The 2015 Presidential election in
Nigeria has come and gone, with General Muhammadu Buhari declared the winner. The
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced Buhari as having a
total of fifteen million plus votes as against the incumbent President Jonathan’s
of twelve million plus. Buhari is also said to have received 25% of the total
votes cast in twenty six States, two States in excess of the minimum
requirement of two thirds of the total number of States, which, of 36 States,
is 24. In an unprecedented show of statesmanship and rare-breed maturity in
Nigerian, nay, African and world politics, President Jonathan called General
Buhari and congratulated him on his victory. This is a vindication of his
avowed stand that politics is not a do-or-die affair, a la Obasanjo. In a brief
informal address to the nation, the President appealed for peace, again
emphasizing his position that no political ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian.
To this writer, Jonathan is
the
real winner of the election, not because he has the highest votes, but because
he has the interest of the nation at heart, and sets that above any personal
ambition. From what happened in 2003, 2007, and 2011, the years in which Buhari
lost the Presidential elections to Obasanjo, Yar’adua and Jonathan
respectively, we know that if Buhari had lost again, not only would he have endlessly
pursued it in the courts, but while that may be on, mayhem may have been
unleashed on the people, especially on Southerners living in the North, as was
seen in 2011, and perhaps to fulfil his infamous 2012 prophecy of the baboon
being soaked in blood should he lose the election again. Before now some have
threatened to drag Buhari to the International Criminal Court to face charges on
crime against humanity for his role in the 2011 post-election violence that
claimed many lives, and saw much property destroyed.
No leader in Nigeria’s 55-year
history has ever demonstrated the type of spirit of magnanimity, maturity and non-interference
in the electioneering process as Jonathan has done. He has carved a niche for
himself in the history of this great nation, and indeed Africa and the world. If
critics would be truthful, they will admit that President Jonathan has done
more to entrench in Nigeria true democracy founded in the unfettered will of
the people. History tells us the failure of our first three republics and of
their intersecting military rule was due principally to the manipulation of the
people’s will through the ballot box. In fact even under Obasanjo, this
do-or-die type of politics was still the order of the day until the Ken
Nnamani-led Senate aborted his infamous third term bid. It was not until
Obasanjo left office 2007 that the new PDP regime of Musa Yar’adua instituted
electoral reforms. The Justice Uwais panel made far reaching recommendations,
which President Yar’adua and his Vice, Goodluck Jonathan, would not sweep under
the carpet. The steady implementation of those recommendations is what has
given birth to the stable democratic institution ruling and opposition parties
enjoy today. Non-democratic leaders would simply have swept such
recommendations that were likely to clog their chances at the polls under the
carpet. But Jonathan allowed liberty in opinion and political affiliation. People
were free to express themselves and to identify with where they wished, even if
that were to his hurt. It could be said that in Jonathan may be found a
fulfilment of the biblical ‘who shall dwell
in the hill of the LORD’ of Psalm 15, wherein it is stated in verse 4, ‘’he
that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not.” Indeed Jonathan is committed
to building a strong democratic institution in Nigeria, even to his own hurt. In
an interview with Nigerian Tribune, Thursday, February 19, 2015, the President underlined
this point when he said, “If
we are practising democracy, then there must be freedom of choice, freedom of
speech. If you take these ingredients out of any government, then it is not
democracy it is pseudo-democracy, false democracy.” Jonathan has shown that his
personal ambition is secondary and subject to the people’s will. Should they
choose him, he would serve them. Should they not, he would step aside, a la
Babangida.
While we welcome Buhari on stage,
we wish him and his team learn from this great democrat. They must learn to
tolerate opposition and even work for their good, as Jonathan has done for them.
It was in the midst of insults to the person and office of the President that
he signed the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill, which had laid dormant until
then. It was in the midst of such verbal assaults that he allowed the
registration of their party, a move which anti-democratic leaders would have
used intrigues to block. Nigeria is greater than any single Nigerian. That is
the message of Jonathan. May we all learn this great lesson, and take it beyond
the books to the field of practice.
No comments:
Post a Comment