The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primaries have come and gone, but the performance of Jonathan’s men will dominate public discourse for years to come. All of them came out wounded or defeated.
My colleague, Ikechukwu Ameachi, first drew my attention to the shoddy outing of seven former ministers in the PDP governorship primaries – Information (Labaran Maku); Labour (Emeka Wogu); Defence, State (Musiliu Obanikoro); Education (Nyesom Wike); Trade and Industry, State (Samuel Ortom); Health (Onyebuchi Chukwu), and Niger Delta (Godsday Orubube).
Two other cabinet members had also left to pursue private and or political ambitions – former Police Affairs Minister, Caleb Olubolade, and former Aviation Minister, Stella Odua.
Ikechukwu’s observation did not come to me as a surprise because most of the so-called ministers were only blowing hot air and claiming what they probably were not when they were in the government.
I also reminded him of a popular saying which, when translated, literally means that when another person’s corpse is being conveyed it looks like a log of wood.
A few months ago when the seven ministers tendered their resignation letters to President Goodluck Jonathan to pursue their political ambition, little did they know that the game they were going into is a game of numbers.
The reason is that in politics, the majority is the issue and will always be. The politician must rely on the majority to win votes.
For some reasons, the ministers thought they had all that was required to navigate the murky waters of Nigerian politics, having worked at the federal level.
Our concern today really is about Maku (Nasarawa); Wogu (Abia); Obanikoro (Lagos); Wike (Rivers); Ortom (Benue); Chukwu (Ebonyi) and Orubebe (Delta), and not Odua (Anambra) and Olubolade (Ekiti).
In politics, credibility is very important and for anyone to assume that the people do not have their own way of monitoring and assessing credibility is to deceive ourselves.
Because the ministers were working for the federal government and represented Jonathan through their ministries, some of them wore what looked like an over-bloated image of themselves, at times carrying on as if the political life of their principal depended on them.
But with their poor performance in the primaries, Nigerians can now put a lie to their ego and almost zero popularity.
At the last count, only one out of the seven, Wike, can claim he succeeded in his ambition. Even at that, the noise Wike is making over his victory cannot be completely traced to him if the role that Jonathan’s wife, Patience, played is considered.
A candidate has emerged as the flag bearer of a party does not on its own translate to victory at the main poll involving other political parties.
Patience may have saved Wike’s face at the PDP primaries in Rivers State, it remains to be seen how his so called popularity plays out during the main election next year.
The outcome of the primaries and the abysmal performance of Jonathan’s men sign posts what is to be expected from the states they represent when the main polls are conducted.
Nigerians in their numbers and mostly PDP loyalists are worried that those Jonathan should have relied on to coast home in the election in February 2015 are feather weight politicians who are alien to their immediate environment and claim what they are not, politically.
What happened to the former cabinet members confirms the thinking of discerning Nigerians that governance/government is the only industry working in the country, but unfortunately, serving the good of a select few.
Nigeria has been reduced to a place where public servants believe that working for the government is the easiest way to make quick money not accounted for. And to say that is what played out with the seven ministers is to say the least, because, to them, they have made enough money to enable them grab power.
Time was when technocrats in government preferred to remain so, regardless of the pressure to go into mainstream politics.
Where are our today’s technocrats? Must everybody be a governor? Are people going into politics to serve or because they have acquired by hook and crook the resources to bulldoze themselves into political offices?
Some of Jonathan’s cabinet men of yesterday, like Ortom, have jumped into political parties other than the PDP because they have too much money which is driving them crazy.
Chukwu will make whatever move Ebonyi State Governor, Martins Elechi, tells him to make, regardless of his so-called loyalty to Jonathan. When all these happen one wonders whether all the noise about “we will swim and sink with Jonathan” is not both pejorative and sycophantic.
If anyone is in doubt that some of these “it is Jonathan or never” advocates will abandon him the way Peter denied Jesus Christ prior to his cruxificion I am not.
But does anybody blame them when their principal failed to lift a finger for them? If there was a good relationship between them, anchored on trust and resolve to work together for the common good of the PDP, the ideal thing would have been for Jonathan to throw his weight behind them.
But he did not for obvious reasons – he had earlier pocketed his own ticket with a few others and, as they say, in the jungle it is survival of the fittest.
The ministers lacked the popularity to turn things around in their locality, despite their deep pocket and with the governors on the side of Jonathan.
Jim, you didn’t do well
It is heart-warming that Ifeanyichukwu Nwobodo jnr., first son of former old Anambra State Governor Jim, who died some weeks ago has eventually been buried.
His burial is good news because he ought not to have been subjected to the ordeal those who are living put him for whatever reason.
I am not out interested in the stories making the rounds as to why Jim did not want to bury his son in his compound, but the former governor turned senator who is a respected voice from the South East did not need to dance naked in public with the son’s demise, no matter the level of provocation.
As he pointed out, his son ordinarily should have been the one to bury him, but what do you do when destiny changes the course of human existence?
When I read the account of the burial last week and the report that Jim petitioned the Primate of the Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, and Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba, alleging that the Archbishop of Enugu Anglican Ecclesiastical Province, Emmanuel Chukwuma, was trying to bury his son without his consent, I felt Jim had not demonstrated responsibility expected of somebody of his calibre.
I do not think Jim should be interested in not having his son, whether by blood or adoption, rest in peace in death. As humans, we often do not know when we curry God’s wrath despite our avowed relationship with him.