Nigerians are daily being treated to a circus. There is no dull moment here, politically speaking. Citizens are losing their ability to reason rationally. The call on former President Goodluck Jonathan to return to power is a sign of a drowning people clawing at a straw, looking for anything to hold on to for survival.
Last Saturday’s by-elections may have come and gone, but they were sad reminders that several years after Nigeria claimed to have returned to civil rule, democracy has sadly remained fledgling. Every four years…”Obi is a boy.” A stunted growth, which explains why every election cycle in the country is worse than the one before it.
Since the “Ambassadorial” dash to KWAM 1 by the Federal Government through Festus Keyamo, the question has been, what values is Nigeria promoting as a country?
Suddenly, Jonathan has become a beautiful bride!
A man discarded his pair of shoes because they had started to pinch and hurt him badly after some years of usage. He went for brand new ones, which became even worse after eight years of usage. Then he decided to return to the discarded pairs, saying that they were not as hurtful as the ones he acquired thereafter. The question rational minds were asking was, why not take time and buy fitting and comfortable pairs instead of returning to the old pairs in the hope that he would manage them?
The scenario above captures the call by some Northern elements on former President Goodluck Jonathan to contest again in 2027. By the next round of general elections, it would be 12 years since Jonathan lost re-election in 2015.
Nigeria has been a country that does not look forward. It continues to look behind, and that is why it has refused to make meaningful progress. Since 1999, when Nigeria tapped a former military head of state, Olusegun Obasanjo, to become a democratically elected president, the country has come to believe that once a person becomes a president, such an individual has automatically become an all-knowing being or possesses a sort of magic wand to solve all the problems of Nigeria, even when such an individual performed sub-optimally when he/she was in office.
It was this same thinking that led to the election of the late Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 to preside over the country for eight straight years, even when it was public knowledge that he led a completely rustic life after his active military days.
Today, the sing-song in many quarters is that Nigerians yearn for the return of Jonathan. Some faceless individuals are already sponsoring groups to raise the decibel level of that so-called clamour.
Last week, a group in the Northeast addressed a press conference in that regard.
The group, which calls itself “Bring Back Our Goodluck”, tendered an apology to Jonathan over what it described as the damaging narrative of sponsoring Boko Haram terrorists used in removing him from office in 2015.
The group also said it would stage a one-million-man march to the former president’s country home in Bayelsa to prevail on him to contest the 2027 presidential election.
Before that gambit, Jerry Gana, who has been everything around the nation’s politics and is now in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), said that the party was willing to allow Jonathan to run under its platform.
Things have got so bad that Nigerians are now calling on those who were regarded as failures yesteryear to come rule the country again, which amounts to one returning to one’s vomit.
If the truth must be told, Jonathan was not the best thing to happen to Nigeria. Granted that during his era (between 2010 and 2015), the exchange rate hovered around N151.09 and N195.52 per dollar, and a bag of rice cost N10,500, they were not enough to seek Jonathan’s return in a country bursting at its seams with many vibrant minds.
It is wrong and unfortunate to believe that Jonathan is the best Nigeria can produce as a president. That only speaks to the myopic and retrogressive tendencies of its promoters.
However, the feeling of hopelessness must have stemmed from the wasted eight years under Buhari and the prevailing delinquent economy in the current dispensation.
Jonathan was said to have given the PDP some conditions, which means he is even considering it. The question is, what is he looking for again? What did he forget in the Aso Rock Villa in 2015 that he wants to pick up a decade after?
The North is spearheading the “we want Jonathan” campaign because of the doubt they nurse over Peter Obi’s pledge to do just one term of four years if elected president.
The thinking in the North is that Nigerian politicians are perpetual covenant breakers, and they play to type. For them, since Jonathan had done a term (2011-2015), it would be safe for them to bank on him. Their reason has nothing to do with the capacity of Jonathan to turn Nigeria into a paradise, but just to have him do one term, and then power will return to the North in 2031.
A country that thinks this way is not progressive. If all the effort is about self against the overall interest of the country, it then means that Nigeria’s deliverance will take donkey years to come.
By-election: Reflection of a perpetually fledgling democracy
Nigeria, on many fronts, is having stunted growth. In every election cycle or even off-cycle polls, “Obi is a boy,” as it is said in street parlance. Every succeeding election is worse than the one preceding it. No country amounts to anything this way.
The by-elections that were held last Saturday in 16 constituencies across 12 states may have further exposed the faulty electoral system in Nigeria and its stunted growth democratically.
The elections were also a foretaste of what is to be expected in 2027. The results, as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), may have justified the saying in many quarters that elections in Nigeria are just a total waste of time, a fulfilment of all righteousness.
The elections followed the usual pattern where political parties in charge of states “sweep” all the seats contested. It was like local government elections. While the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is crying blue murder over the outcome in Kaduna, the All Progressives Congress (APC) is screaming foul in Oyo, while the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) is shouting hoax in Kano. It was a cacophony of voices all over the country, especially in the affected states. And after that, the raised dust settles, and the country moves on as if nothing ever happened. All eyes now focus on the next circus and round robin.
As minor as those elections were, all sorts of electoral malfeasance were recorded. Vote buying and alteration of results were widespread, as alleged by various parties that participated in the exercise.
Again, the elevation of an election to a status of war, even by government actors, does not bode well for the country.
The government at the centre was making a mockery of the opposition over the outcome of the exercise. This should not be so in a country where the government is for all, irrespective of party leaning. This, unfortunately, amplified the winner-takes-all mentality that defines actors in an undeveloped or fledgling democracy.
Election, like any other sport, is supposed to be played with the spirit of sportsmanship – being magnanimous in victory. Sadly, that is not Nigeria’s way. The dangerous vibes being brought into the elections and the vexatious celebration of victories spell doom for the country.
Deodatta V. Shenai-Khatkhate, R&D fellow at The Dow Chemical Company, USA, said, “Good leaders are always magnanimous in victory and gracious in defeat. Treating their opponents with dignity and respect shows their noble character as much as their high class. A bad leader always blows his own trumpet and continues to insult his opponents even after winning, and most definitely, after his defeat.”
FG/KWAM 1: Lest we forget!
There seems to be a little bit of madness in society. Abnormality seems to have displaced normalcy in terms of value and public opprobrium. Up until the penultimate Wednesday, there was still a little bit of reasonability in society. But everything went awry with the announcement by Festus Keyamo, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, that Wasiu Adewale Ayinde Marshal, professionally known as K1 De Ultimate (KWAM 1) and a Member of the Order of the Niger (MON), had been elevated to the status of an aviation ambassador. Many people’s jaws dropped.
A few days before his public promotion, the ace musician was being tongue-lashed by Keyamo over his unruly behaviour at Abuja Airport. KWAM 1 caused a stir when he doused a pilot and crew members of the ValueJet Airline with liquid content from a flask and charged at the pilot by standing in front of the aircraft to prevent it from taking off.
Not only did he constitute himself a huge nuisance to the members of the public who watched his grandstanding, but he also threatened to teach the lady pilot a bitter lesson. He was also throwing about his worth in society and asking repeatedly, “Do you know who I am?”
His unexpected low behaviour was initially flayed by Keyamo, who ordered that he should be placed on a no-fly ban for six months. There were other decisions taken against him to punish the bad behaviour, and Nigerians commended the federal government for wielding the big stick.
But Abuja was to drop the ball in a matter of hours when it announced that KWAM 1 had been forgiven and that he had also been appointed aviation ambassador. Whaaaaaat? Many asked and screamed in equal measure. That decision, many believed, must have been taken under certain influence. It cannot be overemphasised that the recognition was a total mess and questioned the values that Nigerians profess and hold dear.
It was impunity of this nature and the usual slap-on-the-wrist treatment by the government that has emboldened criminals and has given the country a bad name on the global stage.
A man exhibited barbaric behaviour and got a thumbs up from a government that was supposed to draw the line. Nigeria surely needs a rebirth!
