Jonathan had no shoes... Buhari had no certificates!!!

According to Wikipedia,former President Goodluck Jonathan during his academic pursuit obtained a PhD in Zoology from the University of Port Harcourt. The man whose acumen as an animal specialist could never be in doubt as proven by his foray in the academic world as a lecturer,ventured into politics in 1998 just in time before Nigeria attained democracy. When he decided to run for president in 2011, what endeared many Nigerians to him wasnt his dexterity in zoology, we probably never saw any thesis published by the man in the field, it was the fact that many Nigerians could relate to him and relate to his message. He wasn't per-se a member of the establishment popularly known as "the cabal", for all we know the cabal was very much against his ascendancy as acting president and subsequently president. By some stroke of good luck he had become deputy governor, governor, vice president, acting president, and president within a microscopic space of time by Nigerian political calculations. Not forgetting the possible underground machinations that might have propelled him to such national importance at such a small span of time, it was generally accepted that he was, as his name implied, blessed with goodluck, he had the midas touch, a touch Nigeria also needed. He bore hope for the common man, he told us his story and declared "...I had no shoes...if I could make it, you can make it". There was no stopping him from becoming president, not even the seasoned Rtd General and former head of state, Gen Muhammadu Buhari, with his cult-form  northern block votes of 12 million could stop him. Thus it was, on the 29th of May 2011, Goodluck Ebele, also known as Azikiwe, the son of Jonathan was sworn in as Nigeria's 14th President/Head of state.

Whatever catastrophe that might have occurred in the period of his presidency, it was sad to see that a man who made history as the most loved presidential candidate ever and the first from a minority tribe would also make history four years later as the most insulted president ever and the first incumbent president to lose an election. Sometimes when I think back at the choice Nigerians made in Jonathan at the time and try to ascribe rationality to it, I fail to come to a reliable conclusion. Was it because he performed excellently well during his very brief stint as deputy governor, governor, vice president, acting president, and president; or was it because he was of the ruling PDP? Was it because he was a renowned scholar or was it because of his brilliant ideas to solve Nigeria's? Did Nigerians conclude that the country was more or less a zoo and thus needed a  specialist in the field? Maybe it is because of some mundane reason, perhaps because he had no shoes. Nigerians are known to be very sympathetic, seeing someone who had no shoes in a position where he could buy all the shoes in the world, needing our help to get there, we might have just succumbed to sympathy and given him the mantle. I would not understand the choice until another election year in 2015 and the blossoming of another election season towards 2019.

Ironically it was the Rtd General who Goodluck Jonathan sent to tears with a defeat in 2011 that upstaged him in 2015. The General had rallied his supporters, aligned with other forces  and formed a formidable party. With the unending squabbles in the PDP, the new party APC soon became a force capable of wrestling power from the PDP. Wrestle they surely did, and victory they achieved in a surprising yet convincing manner. By the time the results were being called in and it was apparent the incumbent would lose the election, Jonathan as ever the gentleman called the General to congratulate him and accept defeat. At this point one could conclude that Nigerians were tired of scholarly rhetorics, they were tired of soft mediation to problems, and wanted to fight. They wanted to fight "the cabal" that hijacked Jonathan's government, they wanted to fight corruption( otherwise known as kwaraption), to fight terrorism, to fight elitism, to fight, fight, and fight. Who better to fight your wars for you than a retired military General of high honour, former head of state and incorruptible saviour whose friends themselves are immaculate political juggernauts. By early 2015, even officials in Jonathan's government were already shouting "Sai Baba". At this point the issues bothering Nigerians were not the topic of national discourse, no, not at all, no one is ready for those aristocratic theatrics which tasted of pure hypocrisy,  theological deficacy, and cataclysmic unimportance. Hell, debates were shunned by the APC. The General was accused of not having as small as a secondary school certificate, nobody, at least none in the majority gave a hoot. In popular local street parlance "who certificate epp?", it's Buhari or burn, and when they meant burn, they actually did mean burn. By the end of 2015, Jonathan was counting his losses, economic recession had kicked in and Nigerians would soon begin to know the difference between frying pan and fire. The sad thing about jumping from frying to fire is that one who is not observant enough could hardly tell the difference, they both burned and they both hurt, while some prefer the fire to the pan, others prefer the pan to the fire and very few, a telescopic stellar few recognise that they are both terrible conditions.

The frying pan and fire present Nigerians with a terrible dilemma, we have tried the man with no shoes but many certificates and he has quite rightly failed, we have tried the man with no certificates but many shoes and he has underwhelmed. We are now so used to burns in our skins and pain in our hearts that we don't know what peace, happiness, and freedom feel like anymore, some of us have never known what these were. I, for one, have never known what 24/7/365 electric power supply feels like. Our problems sink deep into the core of our persons and our societies and are intricately intertwined with the very fabric that make up our systems that we can not differentiate them from who we are, what we represent, and what we stand to achieve. Thus, in the table of national discourse our very conversation bothers on elevating self over people, fighting supposed enemies, and appraising medieval achievements. The chagrin of our myopia is such that while others are building flying cars we are studying modalities to effect the production of toothpicks for the first time in our history.

It gets worse than that, but this article is not to elucidate our problems but to offer some sort of sanity in my own little capacity. As 2019 draws near, Nigerians should elect someone who has shoes and has certificates. Someone who has shoes is someone who has a vision,has a destination,and is determined to go there. This is perhaps where Jonathan failed, he after-all had no shoes. Someone who has certificates is someone who has the capacity to achieve his objectives. Academic achievements might not be a yardstick for knowledge, nor success,  but it is a show of excellence, enlightenment, personal development, and modernity; all of which we need to lift Nigeria form the shackles of underdevelopment and failure. A refined combination of someone with shoes and certificates, and a formidable team of political sagacity and aristocratic temerity should do the job for us. This time around we must debate our problems and profer realistic solutions to them. The very need of the common man should be at the center of national discourse. Security, Education, Health, Economy, Infrastructure, Resource control and management, Human capital development, Trade and Investment, Foreign relations, amongst others must take priority in electioneering campaigns with veritable facts and realistic achievable solutions, both short term and long term.

We know however that this would most likely not be the case in 2019. We have seen many elections to be decieved by mere theory, the way Nigerians choose their leaders especially given the limited freedom of choice given to them shows that 2019 might produce once again one of the recycled blokes of the failed generation of leaders in their final years. Elections are not won by achievements nor ideas, they are won by political maneuvering. In fact, Jonathan did not lose 2015 because he was a terrible president, he lost because he was a terrible politician. Only a brilliant politician with shoes and certificates, and a zeal to uplift the nation can help Nigeria.

Our next may not have cap....

Nice & balanced writeup.Nigeria on another threshold of choosing a leader again.Are we going to get it right or continue the viscious cycle? Let's think, decide & act right.

Goodluck Jonathan govt.is currupt Buhari govt is full of kilings