They fail again and again where they should have succeeded; they
steal where they should not have stolen; they lie where simple truth
should have been told; and they deceive where acting in a
straightforward manner would have sufficed. This is the tragic situation
of our shameless and dishonourable politicians in Nigeria. Then, when
it becomes certain that the failed leader is about to be thrown out of
office, having incurred the justifiable anger of the electorates, he
suddenly begins to appeal to religion. He claims that he is a Christian
or Muslim; he openly identifies with some religious leaders of his
proclaimed faith, and in turn, expects all adherents of the faith he
bogusly lays claim to, to support him. And this just for political
benefit.
This is President Goodluck Jonathan’s situation at the moment as he
faces a more than cloudy presidential election in 2015. It is clear that
Nigeria, a not so fortunate country with regard to qualitative
leadership, is terribly divided along politically created religious
fracture lines. The fact remains that no President, in the history of
this nation, has succeeded, through complicit actions and inactions, in
polarising the nation as much as President Goodluck Jonathan. This fact
is already in the public domain. My concern however, is to expose the
underbelly motivation of Mr. President’s handlers’ religious hoodwinking
of Christians in Nigeria. Christians need to know that they need not
rush to give support to just any leader who mouths Christianity, without
carrying out diagnostic examination of such a leader. The Bible enjoins
us to
“prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
To begin with, there’s nothing wrong with Christians in Nigeria
giving wholehearted support to another Christian who aspires to any
political office in the land, provided that the said Christian is a
Christian indeed, and that he possesses leadership qualities to move the
nation in the right direction. As a matter of fact, in our pluralistic
nation, just anyone who, irrespective of religious affiliation and
inclination, has character, wit, insight, generous spirit, self-control,
resolve, honesty and a clear picture of where the nation ought to be,
as well as the understanding of how to get there, can aspire to be
anything in the country and get the support of the electorates.
In President Jonathan’s case, the undeclared reason for his appeal to
religion is simply to take advantage of the numerical strength of
Christians among the Nigerian electorates. This is sad. The rush and
push currently going on in certain quarters within Christian circles in
Nigeria today is totally political and shameful; and all is being done
to give undue support to a non-performing president because he is
supposedly a Christian. This is not the Bible. The God of the Bible, in
actual sense, hounours only responsible people. He demands that leaders
be accountable and faithful (1Cor.4:2). Therefore, Christian leaders
ought to help Mr. President become more accountable, and rescue him from
terribly political pettiness being displayed at the moment.
Let’s consider this important question: should we even consider
President Jonathan a President with Christian character? I think not!
But wait a minute; am I in a position to determine whether or not an
individual is a Christian? Scripturally speaking, the simple answer is
yes. In Matthew 7:21, the Lord Jesus said,
“Not every one that
saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but
he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven”. The
implication of this passage is that open declaration of one’s religious
standing, church membership, hobnobbing with credible and influential
Christian leaders, as well as financial donations to churches does not
confer Christianity on anyone. In fact, the above is totally useless
without the heart and attributes of Christianity. To know who a
Christian is, the Bible recommends that you look at what he does, and
how he does it; check his character.
And then, the Holy Scripture also tells us that we know people –
genuine Christians, fake Christians, genuine leaders, not-so-genuine
leaders, totally corrupt leaders etc. – by their fruits. The Lord Jesus
said,
“A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a
corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall
know them” (Matthew 7:18 & 20). The Lord Jesus simply said,
just look critically at people, see what they do, how they do it, check
the fruits they produce, and you will easily understand where they
belong. They may claim they are God’s, but when you check the fruits of
their lives, you will understand to whom they belong.
The word of God then explains how a Christian – and this, all the
more, applies to a leader – should conduct himself. The first of these
points to be considered here is that a Christian is expected to keep his
word. His word should be his bound. He should keep his promises and not
be given to frivolities. This is how the Bible puts it:
“So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty”
(James 2:12). This is God’s standard. Do what you say or promise with
your own mouth. Now does Mr. President keep his word? I’m sure he does
not! I’ll give some examples shortly. But before the examples, please
understand that he can still be supported by those who still wish to
support him; however, that support should not be based on the fact that
he says he is a Christian. Not at all! This is so because he’s not a man
who keeps his word, and Christians, real Christians, do keep their
words.
In 2011, while going around begging for votes, these were the words
of Mr. President: "I do not make empty promises in my campaign because
whatever I promise to do, I had already carried out adequate study to
make sure I can accomplish it in the next four years." This was on the
27th of February in Onitsha, Anambra State. But the truth, as available
to us all, is that he did promise, but then he failed to fulfill his
promises.
On the 12th of March, 2011 in Abeokuta, he promised to revive ailing
oil refineries and build new ones. The available fact, as at today, is
that Mr. President merely deceived people into voting for him with that
empty promise, because as we all know, no ailing oil refinery has been
revived, not to talk of building new ones. I know his supporters can
come up with a million and one reasons why he didn’t fulfill that
promise; but the fact still remains that he did not fulfill his promise.
Then on the 31st of March, the same year in Abuja, he promised to
expand and develop the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry to
provide about one million jobs. Today, we are still waiting for these
jobs in the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry.
Earlier, in Awka on February 26, he said he would construct all the
major roads which link Anambra with its neighbors; complete the ongoing
aero-dynamic survey of gas in the Anambra River basin; complete the
second Niger Bridge; and complete the Onitsha Inland Port. Nigerians
would not be talking about generators by the time his four years in
office would have ended, he guaranteed. It is about four years since
these promises were made; however, if a Nigerian today does not have his
own generator, it is because he is financially incapable to procure
one. The promises were largely unfulfilled. Did Mr. President lack
anything he needed in fulfilling these promises? Did he lack money,
hands, time or occasion? None that I know. He just won’t do what he said
he would do.
The above are few of the many unfulfilled promises, pledges and vows
of Mr. President. I want to say that no Christian in Nigeria should be
deceived into voting for Mr. President in 2015 because he lays claim to
Christianity; he should simply be judged by his performance in office.
He should be seen as a person – the current President of the country,
who made several promises in 2011 while campaigning, and who failed to
fulfill those promises – and be treated as such. This is the foundation
upon which his re-election or rejection in 2015 should be based, not
some useless religious mawkishness.
But then, there are other two important points we need to consider in
this discourse: integrity and skillfulness. As far as God is concerned,
these two qualities are central to leadership, and without them, no one
in any leadership position, in the eyes of the Almighty God, could be
considered successful. Hear the Bible:
“He chose David also his
servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: from following the ewes great
with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his
inheritance. So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands” (Psalm 78:70-72).
That’s the Bible talking about David. In this passage, David’s
background as well as his emergence to leadership was examined. God took
David from following animals and made him a King. He named him His
servant and empowered him for just a reason: to feed His (God’s) people,
the Israelites. Now this is one important purpose of leadership:
feeding, supporting, sustaining, nourishing, nurturing, encouraging,
maintaining, strengthening and bolstering the led. Can we say this is
what is currently obtainable in the nation under President Goodluck
Jonathan? I think not. With the very basic requirement for meaningful
living in the 21st century – electricity – almost totally missing in
most homes, it is clear that the major focus of this administration is
not to feed the poor, but to feed on the poor.
King David, having understood his assignment, settled down to lead
his people, employing two important qualities in the process. First, he
led his country with the integrity of his heart. He was a man in
possession of very firm principles; wholly dedicated to his business,
and displayed uncommon veracity in his dealings with his followers.
Integrity requires that a leader be open and truthful. Integrity drives a
worthy leader to eschew corruption and fight it. It equally demands
that the leader be true to the laws of the land and not try to
circumvent any aspect of it. A leader with integrity has nothing to hide
from his followers, and he constantly fights and punishes, according
the laws of the land, those engaged in sleaze. Can we say this is the
situation in our nation under President Jonathan? Again, I think not.
Nigerians have not forgotten the recent stinking revelation of how
the current Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani
Alison-Madueke, squandered 10 billion naira while junketing around. In
the revelation, which the House of Representatives later passed a
resolution to probe, it was alleged that the minister spent the amount
to charter and maintain a jet for her personal use. As shocking as the
embarrassing news was, the President has not found any reason to
reprimand the minister for spending 130 million naira per month to
maintain the aircraft in just two years. Were we blessed with a
President who understands integrity and deals with us in the integrity
of his heart, this reckless act would have been thoroughly dealt with.
There won’t be any reason to bother you with other well-known corruption
issues and cases around this government. But what is plain and obvious
to all is that this is one administration that lacks integrity.
Now if President Jonathan willingly and consciously flouts important
scriptural requirements and recommendations; if he chooses to scoff at
the divine principle of integrity, should I then blindly follow him,
simply because he claims he is a Christian just like me? This is my
point. No Christian anywhere in the nation should allow himself to be
sold a dummy. We should not be herded into wrongdoing simply because we
have a “professing”, but in actual sense, a scripture-breaking Christian
as our president. However, if an individual Christian, given his own
conviction of the president’s performance and integrity, decides to vote
for him next year, fine. The issue being that the Christian is voting,
not because he is glad that the aspiring leader is a “Christian” and not
a Muslim, but because the would-be leader is worthy and owns integrity.
The second virtue employed by David in his leadership adventure was
skillfulness. Political and administrative skillfulness is possessing
competence, adeptness, dexterity and proficiency in handling issues and
situations in a way that avoids sloppiness, clumsiness and wastage. It
is the hallmark of very capable leaders. It is a virtue that a nation
like Nigeria needs in her leaders because of the inherent ability of
this singular virtue to clean up built-up political muddle and clutter.
Where unfortunately this quality is lacking in a leadership endeavour,
as is currently the case with President Jonathan, disorder, disarray and
chaos ensue. It is lack of skillfulness that causes a president to
confer unconstitutional powers on ex-militants, freeing them to move
around in convoys with security men, while reputable men are being
hounded for saying their mind.
Imagine the one big ball of mess the nation has suddenly become, all
because political and administrative skillfulness in missing. The way
political issues and other sundry happenings in Nigeria have been handle
by this administration really puts mud on the faces of Nigerians. It is
the case of continual falling into one scandal after another, with the
most recent one usually being more potent than the previous. Consider
the latest in the series of misadventures of an administration void of
political dexterity and steeped in error – the invasion of the National
Assembly by security men.
While this act has been roundly condemned by people of wit and
imagination in the country, the President is yet to see anything wrong
with that assault and insult. And why would he? The unfortunate blitz
obviously serves hisF purpose. It makes one to wonder whether the
President have people who advise him at all. After all, even when a
president is not particularly skillful, he still can tap into the
skillfulness of brilliant and able souls within the country. With the
way things stand at the moment, it is clear that the nation is being
ruled by someone with shortage of political and administrative
skillfulness, and Christians need to be reminded that God demands
skillfulness in leaders that must deliver.
As a function of the above, the important question all Christians,
indeed all Nigerians, need to ask before being goaded into voting based
on religious or political sentiment is whether we are ready to withstand
and stomach another four years of unproductive, completely messy
political space dominated by shoddiness, corruption, unresponsiveness
and a sense of despair never known to Nigerians since the end of the
civil war. The crucial question is whether we are willing to endure
President Goodluck Jonathan till 2019!
That idea, that thought alone, for me, is frightening! A president
who doesn’t keep his own words, fights dirty, institutes and promotes
ethnic racketeering, unable to manage rather commonplace and
uncomplicated situations is, undoubtedly, not the person Nigerians need
for the next four years of our national life.
An indigene of Sanga local government, residing in the United States,
Barrister Sunday Ugah, who is presently in Nigeria, sent our New York
office pictures and details of the governor’s visit to Fadan Karshi,
where terrorists killed over 40 persons last week.
Ugah said all attempts by some prominent politicians to dampen the
protest fell on deaf ears as the women said the governor was on a
political campaign and not making condolence visits.
His e-mail read “It is absolute nonsense that, since March to date,
about 1000 people have been killed in Southern Kaduna. [The governor]
never came until today, in the name of last week killings, but we all
know it is for political reasons. He came in company of hundreds of
security personnel. We have no business with his politics, but we will
speak in the ballot."
“Over 200 were killed in March in Kaura local government, he refused to
go there. The same thing happened in June here in Sanga, over 200 were
killed. Our parents protested almost naked and we told him he is not a
leader but a combination of deceit and lies."
“Next month we will take our case to Chatham House in London, where we
will address the world of the genocide going on in our villages, and how
representatives from the Senate down to state assembly have failed us
completely."
