Politics
With the close of submission of the expression of interest forms of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, it is now safe to conclude that the former President Goodluck Jonathan has been able to win the main test of retaining the all-important public trust as a worthy Statesman by rejecting the pressures mounted on him to dive into the murky water of Nigerian politics and worst still to be associated with the former opposition party, the APC that had over the years pummeling him and discrediting all he achieved in the guise of propaganda and politics.
By Goddy Ikeh
WHEN the news first filtered in some months ago that there was a dodgy deal which some APC stalwarts were hatching to use Jonathan as a trunk card to win the 2023 presidential election after it dawned on the party that its records were dwarfed by what Jonathan achieved during his tenure and that many of the projects completed by the party like the Abuja-Kaduna rail projects, Airports refurbishment projects and several road projects were conceived and started by Jonathan’s government.
A statement by the spokesperson of Jonathan, Ikechukwu Eze, in 2017, listed some of the achievements of the Jonathan-led administration to include the rise in Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product to $503 billion in 2013 and becoming Africa’s largest economy and 26th in the world; from 3rd and 4th respectively.
Under the administration, Nigeria became the number one destination for Foreign Direct Investment in Africa with the numbers rising from $24.9 million as at 2007 to over $35 billion in 2014.
According to him, Jonathan’s government delivered over 25,000 km of motorable federal roads from just a quarter of that number in 2011 an resuscitated the railways in the country after about 30-years of hiatus
In addition, Jonathan’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda ended fertilizer racketeering, encouraged more young Nigerians to take to farming, boosted local food production and took the country closer to self-sufficiency in food production by recording more than 50% reduction in food imports. It was as a result of this that the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, for the first time, voted Nigeria the largest producer of Cassava in the world.
The power sector was not left out as power generation under Jonathan was boosted to about 5,000 megawatts in 2014 up from 2,000 megawatts in 2011.
On food prices, the prices of food and other household items remained stable and inflationary pressure was down to a single digit.
In the health sector, Nigeria controlled clinically Ebola outbreak to the admiration of the whole world, became Guinea-worm-free, and also eradicated polio, with United States billionaire and renowned philanthropist Bill Gates, praising Nigeria’s successes against polio as one of the great world achievements of 2014. Under Jonathan, Life expectancy in Nigeria rose from 47 years in 2010 to 54 years in 2015.
And before Jonathan left office, CNN Money projected that Nigeria’s economy in 2015 would become the third fastest-growing economy in the world at 7 percent behind China at 7.3 percent and Qatar at 7.1 percent.
Fortunately, these achievements cannot be controverted by any Nigerian, except some members of the ruling party, who have internalized self-denial as their political game plan since they have failed to match the achievements of the past administration of Jonathan and planned to bring him back with its dodgy deal which has failed to materialize.
Unfortunately, these achievements cannot be compared with the failed promises of 2015 by President Buhari which included tackling the immediate challenges confronting the nation, namely; “Boko Haram, the Niger Delta situation, the power shortages, and unemployment especially among young people.
“For the longer term, we have to improve the standards of our education. We have to look at the whole field of medicare. We have to upgrade our dilapidated physical infrastructure.
“The most immediate is Boko Haram’s insurgency. Progress has been made in recent weeks by our security forces but victory cannot be achieved by basing the Command and Control Centre in Abuja. The command center will be relocated to Maiduguri and remain until Boko Haram is completely subdued. But we cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by insurgents. This government will do all it can to rescue them alive.
“Boko Haram is not only the security issue bedeviling our country. The spate of kidnappings, armed robberies, herdsmen/farmers clashes, and cattle rustlings all help to add to the general air of insecurity in our land. We are going to erect and maintain efficient, disciplined people–friendly and well-compensated security forces within an overall security architecture.”
On Power generation, he said that it was “a national shame that an economy of 180 million generates only 4,000MW, and distributes even less.
On tackling unemployment, he said: “We intend to attack the problem frontally through revival of agriculture, solid minerals mining as well as credits to small and medium-size businesses to kick–start these enterprises. We shall quickly examine the best way to revive major industries and accelerate the revival and development of our railways, roads, and general infrastructure.”
According to some stakeholders, when not much was achieved in the first four years of the APC government, the President and the party decided to discard the idea of making any promises, but to take the nation to the NEXT LEVEL, which has seen the nation’s power generation dropping to less than 1500mw and the national grid crashing severally as never before and throwing the nation into darkness.
The worsening insecurity, banditry and killings, resulting in more than 2000 deaths in two years. The economy has not fared better with huge debt burden, high inflation rate of over 17 percent, low value of the naira, and high unemployment. The education sector is characterized with several months of industrial action by university teachers and other tertiary institutions and crimes and drug abuse are on the increase.
According to some political experts, with these challenges confronting the APC government, the party felt that bringing Jonathan on board would save their face and perhaps win the 2023 presidential poll. Little wonder therefore that Ibrahim Abdullahi, leader of the nomadic Fulani pastoralists and Almajiri communities, decided to pick the APC’s declaration of interest forms for Jonathan so that he could be re-elected to enable him complete what he began.
“My name is Ibrahim Abdullahi, I represent two of the most vulnerable communities in our country, the Nomadic Pastoralists, and the Almajiri Communities. We have decided to purchase this form for our former president, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, to come back and rule this country and continue with the good work he started,” Abdullahi told journalists in Abuja last week after paying and picking the forms for Jonathan. Abdullahi also said that Jonathan was the first president since the country gained independence in 1960 that found it expedient, through his magnanimity, to remember the Almajiri community.
But in a swift reaction, Jonathan rejected the N100 million APC forms bought for him to contest the 2023 presidential election by the nomadic Fulani pastoralists and Almajiri communities. Ikechukwu Eze, Jonathan’s media adviser in a statement on Monday, May 9, 2022, said that it was an insult for the community to buy the forms for him without his consent.
“It has come to our notice that a group has purportedly purchased Presidential Expression of Interest and Nomination forms of the APC in the name of former President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. We wish to categorically state that Dr. Jonathan was not aware of this bid and did not authorise it.
“We want to state that if the former president wanted to contest an election, he would make his intentions clear to the public and will not enter through the back door,” Eze said.
He, however, expressed appreciation for the overwhelming request by a cross-section of Nigerians for Jonathan to make himself available for the 2023 presidential election. Eze, however, said that the former president had not in any way, committed himself to the request.
“Buying a presidential aspiration form in the name Dr. Jonathan without his consent, knowing the position he had held in this country, is considered an insult to his person. The general public is therefore advised to disregard it,” Eze said.
But the report by Saturday Vanguard said that the expression of interest and nomination forms, which were bought for Jonathan were neither completed nor submitted at the close of deadline for the submission of forms on Friday, May 13, 2022.
According to the report, no reason was given for the sudden loss of interest in the APC presidential ticket, and that a reliable source confided in Saturday Vanguard that the whole process surrounding the participation of the former president in the race as a consensus candidate of the party, had been enmeshed in uncertainty and controversy, leaving the former leader with no choice but to opt-out. In addition, some key loyalists of the former president, who could have given him the nod to go ahead with the race, had since become convinced that it would not be possible for the APC to concede the ticket to him, given the mood in the party and the body language of its leaders.
The report said that Jonathan’s backers had also not been forthcoming with details of how they intended to push through with his candidature given the array of other presidential aspirants who are laying claim to being ‘anointed’ by the powers that be. It also said that Jonathan’s circle of friends were convinced that the renewed moves by some hawks within the APC to throw open the APC presidential ticket as is being done by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, would also not favour their leader and therefore, advised him to steer clear of the muddy political water and keep his head high as a former president.
However, before the new twist of Jonathan joining in the presidential race, many groups have been making a case for the position to be zoned to the South East of the country for the sake of equity and sustainable peace in the country.
For instance, former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has lent his voice to the call and restated his position that the South-East should be allowed to produce Nigeria’s President in 2023, insisting that it would ensure peace, justice, fairness, and sustainable national development in the country.
Obasanjo, who addressed members of Political Action Committee, PAC, of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, who visited him at his Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, to solicit his support for the quest for a Nigerian President of South-East extraction, said the minimum Nigerians would accept is that the next president should come from the South.
“The next president of Nigeria must come from the South East. The least acceptable minimum is a president from the Southern part of Nigeria”, Obasanjo was quoted by Ohanaeze Ndigbo’s spokesman, Alex Ogbonnia, as saying.
The former President, who commended Ohanaeze Ndigbo for demanding their rights, told the delegation that what he “owes Nigeria is sincerity, objectivity and guidance.” He maintained the need for morality, equity and justice in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural country like Nigeria, warning that “it is inconceivable to have peace and progress in a country that is rooted in injustice.”
“Federal character, rotation of power and such other measures are meant to help our nation-building process and more sure-footedly, move Nigeria forward” and warned that “riding over these measures rudely, shoddily and roughly cannot augur well for our nation-building process and progress,” local media reports quoted Obasanjo as saying.
With the latest development in the APC and the closure of the submission of the declaration of interest forms, the controversy generated by the alleged participation of former President Jonathan in the 2023 presidential race under the platform of the APC and his eligibility or not to contest raised by some lawyers should be over now. In all, Jonathan has been able to maintain his good nature and as a Statesman, he was able to ward off the pressure mounted by the political hawks and their dodgy deal.
– May. 16, 2022 @ 17:23 GMT | A I.
Tags: Alex Ogbonnia APC Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Ohanaeze Ndigbo
