Jonathan finds his voice too early Posted By Ogochukwu Ikeje

  FORMER president Goodluck Jonathan’s recovery is amazing. About two years ago he had little cause for cheer and few words to mutter. Beyond the fact that he wisely conceded defeat in the March 28 election, and was praised by some, including yours truly, for doing so, there wasn’t much to lift his spirit. On a personal note he became the first incumbent president in these parts to lose a reelection bid. On a national scale, his failure at the polls captured a nationwide frustration with his many deficits while in office. Such a reality would silence anyone, anywhere. But there were other reasons Dr Jonathan kept mute. The Buhari administration came after prominent members of his government. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission or EFCC, inspired by the new
government’s anti-graft drive, put the heat on Dr Jonathan’s principal officers and soon started to publicise what it claimed were their stinking records in office especially what they allegedly did with public funds. Billions of dollars were quoted to have been either pocketed, mismanaged or simply wasted by these individuals. That was enough to keep the ousted commander-in-chief quiet. But there was yet another reason for Dr Jonathan’s low profile.
There was some talk that perhaps it was unfair to merely go after these individuals without inviting their boss for a chat over some withdrawals which only he as the C-in-C could authorise. As yet, that invitation has not been extended to the former president, partly because, as some have reasoned, it would, as they say, heat up the polity, something the Buhari administration would not quite like. Part of that heat could come from some of Dr Jonathan’s diehard supporters, a good number of whom are believed to have the capacity to blow up a few things. Perhaps, this emboldened Dr Jonathan to come out of his shell and chalk up some courage to make public pronouncements as often as he pleased. He may also have been buoyed by some marginal calls to stage a comeback in 2019. Add to that the fact that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is also just as fractious as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which it knocked out of power.
And throw in too the other little matter that the economy is not in the best of times, though it remains a subject of debate as to whether you should put the blame on Dr Jonathan for wrecking it or on President Muhammadu Buhari for not fixing the faults as quickly as he came in. Whatever the case, Dr Jonathan has since waxed lyrical, in my view too lyrical. He has been speaking here, there and everywhere. He has spoken to the British and to the Americans, to Nigerians and other Africans. His submission, in the main, is that he and his party did quite well, in fact creditably well, as he put it, and that he is not half as bad as being portrayed. For instance, he once said that he could not have handed over an empty treasury, as President Buhari has said repeatedly, asking where his successor got the funds to bail out cash-strapped states. But Dr Jonathan seemed to have ignored, or was probably unaware of, the fact that such funds could be sourced from anywhere.
At his Abuja house in February, Dr Jonathan expressed his excitement at plans by some of his party members to regain power after a “temporary setback”, as he put it. While playing the unifier on Thursday before a divided crowd of PDP stakeholders in the same city, Dr Jonathan reportedly said Nigerians still believed in his party. He also credited his administration with “purposeful leadership” through which “we reformed our institutions, rebuilt the nation’s confidence, regained international goodwill and rekindled hope in our people.” Pray, what purposeful leadership was he talking about? Which institutions were reformed and what confidence was rebuilt when he held sway? What international goodwill was regained under him, and what hope was rekindled locally? So far, Dr Jonathan has been left alone by those who should have asked him a few questions, and who can begrudge him his peace? But it leaves me utterly breathless that a man who presided over such waste and plunder of such a consequential country as Nigeria has found his voice so early as to make such wild claims.

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