A Tale Of Two Leaders

Many Nigerians like to jokingly, or otherwise, compare the challenges of being a Nigerian to that of being an Arsenal fan in the past decade. I could never see any relationship between the two entities, not until early this morning anyway. And maybe not in the way most people see it either.

Last year Nigerians voted out a leader who was accused of been incompetent, clueless and weak. President Jonathan was also accused of not caring about the masses and lining his pockets at the expense of Nigeria. These accusations are more or less exactly the same ones thrown at Arsene Wenger these days.

When Arsene Wenger was appointed The Arsenal manager he was an outsider for the job. So much so that most in the English press didn’t know a lot about him. This was highlighted by the infamous “Arsene Who?” headline. He became Arsenal’s 1^st ever foreign manager but it didn’t stop him from changing Arsenal and English football forever, for good. President Jonathan only became president because his boss died in office and the constitution automatically made him president. I’m certain if an election was held to replace his boss, the late Yar’adua, Jonathan wouldn’t even have won his party’s nomination. He did enough work in the remaining 2 years of his boss’ tenure to not only win his party’s nomination but also the general elections in 2011. First time we had a president who was of southern minority origin.

In the four years that followed he made a lot of good and bad decisions, mostly good in my opinion. Unfortunately, most Nigerians didn’t think so and last year he was voted out after the most propaganda filled elections I have ever witnessed. Arsene, just like every human being, has made a lot of decisions in his time at Arsenal. They have been mostly good in my opinion.

Just a little over a year after President Jonathan was voted out a dollar now exchanges at around 350Naira as opposed to around 180N under Jonathan, the cost of living in Nigeria has pretty much doubled. We have reports of people dying of hunger on a daily basis, the worst rates since the civil war. Polio, eradicated under Jonathan, has made a comeback. Journalists are getting arrested or declared wanted for reporting the news as opposed to celebrating the freedom of information bill under Jonathan. I could go on and on.

The way I feel about Arsene Wenger’s tenure at the moment is exactly the same way I felt about Jonathan’s presidency just before he was voted out. I believe(d) we can do better than him, I believe(d) we could/can have a better president/manager but having seen the options in front of us I believe(d) he is/was our best bet at this/that moment. I really hope President Buhari has a secret grand plan and it works out well for us all in the end just like I hope whoever succeed’s Wenger, whenever he goes, surpasses his achievements. I wouldn’t bet a dollar on it happening though and that’s not just because a dollar is too much money these days.