Field Marshal Goodluck Ebele Jonathan

He has said he is neither a General nor a Pharaoh. But yesterday, he looked every inch a Field Marshal, a rank no living or dead Nigerian leader has ever attained. 

The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, at the inauguration of a production line for arms and ammunition by the Army, frowned like a soldier as he took the salute. Not that he did not smile intermittently, but his countenance, for most of the time he gracefully wore his Field Marshal rank, was soldierly. He shook hands and smiled excitedly when a sharp, brisk salute would have been just okay. But Dr. Jonathan looked good in his customised army camouflage/ combat uniform. 

The President feels at home anywhere he goes. When in the Southeast, he becomes an Igbo man decking the traditional dress with a red cap. 

The last time he visited Ibadan, Oyo State, he adorned buba and sokoto, with the abeti aja cap to complement it.  When in the North, the babariga sits pretty on him as though he were one of them.

He has felt at ease in Tiv attires, just like Idoma clothes have seen in him a perfect frame. 

On Saturday, when he was in Benin to campaign for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he became a Bini man, with red beads dangling on his neck. 

He has also been momentarily Navy and Air Force officer. But his outing yesterday caused more than a stir in some circles. The President wearing a Field Marshal rank—perhaps the first to do so in recent times— sure takes the icing.