Why Jonathan Must Be Re-Elected – America And Europe Can Not Dictate To Us – Part 2

With the intervention of the Senate, he assumed the Presidency in acting capacity and later as substantive President.

In 2011, northern politicians insisted that Jonathan should not run, which is grossly unconstitutional .

Again, the Constitution gained upper hand , and Jonathan , in what was considered a free -and - fair election by local and international observers, won a pan -Nigerian mandate as the country’ s fourth democratically elected President.

His declaration as winner of that election did not go down well with those who still think that Nigeria is their bona fide property which must be ruled and her resources freely looted by them in perpetuity.

Soon after the announcement of his victory, routine killings of youth corps members who were employed as ad hoc staff by the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC ) began in Bauchi State and other parts of the North.

No sooner had the people’ s outcry against this wicked attack on the youth died down than the Boko Haram insurgency started in the North East as a political weapon of the Northern political elite.

Since then, there has been this grand conspiracy amongst some disgruntled elements from the core North to make the country ungovernable for Jonathan.

Yet, the President has demonstrated resolute political savvy and resilience to transform all sectors of the national economy.

One inimitable fact is that those who don’t want Jonathan to have his second term as Nigeria’s President are saying this not because he has not performed but because of other ulterior motives.

Although the conspiracy amongst a section of the political elite  against Jonathan borders on desperation, the most troubling and disturbing is the temptation to jump into the bandwagon of the old order mentality in the name of a phantom slogan of ‘change ’.

It is unthinkable to see some Nigerians dancing like frenzied ‘ ogbanjes ’ clamouring for the old to replace the new as in putting old wine in a new keg and pouring the fresh one way. It is the height of illiberality.

The question that keeps engaging the minds of sensible people around the world about leadership in Nigeria is: must it always be the Obasanjos , the Buharis and the Babangidas?

Doesn't Nigeria have other competent leaders? Why must military dictators who misruled Nigeria and squandered all her opportunities for growth continue to dominate the political space?

Is the country a fiefdom?

Many Nigerians are yet to ponder over these questions.

Some Nigerians even believe that it is their God-given right to rule over others in perpetuity.

Then there is also a section of the Nigerian intelligentsia that is yet to come to terms with the reality of the Nigerian condition.

The political class has pauperized and manipulated them so much so that they have virtually lost every sense of proportion.

Their dalliance with these retired misfits whose executive incompetence left Nigeria a legendary, fractured fairy tale, until the emergence of Yar’ Adua and Jonathan, is the highest form of conspiracy against the future of this country.

They have failed to inform our teeming youths, especially those born during or shortly after the Buhari military dictatorship , of the dangers of recycling such monsters as leaders in the twenty first century.

Now , what is expected of our young politicians who have the interest of the country, not that of an aggrieved, parochial and selfish cabal , at heart is the courage to assertively tell those oldies that the country would make do with a new crop of leaders in tandem with what obtains in other countries of the world.

Even our intellectuals some of whom have forgotten so soon where the rain started beating us, are expected to shun the gains of jumping into the bandwagon, together with its trappings, and try to evolve a new political ideology for the country.

The media, which have unfortunately jumped into the frenzy, are expected to educate, conscientize and sensitize the electorate on the need to weigh the experience of the past and have the boldness to make intelligent and informed choices while discarding that slavish notion in Western media propaganda that an intemperate, old and crafty dictator is better than a well educated, meek and democratic President