“He strongly reaffirms that May 29 is, has been, and will remain sacrosanct,” were the exact words of Dr. Reuben Abati, spokesperson of President Goodluck Jonathan. “I made it absolutely clear that the May 29th handover date is sacrosanct,” were President Jonathan’s own words in a statement he signed while relaying the meeting between himself and the U.S. Secretary of State, Senator John Kerry.
If May 29 is sacrosanct, why is the presidency distracting everyone with a new unconstitutional handover date of May 28, 2015? If the current administration gets away with handing over on a day outside the constitutionally recognised date, what is to say the next administration and those after it will not do likewise? It would look like as long as the administration hands over on or before May 29, it would just be fine. But May 29 is there for a reason and there are no democratic values without traditions.
This becomes even more worrying because there is absolutely no justification for handing over a day earlier. President Jonathan has been president since May 2010 – 5 years ago – so one finds the desperation to hand over a day before the constitutionally recognised day a bit suspicious. The president’s handlers and supporters talk of heroism and a deserved Nobel Peace Prize and as desperate as the latter might sound, they should be sold such prizes are won on the strength of consistency and no one will win such a prestigious prize just because of a phone call that wasn’t anything beyond the norm around the world. If we have to be distracted about the motives for creating an overnight power vacuum between May 28 and May 29, why would anyone believe the president did not make the concession call under some form of duress?
The British and the Americans kept a watchful eye over Nigeria, especially the Nigerian government, during this election process. They did that mostly because they did not trust our government enough to do the right thing. They were involved, even down to the concession call that was made by President Jonathan. Do we really need them to get involved with the May 28/29 argument? Must we introduce ideas that create suspicion?
On the 29th of May 1999, General Abdulsalami Abubakar handed over to President Olusegun Obasanjo, every fourth 29th of May after that, we have had a form of transition ceremony. There is absolutely nothing in the Nigerian constitution that gives room for anyone to wiggle what even the president agreed on several occasions is sacrosanct. What is in a day? Everything! If a day was not so important, it would also be arguable to have a president with an expired mandate decide to hand over on the 30th of May. Excuses can always be made, like it is being made for May 28 now.
Why our president wants the very last act he is involved with as president to be an unconstitutional one is beyond one, but that is exactly what a May 28 hand over is: unconstitutional. It is never too late to consider, and like that commendable concession call, forget this May 28 distraction and hand over on the constitutionally recognised May 29. Because again, were the president to finally agree to a May 29 hand over date just days to the event, we’d soon be distracted by another round of “he is a hero” and “he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize” just because himself and his cohorts created an enabling environment for tension but eventually do the right thing and that ends up making the right thing such a heroic move.
We’ve had too many Jonathanian drama since October 1, 2010. We need not be distracted with another one.
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