By Bisi Lawrence
Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, PhD, GCFR, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Commander of the Armed Forces, must know something that the rest of us do not know. He wants another term in office, a desire which certain sections of the nation vehemently oppose. We all know that.

The secret of how he hopes to achieve that ambition, however, is what he is yet to share with all but his close friends and relatives. In the first place, those who oppose his bid for the presidency on the grounds that it would compound an illegitimate number of terms of office do have an arguable standpoint, even if it has not found any appreciable favour in the law courts up till now. But they are a formidable and relentless class of opponents and will have their say at least on election day.

The President’s involvement with the local politics of his state, Bayelsa, almost reduced his status to that of a regional leader in outlook. The extent of embroilment with the ousted governor nearly brought the episode to a personal level publicly. It definitely did not enhance his political image nationally, but would have smashed his political reputation to smithereens if  he had come off second best in a contest which needed not to feature his interest so clearly. True enough, President Olusegun Obasanjo did the same, but that was in his second term and after he had acquired the Yoruba States, with the exception of  Lagos, into the fold of the Peoples Democratic Party. That gave him a substantial clout to buttress his political position even on the national stage. What is more, he had only the adventurous and reckless “third-term” ambition in play; he had exhausted the constitutional limit of a presidential tenure.

President Jonathan, on the other hand, obviously is under starter’s orders to run for another term and needs to present himself as a winsome candidate, instead of generating resentment in various sections. He has already alienated the feelings of the people of the South West, mostly the Yoruba, to whom he is yet to show a desirable measure of attention as an important section of the federation. The neglect of this people in his consideration reeks to high heavens in his show of disfavour. One sometimes wonders if he is in possession of a secret ploy by which be can win them over when he really needs them, as he definitely will.

His track record in the solution of our security problems is highlighted by the dilemma of the confrontation with the Boko Haram scourge. It is not a failing for which he is personally accountable, but the buck still stops at his table. It is his responsibility to design a solution that will halt the harrowing excesses of this sect which now seems able to strike at will, in a rampant posture that throws disdain at the face of the nation.

Even within his party, the PDP, he has failed to be a rallying point to the diverse elements in the higher rung. His tactics, which is as subtle as that of a bull in a china shop, has succeeded in fragmenting the unity that would ensure solidarity among the rank and file. The pardon which he offered some ex-convicts recently did not meet with wholesale acceptance within the party itself, some of whose members hide their embarrassment under the cloak of silence. It earned the outright condemnation of foreign nations, some of which have registered sanctions against Nigeria in defiance of the internationally accepted principle of non-interference in the affairs of a foreign independent state. Even before that, his anti-corruption stance had developed lamentable defects. No wonder he has himself admitted that no government in Nigeria has ever been as criticised as his own.

So how does he get back into office through the votes of the people he has opposed, marginalized, failed to protect and whose image he has succeeded in demeaning before the whole world? Even the ethnic card he has relied on is wilting before the heat of his own people’s antipathy at his myriad of inappropriate measures. Chief of these, and the one that may eventually write off his hopes for a return to Aso Rock, is his fixation on raising the price of petroleum products. He has started on that trail again. And, again, with his “ruff ‘n tumble” tactics.

oga at the top 

The classic interview seeks to extract special, or specialized, information from someone who is in possession of it for the benefit of the public. Sometimes it is for the edification of the interviewer too. The interviewer therefore starts out from the “humble” position of a person who wants to know certain facts from his “guest”.

Now, one uses that word with some discretion. It establishes the relationship between the interviewer who is in the position of the host and therefore bears the responsibility for the welfare of his visitor. His position demands a definite standard of courtesy and protection for the man, or woman, who has agreed – or  is obliged—to talk to him. To portray this, the volume of the interviewee’s voice used to be intentionally slightly more enhanced on radio, while he or she could be more favoured through lighting or projection on camera — the more to portray him or her “in a good light”, (beyond merely a manner of speaking.) To all that is added the unwritten rule that one does not engage his guest in an argument, or attempt to score off him or her. Those tricks of the trade are, of course, no longer emphasized specially, as long-time usage seems to have absorbed them into normal application.

These are the basics of the profession, although interviews as well as those who conduct them have developed a variety of modes and styles. Ed Murrow, the fabulous war correspondent and first Director of the Voice of America, arguably invented the style of making the guest to justify his or her standpoint, by asking questions with an accusatory or provocative flavour. He sometimes got it back in the face, though, like when he asked the fabulous pianist (who was suspected to be gay) why he wasn’t married. Liberace quipped back that it was for the same reason that Murrow himself was twice divorced.

But Murrow was so famous and floated on so high a reputation that dignitaries and celebrities queued to get interviewed by him. He had a special chair on which his guests sat, and which he carried all over the world for the sessions. But in all the skirmishes he was reputed to have incited over and across the seas, he was never once accounted to have been rude to any of his guests on the air.

Neither, of course, has David Frost. Urbane, debonair, but nevertheless armed with an array of incisive incendiary, Frost has charmed his audiences over decades by his masterly management of the art of conversation. He exploded telling facts with marked courtesy in the face of celebrities, and then wiped off any lingering trace of embarrassment with a smile and a warm handshake at the end. In my book, he ranks the most lethal interviewer of all time.

Of course, there have been great and glamorous interviewers in the media as the increasing force of the need for information continues to fuel decisions and actions on a global scale. But, even when the interviewer’s advantage of any given situation is obvious over his guest, the rein of moderation is very seldom relaxed. Just imagine what that Amanpour of a lady could have done by way of making mincemeat of our “oga at the top” recently. But the “professional” came through, though some us were squirming on our seats throughout the interview.

Those who took so much delight on the social media in the discomfiture of Obafaiye Shem, the Lagos State Commandant of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, would appear to have missed the point completely.

Their hilarity at the shortcoming of a man in answering a question that may not be absolutely relevant to the discharge of his duties exposed the shallowness of their wit — and maybe one should not have expected anything deeper, judging from the kind of language they use, and the type of music they make anyway. But, on the whole, the reaction at that level could be the outburst of the pent-up resentment against the slavish worship of those superior officers in authority, whose word is inviolable.

Their sacrosanct directive and its execution is settled and sealed by the pronouncement of “order from above!” The rule of law, the very air of freedom that we breathe, forbids that product of a retarded mentality in this day and age. That is the point, and it veers more to the tragic than the comic.

Most of all, one is sadly left with the impression that those who claim to be professionals within the media, and who base that argument apparently on a very solid foundation too, may all the same not be fully aware of the power they seem to handle so casually. And, by the way, to accept responsibility for a situation is not, by that fact, to absolve oneself of accountability for its consequences.

a jesuit as the pope

The final remark made on this page last week in connection with the election of Pope Francis I to the throne of St, Peter was that we may be in for “an interesting time as distinct from interesting times”. Indeed, it could be otherwise as I made it known to several readers who have called me, in preference to expressing their views by text. Someone even disputed that the new Pope should be addressed as “Francis I”, but that is patently who he is—the first Pontiff of that name in Roman Catholic history.             “

The remark about “interesting times” sprang, actually, from my awareness of the history of the Jesuits, the order to which he belongs. It is indeed remarkable because one of the basic principles of the Jesuits is that they do not present themselves for ecclesiastical office.  Pope Francis is the first Jesuit to become a Pope mainly for that fact. The order produces intellectuals by the way its preparation for priesthood is processed.

The priests spend about four longer years than is ordinarily demanded for other orders. This serves them in good stead for the promotion of education which is the visage of the hallmark of their ministry. Their educational institutions are steeped in Roman Catholicism, and are usually named for the rounder of the order, St. Ignatius Loyola. We have them here in Abuja, Ibadan and other places.

The Jesuits, who are named in full as The Society of Jesus, were prominent in history as proponents of the Counter Reformation, when Roman Catholicism struck back at the rising wave of the Reformation founded by Martin Luther.