"I was actually in that valley on March 28, 2015," he
said, adding that he did not want Nigeria to slide into
a theatre of war.
The situation required an immediate action
"I never knew that the human brain had the capacity
for such enhanced rapid thinking. One hundred and
one things were going through my mind every second.
My country was at the verge of collapse. The tension in
the land was abysmally high and palpable, in the
months leading to the election. The country became
more polarised more than ever before, such that the
gap between the North and the South and between
Christians and Muslims became quite pronounced
"In fact, it became so disturbing that some interest
groups in the United States began to predict indeed,
many Nigerians did buy into this doomsday prophesy
as they began to brace themselves for the worst.
"We worked hard to grow our economy and to improve
and bring Nigeria up as the biggest economy in Africa,
with a GDP of about half a trillion dollars."
Jonathan's foray into politics and allure of power
"I entered politics in 1998 and, barely one year after, I
got elected as the deputy governor of Bayelsa, my
state. I later became the governor, the vice president
and, eventually, got elected as the president of my
country. I remain the only leader in my country to have
travelled that route.
"It was not an easy decision to take. Power has an
attraction so controlling and powerful that it takes a
man who has the fear of God and who loves his people
and nation to relinquish power so easily in Africa."
Resisting the lure of power
"I promised my God that I will not let that fate befall
Nigeria under my watch, hence the historic telephone
call I put through to congratulate my challenger even when the results were still being tallied. I believe that
for a country to be great, both the leaders and the led
must be prepared to make sacrifices. This is why,
everywhere I go, I always advise that the new
generation of African leaders must think differently.
"We can no longer afford to wilfully sacrifice the blood
of our citizens on the altar of dangerous partisan
politics. It is not worth it. This reminds me of one of
my campaign statements to the effect that my
ambition was not worth the shedding of the blood of
any Nigerian. Some people took it then as mere
political slogan but I knew that I meant it when I said
it.
"We must all fight for the enthronement of political
stability in Africa, for in it lies the panacea for
sustainable growth and development. For Africa to
record the kind of advancement that will be competitive and beneficial to our citizens, we must have stable
states supported by strong institutions. That appears
to be the irreducible minimum that is common to all
developed societies. Africa's political odyssey can
distinctly be categorised into three eras, and probably
another that would later signpost its classification as a
developed continent."
On the difficulties ahead
"Some may doubt this, but it is no fluke that Africa is
growing and rising. However, I will admit before you
here that we still have challenges. That is why people like us did all we could to ensure that Nigeria, the
biggest black nation on earth, would not drift into
anarchy because such a situation would have spelt
doom for the rest of the continent. It would have
affected not just Nigeria alone, but the GDP and
economy of the entire West Africa. And, if the economy
of West Africa crashes, it would definitely affect the
performance of the economy of the whole of Africa.
"As you know, the GDP of Africa is less than three
trillion dollars, with only six African countries able to
boast of nominal GDP above $100 billion. Even for
those in this 'elite' category, you can't really say that
they are rich countries. Apart from maybe South Africa
that has an industrially competitive economy, the rest
are still mainly commodity exporting countries. Even
the case of that of South Africa is not very
encouraging, because we have a situation which we
could refer to as a first world economic performance,
yet the ordinary people live the life of the people in the
so called third world.
"In the case of Nigeria which is even the biggest
economy on the continent, the reality is that we have
an unenviable per capita GDP of $3,203, which is the
World Bank average for a period covering 2011-2015."
On Africa's potential
"Even then, I still believe that Africa has a bright
future; a promising prognosis that is supported by the
fact that the continent remains a very fertile and
attractive territory that yields irresistible returns on
investments. I believe that in the next few years many
more big investors will be jostling to come to Africa, if
only we will do the right thing.
"The process of getting it right has already started
with a democratic and increasingly democratising
Africa. But we have to deepen and strengthen our
democratic credentials through regular, free and fair
elections. This will in turn bring about the stability
necessary to improve the infrastructure that promotes
rapid economic growth. These are the guarantees that
would lead us into the next period which I would like to
call the era of a developed Africa. I have no doubt in
my mind that we will get there some day."
About future plans
"First, is to work for good governance by promoting
credible and transparent elections. This will bring
about the strengthening of our institutions and the
enthronement of stability.
"I also believe that there is the urgent need to create
jobs for our teeming young population. This is another
area that will be receiving my attention.
"I believe more programmes like that (Youth Enterprises with Innovation (YouWin) and the Nagropreneur programme) should be established to
promote youth entrepreneurship. That way, we reduce their reliance on paid employment.
We will not only teach them to become entrepreneurs, they will also acquire the capacity to employ other people. We will be paying special attention to this segment of our society, especially young people and women.
"As we speak, Our Nagropreneur programme, to
promote youth involvement in agriculture value chain,
is being scaled up by the African Development Bank
presently. It is already being replicated in 19 African
countries because of the success of the programme in
Nigeria.
"I am very optimistic that if we encourage young men
and women in this continent to develop businesses of
their own, the story of Africa will change within 10
years."
Details on Vanguard .
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