Goodluck Jonathan, David Lyon and the folk-heroes within

BY WEALTH DICKSON OMINABO

Goodluck Ebele Jonathan since leaving power in 2015 has been a great subject, an interesting lesson and a table of content for national discourse within Nigeria and abroad. His legacies, challenges in power and style of governance has been a recurring theme in Nigeria’s political discourse. A United States based think tank, Council for Foreign Relations, in a post about the post presidential life of Dr. Jonathan last year testified that:

“Since his concession, the former president is experiencing something of a renaissance as a senior statesman, at least in certain circles. He has been honored with international awards and invited to deliver keynote remarks at global conferences on everything from peace-building to improving educational opportunities. He is particularly sought-after as a champion of democracy.
“The reinvention of Goodluck Jonathan is a fascinating phenomenon, raising questions about whether there are, or should be, limits to the redemptive power of one’s finest hour. “

Without doubt there are no limits to people’s finest hour; their limits are only determined by God and their choices.
However, there are many Nigerians who are trying to play God, thinking they can limit the glory and honour which God has bestowed upon the person of Dr. Jonathan.

Threatened by the renaissance of Jonathan’s international reputation and stature they have nurtured and sustained a culture of political blackmail and character assassination against the former President. While some have established a routine of publishing false stories and bringing up false claims and counter claims about the timelines of the former President while in power, others simply take delight in raining invective on the man whenever their flaws, and acts of bad governance are in the spotlight, using it as a means of political red herring.

Those who are in this puerile game of propaganda are many: They exist within his home state Bayelsa, at the national level and even abroad. Some are associates, others are political rivals but not enemies as Jonathan has always stated that he has no enemies to fight.
Recently, one of the groups of these traducers commissioned a one writer to do a report about Jonathan and the fallout of the Bayelsa election alleging that the former President and his wife had collected 300 million naira and bullet proof cars from David Lyon, the All Progressives Congress candidate in the last Bayelsa governorship election.

According to the report, a group “accused the Jonathans for sabotaging their mandate after the election. The group says the Jonathans were petty and couldn’t wait for David Lyon to be inaugurated before they started making demands and collecting bullet proof cars.”

It is obvious that the story emanated from a political association in Bayelsa. Anyone conversant with Bayelsa politics should understand their stylistics and speech acts: groups like Reformation, Renaissance and Restoration are all within a subset of a family.
Nobody of rational mind should believe the story, as it was poor in logic, faulty in syllogism and empty in its premise and conclusion.

“In the first place there was no reason for APC or anybody else to offer money and vehicles to the former President for logistics over an inauguration programme in which he was not involved,” a statement from Jonathan’ media office read in its rebuttal of the false story.

The former President’s media adviser, Mr. Ikechukwu Eze who signed the statement later clarified that Dr. Jonathan has no vehicle that is less than four years old, either in his convoy or in his garage. This according to him, is because Dr. Jonathan, whose life is obviously shorn of vainglory, has not seen the need to renew his fleet of vehicles since he left office in 2015.

Jonathan like all former presidents of Nigeria is entitled to new set of vehicles once in every four years but this has not been the case for him because of politics. So, if Jonathan could decide to forgo something to which he is constitutionally entitled, why then will he debase himself to solicit for money and vehicles from a governor-elect.

Jonathan, as many can attest is a modest man who is known for contentment, simplicity and humility unlike the purveyors of this tall tale, who are renowned for greed, pride and lust.

People desirous of becoming folk heroes should pursue their ambition with decorum and mutual respect. They must realise that power, glory, honour and time itself are transient. Why are they so obsessed in blackmailing and pulling down a leader whom the world has come to see as an archetype of democratic temperament? We should be celebrating such leaders.

The joke is on all the former President’s traducers who, rather than work to protect the hero and pride of their state, join other people to persistently malign him. There are ample lessons for such Bayelsans to draw from the people and governments of Ogun, Niger and Plateau States on how to treat a former President within their domain.

Politicians hasty of destroying people’s name and legacies should take heed lest the end up like Ozymandias who after toiling for greatness, power and glory ended up in lamentation and regrets:
“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

The morals from the poem ‘Ozymandias’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley is that power, glory and honour are transient, therefore we should pursue love, truth and justice for they are the eternal virtues that will sustain our legacies in the life after.

Ominabo is a public affairs analyst based in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state