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.
____________________________________________
“I was actually in that valley on March 28, 2015”, he said.
----------------------------------- ---------------- ----------------
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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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!
“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”.
“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.
“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.
“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”.
No comments:
Post a Comment