Insecurity: Should Jonathan quit office now?

By Dada ALADELOKUN.

President Jonathan

Nigerians are disturbed by the insecurity in the land. Assistant Editor Dada ALADELOKUN, in anticipation of what to expect when the House of Representatives reconvenes in September, speaks with a cross-section of politicians on the performance of the Jonathan administration. He asks: Should the President quit now?

It began like a child’s play. Today, it is almost a singalong. 
“Jonathan, resign and go.” “Just go, Jonathan!” Across the country, it is one call that stands out among issues on the front burner, especially on the nation’s suffocating political milieu.
Far from it, it is not about the “crawling” 2012 Budget that has for sometime now, put President Goodluck Jonathan on the defensive against members of the House of Representatives who would not want him to spend the next minute at the nation’s seat of power. 
The call has been coming from the embittered hearts of concerned Nigerians who believe that the president and his lieutenants are at their wits’ end over the seemingly unending bombing campaign by the Boko Haram sect, especially in the northern part of the country.
The sect, according to reports, was the first to seek the president’s resignation if he would not join Islam in lieu of his own religion. Apparently, Mr President did not budge and the sect would not sheathe their sword, killing and maiming. 
As at the close of last year, bookmakers had it that over five hundred innocent Nigerians had lost their precious lives to incessant bombings and its inherent mindless killings and bloodletting. There appears to be no end in sight for the orgy of killings and attacks in which sacred worship centres have not been spared.
To most worried Nigerians, the fact remains indubitable that the problem posed by the sect and its activities is a major obstacle to smooth governance that all anxiously expect from the Jonathan Administration; hence, the calls for his resignation.
Reportedly, renowned Islamic scholar, Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, who was among the earliest few who asked the President to tender his resignation letter. His reason: For “staining his hands with so much blood.”
Former Oyo State Governor, Lam Adesina, also lent his voice in the same vein last week as he unveiled his disechantment with the leadership over the wanton destruction of lives and property by the fundamentalist sect in the North.
Adesina, one of the leaders of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), spoke at the 2012 Ramadan Tefsir lecture held at the Gbadamosi Olowoporoku Adesina Memorial Mosque, Felele, Ibadan. He said: “After a thorough assessment of the situation, it is my belief that we must achieve peace at this point in time because if there is no peace now, then Nigeria is going to collapse. Therefore, while I am calling on the Boko Haram sect to soft-pedal, I am calling on President Jonathan, if it is his resignation that will bring about peace in Nigeria, let him resign.” 
Also, the northern chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), bemoaned and berated what it called Jonathan’s unimpressive handling of the nation’s scarifying security challenges. 
The group’s spokesman, for the 19 northern states, Mr. Sunday Oibe, expressed regrets that the Boko Haram had continued to perpetrate its murderous activities because of the president’s support. Again, the group’s panacea: The president must resign!
Last Tuesday, however, Jonathan spoke through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Matters, Dr. Doyin Okupe. Though, he sympathised with the Christian community in the North who had suffered incessant attacks and bloodshed, he described the call by northern chapter of the CAN for the President to resign as misguided and uncalled-for.”
Appealing for the Christian community’s understanding, he re-echoed the government’s assurance that the security challenges would soon be over, even as he recalled that it took the British government more than 28 years to contain the Irish Revolutionary Army (IRA). But Okupe did not disclose what the president was doing about the challenges. 
In Kaduna, a former Secretary of the Kaduna State CAN, Rev. Joseph Hayab, cautioned religious leaders against overheating the polity by calling for the President’s resignation.
Hayab, who is the Special Adviser to Kaduna State Governor on Religious Matters warned that such a call could incite northern Christians against the Jonathan-led administration.
Also, to former Kaduna State Governor Balarabe Musa, calling for the President to throw in the towel would not do anyone and indeed the nation, an iota of good. “If he resigns, how sure are we that his successor will have the solution for these problems on ground? What Nigeria needs is a fundamental change that will usher in a new system that will be of immeasurable advantage to the generality of Nigerians.”
He further explained his stance: “What we need urgently now is a lasting solution to unemployment, festering corruption and such other ills militating against the nation and indeed, the entire citizenry. It is not all about the president’s resignation; it is far from it.”
An ACN member of the House of Representatives, Dr. Ifeoluwa Arowosoge, did not fault those calling for the president’s ouster, but he too believes firmly that it won’t solve the problem at hand.
The lawmaker, who represents Ekiti South West/Ikere/Ise/Orun Constituency told The Nation yesterday: “Those seeking the resignation of Mr President are doing so out of sheer concern and fear over the spate of wanton loss of precious lives and property in the northern part of the country. How sure are we that the person coming to take over the mantle of leadership from him will end the palaver? He can’t.
“I dare say that the president’s resignation won’t solve any problem; rather, it will aggravate it because the Niger-Delta militants will rise again. In the process, oil pipelines will turn casualties and the nation’s economy will be adversely affected. It is a situation we have to handle will absolute caution.”
However, Arowosoge has a recipe. Said he: “The President should complete this ongoing tenure and leave for another person that Nigerians want there. He should forget about coming for a second term if he is really interested in the peace and unity of this country.”
Former military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) lent his voice in condemnation of such a call for Jonathan’s resignation on Thursday, last week. Describing it as laughable, the gap-toothed ex-Nigerian leader believes that such a demand could lead to the disintegration of Nigeria. Thus, he enjoined media practitioners not to celebrate those that want the country to break up through such calls.
Both IBB and activist politician Ayo Opadokun, who is the national coordinator of Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms (CODER), believe fervently that a major way to curtail the insecurity in the country is by creating state police which visionary advocates like the national leader of ACN, Asiwaji Bola Tinubu had been drumming into the ears of past successive administrations.
Now, from the president’s stand-point, it appears that the apostles of the Jonathan-must-resign calls may lose out ultimately, but how reliable is the president’s assurance that Nigerians will soon have cause to live in the endangered part of the country with their hearts in the proper place? What will be his magic wand at long last?
As events daily unfold, keen observers are of the hope that at the end of the day, the president would have taken decisive steps that would not give his critics the opportunity to have a good laugh.