My friend, Paul, told me that Dr Reuben Abati is trying to get back to his default mode – a hardcore government critic. That he has started by writing on some kind of irrelevant things. Recently, Abati has written about pop artist Davido, a dead lion, a minister’s shoes and some other things Paul felt were irrelevant. Paul told me to watch out that in 3 years Dr Abati will resume his role of a critic. A very informed critic of course. I think what Paul was trying to say was that since Dr Abati does not have the moral right to start criticizing the current government, at least for now since he just left office, he is simply buying time. Well, I have since ‘defriended’ Paul on my social media accounts for saying such things about Abati. I really love Dr Reuben Abati. LOL.

Today, I will look at one of the things Dr Abati said about his former boss that got me thinking. Thus, just as I enrolled for a PhD research programme to study President Buhari, I took up another research programme to study former President Jonathan. Please note that the purpose of this thesis is not to praise nor say things that are already well-known about Dr Jonathan. This is because a good PhD research does not discuss things that are well-known as its findings. Even if it does, it brings in another perspective.

Did you know that Dr Jonathan was a voracious reader? Great leaders are voracious readers. To be honest, I wasn’t among the people who sang Dr Jonathan’s praises while he was in office. Thus, I did not know this until Abati said it recently.  Lest I forget, for those people, who honestly sang his praises while he was in office, they should be proud of themselves because they did what they believed in. For those who praised him because of what they could get from him, and have since left him, I have a word for you. Nobody likes fair weather friends, even President Buhari doesn’t like them either. Now back to the current matter. I never knew Dr Jonathan read a lot. I understand he made sure his ministers read new books regularly and discussed these books at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings. I pity those ministers who didn’t like readying. The day Mrs. Mobalaji Johnson, the class prefect, had to discuss and review one of the books they read must have been the most boring day ever at the FEC meetings for some ministers.

Of course for those minsters, days when they had to present the memo for that new contract in their ministries must have been their most pleasurable days. Dr Jonathan knew that reading maketh a man. He knew that great leaders like Obama are voracious readers, thus, he wanted to imbibe that culture in his ministers. He knew that new ideas could come from books. He really wanted to change the country. But, I am afraid I think some of his ministers didn’t read those books. Their personal assistants read those books and summarized it for them. Little wonder that some ministers disappointed Dr Jonathan. Though, the buck they say, stops at the president’s table. My model tells me Dr Jonathan would argue that if as an entrepreneur and some of your employees are bent on sabotaging your efforts, there is little you might be able to do.

Jonathan is actually a strong intellectual, in fact, an Intellectual giant. I was fooled that he was clueless and not smart. What a fool I was! Now, let me give you one example of the former president’s intellect. Can you remember during the campaigns he implied that the number of private jets at our airports were an indication that the country was doing well. Oh no, hell broke loose! Commentators started calling him names. But they were actually not in the same intellectual realm as he was. Do you know that in the US, the kind of argument that Dr Jonathan presented is what really differentiates the Republicans from the Democrats. The Republicans believe that the more billionaires you have in a country, the better the country will be. These billionaires will employ lots of people and pay some taxes which will help the country.

They don’t believe in killing the rich with excessive taxes. The Democrats, on the other hand, believe that the more taxes these rich people pay, the better the country. Thus, the more money goes round the country – wealth will be well redistributed. Some hardcore Democrats even hate rich people and might advocate for a tax system that might crumble the rich (just as some Nigerians hate the super-rich, they strongly believe they must have made their money from rent seeking and government patronages). I must admit that this fundamental difference is now blurred in modern day American politics. Dr Jonathan was a Republican at heart. He had a philosophy and an ideology. Intellectually, on this matter, he was ahead off those who called him names. He is a Doctor of Philosophy. For those looking for his certificate at his Alma Mater, stop fooling yourselves.

For those who claim that Jonathan paid his party supporters at conventions and primaries, I would like to enlighten you a bit. Do you know that it has recently been reported that Donald Trump paid actors $50 to cheer for him at his 2016 announcement (note: lots of Americans love Trump). I do not know how true this is but it is everywhere in the news. Let it be known, at this juncture, that I didn’t say Dr Jonathan paid anyone. I say this as a researcher because I don’t want to sound biased. So, since it has not been proven, I do not know if he gave anyone money. Though in my thesis I quoted people like Pastor Tunde Bakare.

Dr Jonathan is truly a man of peace. I am not going to bore you with examples of how he handed over power to Buhari. Neither am I going to tell you of how the country would have collapsed had he not handed over to President Buhari. Everything from that historic phone call is well-known. Have you noticed that former president Jonathan avoids making sensational comments? My model was able to predict that there were some sensational comments some of his kinsmen wanted him to make that would have set the country on fire, but he refused. This prediction from our research really surprised my supervisor and I. We were not expecting such results. No wonder he is setting up a foundation to promote peace.

There are some actions former President Jonathan took that he might have to explain in his memoir (especially on some well-publicized corruption allegations). There are also some people he should have long asked to leave his cabinet that he didn’t ask to leave. I am sure when our taciturn former president finally speaks everything will be clearer. Though, my results from my research tell me that if he were not looking for a second term, he would have been much stricter with some people. My model, however, could not explain why Dr Jonathan reportedly signed large import waivers for rice in his final days in office. I guess this is one of the limitations of my work and I believe the former president will clarify this when he finally speaks.

For those who expected the verdict of this thesis to be very hard on Dr Jonathan, I would like to refer you to Chapter 2 of my work, the literature review. In the literature review, I quoted Archbishop Mathew Kukah. The archbishop was quoted as saying that from his experience he has never met any Nigerian leader that set out to destroy Nigeria. The problem, therefore, is that some decisions they thought were right might turn out not to be the best decisions at some point. My research also revealed that not every Buhari’s supporter is mad at the former president. I am sure you are surprised by this finding!

In conclusion, I would like to give an advice to my amiable president, Muhammadu Buhari. My president you know I sincerely want you to succeed, if you are in doubt read my article on understanding your mindset. Please, Sir, no matter the level of provocation, people like Dr Jonathan have to be preserved. The continent needs him, Nigeria needs him. Can’t you see that the Americans have discovered him and are busy giving him awards? I am sure what they know of him now, they did not know before.

Full work on former President Jonathan can be found in my full thesis. Please, don’t ask me about the institution I conducted my research in!

Dr Nwankwo lives in Benin City