Demonising President Goodluck Jonathan

Goodluck Jonathan

Dr. Goodluck Jonathan

Goodluck Jonathan
Goodluck Jonathan

By Ben Nanaghan

There seems to be an unadvertised competition among the Northern political elite to  pull down President Goodluck Jonathan government. And the diadem for this invidious and mischievous misadventure is the presidential ticket for one of the four consensus candidates of the infamous quadruple alliance.

It is a competition that assumed a do-or-die proportion as a result of the  infectious escalation of the popularity of the 2011 presidential bid of President  Goodluck Jonathan. It is a competition many members of the Northern political class  have entered but Alhaji Lawan Kaita has won gold, while Alhaji Adamu Ciroma and Tanko Yakassai won silver and bronze respectively.

Demonizing President Goodluck Jonathan has become the order of the day among some of these self-acclaimed power brokers in the North. Even the physical bomb we see is a  lesser threat and evil to this country than the veiled venomous threats and anger  coming from the North.

I have often admonished Nigerians to be extra ordinarily vigilant as the blackmail  and threat from the Arewa Consultative Forum is not an empty threat. It is a  forewarning of certitude if President Goodluck Jonathan wins the 2011 presidential election. It is neither an empty threat nor a forecast. They are only telling us  what will happen if a Northerner especially Gen. Ibrahim Babangida does not win next year’s Presidential election.

The JNI meeting at the Bauchi Central Mosque on 13th July 2010, chaired by Mallam  Alli Ibrahim Pantami was not done in secret. It was a well sponsored meeting with a  lengthy 5-page communique.

President Jonathan should dig deep into the Nigerian constitution and go for the  jugular of this nefarious and clandestine President-by-all-means candidate and  unmask him and let him dance naked at the Eagle Square. President Jonathan must not  feint or be intimidated as these are the antics and cronies of a committed Machiavellian, a maradona.

The presidency must if need be import American FBI agents to unravel this mystery for us as there are so many loose ends from Dr. Dokpesi’s story.

There is no gainsaying the fact that there is a vicious and cataclysmic plot from  the Northern cabal to stop President Goodluck Jonathan from contesting next year’s  presidential election. Henry Okah, the factional MEND leader in exile knew of the Eagles Square bomb blast and he informed the whole world about it. Alhaji Lawan  Kaita, Adamu Ciroma, Tanko Yakassai, Ibrahim Babangida are all singing the same chorus: “ it is either a Northern President or nothing, North will make Nigeria  ungovernable if President Goodluck Jonathan wins,the North should not be blamed for the Calamity that WILL befall the country if Jonathan emerges President next  year. Is somebody listening! Are Nigerians hearing the treasonable felony emanating  from the lips of Alhaji Lawan Kaita? Henry Okah warned Nigerians and the bombs  exploded. And now Lawan Kaita a political jobber who is ready to sell his country  for a mess of pottage has spoken.

When will the presidency arrest and charge Lawan Kaita for treasonable felony? Is it  when he has accomplished his mission of wrecking Nigeria that he will be  apprehended?

President Goodluck Jonathan must bare his fangs now and bring sanity to the over heated polity. Its balderdash to hear some people say if Lawan Kaita is detained the  Northern cabal will rise against President Goodluck Jonathan. Have they not risen  against him already? The President should ask the Security agencies not only to quiz  but also to detain and if necessary start the prosecution of any one or group that  plans to scuttle the forthcoming general elections. President Jonathan should do so  now and let’s see if the heavens will fall on Nigeria.

It is time for us to reverse this dangerous trend of sabotage in high places. We as  Nigerians must imbibe the religious virtue of respect for our fellow man and show  reverence for the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria “ no matter who he is  or where he comes from. After all Franklin Delano Roosevelt ruled America from  1933-1945 from his wheel chair. He was given his fullest respect in spite of his disability which occurred during an attempted assassination when he was already a  president-elect in 1933.

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President Jonathan is worthy of our respect and Nigeria will be a better place when  we respect our presidents in spite of our political leanings and persuasions.

Whether we like him or not, treating him with dignity and honour will create and  nurture a national environment of unity, harmony and peaceful co-existence. On the  other hand ridiculing and dehumanizing our President diminishes our inner creativity  to engage in honest dialogue for the greater good of our great country- Nigeria, and  it also causes us to be subjected to easy manipulated by a group of very powerful  cabal.

Even if we like him or not the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has  positioned him as the most powerful man in the land because the Yar Adua/Jonathan  ticket was voted for by a majority of Nigerians-and so we must respect and honour  him and by extension Nigeria.

Whether the Northern cabal likes it or not President Jonathan is our president and  he also doubles as our Ambassador to the outside world. It speaks well of us to the  international community if we hold him in very high esteem and it benefits us all if he is successful.

We all still remember the publicity blitz Nigeria received when President Goodluck  Jonathan visited America on April 20th 2010. Nigeria instantly became the worlds  most beautiful bride and America almost stood still for President Jonathan and by  extension, Nigeria. Americaa’s President Barack Obama and the United Nations  Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon openly showed affection for our ebullient  President. Nigeria was immediately de-listed from America’s hate-list and the  nation was forgiven for Abdulmutallab’s Christmas day tragedy of 2009.

How can the Northern Oligarchy explain the fact that the North has produced 9 of Nigeria’ s 12 leaders and governed the country for 38 out of its 50 years of existence? This is not only politically unfair, it negates all known laws of equity and fair play.

In a newspaper interview granted in July 2010, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai berated  Nigerian minorities and advised them to accept their fate as God’s wish and continue  to support Northern domination. We can see the shallowness of both the propounder and the product.

Demonizing President Jonathan does not make anyone a hero. It only exposes a mental  hollowness that has kept us in the woods for the past 38years as a result of the zoning formula which is another recipe for political laziness, slavery and  disenfranchisement. Will the zoning formula in the PDP allow a man from Benue,  Plateau or even Taraba states to use the Northern quota and become a president in  the Federal Republic of Nigeria?

Nigerians must be extraordinarily vigilant because Nigeria belongs to us all.

God bless Nigeria.

*Ben Nanaghan writes from Lagos, Nigeria. E-mail: [email protected]

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