Run, Goodluck, run!

One of the side attractions of the run-up to the last circle of Nigeria’s elections was Onyeka Onwenu singing on TV: “Run, Goodluck run, Destiny calls…’”
I saw the video again recently alongside those of other cultural ‘titans’ who used their ethos to campaign for candidate Goodluck Jonathan. Yinka Davies and others, in a separate video also played on the luck mantra saying once elected, Goodluck would better Nigeria.
It’s interesting how much the good luck myth played on Nigerians’ superstitious minds. The ‘I voted Goodluck not Jonathan’ crowd must have learnt by now that the name is not necessarily a charm.
Looking back now at all the tomfoolery, one can actually throw one’s head back and bellow some laughs at the ironies of our national life. What was funniest, to me, was Onwenu’s “Run, Goodluck, run” mantra which she flogged over and over. It actually brought memories of the Daniel Kanu-led Youths Earnestly Ask for Abacha’s two million-man march in 1998!
Thanks to the ‘Elegant Stallion’, however, “Run, Goodluck, run” has taken on newer and varied meanings, a year after the office was safely won (sic). Depending on who you are, what part of Nigeria you are, and the context you are speaking, ‘Run, Goodluck run’ now means different things. The past one year has imbued this phrase with assorted latent and political meanings that it is no longer simple to tell the President to run.
If you are an ‘Elder’ in the Niger Delta and you have come this far in life by being a political jobber and your relevance is determined by how much manipulation you can properly execute, ‘Run, Goodluck run’ denotes that Jonathan should throw his word out of the window and run for the Presidency at whatever costs to Nigeria.
If you are based in northern Nigeria and speaking from the bomber’s point of view, ‘Run, Goodluck run’ signifies ‘Run for your life!’
If other Nigerians who want to see changes in the polity say ‘Run, Goodluck run’, they, probably, suggest he should activate his dormant batteries, stop vowing left, right and, centre and, actually do one thing to justify his more than two years as the president of Nigeria.
At the time Onwenu was urging Jonathan to run because of destiny, he was campaigning all over the country and making promises left, right and, centre. In virtually every state of the federation he visited, he uttered grandiose promises. Now, politicians all over the world are known for saying they would achieve in a year what cannot be done in a century but Jonathan could go down in history as the President who made the most unrealistic promises with a straight face!
He promised the proverbial pie in the sky and even swore to add Tomato ketchup to it. At that point, it didn’t require much circumspection to tell that the man would not achieve anything. It’s like the man in the Yoruba proverb whose Babalawo instructed to sacrifice a bush rat to his head but insisted he would do with a whole ram instead. You can always tell how the story ends.
Jonathan travelled the length and breadth of Nigeria pandering to people and culture. If he arrived in a state like Enugu where they have coal, he promised mining. If he went to a place where agriculture was the mainstay, he promised irrigation. He went on and on like that in every part of Nigeria with promises that neither gauged feasibility nor regarded timeline. I can bet he might not even remember all those lofty promises anymore.
The thing is, what will save Nigeria from its present ruinous state is not mere talk. It is about having a comprehensive development plan– akin to the Marshall Plan — which will pull Nigeria out of its self-inflicted morass to a certain level where states and local governments would have some measure of independence to function. It is not about sitting in Abuja and dishing out money monthly but about a restructuring of the country entirely.
It will take a higher level of hard work and dedication for Nigeria to kick-start it all. To me, Jonathan appears not to possess the requisite skills to do just this. Some may argue that he has three more years but he seems to me like somebody who’ll manage the status quo, tread the path of least resistance, serve his time and retire with a healthy pension.
Tuesday, May 29, was a year since he ran to Aso Rock and the 12 months had been filled with waste: of lives, resources, opportunities, potential and of course, time.
My sadness is palpable, and this is the way I see the waste currently annihilating us: those that gave Jonathan instruction and the prodding to run need to give him a counter order. They need to tell him to stop running on one spot and examine the ground beneath his feet which is about to give way.
Apart from a critical study of the Marshall Plan and other such policy thrusts that pushed regions and countries out of the poverty mire, Jonathan should sit down and write an end-to-end implementation of one or two things he can achieve to set Nigeria on the right path.
Giving an overly long Democracy Day speech is not the way to go. The one he read on his inauguration has yet to deliver results to the nation. And all those marginal improvements are not going to help Nigeria! Fiscal deficit improved by 0.05 per cent? Recurrent expenditure reduced by three per cent? Or toadying up to womenfolk that 30 per cent of the impossible target of 370,000 jobs for youths per year is reserved for them? Or cassava bread?
Sincerely, we are tired of empty talks. If it is only electricity, the Power Sector Road map; or corruption — the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission — that he picks, he should try achieving just those instead of more wild promises. He doesn’t need to build a university or an airport in every state as he promised because, frankly, such tasks are beyond a man who is neither a David nor a Goliath. This is no longer a matter of luck or living up to your destiny or name. It is hard work and if his promises are overwhelming even him, he should just pick fruits within his reach. Just one tangible thing will do for now. One thing at a time!

Abimbola Adelakun, Punch