Jonathan adapts Buhari’s catchphrase

PROBABLY the most popular catchphrase associated with the Muhammadu Buhari presidential campaign in 2015 was the one on corruption. “If we do not kill corruption,” said the president who was candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the time, “corruption will kill us.” Not only did the catchphrase resonate with the electorate, some analysts credit its succinct encapsulation of the anti-corruption objective as one of the important factors responsible for the outcome of the 2015 general elections. On assumption of office, the president simply continued to

seize upon the catchphrase to remind the public of his fidelity to election promises, in addition to deploying it as a bulwark against criticism of his abrasive style of prosecuting the war.
Close to two years of the Buhari presidency, and with some of its campaign pledges mired in confusion and lethargy, the defeated Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidency of Goodluck Jonathan has sardonically embraced a counterintuitive catchphrase of its own, hoping that it would both resonate with the public and prove capable of approximating the yearnings of Nigerians and reminding them of the legitimacy of their protests and crusades. “If, as a nation, we do not kill religious persecution and extremism,” began Dr Jonathan cautiously, “then religious persecution and extremism will kill Nigeria.” Then, for full effect, lest someone should accuse him of simply being sarcastic, he adds: “The potential danger associated with the level of conflicts going on across the country is so glaring that no sane mind can ignore it.”
The former president of course said many other things during the presentation of a paper to the United States House Sub-Committee on Africa last Wednesday. He also talked about the Niger Delta crisis and suggested ways out of the many conflicts convulsing the country. As if to demonstrate the truth in former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s observation that Dr Jonathan was maturing as a statesman of sort, the ex-president, who is himself from the Niger Delta, said this of the conflict in the oil region: “States should be allowed to exploit their natural resources as they deem fit and pay adequate taxes to the Federal Government. This is also the position of the 2014 National Conference…The military crackdown in the Niger Delta will not end the agitation there. It will have the opposite effect of provoking the youth, which will cause them to seek to acquire sophisticated weapons to defend themselves and their communities. This may, in turn, lead to secessionist movements and the reincarnation of the Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro-led revolution and the Biafra Civil War. The Federal Government and the international community must work to avoid this.”
Dr Jonathan is right about the Buhari presidency reposing all its hope in a military solution to the Niger Delta crisis. Yet that hope is not only shallow and misplaced, it is completely unimaginative. It will fail in both the short run and long run. It will give the impression of a government fighting against time and against reason. Dr Jonathan now appreciates these truths, though during his presidency he was either unsure of himself or he took too much time in getting round to understanding the dynamics of the crisis and the way out of the quagmire. Despite his initial indifference, he is right about the Niger Delta crisis. The conflict will not end until justice and closure have been achieved.
But the more poignant of the ex-president’s analyses before the US House Sub-Committee on Africa is his opinion on how religious conflicts are upending the country and predisposing it to chaos and disintegration. Even though his analysis was not extraordinarily informed, nor was his prognosis adequate to the problem, it nevertheless addressed probably the most germane and existential challenge facing Nigeria today. Nigerians are widely and wildly religious. But their religion lacks the essential depth needed to establish order and amity in religious worship. The consequence is that the superficial understanding of unexplained phenomena embodied in religious practices have spawned an array of superstitious beliefs and practices that conduce to conflict. Worse, every ethnic, economic, political or social challenge easily morphs into religious disputes.
The warnings embedded in Dr Jonathan’s observations are clear. Religious persecution is still rampant, particularly in the North, and religious extremism dots the landscape. More worrisomely, the Buhari presidency has not taken any step to address the cancer, thereby promoting the impression that the president himself is at bottom unable to overcome his religious prejudices. Whether these suppositions are accurate or not, there is no denying both the poignancy and accuracy of Dr Jonathan’s catchphrase and observations. Indeed, the more President Buhari proves remiss in his onerous responsibility to Nigeria, the more the previously withdrawn and sullen Dr Jonathan will find his voice from its former state of hoary whispers, as well as imbue himself with statesmanlike radiance from an ignoble past contorted by hesitation, complex and fear