I Pity Mr. President

By Chukwudi OHIRI

Sometimes, I sit in my little closet pondering on the demands of leadership, having been in that position myself at a lower level for decades by dint of sheer providence just like our dear President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. I shrug at myself and at many ‘selfless leaders’ especially when I realize that it is hardly possible to please everybody and yet, a good leader must do what he must do not minding the vituperations that must come from the opposition.

President Jonathan is one of such people I pity most when I discover that any of his actions or inactions elicit reactions that are mostly negative from the critics. Even when they are tempted to give him some accolades, it is usually shrouded in such dialectics that tend to rather credit some external factors instead. An analogy of a homily delivered by Rev. Fr. Francis Ike on one fateful Holy Thursday Mass aptly captures the picture I intend to paint of Mr. President’s dilemma.

On that fateful Holy Thursday evening, the church was filled to the brim as usual for the day’s celebration to mark the beginning of the Easter Tridum. Holy Thursday is a very significant day among Catholics all over the world. Apart from marking the anniversary of the institution of the Holy Eucharist, Holy Thursday is a day set aside to remember the Roman Catholic priesthood and so the homily of that day is usually phased, one tilting towards the functions and character of a typical priest.

                The Parish was Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church Aguda and ministering on that day were about four priests including Rev. Fr. Jude Anyaehie, the Parish priest of the church, his Assistant then, Rev. Fr. Philip Sosu Mobee and two other priests including Rev. Fr. Francis Ike, a visiting, though indigenous priest of the Parish. The homily of Fr. Ike was one of the most touching homilies I had heard to the point that the entire church could not but release a tumultuous applause as he dropped the microphone (a practice that is not ideally customary with Catholicism).

                Of a Catholic priest, Fr. Ike said, if he starts the mass a few minutes after the scheduled time, the parishioners will complain that he does not keep to time. He is too fond of starting the mass late and so he must be a lazy priest. He has neither wife nor children so what excuse does he have to give for starting the mass late? When he starts the mass a little before the scheduled time, they will complain that he lacks sense of keeping appointments. “Is the mass not scheduled for 9:00am, why must he start before 9,” the parishioners will complain. If he starts the mass at exactly the scheduled time, the late comers would still complain that he is too officious and high handed. He should have given a few minutes grace knowing full well about the traffic situation in Lagos.

                When the priest takes much time in his homily, the parishioners would complain that he wastes so much time and talks a lot. Does he think that long sermons will make people to repent? Doesn’t he know of the saying that ‘a word is enough for the wise? But when the homily is very short, they still complain that the priest does not know what to say anymore. He needs to prepare his homilies well in advance so that he can know what to tell the people.

                If the priest is the very social type who mingles with the parishioners very freely and playfully, people would complain that he is a worldly or canal priest who does not respect his position as an oracle of God. When he is the reclusive type, some people will complain that he is too proud and so full of himself. “He must be a pretender that thinks himself holier than thou,” they say.

                If the priest gives any lady a ‘lift’, then he must be a womanizer. Why must it be a woman? If it were a man, he wouldn’t stop. But when the priest refuses to stop for somebody on the way, then they tag him a selfish person who does not want to help anybody.

If the priest is the type that quotes extensively from the bible during his sermons, some will complain that he is turning the Catholic Church into Pentecostal but when he never makes reference to any scriptural passage, some others will still complain that he does not know the word of God. He must be lazy in studying the word. Rev. Fr. Ike gave much more examples that at the end, he called on the people of God to always pray for their priests because the task and challenges of priesthood is quite enormous. The plight of President Jonathan is no different from the above scenario. A few instances of this will suffice to buttress this point even as I do not in any way intend to hold brief for Mr. President nor do I claim in this piece that he is faultless.

On December 13, 2011, President Jonathan presented the draft budget for the 2012 fiscal year to the National Assembly. Before then, tongues were already wagging. Many complained that the budget was getting to the National Assembly rather very late and will apparently affect its early passage. In the heat of the whole argument, President Jonathan pledged to avoid that kind of delay subsequently. This he fulfilled and by September 2012, the 2013 budget was ready for presentation. Again, the House complained that it was rather too early as they needed time to appraise the performance of the 2012 budget first and the yet to be adopted 2013-2015 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy (MTEFF) paper forwarded earlier by the president. The same people that complained of delayed presentation last year now double speaking so to say.

At the beginning of the year 2012, Mr. President rolled up his sleeves in readiness to battle the oil cabals. First, he took the bull by the horns by announcing the total removal of fuel subsidy, an act that required so much courage to embark upon considering the caliber of people involved in the perennial scam. The cabals were systematically taken aback, but this move was grossly criticized. Nigerians in their numbers went to the streets to protest against the policy. Today, reports that emanated from the probe that followed shortly after revealed monumental fraud. Every Nigerian is clamouring now for a showdown with the cabal blaming the president for ineptitude.

The National Judicial Council (NJC) had on August 18, 2011 recommended the compulsory retirement of Hon. Justice Isa Ayo Salami, OFR, over allegations of purported ‘misconduct’. In a matter of days after the recommendation, Justice Salami was fired by the President and hell was let lose. People questioned the president for acting so fast on the matter and till date, tongues are still wagging. Only recently, the National Assembly recommended the sack of the Director General of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms. Arunma Oteh. As at press time, this recommendation is yet to be carried out and again, tongues are wagging over the ‘delay’ or outright rejection of the recommendation. They have even gone ahead to threaten the president with impeachment for ignoring the ‘advice’ of the National Assembly.

When in 2010, the President proposed what was described by critics then as a ‘lavish’ independence anniversary celebration, the press was agog with criticism. Many condemned the proposed celebration with pomp and pageantry, though for various reasons. The condemnation was indeed widespread. The critics argued that there was nothing to celebrate at 50. In 2012, the independence anniversary was celebrated just at the forecourt of the Presidential Villa at a very low key. Again, critics went hay wire. They accuse Mr. President of bowing to Boko Haram threat, “an ominous sign of weakness,” they claim.

If there is a situation and Mr. President allows due process to take precedence, then he is a weakling and ‘lily-livered’. People will complain that he is a coward lacking a sense of direction. If he reacts promptly, then he is interfering with due process, irrational and clueless.

At the wake of Boko Haram insurgency for instance, he relaxed and allowed the security chiefs to do their job. Even when there was pressure on him to declare state of emergency in some of the affected states, he kept his cool. This was termed by critics as weakness, incompetence and naivety. At some point, he ordered the Joint Task Force into the streets of Maidugiri to arrest the situation, many critics started accusing him of killing an ant with a sledge hammer. Some northern elders even went as far as accusing him of a calculated attempt to render the town “desolate and the people refugees in their own town.”

Last week during the media chat with Mr. President, the issue of poor handling of the Lagos Ibadan road project by the concessionaires—Ms Bi-Courtney was openly raised and people clamoured for an immediate action against the contractor. Within 48hrs, the president revoked the contract, re-awarding it to Julius Berger and RCC. Rather than applaud the swift action of the president, the debate in the media now is about how right or wrong the action was and how due process was not followed.  

Little wonder why Mr. President once cried out that he was the most criticized president in the world and I quite agree with him. Could it be that he is actually making some progress? This reminds me of an inscription I saw at the office of the Deputy Registrar of Abia State University when I went to collect my degree certificate. It read: ‘If you are not stepping on anyone’s feet, it means you are not making any move’ (can’t remember the exact words). This applies more in leadership. No matter how hard a leader tries, critics will always throw arrows that are very capable of derailing a leader that is not well focused and John C. Maxwell once said: “A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit”. Maybe Mr. President must begin to learn this aspect.

The roads that were bad decades before his assumption of office are today blamed on him. The comatose power sector which had gulped billions of dollars long before Goodluck Jonathan came near the corridors of power are today blamed on his ineptitude. The endemic corruption that past leaders purportedly fought and made no head way with are today blamed on only one man, even when those pointing one accusing finger at him have three other fingers pointing at them. When flood submerges communities across the states, the people cry ‘Jonathan!!!’, as if he sent the flood. The decay and rot that have bedeviled this country over 52 years now are now termed ‘the making’ of Mr. President—Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan. Rather concentrate on the import of his speeches, his critics pay greater attention to his grammar, his eloquence or the lack of it and his application of tenses.

These very few instances which are not even the most classic as there are many other more congruent cases are the reasons why I pity Mr. President with all the passion in me while not trying to be defensive of his actions and inactions.