Unexplained stupendous amounts of money were linked with Mrs. Patience Jonathan, the wife of President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, in the past. She wasn’t a business person of note. She wasn’t known for earning large salary and no one could link those amounts to her inheritance. People were left with the conclusion that the money came from her lucky politician husband. That made it difficult for the president’s surrogates to argue that the man was absolvable when it came to corruption. However, what nobody could take away from the president was the fact that he meant well for Nigeria. He wanted a better and indivisible Nigeria.

Although, the president wants a fine nation, the roadblocks on his path make it so difficult. These are the roadblocks he inadvertently placed by himself or his political party, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP. The president is surrounded by men and women whose thoughts are inversely proportional to his. The president’s insincere proxies neither want him nor Nigeria to succeed. All they care about is to carve their own chunks of carte du jour from the nation’s cake. They will do anything to achieve this objective. They arm-twist, blackmail, and cajole anyone who attempts to make the president see what is wrong with Nigeria.

The president’s “Yes-Men” (and women) are everywhere – at home and abroad, newspapers, magazines, radio, television, facebook, and the other social interactive media. They are the bulldogs who tear apart those who dare to tell the truth about Nigeria. They paint those who speak up against the corrupt government as the saboteurs who don’t want Nigeria to progress. They attack the intentions of those who ask for a free Nigeria devoid of sleaze, favoritism, excessive concern for one’s ethnic group, and religious chauvinism. The president’s proxies cast everyone who opposes their lack of forethought as opposition.

Unknown to the president’s “boys and girls,” many of us who speak against the monumental corruption within the PDP government owe no allegiance to any political parties in Nigeria. I am not a card carrying member of any political party at this time. The only reason why people are speaking up is because they want the president to succeed. They want a respectable Nigeria they can be proud of. They want the president to thrive because his failure amounts to Nigeria’s failure. Nobody wants President Jonathan to succeed more than me. However, we are appalled by the lack of leadership; one step forward, two backward; and the money sharing government he runs.

The only people who don’t want the president to succeed are the “Boys-Must-Eat” personalities around him. The lackluster hangers-on lack foresight. They are pretentious. They are shameless. They are unashamed of the fact that nobody respects Nigeria and Nigerians any more. They are contented with the insults hauled on the nation by the small countries rescued by Nigeria from the grips of colonialism. They are satisfied with the grimy crumbs from the filthy tables of the corrupt party stalwarts. They have no idea how far behind their Motherland has lagged.

Those of us who grew up in the 60s and 70s and were able to learn something about the world noticed that Nigeria, China, India, South Korea, Brazil, Malaysia, and the other erstwhile developing nations that have made headway today, were contemporaries. Nigeria was even a notch higher than some of the above-named countries at some points. The Indians flocked to Nigeria for teaching jobs, and the Koreans for trade in the late 70s and early 80s, because Nigeria’s newly found oil-based economy was booming. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirate, UAE, (whose capital, Dubai, has become Nigerians’ second London) were comparatively poor desert nations in the 60s. Mecca and Medina were the major religious-based income earners identified with Saudi in the 60s. Thereafter, Saudi and UAE have surpassed Nigeria by discovering and using their own oil wealth wisely.

The president’s proxies believe that Nigeria is not moving forward because Nigerians are not doing their parts. They accuse the citizens of failing while absolving the leadership for not being led positively by the people. Imagine a homestead where the parents (leaders) are robbers, drunks, and perverts. Can you, in all honesty, blame the wayward children (citizens) for the lack of direction at the homestead? The government cannot expect Nigerians to be the best citizens in the world while robbing the people and creating despondency in the land. The blackmailers who are benefiting from the rot are doing everything they can to turn the table against the abused people of Nigeria.

Nigerians are doing the little they can everyday by going to work, paying taxes, raising funds to support their communities, etc. As a matter of fact Nigerians are some of the most creative and hardworking people in the world. Those who live abroad create jobs when they send money home to relatives to build houses for them – bricklayers, carpenters, painters, etc, have work to do. It is now left for the government officials to do their parts – by constructing good roads, providing electricity and potable water, instead of pocketing the money.

It is the government officials who should be asked to stop killing schools at home while sending their own children abroad for quality education. It is the politicians who should build life-sustaining hospitals in Nigeria, instead of pocketing the money and sending their own families abroad for treatment. Nigeria won’t survive only on the sacrifices of individual Nigerians without the economic-sustaining infrastructure from the government. Regardless of how America looks today, the people comment about the government for little things without the president’s henchmen jumping on them. That’s what puts the American government on its toes. That’s one of those things that differentiate America from Nigeria.

It is the fundamental right of Nigerians to hold an irresponsive government accountable, without being haunded by the president’s zombies. The president’s boys and girls should learn how to live with commentaries from the aggrieved Nigerians. They should also understand that those who don’t want to be criticized by the people don’t run for public offices. Most Nigerians, including myself, want President Jonathan to achieve his objective of a great Nigeria. We want our country to make progress, and we are doing everything we can to make her succeed. The only problems the president has are the corrupt men and women who are blinding him from the stack reality of poverty, insecurity, and joblessness in the land.