American Internet Business School
Publisher, HardTalk Naija
Ceo, American Internet Business School
