#thechoice How Jonathan can be Nigeria’s greatest leader ever , Idang Alibi PoliticsDecember 2014 The attitude of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan towards the conduct and outcome of the 2015 elections will determine three things, namely: violence or the lack of it, stability of Nigeria, and his own place in the history of Nigeria. In a sense, it is correct to say that the fate of this nation between now and February next year and even beyond, is in the hands of one man called Jonathan. I am pointing this out so that this realization will further humble Mr President and make him decide to insist on the right thing. We are going to have a keenly contested presidential election in which the outcome will be too close to call. So much is at stake in next February’s elections, especially the presidential contest in which Jonathan is going to be more than involved as an interested observer and participant. General Muhammadu Buhari is going to try his luck again, for the fourth time. Thrice beaten, four times shy. If Buhari does not get it this time around, he stands no chance of ever wanting, or ever being given the chance, to contest again. He himself and millions of his adoring supporters are therefore going to give it their best shot. For him and them it may be now or never ever again which will be very painful to them. Jonathan on his part is an incumbent president in a continent where it sounds almost like sacrilege for a man on the seat to ever lose an election in which he organises and is also a contestant. Jonathan will like to do everything to avoid becoming the first incumbent president in Nigeria to ever lose an election. If he loses, he will feel deeply humiliated because he will make the kind of dubious history made by a former principal of my secondary school who was the first Tiv man in history to fail NCE! He and millions of his supporters will therefore do everything to ensure that he wins. The type of scenario we have painted here means that Nigerians are in for a very keen contest that can veer off course because of the high stakes. We are already beginning to feel the heat. From what we have on the ground, the presidential contest can go either way. Even if Jonathan wins, we are not likely to see the kind of wide gap he gave to Buhari in 2011. Given the way things are today in our country, with the ruling party looking very vulnerable, the temptation may be high on the part of Jonathan’s handlers to choose a strategy of using the police and the army as a performance enhancing drug to make the President and his party to win. I foresee trouble in any recourse to such tactic. My submission therefore is that a lot depends on what the president does or fails to do. My recommendations, therefore, are as follows: one, the President should convince himself that the fate of this nation is very much in his hands. That Nigeria will stand or disintegrate if he fails to adopt the attitude of calm self-assurance that he can win in a free and fair atmosphere without recourse to any dirty tricks. Second, he should tell himself that the 2015 presidential election will not be a do-or-die matter for him personally and for his party, the PDP. Once he comes to this conviction, the following consequential action should take place. He should call a meeting of all the powerful people in PDP and tell them that there should be no desperation to win. That if the party and its candidates including himself win fair and square, that will be okay and that if they lose, that also will be okay. That what matters is that Nigeria should remain standing. That no one should strive winning a pyrrhic victory, that type of victory that is even more costly to the system than defeat. Such a genuine signal from him will do a lot to determine the course and peaceful outcome of 2015 and the very survival of Nigeria itself. From what we saw of the APC presidential primaries in which losers graciously accepted their defeat and pledged to co-operate with the winner, it is clear that Nigerians have reached a maturity level in which the most ardent lovers of losing candidates will not partake in violence if they see that their men and women lost fairly in an honest contest. To be fair to Jonathan he has shown that he can cope with electoral loses. He showed that a couple of times. But the 2015 election is crucial. A free, fair and peaceful outcome will guarantee Nigeria. If Jonathan has the courage, the good sense, the fear of God and the love of the nation to do this now, I can almost swear that this singular action will dramatically crash the political blood pressure of this country which is today hovering dangerously at 240/200 to a normal 120/80. If he goes ahead to conduct the 2015 election and he even loses but he does a Fayemi and graciously concedes defeat and proceeds to organise and sportsmanly witnesses the swearing-in and transfer of power to his successor, he will boost his profile to high heavens and enter the exclusive pantheon of respected African elder statesmen. For Jonathan therefore, win or lose 2015 will in fact be a win-win game. He will win the elusive Mo Ibrahim Prize for African Leadership. What is more, he will immunize himself against the harassment and humiliation that is the lot of many an African leader after life in office. All his mistakes will be forgiven him. No one will have the courage to raise or ask any awkward questions about some aspects of his stewardship of Nigeria for the past six years. No one will ask questions about what he may have done wrongly in other public positions he has held. Such are the rewards awaiting him if only he will summon the courage and good sense to insist on the right thing taking place between now and the 2015 elections. I know there are many in the PDP and in his family and friends’ circles who will pooh-pooh what I am saying here and urge him on to “play politics” the Nigerian style by bending the rules here and subverting the law some where there in order to “win”. He should have the courage not to bite the bait. He stands to gain much more from what I am humbling suggesting to him here than going with his party men, family and friends.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 09:58:33 +0000
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