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Was Goodluck Jonathan weak and clueless as his traducers have claimed? Or – as his supporters have alleged – was he just a victim of vicious conspiracies by an entitled cabal that would stop at nothing to bring down this “intruder” to power?

From an unknown lecturer, Goodluck Jonathan rose to become President of Africa’s largest democracy in less than a decade. And most astonishingly, without winning a single vote in his name. In contesting the 2011 presidential election, he declared that growing up as a son of a fisherman in the creeks of Nigeria’s Niger Delta, he had no shoes. This message resonated with millions of Nigerians. He went on to win the highest majority vote ever recorded in the nation’s history.

Four years later, President Jonathan had suffered a great reversal of fortunes; his magical ascendancy halted by a shocking electoral defeat. When he conceded to the winner, he was roundly celebrated as Nigeria’s hero of democracy. Not everyone agreed. But what really happened? The answer to this question is this stunning account of contemporary Nigerian politics as the art of the (im)possible.