My Last Adventure(JONATHAN AND OBAMA)

Hometruth

By Adeola Akinremi

I have been quite tardy to come back to you.  I can remember. I served you no letter of divorce, so there's nothing in-between us. In simple words, we still have a relationship. Let me say the truth: I am someone who's excited at the growth of someone else. So as i watch Solomon Elusoji (who shares this back page with me) grow at what he does with his STORYLINE, i became trapped and lost in my lust for his work.

His writings are so captivating and his STORYLINE makes me feel like am always on Broadway in Time Square, New York. Yes, I am back now and it will be every fortnight between us.

Last week, I returned from the United States where I followed the campaign trail of the American politicians and their political parties in the just concluded midterm elections.

Undoubtedly, as a country and as a people we have so much to learn from the democratic experience of America. The tenet of free speech that is the hallmark of the American society was at the centre all through the campaign period. That is one thing that is a major problem in our political circuit. We have seen a wave of violence in our politics this year alone, just because of intolerance among our politicians. The politics of fire and brimstone that is the hallmark of our society needs to be done with by taking a look at the American politics.

I am not saying that the political system in the United States is all perfect, because it does have its issues of ‘dark money’ and district drawings that impact on the outcome of their own elections. However, we have so much to learn on how the process has evolved to such a level where no violence is heard in American politics and the ‘dark money’ is not used to bribe a judge for an injunction or as a hand-out to people to vote with regards to ‘stomach infrastructure.’

At this time, when President Goodluck Jonathan faces heavy criticism for his policies, principally from the opposition parties, it is not a different scenario in America where President Barack Obama’s popularity sags. But how are President Obama and his aides responding to criticism in comparison to what comes out from Aso Rock in the face of anti-Jonathan campaigns? That is where the difference is clear. 

Last Tuesday, when the midterm election was over and Obama got the boot as shown in the result of the election, he simply said: “Americans, I heard you.”  In Nigeria, that will be a strange thing to say. The president and his party will rather go and hire lawyers with tax payers’ money to do abracadabra to overturn the election, they will give money to judges and they will hire ‘forensick’ experts to do their bidding.

Of course, the youths will be mobilised unto the streets with police protection to start causing damage to property owned by the opponents, with physical attacks on their lives as well. Where do we go from here?

And this, while the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal was defecting from his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to join the opposition, All Progressives Congress (APC), exactly two weeks ago, the American politics was experiencing similar situation, though not in terms of defection, but President Obama had become a lame duck to most of the candidates campaigning on the Democrats tickets for the midterm election. So they tried so much to distance themselves from Obama.

But that didn’t make Obama to call for the heads of the candidates as would have happened in our own politics. Can any PDP governor or senator distance him/herself from President Jonathan while campaigning for election? 

In Nigeria, that is a difficult thing to do. Any candidate who dares to distance him/herself from the leader of his party based on policies will be in soup.

An Igbo man will say Tufiakwa (abomination). In clear terms, that will be tantamount to committing political suicide or what the pundits call political hara-kiri.  But there was no political elimination in America when several gubernatorial and senatorial candidates pointedly told Obama not visit their states to campaign for them in the most recent American elections.

To be sure, there were ads on televisions from some Democratic Party candidates separating themselves from Obama policies and hell was not let loose.  In Kentucky, the Political Director for the Democratic Party, Christian Motely told me that campaign for state elections are done differently in United States. “If you are running a campaign, you do go for what is popular. Views are different from across the region and you need to gauge the temperature of your community to draft a campaign,” he said.

Now that the election is over and Democrats lost more states and Republicans made gains, everybody gets back to one another and they are looking forward to thanksgiving on November 27. Everybody knows that you have to do what you have to do to get your votes. That is the level where our politics and politicians need to get to in this country.

The idea of killing your opponents to have your way should be discarded and the idea of bribing the judges to get injunction must come to an end and of course the intolerance for free speech should be a thing of the past.

Let me say that as we roll into our own election next year, decorum should be the watchword for the politicians.
I can never forget what Professor Al Cross, a long-time political reporter and the director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky, told me when I visited him in his office on Thursday, October 30.  “You must be careful when reacting to a negative advertisement, because you may end up confirming the words of the ads and thus become a victim of your own judgement.”