President Jonathan is not the greatest loser of the just concluded Election, Jonathanians are. The theory being bandied by some school of thought is that some set of forces conspired to frustrate the president’s bid to return to Aso Rock and the presidency is out to fish them out, deal with them and pay them in their own coins. The sack of the IGP of Police is seen as a way of getting back at those that contributed to the fall of his presidency, especially coming at a time when the Punch Newspapers reported that the presidency is out to recover unspent political funds in an election that cost him trillions of Naira. Although the presidency has denied the figures but not the fact that money was spent. It is a fact that when a one legged masquerade entered a room and a one legged man come out from the same room, you will only advertise your foolishness value by asking whether the one legged man is not the one legged masquerade.
Nigeria politics is the politics of the winner takes all, the loser loses all. If you commit a political sin, you may likely die a political death. The Buhari tsunami that consumed the North rendered people like Nuhu Ribadu politically irrelevant (at least in the short run), Ribadu was too hasty, too childish and too blinded by his quest for power that He did not see farther than his nose that even if Buhari doesn’t win the election, his goodwill would still have rob off Ribadu’s victory. The case of Ribadu is a case of ‘if you give bad food to your stomach, it drums for you to dance’ the losers in the just concluded elections lost woefully.
The Jonathan’s government was slow to start and at a point grounded to a halt, for the better part of his presidency, we witnessed a government that is as weak as its leaders in all ramifications and they were not apologetic about it. Incompetency became synonymous with everything that should work but somehow refused to work. APC’s spoke’s man, Lai Muhammed was quick to call our dear president a kindergarten President (although I do not agree with him because our president deserves some level of respect), a title I’m sure Lai would not be too comfortable with should He be in Jonathan’s shoes. The Presidency bit more than it could possibly chew, fought many battles than it could survive, ran many races than it could possibly win and made more enemies than it needed. It was a race without direction which rendered their speed irrelevant. Jonathan’s goodwill dropped drastically from 100% to a score that was below average, if it were to be a company; by now it would have filed for bankruptcy protection.
On the basis of the aforementioned, the once upon a time perpetually unelectable presidential candidate- General Buhari launched his campaign, promising us change and categorically telling us that there won’t be confusion as to his stance towards corruption. On the part of the Presidency, rather than run an issue based campaign, they ran a personality based campaign, painted Buhari as the devil, the more they tried, the more they appeared confused. The PDP chose the wrong foot soldiers: Fayose, Mimiko, Femi Fani-kayode and the O.P.C, endorsements became for sale ‘over the counter.’ They banked so much on the votes of the south west even when it was fully clear that the Yorubas preferred the changed devil to the shoeless devil. Jonathan’s Jonathanians simply made matters worse for the presidency.
Jonathan’s jonathanians were too catholic than the Pope and it is so unfortunate that once the presidency of their pay master comes to an end, they will simply cross carpet to the happening party, Jonathan’s government will go down the history as the government of committees committed to nothing. Buhari should be very careful with the way He relates with the so-called politicians and need to be reminded that the Nigeria of 1980’s is quite different from the Nigeria of the 21stcentury. Jonathan is not the cause of his loss, Jonathanians are; Jonathan is not the greatest beneficiary of his presidency, Jonathanians are; Jonathan is not the greatest loser of the election, Jonathanians are. Therefore, Buhari cannot afford to run a Jonathan styled presidency.
Written by Oyede Saheed, also known as High-Chief Human being
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