The whole country now knows that the All Progressives Congress (APC) won the Osun State gubernatorial election held on August 9, 2014. Governor Rauf Aregbesola, the man who called on his supporters to fight security agencies with “cutlasses and charms,” has won a new four-year mandate to run the affairs of Osun. And this has happened despite all the hue and cry from the APC that the President Goodluck Jonathan-led Federal Government has perfected plans to use security agencies and the Independent National Electoral Commission to rig the election in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Even though Aregbesola has won his re-election bid, the real winners of the Osun election are President Jonathan and INEC. That the Osun election has come and gone without all the rigging and violence that the APC promised is a huge credit to the Jonathan-led Federal Government and INEC for providing adequate security and conducting a free and fair election in Osun.
As is the case with any human being, President Jonathan has his faults. Indeed, as many commentators have observed, one of his faults is that he is far too gentle for the Nigerian political environment. And, yet, it is his moderate and live-and-let-live leadership approach that has ensured that his governing PDP has completely changed the tone of political engagement with regards to the conduct of elections.
Under President Jonathan, Professor Attahiru Jega, a man whose integrity is acknowledged across Nigeria, was appointed Chairman of INEC. As the ultimate elections umpire under Jonathan’s watch, Jega has overseen staggered gubernatorial elections in Edo, Ondo, Anambra and now Osun in which the ruling PDP did not only lose but went on to congratulate the winning parties. This is clear evidence that Nigerians are the ultimate beneficiaries of Jonathan’s gentle leadership style.
Indeed, as the Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Chief (Dr) Tony Anenih, said in his Democracy Day statement this past May: “In its 15 years at the helm of affairs of our great nation, the PDP has created an atmosphere that allows total freedom of expression, dissent and the greatest level of inclusive political participation ever recorded in our country.”
Anenih also said, “It is to the credit of the President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan-led PDP government that this ambience of democratic freedom has encouraged the most combative opposition rhetoric ever experienced in Nigeria’s history. President Jonathan has also demonstrated respect for the rule of law by his non-interference in judicial, legislative and electoral matters. Ironically, our liberal and exceptionally tolerant President has been vilified for promoting and protecting the very democratic freedoms that others are using unfairly against the government.”
It is indeed a great irony that the biggest beneficiaries of Jonathan’s policy of inclusive and non-domineering democracy, among whom members of the APC must be counted, are often the ones that have the most uncomplimentary things to say about the President. Before any election, the APC inundates the country with spurious allegations against the President, the PDP, INEC and the security agencies. And yet when all the accusations turn out to be false and unfounded, the APC has never mustered the courage to own up to its bogus charges, nor has the party offered any apology to Nigerians and those the party maligned.
If anything, members of the APC seem to have nothing better to do than to dream up laughable accusations against President Jonathan and the PDP almost on a daily basis. One of the latest is a charge from Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State who was recently reported to have alleged that the PDP is plotting to make Jonathan a life President. That nobody has bothered to respond to this bit of folly shows how preposterous Nigerians consider the statement.
Interestingly, the same Kwankwaso conducted local government elections a few months ago. In what can only be described as political comedy, the APC, which he left the PDP for only some months earlier, “won” the election in every single local government area. Even Kwankwaso himself was apparently so unconvinced of his “victory” that he spent millions of naira on many newspaper earpiece adverts to publicise the Kano local government election results to the great amusement of many discerning Nigerians.
Extrapolating from the Kano scenario, if Kwankwaso was the President, every single state election would be “won” by his party. And, perhaps, he would then resort to buying full page adverts, instead of the tiny earpiece adverts, in all Nigerian newspapers to convince himself of such “miraculous victory.” But thank God Kwankwaso is not the President. And Jonathan, who, by God’s grace, remains the substantive President, has no need for Kwankwaso’s kind of 100% “victory”.
That Jonathan presides over a country where opposition parties can abuse the central authorities incessantly and yet go ahead to secure victories in gubernatorial elections, despite unfounded accusations of “militarisation,” speaks volume of the man’s credibility. More importantly, the very encouraging percentage of votes Jonathan’s PDP picked up in Osun (42% against APC’s 58%) is an indication that when it is time for the presidential poll even the voters in Osun will remember the man who made sure their votes counted during the gubernatorial election.
Written by Abba Adakole.
