On Wednesday, 20 November, former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, turned 67. Here’s wishing him happy birthday in arrears and tonnes of good luck for the rest of his sojourn on planet earth.
On his birthday, many years after he left office, the media, both orthodox and new media, buzzed with good wishes to a man Nigerians now remember with nostalgia.
A man of peace. Urbane. Genteel. Cultured. A true democrat. Among all Nigerian presidents in the 4th Republic, bar none, Jonathan stands out as the purest breed democrat. Not even President Olusegun Obasanjo comes close to his credentials and mannerisms as a democrat. President Jonathan (President from 2010 – 2015) is a cut above the rest. Nigerians loved him as President and still do. They remember his Presidency with nostalgia. Bring back the Jonathan years, they crave. It’s understandable why they do. When an unfit and ungainly Muhammadu Buhari succeeded Jonathan via a monstrously rigged election, rather than ease the pain of Nigerians as he promised during electioneering, Buhari afflicted them with stinging pains, the type only scorpions could inflict on its victims. The pain has even amplified these days. This is one of the reasons Nigerians were all over the internet on Jonathan’s birthday praising him and pouring best wishes on the man from Otuoke. Buhari’s philistine values and his rudderless leadership for eight years marked by unrelenting borrowings, primitive corruption, nationwide insecurity and trademark terror strikes, among other failings helped to deodorise the Jonathan leadership which, it has to be stressed, had its fair share of corruption and insecurity.
But this treatise is not about Buhari. It’s about Jonathan, an unknown figure in Nigeria until 1998 when he joined politics and became deputy governor of Bayelsa state on the PDP ticket of DSP Alamieyeseigha. It was in politics that the luck in Goodluck Jonathan expressed its full majesty. The former lecturer and OMPADEC assistant director would later transit from deputy governor to governor and from vice president to president without going through the dogfight of contesting an election. He simply flew on the wings of grace to the summit of political office in a complex Nigeria. By 2011 when he contested his first ever election, he was already president courtesy of the Doctrine of Necessity.
This streak of fortune that thrust a teacher from his Otuoke community to Aso Rock without lifting a finger endeared Jonathan to many Nigerians including this writer. In office, Jonathan tried to do what his predecessors did. He tried to tame corruption. He tried to make Nigeria a production economy. He tried to construct new roads and make the existing ones motorable. He tried (more than any of his predecessors) to bring millions of out-of-school children into the school net. He did many other things to foster development, including electoral reforms. But just like other presidents, he failed on these fronts. The opposition even placed the tag ‘clueless’ on him. But as much as we record his failings as we do the failings of other leaders, past and present, we must recognise that Jonathan crests the curve in the aspect of democratic values.
The 2015 election that ousted Jonathan was rigged in favour of Buhari, who was already baying for blood should INEC not declare him winner of the presidential election. His famous ‘dogs and baboons will be soaked in blood’ battle cry was firmly planted in the subconscious of Nigerians. The election was rigged by Professor Attahiru Jega, INEC Chairman at that time, who openly set different electoral parameters for different parts of the country. Jega enforced the use of card reader in the south but not in the north for the same election.
Jonathan admitted this much and heavily indicted Jega in his book, My Transition Hours. In Chapter Eight of that book, he wrote: “I had every reason to contest the results, starting from educational qualification for elections and electoral malpractices. These were the facts in my hands…
“Apparently, there were many instances of irregularities. There were series of problems with card readers, resulting from widespread technical hitches leading to non-uniform application throughout the country…”
These were the intelligence at the disposal of Jonathan before, during and after the election. He knew the election was not credible. He knew that the use of card reader was strictly enforced by Jega in the south but waived in the north. But he overlooked these flaws because in his opinion, he did not want to plunge the nation into a spasm of violence.
Referencing President Buhari in the book, Jonathan wrote: “An eerie comment was made two years before by the then main opposition candidate, threatening that ‘if what happened in 2011 should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood.’”
But this is where I fault Jonathan. Allowing a gravely flawed election to stand is not democratic. Democracy runs on the rotor of the rule of law and if any election does not follow basic rules, it is counter-democratic and should not stand. You cannot build democracy with undemocratic bricks. And here is the irony. By allowing a rigged election to stand, Jonathan shoved Nigerians into the arms of Buhari, a man unfit to run a local government in the 21st century. In his incompetence, Buhari dragged the nation backwards.
This error of judgment by Jonathan should not de-robe him of his glorious democratic gown. He remains a rare African leader who would rather take the shame than allow democracy to stumble. And the world recognises it and honours it. Post-office, Jonathan remains one of the few African leaders touring the world and giving lectures on democracy and democratic processes in Africa. A reward for his fidelity to the ideals of democracy and respect for human rights. He is also a highly ranked election observer since leaving office. Plus, he has been garlanded with local and international awards. He’s truly a democrat.
