My Name Is Goodluck, I Sleep With Patience

By Dafe Ivwurie

Few people are as lucky as Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. The only other person I can think of in modern political history, who has had the opportunity of a good fortune is Barack Obama. If Obama was the renegade that broke all the rules about American politics leading him to win the biggest prize in politics, then Jonathan is a study in how we can be predestined by our names, in fact, a study in what some Pentecostal preachers refer to a ‘sweat-less’ struggle in the attainment of your goals in life. I am not even sure that being president of the most populous black nation on earth was part of what Jonathan wanted in life.

The comparison between Jonathan and Obama probably stops at breaking a particular set of rules that makes the politics of both countries notorious and closely monitored around the world. While Barack Obama fought hard and long, with hundreds of speeches and town hall meetings to impress Americans, defeating political institutions in the process, Goodluck Jonathan can hardly be pinned down to any sociopolitical and economic ideology whether they be adopted, propounded or redefined by him.

Before becoming the president of Nigeria, he had in almost similar circumstance been the governor of Bayelsa State when Diepreye Alamieyeseigha was deposed because of allegations of corruption. He was a loyal deputy governor then, just as he was a loyal vice president to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. When the late president became incapacitated, Jonathan patiently waited for the National Assembly to bend the rules on the altar of political expediency to provide a leeway for him to act as president after so much agitation by the civil society and eminent Nigerians. And now he is president because the president died. How lucky can a man get in a lifetime!

It has been said that President Goodluck Jonathan is a very patient man. I guess the only thing to be when you are Goodluck is be patient and watch your good fortunes unfold. On top of that, he went and married Patience for a wife. When you sleep with patience (pun intended here, please) it does not take long for you to eat the good of the land.

In time, Jonathan will find out that Nigerians are not as patient as he is. They cannot be patient with unemployment rising, the unsolved power problem, the apprehensions over credible elections, the security situation and a lot more.

Aspiring to and attaining the highest office in any country, especially Nigeria, should not be based on any sentiments – ethnic, religious and certainly not on any astrological permutation and dependence on the bad fortunes of others, it must be earned by presidential candidates espousing their core beliefs to the electorates. Jonathan has said he will continue with the Seven-point Agenda of his former boss. Three years into the presidency of Yar’Adua before his sad demise, it is difficult to hold on to any concrete achievement on any of the key performance indicators he set for himself.

I am particularly wary that very soon the President’s aides will begin to talk about how it is difficult to achieve anything in just one year and how Jonathan should be allowed to run in 2011. I do not think that anything other than the Peoples Democratic Party ,PDP, (because of their zoning policy) stops Jonathan from contesting the presidency. If he gets the PDP ticket then it will be a very interesting election to watch. It will be interesting because we will have an opportunity to grill him on a number of issues. Furthermore, if credible candidates come up, it will be quite intriguing to note how he fairs in a national debate. I am also sure that a lot of Nigerians will want to know how he would allow the PDP machinery to work for him or otherwise.

He runs the risk of being accused of getting to Aso Rock on the back of an incredible election just like the one supervised by Maurice Iwu and stage-managed by Olusegun Obasanjo, if he runs and wins. The best option is for the President to play the role of a statesman; lay down the framework for and deliver free, fair and credible elections that will usher in a government that will be respected by everyone including the international community.

Nigeria does not need and does not deserve a sick president. Neither does Nigeria deserve a president that emerges from some kind of political arrangement. I expect the political class to be more circumspect this time around and not allow anybody to have an overbearing influence on what affects our collective destiny.

The UK elections has just ended with Gordon Brown resigning as head of the Labour Party and invariably as prime minister, giving way for David Cameron, the leader of the opposition Conservatives, to form a government with Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats. The beauty of elections in the UK and America, especially, is the focus on the economy, internal security and foreign policy, not necessarily in that order. I hope that for once since the departure of the Awos, the Ziks and the Balewas, Nigerian politicians will take Nigeria seriously. We have been ruled for too long by sentiments and it has only gotten us this far.

By the way, does anybody know the names of Goodluck and Patience’s children? I hope they are not Longsuffering, Tolerance and Contentment? In any case, I’d rather Jubilee in this 50th year of Nigeria’s independence.