Buhari and Jonathan: Character as destiny
AMIDST the many thoughts and emotions that
crowded my mind when it became apparent that Maj-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari was well
on his way to defeating President Goodluck Jonathan, the word “character” kept
asserting itself. Puzzling this little conundrum, I soon discovered why.
Character had been the organising concept for my endorsement and advocacy for
Buhari. - See more at:
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I had said as much
without elaboration in three columns: “Buhari: Beyond Tribal, Religious and
Ideological Fallacies” (14 January); “A FeBuhari Wind of Change in March” (11
February); and “For a Second War Against Indiscipline—After Voting for Change
on the 28th” (25 March). In private conversations, however, I had articulated
this framing idea, which, I must add, goes beyond the fact of my membership,
and futile bid to be a Representative under the platform, of the All
Progressives Congress.
Sometime in late February, I visited a friend of mine in
Abuja who heads a major federal department in the power sector. There were
about three others in his commodious office and before long, the conversation
turned to the rescheduled presidential election. My friend’s sympathies,
naturally, were with his boss. He was surprised that despite Jonathan’s many
achievements — the power sector he was appointed to oversee as a case in point
— and Buhari’s heavy baggage lugged from his stint as a military dictator, the
odds seemed to be against Jonathan.
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Just when he was about to blame poor communication for
Jonathan’s seemingly dismal prospects, I interjected. Anyone seeking to
understand the dynamics of this election, I opined, would be making a mistake
by looking to the conventional indices of achievement, though even there the
Transformation Ambassadors’ claims far exceeded any objective assessment. The
soul of the nation has been mortally wounded by the cumulative assault on it by
poor leadership, military or civilian, especially in the last 16 years of
impunity, institutionalised corruption and lack of a clear vision to lead the
country out of its ethico-political predicament, I said.
My argument was that whenever a society was faced by a
serious threat to it score values and dignity, such abstract ideals as freedom,
liberty, equality, democracy or self-determination, etc., trump mundane matters
of bread and butter as the inspiration for struggle and change. Nigeria, I
said, is yearning for a person of character and integrity to take charge of its
affairs and restore a modicum of decency.
And Buhari was perceived as a man of character,
exemplified by his quasi-ascetic lifestyle. In a country being eaten alive by
corruption, you looked at him and were impressed that despite having been at
the most lucrative posts for self-enrichment—military governor, federal
commissioner of petroleum resources, chairman of the Petroleum Trust and
Development Fund, and head of state—he is not a billionaire, not even a
multi-millionaire.
Consequently, even the very trait used to paint him as an
incorrigible dictator became the shining colour of his character: his stern,
no-nonsense demeanour that would lead him to launch his infamous war against
indiscipline, his unmitigated aversion to official graft to the extreme of
trying to smuggle home from the United Kingdom to face trial for embezzlement a
scion of the Northern oligarchy, UmaruDikko.
It was proof that he would chase corruption and the
corrupt to the ends of the world. He presented a clear contrast to a president
whose only show of mettle is the shocking defiance “I don’t give a damn” when
urged to publicly declare his assets so he might earn the moral authority to fight
corruption, not to mention the sophistry of distinguishing between stealing and
corruption.
I had also touched on an implicit aspect of character
byadding that one of Jonathan’s greatest undoings is that he lost the
“intellectual class.””Character is destiny,” said the Greek philosopher
Heraclitus. A variant translation from the original Greek has it as “One’s
bearing shapes one’s fate.”Any intellectual not in the pay of the government or
who did not harbour the expectation of being called to “come and chop” couldn’t
fail to beprofoundlydisappointment by the bearing of a purported member of the
fold. Whether reading from a script or speakingex tempore, what hit you was a
palpable lack of rigour, the absence of a mind attuned to the range and
complexity of the problems he addressed. It led to the unflattering perception
of the leader of the most strategically important black nation on earth as a
man of dour, uninspiring personality without enough wattage to light a candle.
Mild-mannered was the euphemism often employed by the
foreign media. Ironically enough,it is this insipid attribute that accounts for
the unanticipated yet unsurprising glory of Jonathan in defeat. What better
illustration of the notion of character as destiny can there be than that in being
true to his mild-mannered nature, Jonathan should promptly concede victory,
thereby denying his kinsmen who threatened war if he was not elected any
opportunity for calamitous mischief? I join in praising him. By one single act
of statesmanship, Jonathan has managed to include a brilliant footnote in an
otherwise lacklustre six-year record as president.
The great German playwright and moral philosopher, Bertolt
Brecht, was right after all: in the contradiction lies the hope—or, as my
teacher and older comrade, Professor BiodunJeyifo prefers it, Contradictions
are our only hope! This, at any rate, applies equally to the man of the moment,
President-elect MuhammaduBuhari.
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The
most important time is now to become that which you ought to be. That which you
taught you can never be, maybe do to the way you see yourself. But the truth is
that you are more than capable to do it.
Let not
anything stand in the way of your success. Do away with anything that seems to
be a barrier in your life. Make a resolution today about those issues that draw
you back. It might be a habit, or something you are addicted to, that seems so
right to you. It can be “food, laziness, failure, lack of confidence, inferiority
complex etc”.
