President Jonathan has taken on the leadership
of our country at a make or break it time of historic proportions. He
faces not one, but dozens of crisis, each big enough to define any
presidency.
As luck, fate or divine grace would have it
(depending on one’s personal theology) Jonathan is blessedly, dare I say
uniquely, well-suited to our dire circumstance,
Jonathan is a person with hands-on-experience, deep connections to top
advisers from the renowned universities in Nigeria being a former
university lecturer, and a middle-class background that gives him an
abiding knowledgeable empathy with the rest of us. As the son of poor
parents, who worked his way up with merit and brains in three giant
political steps, the state office, the national office and now the
presidency, Jonathan clearly has the wit and drive to lead.
Jonathan is the sober voice of reason at a time of unreason. He is the
fellow keeping his head while all around him are panicking. He is the
healing presence at a time of national division and strife. He is also
new enough to the political process that he doesn’t suffer from the
terminally jaded cynicism, the seen-it-all-before syndrome afflicting
most politicians in Nigeria. In that regard Nigerians lucked out, as
though having despaired of our political process, we picked a name from
the phone book to lead us, and that person turned out to be the very man
we needed.
Jonathan brings a healing and uplifting spiritual
quality to our politics at the very time when our worst enemy is fear.
Fearless Jonathan is the cure, he speaks a litany of hope rather than
terror.
As we watch Jonathan respond in a quiet reasoned
manner to crisis after crisis, in both the way he has responded after
being attacked and lied about, to his reasoned response to our multiply
national crisis, what we see is the spirit of a trusted family doctor
with great bedside manners. Jonathan is perfectly suited to hold our
hand and lead us through some very tough times. Panic is not entertained
by the President. Jonathan brings a moral clarity to his leadership
reserved for those who have had to work for everything they have gotten
and had to do twice as well as the person standing next to them because
of whom they are and where they come from. His experience of succeeding
in spite of his social background could have been embittering or one
that fostered a spiritual rebirth of forgiveness.
Speaking as a
believing Nigerian, I see the hand of a merciful God in Jonathan’s
presidency. The biblical metaphors abound, “The stone the builders
rejected has become the corner stone”… “The last shall be come first”…
“He that must gain his life must first lose it”… “The meek shall inherit
the earth”. For my secular of friends, I will allow that we may have
just been extraordinarily lucky! Either way Nigeria wins.
Only a brilliant man, with the spirit of a preacher and the humble heart of a kind family doctor can lead us now.
WE are afraid; WE are out of ideas, and worst of all WE are out of
hope. Jonathan is the cure and WE have it in us to rise to the occasion
and WE will. We are in one of the most frightening periods of Nigerian
history. Our country is faced with uncertainty, but I believe we will
shine because we have a great leader.
One hundred years from
now Jonathan’s portrait will be placed next to that of Obafemi Awolowo,
Nnamdi Azikiwe, King Jaja of Opobo, Ahmadu Bello, Nana of Itsekiri, etc.
for taking those strides to move this great country forward.
As Gejites, we believe in the man Jonathan, we are those who back him,
fight for him and sacrifice for a cause greater than ourselves.
In time, we will tell our children and grand-children that WE stepped
out in faith and supported a man who stood up and led our country back
from the brink of the Abyss. We will tell them about the power of love,
faith and hope. We will tell them about the power of creativity combined
with humility and intellectual brilliance. We will tell them that WE
stood up and pitched in and won the day. That President Jonathan gave us
the gift of regaining our faith in our country and restored our
standing in the world. We will note that by the time he left office our
schools were restored to higher standards, our economy booming.
We will tell our generations, because of President Jonathan’s example
and leadership the integrity of the family was restored, families were
cared for through compassionate social programs that worked, that he
restored the middle-class, we won heath care for all, and how crime was
greatly reduced securing the lives and property of those who live in
this country.
President Jonathan continues to work hard to
restore the honour, dignity and integrity of the common man, and for
this WE salute you sir.
Signed
Gejites
Remy, Kenechukwu, Ibrahim, Magbaja
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