Jonathan and the 2023 Temptation

It first came as a rumour, then as a suggestion, and now a near reality: that former President Goodluck Jonathan is seriously considering taking another shot at the presidency, eight years after he quietly handed over power to President Muhammadu Buhari, after losing the 2015 elections.

It is not certain what the attraction is. But it is certain there is a strong pull and pressure to lure Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan into the political loop again. His experience in the political arena should tell him that the herbalist does not go plucking every leaf in the forest.

Many of those cheering him on now are those banking on the gains thereof, even as many of them do not have a PVC.

Already, there are many amorphous and unregistered hitherto unknown pressure groups, nay, hangers on, who are already baying for Jonathan to join the presidential train. He seems to be at a confused junction, not knowing which way to turn: to reject the pressure or to give in to it.

The only time he spoke on this was when he addressed some hurriedly cobbled youths who carried lots of placards in Abuja, begging him to join the race.

He had told them that he has not made up his mind. But his body language seems to be saying, “go and prepare the ground, I am coming”. Early this week, more and more indications are confirming that he is set to throw his hat into the ring. It is said he has given one condition before he would join the presidential race under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). And the condition is that Mr President (Buhari) should endorse him as the party’s flagbearer. And then pronto, he’d join the race. There has been no denial of this request.

And that is where I have a problem. Is former President Jonathan actually warming up to come join this presidential race? Truly, politics is not only a dirty game, it is even weird. Those who seek to deoderise this belief are quick to quoting that in politics, there are no permanent friends, nor permanent enemies. only permanent interest. What they do not talk about is issues of integrity. It does not look like or whether in politics, self esteem and brain get re-formatted every now and then. Were it not so, all the odious things said about then President Jonathan to deface and demonise his candidature would have come to mind. Was it not the APC spokesman at the time, Lai Mohammed, now minister of Information, that labeled Jonathan as “clueless”? That badge of infamy stuck and resonated like a town crier’s echo.

Jonathan was practically blamed for everything, including men who could not impregnate their wives. More than three years after the Buhari administration had taken off, Jonathan was still the easy beast of burden: the reason why Nigeria wasn’t working.

That same Jonathan has suddenly turned such a beautiful bride that is being pulled from every corner to come rescue Nigeria from the deep economic and security miasma it has been plunged. The same Jonathan! As Shakespeare would caution, “there is dagger in men’s smiles”.

Jonathan had been a PDP-brought up, right from his days as Deputy governor, then governor, and then as Vice President and eventually as President. So, what is the attraction in the APC today that is such an allure to Jonathan? When the PDP scattered with the formation of nPDP, led by Rotimi Amaechi and some other seven PDP governors et al, the APC was the eventual beneficiary of that friction. Now the father figure of that same political papacy, so to say, is about dumping the platform that had propped him up to the vortex of his political career to adopt the one that not only traduced and troubled him, but also pulled him down, just less than eight years ago. Politics!

But more curious is the demand for a presidential adoption and endorsement, as a condition for jumping ship. Ha! First, does, President Buhari have the powers to foist Jonathan on the APC, without the party shaking and scattering? For a party that is already selling expression of interest and nomination form for presidential aspirants at the cost of N100million, which some have already bought, would suddenly be coerced into another consensus option? Buhari will be reminded that this is not national party chairmanship.

How can Jonathan be asking for such automatic endorsement? Does it not amount to planning to reap from where he did not sew? Pray, what would happen to the ambition and effort of all the founding fathers of the APC like Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, Bisi Akande etc? I recall very clearly how in 2011, Jonathan presiding over the NEC of the PDP, at Wadata plaza, had angrily thrown out the application and request of the party chairman at the time to allow Mr Timi Alaibe who just returned to the PDP, from Labour Party, to run for the governorship of Bayelsa State. Jonathan had argued that Alaibe should queue from behind and not browbeat party chieftains who had been loyal to the party. Jonathan had stormed out of the meeting and left for Brazil that night. And that was it. Alaibe was denied the chance to fly the party’s flag at the time. So, how can the same Jonathan now want to so aggressively shunt from the extreme back to the foremost front?

Some people are suggesting that Jonathan is being set up for ultimate disgrace in a political chess game that could ultimately damage his brand. He had remained a respected elder statesman ever since he peacefully handed over power to President Buhari in 2015, without a fuss. He has been a shining example of a new spec in African democratic struggle. Should he not cherish and uphold that spectre of honour?

What point does he still want to prove returning to power? It is even a hundred times worse scenario today than he left it off in 2015.  There is no delusion that should make people think that suddenly Jonathan has the magic wand to redeem Nigeria. He does not. Perhaps nobody does. Many of the vices and weaknesses Jonathan was accused of are still inherent in him. A Jonathan will not suddenly turn a messiah, especially in a clime that is so deeply messed up and despoiled by the narrow and odious malaise of nepotism and criminal indifference. It is a pity that the dismal performance of Buhari has suddenly transformed Jonathan to the coveted Knight with the shining armour

Worse still, a returning Jonathan will not have the privilege of a second term. He had done his first term (2011—2015). Fixing Nigeria will surely require far more time than four years. The only probable consolation will be the comic relief Jonathan’s wife, Madam Patience, will offer Nigerians, to laugh away their sorrows, unlike some First Ladies that are so vexed with the state d’affaires and had chosen to be ensconced in far away Dubai. 2023 is a standing temptation that Jonathan should pray to be delivered from.