Fifteen years into the Fourth Republic, Nigeria is cur­rently enjoying her longest period of civilian rule. Al­though the history of the country is replete with a number of failed attempts at civilian rule, many are now beginning to believe that de­mocracy has at last come to stay in the most populous black nation on earth. Not that there haven’t been the sort of crises that have in the past provided excuse for the military to seize power. The festering Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East might have in the past prompted a fresh round of military adventurism, but it now appears that the armed forces have come to accept that one of their core responsibilities is the preservation of democratic free­dom in the land.
More encouragingly too, lead­ing politicians are beginning to recognize the importance of avoiding the sort of skulduggery and brinksmanship responsible for derailing previous democratic experiments. Only last week, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Peoples Demo­cratic Party (PDP) endorsed Dr Goodluck Jonathan to run for a second term in office as the party’s flag-bearer in the 2015 presidential elections. In justify­ing their decision to unanimously support Jonathan’s yet-to-be de­clared ambition, Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum and Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, commended the president’s efforts at curtail­ing the spread of the dreaded vi­rus disease in Nigeria as well as recent successes by the armed forces in combating Boko Ha­ram insurgents. The PDP Board Of Trustees (BoT) on its part in endorsing Jonathan reportedly gave him certain conditions such as mandating him to make sure peace returns to all parts of the country, ensuring implementa­tion of the party’s manifesto and implementation of the transfor­mation agenda to the benefit of all the sections of our country
This laudable step by the PDP NEC signifies remarkable prog­ress in our political evolution as a nation. Political successions are of­ten messy affairs in Nigeria. About eleven years ago, then President Olusegun Obasanjo notoriously fell out with his Vice President Atiku Abubakar over the latter’s reluc­tance to whole-heartedly support him for a second term in office. Although Atiku eventually brought his formidable Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) machinery to support Obasanjo, the then number one citizen took umbrage at what he construed as his being practically forced to beg for the ticket. Dur­ing his second tenure, Obasanjo set about trying to systematically deci­mate Atiku’s political base – a cam­paign that literally made him take his eyes off the ball of governance.
The concept of the right of first refusal given by a ruling party to an incumbent Head of State eligible for a second term in office is a glob­al standard. Indeed, there are very few countries in the world where an eligible incumbent is subjected to having to endure the arduous process of contesting for his party’s nomination.
Because in the long run, know­ing that a first-term president is automatically guaranteed to be the party’s flag-bearer at the next elec­tion cycle helps rally members to ensure the success of that regime. Such continuity and consistency represent vital building blocks in establishing strong institutions, es­pecially in a heterogeneous party like the PDP whose membership broadly cuts across ethnic and reli­gious divides. Embracing the grant­ing of this right of first refusal will help in entrenching much-needed ideals of honor and civility in our political culture.
President Jonathan on his part has described his adoption as a humbling experience. It is widely believed that his humility is one of his biggest selling points. His uncanny ability to connect and empathize with the average Nige­rian has helped make him lovable and electable. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he demonstrated that he is not consumed by blind ambition when in responding to his unanimous endorsement, pointed out he still has a right to refuse the nomination. On the other hand, oth­er party members aren’t formally barred from seeking for the party’s presidential nomination. Yet it will seem that in endorsing Goodluck Jonathan, the party leadership is trying to direct their members in the course of action they deem to be most sensible at this point.
Very importantly, the PDP has succeeded in further burnishing its respectability as a ‘centrist’ party in a political terrain dotted by parochi­al ethnic-affiliated parties. There were no suggestions that party members were being whipped into line to declare support for the Presi­dent. There were no allegations that state governors were being coerced into throwing in their hats for him. The self-styled ‘biggest political party in Africa’ appears to have simply concluded that their major asset in the 2015 elections is no oth­er than the same man who won the freest and fairest Nigerian presiden­tial election in recent times.
It is a win-win situation for all sides. The President is afforded more time before he hits the cam­paign trail for the elections proper. The PDP on its part avoids the often messy and fragmentary politicking that characterizes party primaries in Nigeria. And the electorate ulti­mately gets a chance to pass a ver­dict on Goodluck Jonathan’s stew­ardship so far. The honour done by the PDP to President Jonathan does not come cheap, for it is usu­ally based on hard work and per­formance in office. In the United States, for example from where Nigeria copied the executive presi­dential system, almost all the great presidents who rose to that height under the umbrella of political par­ties were so requited..
If we exclude George Washing­ton, because the party system did not yet exist in America at his time, we recall that the 3rd President Thomas Jefterson (1801 – 1809) had graduated like Jonathan from Vice President to president in 1801. One of Jefferson’s great achievements was the purchase of the expansive Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, by virtue of which the coun­try’s land mass almost doubled at a meager cost of $15m. Jefferson took the initiative irrespective of the fact that the American constitution was silent on land acquisition. For this and other feats Jefferson was of­fered the right of first refusal by the Democratic – Republican Party and he went ahead to defeat his opponent Charles Pinckeny by an electoral margin of 162 to 14.Ditto for Andrew Jackson, the president who got Britain to open West In­dian ports to U.S. Shipping; Abra­ham Lincoln, who prosecuted the civil war and dealt a crucial blow to slavery. Others are Theodore Roos­evelt, 26th President, Franklin Roo­sevelt the 32nd president as well as Ronald Reagan and the incumbent President Barrack Obama. In fact, Franklin Roosevelt was given the right of first refusal for the unprec­edented 4th time as a result of his achievements.
.Nzeaka, former editor of Sun­day Punch, writes from Lagos.
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