Goodluck Jonathan has rocky start to re-election campaign

Goodluck Jonathan is currently the only sitting leader of a democratic state seeking to be returned as president, while he has never won an election in his own right.

Jonathan, 53, comes from a remarkably different background than most Nigerian politicians. In 1999 the environmentalist, lecturer in zoology and specialist in tropical fish was picked out of political obscurity to be the deputy governor of Bayelsa state, in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern Niger Delta region.

When his boss was impeached over a number of corruption charges in 2005, he became governor by default.

In an effort to win over the north, Jonathan arrived in his convoy, only to have stones thrown at it.

“Jonathan is not as good at imposing his will on politics as his predecessor Olusegun Obasanjo,” said Bashir Sa’ad Abudullahi, editor of the BBC’s Hausa service. “If there was a squabble between people in the party before, president Obasanjo would sit them down and say ‘this is what I want, do it or leave the party.’ Jonathan wants to please everyone. That makes him not as strong.”

Hopefully Goodluck Jonathan can round out his qualities and make him the favorite to be re-elected.

Good luck Goodluck Jonathan.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/nigeria/110211/nigeria-goodluck-jonathan-election?page=0,1

Brandon VanLoon