In the months ahead, Nigerians would be treated with the usual comic show of endorsements that go with every election involving the president.
All the grounds that would lead to endorsement of President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan seem to have been wetted, remaining for him to say yes to the numerous appeals (beggings) by Nigerians to continue to rule them.
Even when former military President Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) was neck deep manipulating this country with unending political reforms to suit his huge hunger for power, some Nigerians still endorsed him to continue in office.
When Babangida – whose demeanour in office merited him the sobriquet of Maradona – stepped aside, his trusted successor, the late Sani Abacha (Ernest Shonekan was planted in office by IBB to deliver Abacha to the highest office in the country), came in and it did not take long before the sing song of Abacha being the best thing to happen to Nigerians started.
Then, all the political parties registered to participate in the transition programme of Abacha suddenly realised they did not have any competent civilian Nigerian to become president, hence the deluge of endorsements for the dark goggle-wearing head of state.
It took God’s intervention to stop Abacha from transmuting from military to civilian leader – because virtually all the parties had begged him to “save” us from bad leadership, as if the dictator was any better.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, despite chastising us with scorpions instead of whips, still enjoyed the “come and rule us” or “you are the best thing to happen to us” endorsement.
A wise Obasanjo knew how to make his planned endorsement democratic. He resorted to the Constitution amendment mantra that eventually became his waterloo as those he empowered with our commonwealth of billions of naira bungled the exercise.
Even before the plan to tinker with the Constitution became an issue in the National Assembly (NASS), Obasanjo had identified the Any Government in Power (AGIP) politicians from all the six zones who did a lot to orchestrate on his behalf the campaign of endorsement to continue in office.
One man who did not live to see how much Nigerians loved him through endorsement campaign, because he could not complete his first tenure and seek a second term, was the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.
But I am pretty sure the story would have been the same if he had lived and sought re-election.
Let me clarify that endorsement has come to be part and parcel of our body politick. Politicians and their like use it as a bargaining chip. Like other political tools such as propaganda, blackmail, intimidation, and dialogue, it will take the grace of God for endorsements to be wiped out from the landscape.
That explains why, like those before him, Jonathan is now being flattered to go for a second term (or third term, according to some people). His endorsement has gathered such momentum that those close to him are confident that his re-election has already been won.
Jonathan may not even be aware of all the groups urging him to continue in office, but the truth is that much resources have been deployed for that purpose through the usual ways and means.
My worry about the endorsement campaign for him borders on my kit and kin – Ndigbo – and what they stand to benefit from his continued stay in Aso Rock if past experience counts.
Unlike how other ethnic nationalities marshaled their demands in 2011 before they rooted for Jonathan, my people from the South East were just satisfied with being his half-brothers because his media handlers added Ebele and Azikiwe to his name.
For many years, the Igbo have got ensconced in the onye agha-ala nwa n’eya (do not abandon your brother) slogan in Nigeria and this, by extension, affects those who are married from Igboland.
Fortunately and unfortunately, it was this understanding that saw Ndigbo endorsing Jonathan in 2011 and giving him massive votes that took him to Aso Rock. Whether that massive support for him has been adequately reciprocated by Jonathan is a matter for sober reflection and for another day.
Many Igbo will claim Jonathan has done more things for Ndigbo than any other past president. South East governors, minus that of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, hold this view supremely and are trouble-shooting with it as they move to, once more, to support Jonathan for his 2015 presidential ambition.
Perhaps, the governors and other leaders of thought in Igboland are seeing what some of us are not seeing, tangible and intangible.
However, I think our people are craving more for tangible things from Jonathan that can impact them, such as roads, electricity, water, hospitals, affordable and qualitative schools and, above all, a conducive environment to put their God-given potentials to good use. Currently, that is not the case.
I am not alone in this quest for tangible things to be done for Ndigbo if, going by the state of the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway I travelled on last week, is anything to go by.
I hate to recall that the Enugu-Port Harcourt road is as important as the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, the Benin-Ore expressway or any other in the country that is as long and connects many states together. It remains a vital artery that also connects Igbo and other nationalities easily to our brothers from the South South.
My people are good traders and farmers and need functional roads to move goods and services to different parts of the country. But the Enugu-Port Harcourt road I travelled to Umuahia does not tell me that Jonathan made any promise to the South East in 2011.
The same mistake is about to be repeated with the endorsement songs being played across parts of Igboland without the singers telling our people what is in it for all the support.
Apart from a poor road network in Igboland, electricity, water, hospitals, et cetera, are a far cry from what obtains elsewhere in the country. I do not think our people will be asking for too much if they tell Jonathan to fix the Enugu-Port Harcourt road before the election in February 2015.
Other ethnic nationalities are lying in wait to tell him what they want before they support him and I do not think ours should be on the basis of his name which has some semblance with that of the late Igbo icon, the Owelle of Onisha, Nnamdi Azikiwe.
The body language of Jonathan that I read today is that of a man who will give his all to return to Aso Rock. Let all those telling Ndigbo that his love shows in the appointment of some Igbo as ministers be reminded that when the chips are down, our environment may be worse off than we see today in terms of infrastructure after Jonathan leaves office.
The support he seeks from us, if he must get it, he should reciprocate with tangible things Ndigbo can see, feel and recall easily, not things that cannot put food on the table.
