If there is any man who will always gain my support and respect, it’s the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; a man who understands the country-Nigeria and Nigerians. He is a good General who knows how to deal with enemies of the state. His wisdom and native intelligence cannot be disputed. If I had a magic wand, I would probably make him come back to clear some of the mess.
It is in line with the popular adage that what an elderly man sees from his sitting point, even if a child climbs to the tallest Iroko tree, it will be very difficult for him to see same. Obasajo in far Geneva confirmed his premonition for our dear country, and I don’t need any other research before I say something to buttress his point. It is on his Geneva declaration that I stand.
“I haven’t seen that will of persistency and consistency in Nigeria because the people that are involved in corruption, are strongly entrenched and unless you are ready to confront them at the point of even giving your life for it, then you will give in and when you give in, that is the end of it.”
I’m still wondering what this message could mean to the entire country. I’m still in search of a possible answer to baba’s innuendo. Was he sending a message to our dear president or to all of us that all is not well back here? Was he possibly talking on the nature of our political system where everybody has got his own gimmicks and styles to bend the law ? Was baba just talking about our political leaders or just talking on over reliant on GOODLUCK for success? May be I should try my luck out while attempting to analyze his speech. Maybe I should just gamble on this.
But I abhor gambling, I hate the word gambling. I do not patronize gamblers. I see a lot of evil, treachery, deceit and wickedness that are associated with gambling. Gambling simply depends on pure human luck. The luck in the game of gambling rarely smiles at the gambler who smiles once in a blue moon. I know that people can sometimes be lucky; they can play with both high and low expectations; but the truth remains that the mind is completely uncertain as regards the outcome of the game. The gambling machine is mostly not designed to favor the gambler but the owner. It is clear that out of a hundred gamblers only one or two are winners. What exactly happens to the other ninety-eight people? It’s simple; they just run out of luck. In fact, the casinos designed it so; everybody can simply not be lucky at the same time. While a few people smile, others cry for loss- simply the game of gambling.
I just told you that I hate gambling and you laughed; I just said that I do not rely on luck and you frowned, because the whole country is presently waiting on luck. I refused to be part of that philosophy. Why do I have to wait on luck to achieve results? I’m a different person with an exceptional philosophy that says consistency, tremendous focus, persistency, resilience and ingenuity create room for success instead of waiting on just luck without the application of logic. Logically, whoever waits on luck may have to wait till his kingdom comes. A gambler lives with uncertainty. He lives with fear on whether the outcome of his game will be negative or positive-he is a looser, because he depends on luck, and luck is not an everyday matter. A gambler believes that one day; luck will smile at him and will have a feel of the city of Eldorado. Who will not want to live in the city of Eldorado? It is impossible to have someone who has had a feel of the free gift of looting and corruption to willingly relinquish power even when a true democratic and presidential structure upholds individual and not collective responsibility. Because they rely so much on luck, they will continue to gamble in the absence of clear state policies. History speaks volumes and it has spoken through the voice of baba; during our last election as the case maybe, voting was one dimensional due to the philosophy of luck. Nigerians felt lucky and failed to apply common logic in their reasoning. They made their choice while basing their judgment on just luck…and some of us cried with our shrink voices to no avail. We were all swayed by emotion based on the gospel of luck that was been preached across the country, hoping that after then the entire country will become lucky in the areas of security, job creation, educational transformation, infrastructure, forgetting that it takes dedication, consistency and focus to be able to get the country moving; It was simply the shear belief that luck smiled at the Beyelsa people and history will have it that one of the son’s of the Minority Bayelsan once ruled the country; it was the handiwork of luck.
When people begin to analyze the death Yar’ Adua as a path to the attainment of national luck, I simply cry for their ignorance. What is the correlation between his death and the luck that most Nigerians pursued? People still claim that it was the same luck that set that throne on fire as regards the constitutional or unconstitutional debate on whether the vice president should take over while Yar’Adua was still far away in Jeddah. Nigerians wanted to prove a point, bearing in mind that President Goodluck Jonathan was the only untested hand that could better their lots; so we all voted for him; people like me will be swift in an early argument and conclusion while basing my judgment on some visible proofs that it is often very difficult to wait on luck while struggling to survive. Is it now part of our lucky agenda to patronize just ‘luck’ in the Villa? The unprofessional and indiscriminate influx of militants to the Aso Rock could be part of this gambling and is distressingly detrimental to our National security. Even as many people cry that the Aso villa will soon be turned to an unsafe ground for many, more money go into the hands of armed and angry youths who have little or no good intensions for the country. I’m not surprised to see things turned sour for the country; I’m not surprised that our foreign reserve has dwindled drastically at this early stage of our luck. I’m not surprised that insecurity is now the greatest nightmare; I’m not surprised either that the Force Headquarters is a safe ground for suicide bombers or what you may decide to call them. We should have known by now that we voted for luck; so at each point in time, we are expected to run out of the same luck. Any country that survives on luck will miss the point because there will be no application of rational judgment and common logic in its operation. Goodluck without intelligence, knowledge, realizable policies and agenda will take us back to Bad luck. We cannot wait for good luck in the midst of rot and corruption. We cannot wait for luck with so much failed promises. So, when one analyst said that there is a game plan behind all the noise about luck, we shout and wail. We must learn to call spade a spade and stop sitting on the fence. LEADERSHIP is not what we think; leadership is not Luck as we purportedly call it. Let me help baba to unmask the whole scenario in what I will term public expose.
The luck we hang on to is an instrument of deception like every other political machinery. Luck like magic makes you see what it wants you to see and not the reality. Luck simply wants you to live in a perpetual dream, believing that soon, things will take its formal shape. The Luck we all know represents the contraction of what the society preaches or stands for, revealing two situations opposing each other; one of which is a deceptive character. The luck that will give Nigerians the desired safe haven will not spare a life that blocks the inordinate ambition of luck. Luck will simply count against you each time you wait for it. The luck we all wait for and count on is simply here to keep our hope alive in the absence of realizable policies and agenda. A good point of reference is the Bayesa case. Luck ran out of pal Timi Alaibe and he began to have it rough in Bayelsa State while the same luck that took him in made a U–turn and maintained a deaf ear to the plight of this innocent friend-Godswill Ighali. The luck he had waited for in this world of illusion cunningly played on his intelligence and that was the beginning of his bad luck.
I wonder like other political analysts why we should wait for luck to detonate bombs and grenades and as well fight insecurity in the entire country without military intelligence and strategies.
I have heard few sycophants, describing the same luck as virtue, humble and a gentle fellow to man. On the surface, luck exudes these qualities, but it is all part of the gimmicks for Nigerians to wait for luck till the end of time. It is part of its artillery to deactivate and destroy. I see that the luck we search is the nightmare we try to defeat…period!!!
