Looking at the rear mirror for 2023

BY TOMMY OSHIE

A driver took his passengers on a journey. He actually bragged that it would be a fun-filled pleasurable ride. But in no long time into the journey the vehicle was lurching on the hills and falling steeply on the slopes without control; the vehicle got to a point of no movement. The passengers got disturbed how the vehicle finally got stuck in the mud and could not maneuver nor even rev. It became more disappointing how the passengers discovered that the driver had long fallen asleep and his assistants not even knowing what to do. Trust passengers and how they can start spewing expletives more so as they just alighted from a previous vehicle of a certain good driver on the propaganda that this present driver would solve their eagerness and take them to the New Jerusalem. Unfortunately, they have found themselves in Gehenna. The passengers are looking downcast particularly as they look from the rear mirror viewing where they are coming from and how they can get out of the present perdition. The quest for a skillful driver to take them out of the quagmire is now on the lips of everyone. They now recall that the driver whose vehicle they alighted from was actually the person who knows the route. The message is that you should be careful not to lose a good man because another person promised to be better.

The above allegory points out the present situation of Nigeria. There came a time in Nigeria when the only panacea to the country’s problems was in the hands of the 2015 elections. Nigerians were made to understand that they were in needless sufferings. Nigerians were brainwashed to become self sorry and that an incoming messiah tincture against the sitting president was difficult to diffuse. By then there was a strong fiat that the sitting President must not be re-elected. The opportunity cost of his re-election was that Nigeria must be divided between those who wanted him and those who did not. Decorum was actually flung away to the winds. Incidentally, Boko Haram bombings were given media amplifiers. Instead of partnering with the system the opposition saw that it was mission accomplished.

They celebrated the collective pain and presented themselves as the best alternative. Lest it is forgotten, the kidnapping of Chibok girls personally rested squarely on someone’s head rather than a national calamity. The opposition even made mouth-watering promises to those helping them to give the system a bad name and would obliterate them within six months once they come to power. What a strange team of mutual benefit!

And that was how he was battered in the media; maltreated by those he treated well; betrayed by those he thought actually loved him. To cut a long story short, that was how Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was voted out as the President of Nigeria in 2015. And all he could say was ‘Peace be with you’.

The fulcrum of this piece does not bother on the inexhaustible achievements of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan nor does it dwell on how to compare or contrast with this present government even though at times there is need to look at the rear mirror to know where we are coming from. Let us look at one of his monumental policies that would have made Nigeria great again. Early in his government, Goodluck wanted to vitiate the oil industry to market determinants. That move almost brought his government down. That move provoked a sponsored industrial strike action which success can only be akin to that of the colonial days. The said industrial action was actually spearheaded by the people in power today. They goaded us to do more about the strike. They analysed, and gave talks on how Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was impoverishing Nigerians. The message then was that subsidy was actually a fraud and that the price of fuel was supposed to be ordinarily cheap.

Today the table has turned. They did not even have to refer to any document to adopt his policy on the petroleum industry, even though they do not know how to go about it.

ASUU could be judged to be one of the best discordant agents in Goodluck’s government, accusing it of not doing well in education. Six years gone after Goodluck, the 2020 ASUU strike is unprecedented. Is that Goodluck’s government too? Has education been fixed?
Nepotism! The present government is characterized with nepotism. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan never had such characteristics. As a matter of fact, when he went back home after he lost the 2015 elections, his people almost hurled stones at him. What was his sin? He did not give them juicy positions. The northerners benefited from Goodluck more than his own region. His educational programmes and investments in the north can only be compared to that of Sir Ahmadu Bello of blessed memory.
The freedom of speech in pre-2015 is now hate speech. Should we talk about the consumer price index? Has banditry not dwarfed Boko Harm? While Boko Harm holds a particular area as their stronghold, kidnappers and bandits have unlimited territories. Even with your spare parts in your trunk, you don’t wish your car to break down on the highway. Even with your fence twice as high you still live in grip of fear in your house. You cannot even look out from your windows. ICPC is investigating missing 50 billion dollars and 500 billion naira from the TSA without a trace. This is not happening in Goodluck’s government. The list is inexhaustible abeg.

That same Goodluck was almost not bold enough to enter certain states in the north despite his huge security, but today he makes triumphant entries into same states with chants of hossanah. There are cries of Ka dawo! Ka dawo! everywhere, meaning just come back. This is evident in Sokoto, Kano, Bauchi, Maiduguri, you name them. Apologies drench the air wherever he goes today in the north. It could be recalled how Governor Ganduje mentioned that Sanusi Lamido was appointed the Emir of Kano just to embarrass Goodluck. Today, same Ganduje is screaming out his own apologies. Senator Ali Ndume has sent his apologies. Kawu Baraje made an open act of contrition on how he drove away Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

This is not a cheap drive to remind Nigerians of the present socio-economic calamities and to dangle alternatives. But truth be told, he is presently the most welcomed visitor to the State House. That is the good spirit that has endeared Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to the generality of Nigerians and the reason Ka dawo rents the air when he visits the north.

Right now, the country is in some dire straits. It is boxed to a corner. There is a serious political fog on who to bell the cat. All the passengers on the vehicle are now looking at the rear mirror. Questions are being thrown at one another: how did we get here? Where did we miss it? Why did we reject a good driver for a wrong choice? How can we get someone to maneuvre this vehicle away from here? Where can we get that very good driver we rejected, apologize to him so that he comes back to help us out?

The person to emerge as a President cone 2023 has become a delicate national discourse that goes to touch on the corporate existence of Nigeria. This serious debate has placed Goodluck Ebele Jonathan at an indispensable pedestal. No need to grope. Him becoming President would usher in an interregnum for Nigeria to gasp a breath and reboot a new national issue. His coming back would have curried an effortless national reconciliation. It is very important at this stage particularly now that the Buhari government has killed the communia, the fellowship of this country as it is now a laissez-faire leadership.

Truth be told, the Nigeria populace is having venerational memories of the person of Goodluck Jonathan. With his status now, he needs no godfather outside the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) 1999. As a matter of fact, the godfathers are also on that vehicle begging him for mercy. The other passengers on the vehicles that are looking behind to Goodluck are the military, civil servants, agberos, contactors, housewives, ASUU, ASUP, civil societies, banks, IDPs, farmers, members of the intelligentsia, judges, etc. The list is endless abeg.

Tom is a legal practitioner, researcher and public affairs analyst