A good number of Nigerians had grown weary of the PDP’s retrogressive approach
to governance. And that was the point at which the party went for the ill-fated contest, thereby giving the All Progressives Party (APC) a smooth sail, write ZEBULON AGOMUO and ODINAKA ANUDU
Many factors conspired toward the downfall of the umbrella party at the polling units on March 28, 2015.
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan would have been the first president of Niger Delta extraction to cruise to a second term without much ado.
But miscalculations, faux pas, self-inflicted failure and over-confidence, among others, plunged the outgoing president and his party into the electoral cesspit in which he found himself after the presidential election held on March 28.
President Jonathan dug his pit during his negotiations with the North for the 2011 presidential election. Indisputably, Jonathan had signed a pact with the North, at the instance of Olusegun Obasanjo and other party leaders that he was only going for a single term of four years.
And this was for a critical reason. The death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua had opened a new chapter to Jonathan. As Yar’Adua’s vice, Nigerians could not understand why a Northern cabal would not allow Jonathan to become president, when it was conspicuous that the former was either incapable of ruling the country or dead. The cabal’s refusal to disclose the health status of Yar’Adua angered many Nigerians, including the late Dora Akunyili, the then information minister, who felt insulted that she could not say anything about the whereabouts of the head of a government for which she was its image maker.
Consequently, there was a flurry of emotions and empathy for Jonathan, from Nigerians, who felt that the cabal was trying to subvert divine will for the country. Jonathan was later sworn in as president at the instance of the Senate that invoked what it termed, the “Doctrine of Necessity”. Few months after, his opportunity to contest the first term also came.
Pundits say the North then had no option because Nigerians wanted Jonathan for obvious reasons. One, he was seen as ‘Mr Goodluck’ who would bring a better life to the country that needed a break with Yar’Adua’s ‘go-slow’ approach to governance. Two, many myths were weaved around Jonathan concerning how he rose from a deputy class prefect to class prefect, deputy governor to governor, and vice-president to president. This was seen as good omen for Nigeria. Three, he was seen as an option and opportunity to pacify the Niger Delta and other minorities who were angrily
protesting marginalisation. Four, he was seen as a well-educated person, brandishing a doctorate
degree in zoology.
But the North was to push him into signing a pact after he had defeated Atiku Abubakar at the
primaries. He was only going to run for one term.
Jonathan also believed that he did not deserve Nigerians’ votes if failed to perform in four years.
President Jonathan, while addressing Nigerians living in Ethiopia, where he attended an African Union summit, was also reported to have pledged to stand for only one term.
Shehu Sani, the then president of the Civil Rights Congress, did not believe Jonathan, who he said had carved a niche for himself as someone who breaks a gentleman’s agreement and doesn’t honour his words.
Few weeks later, exactly May 26, 2011, the Otueke, Bayelsa-born president, betrayed signs that he would not honour this pact. At pre-inauguration lecture delivered by Ladipo Adamolekun, a professor, in Abuja, the president said that four years was not enough for a president or a governor to embark on any meaningful programme.
This culminated in the crisis that rocked the PDP, as many saw signs that Jonathan would contest again. Jonathan’s ambition tore the party into shreds as it led to sidelining of certain indi viduals who could pose a threat to his aspiration.
PDP was divided by this and further by Bamanga Tukur’s leadership style. Aggrieved members such as Kawu Baraje, governors Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers), Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Abdulfattah Ahmed (Kwara) and Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), among others, left PDP to form ‘New PDP’.
Jonathan’s leadership finesse was tested but he failed to live up to expectations by successfully
reconciling the differences, like his then ‘godfather’ Olusegun Obasanjo would have done. The last straw that broke the camel’s back was the defection of five out of the seven G-7 governors to the APC. This was the beginning of Jonathan’s defeat as the opposition was strengthened while these men, who knew all about PDP, leaked all the secrets to their new party.
Moreover, President Jonathan committed his biggest blunder when he sidelined Obasanjo and failed to pacify the man who dared the North in 2011 to ensure he became president.
“If I were Jonathan, I would keep Obasanjo,” Ike Ibe, a political analyst, told BD SUNDAY, during
the heat of PDP crisis.
It is on record that Obasanjo supported APC and told Nigerians to vote out Jonathan whom he had helped to install.
Mu’azu Jonathan’s choice of Namadi Sambo as running mate in 2015 was seen by many political
watchers as a miscalculation. It is on record that in 2011 Jonathan won the presidential election
but Sambo lost his polling station. Many analysts believe Sambo lost touch with his people on May
19, 2010, when he ceased being the governor of Kaduna State to become vice-president Moreover, apart from politics, Jonathan’s handling of social and economic issues was pedestrian, according to pundits. His disposition betrayed him as a president who condones corruption. If Jonathan’s failure to sincerely probe Stella Oduah and Diezani Allison- Madueke was suspect, his pardon of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and withdrawal of Mohammed Abacha’s N446.3 billion fraud case was seen as ignominious.
The appointment of Femi Fani-Kayode, who is standing trial on corruption charges, by the same government that is prosecuting him, is such a double standard and impunity at which many Nigerians cringed in astonishment.
Again, Jonathan’s inability to punish either the minister of interior or the comptroller- general of Nigeria Immigration Service after the death of 18 job seekers may have chopped over five million off his votes. Even though Nigerians showed disdain that it was odiousfor a parastatal to take N1000 from job seekers without any guarantee of employment, Jonathan turned deaf ears. This appeared to have emboldened other agencies and parastatals to take this dishonourable path of collecting money from job seekers after which jobs would only be given to the relatives of heads of such agencies or parastatals.
Jonathan’s insistence on the mantra “stealing is not corruption” is bad advertisement to his mouthed corruption crusade. Monies were stolen from both the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) and oil racketeers without checks and balances, according to the APC and
other Nigerians.
The dwindling oil price and depleting of foreign reserves did not help Jonathan. Even though he made strides to grow agriculture and manufacturing, the glaring fact is that Nigeria’s economy under his watch is not diversified. Rebasing of the economy only underscored what was already known that the country’s economy was undervalued, but this was not basically an achievement.
For six years, the PDP was accused of playing politics with the Boko Haram deadly campaign in the North East. While many people were being killed, the President appeared comfortable, each time there was a bloody attack, to address Nigerians and assure them that government was going to find a solution to the insurgency; but nothing ever happened.
At times, after some bloody episodes that should ordinarily warrant the President to cancel engagements, Aso Rock and PDP still went ahead with their programmes.
When the Chibok school girls were abducted, government said it was a ploy by opponents to discredit it. No concrete effort at rescuing the girls until it became too late. The mantra from
the seat of power was that the problem of insurgence was global and as such nobody should hold government accountable for the activities of Boko Haram. Life itself was becoming brutish in Nigeria and government carried on as if the country’s population was too much that it needed to be pruned drastically.
Before the postponement of the presidential election earlier slated for February 14, the President and PDP’s estimation in the eyes of rational minds had dropped plummeted.
In what appeared to be the last straw that broke the camel’s back, Aso Rock was panicstricken and started to make last ditch moves to regain people’s confidence. But the Rubicon had been crossed.
While the PDP lost the people’s confidence, many electorates who had described the APC and its Presidential candidate, Buhari, as no better alternative, gradually and willy-nilly, began to queue behind the broom party.
Although Buhari has been elected as president, his victory, analysts say, was buoyed by the bottled up anger against PDP, a party that has over the years become a huge bazaar for the privileged few.
