There have been widely circulated media reports last week that President Goodluck Jonathan allegedly informed PDP Governors who were reluctant to endorse him as a Presidential candidate that as a Captain of the PDP ship he will rather sink it than go down alone. The President allegedly made the threat in exasperation at what appeared to him to be the ambivalent attitude or overt lack of loyalty from some PDP Governors towards his aspiration, which he saw as an attempt to humiliate him. It was reported that he had complained that he had done everything the Governors wanted him to do, yet he was being abandoned by some of them to be humiliated by his main rival, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. The reports also mentioned that the Governors finally agreed to endorse the President after his threat for only one term, after which he promised them automatic tickets for the next elections in return.
President Goodluck Jonathan’s spokespersons have since repudiated the reports as false, and were emphatic that the President could not have threatened to sink the PDP ship as a responsible leader. His spokesmen also stated that the President’s acceptance to serve for only one term was informed by his reading of the Constitution, which forbids any Nigerian from being sworn-in as President more than twice. On the allegation that the President promised the Governors automatic tickets during the 2011 elections, his spokespersons insisted that the President only expressed his support and preference for the return of PDP Governors who have done well.
Given the widely-reported comments of the President, and the belated denials of his spokespersons, coupled with the charged atmosphere which surrounded the PDP NEC meeting at which the comments were allegedly made, many people will be inclined to give the reports some credence. It is widely known that the last PDP NEC meeting was pregnant with many explosive issues, which included the contentious clauses in the Electoral Act, the order of the Party’s Primaries and the intense maneuverings by President Jonathan’s rivals and Governors to determine its outcomes. It was also widely known that it was going to pitch the Governors particularly against the President on the issue of the Order of the Primaries, and therefore test the powers of both the President and the Governors. The Governors got what they wanted in terms of the Order of the Primaries, and were thus assured that the attempt to tilt the balance against them by the Party, and quite possibly the President, was defeated.
It is therefore understandable if Mr. President felt some frustration at the seeming reluctance of some of the Governors to endorse him, and give him, at least in public, an edge over his archival, Atiku Abubakar. This may have explained the comment he allegedly made about sinking the ship with everyone in it. If President Jonathan had made those comments to get the Governors to support him, his choice of words and their wider meaning are most unfortunate and inappropriate. Even as a Party leader, if the President had threatened Governors with sinking the ship, meaning that he will make sure that if he doesn’t get the PDP Presidential ticket, they will also lose theirs, members of his Party, or at least his followers must question his leadership credentials. It will not be easy to dismiss this comment as mere political posturing either, because a threat of this nature from a President and leader of his party cannot be taken lightly.
But by far a more worrying dimension to this issue is the concern expressed in many quarters that the intense emotions and frightening hostility which the campaigns in the PDP are generating are frightening to many Nigerians. Whether the President made those comments or not, or said something of similar nature, the fact that his opponents appear to have made much political capital out of them, suggests that this campaign will be very bitter indeed. His opponents have taken the reported threat of Mr. President to imply that he will also sink the Nigerian ship of he does not become the next President. Mr. President’s supporters will feel that this is an unfair extrapolation, but even these friends will admit that Mr. President’s record of expressing himself under pressure is not the most outstanding. Nigerians will recall his hasty exoneration of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) as a major gaffe. His comments on the Niger Delta since the bombings have not been entirely statesmanly. His recent threat to set the law after Atiku Abubakar for his comment on choosing between peaceful or violent change could also have been better considered.
The basic issue in all these exchanges and the manner they are sensationalized by opposition camps is that aspirants are becoming more and more desperate to clinch the PDP’s tickets. Desperate people tend to do desperate things. The Nigerian people would like our leaders and politicians to move away from the brink with more responsible and less damaging rhetorics. Our President in particular should demonstrate the highest levels of sensitivity to his office, and the integrity and security of the Nigerian nation. His opponents have made much out of his gaffes. He will do much good to his person, office and his chances as a potential candidate if he is more circumspect in his public utterances. After all, he is the President, and all Nigerians look up to him as a source of comfort and assurances of their security. A good captain takes his ship and its passengers safely to their destination, and does not treat both as his hostages.
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