The Many Battles Of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan

 

Nigeria is a country where selective amnesia is common, as a result many think that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s problems with the Nigerian establishment started with the escalation of Boko Haram activities since 2011 or with the alleged avowal by some of his opponents in the presidential election of 2011 that they would make the country ungovernable for him. The conspiracy against Jonathan started much earlier.

Jonathan is the most embattled president in the history of the country. He has been fighting the establishment for survival since 2010. It would be recalled that as vice president of Nigeria, when his principal, Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua was sick and was indeed incapacitated, the same people fighting him today was happy that he was not allowed to be the acting president as demanded by the constitution. In fact while his principal was sick he was not allowed to see him so that he could empathise with him as custom demands in Africa. This is despite the fact that Jonathan’s office and residence was a stone throw from that of Yar’Adua. When he demanded to see the ailing president he was viewed as an irritant in the presidential villa and was not allowed to do so.

The country was held hostage and the vice president too. We were told that the ailing president could rule from anywhere including far away Saudi Arabia. For Jonathan to become the acting president, the National Assembly had to make a special law called the ‘doctrine of necessity’, perhaps the first of its kind in the democratic world. While all these was happening the country was watching and more keenly watching was the people of the Niger Delta region. That is why when some people condemn Asari Dokubo and Chief Edwin Clark for shouting themselves hoarse that Jonathan must do two terms, I say those who are condemning them don’t know where “the rain started beating Jonathan and Niger Delta.”

After Jonathan became the acting president and commander in chief, he was not allowed to exercise that authority, because when the ailing president was smuggled into the country in the middle of the night, somebody who was not Jonathan gave the order for the military to cordon off Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, in order to bring Yar’Adua into the presidential villa.

Following the return of Yar’Adua, Jonathan as acting president could no longer preside over the federal executive council meeting. A huge vacuum was created and the country was in a quagmire as the returned president could not appear in public, even to his office.

As God will have it ( as we used to say in this part of the world), on May 5, 2010, President Yar’Adua died and Jonathan was sworn into office as president to finish Yar’Adua’s tenure. But even before the dead president could be flown to Katsina for burial, new battle emerges for Jonathan to fight.

Those who control the establishment and determine what constitutes “national interest”, started reminding the rest of us and Jonathan in particular that it is in national interest for Jonathan not to contemplate to contest for president in 2011. They reminded everyone who cares to listen that there was a zoning formula invented by the ruling PDP which states that people from Jonathan’s part of the world has no right to be president in 2011. They disregarded God’s hand in the matter and insisted that power must return to base. Jonathan fought with all his might and all the political dexterity he could muster to emerge PDP presidential candidate. But the battle was not over yet. His party’s governors in some part of the country allegedly told him to sign agreement that he must do only one term if they must give him their support. Jonathan allegedly agreed. However during the presidential election, the governors of Jigawa, Niger, Sokoto, Katsina, Kano failed to honour the agreement as Jonathan lost woefully in these states, even though the governors of the aforementioned states were all re-elected overwhelmingly. Despite not fulfilling their supposed part of the contract, the governors of Jigawa, Niger, Sokoto and Kano unashamedly were the most vocal in telling the world that there was an agreement that Jonathan must do one tenure. The Kano State governor has since joined the opposition APC while the governors of Niger and Jigawa states are still in PDP perhaps to fight from within to stop Jonathan’s second term bid.

Therefore when you see politicians who are part of the establishment telling you that they are only against Jonathan because of his poor performance, they are lying. Their common refrain now is that Jonathan has failed to provide security, even though they knew more about the insecurity than they would admit in public. All they wanted is a return to status quo but power belongs to the people.