By Femi Adesina
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President Goodluck Jonathan lamented at a thanksgiving service in Abuja last Sunday that a number of friends and associates abandoned him after he lost the presidential election held on March 28. But if it were abandonment alone, it would have been bearable. Some others threw in betrayal for good measure. Hear the President: “Some people come to me and say: ‘is this person not your friend? Was it not through your government he benefited? But look at what he is saying.’ Then I know that worse treatment will come… I know that more of my so-called friends will disappear.” I am glad that the President was not really griping or bellyaching. He was merely recounting what happened, and his mien showed that he has taken it with equanimity. Well, life is a school, and studying does not end when you obtain a Ph.D, or even professorship. The world is one vast, unending school. As Jonathan spoke, I remembered the words Jesus Christ spoke to his disciples, particularly to Peter, shortly before he was arrested: “Before the cock crows, thou shall deny me thrice.” And it happened. Jesus was led to the house of the high priest after his arrest. Peter followed afar off, and after some time, he joined those who sat round the fire. A maid looked at him, and declared: “This man was also with him.” Peter denied, saying: “I know him not.” After a little while, another person saw him, and said, “thou are also of them.” Peter said: “Man, I am not.” And about an hour later, another person said: “Of a truth, this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.” Peter not only denied, but he began to ask Ogun, Sango, and Amadioha to strike him dead, if he ever knew Jesus Christ. And at exactly that moment, the cock crowed. Did the cock also crow on Sunday as Jonathan spoke about his betrayal and abandonment? Well, it need not happen. If it happened to Jesus, it can happen to any man, since a servant is never greater than his master. But what Jonathan has seen so far is the first denial. Many more will still come, before cockcrow. Like the lyrics of that 1967 song by Cat Stevens says, ‘The first cut is the deepest.’ Rod Stewart made the song more popular in 1977, when he remixed it, singing: I would have given you all of my heart But there’s someone who’s torn it apart And she’s taken just all that I had But if you want I’ll try to love again Baby I’ll try to love again but I know The first cut is the deepest… I’m glad that Jonathan knows it. The first cut is the deepest, but many more will still come. Loneliness is ahead. Lonesomeness is yet to come. And solitariness, with nobody around except Madam Patience, attending to her husband patiently. Gone will be the army of courtiers and fawning hangers-on. However, I don’t agree with the charge of the President to the Ministers who served under his administration. He had asked them to be ready for persecution. Why? For serving the country? Anyone who serves his/her country, and did it with clean hands and heart need not fear persecution. The Good Book says: “he that has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.” (Job 17:9). So, if any Minister has served well, truly and faithfully, such should not fear any persecution. But for those who served themselves rather than the country, well, they need to fear. Not only persecution should come, there should also be prosecution. That is the way to bring enduring change to our country. Do the crime, do the time also. President Jonathan should not make it seem that the crime would be that they served in government, no, it is never a crime to serve your country. What they would answer for is if they had served themselves and their pockets, rather than the country. He that has clean hands should not fear any persecution. “Betrayal is the only truth that sticks,” wrote Arthur Miller. It is a truth President Jonathan began to learn, even right from Palm Sunday, a day after the presidential election, when the chapel at Aso Rock was full – of empty seats. A lot of those who used to throng the place every Sunday, seeking favour and patronage, had probably seen the direction of the wind, and had ‘zapped.’ They knew power was going to change hands, and did not bother to show up. Failure truly is an orphan. But you know what? Jonathan is in good position to write a book on betrayal. Throughout his tenure in office, he had been “in perils of robbers, in perils by my (his) own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.” Maybe it is because of the nature of his ascension to power, but Jonathan was encircled, embattled, beleaguered, in his years in office, till he was finally undone at the election. I wonder why he didn’t see the handwriting on the wall. Could he have ever won that election with the political map heavily skewed against him and his party, the PDP? No. Governor Rotimi Amaechi said it late last year, and I wrote a piece on it early this year. Said the Rivers State helmsman: “The current map in the country does not favour President Jonathan’s re-election bid, unlike what happened in 2011, when he had the support of the majority of the country, and there was unity in PDP. The electoral map appears to have changed.” But Jonathan and those not telling him the truth did not believe. They threw incumbency at it. They threw money at it – in all major currencies of the world. They threw the country’s security apparatus at it. Everything. But they never reckoned with betrayal, even right within PDP. They never reckoned with the giant-sized grudges in many parts of the country. Even some serving PDP governors had grudges against their own parties, and either worked covertly for the All Progressives Congress (APC), or simply refused to lift a finger to help their own party. And on March 28, the cock crowed. However, the betrayal was reciprocal. There were many governors, and chieftains of PDP, who virtually laid all on the altar for Jonathan. They threw in everything to support him. But when came time for the President to reciprocate, with certain gestures here and there, he threw such people to the wolves. He left them, in the words of John Keats, the poet, “alone and palely loitering.” So, the betrayal was cyclical, it was mutual. No wonder the cock crowed. But what has happened is only the first crowing of the cock. As the President has foretold, many more will come, again and again. Just on Wednesday, federal and state lawmakers from the President’s own very constituency in Bayelsa State decamped to the APC. What a blow to a man who wielded immense power and influence only two months ago. But thankfully, Jonathan had anticipated it all. If you ask me, President Jonathan has no cause for regret. Rather, he should be filled with thanksgiving. He will retire to Otuoke in one piece. He got to Aso Rock with his wife by his side, they are leaving together, contrary to the dire predictions of some futurologists. He walked in there on his own feet, and he’s not leaving in a body bag. Beyond all, he once had no shoes, now he can start a shoe factory if he wants. No regrets, Mr President, even if the cock crows repeatedly.
