The father of President Jonathan must
have had a vision of his future life to have named his son Goodluck at birth.
How else can one explain the chain of events in this man’s life? His journey
through life is full of surprises and good dose of good luck.
This is most remarkably
illustrated by his journey into politics, which is more or less divinely
propelled. He was drafted to be the running mate to Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and
became elected as Deputy Governor Bayelsa State. From there he turned into
Governor. He was again drafted as running mate to Musa Yar ‘Adua and was elected
Vice President, once again divine intervention catapulted him into a President.
Then elected in his own right as President and was on his way into becoming what is seemingly
a failed President and suddenly his adversaries played into his hands.
Today, he is likely on his way to becoming Nigeria’s greatest leader.
However, to achieve
greatness he needs to successfully return the remaining kidnapped girls to
safety and wipe out Boko Haram, the organization that has made his five years Presidency,
the years of the locust.
If Boko Haram had
continued with random bombing of military facilities and other public places,
they could have gotten away with their actions as can be seen from the number
of bombings and the number of citizens they have killed and gotten away with. President
Jonathan has always been seen and described as weak, naïve and unprepared for the
task he was entrusted with by opposition politicians. With the kidnap of the
school girls all that has changed.
The Boko Haram terrorists
went over the edge by kidnapping young innocent school girls. By so doing, they
have internationalized the issue of insurgency and thus freed President
Jonathan, while allowing assistance to flow in from around the world. Women are
protected in all wars. How could anybody not understand that? That is Boko
Haram’s greatest error. In the previous bombings women were killed but those
were considered collateral damages.
Their action against school
girls who were exactly where they should be: in bed at school has turned the
war against themselves. I only pray that President Jonathan should make good
use of this opportunity. He should give the
international coalition the freedom to smoke out all Boko Haram members and
their political and financial backers. He should also make sure that Boko Haram is
no longer a menace to the country and other neighbouring countries.
If this task is positively accomplished,
then President Jonathan can take his place in the history of this country. But
if Jonathan fails in this great test all his former good lucks would evaporate.
He has his chance now, and I wish him every luck.
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