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A disease called Goodluckraitis

March 24, 2010
Following Goodluck Jonathan’s elevation to the office of acting president, I have noticed a growing and troubling trend among a certain group of his supporters. Members of this group of love-the-Catholic-Church-more-than-the-Pope type of supporters have, in replies to often legitimate criticisms of the acting president, been too willing to launch vociferous and acerbic attacks against those who have, for good reason, refused to be infected with goodluckraitis, a disease that robs its sufferers of their memories and the ability to learn from the past without being stuck in it while looking to the future with hope.
They have accused the acting president's critics of being  Yar Adua's paid agents, mercenaries and other names not worth printing. The offence committed by these critics and doubters is that they have dared to be reasonable in a land where reason is fast becoming an essential commodity by being circumscribed in their expectations of the acting president because of his existing record.
 
These critics and doubters love Nigeria too. They love Nigeria as much as those who are willing to curse, intimidate and maybe kill in the name of supporting the acting president. These critics and doubters support the acting president because they support the Constitution of Nigeria, despite its flaws. These critics and doubters want Goodluck Jonathan or whoever leads the country to succeed because they are concerned about the consequences of his failure. They want Goodluck Jonathan to succeed because they want to be able to claim their Nigerian identity with greater pride. They want all these for the acting president and the country despite the inkling that Goodluck Jonathan may not be better than or cleaner than the PDP environment that produced him and these critics sincerely hope they are wrong for the good of the country.     
 
I am old enough to know that there exist in politics instances of leaders who after playing critical roles or holding important positions in illegal, corrupt or oppressive governments eventually turn around to correct the evils they participated in creating or sustaining. Two of those people will suffice for the purpose of this article and they are Frederik De Klerk of South Africa and Murtala Mohammed of Nigeria. Frederik De Klerk was an important member of the National Party (later changed to New National Party) of South Africa for decades. De Klerk who was first elected on National Party’s platform in 1969 went on to hold several ministerial positions. De Klerk had a history of being a staunch supporter of apartheid and its policies. However, his transformation began in the mid-eighties when he joined the Enlightened group that was seeking to end apartheid in the face of crippling international sanctions. He replaced P.W. Botha as the president of South Africa in 1989, and formally began the process of dismantling the apartheid system that he played a crucial role in sustaining. The rest is now history.
 
Closer home, we have the case of the late Murtala Mohammed who was an important member of the Yakubu Gowon government for nine full years, including holding ministerial positions. Those who argue that he was not always anti-corruption and a disciplinarian cite the civil war period looting of the Central Bank Nigeria Benin City branch by forces under his control. But by the time he took over the reigns of power on July 29, 1975 after the overthrow Yakubu Gowon, he charted a different course. He became very concerned with the havoc the twin evils of corruption and indiscipline were wreaking on the nation. We all know what followed. I admit that our ability to pass a comprehensive judgment on Murtala Mohammed is limited by the Dimka coup of February 13, 1976 in which he lost his life. But he is entitled to a judgment on the facts that existed at the time of his death. Goodluck Jonathan, the acting president may very well join this league of leaders who “saw the light” after ascending to the highest office in the land and worked hard to undo the wrongs they helped in creating or sustaining. But he is not there yet. Until the acting president creates a new profile, Nigerians must judge him based on his current profile. I think to do otherwise will be a disservice to the nation.
 
Below are the some salient points of Goodluck Jonathan’s existing record: despite being a civil servant all his life with total life-time (including his positions as deputy governor and later governor) earnings of less than N40,000.000.00, using the most generous estimate, now acting president Goodluck Jonathan declared assets worth N295,304.420 in August 2007; despite doubts about the truthfulness of the asset declaration and that he may actually be hiding billions, many Nigerians wonder how a civil servant could have accumulated that much wealth from his salary alone; it is this same Goodluck Jonathan that is now the acting president who teamed up with Diepreye Alamieyeseigha to massively rig the Bayelsa state gubernatorial elections in 1999 and 2003; it is this same Goodluck Jonathan that is now the acting president who teamed up with Yar Adua to massively rig the 2007 presidential elections;  Goodluck Jonathan was accused of looting billions from the coffers of Bayelsa state to support the 2007 Yar Adua/Jonathan presidential ticket, an accusation that he has not denied and one that an auditor is yet to clear him of; Goodluck Jonathan’s wife was charged with corruption and money laundering to the tune of $16 million dollars by the Nuhu Ribadu led EFCC and the charges remain outstanding in court as at the time of this article. One would expect that if these charges were spurious and “politically motivated”, the wife’s lawyer’s would have brought a motion to have the case quashed by now; the Goodluck Jonathan Nigerians know is the Goodluck Jonathan who used his position as the vice president of Nigeria to stall the trial of his wife and her associates for  corruption and money laundering;  Goodluck Jonathan has found comfort in a party that many Nigerians will not touch with a 100 foot pole despite that party being the occupant of the driver’s seat of the bandwagon of corruption that is threatening to obliterate the entity known as Nigeria; Goodluck Jonathan was and continues to be a member of a government that lied to and took millions of Nigerians for a ride by pretending to be engaged in the investigation of those involved in the Siemens and Halliburton scandals when there was actually no investigation and they were only playing for time. 
 
 
Goodluck Jonathan’s supporters who curse, swear and attempt to intimidate those who criticize or doubt the sincerity, abilities and willingness of the acting president to rescue the country from the abyss have recently suffered from selective amnesia by conveniently feigning ignorance of the above facts about the acting president. Lacking in the ability or willingness to provide factual or empirical rebuttals to the criticisms against the acting president, members of this group take refuge in the now worn out cliché of accusing his critics of suffering from the pull him down (PHD) syndrome. This group of Nigerians is entitled to inflict as much violence as they want on their memories and psyche but they have no right to do the same to others who have refused to partake in this orgy of self-inflicted amnesia. This group of Goodluck Jonathan supporters would want Nigerians to forthwith forget all of the above transgressions of the acting president and judge him based on the fact that he removed the notorious Michael Aondoakaa as attorney-general and dissolved the cabinet. Not so quickly the critics and doubters will say. As praise worthy as the above acts maybe, it is not yet uhuru.  
 
 
It may come to pass and for the good and love of the country I personally hope that it does come to pass that the acting president is able to amass an outstanding record of performance in office such as will compel his critics or doubters to overlook his past transgressions. But that has not happened and will not happen because he sacked Michael Aondoakaa or dissolved the cabinet. It is going to take a lot more than these two acts. Until the acting president achieves a record that will overshadow his past, it is an unavoidable requirement of logical reasoning, induction and deduction that Nigerians rely on his existing record in passing judgment on him while at the same time hoping that, like Frederik De Klerk and Murtala Mohammed, he will turn a new leaf upon mounting the saddle and work tirelessly in supervising the destruction of the evils that are stopping this great country from achieving its potentials. We are where we are today because Olusegun Obasanjo made claim to clairvoyance and stubbornly refused to rely on Yar'Adua’s record in judging him fit for the rigors of the presidency.

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