Jonathan
Editor's note: Mr. Soweibo, a Niger Delta activist, who
writes from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State in this piece
states that former president Goodluck Jonathan,
unknowingly, invited activists to come up with a
narrative that his five-year presidency amounted to a
waste for the ordinary Bayelsan and Niger Deltan.
A major ammunition with political foes of President
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan which shot down his re-
election bid in 2015 was the accusation that he
favoured the Niger Delta region over other parts of
the country.
Specifically, his critics alleged that the choicest
appointments he made went to Ijaw people, with
Bayelsa, his home state, particularly favoured. This
allegation was practically made into a song, one that
played loudly and was enjoyed to the hilt by other
sections of the country.
However, those of us who are Ijaws knew this was
nothing but fallacy. It was effectively thrown up as
such before the election, which Jonathan eventually
lost to General Muhammadu Buhari of the All
Progressives Congress, APC.
Goodluck Jonathan, unknowingly, invited activists to
come up with a narrative that his five-year
presidency amounted to a waste
The widespread assumption that Jonathan did so
much for the Niger Delta, especially the ordinary
Bayelsan, was ripped up by the former President
himself. Perhaps unintended. Unknown to him at the
time, he was making a rod for his own back.
The former President, standing on the podium at the
Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, venue of the
presidential campaign rally in Port Harcourt,
unwittingly invited what would come to haunt him
later. With the trademarked wide grin pasted on his
face, he danced and waved enthusiastically to loud cheers from his supporters.
While speaking, Jonathan admitted that he had done
very little for the Niger Delta, but promised to make
amends if re-elected. Perhaps, the admission was
made in the hope that other parts of the country
would view him as a non-sectional leader, while the
people of the Niger Delta would be seduced into longing for four years of intensive development of
the zone.
It did not pan out either way. In fact, what happened
was that Jonathan, unknowingly, invited Niger Delta
activists to come up with a narrative that his five-
year presidency amounted to a waste for the
ordinary Bayelsan and Niger Deltan.
A confirmation of this was delivered by Jonathan
himself after he lost the re-election bid. It was at a
state banquet held in his honour by Governor Henry
Seriake Dickson at the Dr. Gabriel Okara Cultural
Centre in Yenagoa on May 29, 2015.
The occasion, brimming with Jonathan’s close
aides, officials of his government and the crème de la
crème of the Ijaw nation, was akin to a stock-taking
exercise. Addressing the gathering, Jonathan said he
thought Bayelsans would boo him for neglecting
them but was amazed by the level of love the Governor and the people of the state have shown
him.
‘‘…When you are in high office and you finished
serving, you are afraid of going back home, … at the
late hour, it dawns on you that you could have done
that, you failed to do this, you failed to do that… you
begin to fear whether the people that come to
receive you will curse you, hoot at you,” Jonathan thundered.
Clearly stated by the former President was that
despite his administration’s neglect of Bayelsa
State, Governor Dickson’s support for him never
wavered. What, perhaps, went unstated was that
Governor Dickson also remained steadfast despite
the former President’s wife undisguised attempts to humiliate him.
As a matter of fact, mutual friends of the duo were
persuaded that Governor Dickson’s affection for the
former President was like that of a son for the father,
a state of affairs that angered many Ijaw activists
such as I.
We believed that such strong affection for a man,
whose administration neglected the Ijaw nation,
amounted to a betrayal of the Ijaw cause for which
Isaac Boro, Melford Okilo, DSP Alamieyeseigha fought
and died.
The former President would, again, confirm Governor
Dickson as a dependable ally. The confirmation was
made during the run-up to the December 2015
Bayelsa State governorship election, which Governor
Seriake Dickson won.
On 8 September 2015, while making a strong case for
the re-election of Governor Dickson, the former
President described the governor as a man of
uncommon leadership qualities and a ‘‘trusted
and dependable person’’.
Thus, when the news media erupted with the reports,
on 16 May, that Governor Dickson accused Dr.
Jonathan of neglecting the Niger Delta during his five-
year presidency, it came as no surprise to me. Why?
Jonathan himself had admitted doing so. The
governor made the remark at the annual Isaac Adaka Boro Day celebration at the Izon Warri in
Yenagoa.
After a careful reading of the Governor’s speech, I
realised-as any reader capable of reflection should-
that Dickson’s comments were directed,
exclusively, at the political elite, notably ministers
and other appointees of the Jonathan administration.
In very clear terms, the governor pointed out the studious refusal of people in this category to team up
with him in his efforts to develop the state.
Even then, it would require a mighty effort not to be
tempted to interpret Dickson’s remarks as
suggesting that Jonathan wasted the chance by the
Ijaw to develop the Niger Delta because he was the
leader. The leader, by nature, provides direction to
the led. Not the other way.
Ijaw leaders invested significant efforts, time and
resources in the quest for true federalism, resource
control and an opportunity to have one of them lead
the country as president.
The strength of this agitation, arising from decades of
minority oppression, led the late sage, Chief Obafemi
Awolowo to say: “I look forward to the day, not in
the far distant future, when an Ijaw would be
president of our Republic and a Birom or vice
versa.”
Awolowo’s hopes were fulfilled when Dr. Jonathan
got the chance. Did he use it well for the Ijaw nation?
He has answered the question by himself.
It is important for every Nigerian to understand that
there should be adequate collaboration between the
government of Bayelsa State and the Federal
Government principally because the challenges
posed by the environment cannot be surmounted by
the state government alone.
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