Former President Goodluck Jonathan was the first President to loose a re-election bid in Nigeria. Going by the results of the 2015 Presidential elections, he lost due to the gross incompetence and the impunity that defined his six year tenure as President. Less than a year after leaving office he suddenly emerged as that beautiful bride that Nigerians want to associate with once again. No thanks to the unending poor performance of his successor President Muhammadu Buhari.

Since leaving office he has travelled far and wide on diverse speaking engagements where he has regale his audience with his achievements while serving as Nigeria’s President most especially his electoral reform that leads to the free and fair elections of 2015.

Some Nigerians have predicted a comeback for the man in the year 2019, a dream he has foreclosed in his recent encounter with journalist and publisher of Ovation magazine Mr Dele Momodu where he stated he won’t be running for any office again.

Moving away from that, Goodluck Jonathan has won many of his “enemies” over after the election than Buhari has done, several times we’ve seen Nigerians apologizing to the man on social media especially as it relates to their decision to pitch their tent with President Buhari who seems intent on running the country into the ground.

However, recent occurrences have shown that former President Goodluck Jonathan might not really be a different breed of leader from what we’ve been having since 1999. It seems Jonathan is truly “one of them” (apologies to Jimi Agbaje). The Federal government despite the acute suffering in the land has just approved the sum of over 280m to spend on former Presidents to buy cars at a monetization of about #40m each and Jonathan is one of them.

Nigerians had expected that someone like Dr Goodluck Jonathan will reject such largese or accept it and donate to a worthy cause. The former President gladly accepted it and even his outspoken spokesman Mr Reno Omokri couldn’t give an effective defence when challenged by a twitter user on why Jonathan could accept such. He simply hid under the excuse that the vehicle is a constitutional provision.

That it is constitutional doesn’t make it morally right. The payment was an opportunity for Goodluck Jonathan to prove himself, but instead he showed up that sadly, he is “one of them”.

tosin adesina