Jonathan wrong to blame the north for his 2015 political failure – ACF chieftain

IT is a grossly unfair allegation and a terrible error of deliberate misanalysis for former President Goodluck Jonathan to blame the North for his inevitable 2015 electoral failure, a member of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Alhaji Mohammed Abdulrahman, has said.

Speaking with The Nation on telephone from his Kaduna base yesterday, Abdulrahman who was the Secretary of ACF’s Political Committee, which analyzes political issues and directions in addition to making presentations for ACF, stated that the former President made too many errors that a genuine politician wouldn’t have made.

Among these, he said, was the wrong choice of people to lead his campaign in the north and the naïve over-dependence on people who were only out to make hundreds of millions of Naira for their own pockets while deceiving Jonathan that they were doing some serious political mobilization.

According to Abdulrahman, many good and simple people who attain high positions may not necessarily succeed in becoming politicians who can sway all manners of people to their viewpoint and President Jonathan’s new book ‘My Transition Hours’ is only another attestation to that.

“After spending a total of six years in Aso Rock, how could he have hoped to spend another term of four years, to make a total of 10 years and thereby become the longest serving elected President that Nigeria will ever have?

‘No! The political establishment, including the likes of Babangida and Obasanjo, who initially supported him, wouldn’t have smiled at such naivety.

“It is surprising that he is making statements showing that he is moving on to new but unnecessary errors instead of simply being thankful to God and Nigeria for being alive to enjoy a peaceful retirement.

“It is public knowledge that towards the end of his tenure, former President Goodluck Jonathan became an unmitigated disaster and somewhat foolish leader merely driven by an air of self-importance.

“Too many obvious, strong and really important factors were working against him and his administration and one can categorically say that he had no chance of winning that election.

“If the likes of Minister Orubebe had succeeded inscuttling the announcement of the election results and whether the election was manipulated or rigged, Nigerians and the international community wouldn’t have allowed such to prevail.

“If I go on enumerating the wrong steps and factors that stood on GEJ’s way to prevent him from returning to office in 2015, I could be getting drawn into so much politics.

“Everyone knows about the grossly inexperienced political strategists and hungry/corrupted officials surrounding him in his government.

“By now, it should be obvious to the ex-President that many people he choose to rely on in running his administration and leading his supporters, including Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa’s religious prayer groups and diabolical supporters only deceived and fleeced his campaign of hundreds of millions of Naira while pretending to be mobilising the North for Goodluck Jonathan,” he said.