Jonathan Is Acting Out Obasanjo’s Script

Why is Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s government insisting on a national conference, when, only last year his presidency and the legislature controlled by his party,

the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), vehemently objected to any such conference, promising to do everything, including electoral reform, to ensure Nigeria’s stability?

Last year, I sided with “no need for any conference”, because I knew, and I still have no doubt that Nigeria can be stabilised without any conference, if there is willingness on the part of the President and the Legislature.

The goal (an expensive hidden agenda) is Jonathan’s third term agenda, while the rest of us are insisting that eight years in Aso Rock ought to be  sufficient for an individual who has been Vice-President/President, and elected President. I am particularly concerned, because Jonathan’s Nigeria has never known peace.

Jonathan is trying to act out the former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s script, forgetting that the conference did not serve Obasanjo’s third term purpose; neither did it do Nigeria any good. But have Nigerians also forgotten, or Jonathan’s will must prevail at our expense? The child born in 1999 is about to graduate from senior secondary school; the plantain is getting rotten, and many Nigerians are saying it is getting ripe! In Yorubaland, if you worship a divinity for three years and it does not serve your purpose, you dump it; PDP has wasted Nigeria for 14 years in darkness and bad roads. Quit your political apathy, if not for your own sake but that of your grand children.

When General Murtala Mohammed died, General Obasanjo became Nigeria’s Head of State. He handed over in 1979 to Alhaji Shehu Shagari who they were sure would not probe them. Generals Muhammadu Buhari and Babatunde Idiagbon had the mind of Murtala Mohammed, but they were overthrown after about two years only. Since then till now, Nigeria has been in the hands of Obasanjo-Shagari circles.

Consequently, they are always reluctant to invite Buhari; he does not belong to the Jegudujera (Embezzlers) Association of Nigeria.  I respect Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu also, since the PDP-controlled anti-graft agencies have declared him clean, and the progress in his Lagos State is there for everybody to see. The All Progressives Congress must re-order Nigeria, not  based on regionalism, but zoning for peace and stability. We must condemn the type of indiscipline that truncated rotational presidency, and is promoting election-rigging. Don’t sit on the fence!

Pius Abioje wrote from University of Ilorin

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