OPINION: What If Jonathan Loses This Election?

Goodluck Jonathan has never lost an election since he began his political career as a chairman in Bayelsa.

He defeated Muhammadu Buhari four years ago and he could repeat that victory in this election if things go really well for him this weekend. But what if he loses this time and Buhari is elected president?

Legit.ng commentator on Political Issues, Adedayo Ademuwagun analyses what Nigerians can expect if this election does not favour the incumbent president.

The first thing here is that continuity has always been a problem in our political history. One person comes in and one of the first things he does is to undo the ongoing works of the incumbent.

For instance it was Obasanjo who initiated the power sector privatisation when he was in charge, but Yar'adua stopped the program when he came in and Jonathan began his own privatisation program after the man passed on. It's not clear what the APC government would do about the power sector if they win the presidency this weekend.

READ ALSO: Lagos APC Warns People Against Voting For PDP

Many of the things Jonathan's government is working on today will apparently be scrapped if he loses this election, This is evident because the opposition is literally in opposition to the government and have unrelentingly condemned the Jonathan government throughout his tenure.  It's clear from the APC manifesto that they're going to ditch Jonathan's transformation agenda.

But what will Jonathan be remembered for if he loses this election? Did he make any history? Has he accomplished any things memorable?

The president has achieved some good results in the last five years. For instance, the airports are in a better state than they were before he became president. Major expressways have been fixed. New universities have been set up to fix the imbalance and give more young people the chance to get a university education.

The YouWin project has also created jobs and helped people build their own business. Moreover, we kicked out Ebola and Jonathan had a hand in that.

He also made some important appointments in favour of women. For example, he appointed the first female rear admiral and achieved a 35%-women cabinet. This was a progressive thing to do for female empowerment.

However, Jonathan's women mostly flopped. They barely made a strong impact to justify the president's decision to have so many women working for him at the top level. In the end they were mostly fired, but Jonathan still deserves credit for doing something progressive for the Nigerian women.

Jonathan has taken the fall for virtually everything wrong in the country. But to be fair to the president, he inherited most of these problems and these things take time to fix. But it doesn't seem to his critics that he's working on it at all. He could have done way better no doubt, but Nigerians have been harsh on him and have forced him to carry the cross for the sins of the past leaders, most of whom were far worse than him.

Jonathan really needs to reflect on his tenure as he seeks reelection this weekend though.

On terrorism it's been five years of destruction, massacre and bloodshed. This is clearly the worst crisis in Nigerian history since the civil war. It ruined the president's tenure.

READ ALSO: Opposition Party Makes GEJ Its Presidential Candidate

Then there's the Occupy Nigeria upheaval that nearly toppled him. It was the first time Nigerians came together so strongly to stand against the government. It was a significant part of our history, and surely it's not the right legacy for the president to leave given it portrays him as a bad leader who was so bad his people tried to overthrow him.

A loss for Jonathan might take the PDP out for a long time too. The PDP used to be indomitable at the centre, but maybe they're about to drink their own medicine. Maybe if that happens they can bounce back in the near future as a better party. But whatever it is, the thing is the Nigerian people are obviously disappointed with the way the PDP has run the country the past 16 years they've been in charge.

Source: Legit.ng