There is so much to write about why I am supporting
President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. It is said that the only thing permanent
about life is its sheer impermanence. Given the foregoing, change is thus a
constant of human existence. Nonetheless, I am not one of those who would treat
the concept of change as a mere abstraction or a garb of convenience tailored,
adorned and dumped at the slightest whim of the adorner. Far from it!
Rewind back to the pre-2011 Presidential Campaign era. I
served in the Presidential Campaign of Chief Dele Momodu as his Presidential
Campaign Manager. I was selected at the tender age of 26 for this assignment in
2010, making me the world’s youngest Presidential Campaign Manager in modern
democratic history. I was not a card-carrying member of Chief Momodu’s National
Conscience Party (NCP). I carried out my assignment professionally as a young
technocrat. I did my job with passion and conviction. Faced with the facts in
2011, my assignment on the campaign trail required constantly campaigning for
my candidate, amplifying his strengths and drawing attention to the weaknesses
of the other candidates in the race. There is nothing new about this under sun.
This is the standard practice in political campaigns globally.
The campaigns came to a close in April 2011 and in August
2011, I was invited by the then Minister of Youth Development,
MallamBolajiAbdullahi to support his work at the Youth Development Ministry as
his Special Assistant on Advocacy. In his words when he called me on the phone:
“I have been told that if I will succeed in the Youth Ministry, I need young
people like you around me.” I got on his team on the pure recognition of my
competence as a young professional. I consulted and received the blessings of
my former principal, Chief Dele Momodu before I proceeded on the assignment
with MallamBolajiAbdullahi. Our one-year stint at the Youth Ministry goes into
the history books as one of the most remarkable in the history of Nigeria’s
Ministry of Youth Development. It was while we were at the Youth Development
Ministry that the YouWIN initiative was midwifed under a Youth Development,
Communications Technology and Finance Ministry collaboration with support from
the World Bank.
Our next assignment came when President Goodluck Jonathan in
his wisdom saddled MallamBolajiAbdullahi with the task of transforming the
Nigerian Sports Ministry. In the Sports Ministry, we met a football sector in
crisis rocked with over 29 court cases. At the time we were done with the
Sports Ministry, it is to the credit of President Jonathan and his team that
managed the sports sector that all 29 court cases in the Nigerian Football
Federation (NFF) had been withdrawn, peace had been restored, Nigeria had won
the AFCON after 19 years, clinched the U-17 FIFA World Cup, kicked off the
Rhythm N’ Play Grassroots Sports Campaign, improved in Athletics with Nigeria
becoming the African champions in all categories of Athletics competitions
amongst other milestones. The leadership we provided in the sports sector under
the dynamic leadership of MallamBolajiAbdullahi with the supervision, goodwill
and support of President Goodluck Jonathan made it possible!
After my assignment at the Sports Ministry in March 2014, I
was appointed Special Assistant on Media Strategy to Nigeria’s then Minister of
State for Defence, Senator MusiliuObanikoro. It is important to note here that
before 2014, in 2012, I had joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as a
card-carrying member when it became clear to me that for competent young
Nigerians to make a mark in the public service and governance of this nation,
they needed to become more active players in the political process. There was
never anything secret about my membership of the PDP since 2012. I joined the
PDP because I believed in the vision, the platform and the structure the party provides
for those who have something valuable to offer this nation.
Now this is 2015. And the question I have been asked
severally is why I am supporting President Goodluck Jonathan to be re-elected
President. I didn’t just jump into the bandwagon of Goodluck Jonathan
supporters. I have spent three years working within the Jonathan government as
a Ministerial Adviser from Youth Development to Sports to the Defence
Ministries. My perspectives on governance in Nigeria have been reshaped within
these years. As an insider, I have seen a lot of the challenges from the inside
and I know that a man who attempts to sweep a house from the outside has
embarked on a futile exercise. I also know that the system is not without its
flaws and imperfections. Yet, I also know that Rome was not built in a day.
Aside from the compelling consideration that he is the
presidential candidate of my political party, the PDP, my reasons for
supporting President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid in 2015 are in many
ways, instructive. First, allow me speak within the context of my reality and
experience as a Nigerian youth. More than any President in the experienced,
real, imagined or documented history of Nigeria, this is the first President
who has articulated and is executing a transformational blueprint for youth
development, youth employment and youth empowerment. Take a critical look at
the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YouWIN)
initiative. Before President Jonathan, who cared about young Nigerian
entrepreneurs? Before President Jonathan who thought about giving grants to
young Nigerian business owners? Before President Goodluck Jonathan, no
President took the youth sector seriously. No President opened the door of
engagement to the youths, let alone empowerment! None.
Before President Goodluck Jonathan, no President considered
our young brothers and sisters, the Almajiris in northern Nigeria as deserving
of any care and attention. Nobody thought about taking them off the streets and
building schools for them. Realizing that a northern Nigerian problem is a
Nigerian problem, President Jonathan is taking steps to build a future northern
Nigeria where development is futuristic, real and sustainable through
educational advancement. That is significant.
It is to President Jonathan’s credit that an enabling
environment has been created for the economic explosion of our creative
industry from Nollywood to the music industry to fashion and style! Through the
SURE-P project, thousands of Nigerian youths have glowing testimonials on how
their lives are being turned around with the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS)
and the Community Service, Women, Youths and Empowerment, (CSWYE). These are
facts, not fiction?
I will support a President who has shown in many ways that
he is a man who is committed to touching the lives of the common man. I grew up
in a Nigeria where I didn’t know what it looked like to travel inside a train
in Nigeria. But today, it is to President Jonathan’s credit that not only are
our trains back, our roads that were neglected and deformed for decades by
previous administrations, military and democratic are now being fixed. So tell
me, why won’t I vote for Jonathan?
Is it in the area of Agriculture that President Jonathan has
not performed? This is the President that cleaned up the rot in the fertilizer
procurement and distribution process. This is the President that is empowering
local farmers using ICT. This is the President under which our cassava
production is on a consistent increase. This is the President under whose
leadership our rice self-sufficiency as a nation has grown from 50% to over
80%. It is no fluke that under President Jonathan, Nigeria overtook Egypt and
South Africa and became the largest economy in Africa! One can go on and on. To
wish away these achievements is to stand in murderous contempt of one’s
conscience and character.
Now let’s talk about the 72-year old man who was kicked out
of power as a Military dictator the year I was born. If there is any reason
that makes a Jonathan re-election even more imperative, it is the fact that
Nigeria’s opposition party, the APC looked at Nigeria and went into the graves
of our nation’s painful past to exhume their candidate. There is nothing new
that Buhari is bringing to the table in 2015 that Jonathan did not accomplish
four years ago. Beyond party affiliation, as a Nigerian youth, there is
something awfully backward about the idea of a Buhari presidency. There are
some brands that packaging cannot sell, no matter the competence, creativity or
innovation of the packager. This is the dilemma of the Buhari campaign.
The law of diminishing returns is a reality promoters of
Buhari must come to terms with. More than the problem of Buhari’s old age is
the bigger problem of the age of his ideas. What ideas will Buhari run our new
Nigeria with? We are being told to make a 72-year-old man President over a
future Nigeria he will not be part of. How does that even sound? Promoters of
Buhari are telling us to drop a President Jonathan who has a clear record of
performance for a Buhari who Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka described as a
man in whom we have been offered “no evidence of the sheerest prospect of
change.”
We have had our share of challenges. To state otherwise
would mean being dishonest. Insecurity, predominantly in northern Nigeria is on
the front burner. Still, our war against terrorism is best appreciated when
seen within the context of a marathon and not a 100m dash. Sadly, the thing
with terrorism globally is that there are no quick fixes. But In 2015,
Nigerians are faced with two clear choices; advancement or retrogression. In
Jonathan, we have been presented a President who is not perfect but a man who
is committed to taking Nigeria to the next level. In Buhari, we have been
offered a Nigeria on the threshold of oblivion wrapped inside the toga of a
vague mantra colorfully illustrated as ‘change’. We must chose wisely.
Ohimai is the Special Adviser (Media Strategy) to Senator
MusiliuObanikoro
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Opinion