Jonathan and the 2011 presidency

The current venom of Obasanjo against the North can only be understood against the backdrop that while it is true that it was the North that facilitated his being president in the first instance, it was the same north that ingloriously ejected him from the villa in his bid to overstay his tenancy. Only a […]

The current venom of Obasanjo against the North can only be understood against the backdrop that while it is true that it was the North that facilitated his being president in the first instance, it was the same north that ingloriously ejected him from the villa in his bid to overstay his tenancy. Only a competent psychiatrist can explain the fallout of a failure from a very high expectation from a project. The conventional interpretation of such scenario may be frustration. But psychiatrists and psychologists have a way of describing the chronic level of frustration as something else.

Still on president Jonathan. Here is a man whose first debut in the political sand of the country was in 1998. His place of birth is so tiny and insignificant that it may not be located in the map of old Rivers State not to talk of the Old Eastern Region. In just twelve years of his political engagement, he became the president and Commander-in-Chief of the federal republic of Nigeria. When it is remembered that whether as governor or president, he never faced the electorates directly including the technical and financial logistics of an election, one can only wonder if there can ever be a greater miracle in the political stable.

Without contesting any election in a democracy, God has taken him beyond the level of his dreams both nationally and globally. If only he can remember that it was the search for that attainment that claimed the lives of such great men like Shehu Musa Yar’adua and MKO Abiola in prison, he has every reason to be grateful to God. That gratitude can still be reinforced if only he flashes his mind back on the political legend and icon that is today remembered as the best president Nigeria never had.

If in spite of all these achievements, he still insists on contesting in 2011, I wonder if he will not be on his own at that level, removing the hands of God in his political adventure. He should remember that the presidency is not about how long but how well. In Nigeria today, the most celebrated ruler is Murtala Mohammed for just six months, while the most scorned is Olusegun Obasanjo with a total of over eleven years. Next in the order of national respect is Abdussalam Abubakar in less than a year. Can anybody guess what the place of Obasanjo would have been if he had not come back in 1999? Or if he withdrew after his first term in 2003? Any post-2011 bid by Jonathan is likely to have its soul mate in Obasanjo’s second term with the attendant ignominy and national disgrace. Perhaps, there is also one question which I believe only the First Lady can help him answer in their privacy. It is that but for the hand of God on them, could anybody have dreamt of Goodluck Jonathan in the South under the zoning arrangement?

It is also a tragedy of Nigerian politics in that most of its gladiators and activists are real enemies of democracy. This is no wonder however, since it is an empirical truism that the enemies of democracy are its most ostensible vociferous defenders. Otherwise, how can any individual, corporate groups or civil society say they would go to the streets in protest of a fellow citizen aspiring to an office within the laws of the land? In a democracy, you have only some strong weapon to fight anybody you don’t want. That is your vote. But in a polity characterized by hypocrisy, any funny thing is possible.

Some of those threatening hell or fire on Babangida on account of June 12, were themselves direct or indirect beneficiaries of that annulment. But now, there is nothing they cannot do to meet the sentiments of their local cheerleaders. If there are still those who have anything to settle with Babangida on June 12, they should be civil and use their votes rather than resort to the brigandry of playing to the gallery.

Agboola Sanni wrote from Ibadan