Jonathan Betrayed By Those He Trusted – Joseph Evah

             Co-ordinator, Ijaw Monitoring Groupå (IMG), Comrade Joseph Evah, has attributed President Goodluck Jonathan’s loss in the presidential election to the betrayal by some people he trusted. While declaring that peo­ple of the Niger Delta were disappointed that the president can’t serve a second term, he said the people have, however, accepted their fate.
“Although people of Niger Delta are not happy that the president who came from the region can’t serve a second term, but we have learnt our lesson and accepted our fate. We wish General Buhari well. The future gener­ation will take over from where we stopped. But this could not have been so if the president has not been betrayed by those people who he thinks are his friends but were actually working against his interests,” he stated in this interview with TUNDE THOMAS. Excerpts:


What is your reaction to the outcome of the presidential election?

We thank God for everything. Before the election, tension had been very high in the land, but thank God there has been no crisis or vio­lence. Before the election, a lot of people pre­dicted one way or the other that the end of Nige­ria is here, and that a lot of people will die, that Nigeria will turn to Somalia or Burundi, but to the glory of God, the election was peaceful.

Both international and local observers who went round told us that the election was free and fair and we have to agree with them be­cause we were not allowed to go round. But international observers moved round, and these include United Nations, African Union, Com­monwealth, they were all on the ground and they told us that the election was free and fair and we have to agree with them.

For the people of the South South, the election result was a shock to them, many had felt that President Goodluck Jonathan would win even with a slim margin, but the reverse was the case. What do you think happened?

Our expectation truly was that the President Goodluck Jonathan would win but surprisingly it didn’t happen the way we expected. But then politics is like a football game, you have a better team but your opponent can beat you on tech­nical ground.

Then, don’t forget again that the President himself confirmed that the election was free and fair because he congratulated General Buhari, and he also accepted the results, so we have to accept that that is the way fate designed it to go.

Before the election, some people es­pecially from the South South includ­ing elders were insisting that President Jonathan must have a second term, but with the way things have turned out, how do you feel?

Yes, we insisted that Jonathan must go for a second term, but don’t forget that there must be an election. We are in a democracy – it is true Obasanjo, a Yoruba man went for a second term but there was an election, nobody imposed Obasanjo on Nigerians. For Shagari, a Hau­sa-Fulani man, yes he served a second term, but there was an election, he wasn’t forced on Nigerians. Shagari faced the electorate and he won.

Jonathan, a South South man also faced the electorate and those of them that know better than us like President Jonathan told us that the election was free and fair, so we have to fol­low our leader. Jonathan is our leader, he knows better than us. Whatever he tells us, we have to obey him.

We are not privileged to have access to in­formation he has but we have to obey him as our leader.

It was reported that there was a kind of feeling of betrayal among some peo­ple especially in the South South over the election result, what do you feel?

Who betrayed them? The president that represented us the minority in the election, he told us there was no betrayal. Even if we are thinking of betrayal since the president who is our representative told us that the election was free and fair, and that there was no betrayal, we also have to agree with him that there was no betrayal.

I don’t think anybody will go against Jona­than’s position as far as the Niger Delta region is concerned.

How do you react to statements re­portedly made by some top PDP lead­ers that President Jonathan should not have rushed to congratulate General Buhari since the results were still being collated as at that time?

The president knows better. The president is a Ph.D holder, and we all happy that the South South produced the first Ph.D holder as Presi­dent not only in Nigeria but also in Africa. So, the President knew what he was doing, he knew better than us – so we all have to accept the re­sult that way.

Do you think there was any pressure on the president to do what he did?

The president right from being deputy gover­nor to governor, to acting president and finally to becoming president, the president is well ex­perienced in politics. The president knows how to wave off pressures. I don’t think it is due to pressure that he congratulated Buhari – it is like Jonathan confessed that the election was free and fair, that made him to congratulate Buhari.

Before going to the election, the ex­pectation was that with the incumben­cy factor that President Jonathan was not going to have it rough, but after the election for the first time, an incumbent president lost an election …?

(Cuts in) It happened in Africa before. It hap­pened in Cote d’Ivoire and a couple of other nations. So, it is not a big deal for it to happen in Nigeria. It must happen one day, and now that it has happened, there is nothing we can do. Something has to start somewhere. The lesson for the political class in Nigeria to learn is that you can no longer take people for granted.

Again, the lesson here is that you must never put your trust in people again. You must look for people who are trustworthy, people who are sincere. Most of those people who prom­ised to help Jonathan win election are not sincere.

Jonathan was deceived. They lied to him, and promised him what they can’t do, and unfortunately the president trusted them. But he was betrayed. People who are traders were parading themselves as politicians be­fore the president and he trusted them.

You see these politicians hanging around the president, giving all sorts of advice, and portraying themselves as political heavyweight – these are politicians some people describe as field commanders, they give them all sorts of names, but they are deceitful. Some of them even double-deal. They meet with the president in the morn­ing and give him all manner of assuranc­es, but in the evening, they are wining and dining with the president’s opponents. Yet Jonathan still believed them. It is very un­fortunate.

You see some people that were wishing Buhari dead, that he will nev­er become the president of Nigeria, but these are the same set of people rushing to congratulate him?

Nigerians should now know those who don’t have principles. Those shameless pol­iticians are even now running round looking for ways to join Buhari’s government.

I believe that Jonathan might have con­gratulated Buhari after discovering that this set of politicians that betrayed him, are even the ones that will try to encourage him to fo­ment trouble, and they will turn round to put all the blames on him. But Jonathan is now clever to the antics of these people. I con­gratulate Jonathan for congratulating Buhari so that these political jobbers will leave him alone.

At a time you raised alarm that the president was being shielded by some aides who prevented those who want to tell him reality of the sit­uation in the country from doing so, do you think this in a way contributed to Jonathan’s loss at the poll?

That is very correct. Everybody knows that Jonathan has been hijacked by abnormal people who are just trading round his office. They played sycophancy. They tell lies to the president. They prevented people who want to tell the president the truth from having ac­cess to him. These are people that have been there over the years. Their stock-in- trade is to hang around any president in office. Bu­hari should be vigilant, they will come for him also. He should not tolerate them. He should deal with them.

With the calibre of people behind Jonathan, people like Vice President, Namadi Sambo; Chief Tony Anenih, Sule Lamido, Senator Ahmadu Ali and others, will you say you are sur­prised that the President was defeat­ed?

All these people you are mentioning, 90 per cent of them have been in every govern­ment in this country, and what they do in the system is to manipulate the president, cause confusion, look for ways to survive through­out that government.

As I speak to you, some of these people are now even ready to lie down and carry Bola Tinubu’s shit in order to enter the system again. They can’t do anything outside polit­ical patronage by any sitting president.

If you have a president who can’t check these characters, Nigeria will be worst for it. Buhari should be courageous to deal with these characters. I believe Jonathan has learnt one lesson or another. There is a saying that you should not weep more than the bereaved.

I believe Jonathan should not go back to the university to lecture in fishery, his area of discipline, he should go and be a Political Science teacher. He would be able to serve humanity better that way, and not only that he would also be able to know more about character of human beings.