OPINION : GOODLUCK AZIKIWE JONATHAN IS A LUCKY MAN INDEED

Source: thewillnigeria.com

The elder Jonathan, the one who named his son Azikiwe and Goodluck, must have seen a vision at the son's birth. How else can one explain the chain of events in this man's life? His journey through primary school to university and all the way to a PhD is full of surprises and excessive good luck. His journey into politics is just as lucky as his academic pursuits: elected a deputy governor which turned into governor; elected as vice president which turned into president. Then elected on his own right as president and he was on his way to becoming a failed president and suddenly his greatest enemy played into his hands and he is on his way to become Nigeria's greatest leader.

But he needs to first successfully return 300 girls to safety and to wipe out Boko Haram, the organization which was trying to make his 8 years 'the lost 8 years.'

I bet all the tea in China that he would succeed. Here are my reasons:

If BH had kidnapped mostly Christian girls, a hard line by Jonathan could have easily turned into a religious conflict. It would have become Christians vs. Muslims. But by kidnapping mostly Islamic women the religious implication was removed from the equation. No serious northern leader is now in opposition

If BH had kidnaped students from Lagos or PH or any city in South we would have a north/south problem. Jonathan's tough stand would be judged as trying to protect the south. His hands would have been tied as he tries to waltz between his duties and Nigerian politics. This was why Mr. Obasanjo was unable to deal with BH when it first surfaced. It could have been more easily destroyed then. But at the time BH were killing mostly the Igbo and southern people. So OBJ looked the other way. He could not offend the big bosses. Mr. Yar 'Adua was in a better position but his short term and bad health were on the way.

If BH had continued with random bombing of military facilities on other public places, they could have gotten away with the practices as can be seen from the number of bombs they had exploded and the number of the general public they had killed and gotten away with. Any proposal by Mr. Jonathan was attacked as 'too weak' or 'too brutal.' Mr. Jonathan had been accused of acts against humanity by some politicians. Now all that is forgiven and forgotten.

Then the terrorists over played their hands and kidnapped young innocent women and thus freed Mr. Jonathan to deal with them as he wanted to. And assistance is flowing from around the world.

Women are protected in acts of war, all wars. How could anybody not understand this? In the previous bombings women were killed but those were considered collateral damages.

But this was planned against girls who were exactly where they were supposed to be: in bed at school.

Mr. Goodluck Jonathan should accept American and British help and invite anybody else who could help. He should give US and UK freedom to smoke out all BH members and their political and financial backers from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia and everywhere else. He should make sure that BH would no more be heard of in Nigeria and other neighboring states they had infiltrated.

When this task is accomplished Mr. Jonathan can then take his place at the citadel.

The down side to all this is that when Americans visit, they do not leave. They stay. They went to Japan and Germany in the 40's and are still there. They went to Korea in the 50's and are not planning to leave. They were not planning to leave Iraq after 10 years until they were forced; they tried to negotiate a back door but the door was shut on them. They are trying to negotiate a longer stay in Afghanistan after 12 years, but we shall see.

How to get US out Nigeria after BH has been crushed would be the next big job for Nigerians. The Igbo saying is 'I kunye enwe nmiri esigho ike; obu inata ya iko be okwu.' A literal translation is that giving a cup of water to a monkey is the easy part. The challenge is recovering the cup from the monkey after it drank the water.

Recovering Nigeria from USA and UK could be a challenge.

We shall cross that bridge when we get to it.
But meanwhile Mr. Goodluck Ebelechukwu Azikiwe Jonathan can cooperate with the forces: drones, service men and women, intelligence officers/spies, bombs and all the military equipment supplied by world powers and make sure that BH is history.

Of course if Jonathan fails in this test all his former good lucks would be forgotten.

He must win this fight.
I like his chances.
Written By Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba
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