Over the past 12 hours or so, I have watched the international community, and indeed Nigerians, shower praises on President Jonathan. He is now synonymous with names like: ”a true democrat”, ”an agent of change”, ”selfless”, ”African hero” to mention but a few. All these names are born out of the fact that, to our minds (scratch that, ”their minds” is more apt), he provided an enabling environment for a free and fair election and after losing, rather than act like most African leaders of years past, he conceded defeat, called and congratulated the President elect.

Free and fair election? It is funny that once an incumbent loses, people automatically delude themselves that the election was free and fair. Before my eyes, I watched PDP rig. APC also rigged. Indeed, it was a contest in which the best rigger won.

Are we going to shut our eyes to all the pictures and videos of underage children voting in the North? Are we going to pretend we don’t know that the waiver granted the North by INEC to carry out manual accreditation gave Buhari an undue advantage? Do we earnestly believe that in spite of the insurgency and uprising in the North, Northerners still came out en masse to cast their votes without fear of an uprising or terrorist attack? I trust we are not that deluded.

There was no fair playing ground as the 28th March, 2015 elections were concerned, neither was it free. But it is okay to praise Jonathan for not using all the machineries at his disposal to rig the election. He could have done so if he wanted power so desperately. But he didn’t – for that we applaud him. Enough said on that.

To the issue of Jonathan’s new ”African hero” status. Make no mistake, with that singular gentleman’s act of calling Buhari, he has saved the country from violence. He has saved us from bloodshed. But is that enough to elevate him to an African hero? I think not. Jonathan is no Mandela. Indeed, he is not even an Awolowo or an Azikiwe, talk less of a Fela. Why Fela? He died speaking against the ills of our nation and Africa at large. Fela will definitely be turning in his grave seeing Buhari being the face of ”change”. Same Buhari he condemned along with other military leaders in his songs. This is more of a damming indictment on Jonathan than anything.

Jonathan’s defeat had been a long time coming. Those who have eyes could see it at least two years ago. I’ll keep reiterating that Jonathan lost the elections, not by the extra votes Buhari got from the North, but by the large number of votes he lost from the South. Because of the total neglect of the south over the past six years, Southerners did not see the need to come out and vote for a ”brother” who had failed them. Hence, Jonathan lost over 3.5 million votes from what he got from the region in 2011. If that was gotten in addition to what he scored in the March 28th elections, he would have been President elect.

Again, how did our ”democrat” emerge as the sole presidential aspirant for PDP? The process through which Jonathan emerged to be the flag bearer of the PDP was most undemocratic. He stifled all other aspirants and ensured there was no contest. Hence, he emerged unopposed. We are not saying he would have lost in a proper primaries, we are merely contending that other party members would have been more willing to work for him if he had emerged from a proper democratic process. This is an advantage Buhari had over him.

Permit me to bore you a bit by reiterating that Jonathan didn’t lose because the election was free and fair. No, he lost because he spent the last six years doing the wrong things.
There has been so much hullabaloo Jonathan’s call to Buhari. While it is commendable, I see nothing special in the act. He did the rational thing. He did what I would have done. There was nothing special when John McCain called to congratulate President Obama in 2008, why should this be celebrated? Africans must stop celebrating mediocrity. Let’s celebrate something exceptional, something special, something unheard of. Jonathan had to save himself from further embarrassment. He knew attempting to contest the results will expose his obvious inefficiency. So he did the honourable thing, he saved his face.

In spite of all the stick we have unleashed on him, make no mistake, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is not a bad man. He is just surrounded by the wrong people, by sycophants. He had good intentions for Nigeria, but this was stifled by his weakness and inability to take firm decisions. However, it is not all negatives, not all gloom. There are some positive lessons learnt.

We thank Jonathan for unconsciously opening the eyes and minds of Nigerians. Yes, because of his ineffectiveness, today, Nigerians have a new mindset.  Today, every leader will sit up because we now realise that power indeed resides in the ”people”.
Today, Nigerians have (either by hook or crook) voted out an under performing President. We have done it today, we can do it again tomorrow if the president elect under-performs.

From the little we know about General Buhari, he is a dictator, a tyrant, a sectarian and a religious extremist. Let us hope for the sake of Nigeria that he has repented. Otherwise, we will gather again as a people and vote him out in 2019.

There is a common saying that; ”you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain”. By the singular act of calling Buhari, he has endeared himself to the hearts of many. He has chosen to die a mini-hero, rather than attempting to contest the results and probably living long enough to become the villain.

But is that enough to make us close our eyes to his cowardice and ineffectiveness over the past six years?
Is it enough to make up for the past six years of neglect and lack of proper infrastructural development in the South?

Is it enough to compensate us for all the foreign investors we have lost due to the insecurity in the North?

Does the phone call automatically make up for all the lives lost due to his inability to effectively combat boko haram?

I’ll leave it at that for now. You make the call… Jonathan; hero or coward

Enome Amatey Esq.
Email: enomeamatey@yahoo.com
Twitter: @iimperfecttme

Sorry to say, he is a coward, but a good person

GEJ my HERO!

temitemi1:
GEJ my HERO!

GEJ Till May 29!!

A failure

There is nothing heroic about obeying the constitution

He lost fair and square so and he conceded.

He's too meek and liberal

He's a hero anyway.

Coward and still clueless

Coward na

Coward trying to avoid Kirikiri

He's a great hero.He only lost bcoz that deluded "muslim Nigeria" got hoodwinked to think a goat herder is national leader.

GEJ won the Christian south emphatically.

The bible says the last action takes you to heaven,foe his last action he saved so many lives,he is a HERO.

I av being saying it all this while even his antagonist testify to the fact that he is cool and has no problem the problem is people he surround himself with.bottom line he is a HERO.

Clueless coward.

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GEJ is not a politician first and foremost, he is/was just been forunate to rule this country, I call it 'an opportunis'..A politician or rather a leader is suppose to be bold, brave, decisive and intelligent in his dealings, GEJ lack all these qualities..I can't say he is a good man because he never portay quality of a good man,he is just a calm person(an introvert), calmness doesn't equate goodness. Most times, calm persons are even more dagerous compare to lousy ones..
As for him conceding to defeat, yeah! He had no choice, he is aware majority of the masses are against him after how he handled the affair of the nation over the years and also, he doesn't have the heart of a soldier, his weak conscience wouldn't allow him to cause any further caos to this nation to even think it was clear to the world buhari won.
GEJ is aware also that US government is against his style of leading so he did the right thing by conceding defeat.

Another Ironsi.
Gen Gusau, his 'father IBB', and Dasuki all carefully controlled his security apparatus while their northern brethren blamed GEJ for lack of security.
Same thing Gowon did to his principal Ironsi.

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Spoolmak:
you know i like intelligent and reasonable people like you.you have a great insight and understanding of human behavior.

one thing I have noticed about most nigerians is that they are easily swayed by emotions(mixed feelings) rather than logic, either male or female is/are guilty of this..Me think its as a result of most of them are facing pschological trauma due to hardship and stress in the nation.
Some are even calling GEJ a hero for accepting a defeat..lol like he did GMB a favor, not their fault, pdp as a party, have really not practics democracy since 1999 until now.
Bro Thanks for the beer though.

hensben:
GEJ is not a politician first and foremost, he is/was just been forunate to rule this country, I call it 'an opportunis'..A politician or rather a leader is suppose to be bold, brave, decisive and intelligent in his dealings, GEJ lack all these qualities..I can't say he is a good man because he never portay quality of a good man,he is just a calm person(an introvert), calmness doesn't equate goodness. Most times, calm persons are even more dagerous compare to lousy ones..
As for him conceding to defeat, yeah! He had no choice, he is aware majority of the masses are against him after how he handled the affair of the nation over the years and also, he doesn't have the heart of a soldier, his weak conscience wouldn't allow him to cause any further caos to this nation to even think it was clear to the world buhari won.
GEJ is aware also that US government is against his style of leading so he did the right thing by conceding defeat.

I like this...