President Jonathan as metaphor of human destiny By KAYODE KETEFE "If I could make it, you too can make it" is a statement used by President Goodluck Jonathan in one of his political campaigns on television to highlight the incongruity between his humble beginning and the incredibly elevated status he has assumed. Here is a man who in the early part of his life could, by his self confession, not afford ordinary sandals to wear to school, being too poor to own a pair! Yet he is now the President and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the most populous black nation on earth. But if poverty alone is the odd that militated against the unusual ascendancy of this man, it would not have been so remarkable, for many of the world richest and successful people have shared similar or even worse stories of great deprivations and misery at some points in their lives. What made Jonathan's case singular are seemingly miraculous ways he surmounted the plethora of formidable odds fate had placed in his paths. His life unfurls continuously in manners that mock all human calculations and strategies, as if following some scripts authored by the divinities. To start with, Jonathan by virtue of his birth belonged to a minority segment of the variegated Nigerian population. And not just a class of the usual minorities but a putative exploited, despoiled and deprived portion of the said peoples. Being neither a Hausa, Yoruba nor Igbo, if any soothsayer had prophesied years ago that this obscure boy from Otueke village in the small state of Bayelsa, would rule Nigeria under a democratic dispensation, pundits who knew their onions of the Nigeria's political set up would simply tell the seer to go and throw his crystal ball into the Atlantic Ocean and search for a better way to earn a living. The staggering odds Jonathan overcame may not be obvious to somebody not knowledgeable in the eccentricities of our political tradition. But we all know what obtains here. Ours, to be candid, is not a land of equal opportunities, rights and freedoms where the likes of obscure quantity like Barrack Obama would emerge merely on the strength of human hope and determination. The demographic configurations of Nigeria are so permanently lopsided, by design, that it would take something akin to miracle to make anybody outside the "favoured circle" to emerge as president. If you are not among the big ethnic groups of Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo, your chance is exceedingly slim. Even among the so-called big ethnic nationalities, the politics of "some animals are more equal than others" prevails. The system makes it inauspicious for just anybody to come into the power equation But the Jonathan phenomenon has, inexplicably, become a gale that blows away all questionable traditions; all hail "Hurricane" Jonathan! We first got to know him as unobtrusive Deputy-Governor of Bayelsa State in the tenure of the then Diespreye Alamieyeseigha. When Alamieyeseigha was removed from office over corruption, Jonathan became the substantive Governor. It was from this position he was nominated to be the Vice-President under late Sheu Yar'adua who died in Office, paving way for him to become once again a substantive President. When he exhausted Yar'Adua's unfinished tenure, he now contested and has just won in his own right. To those who believe in destiny, Jonathan's circuitous political journey would not but strike them as guided by some divine ordinance. And to those who see the concept of predestination as nothing but an advanced form of superstition, the emergence of our president would nevertheless appear exceedingly remarkable. Jonathan seems to have changed the political topography of Nigeria; he has procured an unprecedented power shift from the North to South. What we used to have was a powerful political bloc in the North making condescending overtures to some elements in the South in order to gain ascendancy, but now we witnessed an electorally monolithic South making some forays into the North to obtain the requisite national spread with a view to acquire central power. Be that as it may, the preamble to the 1999 Constitution states, among other things, that "Nigeria is an indivisible, indissoluble sovereign nation" but 50 years after independence, Nigeria is still essentially polarised along ethnic and religious lines. If Lord Lugard were to be resurrected from his grave and shown the voting patterns in the last presidential election-how it was, save for few exceptions, neatly dichotomised into the North/South ethno-religious divides-he would be ashamed he amalgamated the Northern and Southern Protectorates in 1914. Not much has been achieved in the area of genuine integration of our peoples; we still have a long way to go to foster a true nationhood. |
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
No comments:
Post a Comment