OF WHAT BENEFIT IS JONATHAN’S BREAKFAST WITH IBB?

Why is Reuben Abati, the media aide of President Goodluck Jonathan losing sleep over a newspaper’s report that the former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) allegedly turned down the request of President Jonathan to break the Ramadan fast at his(Babangida’s Hilltop Mansion) at the Niger State capital, Minna? By demanding a rebuttal, Abati has unwittingly given life to the story. Now those who did not read the story the day it first appeared will be looking for it to read. And to worsen the embarrassment of the Presidency, the newspaper’s publishers expectedly insists that they stand by their story. They are therefore daring the Presidency to do its worse. In a fight between David and the giant Goliath, the whole world would be behind David. But the big and perhaps most important question is whether there is any tangible benefit behind the alleged President Jonathan’s request to breakfast with IBB, which would have required the president to leave Aso Rock at about 7pm when the Ramadan fast is over and fly to Minna? It does not make sense. But I can understand why the Presidency is angry. The vexed story was trying to portray Jonathan’s Presidency as a sinking ship whose captain is ready to clutch on just any straw to survive the tumultuous waves of 2015 that is bent on sinking it. However the Presidency’s reaction can give the impression that there is some substance to the story. I for one do not think that IBB was such a big asset to the political fortune of Jonathan in 2015. Besides, I do not think that if the president break’s fast with IBB, those in the north bent on ending his presidency in 2015 would change their mind towards him. If the president thinks like that that is too infantile a political strategy. For crying out loud IBB never supported Jonathan in 2011, yet Jonathan won. Jonathan also defeated IBB on the road to becoming president that year. IBB was part of the northern consensus group of politicians in the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) that Jonathan defeated at the presidential primaries of the party. As a matter of fact IBB’s invisibility was rubbished that year as he was even defeated by the former vice president Atiku Abubakar who emerged victorious in the northern presidential aspirants’ consensus election. IBB is a great General, but politically Atiku Abubakar’s political machine is far greater in importance to Jonathan than that of IBB. Even in Niger State, his home state, IBB could not determine the governor. The present governor of Niger State, Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu was neither the choice of IBB nor then governor , Alhaji Abdulkadir Kure. Kure preferred one Gumna to be his successor and things were moving in that direction, when President Olusegun Obasanjo who is adept at identifying good leaders persuaded Babangida Aliyu who was then a permanent secretary in Abuja to go home and rescue the state. And that is exactly what Aliyu has been doing in the past six years, excellently. So if IBB cannot determine the governor of his state, how can he be the one to determine Jonathan’s fate in 2015? Jonathan is beatable in 2015. I have a formula that can facilitate his defeat. IBB does not fit into the equation. The Jonathan media machine should stop antagonising the media and encouraging their principal to be rushing to the courts anytime a journalist writes what they don’t agree with. They should learn from President Barack Obama’s men on how to handle opposition media. Right from the moment Obama was sworn in as president in 2008, the Fox News has been anti-Obama to this day. They write all kinds of “rubbish” about him and his administration, yet he has not taken anyone to court. Here in Nigeria what the president’s men do is brandishing threats and asking for rebuttal of stories, which has never worked.