Daniel Idonor
30 December 2011
analysis
There is no doubt that President Goodluck Jonathan, the 14th Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, had a herculean task marketing his two most critical products to Nigerians: Tenure elongation and fuel subsidy.
Incidentally, these issues were to be the major domineering and topical national conversation in 2011. But his landmark victory, which brought him to power, at the April polls, is as monumental as tenure elongation and subsidy removal.
While the twin issues of tenure elongation and fuel subsidy removal would have ordinarily crumbled, the larger than life public image of any chief actor in Aso Rock, the enormous goodwill that President Jonathan enjoys among Nigerians and friends of Nigeria became handy as a saving grace.
However, that is not to say the Otuoke- born Nigeria President has not shed-off some of his popularity. The year 2011 started with uncertainty. He had just spent eight months in office as the President and was looking forward to re-election.
It is on record that Dr Jonathan’s popularity and goodwill swelled to an enviable height prior to the 2001 April Presidential election, a feat that gave him globally acknowledged landslide victory at the polls. But like every other election of that magnitude, Jonathan had to contend with opposition prior to the polls. Indeed, the opposition mounted like tsunami within the heirachy of his party, the PDP before he could emerge as the flag bearer.
This explains why the first Nigeria President from the South-South geo-political zone, spent the early part of the year under review, shuttling the length and breadth as well as the nook and crannies of Nigeria soliciting for votes.
Jonathan remains the most sought after presidential candidate by Nigerians of young age in history; yet is still the most controversial, essentially as it is a follow-up to his boss, President Umaru Yar’Adua’s demise.
To many, Jonathan was a consensus candidate, a Nigerian candidate, an ordained candidate rather than a candidate of the ruling party. He was seen as the person, who the cap fits and who came at the right time to at least, give the people of the oil-rich Niger Delta region a sense of identity in the Nigerian project.
Jonathan’s electioneering campaign, which cut across all the 36 states of the federation was as glamourous as it was full of promises. During that time, the President promised to transform Nigeria by revolutionising the agricultural sector, liberalising the oil sector, privatising power, massive investment in infrastructures and ensuring that votes count and are counted.
April polls hurdle
It is a common knowledge that on the night of 18th of April, 2011, President Jonathan was officially declared as the winner of the April 16 presidential election by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega.
In the results, Jonathan polled 22, 495,187 (58.89 per cent) ahead of his arch rival, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), the standard bearer of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, who polled 12,214,853 (31.98per cent). Mallam Nuhu Ribadu of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, managed to get 2,079,151 votes (5.41per cent) while Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, recorded 917,012 votes (2.40per cent).
Few days after Jonathan was declared winner, his then Media Adviser, Mr Ima Niboro told State House correspondents that his boss would not waste no time to hit the ground running once he took oath of office on May 29. Unfortunately, the President could only fully constitute his cabinet almost three months after the promise.
While many had expected Mr Jonathan, who had an unequal record of being a Deputy Governor, Governor, Vice President and President, to unveil his agenda for the nation after the inauguration of his cabinet, the first practical deal that Nigerians got from Aso Rock was a proposal to the National Assembly, that a single term for the President and the Governors was the only way out of the current unjustified huge public expenditure on elections every other four years.
Single term proposal
It started like rumour and speculation. Nigerians were dazed that rather than come up with polices and programmes that could enhance their living standards, what mattered to President Jonathan barely a month after securing their mandate was to throw up a controversial issue.
The proposal was seen as an attempt by the President to further elongate his stay at Aso Rock. But his new Media Adviser, Dr Reuben Abati insisted that his boss would not be a beneficiary of the Bill should it be passed into law.
Expectedly, mixed reactions trailed the controversial proposal and the opposition parties did not allow the opportunity to slip away as they lashed out at the President and his advisers.
Reacting, General Muhammadu Buhari of the CPC, who spoke through Mr Yinka Odumakin, called on the people to reject the proposal, urging the President to face the security challenges confronting the nation.
He had this to say about the single term proposal, “Nigerians should oppose this plan and resist tenure elongation; it should not be his priority for now. He has no solution to the Boko Haram crisis, inflation is threatening the country’s economy and all he is interested in is to elongate his tenure.”
Despite stiff opposition from the organised labour, civil societies, opposition parties and ordinary Nigerians, the President is still pressing ahead with his plan even though he was silent on it during the presentation of 2012 budget.
After the budget presentation, he has intensified consultation with stakeholders ahead of implementation of the new policy in 2012. He has met with the representatives of students and labour leaders with a view to assuring them that the savings would be well utilised to the benefit of the masses.
As the curtain falls on 2011, it is hoped that President Jonathan will stand by his words to take difficult and painful decisions.
He had told his Ministers while swearing in the last batch of nine ministers in July that, “there will be difficult decisions and tough moments ahead but we must, through our efforts, show that we are prepared to work in the best way to focus on the people’s aspirations. It only takes committed people to do things differently”.
No matter what, Jonathan’s historic election victory and emergence, tenure elongation and subsidy removal, whether successful or not, would continue to shape the socio-economic and political history in many years to come. This is why, for instance, many have said that if Jonathan goes ahead with his plan to eliminate the subsidy and invests well the proceeds to the benefit of the masses, it won’t be long before he assumes the pedigree of a hero.
AllAfrica – All the Time