For scholars of international politics and political historians, former American President Lyndon Johnson and incumbent Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan are good case studies for comparative analysis. Notwithstanding the difference in time, age and clime, the two presidents share some common describable similarities.
Lyndon Johnson was the vice presidential candidate to John F. Kennedy who was elected president of the US in 1960. He functioned as the vice president until 1963. Unfortunately, towards the fall of that year, precisely on November 22 in Dallas, Texas, President John F. Kennedy was felled by an assassin’s bullet. And following the death of his boss, Lyndon Johnson automatically acceded to the American presidential seat. As at then in American history, Johnson was the fourth vice president to have gone through overnight transition to the presidency. His precursors were Theodore Roosevelt in 1901, Calvin Coolidge in 1923, and Harry Truman in 1945. By the time he took over as president, it remained roughly a year for the presidency of John F. Kennedy to elapse.
Similarly, Goodluck Jonathan was elected vice president of Nigeria under the ticket of President Umaru Msua Yar’Adua in 2007. President Yar’Adua was first incapacitated by ill health and then bowed to death of natural cause on May 6, 2010. As a result, Goodluck Jonathan was first sworn in as acting president on February 19, 2010 and became president on March 6. At the time he took over in 2010, it also remained one year and 23 days for the tenure of President Yar’Adua to expire.
Both Johnson and Jonathan completed what remained of the tenure of their former bosses. By so doing, the new presidents did not as much evolve new programmes and policies but continued with those initiated by the late presidents. The duo by the circumstances that led to their accession to power did not spend a dime in clinching the presidency which ordinarily would have cost them lots of money in campaigns to get to the presidency. The twosome mounted the presidency of their respective countries by act of providence.
On completing what remained of the Kennedy presidency, Lyndon Johnson, who in 1960 lost the presidential nomination, contested for the number one position of the US in 1964 and won. He won the largest vote both in numbers and percentages.
In the same vein, Goodluck Jonathan, on finishing the term of Yar’Adua, on his own steam contested and won the 2011 presidential election. His victory was broad-based and the election adjudged and freest and fairest in recent history.
President Jonathan and Lyndon Johnson hail or hailed from the southern parts of their respective countries and are of humble backgrounds. Jonathan is from Otuoke, Bayelsa State in South- south geo-political zone of Nigeria, while Johnson was from Houston, Texas, in the southern part of the US. The parents of both presidents were poor farmers. Between 1964-1968 when Johnson presided over the affairs of the United States, he pushed much legislation through the House and Senate and scored political successes on the domestic front. But his poor handling of foreign policies in the Dominican Republic and in Vietnam was his albatross.
For Jonathan, he has since 2010 till date made remarkable inroads in the polity with his transformation agenda, especially in fostering unity and peace as well as setting Nigeria on the path of progress, notwithstanding the menacing threat of the Boko Haram insurgents.
Another striking feature of Goodluck Jonathan and Lyndon Johnson who were both school teachers is that in spite of their pioneering efforts, they do not seem to be loved by a majority of the people.
As another year of election approached in 1968, Lyndon Johnson in a 35-minute broadcast told Americans he would not seek nor accept the nomination of his party for another term as their president. For 37 years in service of the US, as congressman, senator, vice president, and president, “I have put the unity of the country first”, he said. Thus ended his presidency.
With the 2015 general elections fast approaching, Goodluck Jonathan at a well-attended rally of his party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), in Abuja recently, told Nigerians that he has accepted the clarion call of well-meaning citizens of the country on him to run for the presidency. For Jonathan, whose political career commenced in 1999 as deputy governor and stretched to the presidency in 2010, the journey continues. Maybe this is where the bond between the two presidents ends.
Uzoma Isiakpu
