STOP COMMANDING JONATHAN

By Ikenna Emewu
Saturday , June 19 , 2010
I don't feel happy that many Nigerians have made it a business to order around the chief executive of the nation.

I would want you to imagine a situation where your father orders you to stand up and your mother at the same time tells you to sit down. While you reconcile the two, some other family members hurl their command at you to jump up and down, while your friends feel you should lie down and sleep. Be sincere to yourself, which of the commands would you obey. Won't you be confused? So, I want you to understand that you Nigerians have been commanding President Goodluck Jonathan that way since February 9 or May 6. This is a man who never begged you to make him president, yet you can't allow him have his peace.

Jonathan, stand up. Jonathan, sit down. Jonathan, kneel down, face the wall, hands up and open your eyes. Now Jonathan, close your mouth and let your ears be stuffed as you remove your resource control cap from your head without causing your hands to bend. Too many orders for one man.

The story every day is Jonathan will run. Jonathan will not run. It's Jonathan everywhere, everything, every time. I keep hearing Jonathan will run a thousand times everyday, and that makes me wonder why Jonathan will never walk or stand still or at least lie down and have some rest either in his office or at home. Why must this man run everyday? Is that how to be a president? Do you people even remember that this man you order about on running or not running has so many security people attending every turn he takes? By the time he starts running the way you Nigerians command him, won't those people flocking around him like flies with guns mistake him for a danfo conductor running away from touts who demanded N20 from him. And at that point, they might shoot stray bullet in his direction like they do to other Nigerians. And if you ask the police, they will say he was guilty of illegal running, and he had to be shot on sight.

Yes, there is a charge like at the police station. It happened in Lagos some years ago where a man was picked up by the police in Ikotun Egbe, a Lagos suburb. The man had towel girded round his waist and about to take his bath after the day's work. But because there was a queue, the usual way at the face-me-I punch-you luxury apartment, (the type of place I saw in The Sun last week where Jonathan lived in Osun State during his youth service) the man had to sit outside and wait for his turn No 23. While there, the police took him and sent him to their small room at the station. A friend and colleague was contacted by the man's family members to help because he interacts with the police. When he got to the station, he saw the man's name on the board with his offence listed among other detainees. Do you know the offence the police entered against his name? Illegal sitting was it. My friend asked the meaning of that and police just laughed and asked him to do something and forget about the letter and spirit of that charge.

So, please, Nigerians stop confusing Jonathan. This is a man who has seven points to settle and contend with in just 11 or 10 months. Why all these command and stampede of Jonathan will run everyday? Allow this man for goodness sake to decide whether he wants to run or stop, walk or stand still or even summersault. As you command him around, you create enough distractions for him to blame you for not fixing these points he has hung on his neck by his volition. You can sense that there is some confusion in the mind of man who wants to accomplish seven points in about 10 months. If you keep haranguing him, he would blame you for not attending to any of them. Won't you keep quiet and watch a man do his weird dance of accepting to fix the intractable electricity, water, roads, healthcare, education, food, security, electoral reform etc in this space of time. So, don't compound his problem.

I have to be frank with you that I don't like the way all of us have made it a duty to keep commanding Jonathan instead of allowing him time to think clear and straight to do something for us now.

Enough is enough. Otherwise, if he fails, you will share in the blame for not allowing him time to fix the seven points.