It seems the confidential circle of President Goodluck Jonathan is getting smaller, as ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo; and ex-dictators, retired Generals Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, and Abdusalami Abubakar (retd.), as well as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, on Wednesday shunned the Democracy Day event of the Federal Government.
While all former heads of government were reportedly invited to the event where Jonathan rendered an account of his mid-term performance, only Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd.) and Chief Ernest Shonekan attended.
Rather than be in Abuja, Obasanjo chose to attend the First Jigawa State Investment Forum in Dutse, where he showered praises on Governor Sule Lamido for being a brilliant performer in whom he (Obasanjo) was well pleased to have helped to office.
“You can help someone to find a job but you can’t help the person to do the job. In this case, we found a job for Sule Lamido and Sule Lamido was ready, willing, able and competent to do the job,” he reportedly said at the event.
Obasanjo is believed to have facilitated the coming of Jonathan to the Presidency in 2007 but the two have reportedly become estranged.
Buhari, now one of the arrowheads of the coalition to unseat the Peoples Democratic Party in 2015 and the Jonathan administration, had in recent past exchanged hot words on the state of the nation.
Babangida contested the PDP Presidential ticket with Jonathan in 2011 and he is generally seen not as a fan of the administration.
Tambuwal was represented at the event by his deputy, Emeka Ihedioha, who gave no reason for the Speaker’s absence.
Analysts on Wednesday believed that attendance and non-attendance at the Democracy Day celebration was “all part of the 2015 politics.”
Meanwhile, Jonathan, while presenting his scorecard for his second year in office, asked Nigerians who are fond of criticising his government to ensure they first develop their marking scheme before assessing his administration.
“I plead with those who want to write and assess us to prepare marking scheme, compare us with previous governments and so on and so forth. Develop your marking scheme and mark us,” Jonathan said.
Jonathan said while assessing his government, he had discovered that a number of comments of his critics were “based on heartbeats and not any visible criteria.”
“A number of comments about the performance of this administration are based on the heartbeat of people,” he said.
He specifically referred to an assessment done by an unnamed newspaper which scored the Minister of National Planning and the Minister of Trade and Investment an average in terms of performance.
Jonathan said contrary to that assessment, the performances of the two ministers remained the best among the three ministers that had so far been in charge of those ministries under his leadership.
Other ministers and members of the economic team came to give account of their stewardship.
Others who attended included wife of the President, Patience; wife of the Vice- President, Amina; former Chief of General Staff, Gen. Oladipo Diya (retd.); President of the Senate, David Mark; Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mariam Mukhtar; and Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu.
Others were the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Tony Anenih; the party’s national chairman, Dr. Bamanga Tukur; former CJN, Justice Alfa Begore (retd.); elder statesman, Chief J.P. Clark; members of the National Assembly, former state governors, including Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala (Oyo); Sam Egwu (Ebonyi); Segun Oni (Ekiti); and members of the Federal Executive Council, among others.