Welcome to Nigeria, my country, where the same set of people who in 2015 fought and succeeded in replacing a man holding the highest office in the land are in 2020 contemplating returning power in 2023 to that same man, who was not and still is not of their own political party. Global schools of politics, of magic, of sophistry, of wonder, and of psychiatry need to introduce Nigeria as a course of study. There’s too much to this country that remains unknown and, therefore, unexplained and unutilised. Something tells me that Nigerians shall have closure and the world would gain big time if we decoded this country in the open and in truth.
Just so you know, the shock plot to return Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as president had filtered out in and around Abuja -the country’s political capital- for a month or two before at least one credible online newspaper carried the story last week. Being a Nigerian and having been around long enough to understand the communication mannerism of our politicians -they almost always test the waters anytime they have a silly plan by first releasing it as gossip- I had immediately believed it. Gawd, what goes on in the head of a typical Nigerian politician? And, is it possible that the blood flowing in own veins is not red?
Frustrated, I turn now to God. Our Father who art in Heaven, Lord, just how differently from all of us did you create our politicians? Dear Creator, make us understand the makeup of these people who rule us. That knowledge shall grant us the elusive peace of mind.
To be sure, the former president has no problem here as the constitution allows him a second and final term. However, the k-leg is with those now propping him up; the same people of then opposition party who went to every length to demonise him out of the presidency. They have returned to use him because it favours them -he would serve one term and they get back their inalienable power in 2027, right? Dear God, please keep all of them alive to see their sinister plan fail completely and totally -as you did in Edo.
Meanwhile, owners of Nigeria, if Dr. Jonathan doesn’t require your public apology the way you massacred his image and records, we the good people of this country demand it and in writing -for ourselves. The way you have carried on since you took over nearly six years on, we always suspected you may have deceived us so badly but by even contemplating the return of Dr. Jonathan, you remove every doubt. I mean, are you now saying that as president he didn’t run the most corrupt system, and did not hand over a failed country? This is making me so angry and emotional, right now!
I was in that state of mind when I called up someone I consider my most honest and liberal friend and brother. He’s a southerner who has lived and worked up north, man and boy. In 2014, he crosstituted from People’s Democratic Party to All Progressives Congress and since then calls me up occasionally either to taunt me about some pdpish missteps here and there or gloat about the few bright sparks his party manages to conjure now and then. We always have a good laugh together, at the end, every time we compared notes.
Alas, last week when I broached the Jonathan issue with this APC man on telephone, there was no laughter. In fact, he seemed to have slipped into a horrible mood the moment I told him I planned to treat the matter today in this column. He thundered, ‘why should President Muhammadu Buhari, of all people, seek to hand Nigeria back to the very same characters he wrestled it from? Does it mean he lied to us just to push the then president out?’
Immediately, my journalistic instinct came alive. I found myself asking questions that portrayed me for what I wasn’t. Why do you arrive at such hasty conclusions? Don’t you think the president may just be a different kind of Nigerian politician who having tested the seat has come to understand enough to want to make things right with his predecessor?
Unfortunately, that only further incensed him. ‘The Boss, I cannot believe you’re the one saying this or is it because a PDP man is about to be favoured? Okay, since you have become the outsider who weeps louder than the bereaved, please tell me: is this administration really fighting corruption? The characters who populate his cabinet, are most of them not formerly of the very same PDP and company that he spent nearly a decade and a half struggling to replace?
‘Look also at how Maina’s trial is going. The other day, Sen. Ali Ndume casually turned up in court to glibly claim that he couldn’t produce Maina. What about insurgency and kidnapping which the president inherited, with a promise of quick solution, but instead of solution six years on, banditry has been added to the horrendous situation? Ditto farmers/herdsmen conflict, has it not been compounded under your man, Dear Mr. BUSH?’
I smiled away in total sympathy and empathy the APC man calling the president my man, but I refused to be cowed by such subtle blandishment. I told him it was unreasonable and insensitive to expect magic in six years knowing the decades of rot, coupled with the fact that age is not on the president’s side. He nodded, which made me think everything was fine again. ‘I agree with you and concede that I may tolerate some lows on the economic front on account of the collapse of our solitary forex earner, oil in the int’l market, but that can’t be the dominant reason for the abysmal show witnesed so far vis-a-vis the other metrics of performance.
‘What about religious and sectarian division? What about the charge of nepotism? Furthermore, how has he treated the party that brought him to power? Mr. BUSH, the new Buharist, please answer me!’
I laughed painfully, stopping abruptly when he concluded with a bang: ‘The excuse that a lone clean PMB can’t do much to change Nigeria is flimsy because, I tell you, any leader strong on courage, intellect and integrity (plus patriotism?) can make discernible difference willy nilly. Most of the president’s failings are down to either the screaming lack of political will or abdicatory outsourcing of work to filial cabal or severe physical and mental incapacitation that always returns to undermine his daily brief. As an APC member who used to defend him, I had since come to my wits end wondering what legacies will stand in his stead post-2023. The entire situation is heart-wrenching, my dear Mr. Michael BUSH.’
This coming from an APC member leaves me hyperscared for this president. Fortunately, he still has well over two years to recraft these narratives so that posterity may be kinder to him. He should start today by ensuring justice nationwide as well as by using the evolving mess at Cross River Basin Authority to send a loud anti-corruption message. God bless Nigeria!