2023: Why Jonathan should not contest

Lagos Lawyer, Mr Femi Falana SAN, recently argued that former President Goodluck Jonathan is not eligible to contest for the presidency of Nigeria again having spent five years as president between 2010 and 2015. Falana premised his argument on a 2018 constitutional amendment which purportedly bars Jonathan from contesting because if he (Jonathan) becomes the […]

Lagos Lawyer, Mr Femi Falana SAN, recently argued that former President Goodluck Jonathan is not eligible to contest for the presidency of Nigeria again having spent five years as president between 2010 and 2015. Falana premised his argument on a 2018 constitutional amendment which purportedly bars Jonathan from contesting because if he (Jonathan) becomes the president of Nigeria in 2023, he will spend a cumulative period of nine years as president whereas the amended constitutional provision, on which Falana relied on, limits the occupant of the position to two terms of eight years.

I am not conversant with the amended constitutional provision that Falana relied on but I dare say that Falana got his interpretation of that provision wrong. A law does not take a retroactive effect and the 2018 constitutional amendment does not affect Jonathan. It can only affect a fresh president from the date it was signed into law. What if Jonathan had won the 2015 presidential election? Didn’t Falana know that he would have been in office for nine years by 2019?

The immediate past governor of Yobe State, Senator Ibrahim Geidam, was a governor for 11 years. He was a deputy governor in 2007 when he was elected into office with his then boss, late Governor Mamman Bello Ali. When his boss died in early 2008, Alhaji Geidam became the governor of the state and completed the remaining three years left by his late boss. He contested twice for his own term in 2011 and 2015 which he won. By the time he left office in 2019, he had accumulated 11 years as governor.

Against the foregoing background, Jonathan is constitutionally qualified for another four years in office as president of Nigeria. But, should Jonathan run again for the position? I do not think so for some of the reasons adduced below.

Dr Goodluck Jonathan has had his palm kernel cracked for him by the benevolent spirit as far as politics is concerned. The former President Jonathan is the only Nigerian who had tasted the four positions in the executive arm of government; the deputy governor, governor, vice president, and president.

Jonathan is the first man among the class of deputy governors of 1999 to become a governor in 2005. He had wanted to retain his position as the governor of Bayelsa State in 2007 when divine providence catapulted him to the position of the vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.  

Dr Jonathan is the first and only democratically elected vice president to become the president as a result of the death of his then boss, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Jonathan is the first and the only sitting civilian president to concede defeat and hand over to his opponent after a presidential contest. He demonstrated the true virtues of a God-fearing man by calling General Buhari to congratulate him.

Perhaps that singular action saved thousands and millions of Nigerians from being killed as a result of bloodshed which the then opposition had purportedly promised to unleash across the length and breadth of the land of Nigeria if they had lost the election. Those who today derisively call Jonathan  a coward are ignorant of the fact that nobody knew who would have survived the stampede and catastrophe that would have ensued across the land of Nigeria had Jonathan behaved like other African leaders who usually refuse to concede defeat.

However, the rumour of Dr Jonathan scheming to return to power is not advisable. What is he coming back to do or what did he forget in Aso rock?

He should thank his creator for making him a great man and a member of the minute elite club that had ruled Nigeria since independence.  

Jonathan has the right to his personal ambition and fulfillment but he should place a higher premium on the ambition of the southern part of Nigeria who would want to retain the presidency for eight years from 2023.

Ifeanyi Maduako, wrote from Owerri via [email protected]