Nigeria: A Nation Of Goodluck

By Gimba Kakanda
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan may be a good private citizen. I
think Ihave seen his types. But "good" and "luck" are not enough to
lead a country, especially one that reeks of ethno-religious and
regional monstrosities.
GEJ appears like one of those unfamiliar countrymen you can cornerat a
bar to enjoy an innocent chat around life, politics and, perhaps,
zoology. I see him as that person chosen as deputy by his former
bosses or political kingmakers in considerations of his subservience –
which is actually written, and ever deceptively worn, on his face.
Goodluck is a child of "providence", one of those whose history could
excite the largely religious Nigerians. But, he's practically
unprepared for what "providence" has taken to him. He is like me and
you, ordinary citizens who have no definable ideology on the way to
lead anything beyond the size of our families. A Goodluck is
accurately a man who happens to be in the right place at the right
time. A Goodluck is an opportunist, a political opportunist. Goodlucks
have found themselves on our corridors of power ever since we embarked
on this misadventure through Independence. Goodlucks were not forced
on us by God, they are miscalculated variables from sentimental
permutations of political opportunisms.
And so expecting a miracle from an opportunist who found himself in
power through sentiments and the customary corruptions is an absolute
misuse of our senses. The trouble with opportunists is not only
because they are unprepared, but because they lack what I'd call the
constitutional ruthlessness to stand by their ideologies, and the
honesty to implement a popular policy which may not favour the
parasitic elite around them. GEJ couldn't be principally honest
because he was almost planted there. When you electa man who has no
professed policies, be ready for the confusion and cluelessness being
experienced in Nigeria today. An unprepared leader only needs a week
of pillow talks with his wife and executive meetings with sycophantic
aides to acquire the special abilities to befriend corrupt public
officers, disregard the plights of the masses and perpetuate a reign
of failed promises. It is not the years spent in politics that
grounded a politician's ideas, it is the genuineness of his
intentions. The world had seen how Nelson Mandela, a man with no past
in political administrations, came to power and calmed a raging South
Africa. Only a patriot with professed policies can save a nation, but
where are ours?
The Nigerian patriots are hypocrites lost in the wind of public
intellectionsand social crusades. Our hypocrisy breeds the Goodlucks
misusing our resources today. GEJ, like his predecessor the late
President UmaruMusa Yar'adua, is a tragedy that happens in a country
where politics isseen merely as a game of the crooks, and the
loud-mouthed advocates of change scamper on being challenged to show
us their leadership qualities. There are two categories of followers
among the Nigerian Goodlucks: the Informed and the Gullible.
Membership of both categories comprised the good and the bad
clamouring for change, without necessarily following the code of
pragmatic effects. The Informed Followers category comprised the
intellectuals who propound political theories and analyse the system,
and the change advocates who are largelythe social crusaders, members
of civil societies, and the apolitical bourgeoisie who engage
government policies to demand for a fair and transparent
administration. The Gullible Followers, on the other hand, are the
politically naïve masses who rely on the elite and are ever influenced
by these moneyed citizensto take a side. They are gullible, and
dangerous!
While the informed followers are responsible for the institutional
collapse of Nigeria and the emergences of Goodlucks, we're in this
political mess also because of thegullibility of the larger masses who
are easily played by politicians, who have no sense of their rights at
all, who think that their representatives are actually being
philanthropic. Theirsins are almost as unforgivable as those of the
informed followers who wear garbs of self-righteousness in their
academia, air-conditioned offices and under their
"lead-us-well"placards, reviewing governments after governments and
protesting policies. These citizens deliberately keep themselves away
from participation in politics and political appointments because it's
a den of the crooks. To the intellectuals, the country is simply an
ideological laboratory to test their political theories and build a
library of polemics, and the activists form synergies with donor
organisations intheir dramatised campaigns for good leadership.
Despite the fact that previously apolitical Goodlucks, like the Reuben
Abatis who have shown us their indignity, betrayed their propositions
for a functional Nigeria, ateam of patriots with professed policies
can indeed recue Nigeria.And time is not on our side. This is a time
for increased political scheming, a moment for the Goodlucks to come
together and contribute to this challenge of nationhood. Our campaigns
now should not be just to oust the leaders of this ideologically evil
party that have turned every sector of Nigeria into a mess, but also
to have a progressive opposition whose blueprints for Nigeria fit into
our demands, and which also has principled individuals ready to work
for change. Thankfully, the proposed merger of opposition political
parties to form the frustrated All Progressive Party may turn Nigeria
into an unofficial two-party State. The process so far is a pathway to
depression; it's clearly a chaos of the progressive pilferers and the
conservative criminals. May God save us from us!
- Gimba Kakanda
Kakanda maintains a Friday column for the Abuja-based Blueprint Newspapers.
@gimbakakanda (On Twitter)