 Published
May 16th, 2010
“There is a tide in the affairs of men…” –William Shakespeare
When I wrote the article titled "2011:
Jonathan Fits the Bill" nearly two months ago, little did I
know that it would open up a flood gate of agitations for
Jonathan to run for the presidency in 2011. The article was
published barely a month after he became acting president
and at a time when the PDP leadership headed by the
embattled Vincent Ogbulafor, had definitively foreclosed
Jonathan's chances of contesting the forthcoming
presidential election in 2011, ostensibly on account of his
party’s alleged zoning agreement. For the sake of the health
of our constitutional democracy, I stuck out my neck when no
one else did and made it my business to warn Ogbulafor and
his party power drunks to quickly retrace their steps and
make amends, otherwise they would live to regret their hasty
action in summarily and petulantly ruling Jonathan out of
contention on account of a nebulous zoning formula that no
one has ever seen or read. As always, that prediction has
since come to pass and Ogbulafor's head is now literarily on
fire! And I can see many more heads rolling within the PDP
leadership.
While not admitting it publicly, if
offered the chance, Ogbulafor would gladly take back his
words in a jiffy and begin to speak in tongues with respect
to the so-called zoning formula. In other words, given a
second chance, Ogbulafor would come to terms with the
reality on the ground and begin to speak from sides of his
mouth regarding the alleged zoning arrangement which he had
used to summarily disqualify Jonathan from contesting.
Unfortunately, however, he doesn’t have that luxury anymore
as the dogs have been let loose on him and all his previous
alleged wrongdoings long swept under the carpet under late
President Yar’Adua administration have now been brought out
into the open for all to see. He’s now dancing naked. That
would seem to explain his desperation to keep Yar’Adua in
Aso Rock in perpetuity and prevent Jonathan from taking over
power in order to maintain the shield around him. For as
long as Yar’Adua lived and as long as Aondoakaa remained the
nation’s AGF, Ogbulafor and Ibori entertained no fears of
prosecution whatsoever and bestrode the landscape like
colossuses. They called the shots while it lasted. But as
fate would have it, their shield is gone and Ogbulafor’s
sins have now finally found him! The same thing can be said
about ex-Delta state governor, the fugitive James Ibori, who
is now reported to have been arrested in far away Dubai and
facing extradition to Britain for his long pending trial.
Like Ogbulafor his sins have also found him! Or, didn’t they
say many days for the thief and one day for the owner?
The long arm of the law has finally
caught up with them and their cry of political
victimization, which has become the standard refrain of
kleptomaniacs in Nigeria, does not hold water anymore. The
days of using claims of political victimization to escape
justice are over for good and nobody is listening to such
cheap tactics anymore. That strategy has worn thin and can
no longer be used to pool wool over the eyes of Nigerians.
Political victimization is no excuse for not having their
days in court and clearing their names, if indeed, they are
innocent of the charges against them. That is the bottom
line. Every accused must have his/her day in court to clear
his/her name and that’s straightforward enough.
Suffice it to state, however, that
Ogbulafor is stewing in his own juice back home where he’s
being made to answer for his actions in office in the spirit
of the revamped anti-graft war. In addition to his
corruption trial at the Federal High Court, his party
governors, including those from his home base, have served
him quit notice from Wadate House. Though still kicking,
puffing and huffing, the Almighty Ogbulafor knows he is
already on his way out of that esteemed office that he has
serially abused and brought to public odium. At the time of
filing in this article unconfirmed reports had it that he
had in fact been forced to resign. Like many Nigerian
politicians who flagrantly abuse their official positions,
the media is agog with allegations of how he milked state
governors of his party and literarily turned his office into
a lactating cow that he milked at will thus undermining the
nation’s war on corruption. It’s a shame that late President
Yar’Adua, for reasons best known to him decided to shield
the likes of Ogbulafor from prosecution while at the same
time howling about anti-graft war from the rooftops. How is
it that a government that preached zero tolerance for
corruption would make it its business to shield those who
robbed the nation blind while in office? It’s mindboggling!
This is one of the tragedies of Nigerian leadership that
seems to specialize in paying lip service to the anti-graft
war by doing the very opposite of their preachments. A
government that claims to be fighting corruption in a
certified corruption ridden nation like nation should have
its prisons brimming with high-up corruption convicts to
demonstrate that seriousness and commitment. Regrettably,
the reverse is the case in Nigeria. So-called politically
exposed individuals with clear cases of corruption to answer
have been enjoying government’s protection with a shield
thrown around them. Yet we claim to be fighting anti-graft
war.
Now, however, a Daniel has finally come
to judgment and we’re seeing the first stirrings of the
revamped war on corruption. But Ogbulafor’s sins go beyond
the issue of corruption. He betrayed the nation’s hope and
aspiration in her darkest hour of need. His fate should
serve as lesson for those who cannot control their emotions
and allow their private loyalties to dictate their official
conduct. In time of national crisis when he ought to have
played the statesman by offering leadership to the nation as
head of the ruling party when Jonathan was virtually
powerless as Yar'Adua's deputy in the face of an absentee
sick president, who bluntly refused to hand over power to
his deputy, Ogbulafor and his henchmen at Wadata House
decided to put their private interests over and above the
larger interests of the nation by deliberately prolonging
the crisis. They employed all legal and illegal means and
subterfuges to subvert the constitution and the national
will to hold the nation to ransom; all in their desperate
and vain attempts to deny Jonathan power and title of acting
president. I could recall my warning to the PDP leadership
that they were standing on the path of a hurricane and would
be swept away as part of the debris of history. Anyone with
a modicum of foresight could easily have foreseen the
political ascendancy of then Vice President Jonathan and be
cautious in dismissing him from contention.
Having carefully analyzed the political
trajectory of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the inescapable
conclusion that I could draw was that he’s destined for the
presidency in a substantial capacity. Therefore, he would
proceed to contest and win the 2011 presidential election in
his own right and that was the basis of the article
referenced above. However, since the article was published,
events are rapidly moving in that direction in spite of the
PDP’s leadership shenanigans. When I monitor the Nigerian
press daily to follow the reactions of Nigerians to the idea
of Jonathan contesting the presidential election in 2011
since my article came out, I'm more than ever before
persuaded, indeed convinced that the idea has caught on with
Nigerians in both high and low places. In two words, it's
popular, because it is an idea whose time has come.
Those who wish to read the article
published in African Herald Express newspaper as well as the
blogsite: www. Nigerian_Newspaper.com might want to check it
out and acquaint themselves with the reasons advanced as to
why Jonathan perfectly fits the bill in 2011. I cannot add
any more reasons to what I have already written in that
article except to reiterate that he will run because he
should run. Nigeria needs Jonathan more than Jonathan needs
Nigeria at this defining historical juncture. This is not
the time to play ethnic cards by seeking divide and rule
tactics. This is not the time to raise the specter of
division. Nigerians fervently long for an effective and
dedicated leadership that can deliver the goods in real
time, not ethnic jingoists. Nigerians fervently yearn for a
leader who will make a radical difference in their lives
within the shortest time possible, not recycled renegades
and “lootocrats” who would ride to power on the back of
ethnic horses and further impoverish them. Nigeria needs a
modern, if you like, digital president, who will move in
tandem with the rest of our fast paced, modern, digital
world, not dinosaur characters pulled out from Jurassic Park
that will take us back to the stone age. Jonathan fits the
bill in all these categories. Nigeria cannot afford to
recycle the deadwoods that have held the nation back for so
long—people like IBB, Buhari, Atiku and other political
dinosaurs, who are out of touch with modernity and variously
responsible for the nation’s stunted growth. Their
individual antecedents spell disaster for the nation. In
fact the mere mention of some of these characters many of
whom should be cooling their heels in jail if Nigeria were a
decent nation where justice is taken seriously is a
disservice to the nation.
Jonathan offers hope for the new
Nigeria of our dream. Though short of time, his decisive
moves bear good tidings of better days ahead. And all the
stars are perfectly in alignment for a full fledged Jonathan
presidency, and I can see the cards falling into place
neatly pretty soon. Run, Jonathan, Run! Only Jonathan can
stop Jonathan from running. Now, some renegades like Vincent
Ogbulafor, who want to pull the nation backward with their
primitive attitudes, are going to continue holding up the
so-called PDP zoning and seek to use the so-called party
arrangement to override the constitution of the nation,
which guarantees every Nigerian the right to vie for any
elective office in the land, including of course, Jonathan.
However, except someone can come forward to say
categorically that Jonathan is not a Nigerian I don’t see
how anyone can prevent him from running. All I can say here
as I have always said is that a party arrangement is no law
and it's not even part of the PDP constitution to begin
with. And till date no one has produced a copy of that
mythical agreement. Now, if a party holds zoning sacrosanct
as we’re being told all of a sudden, shouldn’t it have
reduced it in writing to serve as an article of faith just
like the other party rules? Doesn’t it make sense to have it
in writing to guide and guard the party in its power
sharing? Must it be left in the air with people giving it
different interpretations that suit their interests? The
fact of the matter is that the so-called PDP zoning is not
written anywhere on the records and some are even denying
its existence at all and that’s precisely what makes it
fictitious. Are we now being ruled by fictitious and
unwritten party agreements? I don’t think so. Even if it was
written, it has no force of law and not binding on Nigerians
as a whole whose allegiance is to the constitution not to
secret party arrangements that are not in line with the
nation's constitution.
The fact of the matter is that the
North was compelled by the circumstances of June 12, 1993,
to bring ex- military Head of State, General Olusegun
Obasanjo, from prison to contest the election in 1999 in
order to assuage the bruised feelings in the South West and
save the nation from disintegration. And if they entered
into a secret arrangement with OBJ to hand over to the North
after his tenure and he did, that cannot be promoted into
the status of a party zoning formula or for that matter, a
national code of conduct. And it has never been. When OBJ
was contesting his party primaries in 2003 this same North
came out to claim that it had an understanding with OBJ to
relinquish power to the North after his tenure of four years
and on that basis sought to upstage him by sponsoring his
deputy Abubakar Atiku and other Northerners to contest
against him. We are all witnesses to the events at the PDP
primaries in Abuja in 2003 where OBJ was almost displaced by
Atiku. Or, have we suddenly forgotten his BBC interview
where he outlined his options, which included contesting for
the presidency? Isn’t it laughable, and indeed, dishonest
for this same Atiku to be howling from the roof top about
PDP zoning, in 2010 just because he wants to get Jonathan
out of the way in order to achieve his unattainable
presidential ambition? His self-serving wolf cries that he
saturated us with in the dying days of the OBJ
administration will not hold water this time around. We’ve
had enough of the Atiku games. Unlike Jonathan who patiently
and honestly served his master without indulging in vaulting
ambition, Atiku has burnt his bridges and IBB and Buhari are
non-starters to begin with. Both are spent bullets. Like I
indicated in a previous article, I will not waste my time
and energy on IBB, in particular. His political baggage is
just too heavy to warrant wasting time on him. The treatment
he is receiving now bears eloquent testimony to his status
as a persona non grata in the nation’s seat of power.
Should the PDP insist on zoning then it
can be argued that the North has had its fair shake with
Yar’Adua. OBJ kept his own side of the bargain if at all
there was in fact one. Nowhere is it written that a
president must do two terms in office. And nowhere is it
written either that a zone must have the presidency for two
terms consecutively. Like Yar’Adua, OBJ had only done four
years then not eight years. Where was the PDP zoning then?
The North should be held to that position and relinquish
power to the South if they’re dead serious about zoning
because Yar’Adua will have done his four-year tenure by May
29, 2011. But I’m not about zoning but about meritocracy in
leadership contest. No one should hold the nation to ransom
by tying her to the apron strings of one region to the
exclusion of other regions. No one should deny Nigerians
from other parts of the country their constitutional rights
to vie for any elective position in the land on account of
an unconstitutional and undemocratic party arrangement. Yes,
no one should seek to promote the North/South political
divide and reduce our democracy to some caricature. The
days of Luggard’s Northern and Southern Protectorates of
Nigeria are gone and gone for good and no one should seek to
condemn Nigeria to the 19th century. Nowhere else
in the world is the presidency zoned between North and South
of a country. Those who seek to portray us as primitive
tribes in this modern world must be put in their proper
place. The presidency must be thrown open to all if at all
we’re practicing democracy, and not a caricature of
democracy.
Finally, I want to say that just it has
always done in the past, the same PDP will meet to reverse
itself, not that it ever met to fashion the zoning
arrangement in the first place otherwise it would have been
evidenced in writing. At best it was a gentleman’s agreement
hatched at someone’s backyards. Didn't the PDP meet to amend
its constitution after Yar' Adua came to power in an attempt
to undo what OBJ did? Yes it did so to “amend” the
qualification for becoming the party’s BOT Chairman. That
happened less than two years ago. Several other amendments
have taken place in the party’s constitution. But the zoning
is not even written so it requires no amendment. It never
existed formally but in the imagination of power merchants
in the PDP. None of the other parties talks about zoning the
presidency. The amendment of the PDP constitution will
happen again because every President builds the party in his
own image and Jonathan will not be an exception. In fact the
process may have begun already. Zoning will not stand.
But before I take my leave, however, I
have a word for the Nigerian media. I want to caution
Nigerian journalists from throwing the so-called PDP zoning
formula in our face each time the issue of Jonathan's
eligibility to contest the 2011 presidential election is
brought up. Nigerian journalists should be ashamed that they
are the ones trying to raise a mere party arrangement into
the force of law and seek to use it to override the nation’s
constitution. It's a shame that Nigerian journalists who
ought to be at the vanguard of holding the constitution
aloft to protect the rights of all Nigerians are the ones
trying to undermine its provisions regarding the contest for
the presidency instead of educating the people. I don’t see
why anyone would raise PDP zoning in the face of the
provisions of the constitution which guarantees the right to
contest election to every Nigerian.
Our journalists should stop insulting
Nigerians with PDP zoning arrangement that is clearly an
affront on the nation’s constitution. If the Nigerian press
will not and cannot defend our constitution, Nigerians will.
One begins to wonder why they are fighting for the passage
for Freedom of Information Bill (FIB) when they cannot
defend and uphold simple provisions of the constitution. The
PDP is not Nigeria and its internal arrangement cannot by
any stretch of the imagination bind the nation. It has
nothing to do with Jonathan's right to contest any elective
position in the land he desires, under the constitution.
And come to think of it, where were
Nigerian journalists then when late Abubakar Rimi and
Barnabas Gemade proceeded to contest against OBJ in 2003 PDP
party primaries? Our journalists and the PDP owe us an
explanation. Had either of them won, OBJ would have been out
and no one would have remembered that there was ever a
zoning arrangement in place in the PDP. Nigerian
journalists, who appear fixated on PDP zoning, should have
asked late Rimi and Gemade why they did it and obtain
answers from them. Though Rimi is dead but Gemade is still
alive and kicking. They could go to him and get his answer
as to why he ignored his party’s zoning arrangement in 2003
and contested against OBJ in the PDP primaries. If our
journalists must be told, Rimi and Gemade ignored the
so-called party zoning formula because they didn't believe
in zoning and would not let that stand in their way to
actualizing their individual political ambitions. In fact
Rimi made that point clear enough before he passed on and
PDP comfortably looked the other way while they were at it!
What makes our journalists think that Jonathan is a believer
and practitioner of zoning? So much for a fictitious
agreement and enough of this nonsensical distraction!
Jonathan has a date with history.
Franklin Otorofani, Esq. Contact:
mudiagaone@yahoo.com |
