The Jonathan bubble

Perhaps, those campaigning for Jonathan’s return were not in Nigeria between 2010 and 2015. They might have been living on the moon then, going by the way they are behaving today. There is no way those who lived in Nigeria then would join any group or gang up with politicians to beg Jonathan to come back to the same office which duties they said then he could not perform.

Jonathan lost the 2015 election to President Muhammdu Buhari because he failed in all the parameters of governance used to assess him. The then main opposition party, All Progressives Congress (APC), capitalised on the failure of Jonathan and the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to woo the electorate and win the election. Jonathan created the record of being the first sitting president to lose an election. This says a lot about his tenure. It shows that the people were disenchanted with his administration.

But the change they voted for has not really changed anything about the country. All the indices of development are still down, just as they were under Jonathan. Not a few are rueing the ‘mistake’ they made by voting out Jonathan. Their discontent apart, is this enough for any person, group or politician to beg for Jonathan’s return? What does Jonathan now have to offer that he did not give when he was in office? Ironically, the same APC, which wrested power from him and PDP, started what today has given vent to the Jonathan-must- return campaign which reached a crescendo when some agitators stormed the former president’s office in Abuja last Saturday.

There was no name APC and its chieftains did not call Jonathan in 2015. The disenchanted public too joined in calling him those names. He was described as clueless, weak and not fit to be president. If you saw how things were then, you won’t blame them. Just as if you look around now, you would praise him. Again, is the glaring failure of APC enough reason to invite Jonathan to come back? It is not. APC is unwittingly admitting its failure with its covert romance with Jonathan. How can a ruling party, no matter its shortcomings, court its leading foe to the extent of planning to hand over power back to him on a platter?

Before its exit, the Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CEPC) toyed with the idea of bringing Jonathan into the party, with the purpose of dashing him its 2023 presidential ticket. Jonathan is a Southerner. He held office briefly as president between 2010 when former President Umoru Yar’Adua died and 2011, when their joint first four-year term expired. In 2011, he contested in his own right and won. His bid for a second term failed when he lost to Buhari in 2015. APC’s plan to field Jonathan in 2023 is believed to be a northern agenda.

According to pundits, Jonathan, by virtue of having held office between 2010 and 2015, is only entitled to a single four-year term, which will expire in 2017, if he contests and wins. In 2017, the argument will start all over again on which region the Presidency should be zoned to. Of course, the North will carry the day since Jonathan would have completed his two-term constitutional quota, thereby ruling out his region ,the South of contention. It is this selfish agenda that is behind APC’s unholy romance with Jonathan. Though the CECPC denied romancing Jonathan to join APC for the 2023 race, many found it difficult to shake that belief.

Reading the handwriting on the wall, PDP and its voluble Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, who is now in the presidential race, advised Jonathan not to have anything to do with APC. Will he listen? Time will tell. For now, Jonathan appears carried away by the attention he is getting over 2023. He is not bothered that not too long ago, Nigerians were ready to boo him on the streets for not running the country well. Under him, insecurity was the order of the day, infrastructure development was nothing to write home about and everywhere you turned poverty stared you in the face. People are now saying that things were better then compared to now.

Hence, the agitation, in APC quarters, for Jonathan to return which he is comfortable with. When the Youth Compatriot of Nigeria (YCON) called on him to run in 2023, he was over the moon as he responded to their request. “Yes, you are calling me to come and declare for the next election. I cannot tell you that I am declaring; the political process is ongoing. Just watch out”, he told the agitators whom he broke his breakfast meeting for to receive. “Just watch out”! That statement is loaded. Watch out for what? His declaration? Will Jonathan swallow the bait? I believe that he is too wise to do that. My people say if you are being deceived, you should not deceive yourself.

But you never know with politicians. They will see deception all over the place and still fall for it because of their selfish interests. Those begging Jonathan to come and run are not doing so because of their love for Nigeria or because he is the most competent and capable man for the job. Has he forgotten so soon? The same people crying: “Goodluck, declare now. We are sorry, Goodluck don’t abandon us, come back. Goodluck, please come. Goodluck, we love you”, were the ones shouting “crucify him, crucify him” not too long ago.

The pledge by Ben Ayade, the APC Governor of Cross River State, to step down for Jonathan if he joins the race is proof that something is in the offing in the party about fielding the former president in 2023. Forget the dogon turenchi of the governor, who claimed that he was asked to join the presidential race by Buhari, the kernel of his statement is that those high up in APC are seriously considering bringing in Jonathan to run on the party’s platform.

Everything lies in Jonathan’s hands and not with the agitators and their likeminds. He will, at the end of the day, be responsible for whatever action he eventually takes and not the band of jokers begging him to run. What will his decision be? The people are on the lookout, to borrow his words.