Jonathan, 2015 and Armageddon
Founder of
the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) and chairman of the newly registered
Unity Party of Nigeria, Dr. Fredrick Fasehun, says there might be
‘crisis’ in Nigeria if President Goodluck Jonathan is pressured into
dropping his ambition to seek a second term.
After reminding us of the president’s
constitutional right to contest, he warns of the likelihood of militant
groups in the Niger-Delta returning to violent activities if the
President is denied the chance to run again.
His comments are not novel. Compared to
the verbal grenades lobbed by the likes of one-time militant leader,
Asari Dokubo, they are relatively mild. Dokubo, for his part, has
threatened war if Jonathan fails to win at the general elections! In
other words Nigerians have to vote for his kinsman or else.
The use of threats and intimidation to
pursue dodgy political agendas is usually rife in times of transition in
Nigeria. When the late General Sani Abacha sought to transmute from
military dictator to civilian president, his promoters sold the lie that
he was the strongman who could prevent the country from breaking to
pieces because of the bitter fallout from the annulment of the June 12,
1993 elections.
But against everything that had been
scripted, Abacha expired unceremoniously. Sixteen years after his death
the country has not fragmented.
At the height of the campaign for a
third term for former President Olusegun Obasanjo, we were again beaten
over the head with the hackneyed line about him being the only one that
understood Nigeria.
When we are not being bullied into
voting for Jonathan, we are made to listen to silly statements claiming
the only alternative to the incumbent is chaos. I think his marketers
have got things mixed up because what we have right now is utter chaos.
In coming months we can expect to hear
more of these execrable comments. The reality, however, is that nobody
can force Nigerians to re-elect anybody by bald threats. Until we begin
to challenge some of these inane comments we might just end up with a
self-fulfilling prophecy.
I can understand an Asari Dokubo
returning to the creeks if Jonathan loses out – after all he’s done well
for himself under this dispensation. But there are millions in the
Niger-Delta whose lives have not been transformed in any special way by
this administration, who will carry on as though nothing happened if a
new president is elected come January 2015. Friends, depend on it, the
heavens will not fall.
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