The voice from the wilderness....
Posted by John Okiyi Kalu | 10 years ago | 2,910 times
The voice from the wilderness....
"John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, "I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way for the Lord.'"-John 1:23
Sometimes I wonder how easy it is to hypnotize people into thinking in a particular way because of our personal inclinations.
Not a few of people I know have told me how they believe Amaechi will get APC ticket and Jonathan will not run. One of them even swore that he is sure Jonathan won't run. May be his pastor told him that so I won't argue. But like it is written in the Bible, we need to test all spirits. May be the pastor is possessed of the spirit of self gain or like Balaam under pressure to curse when he was supposed to bless.
But don't people truly think it is insulting to the north to imagine that they will sacrifice CPC, ANPP and endure an uncomfortable political alliance with Tinubu just to ensure that another South South man emerges President in 2015? Please if you were in their shoes will you do same thing? May be these choir masters really think northerners are daft.
Not that I won't be happy if Amaechi gets APC presidential ticket but I didn't anchor my analytic skills on conjectures and psychotropic drugs induced dreams about an utopian state of behaviour where suddenly everyone becomes a "nationalist" and ethnicity is wiped off completely overnight. Like one of the analysts I like always says; there is a difference between real politics and ideal politics. Establishing the ideal, like excellence, is the desirable destination but also an endless journey. America cannot claim to have established the ideal after what happened in 2004 at Florida to ensure George Bush's re-election. Not even Obama's election in 2008 achieved political excellence in American democratic system that is centuries old.
In any case, the same reasons why you want Amaechi to be president are exactly the same reasons the conservatives in the north wouldn't want to have him as President. They don't want independent minded persons that they can't put a leash on. Each time they clap for Amaechi for abusing Jonathan they record it against same Amaechi as a negative. Simply put, the oligarchs can use Amaechi to negotiate with Jonathan but will rather have a "weak and clueless" Jonathan as President than a James Bond like character that they don't know when he will jump off a monorail and turn against them. Instead of Amaechi, they will rather negotiate with Jonathan and position for 2019. The signs are already emerging and all the grandstanding we are witnessing are ‘negotiation in progress’. Once they have their deal on thrashing of national conference resolutions, marginal oil fields license renewal in 2016 and favourable census figures in 2016, they will queue behind Jonathan.
It is really as simple as that.
In any case, I marvel at the warped reasoning of those dreaming Amaechi's presidential ticket. Obviously those are people who either see Northerners as fools or believe that ethnicity has been eradicated by Jonathan from Nigeria. Let me ask: if you are the north will you risk Amaechi's 8 years as against Jonathan's 4 years? Even if Amaechi swears an oath with his life, will you believe he will serve only your interest for only 4 years and hand back power to you "jejeli"? Na burukutu you drink? Have you not heard of political safety nets?
You must be smoking something to believe that the north will take such a risk. Possibly janjaweeds.
My personal worry is that Amaechi has fallen into same Odili trap that he previously condemned and tried to remedy in 2007. He was part and parcel of the Odili presidential misadventure that cost Rivers people billions of money that could have been used to develop the state. Odili was everywhere in the north donating to this emir or the other and virtually became "donor in chief" of the Federal Republic. All manner of NGOs, political groups and even family associations emerged daily to "chop the man mugu". But when the chips were down everything entered voicemail and Odili returned empty handed to PH with a "K-legged" Amaechi in tow. It was Amaechi's role in that "Odili for President" campaign that made Nuhu Ribadu to produce the wonderful one man "indictment panel report" that finished off Odili and also made Obasanjo call Amaechi K-legged man. Have we forgotten so soon?
My teacher actually told me that the only thing man has learned from history is that man never learns from history.
Do these Amaechi social media choir masters actually learn from history? Even Amaechi himself has embarked on the same journey of visiting one emir or another, driving El Rufai as taxi driver and behaving generally like a man being chased by a god that is intent on making him mad to destroy this great administrator. A normally frugal Amaechi even appears to be opening the cash vaults to fund elections in far away Ekiti, Osun, Anambra with sundry town criers masquerading as "activists" in tow. Media owners and overlords are making kills from Amaechi and somehow continue to manage to keep him in the news daily. Same pattern with Odili misadventure. What does Amaechi want? Same presidency that ruined Odili, his mentor, and left him with only one enduring legacy of ensuring the emergence of an Ikwerre born governor of Rivers State? That to me is a repeat error and like M I Okpara said; “first fool no be fool, second fool na proper foolish man”
If Amaechi completes his tenure, hand over to Magnus Abei as Governor, and retires to Ubima he will be a hero of Rivers people because he did well as an administrator. The model schools and roads will bear testimony to his abilities. But if he continues to dream Nigerian Presidency or even Vice Presidency, I will suggest he begins now to study Chief Odili's current political loneliness and degradation. It will be his lot from 2015 unless he listens to people like me. If you ask me, at best I see him becoming a social critic after 2015, if he does not retrace his steps.
For the Amaechi Facebook choir masters, do you guys really look back in time before you embark on ministering sweet music to our collective oga? Are you sure you love him or just want to use him like Odili was used? Have you forgotten that the reason you vowed to hate Jonathan for life was simply because you believe he truncated zoning by refusing to hand power back to the north after the death of Late Yar Adua? Remember that you almost convinced us that it was unjust to allow a southerner continue when "it is the turn of the North". And yet you are jumping about with "Amaechi after Jonathan" and even dream it as the best for Nigeria. You have now found new words and phrases to support your position like "credible", "patriot", "lion", "best man", "detribalized" etc. Yet those same words and phrases meant nothing to you when Jonathan took over from Yaradua in 2011. Lekwa uwa gi (see your life).
May be I should help drive this point home to you: Amaechi for President is one and same with Wike for Rivers Governorship. Of course many of you know how disdainful I feel about the idea of Wike succeeding Amaechi when the Ogonis are yet to produce Rivers Governor. In my view that's drug induced hallucination. The same applies to Amaechi succeeding Jonathan in 2015 or 2019. If for any reason Jonathan declines to run in 2015 surely he will not be succeeded by someone from the South South. Even if the person is advertised as "Nigeria's messiah".
If really Oga Chibuike wants to maintain a presence at Abuja, he should take up the senatorial seat he denied Wike in 2011. It will at least allow him to remain at Abuja and drive El Rufai and others to SSS as at when due. (Nobody can bet against another SSS invitation for Alhaji Rufai given his oral diarrhoea that makes him vomit words that are at the borderline of treason). Alternatively, Amaechi can work quietly to get the Vice Presidential ticket of his new party, APC. But he must realize that Tinubu didn't spend his resources and burnt bridges so that one Rotimi will "come and chop" and give him crumbs from the presidential table. More importantly, early runners that are not incumbents get nothing from the Nigerian political cake baking factory. He will only make himself a cheap target that must be pulled down by his rivals. If his Facebook choir masters are observant they would have noticed that each time they introduce the idea of his presidency (or even VP) their northern and western Janjaweed allies start speaking in tongues. They know that Amaechi can only remain “the boy is good” as long as he helps to realize the unspoken reason for formation of APC Janjaweed Party-to return power to the North at all cost and by all means.
I strongly suggest that Amaechi's choir boys refocus and push the candidacy of Magnus Abe for Rivers Governor and Amaechi for Senate with same vigour and energy they are wasting on an utopian dream whose time has not come in Nigeria. If at the end of the day APC survives till 2015 there is a fair chance that the party might shortlist him alongside Tinubu, Okorocha and Fayemi for VP slot. That shouldn't cost Rivers tax payers so much and won't need Oga over playing this "I am loyal sir" game.
Let those who have ear hear what the voice from the wilderness has said.....I am still loyal sir.
JOK 25/8/14
Last Line:
For those still asking President Jonathan not to contest, I leave you with the words of my political teacher as published in the Sun of 18/8/14.
“Well, if you were in his (Jonathan) shoes, won’t you want to come back if you are there? If you believe in what you are doing, and you are doing well, why shouldn’t you? I think we once got it right, and we can still get it right, and you guys have to get it right.
“I think what is lacking is what I have always referred to as voter education, the level of understanding, the level of belief are still below what we expect. For instance, if you (the journalist) were elected as the governor of your state today, you should be able to take a survey of whether people like you because you are doing well, but they may not like you because you are not fulfilling the promises you made to them.
“The only means is for the people to be patient and at the time of next election, the leader gets voted out. So, we have not reached the stage where the ordinary voter would say no, as a matter of fact, their leaders have not done well, let us vote them out. Once you do that, I think in the next dispensation, somebody else would come in and I really hope we would reach that stage where ideas are the main issues, not which zone should produce X, Y, Z positions. I think this is still part of the little problems that we are facing.”-Ex Military President IBB
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