Like Jonathan, like Oyegun? (Opinion)

By: Ike Abonyi

“The fates are just, they give us but our own; Nemesis ripens what our hands have sown” – John Greenleaf Whittier

The scary political situation in the country today is largely believed to have been caused by former President Goodluck Jonathan whose apparent inaction is said to have led to the change of batten that brought the nation to this near comatose and tiresome state. Most political pundits believe that if Jonathan had been Presidential enough, and done the needful, the situation perhaps would have been different from what it is currently. While many are feeling bad and blaming Jonathan, history has been recording and placing him at the peak of the polity. Today even in defeat, in Africa now Jonathan is outstanding as the foremost democrat of the continent.

No wonder the United Nations, African Union and other international democratic bodies have kept his diary full all year round for roles in election related issues. Why because of his marble statement that his Presidential ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian.

A landmark saying he went further to put into practice by not only accepting defeat but going further to conduct a peaceful and seamless transition. Whereas Jonathan’s profile soars higher and higher in the global political space, Nigeria and Nigerians especially those characters who directly or indirectly contributed to his exit from power, have continued to agonize in what some watchers call nemesis.

Elders always teach us never to reproach a man with his weakness lest nemesis overtakes us and this appears to have happened to some persons already. I read a former North-East governor who was at the forefront of lampooning Jonathan as lame duck President regretting what he called the gang up against Jonathan.

Virtually everybody who could have helped Jonathan remain in power but either refused or worked against him are in regrets today for their actions. Those of them who are Catholic would have confessed before their priests for the necessary penance to avoid further consequences. Non-Christians like former Governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Kwakwaso, in obedience to his Islamic faith has publicly apologized to Jonathan for his roles in pulling his administration down. The humility shown by Kwankwaso came when he began to experience some consequences of his actions that led to the entry of President Muhammadu Buhari on the scene.

Like Kwankwaso, all the former governors who rebelled against Jonathan and helped to bring him down have faced one shocking political misfortune or the other. Even those who tried to recover themselves are still breathing down from the bashing they got while in the turf.

The two foremost political godfathers in this country both in military and civilian era whom Jonathan revered, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Defence Minister Theophilus Danjuma are today sad men in the land. Even if they are not saying it publicly, the entire aura around them shows vividly that they are bitter and full of regrets for their roles in facilitating the entry to power, the man of the moment, President Buhari. In dumping Jonathan for Buhari these elder statesmen were perhaps beclouded by the military esprit de corps and it prevented them from reading the soothsayer’s warning.

Today the chicken is home to roost; the godfathers are gnashing their teeth thinking of what has befallen their cherished nation. While Obasanjo is home crying over Fulanisation and Islamisation and the impending Armageddon coming on their beloved country, Danjuma is in Europe with documents trying to do what Nnamdi Kanu of the dreaded Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) did years back and still doing for which he is tagged enemy of state. The gabby Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, we can recall was the leader of the technical team that ensured that Jonathan is rubbished and made unelectable. As the then Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi was the authority who confirmed every figure that was used in the economic space to lower Jonathan’s administration.

Don’t border to ask me how his nose is now under their choice leader, suffice to say that he is virtually begging to remain in one fifth of his empire. The word regret certainly dominates his thoughts even as he struggles not to think of it. It would be difficult not to mention the immediate past Senate President Bukola Saraki in the club of those in regrets over the entry of Buhari on the throne.

The lists of those who are in this club are even growing by the day. As all these people together in this mess now were honest and not driven by their selfish interests, and played their roles in 2014 and 2015, perhaps we will all have avoided our present sorry situation. The voices were loud shouting from various corners, drawing their attention to the danger ahead but they will not listen.

Even the poor democratic credentials of President Buhari were highlighted but they all chorused that he is a converted democrat. Yes, in religion converts could grow to be even deeper in faith than those they meet in it like St. Paul of Tarsus who even outshined the original apostles and became the keystone of Christendom. According to scripture, it was even as Paul and Barnabas preached penetratingly about Jesus Christ at Antioch that the people looked at them and called them Christians for the first time. But in politics, leopard hardly changes its outer layer. While individuals have been reaping whirlwind after sowing wind, the nation is also not left out.

All segments of the nation state are in retrogression in the last four years as can be confirmed by various monitoring local and international agencies including the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). In a very striking resemblance, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) found themselves in similar situation as Nigerians as it relates to their former National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun. Chief Oyegun had led the party to victory in 2015 but some critical leaders of the party did not find his style encouraging. They continued scheming for his removal while those sympathetic to him kept blocking it.

The strong man of the party and former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was at the forefront of the anti- Oyegun forces. As the general election approached, many members of the party advised against holding state congresses because of the bad blood in the system. The group with this school of thought although had their way was shortlived as Tinubu led group weighed heavily on President Buhari who succumbed to their position and ruled for the reversal of tenure extension already granted Oyegunled National Working Committee (NWC) and ordered for the holding of state congresses.

This polarized the leadership of the party including strategic organs like Forum of Governors. Former Imo State governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, as Chairman of the APC Governors’ Forum was at the forefront because he felt Oyegun was trying to stem the ambition of his in-law succeeding him as Imo governor. They had to join forces with Tinubu who had positioned the former Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, to replace his kinsman Oyegun. It’s now history that all those who fought Oyegun and ensured he was disgraced out of office never got what they desired.

They all later found in Oyegun the better devil they would have tolerated with his civility even in his cluelessness than the bully they brought in to take heavy tolls on all and indeed the party. The party got so thoroughly bruised that they had to lose two states even before the elections.

Regret remains a common feature in all who fought Oyegun just as it’s for all those who fought and facilitated the defeat of Jonathan and the PDP in 2015. There is a huge lesson to learn from these two scenario of Jonathan and Oyegun incidence to remind us that nemesis is always life’s foe and to underline the need for us to be careful in all our actions knowing as they say that what goes round often comes around. God help Nigeria.