Mr. President and his too many cooks

by Olalekan Adetayo

Ahead of next month’s presidential election, many individuals and groups have been routing for President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election. In the case of groups, they come in various creative names coined around either the President’s first name, Goodluck, or the present administration’s agenda for national transformation. Brains behind the groups cut across all strata of the nation: politicians, Nollywood stars, sports ambassadors and businessmen among others.

At individual levels are politicians mainly from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party and its subsidiaries as well as top government officials and presidential aides.

They all have one message for Nigerians: give Jonathan a Valentine’s gift on February 14 by re-electing him. Though the message is the same, methods of disseminating the message differ from one individual or group to another.

The truth however is that like the saying that too many cooks spoil the broth, many of the President’s campaigners are doing more harm than good to his re-election bid in the way they go about it. A mention of a few of the President’s cooks that may be causing havoc for his campaign (may be unknowingly) will suffice here.

Leading the pack is Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State. He is no doubt committed to Jonathan’s second term ambition and has stated this many times. What is of concern however is the way he goes about it.

During the PDP presidential rally held in his state on January 13, Fayose dwelt too much on the need to disqualify Jonathan’s major contender, Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress because he did not present his certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission as required by law.

The governor did not stop there. One after the other, Fayose brandished photocopies of his primary school leaving certificate, secondary school leaving certificate, national diploma and higher national diploma to the admiration of party faithful. He thereafter challenged Buhari to do the same. The question that came to the mind of many was whether Fayose is the one contesting against the former military leader.

During the week, the governor gave many people a topic to discuss for a long time when he published what is now being referred to as “death-wish advert” in newspapers. In the advert, Fayose insinuated that Nigerians may risk another state burial if they cast their votes for septuagenarian Buhari. Although the PDP and the President’s campaign organisation had disowned the advert and its sponsor, the governor insisted he owes no one any apology as he was only exercising his freedom of expression.

Despite the outcry that followed that advert, he placed another one on Thursday. He wrote that if former President Olusegun Obasanjo could be called “Baba” at 62 in 1999, then Buhari will be called “Baba baba” (grandpa) at 72 in 2015. He signed off by writing that Buhari is too old to govern Nigeria, insinuating that his candidature is an agenda of a few cabals against the country.

Fayose may mean well for Jonathan, but whichever way we look at it, this unnecessary jibe will do the President’s ambition no good.

The issue of Jonathan’s too many cooks cannot be treated without a generous mention of the elderly Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark. The man appears to love Jonathan and his Presidency so much that he picks a quarrel with anybody or group he perceives to be anti-Jonathan.

In doing this, to me, he ends up creating more enemies for the President.

Lately, he had condemned Obasanjo for allegedly being against Jonathan. He had accused the INEC boss, Prof. Attahiru Jega, of being partial against Jonathan. He had criticised PDP National Chairman, Adamu Muazu, for creating problems for Jonathan by imposing former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu, as the party’s governorship candidate in Adamawa State. He had faulted the Attorney-General of the Federation, Muhammed Adoke (SAN), for not advising Jonathan to perpetrate illegality by sacking governors of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe when he declared emergency rule in those states.

The octogenarian seems to believe that he is the only one in the country that means well for the President. By so doing, he creates more enemies for Jonathan, the same way Fayose is doing.

Many government officials and presidential aides also cause havoc daily for the President by their utterances and actions. Evidence abound on social media and pages of newspapers. Theirs will be topic for another day.

The fact is that the opinions or actions of these people are oftentimes seen by many as being the President’s position, especially when he fails to rebuke them publicly. If indeed Jonathan wishes to sing the halleluyah chorus at the end of the presidential election, he must caution some, if not all his cooks, so that they don’t continue spoiling the broth for him.

Jonathan goes to Maiduguri

Barring any last minute change in plan, by the time you will be reading this, Jonathan will be labouring hard to convince a fraction of the people of Borno State on the need for those of them who will be courageous enough to line up at polling booths on February 14 to vote for him. Why a fraction of the people of the state? I guess that it will not be a priority for thousands of people who are currently taking refuge in various centres created for Internally Displaced Persons to be attending campaign rallies.

Today’s visit to Maiduguri will be Jonathan’s second within a few days. He had penultimate Thursday visited the city to give the needed boost to security agents operating in the troubled state and offer succour to victims of insurgents.

It was indeed a surprise visit. Jonathan had earlier in the day taken a break from his nationwide campaigns to lay wreath at the National Arcade as part of activities marking the 2015 Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration. The expectation of State House correspondents was that he would return to the Villa to attend to other national issues after the event. But that was not to be.

News filtered in that the President was on his way to Maiduguri. The trip was a top secret. The usual security presence along the road from the Villa to the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport which always characterise presidential movement was not present.

Jonathan’s handlers must have learnt from his aborted trip to Chibok where over 200 schoolgirls were abducted in 2014. Arrangements had been concluded to embark on the trip to the community in May last year. Members of the President’s advance team were already in the state capital, putting finishing touches to preparation to receive him.

Suddenly, the music changed. The President stayed back. Following the criticisms that followed, presidential aides claimed Jonathan was never billed to visit the troubled community. This must have informed the decision to make his visit to Maiduguri strictly confidential.

Expectedly however, that visit drew mixed reactions from Nigerians with many seeing it as political. Those who belong to that school of thought said the President only embarked on that trip to soften the ground for his campaign in the state capital billed for today.

Some others however agreed that, though late in coming, the trip was needed and should be commended. They were also quick to add that Jonathan should not limit such visit to Maiduguri. He should extend his courage and visit Chibok, Baga, Biu and other towns that had been ravaged by insurgents.

Whichever way, the President must have used the trip to prove a point: that he is free to visit every part of the country.

- Credit: Olalekan Adetayo/Punch