By Francis Dufugha
The recent State House press release authored by Mr. Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, reads like a clarion trumpet sounded too early before dawn. It seeks to ring alarm bells over the possibility of former President Goodluck Jonathan returning to the political arena in 2027. While politics thrives on contestation, one cannot help but notice that the statement is less about facts and more about fear—fear dressed up in the language of Shakespearean thunder.
Yes, Jonathan’s presidency had its blemishes. No administration, past or present, wears a spotless garment. Yet to suggest that his years in office were nothing but locust years is to indulge in selective amnesia. It was under Jonathan that Nigeria’s economy was rebased and recognized as the largest in Africa in 2014, with a GDP surpassing $500 billion. It was also in his time that the Bank Verification Number (BVN) and the Sovereign Wealth Fund were introduced—reforms that continue to serve the nation today. To ignore these while harping only on corruption scandals is like describing the ocean by the foam at its edges.
The Villa’s statement hails President Tinubu’s “giant strides” in resetting the economy. Indeed, subsidy removal and exchange rate unification were bold strokes, but as every farmer knows, bold strokes with a machete can clear weeds—or cut down the yam as well. Inflation, though officially said to be easing, still gnaws at the pockets of ordinary Nigerians like a stubborn termite. The naira may be “stabilised” on paper, yet for the market woman in Swali or the civil servant in Kaduna, the daily struggle feels like standing in quicksand.
Security remains Nigeria’s Achilles’ heel. Jonathan was pilloried for insurgency in the Northeast, but today, banditry, kidnappings, and farmer-herder conflicts have become stubborn stains on the national fabric. To measure Jonathan only by insecurity while painting the present with a rose brush is like pointing at another man’s leaking roof while rain pours into your own bedroom.
One wonders why the State House chose Jonathan—out of the many potential contenders—as its dartboard. Could it be that his name still carries a certain resonance across regions? Could it be that the memory of his humility in conceding defeat in 2015, a rare act in Africa, continues to shine like a lamp in a dark tunnel? If democracy is truly about choice, then why the rush to frighten Nigerians with tales of the past instead of inspiring them with promises for the future?
Every Nigerian, including former leaders, has a constitutional right to contest. The courts, not press releases, will decide questions of eligibility. And ultimately, it is the Nigerian people who will sit as the jury in 2027. What they need is not propaganda but performance; not blame games but bread on the table; not nostalgia for past errors but hope for tomorrow.
In the end, history is not a cudgel to beat opponents into silence but a mirror to remind leaders—past, present, and future—that the people remember everything: the good, the bad, and the unfinished.