The Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) comprising the country’s 36 State Governors rose from their meeting on Monday night with Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi hanging unto his portfolio as NGF Chairman; a development that amounted to a political bloody-nose on President Goodluck Jonathan who wanted Amaechi out, ostensibly for standing in the way of his 2015 presidential ambitions. The Governors deferred elections for a new chairman to replace Amaechi if he fails to win a second two year mandate until May 2013.
A day before the NGF conclave, President Jonathan presided at a meeting of governors of the ruling PDP party at State House, during which a new entity; the PDP Governors Forum was born with Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio elected as protem chairman. The new PDP Governors forum raises more questions than answers. In the politics of 2015, the creation of the Forum with a nebulous agenda to divide the NGF and undermine the authority of Amaechi was an act of shameless political expediency that smacks of desperation by Jonathan who squandered another historic opportunity to assert his authority as President of the Republic and de facto leader of the PDP.
The President should be licking his wounds. Even if Amaechi is subsequently voted out of office in May, the truth of the matter is that Amaechi won round one because the Almighty President of Nigeria tried to unseat him and failed woefully. The decision to postpone the elections was merely to save Jonathan further embarrassment after the Presidency realized that they couldn’t rally enough votes to unseat Amaechi. Jonathan must agonizingly wait until May when a clearer picture will emerge as to where the pendulum will swing in the race for the 2015 PDP presidential ticket. With battle lines now drawn, going forward, Jonathan should be prepared to deal with more infractions on his authority as the years roll by towards the next general elections.
And Jonathan has no one but himself to blame for the unwarranted interference of the Presidency and the PDP into the internal affairs of the governors forum. Jonathan’s decision to use the Governors’ Forum as a political Trojan horse for his 2015 presidential ambitions must surely be borne out of his mistaken assumption that the NGF was an uncircumcised appendage of the ruling PDP party rather than a body of all the governors in the country. This miscalculation suggests a lack of political sophistication by Jonathan and it is disappointing, coming from a self-styled transformational president.
The Governors’ Forum is a formidable force in Nigerian politics and Jonathan as a former governor ought to know better. If one factors in the role of the governors in the emergence of the late Musa Yar’Adua as president, and the making of then vice-President Jonathan substantive in 2010, Jonathan may already have his hands full. But the fire-brigade approach to douse the cascading inferno of the “Amaechi factor” and the cavalier manner with which Jonathan tried to unseat Amaechi was ill-advised, politically reckless, selfishly motivated and severely damaging in its consequences. Though Amaechi succeeded in wading off the move, it was a temporal reprieve, as the Presidency has merely bought time to allow the anti-Amaechi governors to close ranks and gain in numbers.
Amaechi’s crime is his perceived ambition to be a running mate to a northern presidential aspirant; Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State in 2015 (he has denied nursing such an ambition) and his seeming uncompromising stance on some of Jonathan’s policies, as they affect the states, lending credence to public perception within Aso Rock that he holds the person and office of the President in contempt. But the President’s decision to go after Amaechi is pure political vendetta which reinforces the image of Jonathan as a reactionary power-crazy political upstart with strong anti-democratic credentials; who is afraid of competition.
Instead of trying to arm-twist the Governors’ forum and witch-hunt Amaechi, Jonathan should have shown more political dexterity and pragmatism by using his high office to handle the issue in a more presidential manner. As president of the Federal Republic and de facto leader of the PDP, Jonathan could have invited Amaechi to his office and handled the matter privately or allow the issue to be sorted out by the machinery of the PDP, being an internal matter.
Alternatively, Jonathan could have used his influence and authority as President to push forward the idea of the right to first refusal by PDP incumbents – President and Governors – which is already being canvassed in some PDP quarters. In this manner, the democratic principle of rational choice will subvert the elective principle of primaries while the consensus principle of selection will be justified. Intrigues, horse-trading and backroom dealings just to unseat a Governor as Chairman of an association whose membership is voluntary and throwing the weight of the Presidency behind such an unsavory enterprise is definitely unpresidential. It portrays an undeserved level of faith in the capacity of President Jonathan to conduct himself with high integrity, while availing himself of the responsibilities of his exalting office.
Similarly, the image of the president as the champion of imposition politics is worrisome because much of the bitterness in Nigerian politics is a consequence of the absence of internal democracy within political parties. It accounts a great deal for the bad governance and “do-or-die” approach to elections into public office. The democratic principle of legitimacy is the principle of consent. To subvert it is to consign democracy and its claim to value to the dustbin of history.
Jonathan and his team face enormous challenges at a time like this in the nation’s history. He has to live up to the responsibilities of his office and avoid a damaging loss of focus. Already, his government is saddled with the perception of inertia and lacking in direction. It is incumbent on him to prove that he is still firmly in control of state affairs. The country is crying out for leaders that model integrity and responsibility; “no excuse” leaders who will perform instead of just pronounce; leaders who will show competence instead of title and position; initiate bold developmental programs and leave a positive impact in our country instead of failures and excuses.
A transformative leader must therefore talk a good talk and walk a good walk. Leadership must be by positive example. Irrespective of arguments that may be advanced for the legitimacy of any person within the PDP to nudge his interest in the party leadership, such interest must go through the democratic mill. Presidential meddlesomeness simply evinces the complexion of the incumbent president, especially his authoritarian bent which could disrupt the party and consequently slide the country into chaos and anarchy. Such interferences in the past between Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar only succeeded in heating up the polity. The learning curve has been very steep and the question now is whether Jonathan will learn any lessons from this self-inflicted disaster.
Huhuonline.com Editorial
