IN Nigeria, 2015 began with numerous prophecies from several prophets who foresaw doom and disintegration once this year’s general elections are concluded. Conversely, the period coincided with the renewed vigour of former Head of State, Major-General Abdulsalami Abubakar’s quiet domestic diplomacy in the quest for enduring peace.

Even, long before then, he had been making visionary projections and pragmatic efforts that helped nullify predictions that Nigeria would disintegrate by 2015. For instance, on October 18, 2013, he strongly expressed his conviction that despite the growing fear of a possible breakup of the country by 2015, those drumming for disintegration of the country would be disappointed, as the umbilical cord of the federating units cannot be separated. According to Abdulsalami, “God has joined us together. Whether you break Nigeria into pieces, we will remain joined by our umbilical cord. No matter what happens, our umbilical cord is still there. We will live together either as neighbours or as communities.”

As a concerned elder seeing beyond present realities, he had consistently warned about the implications of various actions and decisions in the North and the nation. For example, while emphasizing the urgent need to end the insurgency in the North and allow peace to reign, he emphatically warned that it will take the North nothing less than about 20 years to clear the mess created by insecurity.

Before, during and after the 2015 general elections, Abdulsalami Abubakar’s passionate commitment towards ensuring peace helped Nigeria to successfully navigate landmines that political interests had laid at various points. Three days after the presidential election, Abdulsalami, who heads the 2015 Elections Peace Committee, was at the new Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja to commend President Goodluck Jonathan for conceding defeat to the All Progressives Congress’ presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

He said the committee was in the Villa to ensure that peace was maintained in the country and that he was happy that President Jonathan had already called Gen. Buhari before the committee arrived at the Villa. He said: “We were here to ensure peace is maintained at this moment; we thank Nigerians and all international community who came to support during the elections.

The elections have been very peaceful despite the hitches here and there. At the end of the elections, at the counting that there are a lot of upheavals that have happened but thankfully, they have been contained.

“We were at the middle of a meeting with the international observers to try to see how we can still water the tension down, when gladly I called Gen. Buhari that we are going to see him, he told me that Mr. President has called him at about 5:15 p.m. and congratulated him and conceded defeat.

“We were spell bound and the reason we have come here is to thank President Jonathan for this statesmanship. In the history of Nigeria, I think this is the first time where a contestant has called his rival to congratulate him and through this point, President Jonathan maintained a point that the blood of Nigerians is not worth his presidency and by his action he has proved that.

“He has proved that he is a man of his word‎ because during our interaction on this peace committee, he has always maintained that he is going to accept the result of the elections whichever way it is done. And he has proved this.”

Before the elections, the Abdulsalami Abubakar Peace Committee had drawn Buhari and Jonathan together to secure a second peace pact against post-election violence. The two candidates had earlier signed one when US Secretary of State, John Kerry, visited them. For millions of Nigerian citizens, the former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, had consistently expressed his message of peaceful electioneering. He was once quoted to have said: “Without peace, development cannot be achieved. The people should be peaceful. For democracy to strive, they should embrace peace.”

For a man, who holds on to this credo of peace, it was not surprising that he was one of the first visitors to the Presidential Villa on a day President Goodluck Jonathan poured cold water on the burning tension across the land by not only conceding defeat but also speaking on the imperative for peace if Nigeria must move forward. He must feel proud that his interventions yielded the kind of result that has sent the entire country on a wild celebration.

Now in his twilight years, General Abdulsalami Abubakar can cast a retrospective glance backwards to behold the hands of destiny and joyfully, carry on with the quest for peace and consensus-building even as the nation is set for another democratic experience under a different government with a different ideology.

UNTIL the evening of last Saturday, President Goodluck Jonathan was at the verge of ending his six years in office on a very unpopular note. But a phone call he made to the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, congratulating him for his victory in the election even before counting was concluded, has in the estimation of many Nigerians transformed him into a hero of democracy.

Before Jonathan’s phone call to Buhari on Saturday, there appeared to be no love lost between the two presidential candidates. Seeing Gen. Buhari as the only threat to Jonathan’s continuation in office as president, his minders embarked on name-calling, mudslinging and, in some instances, outright assassination of Buhari’s character.

The PDP also conjured all manner of stories aimed at discrediting the General and securing his disqualification from the presidential race. One of them was the claim by the PDP hawks that Gen. Buhari had no secondary school certificate, the minimum educational qualification required of an aspirant to the office of president.

Buhari, who was accused by the party of not attaching his West African Schools Certificate to the nomination form he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as required by law, had responded by saying that his certificate was with the military authorities. Strangely, the military, after initially admitting that they were in possession of Buhari’s records, made a u-turn and declared that they were not in custody of his secondary school certificate.

Shocked by the response of the institution he considered a part of his primary constituency, Buhari rushed to the secondary school he attended in Katsina to obtain his WASC certificate. But rather than solve the problem, Jonathan’s men turned the move into a veritable source of acrimony, accusing Buhari of forging the certificate he claimed to have obtained from his alma mater.

The smear campaign against Buhari had begun with the branding of the General as a religious extremist on a mission to Islamise Nigeria. The APC had risen in his defence, wondering why the former head of state, who resisted the pressure mounted on him to take Nigeria into the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), would be tagged an Islamist while his successor, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, who actually dragged Nigeria into the Islamic body, had not been so tagged.

When that would not wash, they came up with the story that Buhari was sick and was destined for a hospital in the US. At a point, it was even said that the APC presidential candidate had been flown out of the country only for him to be captured live on television in one of his rigorous campaign rallies. Buhari himself said he was fit as a fiddle, but the spokesman of the PDP Presidential Campaign Committee, Femi Fani-Kayode, claimed to know Buhari’s condition better, insisting that he was sick.

In all this, Jonathan did nothing to call his men to order even though it was clear that they were heating the polity to bursting limits. Rather, he compounded the trend with a campaign strategy that sought to divide the country along ethnic and religious lines as if he was out to fulfill a prediction allegedly made by the US, that Nigeria might break up in 2015.

Matters came to a head at the venue of the collation of the results of the presidential election on Saturday, when a PDP agent, Elder Godsday Orubebe, appeared from nowhere and nearly truncated the announcement of results. Many had interpreted the scene he created at the venue as merely acting a script written by the President and his associates to subvert the process. The disclosure by former head of state, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, that President Jonathan had called Gen. Buhari to congratulate him over his victory in the poll, therefore, came as a huge relief not only to concerned Nigerians but the world at large. It instantly defused the tension that had enveloped the polity and effectively killed any prospect of electoral violence.

The spirit of sportsmanship demonstrated by the President was in spite of the fact that he was on the way to creating an unenviable record as the first sitting president to be defeated in an election in the nation’s history. As he himself would later profess, the act was a fulfillment of his promise to make the votes count by reforming the electoral process, on account of which he appointed Prof. Attahiru Jega, a man widely reputed as forthright and highly principled, as the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in June 2010.

President Jonathan, an Ijaw man from Bayelsa State, had earlier made history as the first Nigerian president to emerge from a minority ethnic group and the first Nigerian vice-president to be democratically elected. Before he was elected president in 2011, he had occupied the office for two years to serve out the tenure of his principal, the late Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua, who died after two years in office.

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday took the first step towards his exit from office, holding his maiden post-election meeting with the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

The meeting took place at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja as a follow-up to Wednesday’s telephone conversation between them.

The President had called Buhari to congratulate him on his victory in Saturday’s presidential election and asked him to “come, so that we can sort out how to plan the transition period.”

Presidency officials described yesterday’s meeting as private.

Also yesterday, President Jonathan said the public revelation of his personal accounts in office will have to wait for now.

He told State House reporters that he would speak on his experience and other issues “at the appropriate time.”

He spoke at the end of the Good Friday Service at the Aso Villa Chapel.

“Don’t worry, I will talk to you at the appropriate time,” he told the reporters as they swam around him.

The seven short exhortations that accompanied the lessons at the service focused on the sacrifice the officiating ministers said Jonathan made to keep the county united.

They likened his decision to accept defeat to the sacrifice Jesus Christ made to safe mankind.

They urged him to remain focus because his future is in the hands of God.

They also congratulated the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on his victory

The service also featured renditions of special hymns as well as intercessory prayers for the President, for peace and for the country at large.

At the service were Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State; Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Christians Pilgrims Commission, Mr. John Kennedy-Okpara; Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission, Mrs. Joan Ayo; Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria, Mr. Ima Niboro; and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Power, Ambassador Godknows Igali.

The year was 2005. At that time he had absolutely no inkling he would be seeking elective office in future. Writing in the maiden edition of Fegocowosa, the official magazine of his Alma Mata’s alumni association, he rallied old students of the school to give back to the institution that had given them so much. In his words, “We must see to it that the Fegocowosa journal is adequately supported as an effective communication link that will not only bond us together but will become a useful tool in communicating the need to revisit the ideals of Unity Schools by the relevant authorities as well as serve as an inspiration to members to address the compelling subject of leadership challenges in the country”.

In year 2006, he had no notion that he would one day be at the very centre of partisan politics. In his column in that year’s edition of the journal, he wrote passionately: “Nigeria is in dire need of people who will appreciate its very abundant human and natural resources; people who will appreciate its strength in diversity, people to whom places of birth (a coincidence of which none of us actually had a choice) should be inconsequential in making national decisions; people, who as brothers and sisters, would naturally elect to aid weaker siblings to greater heights without any feelings or cries of being drawn back…Nigeria at this moment more than any other time needs leaders who love the country and whose utmost desire is to share this love among the children of Nigeria”.

His column in the 2007 edition of the magazine was even more soul stirring, patriotic and impassioned. His essay in that edition was titled ‘The Future Is Now’.  In his words, “It seems to me that we are on the threshold of another independence; this time not from a colonial master, but from a culture of decadence, corruption, mediocrity, dishonesty and tribalism. We are the new founding fathers of a nation of new hope; a Nigeria of honesty and unity; a Nigeria of brotherhood and progress. A Nigeria that is ready to make sacrifices to ensure that all those who previously bent their heads in shame can hold their heads up high, hand on heart and proclaim, “Yes, I am Nigerian and proud to be! I invite you to be part of the great and positive future, the time is now!”

In the 2008 edition of the journal, the subject under consideration posed several questions bothering his mind in his column.  In his words “why do we have such hopelessness on our streets? Why do we see such unpatriotic behaviour, such naked sabotage permeating every strata of society? Why have we let go of optimism? Why have we traded faith for greed? Why have we dropped the ball? Why have we jettisoned service for self service?…when we find ourselves in or  with less than perfect circumstances, what we are meant to do is to make the best of a bad job. Easier said than done but thank God for the storms of life, thank God for the floods, for the traffic, for the lack, all these things are designed for us to come into our own; to serve, to help our brothers and sisters get up, to rise, to step up to the plate and be counted”.

When he expressed these thoughts, Mr AkinwunmiAmbode, the leading candidate for next week’s governorship election in Lagos State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was not seeking for votes. He had no idea he would one day be running for the governorship of the most important state in Nigeria. We can thus see that long before his foray into the turbulent terrain of politics, Mr Ambode had imbibed and was a fervent advocate of such values as patriotism, love, commitment, loyalty, compassion and, above all, selfless service. He did not just wake up to propound these values in an opportunistic manner to achieve his electoral ambition.

By the way, the acronym Fegocowosa stands for Federal Government College Warri, where Ambode obtained his Ordinary and Advanced level certificates. Under Ambode’s leadership and guidance, the old students Association of FGC, Warri, has expanded to encompass alumni of other Unity Colleges both within and outside the country, including the U.K. and U.S. chapters. His efforts led to the incorporation in 2006 of the Unity Schools old Students Association (USOSA) made up of Alumni of 100 Unity Schools in Nigeria. Their main purpose is to revitalize and nourish back to health the concept of Unity Schools which had been allowed to fall to the lowest nadir along with the decay of the entire society.

To the best of my knowledge, Ambode is the first, or one of the very few aspirants in this dispensation who have taken time to methodically and meticulously document in book form, the story of his life from childhood to the present. His biography, ‘The Art of Selfless Service’ is the source of this column’s title today. I am unaware that Mr Akin Ambode’s main opponent, Mr Jimi Agbaje of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has a comparable document apart from what can be gleaned from his website. OtherwiseI would have been duty bound to compare and contrast the two documents just like I did with their respective CVs a few weeks ago.

Next Saturday’s governorship and House of Assembly elections in Lagos State will no doubt be the most important in the country after the presidential election. This is because of the position of Lagos as the economic, commercial and industrial hub of the nation. I have heard the argument that just as there has been change at the centre, there should be change in Lagos where the progressives have held sway since 1999. This kind of argument delinks the concepts of change and continuity from concrete existential realities. The necessity for change at the centre was predicated, not on the long duration of the PDP in power but its utter mediocrity, impunity and degeneracy that has set the country backward particularly in the Jonathan years. In contradistinction, Lagos has made visible and undeniable progress in virtually all sectors under the progressives making continuity imperative in the state for continued progress.

Now, what was responsible for the close margin of votes between the APC and PDP in the Presidential and National Assembly elections in Lagos State and what will be the implications for next week’s election? First, was the humongous amounts of money (dollars) poured into the state by the centre in the weeks preceding the election. The second reason was the active instigation of non-indigenes in Lagos against indigenes by the divisive Jonathan Presidency. Third, was the complacency of the APC, which took it for granted that massive victory was already in its hands given its popularity in the state and the appalling non-performance of the Jonathan administration.

The result of last week’s election will, no doubt, energise Jimi Agbaje’s fledgling and stuttering campaign that never really got off the ground. His performance this time around is a far cry from the creative, vigorous and vibrant campaign he ran in 2007. The outcome of the presidential election should now demonstrate to the good pharmacist that the PDP, on which he seems to have pinned all his hopes is a giant with feet of clay. On the other hand, the APC will most likely be jolted out of its complacency and fully mobilise its cadres to come out massively in the next election and demonstrate which party actually controls the electoral space in Lagos. It will be an interesting election. I wish the contestants best of luck.