By Ochereome Nnanna
It is often said that some leaders are “good men” but that they are surrounded by “bad” advisers. If you had the privilege of listening to Professor Femi Odekunle on the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, shortly after President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn-in last Friday, you would have gained a very educative insight to the veracity of this contention.

Nigeria’s problems are often directly linked to bad leadership, and bad leadership is mostly a spin-off of the antics of self-serving, malicious and evil-minded advisers who, knowing that the leader is in a “cage”as former President Goodluck Jonathan put it, shield him from the reality of the situation confronting the nation.

Just to refresh your memory, Professor Odekunle had the opportunity to work as an adviser to someone in a very high executive office about 20 years ago. He was the Chairman, Advisory Committee on Socio-Political and Economic Matters to disgrace former Chief of General Staff under General Sani Abacha, Oladipo Diya. Bearing in mind that Odekunle and Diya, who was then a Lieutenant General of the Nigerian Army, were later on arrested, humiliated (in fact, Diya was sentenced to death and his rank rudely torn off his epaulette) and dumped in prison in connection with a failed coup, you may be left in no confusion as to what manner of advice Prof Odekunle fed his principal with. It took the mysterious, sudden death of Abacha for Odekunle and the man he served to survive the ordeal.

In his acceptance speech, President Buhari paid glowing tributes to his predecessor, Jonathan, for conceding victory to him, saying that it not only helped us to have the peace we are enjoying, but also shored up the image of Nigeria as a country whose standard of democracy is now respected around the world.

Odekunle told his viewers that if he were Buhari’s adviser, sitting with him in his “bedroom”, he would have counselled against such encomiums for Jonathan because, according to him, the ex-president was “forced” to concede. According to Odekunle, paying such glowing tributes to Jonathan did not tell the whole truth about what really happened for the benefit of the young ones, since we are now in a new regime of telling the truth.

Let me observe that I am overjoyed that Odekunle was not in Buhari’s “bedroom” to advise him against doing the right thing. As Buhari is not naïve and shallow like Diya, he must have ignored the hawks around him who, like Odekunle, must have tried to push him on a revanchist pathway to great blunders on his very first outing.

Irrespective of the undercurrents that went before Jonathan conceded, Buhari needed to show magnanimity in victory, especially on his finest moment while delivering his first address to the nation and the world at large. He would have looked very poorly if he had tried to step on Jonathan’s head on that occasion. It would have counted against him and our country. Buhari did great honour not only to Jonathan but our country and her democracy by his stately and noble parting words for his predecessor who had also conducted himself excellently in ensuring a smooth and pleasant transfer of power to the new leader.

I am very proud of the conducts of these two gentlemen since March 30, 2015, when a keg of gunpowder threatening to blow Nigeria to smithereens was nimbly defused by Jonathan. If Jonathan had done otherwise, Odekunle would probably be in London or America by now seeking asylum, while millions of ordinary Nigerians would be running helter-skelter from the demons that would have been let loose in all corners of the country. Thousands would have lost their lives, and the prediction that Nigeria would disintegrate in 2015 would have come true. God used Jonathan to ensure that Nigeria remains one peaceful, united country where Buhari and his team can try their hands in the efforts to put it on the path to development.

Let us remember that Jonathan had a choice to reject the result of the election. His party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, claimed it had “incontrovertible evidence” of massive electoral malpractices, especially in Arewa North, where we saw hordes of under-aged voters. Remember what Elder Godsday Orubebe, a former Minister, did at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, where Prof Attahiru Jega announced the result of the presidential election. There were people in his political party who would rather plunge Nigeria into crisis than give up power. Just as people were ready for war in the North, some people were equally ready for it in the South. Those who were not obvious still had their contingency plans in case things started.

Ask yourself what would have been the case if Jonathan were made of the Rotimi Amaechi kind of stuff, where would Nigeria be by now? He was still the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces. If Jonathan had meant to make trouble, he had the abundant capacity to do so but chose not to. He appointed Jega knowing the kind of person he was. He allowed the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the free hand to assert its independence knowing it could lead to surprising election results. He gave it all the funds it wanted.

He watched the opposition parties gather together against him and did not try anti-democratic tricks perfected by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He was physically attacked in the North and his campaign posters and buses razed or smashed. His supporters were threatened with death. He could have engineered for the same or even worse to happen to Buhari in his own areas, yet Buhari campaigned peacefully throughout the South East, South-South and South West.

Such a man deserves the respect of even the Odekunles of this country and should be allowed to go home and rest his nerves. Thank you, Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, for refusing to go down with Nigeria. For that, nobody will ever bring you down!