By Olu Jacob
September 12, 2010 11:49PM
http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Opinion/5618222-146/jonathan_is_not_the_one_.csp


While President Goodluck Jonathan plays Hamlet, others are not so coy. His former boss and mentor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who said, “he calls my wife mummy and my wife takes him as a son,” warned that if Mr. Jonathan does not run, “the Ijaw man will be disappointed. This is not a threat; we shall wait for him to come home. So let him listen to us as his people.” Anyway, it is almost certain that the president will run. Aides hint that an announcement will come after Ramadan, and his wife, Patience, was not too subtle when she visited Delta State recently. “If you love my husband, then go and register so you can vote.” They say she is the ‘real’ politician in the family so emissaries from Bayelsa State, led by the speaker, Werinipre Seibarugu, went to plead with her to forgive the state governor, Timpreye Sylva, for failing to fall behind her husband fast enough. According to reports, “though she is still angry, feelers indicate that she is already reconsidering her stand against the governor.” So run Mr. Jonathan will, for a rash of reasons, and pressure so unreasonable he could claim, like Tony Blair, “I can only go one way. I have not got a reverse gear.” Besides, said Cairo Ojougboh, his special adviser on National Assembly matters who first broke the news, “there is no moral justification to ask Jonathan not to run.” There is no moral justification for him to run either. He cannot claim that he is the best candidate for the job; that he has the will and wherewithal to solve our economic and social problems; that he could superintend free and fair elections while running his first presidential campaign; that his anti-corruption war is not circumscribed by the charge that his wife was caught trying to launder 13.5 million dollars. Or even that his candidacy will not deepen the schism within the polity, making the north feel short-changed, betrayed.

“What that will create is a serious problem in the future,” said Audu Ogbe who chaired the 2002 meeting where 47 PDP chieftains (two abstained) voted for zoning to allow the south complete an eight-year tenure. “Because if it means ‘when we have it, we keep it, it can’t move’ then a suggestion is being made to the northerners that ‘you’re a bunch of fools for agreeing to do it in the first place.’” Besides, since he became president, Mr. Jonathan has not ruled with any vigour, nor shown the ability to bring new ideas or people to bear on perennial problems. Even now, one gets the sense that he is being told to run simply because he can, because he is there now and it is ‘their’ turn. He is to be the torchbearer of the Ijaws, one chosen by divine grace to cancel the injustice done to his people. These are hardly lofty reasons.

There is no sign that Mr. Jonathan, himself, truly desires the job. He appears to be running to avoid the consequences of not running. But this country does not need another reluctant president, one pressured into office by primordial forces. What other pressures will he succumb to when he gets there?

Some say he wants the job but it is not in his nature to rush; he prefers to tread softly, feeling his way through the maze.

We are supposed to believe that the fact that four months to elections a sitting president is too timid to declare his candidacy, is a strategy. As one of his aides told Reuters, “The president will not declare until he is sure that he will win.” He is reportedly frustrated by PDP governors who have refused to give him that kind of assurance. Governors Rotimi Amaechi, Bukola Saraki, Babangida Aliyu, Mr. Sylva, Emmanuel Uduaghan, Gbenga Daniel, and Danjuma Goje continue to hedge their bets and to allegedly chip away at the support of their colleagues. “They will come to me to pledge their loyalty and endorsements whereas intelligence reports from their states indicate they have other agenda,” Mr. Jonathan was quoted as saying at a recent meeting.

This is not good; it does not show a mastery of the use of power. Mr. President must also see how his vacillation allowed people like Ibrahim Babangida and Atiku Abubakar, consummate players, to exploit his weak grasp of the reigns, challenging him on the platform of his own party.

“The deal I have with IBB” said Mr. Abukakar, “is that when this has been resolved, we will enter into a room and then, one person would emerge.” Still, the president waits, craving the support of powerful men, sending emissaries to ‘key traditional rulers’, governors, party chieftains, senators, and other ‘important people’. One day, perhaps sometimes before the elections,he may yet deign to meet with the rest of us, Nigerian people who, presumably,are the ones to vote him into office.

No, Mr. Jonathan is not the one we have been waiting for. Hamlet should please take his bow, “Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.”

Another foolish and failed Babangida article, without the slightest common sense in it, just heaps of rumour, trash and projections of the writers ill concieved thoughts.
It is an empty article devoid of the slightest attempt at seriousness or logic.

Where is Gbawe to come and fool himself with this?

dude, you are getting carried away with this your Jonathan sycophancy.
try and take it easy.
Everybody that dislikes Jonathan is not an IBB lover.
i dislike IBB more than Jonathan but that does not change the fact that this country can do way better than GEJ.
dude is a mediocre and an opportunist.
This is a critical juncture in the life of this country and we need capable hands not a man that has no track record and no discernible ideology.
some of us just have a disdain for mediocrity and crass opportunism.we are no fans of IBB or even Atiku.
Pls take it easy.

mbulela:

dude, you are getting carried away with this your Jonathan sycophancy.
try and take it easy.
Everybody that dislikes Jonathan is not an IBB lover.
i dislike IBB more than Jonathan but that does not change the fact that this country can do way better than GEJ.
dude is a mediocre and an opportunist.
This is a critical juncture in the life of this country and we need capable hands not a man that has no track record and no discernible ideology.
some of us just have a disdain for mediocrity and crass opportunism.we are no fans of IBB or even Atiku.
Pls take it easy.

So why post an article that is openly fighting IBB's fight?
If you feel Jonathan is a mediocre opportunist, back it up with raw facts, not this sort of mediocre article from the gutter.
What point exactly is the article attempting outside of character assasination?

I will point out a few things that are glaringly wrong with the article;
[list]
[li]It mimics the name of a well known principled man, Olu Jacob[b]s[/b], by giving the author the name, Olu Jacob; those who don't care about facts wouldn't notice the difference. A fake, but similar sounding name is the surest signature of fake and counterfeit goods.[/li]
[li]The article singles out Jonathan for not declaring, but there are several others who have not done so (including IBB, who will declare on Wednesday, Atiku, Saraki, Ribadu, Duke etc etc)[/li]
[li]It is unabashed in its support of zoning (which clashes with the Nigerian constitution), that alone places the article as a very biased appraisal[/li]
[/list]

I could go on and on, but hey! Let those who (unknowingly) admire mediocrity enough to post fake articles by counterfeit authors ride on!

+1

mbulela:

dude, you are getting carried away with this your Jonathan sycophancy.
try and take it easy.
Everybody that dislikes Jonathan is not an IBB lover.
i dislike IBB more than Jonathan but that does not change the fact that this country can do way better than GEJ.
dude is a mediocre and an opportunist.
This is a critical juncture in the life of this country and we need capable hands not a man that has no track record and no discernible ideology.
some of us just have a disdain for mediocrity and crass opportunism.we are no fans of IBB or even Atiku.
Pls take it easy.

Nothing annoys me like the statement in bolded text. Medicocre? Please explain what you mean. mediocre by what yardstick? what kind of changes were you expecting to see in 6 months and what is outstanding?

Instead of telling us jonathan is not the one, I think a smarter move would have been to point us to the "deliverer".


Opportunist? and what is wrong with that if i may ask?

Even now, one gets the sense that he is being told to run simply because he can, because he is there now and it is ‘their’ turn. He is to be the torchbearer of the Ijaws, one chosen by divine grace to cancel the injustice done to his people. These are hardly lofty reasons.

end of story

whether you support GEJ or not,it is his right to decide

Not a fan of Jonathan, but this article did not provide any concrete reasons as to why Jonathan is not the one.

Having an opinion that Jonathan should not run is not enough. It is Jonathan's right to choose to run or not.

If the writer has nothing to say about Jonathan's clueless leadership so far, then he better not write.

He simply wrote because he can write, thats surely not a lofty reason to write.

^^^
i agree with you.
my problem is this tendency of painting any one who does not hop on the GEJ bandwagon an IBB fan.