THE ways of nature and man are unfathomable, deep and endless. The more we try to find meaning to life, the more it pushes us into deeper search and it goes on and on.

At certain points in time, nature had thrust certain individuals into positions of pre-eminence, it is difficult to rationally explain how but they arrive their destination and fulfill their due destiny despite the machinations, wiles and devices of men.

Barak Obama is one of such, born of an African father who landed in the United States as recently as the 1960s and a Muslim. The two combinations cannot logically add up for somebody that aspires to be the president of today’s America but here you have him as the president doing his second term.

Nelson Mandela was not the foremost freedom fighter South Africa had when he was put in jail in the early sixties but destiny thrust him in the forefront of the apartheid struggle, right inside jail , the rest is history, before his death, he was arguably the greatest man that lived in his time.

Olusegun Obasanjo came out of prison to become president of Nigeria, he was only fulfilling destiny, even as his people rejected him, and he still managed to find himself as the president of Nigeria.

That is life, unpredictable and unexplainable. Goodluck Jonathan grew up in a rural minority ethnic village. According to his account, as a small boy going to school, his parents could not afford to buy him shoes. He did not deliberately or consciously seek to become deputy governor, governor, vice president and president respectively but today, he has occupied all of these positions with little effort or struggle.

The South-south minority ethnic groups have an abundance of very capable, intelligent, focused, creative and exuberant young men, who can stand their own anywhere in the world, not only in Nigeria but destiny picked a certain Goodluck Jonathan to attain the position of president; what people are killing and dying for, he got effortlessly.

That is the way of life, if a man of history is riding his destiny, whether for good or for bad, there is nothing any man can do. It is at this point that those who are spiritually sensitive will ask the people to pray, for direction for our leadership and for peace in the country.

Nigeria is a blessed country, with a lot of potentials. A people get the leadership that they deserve. If there is peace across the land, there will be development, you cannot call for war, abusing the leadership as clueless and ineffective and expect something good to come out of them. The holy book tells us that there is power in our tongue, what you say is what you get. You cannot deliberately undermine the leadership because you want to attain their positions and expect to enjoy it when you get there, it does not work like that.

That is how I see things. Jonathan is a child of destiny and there is no deviousness of man that can change that.

It is very instructive for us to note that, at this time of our democracy, we have a person of Goodluck Jonathan’s temperament as the president of Nigeria. People have deliberately goaded him to react in a manner that will set the nation ablaze but he has disappointed them with his calm and peaceful demeanor.

Those who could not pass the Freedom of Information Bill, FoI, during their time in government are now coming out to talk; some could not even accommodate their vice presidents and deputy governors. Jonathan’s Freedom of Information Bill has now made it possible for the citizenry to know how much is spent on drinking tea in Aso rock villa.

The NNPC was run consistently for eight years like a cult by Obasanjo and his cronies, dishing out subsidies and rentals of all types, yet, nobody said a word. Jonathan’s openness has put the NNPC debate on the front burner and some people are yet to be appreciative of this.

I saw President Obasanjo the other day on television, gesticulating and talking about the country’s leadership, the question that I have for him is this: What leadership example did he leave behind in his uncountable years in office? Everybody is shouting PDP, the destruction of democratic structures in the PDP started with Obasanjo’s interference with the Senate leadership. If he had done his part, the whole debate about transparency in the NNPC and the rest would have been a thing of history by now.

The culture of imposition and arbitrary removal of people from positions gained grounds during Obasanjo’s PDP tenure. How many senate presidents, party chairmen, governors were unconstitutionally removed from offices? And how many prominent politicians were killed? Have we forgotten Bola Ige so soon? Harry Marshall, Dikibo et al?

And, the so called progressives are now busy clinking glasses, wining and dining with him and asking him to navigate for us.

Jonathan is not the problem of Nigeria and he is also, not the problem of the PDP. We all know the PDP governors who decamped for their selfish reasons after ensuring that the party imploded.

I am not a politician, neither do I owe any allegiance to any political god father, but I have the conviction that as a child of destiny, a child of circumstance, Jonathan will fulfill his before he leaves.

Mr. Sunny Ikhioya, a commentator on national issues, wrote from Lagos.