During the electioneering campaign of President Goodluck Jonathan, he promised to transform and give Nigeria a new and clear sense of focus if elected as president.He said he has a transformational agendum for the country. To this end, on his inauguration as Nigeria's President, he named his administration as a transformational administration.While unfolding his transformational agenda, he indicated specific areas that will receive transformational attention. These areas include infrastructural development, quality healthcare system, agriculture, education, job creation, electricity and transportation, etc. He assured Nigerians of his administration's readiness to transform the country. And when he was finally inaugurated, the journey to transformation began.However, while the transformational journey began, a violent group in the North-East that was not interested in the journey came up and decided to be a cog in the wheel of the journey. They started truncating the advancement of the journey by unleashing and causing instability in the country with the obvious intention of diverting attention from the transformational agenda of the president. This, to a very large extent, has worked very well for this violent group. They have successfully diverted the attention of not just the president but also of other people on the transformational journey. Instead of giving full attention to the transformational agenda, the Federal Government now spends more time seeking how to deal with the menace of Boko Haram. If you carry out a content analysis of media reports, you will find out that even the journalists now devote much air time and space for the reportage of Boko Haram activities. Because of the sensitive, dangerous, and very deadly nature of Boko Haram activities, attention is now focused on them. Everybody now talks very much about the group. Book Haram has seriously threatened the adequate, efficient and effective implementation of the transformational agenda. Indeed, the transformational agendum has been Boko Haramed by the violent group. This is seriously a wrenching development.In view of the above, we must understand that this is a fight for Nigeria and not just for President Goodluck Jonathan. To this end, the North and the South, Christians and Muslims, Ibos, Yorubas, Hausas, Ijaws and all other well-meaning Nigerians must join hands with the federal government to weed away this aberration. While we do this, Jonathan must understand that Nigerians elected him because they trusted his judgment. He must therefore exercise this judgment with every sense of responsibility and great caution. As he exercises this judgment, he must remain presidential by refusing to be intimidated. This is a call for national action for our collective unity and security. Okechukwu ChukwumaDepartment of Mass CommunicationSchool of Post-Graduate StudiesUniversity of Nigeria, Nsukkaok4higher@yahoo.com
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