Why I Conceded to Buhari- Jonathan
Category: Nigeria National News
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has spoken of the tensed moments
he faced on March 28, 2015 ahead of his decision to concede victory to
President Muhammadu Buhari after that year’s presidential election.
Jonathan also narrated why he relinquished power to Buhari, saying
he did not want Nigeria to slide into a theatre of war, with his fellow
county men and woman dying, and many more pouring into other nations in
Africa and beyond, as refugees.
“I never knew that the human brain had the capacity for such enhanced
rapid thinking. One hundred and one things were going through my mind
every second. My country was at the verge of collapse. The tension in
the land was abysmally high and palpable, in the months leading to the
election. The country became more polarised more than ever before, such
that the gap between the North and the South and between Christians and
Muslims became quite pronounced”, the former President said.
“In fact, it became so disturbing that some interest groups in the
United States began to predict indeed, many Nigerians did buy into this
doomsday prophesy as they began to brace themselves for the worst.
“As the President, I reminded myself that the Government I led had
invested so much effort into building our country. I worked hard with my
top officials to encourage Nigerians and non-Nigerians to invest in our
country to be able to provide jobs and improve the lives of our people.
“We worked hard to grow our economy and to improve and bring Nigeria
up as the biggest economy in Africa, with a GDP of about half a trillion
dollars”.
Jonathan told his story, last week, during a dinner in his honour by
Cercle Diplomatique, Geneva, Switzerland. The former President also
spoke about his foray into politics, the allure of power and future
plans.
He began: “ As you can see, I have not come here with a prepared speech,
since what I consider appropriate for this occasion is to just thank
you all, members and everyone else in attendance, in a few words, for
the dinner and the award, in order not to make the evening look boring.
But having said that, I am still tempted to note that if I were to
present a written speech, the title, would probably have been “Power
Tussle in Africa: A Stumbling Block to Economic Growth.” When Mr. Robert
Blum, your President, made his very interesting opening remarks, he
introduced me as the former President of Nigeria. He was absolutely
correct.
My foray into politics
“However, I believe that not many of you here know that the story of
my foray into politics has a peculiar ring to it. I entered politics in
1998 and, barely one year after, I got elected as the Deputy Governor of
Bayelsa, my state. I later became Governor, Vice President and
eventually got elected as the President of my country. I remain the only
leader in my country to have travelled that route.
“As the President, I served out my first term but, as Mr. Blum had
pointed out earlier, I lost the bid to be re-elected. I am encouraged by
the fact that many of you here appreciated my decision not to reject or
contest my loss at the polls, not even in the courts as many people had
expected.
The allure of power
“Again, I have to agree with Blum that it was not an easy decision to
take. This is because the allure of power and the worries about what
would become of you after leaving office constitute an irresistible
force. It has an attraction so controlling and powerful that it takes a
man who has the fear of God and who loves his people and nation to
relinquish power so easily in Africa.
Alone in the valley
“I was actually in that valley on March 28, 2015. I never knew that
the human brain had the capacity for such enhanced rapid thinking. One
hundred and one things were coursing through my mind every second. My
country was at the verge of collapse. The tension in the land was
abysmally high and palpable, in the months and days leading to the
election. The country became more polarized more than ever before, such
that the gap between the North and the South and between Christians and
Muslims became quite pronounced.
“In fact, it became so disturbing that some interest groups in the
United States began to predict that Nigeria would disintegrate in 2015.
And, indeed, many Nigerians did buy into this doomsday prophesy as they
began to brace themselves for the worst. As the President, I reminded
myself that the Government I led had invested so much effort into
building our country. I worked hard with my top officials to encourage
Nigerians and non-Nigerians to invest in our country to be able to
provide jobs and improve the lives of our people. We worked hard to grow
our economy and to improve and bring Nigeria up as the biggest economy
in Africa, with a GDP of about half a trillion dollars.
Posers I had to contend with
“Should I then, for the love of power, watch Nigeria slide into a
theatre of war, with my fellow country men and women dying, and many
more pouring into other nations in Africa and beyond, as refugees?
Should I hang on to power and tussle with my challengers, while the
investments of hard working citizens of the world go down the drain? I
then said to myself, NO!
Resisting the lure of power
“I promised my God that I will not let that fate befall Nigeria under
my watch, hence the historic telephone call I put through to
congratulate my challenger even when the results were still
being tallied. I believe that for a country to be great, both the
leaders and the led must be prepared to make sacrifices. This is why,
everywhere I go, I always advise that the new generation of African
leaders must think differently. We can no longer afford to wilfully
sacrifice the blood of our citizens on the altar of dangerous partisan
politics. It is not worth it. This reminds me of one of my campaign
statements to the effect that my ambition was not worth the shedding of
the blood of any Nigerian. Some people took it then as mere political
slogan but I knew that I meant it when I said it.
“We must all fight for the enthronement of political stability in
Africa, for in it lies the panacea for sustainable growth and
development. For Africa to record the kind of advancement that will
be competitive and beneficial to our citizens, we must have stable
states supported by strong institutions. That appears to be the
irreducible minimum that is common to all developed societies. Africa’s
political odyssey can distinctly be categorised into three eras, and
probably another that would later signpost its classification as a
developed continent”.
Challenges
“Some may doubt this, but it is no fluke that Africa is growing and
rising. However I will admit before you here that we still have
challenges. That is why people like us did all we could to ensure
that Nigeria, the biggest black nation on earth, would not drift into
anarchy because such a situation would have spelt doom for the rest of
the continent. It would have affected not just Nigeria alone, but
the GDP and economy of the entire West Africa. And if the economy of
West Africa crashes, it would definitely affect the performance of the
economy of the whole of Africa.
“As you know, the GDP of Africa is less than three trillion dollars,
with only six African countries able to boast of nominal GDP above $100
billion. Even for those in this ‘elite’ category, you can’t really say
that they are rich countries. Apart from maybe South Africa that has an
industrially competitive economy, the rest are still mainly commodity
exporting countries. Even the case of that of South Africa is not very
encouraging, because we have a situation which we could refer to as a
first world economic performance, yet the ordinary people live the life
of the people in the so called third world.
“In the case of Nigeria which is even the biggest economy on the
continent, the reality is that we have an unenviable per capita GDP of
$3,203, which is the World Bank average for a period covering 2011-2015.
Africa’s future is bright
“Even then, I still believe that Africa has a bright future; a
promising prognosis that is supported by the fact that the continent
remains a very fertile and attractive territory that yields irresistible
returns on investments. I believe that in the next few years many more
big investors will be jostling to come to Africa, if only we will do the
right thing. The process of getting it right has already started with a
democratic and increasingly democratising Africa. But we have to deepen
and strengthen our democratic credentials through regular, free and
fair elections. This will in turn bring about the stability necessary to
improve the infrastructure that promotes rapid economic growth. These
are the guarantees that would lead us into the next period which I would
like to call the era of a developed Africa. I have no doubt in my mind
that we will get there some day.
My future plans
“I will be applying myself diligently to two key areas. First, is to
work for good governance by promoting credible and transparent
elections. This will bring about the strengthening of our
institutions and the enthronement of stability. I also believe that
there is the urgent need to create jobs for our teeming young
population. This is another area that will be receiving my attention. I
recall that the Vice President of your association made reference in his
speech to my achievements in that regard through what we called Youth
Enterprises with Innovation (YouWin) and the Nagropreneur programme
which encouraged young people to go into agriculture. I believe more
programmes like that should be established to promote youth
entrepreneurship. That way, we reduce their reliance on paid employment.
“We will not only teach them to become entrepreneurs, they will also
acquire the capacity to employ other people. We will be paying special
attention to this segment of our society, especially young people and
women. We will develop programmes that will inculcate in them business
skills to be able to set up micro, small and medium enterprises. We
shall assist them to access take-off grants when they acquire the
relevant skills and capacities. There are many areas that they can go
into; food processing, light manufacturing and the services sector are
just some of them. I can tell you from experience that this works.
“As we speak, Our Nagropreneur programme, to promote youth
involvement in agriculture value chain, is being scaled up by the
African Development Bank presently. It is already being replicated in 19
African countries because of the success of the programme in Nigeria. I
invite all of you here today, cabinet ministers, diplomats and private
sector people to remain committed to the cause of improving lives,
especially those lives in Africa, and making our world a better place.
For those of you that will be sharing in this vision for Africa, I
assure you that you will not be disappointed. I am very optimistic that
if we encourage young men and women in this continent to develop
businesses of their own, the story of Africa will change within 10
years”.
Vanguard
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