EVIDENTLY President Goodluck Jonathan, as the Yoruba proverb goes, has eating his fill of his food and is now actively looking for what will deflate his round belly.
In other words, trouble sleep yanga go wake am. This is another example of weak breed leaders Nigeria routinely throws up; men heedless of the lessons of history and are therefore doomed to repeat it.
But he is gradually going for broke, given the unfolding chaos in Rivers State where a minority of five legislators are bent on imposing their will on 27 others in their determination to oust the current speaker, Olelemaba Dan Amachree from office.
Nobody needs to be told that Nigerians would see the barely concealed hands of Jonathan behind the badly plotted drama in spite of his sneaking out to China on the eve of the event as if that was enough to conceal his involvement.
He has learnt from past masters like Obasanjo and Babangida the logic of flashing a good smile at those already marked for the guillotine.
It was only days before these lawmakers’ drama that Jonathan held Amaechi in warm embrace on a visit to Rivers State.
But Nigerians only need to recall his frosty relationship with Chibuike R. Amaechi, the State governor, to connect Jonathan, rightly or wrongly, with last week’s event in that state where police commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu and Nyesom Wike, Minister of State for Education, have with Abuja’s goading been taking on Amaechi.
Jonathan could claim Evans Bipi and his four accomplices are free agents exercising their democratic rights in seeking to oust Amachree but we are not fools as Doyin Okupe foolishly imagines by his disclaimer of Abuja’s involvement.
Jonathan wouldn’t be a Nigerian politician if he acted contrary to his present behaviour. His misuse and privatisation of power is much in character, a peculiar affliction of Nigerian politicians, including many of his present critics across the political spectrum.
Yet for his own sake and those of the likes of Chief Edwin Clark whose pronouncements sometimes imply Jonathan was born Nigerian president, we need to retrace Uncle Joe’s trajectory to Aso Villa.
And I do this by way of a long excerpt from a piece that first appeared here in the tail end of 2009, after President Yar’Adu’s fateful trip to Saudi Arabia. That piece was titled ‘The good in Jonathan’s luck’-
There’s, perhaps, nothing better than the destiny of a man who has thrust upon him what many struggle, kill or get killed, to get. A man like that would be the envy of his mates. Such is the story of Nigeria’s Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan, who in the space of a few years since he became a politician seems to be living to the hilt the full meaning of his first name, Goodluck.
One cannot but emphasise the ‘good’ in VP Jonathan’s name, the truth being that not every luck is good. Some luck can be the very opposite of good, but that’s not the case of Goodluck Jonathan….
But it is a measure of the man’s loyalty or, perhaps, lack of confidence or colour or, indeed, all three that he was virtually railroaded into the substantive position of governor even when it had become clear that Alamieyeseigha had forfeited his claim to the office despite a disgraceful guard of honour mounted for him following his Alcatraz-like escape home. Goodluck Jonathan would have nothing to do with the position of governor of Bayelsa, he continued to prevaricate until it became impossible to pretend he couldn’t be governor in the absence of DSP.
His tenure thereafter did not witness any landmark achievement. As with his present position as Vice President, the only thing remarkable about his time as governor of Bayelsa, aside trying to prove loyal to Alamieyeseigha even in jail, was the complete lack of charisma or remarkable achievement.
But governor Jonathan became and not longer after that the race started for the 2007 presidential election. Several prominent politicians from the aggrieved Niger-Delta showed their interest, including Dr. Peter Odili and ‘fine boy’, Donald Duke. Given their closeness to the ultimate kingmaker then in Nigeria, the man who had the knife and the yam, President Obasanjo, many expected either of the two men, especially Odili, to clinch the prize as PDP presidential candidate.
But the wily farmer had something else up the folds of his agbada. And so it was that he sprung ‘Umooru’, Musa Yar’Adua, lately governor of another laidback state, Katsina, on Nigeria….Yar’Adua had neither indicated interest in the race nor was he one of the frontrunners. But Obasanjo knew best. And to complete the surprise mainly he and, maybe, a few other cultists in the PDP chose Goodluck Jonathan, just a few months before deputy governor of Bayelsa, as his running mate.
The unlikely pair from the PDP, both former school teachers, went on to win the race respectively for Nigerian President and Vice President in 2007. The administration had hardly been inaugurated when signs started showing that another good luck was in the corner for Jonathan, to wit, that he might sooner than later become Nigeria’s president.
The reason was no other than that from even the campaigns, candidate Umar Yar’Adua had, on account of his fragile health, shown remarkable incapacity for the position he was aspiring for. The campaigns had no sooner taken off than he was bundled off to Germany for medical attention. He has since been in and out of hospital several times, the latest being in Saudi Arabia.
With about 18 months left of their first term and the President again in hospital, many Nigerians, including the prominent and not-so-prominent have been calling for his resignation and attention has once more shifted on the man who is constitutionally positioned to take over in the event President Yar’Adua chooses to go take a deserved rest in order to fully take care of his health….the moment he chooses to leave the office on any of the grounds prescribed by the Constitution, the man to take over is his deputy and that happens to be Goodluck Jonathan…Should Jonathan then emerge president, it would be yet one more good in his luck. ‘’
Perhaps Jonathan’s waterloo, not his luck, is upon him. Let him who stands watch it!
By Rotimi Fasan Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
You are a prophet of doom. GEJ has been better than those before him. You are just rooting for an unknown devil.
ReplyDeleteIts very unfortunate that a news medium like this will be used to openly launch a smear campaign to tarnish the legitimate ambition of a sitting president ! All because, he allows the freedoms that follow democrasy ! Unfortunately, for this newspaper, Nigerians know where and how rite ups like this come about ! Nigerianeye is heading for tthe sea ! Continue wit this kind of rubbish and see !
ReplyDeleteIt is a pity that Rotimi Fasan who perhaps having known how to put words together to make a sentence have suddenly made himself the people's advocate. The arithmetic of all the issues you added together exposed the babe you are in the very issues you delved into, you either a little baby learning the act of crawling or an adult who have absolutely lost his reasoning. Please grow up with a sound independent mind .
ReplyDelete@anonymous 9.42am and tete george why do u guys think d above write up is a smear campaign against d president?show me one area the current administration has performed above xpectation,what was d fight btw the president and former governor of bayelsa and now amechi all about?these guys are fighting for who become better positioned to steal more money and not about policies or good governance,jonathan is a shame to this country.
ReplyDeleteMr Tete, i am not a politician but when a government fulfils her ambition, it should be clearly seen by every person.
ReplyDeleteOut of all Jonathan's promises to the Country during his campaign, which one has been fulfiled. Wise up man.
Nobody hates him. Let him do the needful.
everybody knws, even small pikin sabi say GEj is a complete failure. He is not charismatic, he is uninspiring and above all not inteligent.
ReplyDelete@ 9.42, Tete n 11.11, itz obvious u guys have been paid to counter constructive crictism against ur sponsor. Pity for u syncophantz coz pple like u r the cause of naija problems.Sincerely Jonathan badluck is a complete failure and insensitive. Don't even know who's worst btw badluck and hippopotamuas when it comes to common sense.
ReplyDelete