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.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
