Jonathan now and after power

KEEN political observers believe there are huge lessons to be learnt from the historic defeat of President Goodluck Jonathan in the presidential election held on March 28. Jonathan, the candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was roundly defeated by that of the All Progressives Congress, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, in a poll that ended 16 years uninterrupted reign of the party that prides itself as the largest in Africa. So firmly did the party think the nation was in its grips that the governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, boasted that it would rule the country for 60 years; up by 10 years from the 50 years earlier predicted by a former National Chairman of the party, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor.

Like his ascension previously as the governor of Bayelsa State, Jonathan, a former Vice President of the country, had become the President in a fortuitous manner. His boss and President, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua, fell sick and died half way into his four-year tenure. And based on the principle of necessity, the National Assembly endorsed Jonathan to occupy the nation’s number one seat and complete the two years left of the Yar’Adua tenure. In a move widely condemned as an abuse of democratic principles, the PDP endorsed Jonathan as its sole candidate for the March 28 election in spite of the perceived unpopularity of his government. The end result was the massive defeat the APC candidate inflicted on him.

Significantly, it was the first time Jonathan, who had functioned variously as governor, Vice President and Acting President before holding the office of President for six years, would push for election on his own. All the positions he previously held had fallen on his laps like manna. Previously functioning as the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, he became the governor of the state on December 9, 2005 with the impeachment of his boss, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, over allegations of money laundering. Jonathan was minding his business as governor when the then outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo influenced his choice as the running mate to the then presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua. He thus became the Vice President with Yar’Adua’s victory in the2007 polls.

On January 13, 2010, the Federal High Court in Abuja ruled that Jonathan should be named the Acting President as Yar’Adua lay critically ill in a hospital in Saudi Arabia. Yar’Adua eventually gave up the ghost on May 5, 2010 and Jonathan was sworn in as President the following day. Even for the full term of four years he did after serving out Yar’Adua’s remaining two years, he was literally railroaded into office by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and other Nigerians who felt that an indigene of the Niger Delta, the region from where the nation’s oil wealth is sourced, should for once produce the President.

The divine manner he had secured all the positions had led many to warn him not to push his luck too far when indications emerged that he was bent on extending his stay in office by another four years. Rather than heed the warnings, Jonathan and his foot soldiers in the PDP went about manipulating the process to ensure that no party man contested the presidential ticket with him. He secured the ticket alright, but good luck failed him in the general election.

It was obvious that having dwelt in the corridors of power for more than a decade, Jonathan was finding it hard to contemplate life as an ordinary citizen. But like the biblical Job, that which he feared has finally come. Since Buhari was announced the winner of the presidential race on March 30, so much has happened to convince a keen observer that life has not remained the same for the zoologist turned politician. The power, influence and respect that hitherto surrounded his person have started waning even before his successor is sworn in.

There were reports, for instance, that attendance at Aso Rock Chapel the Sunday after the presidential election was a far cry from what it had been before then, even though the result of the election had not been announced officially. The retinue of loyalists, which used to accompany the President to his official worship centre, was nowhere in sight, even on a Palm Sunday. Before then, the chapel was said to be filled beyond capacity each time President Jonathan worshipped there. But those in attendance during the Palm Sunday service, besides the choir, did not exceed the first three rows on both sides, while workers, media men and a few security aides occupied the fourth row.

 

Those who thought it was sheer coincidence discovered how wrong they were the following Sunday as the attendance figure dwindled even further. And there is no hope that attendance rate will pick up any time soon in the chapel whose liturgy is said to be permanently tailored towards eulogising President Goodluck Jonathan and rebuking his perceived foes. The next President is a Muslim. Apparently worried by the sight that confronted him, the guest minister on the Sunday after the election wasted no time in telling the President not to bother too much about the outcome of the election as only God is capable of putting people in positions.

Neither has it been rosy on the home front. The once ubiquitous First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, has become a scarce item since her husband was defeated at the poll, sparking speculations on her whereabouts. While some reports said she had travelled out of the country for a deserved rest after the exertions of the presidential campaign rallies, others said she had decided to keep herself indoors and quietly nurse the pains of the defeat. Latest reports however showed that she was at her outpost in Okrika, from where she allegedly supervised the rigging machinery of the PDP in the governorship election.

All is said not to be well between Patience and her husband over the latter’s decision to accept defeat and congratulate Gen. Muhammadu Buhari once it was obvious that the APC had won. She is said to be wondering why her husband, with all the power at his disposal, would concede defeat in the high-stake election without a fight. She had made no pretence about her fears that her husband could be jailed if Buhari won the election and became the president. “I don’t want to be carrying food to my husband in prison if Buhari becomes the president,” she had told her husband’s supporters at one of the rallies in Ibadan.

Now, the nation is faced with the prospect of President Jonathan retiring to Otuoke in Bayelsa State. The First Lady was conspicuously missing when her husband turned up to vote at a polling unit in Otuoke during the governorship and House of Assembly elections on April 11. Unlike the presidential election when he went to the polling booth holding hands with his wife, the President had to find a companion in his aged mother on that occasion.

The defection of many avowed loyalists of the President to the APC since Buhari was declared the president-elect could be an indication of how much of his friends he should expect to see in Otuoke after his retirement. Even the first meeting of party loyalists he called after he had admitted defeat was reportedly shunned by his supposed right hand men like Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose and his Ondo State counterpart, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko. Certainly, in the days ahead, the saying that failure is an orphan is bound to make more sense to the President. But he may find solace and succour in being tagged a hero of democracy after accepting defeat and congratulating Buhari on his victory.