Jonathan in the eyes of Rawlings

[Mirror]

Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, remember him? The archetypal soldier, quintessential revolutionary and former Ghanaian head of state, was in Nigeria recently to deliver a lecture at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. He is a credible elder statesman and news source who suffers no fool gladly. Therefore, his recent views on President Jonathan and his administration is instructive.

Recall that while Rawlings was busy cleansing the Ghanaian Augean stable years back and thus paving the way for the unmistakable all-round progress in Ghana today, his Nigerian counterparts were ceaselessly shouting empty "unity", "unity"; successfully blind-folded us; bastardized our federation and federalism, looted the economy.

The result today is all the problems which ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo tried his best for eight years to solve and which, if the truth must be told, President Goodluck Jonathan has been saddled with. Straddling between these old problems and Boko Haraminduced pervasive insecurity, Jonathan has surprisingly been tackling these problems with visible results, especially in the area of electricity, rail rehabilitation, tertiary education, and roads and airports rehabilitation. His foreign policy has remained unassailable.

In Awka, Rawlings fielded many questions but the one whose answer attracted my attention most had to do with President Jonathan's then unpopular response to the security challenge posed by the Boko Haram insurgency. Rawlings had told the reporters that Jonathan's approach to the matter was in order, because it was in consonance with Nigeria's fledgling democratic order. In an oblique reference to what happened at Odi, and Zaki-Biam, Rawlings wondered whether those criticizing Jonathan for taking no rash action wanted him to tackle Boko Haram in a manner characteristic of military regimes.

The Ghanaian elder statesman advised that Nigeria ought to develop its democracy, capitalizing on Jonathan's approach to leadership. As somebody who did not vote for Jonathan in 2011 owing to what I regarded then as his kid-glove response to the problem of incipient but evident terrorism, I couldn't but be taken aback by Rawlings' baffling commendation of an approach which was overly short of the will to declare instant emergency rule in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.

I did not quite come to terms with the meaning behind Rawlings' stand until recently when President Jonathan finally stunned everyone with what I rather saw as "home-grown emergency rule" in those three states. Why did I associate his action with the so-called "home-grown democracy"— the pet object of some discredited Nigerian leaders of the dim and distant past? Novelty! Notice the innovation: the entire democratic structures, namely executive and legislature in those states were left intact. Not even the crisis-riddled state branch of that contraption that calls itself Africa's biggest political party was sacked.

A selfish president would have exploited this rare opportunity to sack and later replace them with his men. What of those antagonistic governors and legislators? They could have been easily removed too and replaced with stooge administrators who would deliver the states to him in 2015. But we didn't see anything like that.

As Nigerians, we have always blamed our woes, and rightly too, on bad leadership. But there is no way we can encourage good or exemplary leadership except we learn to give kudos to any leader no matter his place of origin when he does well, and skin him alive when he fumbles. The prevailing pullhim- down attitude is not only counterproductive but certainly ridiculous. In any case, whether we admit it or not President Jonathan seems to have noiselessly redefined for us the mantra of "home-grown democracy" and in a way vindicated Rawlings.

Considering the long time it had taken him to weigh available options and arrive at one, it is possible that had he any alternative with a more humane face, he would have certainly avoided emergency rule for its deleterious effects. Quite irrespective of the deafening calls for action, emergency rule, in point of fact, symbolizes one of the appalling tragedies of politics that sometimes in democracies great ends can often be achieved only by means which rob the ends of a great deal of their endearing worth. In the present circumstances, however, one only hopes that our troops would be faithful, as they appear to have so far proved, to the rules of engagement not only because theirs is no foreign assignment, but also for the obvious reason that the whole world is watching us.

This said, it is also important to warn errant politicians in those three states who are mainly to blame for the emergence of the Boko Haram problem. They should make no mistake about it; the President reserves the right to adjust the emergency order in the light of reason, especially to remove any or all of the governors or even clear the state legislatures (based on precedents), should they take anything for granted and continue to behave as if it is still politics as usual.

One lesson seems to stand out and that is that "still water", as they say, "runs deep". The same teeth which Jonathan bares in laughter he might use also to bite. I am beginning to feel that the man is neither the noodle nor the coward some of us thought he was. His visits to Yobe and Borno states, in my view, spoke volumes and the outcome, particularly his Maidugri Declaration, remains a big lesson to the wise.

Nzeakah wrote from Ota, Ogun State

National Mirror