GEJ no doubt rewrote history, choosing not to go all "Gbagbo" on us, not going all "OBJ" and finally not being "A pharaoh of his time", not requiring a Moses and Aaron or GMB and Osinbajo to subdue him, he let the people choose, and they chose not him.
The real Pharaoh could learn a thing or two from GEJ.
GEJ is certainly a Niche carver, in that you can’t really liken his story to that of any other; he started shoeless, became a deputy in various ramifications, graduated miraculously to become a head and gloriously vacated, with his head held high.
If there's something I love about history, it is it's unpredictably repetitive nature, no wonder the phrase "History Repeats Itself" is thrown around whenever an occurrence of Déjà vu is felt; history also only makes sense looking back, the lines connect themselves looking backwards in time, then, and only then can one really figure out the significance of events, and what a "good" a somewhat "bad" event delivered in the future.
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Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) and General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB) are men whose historical narratives only started intertwining in 2011, for GMB was up against 3 opponents in his race to the presidency and GEJ happens to be the last one, whom GMB overcame after 3previous limp attempts.
But this narrative has been sort of "on repeat" in all of the world's media, Nigeria's especially, we've all gotten Bamboozled by the narrative of the 3 time failure, who attempts to run for the 4th time, and now got 4th time lucky.
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Many have associated his resilience to that of the Great American president, Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln was faced with defeat throughout his life. He lost eight(8) elections, twice failed in business and suffered a nervous breakdown.
He could have quit many times - but he didn't and because he didn't quit, he became one of the greatest presidents in American History.
Another one of our own, whom the 'People's General" has gotten compared to is Nelson Mandela, I wouldn't go through his lengthy history only worthy of a book; but in summary, he too showed resilience through difficulty, or as it can be best said:
"Came out of Prison and went Straight to become the president".
GEJ on the other hand, carved a niche of his own in Nigerian history, his meteoric rise from being a shoeless son of a canoe maker in the poor creeks of Nigeria's Niger delta region, to becoming a president, after struggle and hardwork, I feel his story is yet to be rivaled, at least in my short term non-history-inclined memory.
Not to mention his impeccable luck, associated with his firstname, which has grown into an urban-Legend Joke in every household; A joke of a Boy so lucky that he went from being a constant deputy, only to succeed his usually incapacitated or impeached boss, a punch line is how "everything came crashing after his assumption of the highest office in Nigeria", perhaps even the extremely lucky suffers from the law of diminishing returns.
He's been compared to Nebuchadnezzar, the cruel biblical figure by no other than Nigeria's "world" renowned Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, who stopped taking a liking of the lucky GEJ.
GEJ has been called all sorts of names across the spectrum of name calling, ranging from being a messiah(by those who are paid to whitewash his image) to being liken to the Pharaoh during Moses' times.
Thinking about the parallels to draw from GEJ and Pharaoh yields little to no story fit for narrative writing, not until his nemesis is brought into the story, a Moses whose role fits GMB in almost all likeness, This Thrilled me!
For Moses rose from among the poor, suffering and slaving masses of the children of Israel under Egyptian king, the fearsome Pharaoh, so did GMB, or so did he, as his marketers have us believe.
He arose with his broom, akin to Moses' staff, and strove for the emancipation of the Nigerian poor masses.
He started off in a pompous lifestyle, rising up to the highest office, after a Military Coup in 1983, somewhat similar to Moses' growing up in Pharaoh's household; Moses calling came after he exiled himself from Egypt after striking an opponent, only to kill him, same can be said of GMB, in two instances in fact, the first of which being the counter coup which ousted him in 1984, the second of which is his alleged role in the 2011 post election violence both events almost culminating in GMB's Exile from Nigerian Politics.
GMB's 1983 coup, and his misinterpreted call to "Violence", his "crimes", became a "propaganda slingshot" his rivals used against him, just as Moses' crime became a propaganda piece, pharaoh used against him in their first meeting.
It gets even more interesting, if you begin drawing Miraculous Parallels, Moses’ most important being the Parting of the Sea to allow the children of Israel to escape the painful grasp of Pharaoh;
GMB can be said to do almost similar, he parted a sea of unrepentant 'mafia' which pillaged Nigeria for 16 grim-full years, the PDP. Miracles nobody could have foreseen 10 years previously, but which makes sense looking back from today.
A Moses story is incomplete without mentions of the plagues and God's Hardening of Pharaoh's heart;
GMB first sought to emancipate the Nigerian people from the clenches of the PDP in 2003, akin to Moses' first cry of "Let My People GO!" which followed the first of the popular plagues, in GMB's case a plague being an OBJ presidency characterized by- Stealing, witch-hunting, violence and even more looting.
Of course, OBJ(The First Of GMB ''Pharaoh's")'s heart got hardened, rigging the 2003 and 2007 elections and refusing to acknowledge GMB's "Let my people GO! " pleas.
GMB's plea against GEJ in 2011 resulted in the worst of all plagues, the Boko Haram menace, resulting in the death and destruction of so many innocents, Just like Moses' final plea lead to the worst of all plagues, Moses was asked to stop the plagues i.e. got blamed for the plagues by pharaoh, so did GMB, who's been smeared so badly with accusations of the “Boko Haram Plague” and extremism that he's had to require a priestly presence behind him, to dispel any of such claims.
Just like Moses' had his Brother Aaron, a well spoken priest, respected by all the children of Israel.
GMB got in his party, two Priestly figures, first in the image of Pastor Tunde Bakare, and then the Suave Prof. Rev. Yemi Osinbanjo- a well articulate Senior Advocate of Nigeria(SAN), So similar to Moses' Priestly right hand man, Aaron.
GMB Even seems very reserved due to his very own impediment of speech, like unto Moses', whom people referred to as a stammer, but I limit myself to the complex term "Speech Impediment", which Aaron, the Priestly figurehead remedied for Moses, just as Pastors Osinbajo and Tunde Bakare seemed to do for GMB.
As we laid still, after witnessing the final showdown between GMB and GEJ the last few days, we saw something done by GEJ which made him so unlike "Pharaoh in his final showdown and utter demise against Moses"; GEJ Let the Nigerian Israelites GO!
So unlike pharaoh was GEJ, even after God hardened his heart to break his promise of not running in the just concluded election, that he ran and conceded, letting the Nigerian Israelites choose, at the same time, God also directed GMB's Heart, making him contest one more time, breaking his earlier promise of not running again after 2011, his burning bush, in reference to Moses’ Burning bush encounter with God Just outside of Midian .
This Concludes our imperfect recapturing of Moses' and Pharaoh's story in our times, reaffirming the saying that "For Every Pharaoh, God raises a Moses";
It raises a question in my inquisitive but limited mind, "What if the Real Pharaoh conceded and let the children of Israel GO?".
History would have gotten rewritten, placing Pharaoh Right next to Moses in sacrificing for his people; Pharaoh would have been a rightly guided ruler of Egypt, excluding the Israelites.
GEJ no doubt rewrote history, choosing not to go all "Gbagbo" on us, not going all "OBJ" and finally not being "A pharaoh of his time", not requiring a Moses and Aaron or GMB and Osinbajo to subdue him, he let the people choose, and they chose not him.
The real Pharaoh could learn a thing or two from GEJ.
GEJ is certainly a Niche carver, in that you can’t really liken his story to that of any other; he started shoeless, became a deputy in various ramifications, graduated miraculously to become a head and gloriously vacated, with his head held high.
History would never remember him as the messianic-Nebuchadnezzar-cum-Pharaoh, rather, he would be known as the one who rewrote Nigeria's History, the softly Spoken GEJ.
"The Pharaoh that got Away".
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