The 2015 national elections in February next year would be very important for the country. Many have dubbed it a make or mar election. Several interest groups are praying that it will be an election that would not mar the nation, but rather would help to deepen democracy, national unity and the quality of our politics. And this depends to a large extent on the behaviour of those angling for political positions.
One of those persons whose decision could make or mar the polls and indirectly the well-being of the nation is President Goodluck Jonathan on whose behalf, misguided militants from his home in the Niger Delta have threatened the people of Nigeria with war if he is not re-elected even when such anevent would amount to a third term in office!
Remember the controversy over the Obasanjo letters to Jonathan and how the latter was unable to give a satisfactory reply because there are so many truths he is hiding. Former President Obasanjo single-handedly committed a lot of political crimes including rigging of the 2011 presidential polls to ensure that then acting President Jonathan emerged victorious to give the Niger Delta a taste of power in keeping with the rotational principle of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). For Jonathan to win the 2011 polls after he completed the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s tenure, the North had to be persuaded to forgo the second term of the late President which, according to the rotational principle, belonged to the North.
The main thrust of the Obasanjo letters, which handlers and hangers-on of President Jonathan were bitter about and strenuously worked hard to sweep under the carpet, is the fact that there was an understanding or agreement that then acting President Jonathan would spend one term in office as a goodwill gesture and allow the Presidency to go back to the North as a way to restore the rotational principle of the party under which the Presidency of the nation should rotate to all the six geo-political zones of the nation in the interest of national unity, fairness and justice.
In fairness to him, on a number of occasions including when he was on foreign tours, Jonathan had told fellow African Heads of States that his tenure would end in 2015. We urge him to show that he is different person from the lying, cheating and back-stabbing majority that dominate Nigerian politics by letting his word be his bond. His mentor, Obasanjo, has reminded him publicly that he is under obligation to serve only one term. The implication of this is that for the 2015 polls, Jonathan should be an impartial umpire and not one of the contestants.
Contesting the 2015 polls for Jonathan would be a serious breach of an understanding even when hangers-on around him tell him that he has the Constitutional right to do so. Constitutions are not sacrosanct as such as considerations higher than the latter could compel it to be set aside in the interest of national unity. It was for these reasons that everything was done to help Jonathan get the Presidency in 2011. President Jonathan would become an instant hero the moment he shuns the false messages of support from political jobbers in his party and among the population and forgo seeking for another mandate.
In the words of one of his erstwhile admirers, Professor Ben Nwabueze, ‘the President would become an instant national hero’. Nwabueze made this observation in a letter he wrote to the President on the convocation of a national conference favoured by President Jonathan which the way it has turned out to be would be a jamboree satisfying no one but the money- conscious yes- men who surround the President and who abound in the wider society.
Nwabueze is of the view that it would be wrong and hypocritical for the incumbent president to mobilize the nation for both a genuine national conference and for a national election in which he is an interested candidate! The President because of vaulting ambition appears hell- bent on ignoring the old professor as both has parted ways, with Jonathan having new friends who urge him to damn the consequences and contest in 2015.
The point is that as a leader, Jonathan has done fairly well but the nation needs another hand. Another round of Jonathan’s fresh air will like give the nation, a choking overdose that will probably kill it. The many allegations of corruption under Jonathan’s presidency and missing billions of the country’s money under his watch and the growing poverty and hopelessness of the majority under his rule does not recommend his administration for continuation. The supposed achievements of his government are mostly statistical; they are not reflected in the daily lives of the people. Above all, the Jonathan presidency is one that has more like any in our history has given rise to much division among Nigerians on the basis of ethnicity, religion and region with the daily shedding of blood of Nigerians for whatever reason!
Dagogo wrote from Jabi, Abuja.
