By Owei Lakemfa
It struck like a thunderbolt from the
blues. It was an unexpected goal;
against the run of play. One second,
Suleiman Abba was Inspector General
of Police (IGP) the next, he was gone
with the wind in what can be called
Hurricane Jonathan. It was the second
time in two weeks President Goodluck
Jonathan was making unexpected
moves, leaving most of us clueless.
The other was declining to sign the
constitutional amendments into law.
The first reactions in the media were
that the sack of Mr. Abba was
“suspicious” a “political vendetta” and
for “no justifiable reasons” So how
can a president said to be “clueless”
make such baffling moves, leaving the
political class speechless? Not many
expect the quiet Jonathan to continue
asserting his mandate; some expect
him to have sought the refuge of his
village.
One of the first reactions to the sack
came from Alhaji Ibrahim Coomassie,
the IGP under the Abacha and
Abdulsalam military regimes. The
retired cop concluded that the sack
was “suspicious” because Mr. Abba is
from the North. I had not realized that,
and I am sure President Jonathan who
picked Abba above his seniors (who
were then forced to retire) had not
known that Abba is from the North.
Until now, I did not know that Abba
was the IGP of the North which would
make it “suspicious” for a President
from the South to sack him.
A second reason Alhaji Coomassie
gave is that if the sack is linked to the
general elections, President Jonathan
should not have removed Abba. I
concede it is the prerogative of a
retired cop to engage in speculations.
A third reason given by the elder
Statesman is that the sack did not
follow due process. I agree with him;
rather than President Jonathan
exercising his prerogative to appoint
and fire the IGP, he should have
subjected it to a national referendum.
There are other commentators who
have called on President-elect,
General Muhammadu Buhari to reject
Abba’s sack. I am sure there is a lot
of logic in this; the President-elect
can over-rule the incumbent
President!
The only weakness that I see in this
brilliant call, is that the constitution
does not permit two presidents to
govern the country simultaneously;
Jonathan remains the President and
Commander-In-Chief of the Republic
until he hands over on May 29. After
General Buhari is sworn in, he can
recall and reinstate all the IGPs and
military chiefs Jonathan had removed.
That will be his prerogative.
Just as many of us are clueless on
Jonathan, so are we on Buhari. He is
no messiah, but many insist he is.
Buhari reminds me of the chief priest
in the play, Kinjeketile by Tanzanian
playwright, Ebrahim. N. Hussein, who
gave birth to a word, and the word
gets bigger and bigger, until it
becomes far bigger than the priest
himself.
Alarmed by the huge expectations of
his supporters, Buhari has had to tell
them not to expect miracles. But many
of them insist on miracles. I am sorry,
but those who voted for Buhari in
expectation of miracles are mistaken.
The fact that the Vice President-elect
is a serving pastor, does not mean
Nigeria is now in in the ‘Atmosphere of
Miracles’
Those who expect miracles should, in
the first place have drafted Sheik
Ibrahim El-Zak-zaky and Pastor Enoch
Adeboye on the ballot. Surely, a Sheik
Ahmad Gumi as Presidential
Candidate and Pastor Temitope
Joshua as running mate or vice versa,
would have been an ideal ticket.
Then we can have miracles on per
second billing in a pay-as-you-go
system. In any case, why did such
people over the years, reject the
candidature of my brother, Pastor Kris
Okotie even when he repeatedly told
Nigerians that God had revealed to him
he would win those elections? Why is
it now that we are demanding
miracles?
To show how clueless some of us can
be, I hear it said all over the place that
we have comparatively done very well
because we have a nascent
democracy.
How can that be when we have been
having general elections since the
1950s? We should not accept such
insult. But why do so many people
insist that our electoral process is still
in its infancy? I can make some
guess. First, twenty nine years of
military rule has blinded us to the fact
that we had over fifteen years of
elections before the first coup in
January, 1966.
A second guess is that seeing long
queues of children voting, such people
assume that our electoral process
must also be in its infancy. They fail
to understand that we are so
democratic, open-minded and
children-friendly; that we are just
catching them young. After all, these
are the leaders and voters of
tomorrow.
I watched a report/documentary on
Silver Bird Television on underage
voting, and was full of commendation
and admiration for the electoral staff
the way they handled the children.
First, realizing that these special
voters, (some looking like nine or ten
year olds) can be rowdy, special
queues were created for them.
Then card readers patiently put them
through the identification process
before voting. This is good for our
electoral process because in the next
five-eight years when these children
are eligible to vote, their invaluable
experience as underage voters, will
give them a head start over their
contemporaries.
On the social media, I read a brilliant
justification or argument for underage
voting; it is more democratic than a
single adult thumb printing scores of
ballot papers. As a Nigerian, I am
happy to be swept along by the flood of
accolades that have poured in from the
international community.
The world had not expected us to pull
off these elections without much
violence and bloodbath. Don’t forget
that the prophetic Americans had
spied into the future and announced
that Nigeria will break up in 2015. But
here we are, united and strong.
Proudly Nigerian!

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/clueless-on-jonathan-and-buhari/