Goodluck Jonathan’s albatross

At a bus terminal at a certain location, the passengers stopped over before they could continue their journey. It is designed in a manner that the bus, fully loaded, can stop awhile as another driver continues except wherein the former driver is convincingly not tired to continue the journey. The passengers now set, though not knowing who their next driver would be.

But there is a central understanding that the drivers are all good at their job. The workers, loaders and other motor park touts did everything possible for a particular driver to continue the journey. And that was how they were recalling his experience.

Unfortunately, they did not care to check the driver’s physical, cognitive and mental functionalities at the moment. But it was ‘his turn’ to drive. That was how he mounted the vehicle to continue the journey. Lo and behold, after the ignition and revving of the vehicle, he put it on reverse on a steepy road as the vehicle became steadily rolling backwards.

Here we are! Recall the vehicle was on transit. It means someone drove it safely and packed where it is being handed over. Now everyone is calling on the previous drivers.

For the purpose of this allegory, the present drivers are the All Progressives Congress (APC). And the previous drivers are the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Need we have to recall what Nigeria and Nigerians are passing through? Do you need to tell the blind what they can feel; or you need to tell the deaf what they can see? The conditions today are becoming inexplicable. Now, while you are running to your neighbor for help, you will meet same neighbour on the road coming to your house for help. An APC chieftain in a very recent interview said, “my honest assessment is that things have gotten worse. I wish security agencies could release statistics of how many people have been killed or kidnapped…from 2015 till now, insecurity has taken over north-west, north-central and it is heading south”.

Now, calls are being put to the PDP, particularly to Goodluck Jonathan, to come back and continue his efforts that was truncated by cheap blackmail. This tune actually started in 2022 towards 2023 general elections that brought us to this gey hinnom. But why the calls to him again? His government was about the best we had seen. He took up a lot. He was running a welfarist-capitalist blend system, fixing the economy, jacking up security.

Even though the political players did not see the emergency in the wobbling security, but in the stead chose to play politics with it to check Jonathan out as they use incompetence toga and media blackmail against him. Desperadoes and other immoral agents were ready to bring down the country. Like Socrates and other global figures, wickedness and media propaganda subdued him. But his re-election was never worth the blood of any Nigerian so he stepped aside. And here we are!

Whether you like it or not, Jonathan ingeniously simplified a complex Nigeria to be a road map for development. Nigeria became a benchmark for the Blacks worldwide. Need we be reminded that he discern quickly and agreed that NNPC should be clipped? The fulcrum of this writing is not about NNPC and the oil industry yet. But any prudent thinker can tell the differences between then and now.

This is not to incite anybody, but the truth remains that the biggest losers are the North. It lost the opportunity when it decided that he should leave and he left peacefully. Everybody is qualified to hold brief for Jonathan that he does not play politics with bitterness. But looking at Nigeria now, the North is contrite for the unjust removal of Goodluck Jonathan. As we say that at this auspicious time of call to him, we are going to continue the discussion about his style of governance that was thwarted unjustly.

Again, while it is the outcry for a call for him to come rescue Nigeria in 2027, we are not interested in the politics of it but rather lending our voice to his template of good governance. It can be construed as campaign. Let it be! He has unfinished business in eking out a road map for national development now and in the future.

Nigeria is all we have and anyone who has been identified with verifiable character to develop the country should be ready for continuous knocking on his door. But how can we quickly forget the roadmap Goodluck Jonathan had in agriculture and food security, efficient civil service, energy security, sincere security apparatus, ever rising infrastructure, single digit inflation, stable exchange rate, education, patriotism and empathy for the country. There is nothing to compare to today Nigeria, but only to contrast.

The truth is, the sudden knocks on Jonathan’s door is causing Parkinson’s disease to certain quarters of the political ecosystem as the ruling party, APC is already making prediction between the former president and others in PDP. Some are even going to dust the Constitution to give meaning to S. 137 (1) therein. The simple message in the provision of the constitution is that “a person shall not be qualified for election to the office of president if he has been elected to such office at any two previous election”.

There is no other form or rule of interpretation that can be used there other than the literal rule as every word therein needs to be given their ordinary meaning. Truth is, those having fever at the calling of Jonathan’s name are not different from captives who claim to be safe in the hands of  their captors despite the fact that they had often been held in solitary confinement and chained upside down. Simply put, they are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.

Trust GEJ, he is not cunning in this aspect; he is a Nigerian with the midas touch to solve her problems with nil ambition on it where others would do anything despite their incompetence. Let us meditate about his nation building, not as a political tool but an indoctrination. If he responds to the knock on his door then we are rest assured that all will be good for Nigeria.

It is time to come together and respond to the challenge of true leadership.

Oshie Tommy is a legal practitioner and public affairs analyst.