” All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upwards on the miseries or credulities of mankind “
- Joseph Conrad, Polish -British novelist , 1857- 1924 .
The Polish -British writer , Joseph Conrad credited to have penned the work “Heart of Darkness” which rankled Chinua Achebe , prompting the essay of 1975 ” An image of Africa :Racism in Conrads heart of Darkness” . On what the great literary avatar had said about”ambition ” it is likely going to attract more accolades than his book “The heart of Darkness ” ,as ambition is normal but not when it aligns with absurdity.
England’s national poet and “Bard of Avon” , the inimitable William Shakespeare, in his literary works
literary works ,created characters that were ambitious. We saw the ambitions of the characters, making and throwing them under the buses .
For instance, in Shakespeare “Julius Caesar,” we saw Brutus drawing the sword that killed Julius Caesar ,as he claimed Julius Caesar ambition, which had led to consolidation of power and accumulation of honours were dangerous to Rome and inimical to Republican values . Which was why Mark Anthony,in his funeral oration at the Capitol had to raise the issue when he said inter alia : ” the noble Brutus hath told you Caesar was ambitions and if it was so ,it was grievous fault,and grievously hath Caesar answered it” . To Brutus, Caesars political rise ,was one to be checked by Rome ,and he volunteered himself to check that ambition.
In Shakespeare “Macbeth” human ambition also reared it’s head when the three witches of Endor appeared to Macbeth and prophesied that he was going to be the Thane of Cowdor . Macbeths ambition was fueled by the witches ,as his vaulting ambition to bring to fruition the prophesy upon his head led him into committing regicide ,by killing King Duncan and Banquo. He allowed the wife lady Macbeth to push his ambition beyond boundaries of conscience ,with everything ending in shame as he was later killed by Malcolm.
The great literary avatar,professor Chinua Achebe in his Magnum Opus “Things fall Apart” presented to us a character who was full of ambition. That man ,was the great Okonkwo of Umuofia . His ambition was to extricate himself from his father’s appalling legacy of poverty and weakness. To actualize that he relentlessly set his his search for strength and discipline. Giving farming his all ,as his farm barns spoke eloquently of his commitment. He was hailed for breaking the dominance of Amalinze the cat in community wrestling, by trouncing him in a wrestling contest. Unoka ,the father of Okonkwo,the talented flutist ,was later to be consigned to the bins of history,as Okonkwo ran with his ambition.
A voyage into history also throws up another man driven by ambition- he was no other person than , Alexander 111 of Macedon ,better known as Alexander the Great. ( 356 – 323 BC) who was once a Macedonian king ,that ruled over an expansive empire that reached from Greece to the Gandharan regions of Pakistan.He had an ambition of becoming an immortal God to be worshiped around the world.He conquered many territories ,that his army was feared around the time he lived.
Philip 11 of Macedon, who was the father of Alexander the great was actually the one that wired the ambition of his son , as he was a man with burning ambition,who desired that his Macedonian Argead Dynasty grew in wealth and power.
This , writer,had taken out time to fish out names that have reminded us how to be ambitious,who existed as fables or in reality. It is to lay the foundation of accepting Dr Good luck Jonathans presidential ambition that has become an issue of conjecture for some time. While accepting his right to run for the presidential seat that he once sat , this writer will not fail to remind the former president on what the late Dr Chuba Okadigbo,the Oyi of Oyi ,and former Senate president of Nigeria, refers to as “banana peels ” that litters the political pathways in Nigeria.
While attending the 70th birthday celebration of his former chief of staff ,Dr Mike Oghhiadomhe ,as reported in Daily Trust of September 4,2025 ,the former president Jonathan was credited to have said:
”Politics in Nigeria standard is about betrayal. I have witnessed a lot of betrayal during 2025 election”
”You’ll find it difficult to see somebody who will say the same thing in the morning and say the same thing in the afternoon and in the evening.
” They will tell you something this minute and the next one hour , they’ll say another. They next one hour they’ll say another thing “
The betrayal former president acknowledged that exists in Nigeria politics was part of the “banana peels ” the oratorical Dr Chuba Okadigbo spoke about when he presided over the Nigerian Senate. If the feelers we are getting of President Jonathan running for the 2027 presidential race is yanked off from the realm of rumors to realism , could it then be that Dr Jonathan has braced up to march on the “banana peels” or face his betrayers as he enters the presidential race? Without the perks office at his disposal,are we not likely going to witness the burgeoning of the numbers of betrayers ?
Beyond, betrayers and the “banana peels” as espoused by Dr Okadigbo, wouldn’t it amount to Dr Jonathan over stretching the “luck ” in his name that seems to have taken him far in public life? From a Deputy governor in Bayelsa state he stepped into the shoes of his disgraced principal,former governor Diepreye Alamieseigha , without election. He was chosen in 2007 as the running mate to Musa Yardua ,the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic party in that year election. The election won by PDP , he became the Vice president of Nigeria. With a twist of fate he became president, when the beloved president Musa Yardua suddenly died in office. In his life it has been harvests of luck ,which temporarily took flight with his defeat in 2O15 by late president Mohammad Buhari.
How do we reconcile the rumoured presidential bid of Dr Jonathan with the statement of the wife sometime in the year as captured by punch Newspaper of 12th May,2025 ,when she was credited to have said in the papers caption ” Why Jonathan won’t run again in 2027 _patience Jonathan” “I stand by my friend. My friend is great . I told her ,I would campaign with her . I ‘m not denying her . I’m not running. I’m not going back to the villa . If you call me ,I will not go”? Are we going to see former president Jonathan and the wife s, Patience Jonathan, singing two different hymn books? Would President Jonathan go alone to the villa without patience assuming luck shines on him for the umpteen time ?
Commissioned to advise former president Goodluck Jonathan on whether to contest the 2O27 presidential election,this writer shall wear the thinking cap of Ahithophel in the Christian writ to say it to his face ” Sir perish the thought ‘ . You have reached the apogee of public service by once serving as the president of this country,and do not need to be like the “Abiku” the spirit child in Wole Soyinka poem that was enjoying the circle of birth”
Basking in my Ahithophelian heritage, I shall put it to him that President Mandela served only one term ,and made his name ,as it is not the term that matters but the impact . This writer, shall counsel him not to fall to the seduction of the lady macbeths and Judases Iscariots laying ambush at the political gate for him to pass . He should resist the betrayers adorning the garb of patriots seeking to torpedo his towering global reputation garnered after his acceptance of 2015 presidential defeat ,by pitting him with opponents that are ever ready to “snatch victory and run with it”. The Almighty God had bless him beyond measure; having ascended into the presidential seat of Nigeria that eluded names like ,Chief Obafemi Awolowo , Malam Aminu Kano, Chief MKO Abiola ,Dr Alex Ekwueme and a host of others. What becomes of this Ahithophelian advice stays in the womb of time .