‘Jonathan Saved Nigeria’: My Takeaway From Buhari’s Independence Speech

President Muhammadu Buhari’s 55^th Independence Anniversary speech has left no genuine patriot in doubt that the he has set himself out as the Reconciliator-In-Chief of the country after the very divisive and fractured campaigns that characterised the 2015 elections and in particular the presidential election in which he emerged victorious over seating President Goodluck Jonathan.

In his speech he paid glowing tribute to President Goodluck Jonathan for accepting defeat graciously instead of using the instrument of power to manipulate the process and thus saved the nation from calamitous consequences.

“The fact that an opposition party replaced an entrenched government in a free and fair election is indicative of the deeper roots of our democratic system. Whatever one’s views are, Nigerians must thank former President Jonathan for not digging-in in the face of defeat and thereby saving the country untold consequences”, Buhari said.
This reconciliatory approach by the president which was also noticed in his speeches outside the country is a far cry from the combative and antagonistic statements that often emanate from his party’s apparatchiks particularly from the All Progressives Congress (APC) national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed who never seizes to insult the past administrations of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) particularly the administration of President Jonathan. Not to be outdone the PDP national publicity secretary,  Chief Olisa Metuh, has also at every given opportunity attacked the Buhari administration and specialising in belittling whatever achievements that Buhari has garnered in the past four months and often using uncouth language to bout.
Unfortunately Mohammed and Metuh were not alone in having campaign hangovers. The supporters of Buhari who campaigned for him in the conventional and social media use every opportunity to condemn the past administration blaming all the socio-economic ills of the nation in the past 55 years on Jonathan’s mere five years presidency.
On the other hand, some of those who voted for the defeated Jonathan are still to get over the after-shock of his defeat and does not appear to understand the Igbo adage that: “nwa anyi biara iku anwula”, that is, (the child we came to baby-seat is dead), and that it is time to move on.
Jonathan has moved on with his life after helping to institutionalise our democracy, yet some are still living in the past watching every move by Buhari with the partisan prism of 2015 elections campaign.
Buhari is reminding all of us in his Independence Anniversary speech that the elections are over and that we are building a new nation using a new approach that hopefully would solve our perennial problems of corruption, lack of due process and impunity. He also warned us that change takes time and that there is no sustainable quick-fix solution to our problems as a nation. “Order is more vital than speed. Careful and deliberate decisions after consultations get far better results”, the president told Nigerians.