JONATHAN ON FATHERS' DAY
President Goodluck Jonathan is now a chorister. He had joined other fathers to sing where he worshipped at Aso Villa Chapel, Abuja, in commemoration of Fathers’ Day. That was the day some chose to be spoilers; they overshadowed an otherwise memorable day for the president. At a time he read a poem in honour of fathers, and wore a specially designed cream clothe that could qualify him as king from the Niger Delta, crown or no crown, some groups bombed humans up North, while cultists and militants besieged Igbinedion University down South. News headlines due the president on Fathers’ Day were grabbed from him that time. But the good in celebrating fathers symbolizes something significant, and what is significant about fathers leads to questions at a time like this in the history of the nation.
Father’s Day is celebrated throughout the world. It’s a day when fathers, irrespective of their cultural or religious leanings are honoured and celebrated. It’s in recognition of their roles as the head of the family, and their roles as fathers in a nation. Bombers and militants are some fathers’ children. In that case, perpetrating acts of violence on Fathers’ Day is an affront on fathers. It can pass as an indictment on them, too. And it is with this in view one may dare ask: What is the role of fathers in a nation? What should a father bequeath to his children? That is one step away from asking: What did the founding fathers of Nigeria bequeath to the nation, to the current generation of fathers? What was the philosophy of the founding fathers? Did they have any, and do the fathers of the nation at the moment have any philosophy that guides them, one that they intend to pass to the next generation? This is important because a philosophy of how this nation should be run, or lack of it, may just be at the root of why Nigeria experienced what it did on a Fathers’ Day. To present a clearer picture, one may as well compare another developing country with Nigeria.
Everyone knows Indonesia ranks high on the table of nations that are doing well for themselves. That nation started from somewhere in 1945, the same way Nigeria started out in 1960. Indonesia faced the need to pull together its diverse ethnic groups and archipelagoes. That was one of its challenges at inception. Nigeria faced the same challenge. The future President Sukarno promulgated Pancasila, the philosophical foundation and political philosophy of Indonesian state. His political philosophy was mainly a fusion of elements of Nationalism, Internationalism with an emphasis on justice and humanity, deliberative consensus with an emphasis on Representative democracy which holds no ethnic dominance but an equal vote for each member of a Council, Social Welfare influenced by the idea of the welfare state, an emphasis on populist Socialism, as well as an emphasis on monotheism and religiosity. In that case, Indonesia’s founding father helped solve the conflicting priorities among Muslims, nationalists and Christians. Its 1945 Constitution set forth Pancasila as the embodiment of basic principles of an independent Indonesian state, and the principle of belief in God which also implies the pursuit of sacred values. Values help the people to focus on the good of all, to put the overall good of the nation first in all things. Just and civilized humanity inherent in the philosophy ensures that the Indonesian people do not tolerate physical or spiritual oppression of human beings by their own people or by any other nation.
The unity of Indonesia that embodies the concept of nationalism places emphasis on love for one’s nation and motherland. It demands that Indonesians avoid feelings of superiority on the grounds of ethnicity. Democracy guided by the inner wisdom in the unanimity arising out of deliberations was imperative amongst people’s representatives in Council. The principle of social justice for the people of Indonesia calls for the equitable spread of welfare to the entire population, not in a static but in a dynamic and progressive way. This means that all of the country’s natural resources and the national potentials should be utilized for the greatest possible good and happiness of the people. Social justice implies protection of the weak. But protection should not deny them work. On the contrary, they should work according to their abilities and fields of activity. Protection should prevent willful treatment by the strong as well as ensure the rule of justice. Sukarno had all of the five principles in the form of symbols that were real and native to impressionable minds, and they identified with them.
The first draft of the Pancasila philosophy was formulated by Sukarno on 1 June 1945, and it underwent what is called ‘indigenization’. All Western elements subsumed within Pancasila were eradicated systematically through the Culture and Education Department. This was in order to find out indigenous legacy (adat) which accords with Pancasila’s five basic principles. Officials who ran with the founding father’s philosophy explored and found out adat legacies scattered out in provinces of Indonesia, such as adat social structure, adat literary products, adat religious teachings, and adat ethics.
They succeeded enormously and their findings were used later by Sukarno’s successor, Suharto, to unite Indonesian people. That is the foundation of the high pedestal where Indonesia finds itself today. It was the outcome of the vision, philosophy of that nation’s founding fathers. Sukarno and his co-travelers are role models as to what fathers are to their nation.
What did the founding fathers of Nigeria place on ground, and what are the present fathers doing with it this becomes a question. And it is a realistic question considering what is being done to the commonwealth of the nation. Surely, nothing of the magnitude of pilfering that Nigeria witnesses today has been identified with a nation such as Indonesia. If mindless pillaging is a factor for the where the nation finds itself as observers have insisted, further careful consideration would show a straight line from violent acts across the nation to what those in positions of power do. There is line from what is pilfered to the sound education and good health care denied a child somewhere in a remote part of the country. That is not to mention the lack of employment and the rest of it that ensures some young people become a tool in devil’s workshop.
Unjustifiable as it is, the continuous descent into violence seen in recent time is symptomatic of some of the lapses that the leadership has encouraged to happen overtime. Analyses of what bred such a situation as witnessed in other nations is a testimony.
With a philosophy to run with and a plan of what to do, that Indonesia is today where Nigeria is not needs not be repeated here. But the point is clear. Some founding fathers of a nation planned it well, they started out not in the form of muddling through as it had happened when Nigeria became politically independent, rather they set out in clear terms what they wanted and how to get it. They also passed on what they believed should be done to the younger generation. The younger generations of yesterday are in power today in Indonesia. And they carry on the original vision, with their eyes open well into the future. What was the philosophy that Nigeria’s founding father passed on?
Any Nigerian can answer that. What is the philosophy that the current fathers of the nation run with at the moment? Nigerians can answer that, too. But if anyone wants to find answers to why the statistics are not falling in for the nation in the right places, those who preside over the commonwealth are the people to answer ask. Younger generations of Indonesians can ask their fathers of the pre-independence and independence years and they will get sound answers. Maybe fathers here, past and present, will find answers tomorrow for the young men that throw bombs in the North, and those that engage in militant activities in the South. Can anyone greet any father in position of authority here “Happy Fathers’ Day” with a clear mind when bombers and militants are showing their sterile performance for what it is? The question may yet set the president thinking on what it takes for him to be a ‘real father’ to the nation, in the face un-fatherly conducts that go largely uncensored across the land.
Written By Tunji Ajibade
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