By Owei Lakemfa
I KNOW that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a major problem in the country, but I confess to having a different opinion about President Goodluck Jonathan. Unlike most of the country’s past leaders, he appears  to be a gentleman, level-headed, civilised and neither power conscious nor power drunk.

He also appears to be humble with a capacity to listen to others, and is not a do-or-die politician.
These are the reasons why I think that his remarks at the presidential campaigns in Ibadan where he referred to the four non-PDP governors in the West as “rascals”  is quite out of character.

I was shocked when I read the President’s speech, especially the part that said: “We (PDP)  must take over all the states in the South–West. The zone  is too important to be left  in the hands of  rascals. We shall take over Lagos, Ekiti, Osun and Ondo states”.

The four governors mentioned are part of the 36 that sit at the Council of State with  the President and other past leaders to take far-reaching decisions that affect the country. Out of deference to that body, even if President Jonathan is convinced that these governors are rascals, he should not have said so in public.

Secondly, making such remarks in what was the political capital of Western Nigeria, is capable of compromising the security of the area. The President should know that the governors he mentioned are quite popular in the zone, including Ibadan.

Also, his  language, “We must take over…”, is not characteristic of Jonathan , but of Baba. He should know that it is the electorate that will decide who governs them and not any other force. Again  it is not an expression democrats use; it is the vocabulary of coup plotters; in a democracy, you don’t “take over”, you win elections.

It is also ironic that the speech was made in Ibadan where the PDP has been in power by the power of thugs.

The PDP is run in Oyo State by people who make no distinction between enemies and foes; the party leaders led by Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu engaged in violent attacks against the government of Alhaji Rasheed Ladoja who was a PDP governor. Neither Adedibu nor his thugs were ever charged or called rascals. Rather, then President  Olusegun Obasanjo praised Adedibu as PDP leader  and  described him as the “Garrison Commander”.

President Jonathan is cultured and educated, he does not need to degenerate to the level of the gutter politics of the PDP in the West. Rather, he should return to the type of campaigns he carried out during the PDP presidential primaries just  some weeks ago when he focused on issues.
I realise that the PDP is not a  healthy environment people like Jonathan should be found; but he can, and ought to show that although he co- habits in the same PDP nest with convicts like Olabode George, ex- convicts and potential convicts, he is made of a different mould.

As we know, Chief  Obasanjo was on rampage for the eight years he was president; the luck our democracy had was that we had institutions like the Nigeria Labour Congress, the civil society organisations and individuals like Gani Fawehinmi and Ashiwaju Bola Tinubu.

The latter was governor of Lagos State when following civil disturbances in Ajegunle and Ketu areas, Obasanjo threatened to impose a state of emergency  on the state. Tinubu publicly dared him to do so, vowing that Obasanjo himself will not continue to preside in Aso Rock.

The Obasanjo presidency backed down only to experiment  the state of emergency with the PDP-governed Plateau State. After this, it returned to the state, and using then Economic and Financial Crimes Commission chair, Nuhu Ribadu, Governor Joshua Dariye was ‘impeached’ by six out the 24 members of the state House of Assembly.

That is, rather than the constitutional requirement of two thirds to impeach a governor, one quarter was used by a desperate presidency to remove a governor. Can anything be more rascally?

The reality is that  the four governors President Jonathan mentioned are amongst the very best in the country; they are men whose commitment to the peoples welfare and sense of patriotism are  inimitable in the political arena today.

Governor Olusegun Mimiko’s qualification to be called a rascal seems to stem from the fact that he abandoned the PDP to fly the Labour Party flag to the Government House. Although he was a PDP minister, he rejected the imposition of Dr Olusegun Agagu as gubernatorial candidate by Obasanjo. He preferred to resign as a federal minister rather than allow such imposition.

Even when anti- corruption security agents  were sent after him, he refused to budge. By any stretch of imagination, this popular medical doctor is not a rascal.

Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, staked his academic future in Britain to join the pro-democracy movement in the deadly fight  against military dictatorship led by the human butcher,  General Sani Abacha. This is in contrast to many of the chieftains of the PDP who were supporters and beneficiaries of that infamous dictatorship. As a governor, Fayemi has some of the best programmes in the country.

Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola has the distinction of having spent his youth in the vanguard of empowering youths and struggling for the liberation of the country. His passion for the downtrodden,  straight manner of speaking and uncompromising  affiliation with the  truth may portray him as a “rascal”  but that precisely is not what Aregbesola is.

As for Lagos State governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, even the PDP acknowledges that his performance since 2007 is the bench mark for all governors in the country. This respectful Senior Advocate of Nigeria is a highly cultured politician who makes all Nigerians feel at home in Lagos. No matter what criteria is used, Fashola cannot be described as a rascal.

President Jonathan clearly goofed, and not being infallible, should simply render an unreserved apology to the four governors.