2011: Beyond Good Luck

President Goodluck Jonathan

By Edward Dibiana
One of the important messages President Goodluck Jonathan has been preaching as he and his energetic campaign team reaches out to the electorate across the nation as the all important April general elections draw near, is a message of politics without bitterness.
Remarkably, at every given point, the President tells his teeming supporters that nobody should engage in any form of violence on his behalf if they mean well for his candidacy or the nation’s democracy.
“I don’t want anybody to kill anybody for me or harm people because of me. Don’t kill for me and don’t kill for my party. Politics is no war and it is not a do-or-die affair”, the President has said in one of his campaign speeches.
This outlook of President Jonathan, the presidential flag bearer of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), reinforces the perception of many Nigerians that the President is a man of great humility, sense of reason and uncommon dedication to rancour-free election, that will give birth to a sustainable democracy in the land. It is a known fact that no nation will achieve any meaningful development where there is no peace in the land.
This amiable mien of President Jonathan, in many ways is a sharp contrast to the personalities of some rival political parties’ candidates who are subtly, but dangerously making inciting comments that have the potentials of pushing some of their supporters into violence, just because these candidates who they look up to, have continued to tell them in uncanny ways, that violence could be an option, especially when they make them believe that rival political parties are “evil”.
This ugly trend of campaigns laced with hate language and sometimes, outright violence against the president’s campaign train, however, have not slowed down the pace or vigour of his massive mobilisation across the nation. While Jonathan and his running mate, Namadi Sambo, are coasting closer to victory through the aggressive campaign and sheer hard work of bringing their message of hope and transformation to millions of their visibly excited supporters around the country, and also through their unique grassroots mobilisation machine, “Neighbour 2 Neighbough”, their rivals in other parties are mostly fixated to questioning the relationship between the name “Goodluck” and purposeful “Leadership”. Many people have attributed the various events in the political life of the President to the playing out of his name “Goodluck”.
While no one would aspire to wear the “toga of bad luck”, one undeniable fact is that Dr. Jonathan is a very likeable person, and that is a veritable quality that in many ways helps leaders to excel, for the mere fact that no hated leader will ever win the confidence and trust of the people.
Dr Jonathan understands the huge responsibilities of leading a complex nation like Nigeria in a time like this. Since he took over power from the Late President Umaru Yar'Adua, the President has kept fate with the pledge he made to the people of Nigeria. His footprints are evident in the way he is tackling the core issues of Nigeria’s economic development. For instance, through his dedicated interventions in the power sector, things are obviously looking up in that key sector that has been epileptic under successive government. Among other steps, the Jonathan administration has embarked on the construction of a 700-kilovolt super transmission grid that is aimed at facilitating the transmission of up to 6,939 megawatts of electricity. This project is to be commissioned next month, April. The Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) under the current government has so far attained 4,000 megawatt of power and this will increase in the coming months.
The perennial scarcity of petroleum products has been permanently checked through the ongoing reforms of that critical economic life wire of the nation. It is to the credit of Jonathan administration that Nigeria’s three refineries are for the first time in many years working simultaneously.
Also, to ensure that there is no disruption in the production of crude oil in the Niger Delta region, Dr. Jonathan’s administration has taken bold and pro-active steps in re-invigorating the Amnesty programme by ensuring that the Amnesty office is well empowered to implement the laudable goals of re -integrating the ex-militants into the society by giving them proper and objective training.
Just last week, hundreds of the ex-militants left for Malaysian universities under the programme. Before this group, several thousands of the ex-militants have received trainings at various institutions on vocations such as pipeline welding, under water welding, ocean diving, crane operation, automobile technology, fish farming and many others.
This track of performance, obviously, is why many people were not surprised when about 22 other political parties adopted President Jonathan as their presidential candidate. According to these parties, the PDP candidate, Dr. Jonathan, has the best manifesto and programme to develop and transform the country to greatness.
*DIBIANA, a Media Practitioner, lives in Abuja.