Tag: Jonathan

The Jonathan presidency is obviously in no haste to accelerate the tempo of governance and up the ante of its performance. This is certainly no surprise for an administration that awarded itself a superlative mid term performance report card based on a self-designed ‘marking scheme’ even if the quality of life of the vast majority of Nigerians bespeaks an embarrassingly mediocre Federal Government. Even as the country drifts dangerously further on the stormy waters of poverty, graft and insecurity on a daily basis, the Jonathan presidency is content with dissipating time and energy on a petty, needless ego war for the control of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF). All this is, of course, motivated by the perceived higher political ambition of the Chairman of the forum, Governor Rotimi Amaechi in 2015, and the need to de-fang him at all costs and by all means before then. So far, the attempt to prevent Amaechi from being re-elected for a second term as NGF Chairman, has backfired badly and become a veritable public relations disaster for both the presidency and the 16 minority governors who cast their lot, unsuccessfully, with Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State.

But then the Presidency is unrelenting. It creates the impression that the world will come to an end if Amaechi is not removed as NGF Chairman at all costs. In the process, the legitimate, democratically elected government of Rivers State has been deliberately sabotaged and undermined. The state House of Assembly has been emasculated and incapacitated for the flimsiest and untenable of reasons. The Rivers State chapter of the PDP has been split through curious judicial processes emanating from Abuja. Militants and other ruffians have been encouraged to demonstrate on the streets of Port Harcourt against Amaechi thus eroding the normalcy and peace that had been restored to Port Harcourt under the governor. The ebullient and irrepressible First Lady, Dame Patience, was recently in Port Harcourt for nearly a week where she illegally and immorally flaunted federal might, made inciting public statements against the Governor and generally carried on in a very unruly and rather unladylike-like manner.

Having failed to prevent the democratic re-election of Amaechi as NGF Chairman, the presidency has been active in striving to keep the body divided and preventing Amaechi from functioning. The latest antic of an apparently idle presidency was to invite governors for a meaningless and needless presidential dinner at Aso Rock Villa for the same day and time that Amaechi had convened a meting of the forum. Despite all the harassment and relentless pressure, the 19 pro- Amaechi governors have refused to be intimidated. They have insisted that his mandate in a free, fair and open election in which 35 governors participated remains sacrosanct and inviolate. So far, the 16 dissenting governors have been unable to conjure the figures to magically transform their minority into a majority.

In deference to the office of the President, the 19 majority governors under Amaechi’s leadership decided to honour Aso Rock’s dinner invitation. But what reportedly happened at the event was unbelievable. Presidential body guards prevented Amaechi from paying his respects to Jonathan in the hall saying it was a breach of protocol. The presidency was thus perceived as descending to new depths of pettiness, meanness and vindictiveness. In the same way, the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr Mbu Joseph Mbu, had been encouraged and emboldened to cast aspersions on and disparage the office of the Governor. There was no reprimand of the unruly police commissioner from any higher authority. State institutions that should be relatively autonomous of partisan politics are thus directly or indirectly given official cover to undermine legitimate authority.

The entire NGF saga has hurt the Jonathan presidency badly. Hardly anyone believes the futile effort by presidency officials to distance Jonathan from the attempt to divide and, if possible, destroy the forum. Surely, this does not appear like the man who once claimed he did not want to be a Goliath, Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar. No, this is not the same man who would readily kneel before men of God exuding humility and deep spirituality. In the wake of the unfolding NGF drama, the President has come across as vindictive, unforgiving and lacking in grace and large heartedness. The impression has been created that he will readily utilize the immense powers and influence of his office to achieve his desires even if this leads to the violation of due process and institutional integrity.

President Jonathan’s position has been made even more untenable by the comic and laughable posturing of the 16 minority governors. With each passing day it becomes more obvious that they are only bad and losers unwilling to abide by democratic tenets. There is the irrefutable video evidence of the voting process that has gone viral on the social media. The very argument that Jang had been endorsed in a preceding consensus arrangement undertaken in secret implies that he lost the actual open and transparent election. Furthermore, governors like Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, Rabiu Kwankwanso of Kano State and Babangida Aliyu of Niger State have openly named the PDP governors that voted for Amaechi thus making nonsense of claims of a bloc vote for Jang by northern governors.

Even worse than the charge of being undemocratic is the impression that the 16 governors are perpetrating a deliberate falsehood by claiming that a loser won an election among 35 presumably honourable men. Surely, somebody is lying. So can President Jonathan continue to lend the weight of his office, directly or indirectly, to the charade of the minority governors. I believe this would do incalculable, almost irreversible, harm to his already seriously eroded moral integrity and ethical authority.

Yet, the President and his strategists seem to have boxed themselves into a tight corner. They have antagonized Amaechi too openly, too vehemently and too bitterly to beat a honourable retreat now. Yet, it is unlikely that they can ever get majority of the governors to back a candidate who will be seen as a stooge of the presidency. At the end of the day, the outcome most likely to salvage and even boost President Jonathan’s image is one that portrays him as placing fidelity to democratic principles above partisan considerations. If he shows a willingness to respect the autonomy of the NGF and the right of the governors to democratically choose their Chairman, many of them may be willing to give him a face saving way out of the log jam. But then, the forces backing genuine autonomy for the NGF and thus Amaechi’s Chairmanship may be as strategically interested in the permutations for 2015 as the pro-Jonathan forces so obviously are. In which case, the ongoing battle for the soul of the NGF may continue right up to the next general elections.