PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan is a victim of
good luck. Therefore, those who are accusing this poor man of classic
incompetence, especially, in restoring Nigeria to the path of glory, are only
being unfair to him. On the other hand, that Jonathan has not even the faintest
idea of how to turn around the compelling tragedies that have become
characteristic of this funny and contradictorily interesting country is no
longer the issue.
What remains to be addressed is how
innocent Nigerians will not suffer unjustly from a president’s sheer
visionlessness. Not that alone, that the president’s paladins of
pleasure-seeking and crocodile tears-shedding lieutenants who, in their
basically selfish nature, are repellently unpresidential in the discharge of
their duties is no longer contestable. Little wonder their principal claims to
be world’s “most criticized president.”
I am not a fan of President Jonathan and I
don’t envy him either. But I honestly pity this president who has been
condemned to searching – and, rightly, too - for solutions to problems he “did
not create.” I pity him because, as a bloody zoologist whose professional
destiny is tied to the kingdom of pests and rodents, dealing with human beings
and their consciousness, especially, under “very sad and unusual
circumstances”, is not as easy and as straightforward as one might conjecture.
What more? Jonathan was obviously
unprepared for higher responsibilities as at the time fate thrust on him the
priceless opportunity of running the affairs of a country as diverse as
Nigeria. Little wonder he continues to behave – and, truly, too – as if he has
something to hide. From economic stagnation, to endemic corruption; from
conditions of rancor, to cultures of violence; from acts of kidnapping, to
out-and-out terrorism; and, certainly, with others still in their various
stages of gestation, much as Jonathan may have to congratulate himself for
providing first-rate government, especially, going by his being Nigeria’s first
doctorate degree holder to occupy the office of the Nigerian president; and the
first Niger Deltan to so do, that Nigeria under his firm grip is headed
somewhere is no longer naysaying. Where dear country is headed or how soon this
tension-soaked fifty something year-old infant is destined to access her fated
destination is what now worries lovers of good governance.
But how did we get here in the first
place? Why has Nigeria become one big racket where people opportunistically
search for charades that only stagger their imagination? How come we are
everywhere but nowhere in particular and why is it that what ordinarily get
others into trouble elsewhere are things that sinisterly amuse our world? Why
is our politics scanty? Why is it rich in crass class opportunism and puerile
religiosity but bereft of the essentials of knowledge, leadership and
togetherness? If politics is a product of “elite consensus which provides the
framework for peace and stability”, why do we play politics only to spite the
polity and why has our system become so bastardized that even those we look up
to as leaders are also apostles of pettiness, artificialities and
superficialities?
As earlier stated, I do not envy Jonathan
because he is a poor student of history. As a Christian, he ought to have
learnt some significant lessons from great kings like Herod the Great (37BC to
4BC), Ahaz the son of Jotham, Ahab the son of Omri; Rehoboam the son of Naamah;
and Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus, the Roman emperor who actively
partook of the Roma-Jewish war of AD66-70: how kingdoms under them fared and
how history credited their era.
As an international figure, lives, times
and travails of rulers who missed one-in-a-lifetime opportunities of having
their names etched in gold ought to have helped him define not only the relationship
between power and powder but also the transience of existence. Napoleon, for
his insatiable lust for power; Joseph Stalin, in whose credit record has the
largest death toll in war history; Pol Pot whose ‘Transformation’ transformed
into disaster; Louis XIV who failed to lead France out of corruption and
economic mess; the-sheep-in-wolf’s-clothing Chiang Kai-shek who embraced
nationalism in the daytime but killed protesters in the nighttime; Franklin
Pierce, for his ineffectiveness and indecisiveness; Richard Nixon, of Watergate
fame; and John Norquist, that American Mayor who failed woefully in mayoral
responsibilities, are some of the world leaders who, for reasons not far from
personal, dared providence, jettisoned the very essence of purposeful
leadership and paid dearly for it. Why did Robert Mugabe start as a “hero in
the minds of many Africans” only to turn into a behemoth in the twilight of his
sojourn on earth? Where is Laurent Desire Kabila and why did Muammar Gaddafi
have to end that way?
As a student of contemporary Nigerian
history, the crafty Yakubu Gowon, the erratic Ibrahim Babangida, the tormenter
Sani Abacha, even the cocky Olusegun Obasanjo, Jonathan’s political lord and
master, are examples of how not to be a hero. An informed Jonathan should have
known that leadership is not only about those who dream dreams but also – and,
in particular, too – those who are able to interpret dreams and actualize
visions; that, but for fate which conferred heroism on Murtala Muhammad,
Muhammadu Buhari and Abdusalami Abubakar, their sins would probably have
remained unforgiving.
In the words of Henry Kissinger, “the task
of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not
been.” In other words, a good leader need not pontificate about Transformation.
Rather, he should be honest, efficient, excitingly futuristic and capable of
creating confidence, especially in the area of developing the leadership
qualities necessary for success. A leader worth his calling does not necessarily
have to “follow where the path may lead.” Rather, he should strive to go “where
there is no path and leave a trail.” In the eyes of a good leader, even “when
nothing is sure, everything is possible.” Not one skilled in the jauntiness of
leadership by permutations and combinations, if a leader once had “no shoes to
wear”, now that he has, he need not limit his interventions to the protracted
tantrums of once being in one’s shoes but must strive to teach others how
to make their own shoes.
One fundamental feature of a weak leader
is (his) woolliness. Another is bewilderment. A weak leader lives in fear and
“always feels like the prey in the jungle”, with “a tendency to cry on other
people's shoulders about how overwhelmed and overloaded they are with work and
responsibilities.” He always strives to avoid differences of opinion or
potential conflicts. Contrariwise, good leaders “understand what is happening,
size up the situation, put themselves in the right position to respond,
prepare, and then act at the proper time.” Unlike weak leaders who “solve the
wrong problems in the wrong way”, good leaders are “sure of their direction and
they act boldly.” And herein lies my fears. So far, Jonathan has not
demonstrated that he is in control or that he is on top of the myriad of
avertible challenges ravaging our landscape. Since he is unsure of whom he is,
he is at a loss on how to successfully steer the ship of the Nigerian state.
Like Bernard Montgomery, we have a president who with displays outright timidity
when aggressiveness is needed; and “too aggressive when caution would have been
more advisable.” In fairness to him, Jonathan may not necessarily be a bad
leader but, like Gunichi Mikawa, he is certainly one with bad timing. That is
why he continues to rock the boat instead of rocking the road.
In his book, ‘Poem for Adults’, Adam Wazyk
wrote: “When the vultures of abstraction pick out our brains, when students are
enclosed in text-books without windows, when language is reduced to thirty
incantations, when the lamp of imagination is extinguished, when good people
from the moon deny us our taste, then truly oblivion is dangerously near."
Let us admit that President Jonathan didn’t create those problems Nigerians now
want him to fix, he is no doubt part of Nigeria’s problems. This he surely
knows! Do we need to say more on his achievements so far in office? Economic
Indices, of course, speak volume. Between May 2011 and May 2012, Nigeria’s
inflation figure rose from 11.3 to 12.9. Though Nigeria is Africa’s biggest
nation and largest source market, she is now ranked 116th out of 156 countries
on the Economic Freedom Index for 2012, a tragic decline from last year’s.
Even, Rwanda, a country that is just smarting out of a genocidal war experience
is freer than dear country. Conveniently, she is now world’s 14th Failed State,
edging out countries like Burundi, East Timor and Democratic Republic of Congo.
As we speak, oil accounts for more than 97% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange
revenues. With over 50% of Nigerians living below poverty line and with over
70% of her population actually living on less than 1dollar per day, Jonathan
presides over 75% illiterates. And, in the village of the blind, one-eyed is
king! Little wonder Nigeria has become such fertile soil for “a few” who
“wallow in unbelievable wealth and spend what should be for all of us so
recklessly.”
Even as Jonathan continues to service the
lifestyles of the principalities and powers that litter and loiter around the
corridors of power, his indifference to the plight of the common man, the
demonstrable wasteful attitude and uncommon hideousness remain unmatched.
Unfortunately, one principal difference between Pharaoh’s Egypt and Jonathan’s
Nigeria is that, in Egypt, Israelites were tortured as strangers – a different
race; but, in our case, Nigerians are colonizing Nigerians. The saddest part is
that, while the president still remains grossly oblivious on how to
successfully govern a country as diverse as Nigeria, efforts are already in top
gear to represent him for re-election, come 2015. And that is where the problem
lies!
Let’s pray this good luck would not turn
into a catastrophe we’ll all have to live with!
May God save us from ourselves!
Komolafe wrote in from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State
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