Dr. Udenta O Udenta
We have seen so many
advertisements by your group promoting President Jonathan’s national
transformation agenda. What is TAN really about?
Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) is a non-governmental movement made up of Nigerian patriots who are persuaded that the national transformation agenda of the Jonathan administration contains core paradigmatic elements that need to be propagated and extended. A policy construct such as national transformation must first be defined within its philosophical space as a necessary step towards its actualization in the context of social practice. The Jonathan administration is reconstructing and reconstituting the foundational logic of Nigeria’s democratic system by strengthening the tools and instruments of electoral governance. It has equally inaugurated far-reaching transformational processes in the agricultural, aviation, rail transportation, public works and human empowerment sectors, as well taking bold, revolutionary and risky steps in re-positioning the nation’s problematic power infrastructure as a platform for the inter-play of private sector-led entrepreneurial efficiency and governmental regulatory oversight.
But are Nigerians feeling the impact of all these?
You must appreciate that some of these programmes and projects have an all-encompassing impact while others have sectoral impact. If you hardly travel by air you may not appreciate the fundamental changes that are occurring in that sector. Two challenges face the government in this regard. The first is to develop and sustain an integral mechanism for the promotion of these institutional changes. The second is to develop a counter public sphere narrative that unconceals the truth of its achievements from the falsity of public perception procreated by the antagonistic segments of the political elite who have persistently dominated the public discourse spaces and sites.
This is where TAN comes in. TAN is an idea whose time has come; an idea that seeks to reshape the mode and context of public perception of the foundational character and practical realizations of the national transformation agenda.
But some would argue that the transformation agenda has been overshadowed by security challenges in the country.
Surely, the new terror threat that the government has been battling for some years now has created layers and levels of disequilibrium in the allocation and management of scarce national resources but it cannot unhinge the totality of national developmental planning and the implementation of policy choices and thrusts. The past three years has witnessed an escalation in the amount of money budgeted for security operations against terrorist insurgencies; funds that could easily have been deployed in the education, health, job creation and other human services sectors. However, even in the context of these excesses of the terrorists in our midst, the process of national transformation is being significantly facilitated in various national directions.
The rating of President Jonathan has of late been low, won’t this affect his performance?
There is a lot of misrepresentation and misreading of the situation in Nigeria by the Western media and unfortunately a segment of the local media and elite forces have bought into this false narrative about government’s capacity and commitment in ending terrorism in Nigeria. What is conveniently forgotten is that Nigeria, like the USA and her global partners is fighting a war without boundaries, a war without rules and a war that can strike anywhere, anytime, without notice. No matter your level of preparedness, or assets at your disposal; intelligence gathering and analysis ability, these masters of asymmetrical warfare will get to you. While the USA public, media and the whole of the Western world and media rallied around President Bush after the 9/11 attacks, Nigerians are being tutored to disparage their government. Yet, 9/11 was a clear case of a gross failure of intelligence, given that the World Trade Centre was previously bombed in 1993, a clear 8 years before the second attack. It took the USA government nearly 12 years and hundreds of billions of dollars to locate and take out Osama Bin Laden.
Many experts will even tell you that the government has drastically degraded the domestic content of Boko Haram; the phenomenon you see today is organically linked to the failure of Western policy in Libya that led to the post-Gaddaffi state failure and the explosion of extremist terror and Salafist franchises in the Maghreb region. Boko Haram is now a regional terrorist franchise, hence its dominant operational space in the areas that border Nigeria and her neighbours in the North.
Hasn’t the Chibok incident exposed President Jonathan as weak and tactless?
President Jonathan is neither weak nor tactless. He has approached this national challenge with studied deliberation, focused commitment and quiet engagement with all the security and political related issues.
Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) is a non-governmental movement made up of Nigerian patriots who are persuaded that the national transformation agenda of the Jonathan administration contains core paradigmatic elements that need to be propagated and extended. A policy construct such as national transformation must first be defined within its philosophical space as a necessary step towards its actualization in the context of social practice. The Jonathan administration is reconstructing and reconstituting the foundational logic of Nigeria’s democratic system by strengthening the tools and instruments of electoral governance. It has equally inaugurated far-reaching transformational processes in the agricultural, aviation, rail transportation, public works and human empowerment sectors, as well taking bold, revolutionary and risky steps in re-positioning the nation’s problematic power infrastructure as a platform for the inter-play of private sector-led entrepreneurial efficiency and governmental regulatory oversight.
But are Nigerians feeling the impact of all these?
You must appreciate that some of these programmes and projects have an all-encompassing impact while others have sectoral impact. If you hardly travel by air you may not appreciate the fundamental changes that are occurring in that sector. Two challenges face the government in this regard. The first is to develop and sustain an integral mechanism for the promotion of these institutional changes. The second is to develop a counter public sphere narrative that unconceals the truth of its achievements from the falsity of public perception procreated by the antagonistic segments of the political elite who have persistently dominated the public discourse spaces and sites.
This is where TAN comes in. TAN is an idea whose time has come; an idea that seeks to reshape the mode and context of public perception of the foundational character and practical realizations of the national transformation agenda.
But some would argue that the transformation agenda has been overshadowed by security challenges in the country.
Surely, the new terror threat that the government has been battling for some years now has created layers and levels of disequilibrium in the allocation and management of scarce national resources but it cannot unhinge the totality of national developmental planning and the implementation of policy choices and thrusts. The past three years has witnessed an escalation in the amount of money budgeted for security operations against terrorist insurgencies; funds that could easily have been deployed in the education, health, job creation and other human services sectors. However, even in the context of these excesses of the terrorists in our midst, the process of national transformation is being significantly facilitated in various national directions.
The rating of President Jonathan has of late been low, won’t this affect his performance?
There is a lot of misrepresentation and misreading of the situation in Nigeria by the Western media and unfortunately a segment of the local media and elite forces have bought into this false narrative about government’s capacity and commitment in ending terrorism in Nigeria. What is conveniently forgotten is that Nigeria, like the USA and her global partners is fighting a war without boundaries, a war without rules and a war that can strike anywhere, anytime, without notice. No matter your level of preparedness, or assets at your disposal; intelligence gathering and analysis ability, these masters of asymmetrical warfare will get to you. While the USA public, media and the whole of the Western world and media rallied around President Bush after the 9/11 attacks, Nigerians are being tutored to disparage their government. Yet, 9/11 was a clear case of a gross failure of intelligence, given that the World Trade Centre was previously bombed in 1993, a clear 8 years before the second attack. It took the USA government nearly 12 years and hundreds of billions of dollars to locate and take out Osama Bin Laden.
Many experts will even tell you that the government has drastically degraded the domestic content of Boko Haram; the phenomenon you see today is organically linked to the failure of Western policy in Libya that led to the post-Gaddaffi state failure and the explosion of extremist terror and Salafist franchises in the Maghreb region. Boko Haram is now a regional terrorist franchise, hence its dominant operational space in the areas that border Nigeria and her neighbours in the North.
Hasn’t the Chibok incident exposed President Jonathan as weak and tactless?
President Jonathan is neither weak nor tactless. He has approached this national challenge with studied deliberation, focused commitment and quiet engagement with all the security and political related issues.
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