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‘Jonathan, Jega, Nigerians are the heroes of March 28’

By Yetunde Ayobami Ojo
10 April 2015   |   4:19 am
Former President, Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) and member of the 2014 National Conference, Olisa Agbakoba said, by conceding defeat and congratulating the President-Elect, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) even when the counting was still going on, President Goodluck Jonathan is the hero of the presidential election. Yetunde Ayobami Ojo, reports.
Agbakoba

Agbakoba

Reflections on the presidential election
WE had this election three days of absolute no activity and that is not good. The country should not shut down mainly because ‎we have elections but thank God there was no crisis. You remember the last time we had press conference when I said nothing would happen to Nigeria.

I said there would be no violence. I was confident that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would not come in time with the results. I said the Card Reader is not going to work the way we expected, but I was confident about the process. Generally, let’s not lament, Nigeria has not vanished; I think the election is a plus.

Heroes of the polls
Hero number one is President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan; he was tremendously relieved. When a man has eschewed legal psychology, I can tell the mood. That does not say he (Jonathan) did not want to win. But having lost, he did not make the mistake the former Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida made.  Babangida would be biting his fingers in Minna, Niger State now because the glory Jonathan has taken in accepting defeat is what he would have taken, if he had left peacefully in 1993.

I think President Jonathan must have asked himself what else would he be staying to do in office having been in public office since 1999.

I cannot place whether the Chairman of INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega or Nigerians is the second hero but for me I will give it to Jega.

Had Jega made the mistake to react in similar manner to Orubebe’s misbehavior, the situation would have been different from what we have today.

I once ran for the post of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) presidency in 2006 in Port Harcourt. When the voting got to a crucial crescendo, there was a blackout. So I know what it is when they are counting votes and there was a crisis. Jega is the second hero. The calmness and serenity with which he did it, resulted in possibility of the election being concluded peacefully and accepted by everybody, even Jonathan accepted the result before it was announced.

Why Jonathan was the hero
Why I feel President Jonathan is the hero is that a dictator does not give space to his opponent. A dictator crushes the opposition. The fact that the APC, which is the fourth hero to me, was allowed to grow, is because the president allowed it. It may be easy to say that Jonathan has no choice but I can say that he had choices.

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has shown that he can absolutely incapacitate the opposition. So, that is a very strong commendation for Jonathan. He has allowed the democratic space to open. He allowed multi-party democracy. He allowed free elections. Some of our past leaders would not have allowed that.
We saw how the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) frustrated the rival party, Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo. They stopped him from becoming president.

We witnessed how Babangida allowed the process to produce Chief MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) but he later truncated the entire election.

Political power in the hands of a mad man is a time bomb. It is therefore necessary to give President Jonathan a credit for being calm and for accepting defeat.

On the other hand, I will commend Nigerians for their passion, energy and the enthusiasm, which they demonstrated before, during and after the election. This makes me place them number three hero.

The fourth hero is the APC. In fact there was strong, credible and intelligent opposition. Governor Babatunde Fashola, Dele Alake, Wale Edu and host of others are the thinkers. That is why they defeated the ruling PDP. These are the people. PDP was there doing hate campaign, which the APC also did and we condemned it but what I saw was an APC absolutely brilliant football team, if I should use the analysis of a football team.

The APC think tank is a brilliant football team with people around; the PDP was a weak football team with a weak manager. The results are very clear. So those are the four heroes.

There are also villains that we need to get out of our politics. The biggest villains go to the South East and North West. It is incredible for Jonathan to have won the type of votes he won in the South East. It doesn’t do leaders of the South East any good; neither does it do any leaders of the North West any good that General Buhari scored the type of high votes. He balanced the vote in the South West. How can a man scored 100 per cent? Is it that the South East shut out the national equation? That is not what we want; villains are the leaders of the PDP from the South East that don’t understand that balance voting is critical.

I am hoping to see balance voting during the governorship election in Lagos, Enugu and others. I also want to see a robust count in Kaduna, I don’t want to see party A has 90 per cent while party B has zero. That is not voting but the biggest draw back.

Advise to the APC on the outcome of National Conference
I was a member of National Conference and there were challenges and it wasn’t easy where you have many people out of 170 million Nigerians from different ethnic, religious and linguistic background. Something has emerged from it. But who would have believed that the election would have gone well as it did?

The challenge for the APC is to find a common ground that all Nigerians can live with, so that by 2019, if there is a common ground we won’t have the issue of unbalanced voting. It is not good for the system.

2 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    I could see only Jonathan as the Hero of the 2015 polls. All other personalities and institutions played ignoble roles leading to the conduct and announcement of the election results.

  • Author’s gravatar

    The hero of the whole exercise is The President. He established a precedent in African political history. The way he conceded the election for Country is the epitome of civility. We could have been at crossroads if he went with advice to contest the results thereby plunging the Nation into an abysmal bloodletting that would lead to obvious disintegration. What this fight is all about is the deviousness of political coalitions. It is never civilly waged and its battles are fought unconventionally with the dirtiest tactics known to man. We must congratulate the winning coalition but the caveat is if they are not careful we may have history repeating itself in this hallowed popular demonstration by Nigerians in the pols. The Yar’Adua/Jonathan Presidency weren’t a disaster as many political pundits may assess. They battled recalcitrant groups and were able to keep the Nation in one piece. Add to that the crippling Oil prices that wreaked havoc to our very Economic existence, you’ll find something to cheer about the combined leadership no matter how differently the styles converged. Their predecessors swam in Oil revenue like seabirds cleaning their wings after an orgy of frenzied feeding just like what presently happened before the unfortunate glut that perverted the Oil markets, whetted Nigerians to turn out in numbers and demand an unwavering change. The change, we have gotten as we speak. What we do with it in the euphoria of perennial tribal maladjustment is a quadrillion Naira question. In Buhari, I see elements of discipline. In our tribal ‘Generals’, I see the National ambivalence; a coalition wrought in ambiguity. For the People, I envision an active demand of equity, legality and of course good governance. Be aware of your inherent Constitutional designated functions. Ask questions when a government does come short of top of the line delivery. For The President-Elect and the APC, please see this election as a cry for help from the people of Nigeria, Africans and the World at large to make political games an aspect of cherished social norms. ‘Nigeria We Hail Thee’.