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When President
Jonathan assumed the office 7 months ago, most Nigerians including this
writer were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But as the
saying goes, “show me your advisers, and I’ll tell you what kind of
leader you are.”

Take the
“Honorable” Minister finance for example, I sent him three email
messages on my idea to create over 100,000 jobs for Nigerians. He got
all the mail, and read them, as confirmed by my outlook. He did not
even have the courtesy to respond.

Twenty-five years
ago, I had sent a graduate research idea to President Buhari, through
the Nigerian embassy, to encourage Nigeria to create a sovereign wealth
fund, buy refineries and retail gas stations in the U.S. This was my
initial reason for contacting Mr. Aganga to congratulate him for
encouraging the Nigerian government to start a sovereign wealth fund.
But I was disappointed in his failure to even respond.

I sent similar
letters to the minister of information, Mrs. Akunyili, about my idea to
create up to $6 billion of internally generated funds for Nigeria
without borrowing, and up till today, I have yet to receive a response.
At least, when I send similar suggestions to U.S administrators,
including those at the White House, I usually get a response.

My doubts about
the competence of the people that the president surrounds himself with,
were confirmed when Mr. Aganga said a few months ago that Nigeria’s
unemployment rate was 19.7%. I searched everywhere to find out where he
got his numbers from and I am still looking.

My contact with
the Nigerian minister of power has not been that positive either, since
Mr. President is his own minister of power, I would have thought that
the ministry would be more responsive. In the six months since we we’ve
been talking to Mr. President about generating power, China has built
over 36,000 megawatts of power for its people. It is one thing to write
slogans on the pages of Facebook, but Nigerians need electricity and
jobs.

A few days ago,
Mr. Aganga stated that Mr. Atiku has poor knowledge of the economy. Out
of the over 130 comments on the pages of Next, 90% challenged Mr.
Aganga’s explanation of the state of Nigeria’s economy. While most did
not side with Mr. Atiku, they all concluded that Nigeria’s economy is
heading in the wrong direction. So instead of the Jonathan government
coming up with concrete facts and plans, they think it is better to
keep slinging mud at others who criticize their rudderless ship.

Mr. Aganga claimed
that the government spent $5.6 billion on NIPP, yet Nigerians are still
in darkness. Yesterday, the Presidential adviser on power, Prof. Nnaji
stated that Nigeria aims for 20,000 megawatts of power in the next 10
years yet it takes China less than six months to build 20,000
megawatts.

The question is,
why would it take Nigeria 10 years? I am still awaiting a response to
the email I sent to Prof Nnaji six weeks ago regarding information on
his road map and the procedure required to obtain a power purchase
agreement with the Nigerian government. These are some of the questions
Nigerians should be asking when they go to the polls in 90 days, Can
President Jonathan solve Nigeria’s power problem and create jobs for
Nigerians

The lesson is that
Nigerians are no longer as gullible as the politicians assume. If the
president thinks he can win the election by throwing numbers around
instead of coming up with concrete plans on how to fix the economy,
provide electricity and create jobs, he may be surprised that Nigerians
would rather support someone else instead of a leader who has
surrounded himself with yes men and women who can’t even respond to
suggestions from Nigerians.

Show me your advisers, and I’ll show you what kind of leader you are.

Toyin Dawodu is
the Managing partner of Capital Investment Group and founder of Nigeria
Let There be light, a movement to create meaningful change in Nigeria.

toyin@capvestgroup.com