I Stand with my President When I voted President Goodluck Jonathan, I knew it was not going to be a smooth sail. I knew he lacked the experience to surf the turbulent waters before him and I knew his amiable character and inexperience would be taken advantage of by the big sharks who were born, nurtured and suckled in the cradle of Nigerian politics. Above all, I knew if he emerged President many self-acclaimed blue bloods would not be happy and would raise a finger. But I voted him because it was a break from the long chain of the dynastic politicians that had ruled Nigeria from the eve of independence. I knew it was going to be a treacherous road for him and for Nigeria but I knew it was the only way to freedom. I also knew that the many years of systemic corruption and misadministration may overwhelm him along the way but I also knew Goodluck Jonathan becoming president would finally prove that Aso Rock was not an exclusive reserve of people born in a particular region or certain families. I knew the journey would be tough and even tougher for a man without shoes but I knew it was a journey that would translate into freedom for my children, long after I’m gone. I may not have envisioned the level of carnage we are currently facing as part of the price to pay for my decision to vote him but I knew that those that belonged to the dynasty would not let go without a fight. I knew those that felt Aso Rock was built for them, their children and friends will hardly find the idea of a ‘shoeless’ stranger occupying the palace palatable. I knew they would give a strong fight. I didn’t just know they would go this extreme. I understand the frustration of many with the President. He has demonstrated nothing extra ordinary in tackling the security situation. He seems completely overwhelmed and perhaps he really is. To prove his incapacity to protect Nigerians from terror, he has been begging for foreign intervention and recently ran to Paris to get France to help. Hours later, he came back to a country ravaged by the inferno of terrorism even more clueless. Apart from his unassertive posture, the man is also guilty of apathy. Several weeks on, he is yet to visit Chibok and moments after an explosion killed and cremated nearly 100 Nigerians in Nyaya he was televised dancing at a political rally in Kano. Along with many Nigerians, I’m outraged and frustrated by all these. But my frustration has not stolen my head, I still own it and I intend to make use of it now more than ever. The difference between a terrorist and an armed robber is that in the case of an armed robber the victim is the target or end but in the case of a terrorist the victim is a means to an end. Chibok girls were not abducted primarily for their sake, the mass abduction was staged to shock, inflict fear, cause division, frustrate and usher in anarchy. It was done chiefly to expose the vulnerability of Nigerians, how weak and unable security authorities are and ultimately how out of control the government of the day is. If these are goals on the agenda of our assailants, and I assure you they are judging by their showoff on video, you will agree they have recorded feats of success in their terror campaign. Nigerians have lost confidence in not only the President, but our existence as a socio-political entity. There are calls for separation from all quarters. Pained and disillusioned and short of words we have even enlisted the support of foreign newsvendors to help us coin words to describe the ineptness of our President. CNN, BBC and their ilk are doing a good job at it. Our case and the name of our President is a comic relief in the secret recesses of Western congresses. To me, more than the violence, these are the indices that prove Boko Haram is really having its way. Winning the war for an insurgent group is not how many people it can kill, it’s how many people it can get to lose confidence in the system, the President, security forces and all other institutions to the extent of calling for the balkanization of the country like some people are trumpeting or calling for a military takeover like I saw some doing on social media. Salman Rushdie said the best way to fight terror is not to be terrorized. By not being terrorized Rushdie doesn’t mean not mourning our deaths and getting angry at the system that seem to allow terror thrive, the writer means understanding the terrorist’s chief goal of inflicting and spreading fear and making sure that fear does not rule our lives or inform our decision. If Oduduwa or Biafra or the Middle Belt or Northern Nigeria will have their independent states let be so. But let it not be motivated by fear. Let it be the result of a free consensual decision by the people. For fear will forever remain on the shores of human dwellings and will Oduduwa further break if the shadows of fear converge against it in its future as an independent nation? Even if we have to go our separate ways, let it not be on the terms of Boko Haram or their sponsors. Let it be a free decision, not compelled. The heaps of blame and insults directed at President Goodluck Jonathan over the last few weeks have failed to educe solutions to our security problem. The indignation and outrage from different quarters have not elicited any form of ingenuity from the Commander-in Chief’s head. If anything, the public affront on his person has only seemed to make him and his aides more clueless and unassertive and the terrorists more daring. Clearly, it is time to explore another path. It is time to shift from blame-trading. It is time to proffer solutions. President Goodluck Jonathan is in a particularly very difficult situation. I assure you that any person would be overwhelmed in Goodluck’s newly bought shoes. Let’s think. When the Japanese poured sulfur on Pearl Harbour, the next day an America that was hitherto hesitant in taking up arms against Germany and its allies became united behind President Roosevelt and joined in the war. And the US made very considerable contributions to the Allied Forces finally bringing Hitler’s vision to its knees. Without the support of America, and the hundreds of thousands of young Americans of all races that conscripted into the US army after the Pearl Harbour incursion, Roosevelt would have seemed like a weak President in the eye of a security storm. Again, when the twin towers fell, George W. Bush made his formal declaration of War Against Terrorism and the entire US, and perhaps much of the global north and their friends in the south, was behind him. Without this massive support Bush wouldn’t have recorded any major victory against al-Qaeda or even protect the lives of Americans on the homeland. In these two instances, there were few dissenting voices against the decision to go to war among the citizens, politicians and lawmakers especially from rival parties but no doubt the majority of the country was behind the President. In Goodluck’s case, even those that fought for him at the polls are now very skeptical about his prospects and have withdrawn their support. They have joined in the clamour for his head, for justifiable reasons. He is alone with a retinue of advisers who are a branded product of a society long corrupted where everyone seeks only his interest. I pity his situation. I know a President in Nigeria is very different from a President in the US. Yes. But one of the reasons why there is a major difference between theirs and ours is because in our case some politicians have promised to make Nigeria ungovernable for the President. In their case, even rival politicians have reined in support to make US as governable as possible for the President. How so different? I’m sure Mr. Obama would have been in big trouble and as clueless as our Goodluck if Senator McCain, Bush, Cheney and other republican stalwarts were to use their connections to make the country ungovernable for him. In our case, most of our country’s archenemies are former military strongmen still holding absolute loyalty from their boys in active service, armed with vast financial resources and unbeatable political machinery. They are people that can do and undo without leaving the comfort of their living rooms. Fighting terrorism is not as linear as many of us would want to think it. It is not about deploying armed troops alone. It is a very knotty task that demands full and thoughtful cooperation from all quarters, across agencies and institutions. Members of the public are very important because they can make the fight successful or skew the efforts of authorities. In our case, security agencies have over the decades steadily lost the confidence of the public. There are cases of civilians informing Boko Haram on soldiers. This is very unhelpful to any counterterrorism measures. Mutual suspicion and animosity along religious boundaries are ingrained. This is also bad for counterterrorism. Corruption is rife. This is crippling. Soldiers at the battlefront are poorly equipped and motivated because funds are syphoned at the top. Upon all this, the army is not free of saboteurs. These are doubly disadvantageous to any fight against terror. All these are due to many years of apathy on the side of successive leaders and complacency on the part of Nigerians. I’m very annoyed with Goodluck because he has not done anything meaningful to show disgust for corruption. I understand his fears and timidity moving from a shoeless boy to state government house and soon to occupy the country’s topmost position. A very swift movement that prepared him very little for the task ahead. But time has come for President Goodluck Jonathan to shed all manifestations of timidity and assume the stance of a firm and decisive leader or ruler if you like. This is the time for him to dare the devil and do the politically unthinkable. I bet that if he visits some few ‘untouchables’ with justice the message will begin to sink. Moved by the carnage so far carried out, and the flowing tears of poor Nigerians, he must forget every other thing including his political adventures and use the short time he still has in Abuja to reach for the jugular of the enemies of Nigeria. It is now or never. All those that have made pronouncements that Nigeria would not know peace should be rounded up and made to explain themselves. Generals and peasants alike, the ax of justice must strike at any one found to be in the enemy camp. In and out of government, governor or clerk, those whose names have been associated with the insurgents should be duly interrogated and dealt with if found wanting. Dismissing saboteurs from the army or other security formations alone is not a wise punishment. After dismissal they must be held in custody and thoroughly interrogated with no stone left unturned to get to the bottom of what role they actually played and who their pay masters are. Let them say if a coup or some kind of takeover is in the offing and all the mayhem is simply to justify it. Goodluck Jonathan was someone many people, especially the downtrodden, thought could be the long awaited messiah but his disposition these days on TV or anywhere else is that of a victim. On my part, I never expected he would be a messiah. But I did all I could as an individual to make sure he graced the presidential palace. For seeing him there meant anyone could be there. And if anyone could be there, then I’m sure a messiah or even a chain of messiahs are on the way. All this fight is to make sure that an ‘uninitiated’ like Goodluck does not ever come near the corridors of power. So don’t lose your head, you need it now more than never. The war is not against Goodluck as a person, but against all those deemed by some few as regionally unfit or by some familial status too unkempt to command the affairs of our country. Finally, I write with deep pain for the souls that perished yesterday in my beloved Jos, Kano the day before and the thousands before them and of course the plight of the young girls who have been five weeks in captivity. For the dead, may their journey through eternity be more pleasant than their last moments here on earth. And may their blood summon God’s justice upon the architects of this great evil and in all these, may Nigerians unite across ethnic nationalities, political affiliation and religious backgrounds to stand up and say enough! After all said and done, I still stand with my President.
Posted on: Wed, 21 May 2014 11:43:04 +0000
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