-Blank NEWS Online (NIGERIA) -By Austen AKHAGBEME:

Very recently, there’s been so much noise, purportedly coming from the noise less one: our amiable Jolly good fellow, former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, that is.

The grapevine is replete with the news of the planned re-emergence of the Otuoke born shoeless Hero, this time around, to complete his “denied” second term.

I didn’t believe it. But I’m not too naive, too, to know that the Nigerian political power brokers have the largest of minds and imagination, capacious enough to concoct and contain the unimaginable.

Because politicians are norturnal inventors of deft tactics for political pugilism, the rumour mill is rich with unconfirmed but troubling stories that seems to be originating from Mars or Jupiter but definitely not from this plane of existence.

I was initially angered by the mere fact that he was coming out, not on his own volition, but on the evil machinations of those who wants to use him to score a point while consolidating their interest for a less troublesome day.

But thank God it’s a rumour; a troubling fable that gave me sleepless night, though. But what if it turned around to be true? The problem with an unpleasant rumour is the inability to get a window for confirmation and the often psychological effects of always tilting your mind and thoughts to the unpleasant side of disfavour.

Agreed, that it is Goodluck Jonathan’s inalienable right to vie for any office in the land; but not with the rumoured behest of another, especially one with ulterior motive.

Pardon my petulant perversity here: how will I be able to console great lovers of GEJ like Sunny Lawrence, Boniface Onyedi and a host of others that our mutual hero has ‘gone mad’ again?

But yours sincerely have chosen to develop a thick skin in preparation for the unexpected. This is so because of the ever winding desires and the elasticity of self given purposes on the part of the average Nigerian politician.

Whoever thought that after the gallant but costly defeat of former vice President Atiku Abubakar at the last presidential election, with all the ” cyber arguments” that he will still be a visible name in the rumour mills and a possible presidential hopeful come 2023?

In Nigeria politics, nothing is impossible. Every one and everything has a price. Anything is possible, depending on which side of the philosopher King you belong.

Agreed that it is Goodluck Jonathan’s inalienable right to vie for any office in the land; but not at the expense of his hard earned reputation as a true and internationally acclaimed Democrat and a peace ambassador.

But again, what if he didn’t succeed at the polls? What will happen to his hard earned reputation of the harmless dove whose reelection, the other time, was not worth the blood of another man? This is why I kept hoping that it is a rumour and the fattest lie in recent time.

• Austen AKHAGBEME: is a Columnist with Blank NEWS Online