The Re-invention of Goodluck Jonathan (2) – By Dr. Jideofor Adibe

Posted by admin Articles, Columnists, Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), Jideofor Adibe, PhD, NNP Columnists, Presidency Friday, September 21st, 2012

By Dr. Jideofor Adibe | London, UK | Sept. 19, 2012 – When I published the ‘Re-invention of Goodluck Jonathan’ in this column on December 1 2011, I did not plan to write a sequel to it. Let me give a brief summary of this re-invention as captured in what is now the first instalment of this piece.

Shortly after President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) assembled a new cabinet following the April 2011 general elections, there appeared to be a gradual but deliberate abandonment of the public persona which had helped to galvanize public sympathy and support for him when a cabal in the late Yaradua presidency sought to prevent him from being sworn in as the Acting President following Yaradua’s terminal illness. GEJ’s pre-April 2011 persona was that of a gentle, if diffident man, who would readily give a sympathetic ear to any argument and does not mind changing his mind several times on the same issue. During the last presidential elections this persona made it very difficult for his opponents to demonize him or turn him into a hate figure. GEJ’s rather touching story of how he grew up and went to school without shoes helped to solidify this persona in the popular imagination.

The efforts to re-invent GEJ as a man of conviction became very perceptible during the Justice Ayo Salami and Justice Katsina Alu saga following the suspension of the former by the Nigerian Judicial Council in August 2011. The NJC had recommended the compulsory retirement of Justice Salami for misconduct. Despite the hoopla in the media against the NJC’s decision, the ‘normally’ indecisive GEJ acted decisively, quickly accepted the recommendation of the NJC and refused to bulge despite the media campaign.

The government’s proposal for the removal of subsidies on petroleum products followed the same trend. Rather than recoil from a fight as people felt the pre-April 2011 GEJ would do, he stuck to his gun, and eventually ambushed Nigerians on January 1with the announcement that subsidies had been removed.

Perhaps the clearest indication that the presidency wanted to re-invent GEJ as a man of cool exterior but granite interior was in the disqualification of former Governor Sylva Timipre from contesting the last gubernatorial election in Bayelsa State. The President was suspected of having a hand in the disqualification. The significant thing here however is not that the President was opposed to Timipre’s candidacy but that he remained adamant in his opposition despite the reported interventions of the South-south Governors, the Governors’ Forum and other eminent Nigerians that reportedly included former President Shehu Shagari and former Head of State Yakubu Gowon.

In what is now the first instalment of this piece, I noted that the re-invention of GEJ could have both positive and negative sides. One of the negatives, I underlined, is the risk that “in a bid to show that a new tough guy has emerged, the President may fail to realise when his decisions or policy options are truly contrary to popular will.”

Latest events may seem to suggest we may be getting close to this threshold. Let me explain:

It is true that leadership is not a popularity contest and that leaders necessarily have to make tough decisions. However the difference between a dictator and a visionary leader in a democracy is the manner in which they make such tough decisions and their timing. Many leaders that take tough decisions in a democracy often do so by trying to win the argument or at least bidding their time until opinions seem to be evenly divided on the issue. For the handlers of the President it would seem that they prefer to do very little at the argumentation stage only to strike after opinions seem to be coalescing towards a consensus against the presidential preference. It is immaterial whether this consensus is driven by rabble rousers or opponents of the President. The issue is that if you want to stop the rabble rousers, you meet them argument for argument and prevent them from mobilising popular opinion behind their own preference. If you lose it at this stage and then use presidential fiat to take a decision that will appear to be against the popular will you unwittingly enlarge the army of your critics. Instances of the presidency doing very little at to be competitive at the argumentation stage only to wield the presidential hammer are legion:

There was first the issue of removing subsidies on premium petroleum products. Though recent events would indicate the presidency was probably right in its decision to completely remove the subsidies (the fuel subsidy cabal seems to be far more powerful than ordinary Nigerians realized), the manner in which this was done left a sour taste in the mouth. The decision was taken when the anti-desubsidisation lobby was clearly winning the debate and the presidency had given an impression that it had not made up its mind on the issue and was still consulting. But just on the first day of the year, it struck like a viper.

There was also the manner in which Arunmah Oteh, the Director General of the Securities and Exchange who was suspended by the Board of the SEC was recalled by the Government even when the House of Representatives’ ad hoc committee on the near collapse of the Capital Markets had concluded that she was not qualified to be appointed the DG of SEC. The Committee claimed that the Act setting up SEC states that the DG must have at least 15 years cognate experience in capital market operations and that Ms. Oteh did not meet this demand at the time she was appointed.

The way the regime quickly approved the proposal by the CBN to introduce a N5000 note when the opposition to the initiative was at its peak also seemed to be daring the public to do its worst. The issue is not whether the regime is right or wrong in its decision but that it could have done far more at the argumentation stage before weighing in on the side of the CBN. It could at least have set up a committee (its favourite pastime) to examine the proposal – to give the impression that it had broadened consultations before embracing its preferred course of action.

Having a Presidential Rottweiler is never a substitute to being competitive at the argumentation stage. In fact such an attack dog could complicate matters as Dr Doyin Okupe, the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Public Affairs appeared to have done recently, when, in response to Obasanjo’s reported opposition to the proposed N5000 bill he was quoted as retorting that “Obasanjo is an ordinary citizen” and that his “views are not sacrosanct.” While it is possible that Dr Okupe misspoke (after all English is not our mother tongue), the way his response came out seemed like an affront. And as everyone knows, Obasanjo neither overlooks a slight nor ducks a fight. For someone who has made a career of helping to pull down several governments, including the ones he helped to engineer by being their acerbic critic, wisdom would have cautioned that if you cannot have him as a friend of the regime at least try not to push him to the camp of the regime’s opponents.

The emerging new political machismo in a re-invented GEJ could lead to other costly mistakes. One such may be the recent sacking of the Power Minister, Professor Barth Nnaji for alleged ‘conflict of interest’ – at a time many Nigerians are beginning to say there have been improvements in power supply in the country. I am not by this condoning ‘conflict of interest’ by public officials – though when stretched virtually all top political officials are guilty of the same charge because ‘conflict of interest’ also includes favouring one’s community and cronies in the authoritative allocation of societal privileges. Is there really any top political office holder in this country who is not guilty of this?

I would have thought that for a man who seems to be succeeding where all his predecessors have failed, a public rebuke of any malfeasance would have been sufficient so that whatever achievement that is being recorded in this highly technical area is not frittered away. In football, some of the most talented players often have behaviour deficits which are often accommodated or managed because of their perceived critical role in their team’s success.

In his novel Things Fall Apart (1958), Chinua Achebe told of the Okonkwo character, a man whose palm kernels were cracked by benevolent spirits but who, for fear of being thought weak, self-destructs through some reckless decisions. I really hope that the handlers of GEJ will avoid the ‘Okonkwo complex’.

The new GEJ means that if the President wants to contest in 2015 – as his body language seems to suggest he will do – the persona of a gentle, unassuming and humble man which has been a tremendous asset in his political career will come under intense scrutiny and contestation.

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Posted by admin on Sep 21 2012. Filed under Articles, Columnists, Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), Jideofor Adibe, PhD, NNP Columnists, Presidency. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry