Who did Jonathan Offend?!

Who did Jonathan Offend?

Where I come from, if things are not going very well for you, then you must have offended someone who has a 'strong head' or some powerful forces. Jonathan's term is less than a year but has attracted so much chaos and condemnation, so I analysed from that crude mindset and I figured he must have offended somebody or a very powerful force indeed. The interesting thing I found was that this theory worked, Jonathan has indeed offended a powerful force- Nigerians. Interestingly, this is quite unexpected because Nigerians seldom get angry. It's a break from the norm, a drastic turnaround. Nigerians are angry! Nigerians are known to be a happy people, 'suffering and smiling' is the popular phrase by which we describe ourselves.

So what went wrong,or rather, what went right? How did Jonathan manage to make Nigerians angry? It turns out it wasn't him afterall, it was the timing. Nigerians have swelled up so much and they're almost at the point of bursting. So its the wrong time for anyone, even 'Goodluck' to mess up. Around the time we were preparing for the 2011 elections, Nigerians dared to hope for change. We were surprisingly interested in the elections, looking out for someone who was truly interested in Nigeria and 'the masses' (as we refer to the 80% who live below poverty line). Unfortunately for Jonathan, they chose him. For the first time in a long while, Nigerians truly believed in someone. More than they believed in the man, they believed in his name. You see, Nigerians are highly superstitious. A person who is named Goodluck, therefore can bring us nothing but good luck. Now you would think that this belief would only be popular amongst the uneducated, but I remember clearly the words of a learned friend of mine 'The opposite of goodluck is badluck'. Implying that any other candidate apart from 'Goodluck' would bring badluck to Nigeria.

Another inherent feature of Nigerians is that we hardly trust people, its too risky. Everyone (sometimes including yourself) is a suspect. Other than the name though, there's another core reason why Nigerians believed in Goodluck Jonathan. He had a humble beginning. He had been part of 'the struggle', he understood lack and deprivation to an extent; he had no shoes during his schooldays so he walked barefoot to school. Many Nigerians connected to him on this level, they felt this one would definitely treat us fairer, that he would be different from the others. The elections had Nigerians of various age groups and class pouring out in their millions to vote for their 'messiah', Goodluck Jonathan. Even though the elections were still not totally free and fair (come on, this is Nigeria where only an utter fool puts all his eggs in one basket), I dare say Jonathan had an 80% chance of emerging the President anyway. People overlooked the evil umbrella of PDP and actually said things like “It’s the man and not the party that matters”.

This is why Nigerians are angry! Goodluck Ebele Jonathan turned out not to be the messiah they thought and sought. In fact he is turning out to be the exact opposite. He has betrayed their trust, made a fool out of them. It’s like entering into a relationship with someone and you think you finally found your soul mate but the person turns out to be worse than your ex. It seems like every action this supposed 'Nigerian messiah'  takes frustrates the Nigerian people the more.  Rather than come up with reasonable possible solutions for pressing issues, our dear President Jonathan would rather throw up some distraction with his famous 'announcements'; pretending to be relevant by clinging to irrelevant issues. The latest of these is the change of name from University of Lagos to Moshood Abiola University. If I were Abiola, I'd rather he took after me in good deeds than force my name upon an institution that doesn't want it. With giant problems such as terrorism, poverty, lack of basic infrastructure, terrible governance and the increasingly thriving inflation, one wonders how the conversion of Unilag to MAUL would bring any consolation to the Nigerian people.
This anger manifested itself in the popular protest which occurred in January after the president's insensitive announcement of the removal of subsidy (which I believe is non-existent anyway) on the first day of a new year. If not for NLC and TUC who as usual "reasoned with the Federal government", maybe once and for all Nigerians would have rid themselves of the kind of government who imposes inconsequential and agonizing laws on the people. We learnt a great message from that though; the NLC & TUC are not big and bold enough to represent all Nigerians.

We have to find our own voice and make it heard. There will be a next time, and this time the likes of NLC and TUC will not be influential enough to suppress either our voice or our anger. Like the saying goes, "He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day".