Still on the presidential election

It’s appropriate again to say congratulations to Nigerians for a successful outing at the polls. While there are many side issues to the March 28 presidential election, proving naysayers wrong that our country will end up in flames aftermath of the election is one that gladdens my heart. We have shown the world that we can conduct our affairs in an orderly manner and our leaders too can do the right thing. Of course we have some grey areas like the incredible figures returned from some states that defied all known permutations and trends as far as elections are concerned, but that can be dealt with in future.

It will take quite some time to digest the pattern of the results of the presidential election but at this stage it is obvious that our people from the south east region do not seem enamoured of the president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari. The pattern of voting in the zone showed that they preferred ‘transformation’ to ‘change’. This piece will not examine possible reasons for this, but rather comment on the stigmatization that has trailed the action of Ndigbo. Democracy implies choice and nobody should be vilified for his choice in a democratic setting. For the first time, or maybe second time if we consider the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election, two power blocks with mutual suspicion of each other combined to wrestle power from an alliance of a major nationality and minorities. The Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba blocks have never hidden their desire to be in control of Nigeria’s political power but their combination this time around would have been difficult to defeat and this was what in a simplistic way, happened last month. Therefore, it is rather unfortunate that some of us have been dismissive or uncharitable towards the course a group of people decided to take. While we can debate or comment on this, we must be respectful of their choice as nothing proves the superiority of those who voted otherwise. In an atmosphere of prebendal politics like ours, it is expected that people will start talking of geopolitical balancing in the way positions are shared but it is unfortunate that we will equate a group of people’s ambition to a position – senate presidency. However, the way the APC-led government treat the Ibo will go a long way in showing how magnanimous the party can be in victory. Of course, it is not a prerogative that they have an all-inclusive government like the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) did in 1979 when it conceded the Speakership position to the NPP even though the party went into alliance with NPN. On the other hand too, the Ibo must be ready to live with the consequences of their action for the next four years.
The manner of President Goodluck Jonathan’s concession too has been a subject of debate with some asking that he should be canonized for taking an otherwise normal step in a democracy. Heroism is an issue that history will be a very important judge but considering our rather peculiar experience, Jonathan deserves some commendation. Our history is fraught with leaders not toeing a normal course of action and I think there must be something fundamentally wrong with our leaders’ behavior in office not following a normal pattern. We must not forget how former President Olusegun Obasanjo tried unsuccessfully to get a third term after the mandatory two term of four years each guaranteed by the Constitution. We must also remember the confession of some of those who worked with him that they first sowed the idea to him. This, however, does not remove his culpability in an action that no matter his latter-day posturing dented his image and the money spent on a failed mission.
The Jonathan administration story is still fresh that we cannot safely at this point know the denouement. It would be interesting though to have a bird’s eye view of how he got on the phone to congratulate Buhari. I wager that the action is one of the few moments that the ‘real’ Jonathan came to the fore in the last six years.This is not an attempt to whitewash his image as nearly all Nigerians agreed that his government could, and should have done better, in some matters. But in that congratulatory call, we saw a simple-minded man whose action sometimes border on naivety. Remember how he blurted out at a funeral service in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, that more than 80 per cent of his advisers have nothing to say, but he just listened to them.
Whatever happened, he broke free and did what a reasonable person should do. Properly recalibrated, Jonathan’s political sensors can be the fulcrum of a new PDP, which can keep the APC-led government on its toes.