Dennis Sami 
When, in 2023, so many Nigerians beckoned on former President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the presidential election in order to save the country from the endless miseries inflicted upon the people in the name of reforms by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and the former president refused to contest, people thought that the call would no longer resonate. But on the contrary, the call has become intensified as the countdown to the 2027 general election begins.
However, whether Jonathan is still going to disappoint the suffering Nigerians by shying away from the burden of responding to the call to leadership is what is still hanging in the air. As it is today, the people of northern Nigeria are not giving up on that call.
They insist that they have made up their mind to continue to mount pressure on the former president until he becomes aware that the entire region has not seen any government that truly benefits them as the policies of the former president.
Part of the reasons why the northerners now queue behind Jonathan’s come-back into power is to make up for the mistake they made when, initially, they supported his removal from office, even though they were benefiting from his policies. It is now clear that their actions were based on sentiment and not on realities.
Again, when the governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, referred to himself as the political son of former President Jonathan, many Nigerians failed to realize that the former president has become so endeared to the whole of the northern region.
That was why, at the celebration of Goodluck Jonathan’s 67th birthday, the governor of Bauchi state expressed his admiration and respect for the former president, acknowledging his contributions to Nigeria’s development and democracy. Going further, Mohammed said:
“Under his leadership, Nigeria witnessed substantial progress in various sectors, including education, healthcare and infrastructure. His legacy continues to inspire us all…your exemplary service to our nation remains a guiding light for future generations.”
Although the clamour for Jonathan to return to active politics and contest the 2027 presidential election remains informal, group of youths from the north under the aegis of Arewa Grassroots Vanguard for Jonathan recently held a meeting in one of the high brow hotels in Abuja where they deliberated on their plans to begin mobilisation for other support groups to join them in their campaign.
Some of the youth leaders who spoke with journalists decry the lack of concern for the suffering of the masses as demonstrated by the present APCled Bola Tinubu administration where, according to them, only the political elites continue to increase in wealth as a result of amassing wealth that belong to every Nigerian, while the average Nigerian continue to wallow in extreme poverty and miseries that only God knows when it will end.
Recalling Jonathan’s plan to remove fuel subsidy, they said measures were taken to alleviate the sufferings of the people before any percentage of the subsidy was removed, noting that the process was meant to take place, not once like the Tinubu’s approach, but planned over a certain period of time, under the SURE-P Programme, which stood for ‘Subsidy Removal and Reinvestment Programme, where jobs were created and measures to alleviate the effects of subsidy removal were, as well, created before the big hammer of outright subsidy removal.
Apart from the former president’s human nature and genuine desire to carry out governance the way it should be, he did identify the peculiar needs of the people of the north and did everything possible to ensure that their future became guaranteed.
Such a deliberate effort was the establishment of about 157 Almajiri Model Schools across the region. This was the first time that the government made efforts to guarantee the future of the northern youths through education and capacity building.
Part of the reasons why northerners now queue behind Jonathan’s come-back into power is to make up for the mistake they made when, initially, they supported his removal from office, even though they were benefiting from his policies
Speaking on the reason for the establishment of these schools, Jonathan said he established the Almajiri School System while in office to infuse western education curriculum into Islamic education in order to make the people employable, as well as to check incessant crises and insecurity. But today, what do we see?
The good intentions of the former president have been jettisoned and the more than 157 schools established to give the young ones a sense of belonging in the future, have been abandoned.
The Tsangaya (Almajiri) Model Schools in the country, under the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s regime, were distributed in the following way across the states: eight in Adamawa, nine in Bauchi, eight in Borno, three in Taraba,six in Yobe, four in Gombe, seven in Jigawa, Kaduna had 11 while Kano had 12. 10 were established in Katsina, six in Kebbi, 10 in Sokoto and 12 in Zamfara, one in Benue and five in Kogi State. Kwara had seven, Nasarawa had six Plateau had one and Niger had eight. Lagos had 1 while Ogun had 1, Ondo had 2, Edo had 2, and Rivers had 1, just as the FCT had 2.
Speaking further on the need for the Almajiri education, Goodluck Jonathan said that is why we (the federal government) said we must assist the states, that these young people must be encouraged to study Islamic education, but in addition to the Islamic education (we are not going to remove anything from it), they should also take some parts of western education so that when they finish at that level, they can go on to study other things like engineering, medicine, etc, because you cannot convince an educated person to do certain things and, without education, you cannot manage the security of this country. That was what motivated us to go into Almajiri education.
The Arewa people yearn for Jonathan’s come-back to power was reverberated by the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum who is the Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohamed.
Recently, at the Government House in Bauchi, representatives of a non-governmental organization, NGO, paid the Governor a visit and requested him to consider running for the number one political seat in the country. Responding to the call for him to contest in 2027 presidential election, Mohamed told his visitors that he would only contest if the former president, again, refuses to contest the 2027 presidential election.
Expressing his love and admiration for the leadership qualities and style of the former president, he added that Jonathan would be a better candidate for the job. His words: “With regard to your call for me to present myself, I am still contemplating my chances as the leader of the opposition.
I know that there are good leaders within the PDP, especially my boss, Goodluck Jonathan. I have always said that as long as Jonathan is around, I will not present myself for the leadership of this country…, if we can persuade him to come forward, I will support him with my blood, but out of modesty, he is still not ready.
I hope you will meet him and encourage him to run…, he will do a better job because he has the experience.” He explained that there was the need for the country to be on the right path to greatness, which explains why he will continue to expose all forms of maladministration perpetrated by the present APC-led administration.
