Yesterday must been one of the lowest, loneliest and most haunting days for former President Goodluck Jonathan. He had the not too pleasant duty of handing over power to his democratically elected successor, President Muhammadu Buhari. Only God almighty must have known went through his mind as Dr Jonathan made his final exit from the Aso Rock presidential villa, the luxurious abode that had been his residence for the past six years. Could he wish he had done more things differently? Did he think he should have chosen his inner circle of friends with greater care and circumspection? For a man who rode to power on the crest of a pan –Nigerian sympathy, the lonely trip back to his native Otuoke must have been not a lit bit painful.
This column will not join those who have vehemently excoriated and criticised Dr Jonathan for the excesses of impunity, disrespect for the law and sheer mediocrity as well as monumental corruption that characterised his administration and was largely responsible for the resounding trouncing of the PDP at the last general elections. I think it would be uncharitable to hit a man when he is already down.
Yes, under the presidential system of government, the buck stops at the presidency’s table. His office and its phenomenal powers constitute the centre of gravity around which government revolves. Where the President is weak, vacillating, lacking attention to detail and deficient in stellar intellect, the government will tend to drift and the society will inevitably descend to the Hobbesian state of nature where life is nasty, brutish, solitary and short. The point here is that Dr Jonathan’s lacklustre approach to governance, his tendency for dilatoriness resulted in a paralysis of will in his administration that gave an assortment of criminals – Boko Haram jihadists, armed robbers, kidnappers, ritual killers etc. a field day to operate with impunity as if the Nigerian state had suddenly disappeared.
However, it will be unfair and unrealistic to blame solely Goodluck Jonathan for the myriad of ills that led to his ignominious defeat in the March 28 election. Yes, the framers of the Nigerian constitution deliberately designed the Nigerian presidency to be all powerful and totally symbolic and representative of the country’s authority. One of the reasons for this was to ensure the emergence of a President who enjoys a national mandate and is thus is a cohesive, uniting force in the nation. This was meant to correct perceived lapses in the First Republic, where the Prime Minster only had the mandate of his immediate constituency although he emerged as Prime Minister on the basis of is being the leader of the party with a majority of seats in parliament.
Now, the big question is this: The framers of the constitution gave the Nigerian presidency immense powers but they also hemmed in that powerful institution with a number of checks and balances obviously aware of Lord Acton’s famous dictum that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Among the formal and non –formal checks on the uses and abuses of presidential power were a vibrant, vigilant civil society, a vigorous media speaking truth to power, a powerful National Assembly and a judiciary with unblemished moral integrity. In the absence of any of these countervailing forces, anybody who occupies the Nigerian presidency, no matter how well intentioned, will end up being power drunk and an utter stooge in the hands of expert manipulators of the system.
In the run up to the last general elections, Dr Jonathan was likened in several newspaper adverts and commercials to such world-historic leaders as Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela Chairman Mao or George Washington. It would have been understandable if these media outfits had collected the adverts, benefited from the abundant revenue but remained firmly committed in their advertorials and opinion pages to the truth. Unfortunately, in the print and electronic media prior to the elections, truth became indistinguishable from falsehood. Now, if the media fails to rise above clannish, ethno-regional as well as pecuniary considerations, how can anyone in good conscience place all responsibility for the country current malaise solely at the footsteps of Dr Jonathan?
The same argument can be made as regards the National Assembly, which most times in playing its oversight role only engaged in elaborate grandstanding in order to feather its own nest without caring a hoot about the public good. Perhaps the only saving grace we have had in this disposition is the judiciary which, in spite of its own fair share of bad eggs, has tried to interpret the laws fairly and dispassionately as well as adjudicate issues between parties without fear or favour.
My fear is that if the powers of of the Nigerian presidency are not severely curtailed it has the tendency to turn every occupant of that office into a monster. Let us take Goodluck Jonathan. When he told us most humbly before the 2011 election, that he had no shoes as a child, millions believed him. They saw him as belonging to a background they could associate with – poverty stricken and modest. They were all too willing to cast their votes for one of their kind believing that if Jonathan could achieve the feat, their own children could also in future.
Jonathan must also have spoken from the heart when he once declared that he would not like to rule as Nebuchadnezzar or a Pharaoh. He would not like to be identified with any of the tyrants of the past. Again, his seeming humility and modesty connected with millions of his countrymen and women. In the final analysis, many would contend that GEJ ended up in many ways worse than Nebuchadnezzar or Pharaoh. They refer to his infamous intervention in the Nigerian Governors’ Forum internal affairs that ended up in breaking the body into factions.
Another point was his refusal to reinstate the former Justice of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, even on the recommendation of the Nigerian Judicial Council (NJC), which found him guilty of no offences. Until Jonathan’s final day in office, he continued to retain Mr Abba Moro in office despite the tardiness of his Ministry in conducting aptitude tests for applicants for jobs in the National Immigration Service (NIS) at which thousands of applicants cramped into stadia across the country were either killed or wounded. Up till now, no account has been given of the over N1000 each collected from aspirants in what has turned out to be an expensive fraud.
Perhaps the greatest culprits in the utter failure that the GEJ administration became, was the civil society. A civil society that played such a crucial role in helping to achieve the democracy we enjoy today simply went into coma with the attainment of civilian rule in 1999. But for he concerted efforts that forced a cabal around late President Yar’Adua to pave way for the emergence of Dr Jonathan as President, in accordance with the constitution as well as the nationwide mass mobilisation against the 2012 fuel price hike, civil society remain practically paralysed.
Thus, one scandal was succeeded by an even more audacious one but life continued as usual. Twenty billion dollars was allegedly missing from the nation’s coffers. Life continued as if did not matter. A Minister was alleged to have spent N10 billion on chartered private jets for official and unofficial engagements. Another Minister was given a gracious farewell from the Federal Executive Council when it could no longer contain pressures for her removal for authorising the purchase of bullet proof jeeps for her use without due appropriation.
The inordinate powers of the Nigerian presidency can transform the most well -meaning leaders into absolute monsters. It is an institution that by its sheer power, authority and influence can bring out the worst in the best of men. The change President Buhari must begin with is that of the presidency itself. Its resources, power and responsibilities must be deliberately decentralized so that the institution of presidency must become a hand maiden rather than the obstacle to development it currently is.
I join millions of Nigerians in wishing former President Goodluck Jonathan a safe and fulfilling trip back to Otuoke. He came, he saw, but was conquered by the all too powerful Nigerian presidency.
NATION
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