Jonathan’s new song

BY INNOCENT WANIKO

“One of the reasons people hate politics is that truth is rarely a politician’s objective. Election and power are” – Cal Thomas

The 2015 Nigerian elections are long done and gone. Or so we thought. It was the first time in the history of Nigeria, an incumbent president or ruling party was eased out of presidential power. The then incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan made an applauded phone call to his rival, Muhammadu Buhari conceding the election and congratulating the “winner”. It is trite to mention he subsequently went on to handover. Across Africa and the world, Jonathan was roundly commended for his “statesmanship conduct” that averted a civil breakdown and tension by his acceptance of defeat.

The African continent has witnessed an adamant sit tight Mugabe in Zimbabwe, a defiant Jammeh in Gambia that was forced to leave power by the international community, a Kabila that has remain insistent in the Democratic Republic of Congo, amongst others. Jonathan refused to add his name to that shameful list.

By initially admitting defeat and ensuring a rancour-free political transition, Jonathan won the admiration of many and cast himself as a globally reputable figure. As a result, he was invited to lecture at the prestigious Oxford Union on the 24th of October 2016. Jonathan had earlier attended and delivered a speech at the annual United States Presidential Precinct in December 2015. There were similar other occasions that recognised Jonathan. In spite of the general ineptitude that characterised his government and his loss at the polls, many still held the former helmsman in good esteem for his peaceful exit from office.

All that was before the true inner mind of Jonathan was revealed in Segun Adeniyi’s new book, “Against the Run of Play”. By Adeniyi’s account, Jonathan blamed everyone other than himself for his rejection at the polls. The many gaffes that saw bad news traumatised populace to send him packing did not matter in Jonathan’s estimation.

It will be remembered that the loss that was finally delivered to him at the April 2015 poll was preceded by his disorganising of his political party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). This was amply captured by Adeniyi on page 27 of the said book, when he said, “Apparently unmindful of the fact that politics is a game of additions, Jonathan spent most of his time in office fighting many PDP members who eventually left the party for him, starting from his home state”. The country was witness to how five serving Governors on the platform of a ruling party decamped to the waiting opposition that gleefully accepted them. Little was done, by the ruling party to placate these members that in no small measure eventually aided the unseating of Jonathan. Adeniyi pointed this out when he said “ By helping to push so many people away, the handlers of Jonathan were acting in ways that suggested naivety to the politics of the time”.

In place of formidable politicians that would have helped his cause, the citizenry was bemused by Transformation Agenda of Nigeria (TAN) and other similar hurriedly assembled associations that sang and danced at political rallies, giving little conviction on why Jonathan should be returned into office.

This is just as then President Jonathan mismanaged the affair of the Chibok girls. The prevailing assumption in the presidency as was later confirmed in Adeniyi’s book was that the capture of the Chibok girls was a ruse, meant to discredit his government. The insurgents had weeks of a head start before a reluctant president mobilised the ill-equipped security forces to get the girls back– a feat that proved elusive till the lapse of Jonathan’s days in office as president.

The toga of corruption that surrounded Jonathan and his presidency was another major setback the Jonathan presidency refused to address. The petroleum subsidy monumental fraud, the mismanagement of the natural resources account in 2010 that had about N120 Billion and the Stella Oduah scandal amongst numerous others brought an awareness of the magnitude of waste and mismanagement that were taking place in the presidency. Adeniyi stated, “For Jonathan’s administration, it became a case of one day, one scandal”. The president did little in tackling these issues. It shunned every entreaty to clean its stable. Rather, the nation was told “stealing is not corruption”.

All these were happening just as the then first lady, Patience Jonathan, bestrode the Nigerian Landscape with an unruly conduct. A local television station, beamed to the populace how on August 9, 2010, ‘the president’s wife” snatched the microphone from then Governor Rotimi Amaechi and lampooned him for daring to contemplate the demolition of parts of Okrika, her hometown. Patience would later in the heat of campaigns, despite the then obvious threat of potential loss of office for her husband, make the famous ‘born throway” utterance targeted at the north, the most populous voting bloc. Talk of political indiscretion!

All these ignited a psychological revolt in the populace that sent Jonathan packing. The goodwill that ushered him into office in 2010 and 2011 was eroded and replaced by mass contempt that took permanent stay with him until the end of his presidency. Even places, like the North Central that voted him in 2011, turned against him in 2015.

In “Against the Run of Play, Jonathan cited and blamed Western conspiracy for his defeat. Really? He similarly blamed the gang-up against him in northern Nigeria. Jonathan was not done. He went on to blame civil societies and partly then chairman of Independent Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega for his failed bid at being re-elected into office. Even the opposition, he claimed engaged a malicious propaganda against him. One is left to wonder if the opposition was expected to trumpet his achievements. Everybody and everything aside himself is responsible for his failure at the polls.

Jonathan’s “new song” typifies the “Nigerianness” in him. Nigeria is a country where accountability is low and bulk passing is the order of the day. Most public officials pass on the causes of their failures to other people and factors, absolving themselves of any wrong doing. This is symbolized in Jonathan who in spite of all the air of cluelessness that pervaded his time in office, refuses to acknowledge any short-comings. It will be assumed that a man of his intellect will at the very least reflect on his presidential days and acknowledge some of his mistakes that contributed to his failed re-election bid by an increasingly aware political nation. By not wholly admitting any shortcomings, and citing every kind of gang-up and conspiracy against him, it therefore in his estimation means the whole world assembled to send him away from the presidency.

Jonathan and his acolytes were mostly prodded on by the now proven false notion that an incumbent Nigerian president cannot lose. When the appearance of a loss started manifesting, they initiated an election postponement. Deliberate and enormous efforts were equally deployed to discredit the card reader. All these efforts failed to achieve its purpose as Jonathan went on to lose.

Jonathan cannot be said to have achieved nothing in office. The federal universities his government established and revival of the comatose railway transport system, among other few, will forever be remembered. But so will the many gaffes that characterised his term in office.

It should be a time of reflections for the former president. This reflection should manifest in his utterances. The blame game is very unbefitting of him.