WHEN President Goodluck  Jonathan was campaigning for the highest office in the land in 2011, he easily came across to the electorate as a humble individual, a sincere and trustworthy person.

There was this straightforward mien about him that you do not often see in politicians. Politicians, especially in our clime, are defined by double speak, playing to the gallery and always on the lookout for a cheap political point to score. Indeed a classic definition of a politician in Nigeria appears to be one who takes the right turn when he or she trafficates left.

But President Jonathan all through his political career – from the time he was elected deputy governor in Bayelsa to this time – has shown that politics does not really have to be a dirty game where there are no rules and no honour.

The recent visit of the President to Borno and Yobe states North-East of Nigeria afforded many Nigerians the opportunity to once again see the forthrightness and courage in the man they trusted with their mandate.

In spite of the distracting comments and the obvious moves of the opposition to politicise the visit of the President to the two troubled states where the dreaded Boko Haram sect has made life very cheap, President Jonathan stuck to reason and statecraft.

He would not be drawn into any infantile debate over what was clearly a provocation by the opposition governors’ circus show staged earlier in Maiduguri. Not done with their ambushing of the President with their melodramatic visit, the opposition taunted that the President would not pass a night in Maiduguri.

But the President made all the sceptics not only eat their words but also showed them what a great leader he is.

Once in the troubled towns, the president went straight to business. He visited important places to see the level of devastation that Boko Haram had unleashed on the innocent people of Borno and Yobe states. In the eyes of the President, it was not difficult to see his compassionate feelings for the people of the two states whose loved ones have been murdered by this satanic group, and for whom every day is lived under fear and uncertainty.

The President saw first-hand how the economy of an important part of the country has been destroyed by a faceless group and what looks like complicity of the elite. In short, the President saw enough to strengthen his resolve to do anything within his powers to stamp out the Boko Haram group and rebuild the confidence of the people in the ability of the state to protect them.

The high point of the visits was the town hall meeting President Jonathan held with stakeholders in Maiduguri. In that meeting, many issues ranging from the immediate and remote causes of the Boko Haram insurgency, strategies for containing the menace, the rebuilding of the economy of the region as well as the process of demilitarizing the Kanem-Borno axis were discussed.

Indeed, the President put up a performance the Nigerian people who elected him knew he was capable of. He did not come to the meeting like a politician thinking about the next election.

Instead, President Jonathan turned up like a statesman worried about the next generation. He was brutally frank with the people and the elders of the state as he looked them in the eyes and told them not what they would want to hear but what the truth is.

And the truth is that it appears that the elders of Borno for a long time played the ostrich with the Boko Haram insurgency. Like Nero, they fiddled while Rome burnt.
For a long time the elders who suddenly found their voices at the meeting have buried their heads in the sand while the state burned.

They are too quick to condemn any perceived indiscretion by the Joint Task Force (JTF) stationed in the state to protect the people but too reluctant to speak up against the massacre, which the Boko Haram sect has been unleashing on the hapless citizens of the state. With the way the elders vehemently want the JTF out from Borno, one would think that the latter and not the Boko Haram are the aggressors in the State.

Another President, perhaps more political and wily would probably have gone along with the elders of Borno and play to the gallery by endorsing all their proposals just to be in their good books with an eye fixed on the next election. President Jonathan would have none of that.

He stood by the oath he swore to defend and protect the lives and property of the people. He was well aware that many of the people who suffered daily from the attacks of the Boko Haram and who live in continuous fear could not possibly find their way to that town hall meeting. For this people, the presence of the JTF in Borno remains a source of confidence in the ability of the Nigerian state to protect them.

Therefore any talk about pulling the JTF out of Borno and Yobe now cannot be in the interest of these poor masses. Even the Governor of Borno himself did hint the President that while the insurgency has declined in neighbouring states like Bauchi, Gombe and Adamawa, there is still no let-up in Borno and Yobe. Moreover, the President is in a better position to know; he has the benefits of security reports and intelligence, which the elders do not have in reaching their own conclusions.

Howver, unknown to many of them, pulling out the JTF would be a far more easier decision for him to take both in terms of cost and scoring cheap a political goal!
It is very important to appreciate the point President Jonathan made in defending the JTF. One of the features that makes a state unique from other non-state actors is the possession of the monopoly of the instruments of coercion.

Once any group succeeds in breaking this monopoly, which only the state should have, the state is as good as dead. The military, together with the police and other law enforcement agencies (in this case the JTF), embodies this feature of the monopoly of the use of coercion in the state.

While not encouraging the JTF to discard its rules of engagement, it must be noted that what the Borno elders are demanding of the JTF will axiomatically lead to it being run over by the Boko Haram. And if this happens, this will embolden other dissident groups to challenge the authority of the Nigerian state.

When a single soldier or policeman is gunned down in the street by armed groups and dissidents, the signal that is being sent out to society is that the state is too weak to protect the citizens because these soldiers and the police are agents of the state. And when such a signal is out, not only the people are endangered, even the state itself is at risk.

Is this too abstract for our Borno elders to understand?

The visit of the President needs not create any unnecessary controversy. Instead it should provide the roadmap to finding lasting peace not only in Borno and Yobe states, but all over the North. One striking outcome of the presidential visit is that we are all agreed that there is an urgent need for peace to return to the North even if we disagree on the road to that peace.

It is therefore important to build on the gains of that visit by keeping the channel of communications and dialogue flowing and collaborating with the government, which is determined to do whatever it can, to secure the people of the region. Our Elders and the people can really help in speeding up the exit of the JTF in Borno. They can do this by volunteering important information to the security agencies that will help stamp out the Boko Haram group. Once the area is safe again, the elders would have their wish and the JTF will be called out of their state.

All in all, the President’s visit to Borno and Yobe was largely successful. The performance of President Jonathan on the road shows that he has come good, and Nigerians can beat their chest and say, yes, this is the President we voted for!

Mrs. MEDINAT UMAR, a commentator on national issues, wrote from Abuja.