ESSENCE OF GOODLUCK JONATHAN

The outgoing president has done his bit by engendering peace in the polity, argues

Nigeria has just witnessed another dimension of God’s grace through the perfect manifestation of the essence of President Goodluck Jonathan. I have sang canticles and waltzed in thanksgiving to God for His perfect wisdom in making Jonathan President at the time He did and for a time such as this. Hail, Hail President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, a vessel chosen by God to engender peace and progress in Nigeria in a time like this. What the president did by ensuring the conduct of a free and fair election, conceding defeat and congratulating the President-Elect, General Muhammadu Buhari is alien to our politics. It is not in the character of African leaders, but here we are.

In appreciation, President Barack Obama had reportedly remarked that “President Jonathan placed his country’s interest first by conceding the election and congratulating President-Elect Buhari in victory’’, while the Founder of African Leadership Prize, Mo Ibrahim enthused that “today, we Africans are all proud of Nigeria and President Jonathan. Thank you Mr President. If you are looking for a legacy, you have definitely achieved it’’.

For those, including some clerics, whose past time has been Jonathan bashing and who often compared him with former President, Olusegun Obasanjo who they believe was a better president because of his bulldozing posturing; this is the time to pause, listen and think deep and thank God for the person and nature of President Jonathan. It would have been easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for Chief Obasanjo to do what President Jonathan just did. Not with his big ego. And I mean no disrespect. Chief Obasanjo, from the onset would not have even allowed the opposition to coalesce. In his characteristic manner he would have used chicanery and deployed his presidential powers to hammer the arrowheads of the opposition and disintegrate them. But not so with President Jonathan who gave the opposition their space to thrive as a result of which Nigeria’s democracy has gained momentum.

In an article captioned “The Paradox of President Jonathan’’ which was published in the Sun of August 9, 2014, I wrote among other things that “the essence of President Jonathan appears lost to many especially when compared with his predecessor, Chief Obasanjo’’. I further wrote that “God ordains leaders of different types in different dispensations for different purposes, though the general essence of leadership may be to protect the sovereign integrity and galvanise state resources to engender prosperity.’’ I concluded that “President Jonathan was pre-destined to promote the ethic of one man, one vote, conduct of free and fair election and demonstrate politics without bitterness, executive rascality and blood shed’’.

However, I knew since 2013, by divine revelation that President Jonathan was not going to return a second term and I wrote about it twice. First, was in an article titled ‘Signs of the Times’ which was published in the Sun newspaper of Monday, January 27, 2014 (interested readers may have to google Signs of the Times). And the second was in an article captioned “Insight to Jonathan and Buhari’s Contest’’ which was published also in Saturday Sun of January 24, 2014.

I had a vision in 2013 wherein I saw the president and two of his aides and a few other men seated in a court room, with an unknown man seated as a presiding judge. At a point, President Jonathan conferred with one of his aides, stood up and poured himself a larger beer in a mug and gulped it and immediately thereafter, he fell on the floor. I concluded there is a very high probability he would not return a second term.

Arize Nwobu

My take is that he fell because he took a faulty decision to contest election for a second term which was not God’s perfect will for him, especially after he agreed , according to Chief Obasanjo, to serve for just one term after serving the remaining two years of late President Umaru Yar’Adua. By breaching the agreement and deciding to contest, President Jonathan attempted to reach out for what was apportioned to the North by agreement. And he was goaded on by aides, his kinsmen, hangers-on and various shades of interested parties who cited his constitutional right as a basis, laced with sentiment. But they forgot that God has no respect for sentiment. He respects faith. And He will be by you if you do right.

I believe it was as a result of the above that God allowed judgment against the president and negative things which swayed public opinion against him started happening in concatenation- the massacre of school children, scandalous abduction of more than 200 girls from Chibok under our nose without the wimpiest resistance from our security forces, the Sanusi saga and Stellar Odua’s BMW scandal, both of which fuelled the cry of rampart corruption, fall in oil price and devaluation of the naira at a critical election period. All these and other such odds aggregated and became potent weapons of campaign in the hands of the opposition. And they used them most effectively in sustained strategic communication which put the ruling party, PDP, perpetually on the defensive until their wall collapsed.

But notwithstanding that President Jonathan lost, it should not be bemoaned. And none should gloat. All things allowed or done by God are good. But if we are wise, we should learn. Hail, Hail President Jonathan, our next hero of democracy next to late Chief M.K.O. Abiola.

I also wrote in another article which was published in Government newspaper, a weekly publication of the Abuja-based Leadership newspaper, of January 5, 2013, that “my vision of futurity for Nigeria is that 2015 shall be the threshold of our liberation from ourselves towards building a better country’’. Nigeria is now on a crescendo and threshold of breaking forth to true greatness. As Buhari takes the baton of leadership he should appreciate the spiritual dynamics of the time. His faith and tenacity has carried him thus far, but it must be recalled that his spirit ‘fainted’ as he got drowned in his frustrations after three unsuccessful attempts. He publicly declared he would not contest again. But I extolled his virtues in an article titled “Nigeria: The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born’’, a title I borrowed from the book The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born by a Ghanaian author, Kweh Ayi Armah where he used metaphors to paint a picture of aggravated corruption in Ghana before the coming of Jerry Rawlings. In my article which was published in Sun newspaper of April 26, 2013, I wrote among other things, that “presently, there are two known persons who have the force of will and right spirit needed to root out, pull down, build and plant a new and prosperous Nigeria without fear or compromise if given the mandate. They are 1.) General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), love him or hate him, and 2.) Professor Dora Akunyili’’ (now late). I also mentioned Babatunde Fashola and Adams Oshiomhole, but my stake was more on Buhari. Whether the article helped in persuading him to change his mind, or it gave a clue to his promoters, I don’t know.

However, thereafter, my perception and admiration for Buhari began to wane after I researched some of his utterances which are inflammable, divisive and unpatriotic. My humble advice to the president-elect is that, for the love of country, now that he has found what he has been looking for, he should purge himself of any element of residual anger, nepotism and religious bigotry which have tended to trail his personality.

Rev. Nwobu is a sociologist, journalist and public affairs analyst