IF President Goodluck Jonathan
was afraid of the outcome of
the just concluded presidential
election, he never showed it.
Before the election was held,
he had started giving conditions
on the type of people he
wanted to dominate the
forthcoming Eighth National
Assembly
“I would want you to elect
members of the Peoples
Democratic Party to the
National Assembly so that I can
work with people who are not
rancorous” – President
Goodluck Jonathan told party
supporters at one of his
numerous presidential rallies.
But like the biblical Moses,
Jonathan has failed to lead his
party, the Peoples Democratic
Party, to his dreamland. His
reign has brought to an abrupt
end the 16-year uninterrupted
reign of the party, whose
former National Chairman,
Vincent Ogbulafor, had boasted
would remain in power for at
least 60 years. A senior
employee of the party told our
correspondent in Abuja on
Tuesday that the former party
chairman could have probably
meant 16 years in his
projection.
Though the President didn’t
start out to fall by the wayside,
some states actually plotted his
downfall. Principal among them
were the five out of the six
states of the South-West.
Traditionally, the President,
being a southerner was
expected to have wormed his
way into the hearts of the
people of the South-West. This
was because when he was
being haunted by the then
presidential candidate of the
defunct Congress for
Progressives Change, who was
his major challenger in 2011,
Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari
(retd.), Jonathan came to seek
the backing of the zone. All of
the states in the zone obliged
him except Osun, where he
lost. But in other states like
Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti and
Ondo, he won.
However, in 2015, it was a
different scenario as only the
people of Ekiti State seemed to
still remain friendly with the
President. With a little margin,
he got 176,466 votes as against
120,331 votes of Buhari, the
presidential candidate of the All
Progressives Congress. Even in
Ondo State, where the
President’s party is in charge,
the people revolted. In unison,
the majority of the people
abandoned him for Buhari by
giving him 251,368 votes as
against 299,889 they
collectively gave the former
Head of State.
Taking a leaf from the South-
West example, some states in
the North-Central, which were
traditional supporters of the
President, also deserted him.
Those states include Benue,
Kogi and Kwara. A former
Governor of Kwara State,
Senator Bukola Saraki, was
among the members of the
PDP, who were hounded out of
the party. Saraki threw his hat
into the ring and joined forces
with the opposition to give a
killer blow to his former party
and its presidential candidate.
Though the President was able
to make a showing in other
states from the zone, voters
from the North-West were not
considerate of Jonathan in their
voting. The only zone with
seven states witnessed all of
them chorusing in harmony and
actively participated through
their votes in the revolution
that sacked Jonathan from Aso
Rock. These states are Sokoto,
Katsina, Zamfara, Kebbi,
Sokoto, Jigawa and Kaduna.
It was also not a rousing outing
for the outgoing President in
the North-East, where his
government has been battling
Boko Haram insurgency. Five
out of the six zones voted for
change and rejected continuity
which the President
campaigners said he
represented. Voters from those
states that would prefer
President Jonathan to relocate
to his Otuoke, Bayelsa State
home, instead of spending
another four years in office,
were those of Yobe, Bauchi,
Adamawa, Borno and Gombe.
The governors of the zone, who
are members of his party and
who he regularly referred to as
his field commanders, were
outrun by the voters with their
Permanent Voter Cards, which
they willingly used as their
weapons. These governors are
Isa Yuguda (Bauchi), James
Ngilari (Adamawa) and Ibrahim
Damkwambo (Gombe).
Nevertheless, the President
made a remarkable showing in
Taraba State. But that was not
enough to guarantee his second
term ambition. These are the
part of history-making states
that made President Jonathan
the first Nigerian president to
lose his re-election bid. A return
to Otuoke, therefore, beckons.
The President would however
not return alone. He is
expected to be accompanied by
members of his immediate
family led by his wife, Patience,
whose stay in Aso Rock has
added a wide vocabulary to
Nigeria’s political lexicon.
Her many gaffes were said to
have drawn more flaks for the
President. If this was true,
Patience was not bothered.
While the President asked his
supporters to moderate their
speeches and stop hate
campaigns, his wife was
uncontrollable.
Throwing caution into the winds
on many occasions during the
PDP women presidential rallies,
Patience once described Buhari
as “brain dead” and asked
Nigerians to reject the retired
soldier. Referring to his age,
she said it was wrong for such a
72-year-old man to be dragging
the office of the President with
her husband.
It was obvious that her counsel
was not convincing enough to
the voters, who in their millions
voted for Buhari and rather
asked Patience and her
husband to vacate the opulent
building they moved into since
2007.