History Beckons: Parallels between Mikhail Gorbachev and Goodluck Jonathan
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- Category: Jacob Longpring
- Published on Thursday, 10 November 2011 00:00
- Written by Jacob Longpring
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Parallel studies, are attempts at comparing relationship or similarity between two things, especially things that exist or happen in different places or at different times.
Humble Background
Gorbachev, born March, 2 1931 was the son of Russian peasants in Stavropol territory (kray) in south-western Russia. He joined the Komsomol (Young Communist League) in 1946 and drove a combine harvester at a state farm in Stavropol for the next four years. Goodluck: was the son of peasants Ijaw parents in the present Bayelsa State, in South-South Nigeria.
Education
Gorbachev, despite his humble background, went ahead to study, and in 1952 he entered the law school of Moscow State University and became a member of the Communist Party. He graduated with a degree in law in 1955. Jonathan: due to sheer will power and efforts of his family, he surmounted all the challenges arrayed against his life, and earned a Ph.D. and secured employment as a Lecturer.
Politics
Gorbachev: Gorbachev was named a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1971, and he was appointed a party secretary of agriculture in 1978. He became a candidate member of the Politburo in 1979 and a full member in 1980. He owed a great deal of his steady rise in the party to the patronage of Mikhail Suslov, the leading party ideologue.
Jonathan: Jonathan was named by DSP Alameiseigha to be his running mate in 1998, for the position of Governorhip of Bayelsa State, where he won, and was sworn-in as Governor on May 29th, 1999, with Jonathan as Deputy. Prominence Gorbachev: Over the course of Yury Andropov's 15-month tenure (1982–84) as general secretary of the Communist Party, Gorbachev became one of the Politburo's most highly active and visible members. Jonathan: As Deputy Governor, Goodluck Jonathan was one of the most popular Deputy Governors, as he represented the Governor on various occasions, the Governor had no difficulty trusting him with many responsibilities, thus given him publicity.
Rising through Misfortune of others
Gorbachev: After Andropov died and Konstantin Chernenko became General Secretary in February 1984, Gorbachev became a likely successor to the latter. Chernenko died on March 10, 1985, and the following day the Politburo elected Gorbachev general secretary of the CPSU.
Jonathan: DSP Alameiseigha, was arrested in London for money laundering and was fighting one of his greatest political battles. Pressures were mounted on Jonathan to assume full control of the State as Governor, but Jonathan took a rather unpopular stand, by remaining loyal to the Governor throughout the ordeal. Disguise allegedly as a woman, the Governor return in a rousing welcome in his home stead with Jonathan leading the masses to welcome the Governor. Few weeks after, he was impeached by the State Assembly, thus Jonathan became Governor of Bayelsa State. Owning in part to that kind of loyalty, the former President, named Jonathan to be his running mate, in the 2007 Presidential Election. Due to protracted ailment, Jonathan became Acting President in a historic National Assembly invocation of the Doctrine of Necessity, few months after; he was sworn-in as substantive President with the demise of Umaru Musa Yar’adua, who was elected President 2007.
Consolodation of Power Gorbachev: In October 1988 Gorbachev was able to consolidate his power by his election to the chairmanship of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (the national legislature).
Jonathan: In May 29th, 2011 Jonathan was sworn-in as President of Nigeria, having contested and won the April, 2011 Presidential polls with his running mate Arc. Mohammed Namadi Sambo, thus, is consolidating his political strength.
Reformation Agenda
Gorbachev: Gorbachev in 1987–88 proceeded to initiate deeper reforms of the Soviet economic and political system. Under his new policy of glasnost (“openness”), a major cultural thaw took place: freedoms of expression and of information were significantly expanded; the press and broadcasting were allowed unprecedented candour in their reportage and criticism; and the country's legacy of Stalinist totalitarian rule was eventually completely repudiated by the government. Under Gorbachev's policy of perestroika (“restructuring”), the first modest attempts to democratize the Soviet political system were undertaken; multicandidate contests and the secret ballot were introduced in some elections to party and government posts.
Jonathan: President Jonathan is currently engaged with massive reformation of the various sectors of the economy. He has charge to civil servants to reduce bureaucracy and ensure optimum performance. There is several “transformational policy” the government is embarking upon.
International Acclaim
Gorbachev: In foreign affairs, Gorbachev from the beginning cultivated warmer relations and trade with the developed nations of both West and East. In December 1987 he signed an agreement with U.S. President Ronald Reagan for their two countries to destroy all existing stocks of intermediate-range nuclear-tipped missiles. In 1990 Gorbachev received the Nobel Prize for Peace for his striking achievements in international relations.
Jonathan: President is a welcome guess at many international fora. His election is accepted internationally as been free and fair.
Civil Unrest
Gorbachev: The new freedoms arising from Gorbachev's democratization and decentralization of his nation's political system led to civil unrest in several of the constituent republics (e.g., Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Uzbekistan) and to outright attempts to achieve independence in others (e.g., Lithuania).
Jonathan: Jonathan ascension to power though internationally accepted was considered not acceptable by a fraction of the Nigerian population, which gave rise to bloodletting and emergence of suicide bombers, and bomb attacks in the nation, with sects like Boko Haram gaining notoriety.
Oblivious of American Conspiracy
Gorbachev: In December 1987 he signed an agreement with U.S. President Ronald Reagan for their two countries to destroy all existing stocks of intermediate-range nuclear-tipped missiles. In 1988–89 he oversaw the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan after their nine-year occupation of that country. The American have always seen USSR as threat, they were known enemies.
Jonathan: American intelligence report has predicted the disintegration of Nigeria. That theory has not yet been falsified. The President recently invited the FBI and the Israeli secret agency to help in the security breach in the country. Nigeria has one of the finest oil in the World; we are the largest black nation on earth. We possess one of the greatest deposits of natural resources.
Acquiescence
Gorbachev: Throughout 1989 he had seized every opportunity to voice his support for reformist communists in the Soviet-bloc countries of Eastern Europe, and, when communist regimes in those countries collapsed like dominoes late that year, Gorbachev tacitly acquiesced in their fall. As democratically elected, non-communist governments came to power in East Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia in late 1989–90, Gorbachev agreed to the phased withdrawal of Soviet troops from those countries.
Jonathan: Instead of over hauling the nation’s security in the face of unrest, Jonathan seems to be acquiescing to the explanation of obvious ineptitude by the security chiefs in carrying their mandate.
Overwhelmed with Reformation, Loss touch with Reality
Gorbachev: Gorbachev sought a compromise between these two diametrically opposed alternatives in vain, and so the centrally planned economy continued to crumble with no private enterprise to replace it. Gorbachev remained the undisputed master of the ailing Communist Party, but his attempts to augment his presidential powers through decrees and administrative reshufflings proved fruitless, and his government's authority and effectiveness began a serious decline. In the face of a collapsing economy, rising public frustration, and the continued shift of power to the constituent republics, Gorbachev wavered in direction, allying himself with party conservatives and the security organs in late 1990. Gorbachev also moved quickly to shift fundamental political powers to the Soviet Union's constituent republics. Events outpaced him, however, and the Russian government under Yeltsin readily assumed the functions of the collapsing Soviet government as the various republics agreed to form a new commonwealth under Yeltsin's leadership. On Dec. 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned the presidency of the Soviet Union, which ceased to exist that same day. To the jubilation of Americans, the USSR disintegrated.
Jonathan: The President is currently addressing the security problem in the nation in the best way he assumes is right, taking advices obviously from the security chiefs who are bereft of ideas as evidence by their failure in contending the security breach, supported by the US, who have predicted the disintegration of the country.
Conclusion
Nigeria is a great country, we are blessed with lots of minerals and natural resources, we are the largest black nation on Earth. Our greatness is in our diversity. The President must not allow the story of USSR to be replicated in Nigeria. We must evolve new measures to contain with our challenges. Posterity is not indebted to us, lessons abounds of many failed state, and why and how they failed. History beckons Mr President.
© 2011 Jacob Longpring. Jacob is on Facebook
References: "Gorbachev, Mikhail." Encyclopædia Britannica. Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011.
