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THE GUARDIAN
THE STAR
THE PUNCH
NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
TIMES OF ZAMBIA
THE SUN
DAILY GRAPHICS
THISDAY
MAIL & GUARDIAN
VANGUARD
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THE STAR
THE PUNCH
NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
TIMES OF ZAMBIA
THE SUN
DAILY GRAPHICS
THISDAY
MAIL & GUARDIAN
VANGUARD
D/INDEPENDENT
The nation
Daily trust
Ghana Times
2015: Let the Race Begin
_________________________________________________________
Chido Onumah
Friday, Jan. 11, 2013
Friday, Jan. 11, 2013
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If there was any lingering doubt that campaigns for the 2015
presidential election have started in earnest, that doubt was erased
with the emergence last week of the Jonathan 2015 campaign
posters. The audaciousness of that action and the feeble response
from the Presidency to the effect that the president is “pre-occupied
with working to fix Nigeria and did not want to be distracted by
undue politicking about 2015”, are all too typical of the People’s
Democratic Party’s brand of democracy.
For those who cringed and raged about the appointment a few
weeks ago of octogenarian, Tony Anenih, a man who ordinarily
should be in an old people’s home, as chairman of the board of the
Nigeria Ports Authority, that selection is beginning to make sense.
President Jonathan has said publicly that he will not think about
2015 until next year. This disclaimer comes even as his aides keep
reassuring us that “the wonderful performance of Jonathan at the
end of the tenure would make most Nigerians to compel him to run
in 2015”. That is the clincher. It doesn’t matter whether the
president thinks about it now or in 2014, “Nigerians are going to
applaud him and even if he does not want to run for election,
Nigerians are going to force him to run again because of the level of
performance”. That’s according to Doyin Okupe, the Special
Assistant to the President on Public Affairs.
In the last few months, President Jonathan has had occasions to
trumpet his democratic credentials, all with an eye to the 2015
election. After the governorship election in Ondo State on October
20, 2012, Reuben Abati, the president’s spokesman, reminded us
that “the President would naturally have wanted his party, the PDP,
to win the governorship election in the state, the fact that he has
never abused the enormous powers of the Presidency to influence
the outcome of elections shows that he is a man of his words, a
committed democrat and a President who believes in the rule of law
and the supremacy of the will of the people”.
Shortly before the US presidential election on November 6, 2012,
Abati wrote: “This should mean something to us in Nigeria, and in
the larger African community, for it is at the centre of President
Goodluck Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda. It is the same
electoral ethic that President Jonathan has insisted upon since his
assumption of office as President. Nigerians, long used to a political
situation in which the privilege of incumbency confers all powers
have seen under President Jonathan’s watch, a completely different
arrangement. It used to be the case in this land, that all that was
required of an incumbent in the position of a President or Governor
was to sit back and assume that incumbency will confer automatic
re-election, and if the incumbent managed to stir at all, he did so
with so much arrogance. Most of the time, this worked. The
incumbent bullied and forced his way through to a second term”.
Beyond this rhetoric, however, there is nothing the Jonathan
administration has done to advance the integrity of the electoral
process in Nigeria. Recall that after the 2007 presidential election
that saw the selection of Umaru Yar’Adua as president (and
Goodluck Jonathan as vice president), President Yar’Adua was
humble enough to acknowledge the electoral heist and travesty that
brought him and his deputy to power. Three months after he was
sworn in, on August 28, 2007, he set-up a 22-member Electoral
Reform Committee (ERC) headed by retired Justice Muhammadu
Lawal Uwais, to “examine the entire electoral process with a view to
ensuring that we raise the quality and standard of our general
elections and thereby deepen our democracy”.
The ERC made far-reaching recommendations aimed at
guaranteeing the independence of the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) and safeguarding the electoral
process. Rather than addressing the salient issues raised by the
ERC, as a first step toward deepening our democracy, President
Jonathan has conveniently discarded the report and left the
electoral process to run on autopilot.
Shortly after the 2011 presidential election, in an article titled “When
Democracy Insults”, I took Jonathan’s INEC to task on its avowed
commitment to free and fair elections. I wrote: “When a court ruled
that INEC was the only body with the authority to fix the order of
election, after President Jonathan had colluded with the National
Assembly to subvert that power, why did INEC appear helpless?
The lame excuse the commission offered was that ballot papers had
been printed, as if that had any bearing on the date the election
would take place.”
That action which amounted to holding the electoral process to
ransom -- and the massive infusion of fund, way beyond anything
Nigerians could have imagined -- led to “victory” for President
Jonathan and the PDP. It is the same confidence of their ability to
manipulate the electoral process that President Jonathan and the
PDP will ride on to contest the 2015 election. The scenario above,
minus the money factor, may not be the trump card this time
around, but rest assured they have their plan well laid out.
It is in this context that we should view the mysterious appearance
of the Jonathan 2015 posters described as the work of “mischief
makers who want to deceive Nigerians”. That statement actually fits
the PDP because that is exactly what the party has done since
1999. I have brought this up to show that Jonathan and the PDP will
do anything to remain in power, not minding what Nigerians want.
But it also comes as a warning to the opposition. It is with this in
mind that the opposition should approach 2015 knowing full well
that they are not fighting against “flesh and blood”.
As I write, there is a suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja, presided
by Justice Adamu Bello, where President Jonathan through his
counsel, Mr. Ade Okeaya-Inneh, has made a case that he has the
right to run in 2015. The question is no longer why or whether
President Jonathan will run in 2015. He will. As a layman, legally
speaking, I believe he has the right to run. Does he deserve re-
election? The answer, of course, is a resounding no.
The question, therefore, is how do we defeat President Jonathan
and the PDP in 2015? The opposition should stop behaving like
the kid whose toy was taken away by the unruly neighbourhood
bully. If they truly share a common vision for Nigeria, and if that
vision is altruistic, then it shouldn’t be difficult for them to unite in
this urgent task of national reclamation.
So, I say, let the race begin. Now is the time for those outside the
PDP who have expressed interest in the 2015 race or have been
linked with it one way or another to come out and present their
agenda on what is to be done. A lot of names have been bandied
about. Here is a shortlist, in no particular order: Muhammadu
Buhari, Nuhu Ribadu, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Pat Utomi, Abubakar
Dangiwa Umar, Nasir el Rufai, Babatunde Fashola, Adams
Oshiomhole, Olisa Agbakoba, Ibrahim Shekarau Mathew Hassan
Kukah, and Jubrin Ibrahim.
The issue shouldn’t be where you come from or “it is the turn of this
region or ethnic group”. As we have seen, to our eternal regret, the
politics of “it is our turn” has failed us repeatedly. President
Jonathan says we should wait until 2014 for his position – a position
we already know. That shouldn’t be the standard for an opposition
that seeks an alternative, a new Nigeria.
It is never too early to prepare for victory. The opposition needs to
stop watching President Jonathan’s body language and concentrate
on its most urgent task: rally behind a nationally acceptable and
credible candidate.
The public presentation of ''2015 Manifesto of Nigerian Opposition
Politics'' in Abuja on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, is a great platform
to kick-start this agenda.
conumah@hotmail.com
presidential election have started in earnest, that doubt was erased
with the emergence last week of the Jonathan 2015 campaign
posters. The audaciousness of that action and the feeble response
from the Presidency to the effect that the president is “pre-occupied
with working to fix Nigeria and did not want to be distracted by
undue politicking about 2015”, are all too typical of the People’s
Democratic Party’s brand of democracy.
For those who cringed and raged about the appointment a few
weeks ago of octogenarian, Tony Anenih, a man who ordinarily
should be in an old people’s home, as chairman of the board of the
Nigeria Ports Authority, that selection is beginning to make sense.
President Jonathan has said publicly that he will not think about
2015 until next year. This disclaimer comes even as his aides keep
reassuring us that “the wonderful performance of Jonathan at the
end of the tenure would make most Nigerians to compel him to run
in 2015”. That is the clincher. It doesn’t matter whether the
president thinks about it now or in 2014, “Nigerians are going to
applaud him and even if he does not want to run for election,
Nigerians are going to force him to run again because of the level of
performance”. That’s according to Doyin Okupe, the Special
Assistant to the President on Public Affairs.
In the last few months, President Jonathan has had occasions to
trumpet his democratic credentials, all with an eye to the 2015
election. After the governorship election in Ondo State on October
20, 2012, Reuben Abati, the president’s spokesman, reminded us
that “the President would naturally have wanted his party, the PDP,
to win the governorship election in the state, the fact that he has
never abused the enormous powers of the Presidency to influence
the outcome of elections shows that he is a man of his words, a
committed democrat and a President who believes in the rule of law
and the supremacy of the will of the people”.
Shortly before the US presidential election on November 6, 2012,
Abati wrote: “This should mean something to us in Nigeria, and in
the larger African community, for it is at the centre of President
Goodluck Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda. It is the same
electoral ethic that President Jonathan has insisted upon since his
assumption of office as President. Nigerians, long used to a political
situation in which the privilege of incumbency confers all powers
have seen under President Jonathan’s watch, a completely different
arrangement. It used to be the case in this land, that all that was
required of an incumbent in the position of a President or Governor
was to sit back and assume that incumbency will confer automatic
re-election, and if the incumbent managed to stir at all, he did so
with so much arrogance. Most of the time, this worked. The
incumbent bullied and forced his way through to a second term”.
Beyond this rhetoric, however, there is nothing the Jonathan
administration has done to advance the integrity of the electoral
process in Nigeria. Recall that after the 2007 presidential election
that saw the selection of Umaru Yar’Adua as president (and
Goodluck Jonathan as vice president), President Yar’Adua was
humble enough to acknowledge the electoral heist and travesty that
brought him and his deputy to power. Three months after he was
sworn in, on August 28, 2007, he set-up a 22-member Electoral
Reform Committee (ERC) headed by retired Justice Muhammadu
Lawal Uwais, to “examine the entire electoral process with a view to
ensuring that we raise the quality and standard of our general
elections and thereby deepen our democracy”.
The ERC made far-reaching recommendations aimed at
guaranteeing the independence of the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) and safeguarding the electoral
process. Rather than addressing the salient issues raised by the
ERC, as a first step toward deepening our democracy, President
Jonathan has conveniently discarded the report and left the
electoral process to run on autopilot.
Shortly after the 2011 presidential election, in an article titled “When
Democracy Insults”, I took Jonathan’s INEC to task on its avowed
commitment to free and fair elections. I wrote: “When a court ruled
that INEC was the only body with the authority to fix the order of
election, after President Jonathan had colluded with the National
Assembly to subvert that power, why did INEC appear helpless?
The lame excuse the commission offered was that ballot papers had
been printed, as if that had any bearing on the date the election
would take place.”
That action which amounted to holding the electoral process to
ransom -- and the massive infusion of fund, way beyond anything
Nigerians could have imagined -- led to “victory” for President
Jonathan and the PDP. It is the same confidence of their ability to
manipulate the electoral process that President Jonathan and the
PDP will ride on to contest the 2015 election. The scenario above,
minus the money factor, may not be the trump card this time
around, but rest assured they have their plan well laid out.
It is in this context that we should view the mysterious appearance
of the Jonathan 2015 posters described as the work of “mischief
makers who want to deceive Nigerians”. That statement actually fits
the PDP because that is exactly what the party has done since
1999. I have brought this up to show that Jonathan and the PDP will
do anything to remain in power, not minding what Nigerians want.
But it also comes as a warning to the opposition. It is with this in
mind that the opposition should approach 2015 knowing full well
that they are not fighting against “flesh and blood”.
As I write, there is a suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja, presided
by Justice Adamu Bello, where President Jonathan through his
counsel, Mr. Ade Okeaya-Inneh, has made a case that he has the
right to run in 2015. The question is no longer why or whether
President Jonathan will run in 2015. He will. As a layman, legally
speaking, I believe he has the right to run. Does he deserve re-
election? The answer, of course, is a resounding no.
The question, therefore, is how do we defeat President Jonathan
and the PDP in 2015? The opposition should stop behaving like
the kid whose toy was taken away by the unruly neighbourhood
bully. If they truly share a common vision for Nigeria, and if that
vision is altruistic, then it shouldn’t be difficult for them to unite in
this urgent task of national reclamation.
So, I say, let the race begin. Now is the time for those outside the
PDP who have expressed interest in the 2015 race or have been
linked with it one way or another to come out and present their
agenda on what is to be done. A lot of names have been bandied
about. Here is a shortlist, in no particular order: Muhammadu
Buhari, Nuhu Ribadu, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Pat Utomi, Abubakar
Dangiwa Umar, Nasir el Rufai, Babatunde Fashola, Adams
Oshiomhole, Olisa Agbakoba, Ibrahim Shekarau Mathew Hassan
Kukah, and Jubrin Ibrahim.
The issue shouldn’t be where you come from or “it is the turn of this
region or ethnic group”. As we have seen, to our eternal regret, the
politics of “it is our turn” has failed us repeatedly. President
Jonathan says we should wait until 2014 for his position – a position
we already know. That shouldn’t be the standard for an opposition
that seeks an alternative, a new Nigeria.
It is never too early to prepare for victory. The opposition needs to
stop watching President Jonathan’s body language and concentrate
on its most urgent task: rally behind a nationally acceptable and
credible candidate.
The public presentation of ''2015 Manifesto of Nigerian Opposition
Politics'' in Abuja on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, is a great platform
to kick-start this agenda.
conumah@hotmail.com
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