by Steward Jornsen
In remembering the election period and the end of the President
Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, I have read, recently, people
celebrating that they sent the shoeless fisherman’s son called
GEJ back to Otuoke. This brings to mind the story of Joseph in
the bible. Is President Jonathan in Otuoke or is he in the
International Scene bagging awards as never before even as
Nigerians continue to miss his absence?
The brothers of Joseph hated him so much, they grabbed him
and dumped him in a pit. In their minds, they had finished with
him. Probably, the pit was going to be his end. On second
thought, when they had opportunity to sell him off, they did
without hesitation. He got betrayed by his own. Their plans was
that by getting rid of him, they would have solved all their
problems. And he would be forever lost. The story did not end
there, Joseph moved from their supposed oblivion to the palace.
And then the worse happened. Hunger came. They lost everything
in their homestead. What did they gain after Joseph was gone?
Did they have other electoral victories afterwards or they were hit
by political famine?
A few folks still cannot correlate. Joseph was the one assigned
by their father to feed them. He made their getting food easier.
Genesis 37 reads:
12 Then his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock in
Shechem. 13 Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers
pasturing the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send you to
them.” And he said to him, “I will go.”…
While he did his job of bringing them food, their mission was to
sell him off without blinking. And guess what, they were so
excited that they had done a good deed by getting rid of the
dreamer (he was obviously too slow for their liking). Fast forward
into their future, the same Joseph had moved into the
international scene and was now making life a lot easier for them
to their amazement.
Jonathan is no more president and might no longer run for the
office of the president. All elected officers like he have the option
of a single term or maximum 2 terms. He had a little more than
a single term. He had more than one term to be more accurate.
His offer to share his dream with us was rejected and was buried
in the pit, thrown out into a strange place by his people and
many were intent that he remains in prison forever (based on
what they accused him of). People do lose elections, he wasn’t
the first. God doesn’t work like we do, He doesn’t think like we
do. He has other plans for our lives. He rather took this man to a
place of global recognition and so he did for the Finance Minister
and a few others in the same government. (The crazy ones
would find their own stories later, I focus on those that made
sense to me).
Today, Nigerians are crying about the high prices of food and
how things are becoming expensive. We should keep pretending.
Egypt did same until they began to sell all they had to buy food. I
pray it doesn’t come to that in our case. The rate at which prices
are rising scarce me enough to make me share this facts. This
doesn’t mean the present government isn’t working to find
solutions to the problem. I just pray we find solutions to our
problems early. I pray we fix our obvious errors while we still have
time before famine vexes us all. We cannot claim to be fixing
errors, while we lose everything that we have.
For the brothers of Joseph, getting rid of him was the solution to
their problems (or so they thought). It never occurred to them
that even after getting rid of Joseph, they have to find a way to
connect with wisdom, which Joseph had in abundant in helping
his father, Jacob manage the affairs of the house. Joseph would
wear a coat of many colors – and his brothers would think that is
high level of corruption. Or should we say, cheating (since they
seemed to be doing most of the jobs). Even we have come to
realize that simply replacing a politician does not fix things
automatically. Simply getting rid of a government does not
magically repair a country. We have to think outside the box.
One of the solutions is to invite the technocrats in and outside the
country no matter what party they might belong to. I do not
speak about economic summits that might be overwhelmed by
partying and parties, but on the involvement of people with wise
solutions to our problems, irrespective of their affiliations. This is
where a few of the ministers that worked with GEJ would add
value and work with the present government (silently or openly) to
salvage the country. I still believe that Jonathan meant well; one
doesn’t have to be in power to add value to his people. President
Goodluck Jonathan once said that he is ready to work with the
current president, President Muhammadu Buhari, when he is
called upon. That is how a statesman talks. Joseph had no
difficulty in helping his brothers when the time came.
In conclusion, we have to come to the point where we stop
profiling people negatively and with solely political bias. Even
people you think never won an election have what they can add to
this country. We waste time in casting blames and hating. When
Joseph’s brothers discovered who he was, they thought he was
going to kill them for vengeance. However, love overpowered
hate. When we begin to bury our ethnic divides, our religious
divides and our political divides, we are likely to build a better
country together. But if we continue with this idea that we have all
the saints and the others have all the devils that ruin the country,
we might just as well be stuck here celebrating how we sent
Joseph to oblivion.
Do note, that you did not send Jonathan to Otuoke, he comes
from there and is a part of that place no matter what you do or
not do. Do note too, that Jonathan isn’t even at Otuoke right now
(which he can, if he so wills), he has gone global and his
footsteps are now being emulated by other world leaders. Some
say Jonathan is gone forever, whatever that means. He isn’t
gone. He just left Aso Rock and is very much around and seems
to be a huge standard to beat right now. While you still think
Joseph should be dead, do ensure that Nigerians do not search
and find Pharoah’s cup in your back of corn. That also is
corruption, no matter how that cup found its way into your bag.
* Steward Godwin Jornsen is a social media commentator.
Connect with him on Facebook.
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