Mr President, speak louder about your intentions
Is he completing the North’s second term of four years in order to pick the southern slot in 2015 and rule until 2023? That means one plus four plus eight. Thirteen years for President Goodluck Jonathan! That is really tantalizing. I guess he is pushing his luck too far. The PDP told us recently that […]
Is he completing the North’s second term of four years in order to pick the southern slot in 2015 and rule until 2023? That means one plus four plus eight. Thirteen years for President Goodluck Jonathan! That is really tantalizing. I guess he is pushing his luck too far. The PDP told us recently that zoning has been retained, but Mr President is free to contest. This means what? Please, I need help, I don’t understand. Technically, the zoning spirit got the ticket for Obasanjo and later, Yar’adua. Now, the PDP has chickened out.
Some Jonathan campaigners have allowed desperation to becloud their thinking, giving the presupposition that Jonathan is a northerner. If not, how do we explain it? May be the president is under the illusion that he would use that warped reasoning to get a political appetizer up to 2015.
Perhaps, President Jonathan needs to borrow a leaf from one of the PDP aspirants who made a declaration that has an element of TENURE-CLARITY and ZONING-PLEDGE. He said he wants only one term in order to finish the eight years meant for the north, based on the scheme of their party. After that, the South-East of Nigeria will then have its own turn of eight years. This makes good sense, at least, it is a better proposition than the noncommittal but ominous silence of the president about tenure or power-rotation modality.
Must the president be asked to go just because he is not from the north? What if the political space lacks better aspirants? Do we give precedence to zonal calculations at the expense of competence, eligibility and good leadership? Of course, our primary consideration must be “what’s good for Nigeria,” but then what has President Jonathan achieved in his current stint in power. He has technically refused to complete the most important projects under his nose in Abuja. I mean the airport and Kubwa roads.
The contractors have tactically stopped work. How do they do that? Well, they send to site 10 work-men where they are meant to send 200, just to create the impression that work is going on. May be the president is waiting for 2011 in order to secure the opportunity to preside over augmentation and upward review of the contracts. This definitely is not a good sign from a man who wants the support of the people. So far, the performance of President Jonathan is dismal at best.
Ask the man on the street. You will know the best assessment. Don’t mind the people who consider the signing of funds for INEC and the appointment of its head as grand achievement.
What about the campaign tools being used by the President’s men? What about bullying of perceived opponents? What about witch-hunting of governors who have not declared allegiance and support? What about the manipulation and hijack of a party by a president that got to office, not by smart politicking, but by sheer luck? What about unfair harassment and abuse of people who exercise their right to be in another camp other than that of President Jonathan? The president and his men carry on as if the support for him is compulsory and that whoever prefers a different candidate has committed a crime. I do not know if they believe that political plurality is not good for Nigeria. I do not know where they got the idea that political-monopoly has a place in a complex country like Nigeria or in the 21st Century. The president is playing clever.
He probably has his eyes on the 13 years or more, as is being speculated here. He, therefore, has decided not to tie himself down to any promise. He says “I will promise less and do more” on Facebook. Which could mean ‘don’t even expect anything from me. I will give you what I like or deem fit.’ His wise men did not deem it expedient to educate him about the power of promise in political science and political practice. Groupings inspire society in the form of party manifesto.
Individual politicians imbue the body polity with a sense of potential positive change by promising to fix problems that have been identified. These promises serve as standards for period performance assessment of the man in power. What promises have Jonathan made?
The campaign style of the president’s men needs to change. It seems like the main principle that drives it is to “present the president as a saint and every other aspirant as a villain” frantic effort is made to demonise others. The theory that other contestants are zero on merit would not fly. We are all imperfect mortals including the president. Assuming he gets his way in 2011, he will definitely make his own share of mistakes and he will be excusable because it is human.
The achievements of other individuals should not be slaughtered on the altar of Jonathan ascendancy. Gladiators on the Jonathan camp such as ASSOCIATION FOR BETTER NIGERIA and their ilk should identify important problems that impinge on the life of the average Nigerian, then tell us the strategy Jonathan’s Team has worked out to tackle them. That is a more mature and honourable way to sell their candidate. Campaign of character assassination is not the style of a good man. Nigerians do not need such people at this stage of their national life
It would not be wrong to believe that zoning, with respect to the PDP, is dead if President Jonathan succeeds in winning the PDP ticket and goes ahead to win the elections in 2011. That would mean that effectively, the north has been swindled. The new scenario will be that the south complained of injustice on account of northern monopolistic hold on power. An arrangement was worked out to permanently address the problem, then, some people truncated it because they believed that they saw an opportunity to create a southern power monopoly. I believe we need to move away from this cycle of “cheat when you get the chance.” We need to sustain any arrangements that permanently solves the problem of power rivalry between the north and the south.
Usman Audu, Guildford, Surrey, UK, [email protected]