“Don’t cry for me, Argentina” (translated in Spanish: No llores por mi, Argentina) was a song composed, recorded and released in 1976 by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. The title of that song came from an epitaph on a plaque at Evita Peron’s grave in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. Evita Peron was a popular Argentine actress, politician, and former First Lady until her death in July 1952. The plaque was presented by the city’s Taxi Drivers’ Union. The song was an emotional tribute. It counsels people not to cry as tears are not required if one has done all he knew he could do, and something still happens. Its import has become relevant in our politics today. The revulsion that most Nigerians continue to express towards politics and politicians is ever deepening.
Ask what they think about the behaviour of our politicians, such negative descriptions will likely pour out: disgusting, greedy and scheming opportunists, lacking in conviction. On top of this, betrayal by those we trust has become a common occurrence, a passé, something not to be ashamed of. And one is persuaded to ask: why are men and women of conviction and quality character in short supply in our politics of today? The truth is, our politics heaves with hysteria. Almost always, it’s filled with momentum of classic drama, a roller- coaster ride stoked with different characters. You can’t tell whether they are for, or against democracy. Now, the controversy over speculations that former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan had since (secretly) defected to the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), perhaps ready to contest next year’s presidential election, continues to dominate national attention to a degree not seen since the present democratic dispensation. Many hold the opinion that in the last seven years since he left the presidency after a devastating campaign of calumny ever waged against a sitting President, the way Jonathan conceded defeat in grace and in the spirit of rare sportsmanship, saw his life transformed. Perhaps the headline that caught the world’s attention from his concession speech was: “My re-election is not worth spilling of blood”. Former President of Ghana John Dramani Mahama who wrote the Foreword to Jonathan memoir, “My Transition Hours”, said those words made him “smile because they show the impact of the non-violent political philosophy of my dear brother, Dr.Goodluck Jonathan, has espoused throughout his political career”. Ever since then, Jonathan never floated in calm and uneventful waters. He has become a ‘beautiful bride’ in both regional and international engagements. He got another honour last week.
But all of that may evaporate if Jonathan falls for the bait, the carrot and the banana peel that the APC has thrown at him. In the last one month, the calls for him to throw his hat into the ring has been intense, and so might be the backlash and reputational damage. Different interest groups have urged him to run. “Run, Jonathan, run”, has been a visible inscription on posters. A few days ago, some amorphous groups were reported to have paid the obscene N100 million nomination and Expression of Interest Form for him. There have been a surfeit of denials on whether Jonathan was in the know of what these backers are doing on his behalf. Last month, a group besieged his Maitama residence, Abuja and told him to run for 2023 presidential election. While addressing them, he said, “I am still consulting’. He told them to “watch out”. Many other interest groups are reportedly working sub rosa, with the same aim. Last Friday, May 13, there was a report that, indeed, he has submitted nomination forms to run. A few days earlier, he had visited the party National Chairman Sen.Abdullahi Adamu. The duo took pictures together. It was a sickening sight. Jonathan was reported to have sought assurances from Adamu to be exempted from the mandatory screening of the party and other stringent conditions in the Expression of Interest forms. And he believes that’s possible to granted these waivers that are not given to other aspirants? That’s an invitation for anarchy. I smell a sleight of hand in all this. Many believe the plot is a Northern grand strategy. If the plot succeeds, how says Nigerian politics is not a fun to follow? But politics is not given to simple theorizing. The legal battle that awaits him on his legibility to run again is another matter entirely. Privately, Jonathan is reported to have given the APC the condition that he would only join the party if he gets the endorsement of President Buhari , and if he’s picked as a ‘consensus candidate’. The presidency had since denied that Buhari was involved in any of such plot to draft Jonathan into the 2023 presidential race.
This much is clear: For over two years now, Jonathan’s romance with APC has been an open secret. Sometimes, he had acted as Buhari’s emissary (some say the President’s ‘house boy’) on sundry assignments. If his rumored defection to APC is true (some say it happened three years ago), that will be the height of political greed and ingratitude, even though not unusual in our greasy political pole. Let’s not forget that PDP was the platform on which Jonathan became whatever he became, from a political ‘nobody’, to a deputy governor of his home state of Bayelsa, to vice president, Acting president, to President of Nigeria. All in about eleven years. It could only be described as extraordinary divine providence rather than just ‘good luck’. I can now understand why former Governor of Jigawa state Sule Lamido was riled to such an extent that he went spiritual in a recent interview, wherein he that “Jonathan will suffer God’s wrath” if he defects to APC. Lamido, I believe, was speaking from the heart, not from the head Lamido, for good measure, can be counted as one of the genuine friends of Jonathan. He keeps reminding Jonathan not to forget his travails in the hands of APC. Northern PDP leaders, Lamido lamented, ‘saw hell’ in 2014 for supporting Jonathan against Buhari. He has reminded Jonathan how he was demonized, and called “clueless and incompetent” and how his wife, Patience, was called a “hippopotamus”, by a respected literary icon from the South West. It was that bad, Lamido cried for Jonathan. He also recounted how his office in Kano was destroyed and members of his family threatened with death just because of Jonathan. There was also the agony of a man in Azare, a community in Bauchi state whose house was burnt for backing Jonathan’s reelection in 2015. Or has Jonathan forgotten how many of his supporters received 50 lashes of ‘koboko’ to cleanse them of “Jonathan dirt”. If none of this makes sense to Jonathan, what about his own account of what he went through in the hands of Buhari’s die-hard supporters during the 2015 campaign. This is what Jonathan said in his memoir: “I ran for a second-term expecting to win but knowing I could also lose. It was that possibility that would provide me with the opportunity to show that my political philosophy was genuinely held and not just a campaign rhetoric. I did not preach hate but my opponents had other ideas. It was clear when our campaign train entered the North West and North East which were the strongholds of my opponent. Young people were recruited to pelt my convoy with stones. The attacks happened in Katsina on January 21, 2015, in Bauchi on January 22, 2015, and in Yola, Adamawa state on January 29, 2015”. He said he was shocked how highly placed people in some parts of the North used innocent children as canon folder, “all for the sake of power”.
What, then, will Jonathan run on if he declares to seek power again? What will he say he forgot in Aso Rock? How will Jonathan campaign in the South West if APC dumps Ahmed Bola Tinubu who was the pillar of the party’s victory in the region, or vice president Yemi Osinbajo who has served Buhari with loyalty, and acknowledged by Buhari himself. What will APC tell other aspirants (over 30 of them)? Perhaps that none of them is good enough to succeed Buhari? Maybe, that’s what is driving Jonathan’s return to power, a redemption from his former traducers. But it won’t be easy for him displace the motley crowd of APC presidential aspirants. These are people who have invested their time and resources in the party. What will Jonathan tell the South East that gave their all for him, and have suffered in the hands of Buhari since 2015?
(Continued on www.sunnewsonline.com)
Is Jonathan a rookie politician, bereft of wit and wisdom, not to know that not all open doors that you enter? That some open doors are, indeed,traps, not opportunities? Is he so unlearned not to recognise a poison chalice or a Greek gift? If Jonathan still finds time to read his Bible, it’s a book that never speculates. He will find that he will be a total stranger in APC. As John 10: 1-5 says: “…He that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that enters by the door is the Shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter opens and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name , and leads them out. And a stranger will they not follow…” It’s a parable Jesus Christ spoke. Jonathan should draw lessons from. It’s in his best interest. Jonathan doesn’t need our tears. Whatever happens now, he has destroyed his own legacy and his reputation. He should be ready to bear the consequences of his own action.