New Telegraph-Admin 
Former President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan was in his element recently, reiterating love for country and people as the smoothest road to development.
He spoke at the Wellmann Group Colloquium in Effurun with the theme: ‘The Coast to Coast X-Ray of the Nigerian Project: What Panacea?’
The occasion, which had Jonathan as Chairman, was graced by Dr. Arikana ChihomboriQuao, who delivered the Keynote Speech. She is not just a Medical Doctor and influencer, the Zimbabwean was the African Union (AU) Representative to the United States, between December 2016 and October 2019.
The former Nigerian president harped on the need for a leader to see the whole country, not divide or geo-political zone, as his constituency by ensuring balance and geographical spread in appointments and key decisions.
To drive home this point, Jonathan disclosed that he was meticulous with appointments into the top positions of federal agencies and boards.
According to him, while it was easy to fulfil constitutional requirements by guaranteeing each of the 36 states a ministerial slot, imbalance was possible in other areas.
What he did was to ensure that if there was an opening for board appointments, replacement was not effected until the number increased to six.
The idea was to ensure that all the geo-political zones were fairly represented. Jonathan gave another instance to portray justice and statesmanship with the establishment of Federal Universities in all states of the federation. Before he assumed office, nine states did not have such institutions.
Of the nine states without Federal Universities, six were in the Northern part of the country, while the other three were in the South. Jonathan said he chose not to play politics by creating six more, three in North and three in the South which would have made sense. Instead, all nine states benefited.
Unfortunately, President Bola Tinubu was not at the Monarchy Centre, Effurun Venue of the Colloquium. Jonathan’s successor, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari was also absent. Senate President Godswill Akpabio was represented.
Had he allowed a Northern candidate to fly the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) flag during the 2011 Presidential elections, Buhari would have mostly likely remained history
Even the host governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, was represented by his deputy. Buhari’s return to power in 2015, led to the Northernisation of key federal appointments. The development was a huge blow to national cohesion.
Things got so bad that all paramilitary agencies were headed by officers from the North. In the Nigerian Immigration Service, Southerners were only allowed to act as ControllerGeneral for a few weeks until a Northerner was fished out.
It was also the same game in the Nigerian Correctional Service where the tenure of a ControllerGeneral was extended, just to deny Southerners the opportunity of climbing up. Buhari owed no apologies for his clannish and lopsided appointments.
He defended his exclusion of the SouthEast by saying five percent votes did not guarantee the zone a better deal. The foreign loans Buhari obtained favoured Niger Republic against a section of Nigeria.
Tinubu vowed to continue from where Buhari stopped. So far, the only difference is that instead of looking up North, Jagaban has concentrated appointments on the South-West.
With Lagos as the commercial capital of the nation, most of the key appointments that drive the economy favour the president’s ethnic nationality. A deep look at the distribution of Tinubu’s appointments shows that the South-West is in clear lead with 67.9 per cent. The South-South and North-East GeoPolitical Zones are in distant second position, tied at 7.4 per cent.
Their laughable advantage over the other three Zones could be traced to the influence of Vice President Kashim Shettima and Senate President Akpabio. As usual, the South-East remains the most pathetically neglected, with 1.2 percent of the appointments. The NorthCentral got 6.4 per cent, followed by the North-West with 4.9 per cent. However, Jonathan failed to look at the mirror in his remarks.
While it is crystal clear that Buhari and Tinubu discarded Federal Character in their appointments, he (Jonathan) made it possible for both men to mount the saddle as president of Nigeria.
Jonathan chose to ignore the unwritten but smooth agreement of power rotation between the North and the South, by usurping the turn of the North in 2011.
Had he allowed a Northern candidate to fly the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) flag during the 2011 Presidential elections, Buhari would have mostly remained in history. Jonathan had the opportunity to correct himself in 2015. Again, he failed by deciding to contest.
That offered Tinubu the opportunity to go fetch a disillusioned Buhari, who eventually brought with him the unprecedented division. And undoubtedly Tinubu has learnt.
