By Ifeanyi Maduako
Lagos Lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, recently argued that Dr.
Goodluck Jonathan is not eligible to contest for the presidency of Nigeria
again having spent five years as president between 2010 and 2015.
Falana premised his argument on a 2018 constitutional amendment which purportedly bars Jonathan from contesting because if he (Jonathan) becomes the president of Nigeria in 2023, he will spend a cumulative nine years as president whereas the amended constitutional provision on which Falana relied on limits the occupant of the position to two terms of eight years.
*Buhari and JonathanI am not conversant with the amended constitutional provision that Falana relied on but I dare say that he got his interpretation of that provision wrong. A law does not take a retroactive effect and the 2018 constitutional amendment does not affect Jonathan. It can only affect a fresh president from the date it was signed into law. What if Jonathan had won the 2015 presidential election, didn’t Falana know that he would have been in office for nine years by 2019?
The immediate past Governor of Yobe State, Senator Ibrahim
Geidam, was a governor for 11 years. He was a deputy governor in 2007 when he
was elected into office with his then boss, the late Governor Mamman Bello Ali.
When his boss died in early 2008, Alhaji Geidam became the governor of the
state and completed the remaining three years left by his late boss.
He contested twice for his own term in 2011 and 2015 which he
won. By the time he left office in 2019, he had served a cumulative 11 years as
Governor of Yobe State against eight years which the constitution stipulates
for a governor to be in office.
Therefore, against the foregoing background, Jonathan is
constitutionally qualified for another four years in office as president of
Nigeria. But, should Jonathan run again for the position? I do not think so for
certain reasons.
Dr. Jonathan has had his palm kernel cracked for him by the
benevolent spirit as far as politics is concerned. He is the only Nigerian who
had tasted the four positions in the executive arm of government: the deputy
governor, governor, vice president, and president.
President Jonathan is the first man among the class of deputy
governors of 1999 to become a governor in 2005. He had wanted to retain his
position as the governor of Bayelsa State in 2007 when divine providence
catapulted him to the position of the vice president of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria.
From the class of deputy governors of 1999, only three people
ever reached the position of a governor. They are: Mahmud Shinkafi, Ibrahim
Ganduje and Alliyu Wammako of Zamfara, Kano and Sokoto states respectively. Dr.
Jonathan is the first and only democratically elected vice-president to become
the president as a result of the death of his then boss, President Umaru Musa
Yar’Adua.
He is the first and the only sitting civilian president to
concede defeat and handed over to his opponent after a presidential contest. He
demonstrated the true virtues of a God-fearing man by calling then General
Muhammadu Buhari to congratulate him.
Perhaps that singular action saved thousands and millions of
Nigerians from being killed as a result of bloodshed which the then opposition
had purportedly promised to unleash across the length and breadth of Nigeria if
they had lost the election.
Those who today derisively call President Jonathan a coward are
ignorant of the fact that nobody knew who would have survived the stampede and
catastrophe that would have ensued across Nigeria had Jonathan behaved like
other African leaders who usually refuse to concede defeat.
Former President of the United States of America, Barack Obama,
also contributed to Jonathan’s loss of the presidency. Obama showed undue
interest in the 2015 presidential election and surreptitiously worked for the
then opposition against President Jonathan. Who knows if Jonathan would have
been given the Laurent-Gbagbo treatment if he had refused to vacate power?
However, the rumour of Dr. Jonathan scheming to return to power
is not advisable. What is he coming back to do or what did he forget in Aso
Rock? One mistake Jonathan made as president was that he failed to utilise the
position very well, especially for the Southern part of Nigeria.
Perhaps he was hoping to do that on his second term which never
came. Jonathan forgot that the presidency of Nigeria with over 300 tribes is
not a walk in the park. Jonathan should thank his creator for making him a
member of the minute elite club that had ruled Nigeria since independence.
The Presidency of Nigeria which Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief
Obafemi Awolowo, Chief MKO, et al, couldn’t attain after repeated attempts in
their lifetimes was what Jonathan achieved on a platter of gold.
Jonathan coming back as president of Nigeria means that power
will quickly return to the North in 2027 even after Buhari’s eight years on the
seat. Jonathan has the right to his personal ambition, but he should place a
higher premium on the ambition of the Southern part of Nigeria which would want
to retain the presidency for eight years from 2023.
Only a man like Buhari with his cult-like followership could
have defeated President Jonathan in 2015; and since God allowed that to happen,
Jonathan shouldn’t overstretch the good luck in his life because it may result
in anticlimax.
*Maduako, a political analyst, wrote from Owerri via: ifeanyimaduako2017@gmail.com
Well; he must understand that treading with caution does not translate to cowardice. Those who are compelling him to contest, if the speculation is true, must take into consideration if they really love him.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the GOOD IN HIS LUCK may work wonders!
Jonathan should not obey the northerners they kill him
ReplyDelete