THE SIGNIFICANCE OF JONAH’S JOURNEY
Deputy Governor John Jonah has what it takes to take Bayelsa to the Promised Land.
Obiora Chukwumba
A sketch of today’s Nigeria reveals
signs of a failing state. Her life’s journey has been mapped in
deplorable milestones. And the signs of the invidious history repeating
itself loom large. The absurdity index in Nigeria is deepening.
For
instance, insecurity is not merely recurring, it is multiplying.
Corruption is escalating. The divisions across the hems of differences
among the people are aggravating irretrievably. It is for this reason
that those who are familiar with the tragic sequence of events that lead
to state failure are fearful that the case of Nigeria is, ominously, a
matter of time. Standing from where Karl Maier, author of the searing
prophetic political portrait of Nigeria, you will not fail to see that
indeed, this house has fallen.
Public trust on the leadership ebbs
exponentially. The discerning among us have blamed all of these on the
failings of leadership in the public space. Chinua Achebe, author and
activist identified the absence of leadership as the central problem
confronting Nigeria. At the national, regional and ethnic levels in
Nigeria the problem remains a dominant force. There are clearly
generations of Nigerian population demographics that have not witnessed
any distant semblance of sterling leadership milestones in the public
space. With the regression of leadership, the quality of citizenship has
nosedived culminating in a situation where, unarguably, ours is the
most publicly alienated and negatively stereotyped generation of
Nigerians in history.
Faced with this recurring challenge, you
would expect that the process of choosing a leader at national,
regional and state levels will attract the most rigorous, transparent
and empirical processes as a correctional effort. In a few months from
now two states in Nigeria, namely Bayelsa and Kogi will be picking
governors whose leadership endowments or the lack thereof will determine
the competitive direction of its people in the near decades. For
Bayelsa State, the anchor governance platform of Nigeria’s fourth most
populous ethnic nationality, the Ijaw, the significance is much more
telling. Splintered across a few states, the Ijaw nation only has access
to the control of one state. In effect, any vision of the future for
the Ijaw within the Nigerian nation must be processed and taken
ownership of by whoever occupies the Government House in Yenagoa.
So for Nigeria’s fourth major ethnic
nationality the options, for a break out leadership renaissance, feature
only one pot from which to look in. Whatever emerges as the leadership
choice in a governorship election in Bayelsa State determines the limits
of the aspirations of every other Ijaw elsewhere in Nigeria. In effect,
the significance of the governorship elections in Bayelsa State this
November is beyond the political realities within that state boundary.
For instance, being the only major
ethnic nationality in Nigeria which environmental, cultural and economic
structure have been most dismantled by oil exploitation for the
economic sustenance of successive national governments, if the Ijaw
nation sought to raise a matter of why the proceeds of oil is being used
to fund the construction of standard railway gauge lines which have
been carefully designed to exclude the Ijaw nation, or why the Nigeria
electrification road map recently signed between the federal government
and Siemens for 1,350MW in Abuja, 1,350 MW in Kaduna, 1,350MW in Kano
and 450MW in Lagos for transmission assets upgrade, grid automation,
national metering infrastructure, power system simulation with estimated
cost at €330 Million and €250 Million respectively were designed to
sidetrack the Ijaw nation, such crucial matter can only get traction if
the leadership in the Government House in Yenagoa took ownership of such
matter.
So, this article has the objective of
establishing that the governorship election in Bayelsa State is a prime
strategic leadership matter that bothers on the continued relevance and
survival of the Ijaw nation in Nigeria. Drawing therefore from this,
what attributes should the party delegates be looking out for when they
file out to pick a candidate? And ultimately, what personal or
professional performance indicators in such individual’s career
milestone should pre-occupy the choice that each delegate makes? Of the
two federal projects mentioned above with potential to catalyze a
resurgent economic growth and expansion in Ijaw for which the government
has been negligent about, who among Ijaws accept with the federal
government that the people are not deserving of the projects?
If every Ijaw man and woman believed
that they were deserving of these projects, who among the aspirants
angling for delegates’ endorsement and votes would Ijaws pick out as
capable of deploying personal brilliance, the force of reason and fresh,
factual insight to build compelling case in Abuja to cause a review and
an inclusion speedily? The man who brings the most engaging and
convincing value proposition to the table evidently is Rear Admiral John
Jonah, (rtd.) the current deputy governor of the state. He comes fully
made for purpose and extra-ordinarily prepared for a season like this.
In a time in which insecurity has made life and movements near suicidal
in Nigeria, not only is Rear Admiral Jonah most equipped professionally
and mentally to design a structure that secures lives and property his
ideas, necessarily commands respect even at the highest echelons of
policy in Nigeria.
With an impeccable military career that
culminated in the headship of the National Defence College in Nigeria,
the flagship military strategy and policy epicenter, Rear Admiral Jonah
authoritatively operates at a level above the rest. Not a man to be
drawn to personal and material agenda, the Ijaw nation can be assured of
an unblemished voice that resonates its reality and aspirations in
crucial quarters, without getting ensnared and compromised. And surely,
because he is seasoned in strategy and knowledgeable of the intricacies
and complications of navigating through the landmines of power gates,
Bayelsa and especially the Ijaw nation can rest, assured that the
foundation and infrastructure of engagement and collaboration that will
take it to the future with confidence are tied to Jonah’s political
journey.
Knowing that individuals of crafty and
questionable privilege in Nigeria have seized the public space with
strange values and have continually lorded it over the hapless masses it
bears little reminding that all men of character must not let this
opportunity slip by without making a push in the right direction to
invest the state with the right leadership. Having served as deputy
governor, Rear Admiral Jonah already wears the shoes and therefore knows
where it pinches. Accordingly, his election will likely launch the
state into a new era of accelerated and focused development. He already
acknowledges that the most critical resource of the state is the youth
and knows that for these youths to compete advantageously in the future
in a dramatically changing Nigeria, they have to be equipped with the
right skills, particularly in the creative and the digital economy.
Imbued with inner strength and driven by
a desire to redesign the state for economic competitiveness and greater
strategic importance, Rear Admiral Jonah knows what to do to change the
subsisting orientation that keeps the Government House as the only
business in the state. His well distilled thoughts are that to lift the
greater mass of the people out of poverty and into financial
independence and prosperity there must be an urgent and sustainable plan
that pulls the teeming youths out of desperate and total dependence on
government with a government assisted start-up scheme. Essentially, the
significance of the political journey that Jonah has embarked upon is
fundamental for lifting the people of the state out of poverty and
dependence and strategic for the Ijaw nation as it confronts a new era
of Nigeria without the prospect of oil economy. In summary, John Jonah
bears a quintessential leadership values for which Bayelsa State and the
wider nation of Ijaw shall do well to crave and to court.
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