There is something refreshing about the way President Goodluck Jonathan intends to run his campaign. It is obvious that he learnt a lot from the way President Barack Obama ran his campaign - and won.
For some months now the President has been on Facebook. As expected, he has loads of 'friends' and he has been making good use of the opportunity to interact on a personal level with Nigerians which is very novel in these parts. It is heart warming that the President recognises that we have gone past the digital age. We are in the Information age; it is here with us in living colours, in email, on websites, in blogs, on hand helds, on your mobile phone, on Facebook, in MySpace, on Twitter, in Delicious, on Digg - you name it. These social media drives the information age. We are all witnesses to how President Obama leveraged technology and the web to his advantage. He was able to mobilize a critical mass of voters who hitherto were nonchalant about electoral matters in the United States. He raised millions of dollars in campaign funds through micro donations from his campaign website. While his opponent was lazily collecting restricted federal funds, Obama opted to forgo such funding. He knew what he was doing. In the end he collected so much in donations that he could match and even out run John McCain in their media wars.
However, over and above everything else, Obama was able to communicate one-on-one with the voters through his facebook page and by email and twitter. And he continues to do so even as President which is unprecedented. Obama's Facebook page is very popular not only in the US but around the world. He is able to reach his people and get raw, unadulterated feedback from them. Like this, he can gauge the reaction and effects of government policies in the lives of ordinary citizens. So it is very refreshing that our very own Goodluck Jonathan is treading this pioneering path. Jonathan's Facebook page has tremendously helped ordinary folks like me to meet him one-on-one and communicate our deepest feelings. And he responds. On his page, he has been able to sell his ideas directly to me. He has been able to explain some the policy thrusts of his government. This makes for maximum impact because if I have any contrary view to some of his claims, I give it back to him right there unedited, unsifted. This is the essence of the information age - the democratization of media and ideas.
Some of those discredited politicians coming out of the woodwork know next to nothing about the age we are living in. It is very probable that they intend to rule with ancient ideas and methods. We know them. We have seen them before say the same things, promise the same things, cajole us, bribe us but no sooner are the gates of government house shut behind them do they also shut us out of their minds and programmes completely. From then on, the government is for them and their families, friends, cohorts, bootlickers, thugs and the like. They scant hear us no matter how hard we shout - they have bought over the media houses or firmly controlled the state media house - they scant pay attention to us as they whizz past in their long convoys cocooned in bullet-proof vehicles with tinted glasses, yes tinted glasses - they don't want to bother their conscience with the spectre of an impoverished population that voted them in. In this campaign season, they are stepping out of the tinted bullet-proof vehicles. They are climbing down from their Hill Top residences, they are coming to promise us this and that. Their information managers (read Special Assistant on Media or Commissioner for Information and Strategy) are flagellating all over the place trying their best to recast the stories of their principals in good light. But they fail. We are a more enlightened society even if not more educated. We shall not be deceived.
I have read President Goodluck's declaration to run on Facebook. He has started well by not promising eldorado once he is elected. This shows that he is leader who is firmly rooted in reality. Nigeria's developmental problems took all of 50 years to mature into some complex labyrinth that cannot be unknotted in four or even eight years. So those promising fours years "to lay a foundation" for development should go back to their luxury hilltop to lap up what is left of Nigeria's stolen billions in their custody. But it would have made more sense to bring what is left of the billions of dollars as restitution so that we can start the 'development' by ploughing the money into electricity transmission for instance. Nigerians would easily forgive such acts of repentance rather than the braggadocio in-your-face antics presently being paraded. Nigerians need a leader who is in touch with the people. Not a leader in touch with sycophants. Not a leader who is 'larger than life' because of stolen wealth.
In recounting some of his modest achievements in the short time he has been in office, we see President Jonathan not overly thumping his chest as haven met all the expectations of Nigerians. He did not magnify anything. He merely said those improvements are the things expected of a government that works for the people. He is making a sublime statement that government is about service. It is about providing infrastructure. It is about improving the living standards of the people. That was the reason he was voted in with Yar' Adua in the first place. So, if he is providing those things that he was elected to provide, why should we thank him for it as if the funds used belonged to him. I give kudos to Jonathan for thinking straight, it shows he has grasped the full import of governance. It has never ceased to amaze me when state governors, presidents or public officers holding high positions in government consciously go out of their way to get sycophants to take out full page adverts to congratulate them for building roads and bridges, schools and hospitals, or delivering the so-called dividends of democracy. Pray, whose money was used to build those facilities? So if a governor spends government money for the people, we have to thank him? Thank him for doing his job? Or are we thanking him for spending the money for our benefit instead of 'chopping' it? A monumental shift in thinking is what the average and high-minded politician needs in this country. They should stop paying lip-service to democracy. Democracy is for the people, not for brigands parading themselves as democrats.
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