By Abba Adakole<\/p>\n
The whole country now knows that\u00a0the All Progressives Congress (APC) won\u00a0the Osun State gubernatorial election held on August 9, 2014. Governor Rauf Aregbesola, the man who\u00a0called on his supporters to fight security agencies with \u201ccutlasses and charms,\u201d has won a new four-year mandate to run the affairs of Osun.\u00a0\u00a0And this has happened despite all the hue and cry from the APC that the President Goodluck Jonathan-led Federal Government has perfected plans to use security agencies and\u00a0the\u00a0Independent National Electoral Commission to rig the election in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).<\/p>\n
Even though\u00a0Aregbesola has won his re-election bid, the real winners of the Osun election are President Jonathan and\u00a0INEC.\u00a0\u00a0That the Osun election has come and gone without all the rigging and violence that the APC promised is a huge credit to the Jonathan-led Federal Government and INEC for providing adequate security and conducting a free and fair election in Osun.<\/p>\n
As is the case with any human being, President Jonathan has his faults.\u00a0\u00a0Indeed, as many commentators have observed, one of his faults is that he is far too gentle for the Nigerian political environment.\u00a0\u00a0And, yet, it is his moderate and live-and-let-live leadership approach that has ensured that his governing PDP has completely changed the tone of political engagement with regards to the conduct of elections.<\/p>\n
Under President Jonathan, Professor Attahiru Jega, a man whose integrity is acknowledged across Nigeria, was appointed Chairman of INEC.\u00a0\u00a0As the ultimate elections umpire under Jonathan\u2019s watch, Jega has overseen staggered gubernatorial elections in Edo, Ondo, Anambra and now Osun in which the ruling PDP did not only lose but went on to congratulate the winning parties.\u00a0\u00a0This is clear evidence that Nigerians are the ultimate beneficiaries of Jonathan\u2019s gentle leadership style.<\/p>\n
Indeed, as the Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Chief (Dr) Tony Anenih, said in his Democracy Day statement this past May: \u201cIn its 15 years at the helm of affairs of our great nation, the PDP has created an atmosphere that allows total freedom of expression, dissent and the greatest level of inclusive political participation ever recorded in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anenih also said, \u201cIt is to the credit of the President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan-led PDP government that this ambience of democratic freedom has encouraged the most combative opposition rhetoric ever experienced in Nigeria\u2019s history.\u00a0\u00a0President Jonathan has also demonstrated respect for the rule of law by his non-interference in judicial, legislative and electoral matters.\u00a0\u00a0Ironically, our liberal and exceptionally tolerant President has been vilified for promoting and protecting the very democratic freedoms that others are using unfairly against the government.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is indeed a great irony that the biggest beneficiaries of Jonathan\u2019s policy of inclusive and non-domineering democracy, among whom members of the APC must be counted, are often the ones that have the most uncomplimentary things to say about the President.\u00a0\u00a0Before any election, the APC inundates the country with spurious allegations against the President, the PDP, INEC and the security agencies.\u00a0\u00a0And yet when all the accusations turn out to be false and unfounded, the APC has never mustered the courage to own up to its bogus charges, nor has the party offered any apology to Nigerians and those the party maligned.<\/p>\n
If anything, members of the APC seem to have nothing better to do than to dream up laughable accusations against President Jonathan and the PDP almost on a daily basis.\u00a0\u00a0One of the latest is a charge from Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State who was recently reported to have alleged that the PDP is plotting to make Jonathan a life President.\u00a0\u00a0That nobody has bothered to respond to this bit of folly shows how preposterous Nigerians consider the statement.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, the same Kwankwaso conducted local government elections a few months ago.\u00a0\u00a0In what can only be described as political comedy, the APC, which he left the PDP for only some months earlier, \u201cwon\u201d the election in every single local government area.\u00a0\u00a0Even Kwankwaso himself was apparently so unconvinced of his \u201cvictory\u201d that he spent millions of naira on many newspaper earpiece adverts to publicise the Kano local government election results to the great amusement of many discerning Nigerians.<\/p>\n
Extrapolating from the Kano scenario, if Kwankwaso was the President, every single state election would be \u201cwon\u201d by his party.\u00a0\u00a0And, perhaps, he would then resort to buying full page adverts, instead of the tiny earpiece adverts, in all Nigerian newspapers to convince himself of such \u201cmiraculous victory.\u201d\u00a0But thank God Kwankwaso is not the President. And Jonathan, who, by God\u2019s grace, remains\u00a0the<\/em>\u00a0substantive President, has no need for Kwankwaso\u2019s kind of 100% \u201cvictory\u201d.<\/p>\n That Jonathan presides over a country where opposition parties can abuse the central authorities incessantly and yet go ahead to secure victories in gubernatorial elections, despite unfounded accusations of \u201cmilitarisation,\u201d speaks volume of the man\u2019s credibility. More importantly, the very encouraging percentage of votes Jonathan\u2019s PDP picked up in Osun (42% against APC\u2019s 58%) is an indication that when it is time for the presidential poll even the voters in Osun will remember the man who made sure their votes counted during the gubernatorial election.<\/p>\n \n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Abba Adakole The whole country now knows that\u00a0the All Progressives Congress (APC) won\u00a0the Osun State gubernatorial election held on August 9, 2014. Governor Rauf Aregbesola, the man who\u00a0called on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n\n