2023: Should Goodluck Jonathan Return As President?

TRACKING____Goodluck Jonathan’s political career started in 1999 following his election and inauguration as Deputy Governor of Bayelsa state to Governor Depreye Alameisiegha. The relatively unknown Deputy Governor Jonathan came into limelight in December 2005 after the Bayelsa state house of assembly impeached Governor Alameisiegha and he was made the new governor. In 2006, while he was seeking a fresh mandate as Bayelsa Governor in the 2007 state gubernatorial election, Jonathan was asked by then outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo to shelve his gubernatorial ambition and become Vice Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party to the party’s Presidency candidate, Alhaji Umaru Yar’adua in the 2007 Presidential election. They emerged victors, and Jonathan became Nigeria’s Vice President in May 2007.In February 2010, Goodluck Jonathan was elevated to acting president of Nigeria to fill the gap that president Yar’adua left while he was battling to save his health in faraway Saudi Arabia. On May 10, 2010, following the demise of President Yaradua, Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in as president in his stead. He became the first and only Nigerian to occupy the offices of Deputy Governor, Governor, Vice President and President.In the 2011 Presidential, Jonathan, who was the PDP Presidential candidate, won his first election as a principal candidate by defeating General Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress for Progressive Change, and he was inaugurated in May same year for a fresh term of four years. He was in fact a popular figure going into the election as many saw him as a “new breed” and “breath of fresh air”.But on January 1, 2012, Dr Jonathan entered the “bad book” of Nigerian public following his government removal of subsidy on premium mentholated spirit, PMS, also known as petrol. There was mass protest following the decision, and from thence onward, Nigerians started seeing him as a villain.His predicament was worsened by the Boko Haram insurgency that literally ravaged Borno state and most parts of the Northeast. The terrorist group seized several local government areas in the northeast and murdered innocent citizens in the aforementioned areas including parts of northwest from 2011. The situation became even more critical as the nation’s federal capital territory experienced its own attack by the insurgents, where the UN building, Police Headquarters and office of ThisDay Newspaper were bombed.The height of all these was the 2014 abduction of Chibok school girls by Boko Haram insurgents.

The abduction attracted protests locally and internationally with a popular slogan, #BringBackOurGirls but Jonathan’s government was aloof on what to do to rescue the school girls and others in captivity of the insurgents. Aside Boko Haram insurgency, Jonathan’s government was also branded as pro-corrupt after his administration granted presidential pardon to Jonathan’s former boss, Chief Depreye Alameisiegha, who was convicted for stealing monies belonging to Bayelsa state when he was governor, in 2013. Chief Alamieyeseigha was also wanted in United Kingdom on allegation of money laundering.Jonathan’s image sunk further after he made attempt to distinguish stealing from corruption during a Presidential chat in 2013 by saying that ”What many Nigerians refer to as corruption is actually stealing. Stealing is not the same thing as corruption.”Things became even worse for Jonathan after the then Governor of Central Bank, Lamido Sanusi told a Senate committee in January 2014 that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had failed to account for $20bn of the $67bn of oil sold between January 2012 and July 2013, an allegation that Jonathan’s government denied. Jonathan’s decision to suspend Sanusi as CBN Governor the following month didn’t help him as many Nigerians interpreted it as a “witch hunt” and attempt to coverup his corrupt practices.

The powerful Nigeria Governors Forum led by Rotimi Ameachi also accused Jonathan’s of illegally withdrawing billions of dollars from the nation’s excess crude account, ECA.As if that wasn’t enough, Jonathan also lost the support of five influential governors who led several members of the National Assembly to defect to the opposition All Progressive Congress. Even the Speaker of the House of Representative, Aminu Tambuwal also defected alongside these politicians. While he was president, Jonathan was at loggerheads with leaders of northern Nigeria for their insistence on the return of power to the north. The northern leaders even accused him of being responsible for the Boko Haram insurgency and sponsoring the insurgents to deplete northern population, while Jonathan’s supporters, who were mostly from the southeast and Southsouth geopolitical zones, accused the northern leaders of employing the Boko Haram insurgency to blackmail and undermine Jonathan’s government. Also, opposition leaders from the southwest accused Jonathan of employing anti-southwest agenda to relegate the zone in the scheme of things.To cap the woes of Jonathan, he was defeated in the 2015 Presidential election to Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressive Congress, and his exit from power was celebrated across the nation save his support base in Southsouth and southeast. But four years afterwards, Jonathan appears to have attained the status of a democratic hero and model, and has been acknowledged as such by both the APC and PDP in recent times, and achievements while in office is being appreciated since he left power. A lot of his former critics, especially those that felt that the incumbent administration that they supported to power has not lived up to standard, have been “apologising” to him for “unfairly” opposing his government. Even the opposition APC that was a bone on his neck while he was president, had even soft pedaled and ceased attacks on him in recent times. In fact, since the conclusion of Bayelsa state gubernatorial election that was held in November 16, APC chieftains like National Chairman Adams Oshiomole, Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi state, Minister Timpre Sylva and Governor-elect David Lyon of Bayelsa state, have taken turns to pour encomium on Jonathan, describing him as a “father” and “leader”. Even their supporters took to social media to commend the former president and described him with every niceties.With the 2023 Presidential election approaching and the yearnings for power to return to southern Nigeria in 2023 by the people in the region, and considering that Goodluck Jonathan is educated, experienced (having held the office previously) and still relatively young at 62 years of age, should he return as President and successor of Muhammadu Buhari in 2023?