Jonathan is needed more at home

A week ago, former President Goodluck Jonathan was in London ostensibly to sell his proposed foundation and took time too to respond to some questions by the present government and some of its supporters. Having dashed back to Nigeria to debunk insinuations that he was on exile and perhaps running away from justice, what with all manner of probes and investigations going on which the Buhari administration releases news of such anytime it is getting too much heat for having promised what it could not deliver, it was instructive that he responded.

Going through the text of the address, one came away with a question, “When will President Jonathan be true to himself?” I sort of got the feeling that he is still being held hostage even after leaving office. Perhaps he is also too much in a hurry to convince Nigerians that his government meant well and cannot be the worst as critics are painting him. Well, history will judge what his administration stood for especially as we are just a little over a year into the one which took over from him and I dare say he might get a favourable view than some of us are willing to contemplate. Our political leaders understand that we suffer from collective amnesia, a major reason why they are always too quick to re-write history after leaving power.

A PDP member said something instructive on television few weeks back, he said only two former leaders are being investigated for corruption: “one that is dead, and the other one that is gentle.”  A careful observer knows that he was referring to Jonathan who confessed in a question and answer session that he is being investigated for corruption. This is no rocket science as perhaps the only person left that has not been queried, at least publicly, is former vice president Namadi Sambo. This piece is not a critique of the Jonathan government; we can only judge him sufficiently after we are able to compare it to its successor and also in relation to others before him. It is also not a continuation of the romanticism of his decision to concede the presidential election even when the results have not been publicly announced. Notably, this has been acknowledged globally and this was also alluded to when President Buhari hosted State House correspondents to dinner on May 29.

But it is an admonition to Jonathan to stay at home and talk to Nigerians more. Running away from Nigeria cannot endear him to the citizens he led for five years. As speeches go, there was nothing inspiring in the one he gave last week in London and for a person whose strength has never include oratory, it was no wonder that the question and answer session generated more headlines than the speech. An amalgam of several quotes from Cicero to Charles Rangel and others, it affirmed why political communication is a dying art in this part of the world and how his speech writers continue to do him harm than good. Quite a lot of his government achievements could have been better communicated while in office. By the way, one hopes he has fired those writing for him before, as he surely deserves better writers.

A major evil of our democratic experience since 1999 is the absence of bipartisanship on matters crucial for development. A Jonathan at home is much more relevant than one outside the country. While he cannot be chummy with the current president or be going in and out of Aso Rock like a former president better ignored, his moderating influence will come in handy.  Of course I’m not in the category of those asking him to rein Niger delta militants as though he created them originally, but if asked by the Buhari government, he should be ready to serve as a peace envoy in dialoguing with those bent on bringing Nigeria to her knees. Since he has refused to be the arrowhead of PDP resurrection, it allows him a better pathway to statesmanship that he clearly desires and one that does not need the services of consultants, especially foreign ones, which did not help him to win re-election. Asking him to go ahead and stylishly apologise for signing a bill passed by the National Assembly might win few international friends but risks alienating him at home further. After all, politics at its best is basically a local affair and a good person abroad and bad one at home does nobody any good.

Dear Jonathan, be yourself and stop ‘running’ from Nigeria. Talk to us more at home and remember history is the ultimate judge.