The book, titled Against the Run of Play explains
how an incumbent, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, made
history by losing a presidential election in 2015.
And I agree with those who are complaining
about Jonathan’s failure to shoulder at least
some of the blame for his avoidable political
downfall.
Longstanding readers of this column will recall
that I was a passionate Jonathan supporter
between 2007, when he became Yar’Adua’s
Vice President, and 2014 when I reluctantly
decided to support Muhammadu Buhari instead.
National leadership
For seven years, I carried Jonathan, the first-
ever Head of State from my beloved Niger Delta,
on my head. I desperately wanted him to be a
superhero and constantly prayed that he would
do a great job and prove that people from our
area were capable of providing competent
national leadership.
But Jonathan disappointed me. He let blatant
corruption run riot. He sat back while certain
ministers did whatever they wanted and got
away with chronic misconduct. He didn’t control
his overbearing wife, Dame Patience. He allowed
her to poison his once-cordial relationship with
then Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi. He
mishandled the fallout from the Chibok Girls’
abduction.
And so on.
However, there is one criticism of Jonathan that
I must firmly reject. He is always being accused
of being heavily biased in favour of folks from
his ethnic group and our region. And I regard
this accusation as grossly unfair.
As a matter of fact, one of MY reasons for
“abandoning” Jonathan was my belief that he
hadn’t do enough for the Niger Delta and its
inhabitants!
Sure, he promoted and financially empowered
some of his Ijaw tribesmen and women from
Bayelsa and beyond. Sure, he dished out some
plum government appointments and juicy
contracts to South-Southerners in general.
But he didn’t help THAT many people from his
core constituency!
When I was kidnapped in 2015, I developed a
rapport with most of my kidnappers, who were
Ijaws; and I wound up chatting to them at
considerable length while we were waiting for
my family to organise a ransom payment.
One of the things they told me was that they
couldn’t believe how little Niger Deltans had
gained from Jonathan’s administration. And
they were right.
Jonathan did not act on the United Nations
Environmental Programme’s report on the
terrible pollution of Ogoniland. He did nothing
about the disgraceful state of Port Harcourt
Airport. The East-West Road that traverses
Jonathan’s home turf was a messy potholed
joke during his tenure.
He ignored and neglected these and MANY other
Niger Deltan issues that he should have treated
as priorities. Like many individuals from minority
groups, he was afraid of offending the larger
ethnic groups.
And he was certainly NOT as blatantly and
shamelessly ethnocentric as big players from
other zones often are! Jonathan was too timid,
not too biased, if you ask me!!!
I have attended government meetings in which
Yoruba and Hausa have been spoken, despite
the presence of people who are neither Yoruba
nor Northern.
I have never attended a government meeting in
which any minority language was foisted on
everyone.
When leaders from major tribes get their hands
on power, they aggressively promote their
ethnic interests and people. But when Jonathan
did only a fraction of what les autres have been
doing since time immemorial, it was a crime.
When Jonathan was in office, I was regularly
mocked because Dame Patience (who was
deemed to be my sister because we are both
from Rivers State) did not sound well-educated…
by Northerners who had not sniggered for one
second when Turai Yar’Adua was expertly
mangling the English language!
Nigerians are so hypocritically full of s—t
sometimes! And I SO wish that Jonathan had
damned the consequences and openly put the
Niger Delta first, so that those who were always
determined to falsely accuse him of being an
ethnic chauvinist would really have had
something to complain about!
When you come from a suffering place that ha
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