The fall of Jonathan and the lessons not yet learnt

Post 1



Femi: Jonathan’s loss at the poll is a good thing for our democracy
Ebiere: Why?

Femi: Do you know what it means for a sitting president in Nigeria to be unseated in a democracy. This is unprecedented. It will deepen our democracy.
Ebiere: Ahaha. I laugh in Ijaw
Femi: Why are you laughing like a drunk?

Ebiere: I am laughing because you’ve spoken too soon. I don’t think that you really understand the implication of what has happened.
Femi: Explain yourself.

Ebiere: Ok. Now granted that Jonathan was a leadership disaster, a man that it won’t have been strange if you heard from his mouth:
...... the government should do something about the situation .
However, I believe that we should discuss this with as much objectivity as possible.
Femi: Uhmm .. Good that you agree that Jonathan was a disaster.


Ebiere: I said leadership disaster, and I said that for a reason. He practically outsourced leadership to committees and folks around him. His constant alibi was that Obama said we need strong institutions and not strong leaders . The same Obama soon learnt to be a strong leader and got irritated by Jonathan.
Femi: Abeg, I no fit argue just make your point make I do go house.

Post 2

Ebiere: Ok, back to the topic. I am afraid for the future of southern Nigeria.
Femi: Don’t tell me that you are one of those ethnic and religious bigots. Look, what we need in Nigeria are leaders that can perform irrespective of tribe or creed.

Ebiere: Yes, I agree with this, especially in a perfect union. But that my friend is the challenge. We are not a perfect union. I don’t know about you, how you grew up, but for me and those around me, even in childhood we learnt anger from our elders.

Ebiere: The anger was that they lived and grew up in a Nigeria were no matter how smart they were, or how hard they worked, when it was the season for harvest, they were bypassed and appointments given to the core north, especially the Muslim part.

Ebiere: We learnt that the next in line were the others from the core north and the middle belt. Then the Muslim Yorubas (who in turn nicely looked out for their non-Muslim Yoruba brethren) before the rest of country were left to fight for the crumbs.In their world as it then was, those from disadvantaged tribes rose to the top by having the ability to betray their own.

Ebiere: When MKO was denied the presidency, my elders rose up and also encouraged us their children to join the Yorubas in the fight. Their fight was not necessarily because they loved MKO –after all, we were hardly under the influence of the media domiciled in the southwest, but because to us, MKO was a glaring embodiment of the way we had been cheated in the past by what they (our elders) perceived as the core north.

Post 3

Femi: Uhmm, I am beginning to see your point..but guy Jonathan was just too bad naw
Ebiere: Yes we know, and believe it or not we are somehow happy that just the way that John the Baptist fell for Jesus to expand, Jonathan had to also fall for Buhari not Babangida or Atiku to emerge
Femi: ehehehe!! That a new one. The John the Baptist of Otoueke. But seriously, so what is the problem naw?


Ebiere: We have mixed feelings. Bitter sweet feelings
Ebiere: We wonder what would have been, if an Alhaji Jonathan was from the core North with all his weakness. Would there ever have been a Boko Haram this strong -a Boko haram that is suddenly losing its suicidal steam with the emergence of a core Northerner as president?

Ebiere: We wonder if for example a southern Obasanjo president had died mid-term, if an Atiku could have been so blackmailed to stick to one term by the southerners? We wonder what would have been, if a clueless Alhaji Jonathan from the PDP was running against a honest APC’s Deacon Buhari from the south.
Ebiere: Just imagine this for a second.

Ebiere: Imagine who amongst these two would be stoned, and where he would be stoned. Imagine if a large number of the electorate from the core north would be bothered about all this plenty analysis wen we dey do for social media and then vote for Deacon Buhari.

Ebiere: We wonder if your votes were simply anti-Jonathan or anti-SS/SE or pro-southwest etc.
Ebiere: We wonder what your views would have been if a Southern PDP Jonathan was running against a Northern APC Babangida, Atiku or Yerima.
Ebiere: We wonder a lot of things. The message from the electorate in the core north is very clear, but the message coming from your my brothers is very mixed

Post 4


Femi: But we need change, and remember we’ve now learnt that our votes can bring about change.

Ebiere: Yes, we need change, but there is a crucial lesson here. Nigerian elites have learnt and reinforced that when you are a minority you can be bullied out of a position no matter how powerful that position is. Maybe it’s because of such lessons learnt from the past that facilitated the easy changing of the Igbo senate presidents by Obasanjo for ‘credible sounding’ reasons, whereas it was hard to push out the Speakers of the house from the core North.

Femi: Guy you are confusing me. Are you now saying that we should reward incompetency with our votes.
Ebiere: No way. Please forget my other rigmaroles. It was me being emotional and making us understand that in the process of killing a fly perched on our scrotum we swiped too hard and killed the fly as well as hurt our scrotum.

Ebiere: In essence, what I am saying is that our democracy is yet to have the deepening you earlier alluded to. Perhaps, when a core northerner has had his 2nd term bid truncated, only then would I agree and say yes, the Nigerian democracy is deepening real good, and devoid of religious and ethnic sentiments