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Tag: APC

  • Violence stalls Kosofe House of Rep primaries

    Violence stalls Kosofe House of Rep primaries

    For the third time in a row, the primary election to elect the All Progressive Congress (APC) House of Representatives candidate to represent Kosofe federal constituency ended inconclusively on Saturday.

    The election, which was rescheduled for the party’s state secretariat, Ikeja failed to hold after the electoral team had directed delegates to go back home due to the violence allegedly instigated by one of the aspirants.

    No new date has been fixed for the rescheduled primary.

    The first primary election was scheduled to hold on December 7, but it ended in a stalemate. A fresh election took place last Tuesday which was attended by the state party chairman, Otunba Henry Ajomale and the Woman Leader, Mrs. Kemi Nelson, a development that compelled party leaders to fix another fresh election at the party’s secretariat on Saturday.

     

  • 2015: finally, the battle is joined

    2015: finally, the battle is joined

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had no reason to contrive the mournful convention it had in Abuja last week on the same day the All Progressives Congress (APC) held its feisty and evocative political festival to elect a standard-bearer. If the ruling party elected to have a quiet and uneventful gathering, it was not because it was naturally and virtuously quiet, nor because it thought the mood of the country and the tempo of 2015 politics demanded it. It was perhaps a manifestation of its insecurity, or the insecurity of its leaders, of its inability to appreciate the principles and practice of democracy notwithstanding its preachments to the contrary, and of its cancerous indolence in envisioning a great democratic, political and philosophical future for Nigeria. It will take a lot of research to understand why the PDP needed to stifle all efforts to present President Goodluck Jonathan a virile opposition in last Wednesday’s presidential primary, when it was abundantly clear that even with 100 opponents, the president would still have won handily.

    Contrastingly, the APC had the quintessential presidential primary Nigerians dream of, in which no one steps down or is cajoled to do so, one destined to become a watershed in Nigeria’s factious and turbulent politics. Henceforth, no party, big or small, will artificially concoct a primary. They will let the process acquire a momentum of its own; they will let the festival run on its own steam replete with variety shows; they will let party faithful converge in an atmosphere of periodic conviviality, their host cities adorned with the panoply of music, flowers, banners, buntings and flags — indeed, matchless entertainment. Remarkably, the APC last week showed how primaries should be organised. But whether it thought its way into it or was coaxed into it by its rebellious Young Turks is difficult to say at the moment. But perhaps it achieved this distinction by the very nature of its founding, anchored as it was on the ashes of about four mercurial political parties; because to have anything other than a transparent primary would have sounded the party’s death knell.

    To be sure, the APC presidential primary did not go like clockwork, but it was unprecedented, matched in methodology, if not substance, only by the Lagos governorship primary of the week before. Both primaries were indications that whether by accident or by design, Nigerians were quite capable of political behaviour that matches world standard. There were initial misgivings the APC presidential aspirants would tear themselves to pieces on account of their ambitions and irreconcilability. Surprisingly, the contestants behaved most nobly and admirably. Neither they nor their supporters vowed thunder or spoke it, again quite unlike the PDP Lagos governorship primary of two days earlier where Musiliu Obanikoro and Jimmy Agbaje, the two leading contenders, spoke daggers and used them. And when the APC primary results were announced, with Muhammadu Buhari a clear winner, the atmosphere of brotherhood was unmistakable, even with a considerably chastened Abubakar Atiku enveloped in detachment and despair.

    The speeches both before the balloting and after a winner emerged were not of the highest standard, but future contestants can be trusted to learn a thing or two from this year’s APC primary and probably perform much better next time. Contestant Rochas Okorocha, the Imo State governor, is the orator among the five, a man of florid imagination and phrasal fecundity, but he did not appeal imaginatively to the sacred longings of the delegates. Notwithstanding, he was a delight. Former Vice President Atiku speaks very well, untrammeled by short and long pauses, but he too did not reach the height of renown where he seems forever poised. But his brief remarks after he lost were very well delivered, unaffected by the gloom he felt and the humbling effect of coming third. Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso was the revelation of the primary. As this columnist noted last week, had he started the race much earlier, he would probably have caused an upset, for he ran the most sophisticated race. He speaks well, but is often distracted by the undue attention he pays to what he has to say.

    We may never know what Sam Nda Isaiah is capable of. His prefatory remarks showed a man overwhelmed by the intimidating pomp of the moment, and not being a naturally gifted speaker, he seemed to flounder badly, perhaps exhausted by the sheer intensity and convolution of a competition he was participating in for the first time. The contestant that surprised everyone most was the laconic former head of state and retired army general, Buhari. This is his fourth time of running for president, but this is his first time of really participating in a solid and demanding primary. His patience was probably tested badly, and he sometimes looked like he was being made to participate in a needless and humiliating contest. But his opening remarks were appropriately short and pungent, and his acceptance speech to wearied delegates harassed by more than 24 hours of intense jostling was also inspiringly but guardedly succinct.

    Altogether, the APC primary points to better days ahead for the party and the country. The party will go from the primary on a high, bolstered by the virtuoso performance they gave Nigerians last week, a performance underscored by the many dignitaries and governors who participated in the show, a performance that is bound to make the country give a second thought to the party’s claims to moral and ideological superiority. Coming on the same day the PDP concocted a regrettable and artificial show in Abuja, the conduct of the APC primary is bound to elicit salutary electoral responses from Nigerians. If the party manages to handle the choice of Gen Buhari’s running mate well (See Box), and given the incontestable fact that Dr Jonathan is right now at his most vulnerable, the APC would probably win the presidency irrespective of earlier projections by detractors inspired by the prejudice of a large section of the media.

    For the second time in a few years, Dr Jonathan will be squaring off for a fight with the expressionless Gen Buhari. It will be a titanic struggle, the final for both men. More, it will be a struggle that will define and shape Nigeria. It will be a contest between a straight talker and a waffler, a patriot and an opportunist, a man of steel and a man of lead, a general with distinctly Bismarckian and ambitious worldview and a civilian with unmistakably restrictive and insular perspective, the former ennobled by his patriotic glow, and the latter sullied by his provincialism. But since the capacity and capability of Dr Jonathan are very well known, none of which inspires admiration or respect, the greater onus is on Gen Buhari to prove that his party did not make a mistake electing him their champion in the coming war, that his can-do spirit and hunger for order and progress far outweigh his past foibles, impetuousness, suspect democratic credentials, and lack of policy and administrative depth.

    The PDP will make herculean efforts to centre the campaign on issues of religion, ethnicity and unsubstantiated and exaggerated achievements. The PDP had clothed the APC in religious garb, and labeled its leaders desperate power grabbers and autocrats. But having had the good fortune of a successful presidential primary, the APC will work hard to focus attention on the president’s uncoordinated and amateurish approach to governance, weaknesses, hesitations, the Chibok schoolgirls disaster, economic downturn, social decay, poor national image, unending insurgency, and a host of other clear evidence of poor performance, poor judgement and overall poor leadership tending towards apocalypse. Dr Jonathan is unlikely to dispel grave and sobering doubts about his competence between now and February.

  • Muhammadu Buhari and the paradox of a nation

    Muhammadu Buhari and the paradox of a nation

    Given his landslide victory at the just concluded APC presidential primary, Major General Mohammadu Buhari seems to be on the cusp of history once again. It is history steeped in and dripping with paradox. This needs not delay us. It has been said that thunder does not strike twice. But if the loud rumblings for change across the country and the sudden tectonic shift in favour of a sanitising presidency are anything to go by, the Daura-born general has another rendezvous with history.

    Exactly 31 years after his military colleagues chose him to be the public face of what they presented as a war against corruption and indiscipline in Nigeria, fate and the logic of aborted business seem to be conspiring to restore him to the very same pedestal. Is Buhari about to step into the same river twice? Put in another way, does history actually repeat itself?

    It is a tangled web of ironies and confounding ambiguities.  The ruins of reaction also throw up rays of revolutionary hopes. Thirty one years after riding to power on the crest of a popular military coup, General Buhari is seeking to return to the same office through free and fair elections. This will be his fourth attempt, too. As a soldier, Buhari was completely apolitical, often dripping with contempt for political generals.  But out of the army, he seems to have developed a gargantuan appetite for politics.

    On the face of it, something does not add up. Why does Nigeria appear to be going round in circles like a barber’s swivel chair without any remission or amelioration of condition?  The Buhari phenomenon is a huge paradox that requires further inquiry. We can no longer afford to play poker with the destiny of Nigeria.

    Thirty one years after the then Brigadier Sani Abacha’s historic broadcast, Nigeria roils in the quagmire of underdevelopment; a cesspit of corruption and historic malfeasance. Sullen angry crowds confront you everywhere you turn. The social fabric that binds a nation together has collapsed, leaving in its wake a state of hair-raising anomie.

    The nation has never been so ethnically, religiously and economically polarised. The north east has virtually imploded. If you factor into this the looming fiscal meltdown as a result of tumbling oil prices, it is a perfectly scary proposition. Never in its history has Nigerian been more in dire need of a redeemer or a group of redeemers.

    But there have been Nigerian redeemers and Nigerian redeemers. They have come in different sizes and shapes. Yet they have always almost without exception managed to leave the country in a worse shape than they met it. Many analysts have pointed at the structural misconfiguration of the nation right from colonial gestation which has made it impossible for Nigeria to throw up its best and brightest. Others have fingered an alien and alienating state originally designed for colonial galley slaves and which has now become an equal opportunity instrument of terror and torture. A few have chosen to blame a failure of leadership.

    Whatever may be the reason, the evidence of state failure is staggering and overwhelming. The state is in serial stasis, its comprehensive paralysis so evident that Nigeria has become a butt of continental and global jokes, its leaders treated like comic buffoons and figures of outlandish farce in a brave new world of ceaseless innovations powered by knowledge production. Even a third rate country like Chad can subject Nigeria to a cruel hoax such as we witnessed in the cleverly executed Boko Haram illusory ceasefire.

    Central to the failure and tragedy of Nigeria as a nation is the failure of military messianism such as we have witnessed in a huge chunk of post-colonial Africa. Military rule left many African countries in political and economic ruins with the military itself as an institutional bulwark of the state humbled and humiliated and a very poor shadow of its former self. In Ethiopia, Zaire, Liberia, Uganda, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Burundi and Sierra Leone, the official army had to be neutralised as a precondition for the reconfiguration and reorganisation of the state and the nation.

    The Nigerian military has been lucky that its misadventure in power and partisan politics has not cost it much beyond a loss of institutional coherence and cohesiveness and a structural dislocation of its old fighting flair. It could be much worse. General Mohammadu Buhari is very much a product of this military messianism in Nigeria and the paradox of his career illustrates the tragic trajectory. It also in a curiously paradoxical manner points the way forward for a cruelly afflicted nation. It is to this trajectory that we must now return.

    In February 1976 after the assassination of General Murtala Mohammed, the then Colonel Buhari was passed over for political promotion by his military superiors. To appease the core north which was still smarting over the death of the tempestuous Kano-born Mohammed, it was decided that an officer of pristine and immaculate Fulani extraction should be named as Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters and in effect Obasanjo’s political deputy.

    The choice narrowed to either Colonel Buhari or Lieutenant Colonel Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. Although he was Yar’Adua’s senior, it was felt that Buhari’s stiffness, his inflexibility and lack of political exposure might endanger and compromise a potentially distinguished professional career. Thus Lieutenant Colonel Yar’Adua suddenly became Brigadier Yar’Adua at the youthful age of thirty three.

    Although clever, dexterous and probably judicious in the light of extant political realities, the political engineering was not without its bizarre anomalies and contradictions. A livid Colonel David Medaiyese Jemibewon , as the governor of the old west, bluntly refused to submit himself to the dictates of his former subordinate and routinely bypassed the Supreme Headquarters  to reach General Obasanjo as Head of State.

    However that may be, the courteous, affable and fabulously savvy Yar’Adua went on to make economic hay as a businessman and as the master of militarised politics in modern Nigeria.  A wizard of the shock and awe school of political contention, Yar’Adua overwhelmed the old political ramparts with men, money and material and was virtually on his way to the State House before fatally succumbing to a combination of political and military ambush unfurled by his northern colleagues.

    In the case of General Buhari, he went on to serve with distinction and immaculate incorruptibility as Nigeria’s Petroleum Czar. He was also a star GOC as his exploits in the Chad Basin would attest. Ironically when it was time for a military coup to dismiss Nigeria’s dissolute and corrupt political class, it was Buhari’s old qualities of stiffness and inflexibility, his iron will and old-fashioned distaste for immorality that recommended him to his colleagues as the stern, no-nonsense face and visage of the new project to sanitise Nigeria.

    These qualities worked excellently well when it came to Nigeria’s external image and the management of the economy. But they foundered on the rocks of Nigeria’s cultural, political and regional polarities. It was felt in many quarters that the Buhari administration was grossly insensitive to the cultural and political sensitivities of other regions and religions. The arraignment and conviction of political villains was grotesquely lopsided. Many noted the preferential treatment given to Alhaji Shehu Shagari while his deputy, Alex Ekwueme, was kept in confinement where he developed a snowy beard of Nebuchadnezarean proportions.

    Very soon, malignant rumours began to circulate that the coup was part of a sinister Fulani project to retain power. Led by the illustrious Mahmoud Tukur, the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities issued a famous treatise which dismissed the Buhari government as the military wing of the NPN. The reaction of the Buhari administration to these insinuations was a combination of astonishing innocence and political obtuseness. The government provided ammunition for its own enemies who were waiting patiently in the wing and very soon the Buhari regime became history.

    Almost 30 years after, the country has arrived at a similar conjuncture with the same Buhari as a democratic exemplar and the civilian arrowhead of a nationwide clamour for democratic restitution and a restoration of national sanity in the economic and political spheres. In the interval, Nigeria has been laid low and prostrate by a succession of military despots and civilian autocrats.

    An ethnic version of the Russian roulette or tribal round robin rammed down the country’s throat by a military cabal after they were confronted by the consequences of annulling the freest and fairest election in the country has become a political albatross with the advent of the Jonathan presidency. It is a proverbial fly perched on a delicate spot in the nation’s anatomy.

    So, is General Buhari about to step into the same river all over again?  Not exactly. If 31 years ago, the economy was in the doldrums, now it is in a violent tailspin. Thirty one years ago corruption was a national malaise, now it has become a pan-Nigerian pandemic threatening to overwhelm the nation. To worsen matters, the ethnic, religious and regional fissures of the country have become gaping wounds and a large swathe of the nation has already succumbed to religious insurgency.

    All these require much more than General Buhari’s fabled incorruptibility and granite integrity. He will be asked not just to go after economic saboteurs but to create wealth without which it will be impossible to address the issue of social inequity, and with an eye to the sensitivities of a combustible multinational nation. It will require uncommon skills, political dexterity and the sagacity of a modern miracle man.

    It is a measure of the urgency and indeed the emergency of the matter at hand that the dominant political tendency in the South West whose ideological ancestors and political forebears were in the forefront of the battle against the old Buhari administration have now teamed up with nascent political forces from the north in a last ditch bid to rescue Nigeria. This is just as it should be. We cannot be fixated on old battle orders and ancient feuds when emergent realities point at pressing and immediate dangers in other directions. Those who bear grudges of the past are rendered incapable of facing the grinding necessities of the present.

    The ringing and insistent clamour out there is for a qualitative change of leadership based on competence, integrity and higher seriousness which will rescue Nigeria from its current economic rot and political disorder. The post-June 12 ethnic formatting of leadership pioneered by a military cabal and perpetuated by General Obasanjo  has now had its time and day. Otherwise like a catatonic animal in deep hibernation, Nigeria may be put permanently to sleep by adversarial climatic conditions. We have only two months to make up our mind.

  • 2015: APC and the battle to come

    2015: APC and the battle to come

    APC must insist on the use of electronic card reader as PVCs currently being hoarded are destined to be cloned by the PDP

    “The flow of handing over a mini bag of rice with cash to every voter on the queue in turn had been smooth until it got to the victim of the brutality; a staunch APC faithful I presume, well known to the distributor. I think the distributor had offered him his own with a wink of tease he did not find amusing. ‘Get out of my sight or…” the APC man was still saying when a hard slap from the civil defense man, from behind, cut him short of further words. This instantly ignited in me a pity for the miserable life these Ekiti people have just been deceived into, endorsing with these PDP’s callous bait for a deeper wretched living in their land”.  – From the diary of  a self-confessed  member of the  militarisation team  that locked down  Ekiti from 19th- 21st, June 2014.

    In a 4-part article titled “PERISCOPING APC’s IDEAL PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE” on these pages, I recently showcased why, in the interest of not only the APC but Nigeria at large, General Muhammadu Buhari should be the party’s presidential candidate.  I, indeed, opined that given Nigeria’s current circumstances, the country needed the general much more than he needs her.  I should not delay with a rehash of those self-evident realities; a situation so galling a naturally taciturn Dr Christopher Kolade could not hold back from saying that Nigeria never had it so bad. The loud mouths have since replied, lecturing the 80-year plus senior citizen.  Let me therefore quickly congratulate the party for proving us right. I must,  however, specially  thank Dr Kayode Fayemi, the Chief Retuning Officer and his  election planning team for  organising such a first- in- Nigeria congress, so transparent a blind could see.

    For the party, however, the time for backslapping is not yet here because for the very first time in its chequered history, the ‘biggest rally’ in Africa -PDP – is going to have an electoral contest, properly so called. In place of those  small, usually  feuding  political  parties,  PDP would, this time around , be facing a proper, well heeled  opposition  party.   For a party which thinks nothing of manipulating an election which it should ordinarily win, this cannot be a joking matter for PDP at all.  It will therefore stop at nothing to rig the presidential election in the vain hope that victory at that would trigger a bandwagon effect as if Nigerians are fools.

    For the APC, therefore, the words of former President Obasanjo to the effect that “In politics, just as in war, what matters is not just your plan, but knowledge of your opponent’s plan” become relevant and germane.  For it, therefore, the point of departure must be the clear understanding that for PDP, nothing, however reprehensible, is off limits. In other words, PDP would fight bare knuckles.  Fortunately, in Ekiti and Osun the APC saw, in its utmost brazenness, what the party can do.  The bestiality of the militarisation team, described in the intro to this article, is a clear manifestation of one of the problems with rulers of resource rich countries, particularly in the Third World.  They always want to be rulers for life.  APC must therefore be prepared: not for war nor for a recourse to AK47  but, it must, as a matter of urgency,  head to the courts to ask that INEC be legally compelled to conduct the 2015 elections strictly according to the Electoral Law instead of, as usual,  pandering to the ruling party and helping it to rig elections.  Two examples will suffice to show INEC as nothing more than PDP’s rigging partner.  First,  it has been shown  that the  sudden  postponement of the April 6, 2011 election long after  voting had commenced  nationwide,  on the grounds  that  voting materials did not arrive, was a ploy  to  enable the PDP ascertain where General Buhari was strongest to enable PDP ferry fake ballot papers, being  printed in a well known, local printing press in Abuja, to shore up Dr  Jonathan’s votes in those places. It was to cover this infamy that Justice Ayo Salami was rapidly suspended from office, and, ipso facto, from his chairmanship of the Presidential Election Tribunal where he had already granted General Buhari leave to inspect the ballot papers. That leave was promptly reversed at the first sitting of the reconstituted Presidential Election panel. Second, is the use of vanishing ink instead of the prescribed indelible ink as we saw in the Ekiti election. Last week in the column, I demonstrated how the vanishing ink was programmed to impregnate a  mark already affixed to the PDP column turning it to the voted party and how that accounted for their so-called victory in all of Ekiti’s 16 Local Government Areas. APC just must stop this unholy PDP/INEC mala fidi. It will be its greatest battle because on its record of performance, PDP has already failed and fallen.

    The Obasanjo regime -1999 -2007- showed conclusively that PDP is a rigging machine. However, if rigging was then analogue, and in-your face, under President Jonathan, it has become industrial and scientific. It comes in various ways. In 2011, for instance, fake ballot papers played a major part in PDP’s ‘victory’. In an affidavit before the Presidential Election Tribunal, CPC alleged that fake ballot papers printed by at a press whose name it gave the tribunal, were used in the entire north.  In confirmation, the party gave the names of two individuals who were arrested by the police in Abuja with 100,000 fake ballot papers. Similarly, there were reports of arrests for fake ballot papers in Akwa Ibom, which is already notorious for election rigging, and in Ogun State the driver of a sitting PDP senator, seeking re election, was arrested with a vehicle loaded with fake ballot papers. In all of these, mum had been the case with the complicit Nigeria police.

    Equally, some INEC staff, especially of the ICT department, are busy at work for the PDP. Their duty is to crutch data to ensure that PVC collection becomes as difficult as studying robotic science in areas of the country believed by PDP strategists to be APC-leaning. Therefore, at the mere touch of a button, they could maximally reduce the number of voters in such places. Like Governor Fashola, APC must do everything to hold INEC accountable. Where it fails to give out PVCs, it must, willy nilly, approve the use of temporary cards. The party must also insist on the use of electronic card reader as I suspect that most of the PVCs currently being hoarded are destined to be cloned for PDP use.

    However, as indicated earlier, of all these rigging methods, about the most difficult  to  guide against will be  scientific rigging which was deployed in Ekiti but  they could not use in Osun because their cover had been blown and it was too late to  use another variant. A South African intelligence outfit, NASENI, which did extensive work on the Zimbabwean 2013 presidential election believed to have been scientifically rigged, concluded that the technology involves the development and use of a special water marked ballot paper, which is designed to give majority of the votes cast to a pre-determined party. Once the ballot papers are supplied by its complicit suppliers, all that INEC does is provide vanishing ink in place of the indelible type. I am  persuaded  that  in the  2015 elections,  PDP would like to deploy this rogue technology  in some given states as boasts, reminiscent of those  we saw in Ekiti before the governorship election are  already being repeated  by PDP leaders in such states.  For example, in spite of the defection of the former Secretary to the Government of Akwa Ibom, Mr Umana Umana, with his teeming supporters which include very senior party elders who, though didn’t defect but are deeply rooting for him, the state governor continues to boast that PDP will score nothing less than 99 percent in both the presidential and governorship elections. Ditto in Rivers State where Wike keeps repeating the same boasts despite the fact that the primaries have shredded the PDP there.

    In conclusion, the APC, in particular, and Nigerians in general, must be prepared to stop PDP in its tracks.  Enough of the national decline on all fronts.

  • APC, running mate and options for 2015

    APC, running mate and options for 2015

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) is about to discover that deciding on Gen Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate is much tougher than electing their standard-bearer. It is not simply because that choice, once it is made, has the potential to make or mar the ticket, it is because navigating the treacherous courses of Nigeria’s competing groups and issues has become almost an impossible task. Asked a few days before the primary whether he countenanced picking a Muslim as his running mate, Gen Buhari prevaricated. He said he preferred to defer to his party, and then went on to anchor his hesitations on historical facts confirming that Nigerians previously voted for same faith candidates and running mates. He was, however, indicating that his party was battling to make up its mind, and that one or two of the leading contenders for the running mate position are Muslims.

    The incredibly successful conduct of the APC presidential primary, and in particular the election of Gen Buhari, places a huge burden on the party to make the right choice, one that would add value to the principles and philosophy of the party, and one that would inspire and fire the country to put a definitive end to PDP’s reign in 2015. That choice must not diminish the ticket or vitiate its battle preparedness. Two hard choices stare the APC in the face. First is whether to produce a running mate from the Southwest or elsewhere. And the second is whether to gamble on a Muslim-Muslim ticket.

    The choice the party makes, in its daringness and appropriateness, will be a reflection of how desperate it wants to dethrone the PDP. Once that choice is made, it will be irreversible. If it is the right choice the dynamics of electioneering will trigger a momentum that will ferry the party into the presidency. But if it is the wrong choice, the same cruel dynamics will put the party on the defensive and wreck its chances, perhaps for a long time. No person, indeed no analyst, can claim to have the answer or see into the future. However, propelled by a primary election high, it seems much more sensible for the APC to avoid rashness and overconfidence in order to sustain the momentum, and also to ensure that the issues that will shape the February poll will not be polluted by Dr Jonathan’s desperate government.

    First, the Southwest and its leaders may reason that having inspired the formation of APC, and having as it were led it so creatively, though under the weight of accusation by anachronistic members of the Yoruba political elite that the region was being sold cheaply to the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy, they may want to ensure a south-westerner on the ticket. Given the nature of Nigerian politics, especially the enormous powers wielded by the presidency over the ruling party, it is understandable why APC leaders from the Southwest would want someone from the zone on the ticket. The problem with that reasoning however is that the impression will be created that their exertions were induced by considerations other than philosophical, and that other powerful concessions bigger and more potent than a running mate cannot be secured. They will be saying that they were not inspired by great democratic principles and nobler motives required to redirect and nurture Nigerian politics and democracy along the civilising lines which contentious Yoruba leaders led by Ayo Adebanjo and others in Afenifere have failed to understand. Unknown to many, Nigerian politics is being restructured fundamentally away from the bigotries and antagonisms of the past. That process, masterminded by the APC, must not be aborted.

    Second, because Dr Jonathan is at his most vulnerable does not mean he is already dead meat. The APC must therefore weigh the risk of presenting a Muslim-Muslim ticket. Given how badly Dr Jonathan and his supporters have muddied Nigeria’s political waters and fouled it with ethnic and religious prejudices, the APC will find it difficult convincing itself it is prepared to sail near the wind with a Muslim-Muslim ticket. It is of course nonsensical to religionise party tickets, as if same faith tickets would ineluctably promote one religion over the other. But the APC must be capable of reading the signs of the times, and of making choices that show its perceptiveness and acuity of mind. It must be able to anticipate Dr Jonathan’s campaign tactics and not hand it ready ammunition.

    In 2011, Gen Buhari had his best chance of winning the presidency, if only he would reach accommodation with the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). He incredulously made the wrong call. Now, it is not just Gen Buhari’s best chance to win, it is in fact the best chance for his party to win. They must not make the wrong choice. Apart from choosing the right running mate, the party must take over the general’s campaign, steer it away from the insularity that hallmarked his 2011 campaign, mould him as much as they can into a modern leader with believable democratic credentials and founder’s mentality, and into a politician who envisions great things, has the capacity to relate creatively with the National Assembly, and is capable of taking the people to a height that exists only in their constructive imagination. Whatever they do, APC leaders must recognise that their first task is to win and save Nigeria from apocalypse. Nothing must interfere with those noble goals of saving democracy and rebuilding this shattered and dispirited country.

  • Buhari: The opponent PDP prefers!

    Buhari: The opponent PDP prefers!

    Even before the first vote was cast at the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primaries the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) was already dismissing eventual winner, General Muhammadu Buhari, as a walkover. Its spokesman boasted that President Goodluck Jonathan would trounce all the opposition party’s aspirants rolled into one.

    Early in the week, all sorts of analyses made out former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to be the man most feared by the ruling party. One such article spoke of his immense wealth, intense preparation for the job and existing contacts with a remnant of his loyalists in the PDP who could work for him under the radar. At the end we were assured he would pip Buhari at the finishing line.

    In their attempts to paint the former head of state as easy to beat many are quick to point at his three unsuccessful attempts at getting the top job. But they do so without putting those defeats in proper context.

    For instance, it is settled that no one can become president of Nigeria unless they run on a broad-based platform with firm presence across the country. The constitution requires that to be elected you must win a majority of votes cast as well as 25% in two-thirds of the 36 states.

    The two times Buhari mounted his challenge on the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) platform, the party was strong only in a handful of northern states where it had governors. Down south it was virtually non-existent.

    In 2011, after he parted ways with the ANPP, he offered himself on an even more ramshackle arrangement called the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). By the time of the elections, the party didn’t control even one miserable local government area in the country. It had very little name recognition anywhere in the country and not much money.

    Like before, his new party was virtually non-existent in the south. He tried to remedy this and deal with accusations that he was a Muslim fundamentalist by picking a well-known pastor, Tunde Bakare, as running mate. Whatever point he thought he would score with southern Christians was neutralised by the fact that the clergyman had no political structures to add heft to the ticket.

    A last minute attempt to cobble together an alliance with other opposition groups came to nothing, and the CPC plunged ahead with its ultimately futile bid. The astonishing thing is that despite the crippling shortcomings of the platform, his candidacy still managed to attract over 12 million votes.

    This time around, Buhari is running on a platform that has 14 governors and strong presence in states where it does not control government. For the first time ever, this candidate who lost thrice because he didn’t have a credible electoral route to Aso Villa, now has a realistic chance of securing a simple majority and 25% of votes cast in two-thirds of 36 states. And yet the PDP would have us believe that he would be so easy to beat!

    Beneath the bluster, however, you get a sense of unease at the emergence of the old enemy. There’s no stronger evidence of this than the desperate efforts by the ruling party’s online army to discredit Buhari by reminding Nigerians of a litany ancient sins allegedly committed by the former head of state.

    One accusation that has been levelled against the APC in the past is that there’s not much separating it from the PDP. The differences are becoming quite stark – starting with the two presidential candidates.

    Let’s begin with ability to communicate their ideas and positions. No one can accuse Buhari or Jonathan of being orators. In fact, listening to either drone on from their usually prepared speeches is guaranteed to send you to sleep faster than swallowing a pack of sleeping pills.

    But what Buhari lacks in oratory he makes up for with that X-factor which attracts fanatical following. In this sense he is akin to the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo – no great speaker himself – but whose mere appearance at a public function could work his supporters into frenzied cries of Awo!

    The APC flagbearer excites his base. His followers are passionate about him: the word more commonly used to describe the connection between them is ‘fanatical.’ They will follow him for free and at the drop of a hat.

    Can we say the same about Jonathan? Take away the platform and Buhari would still attract millions of voters. If you separate him from the PDP platform, how many supporters would follow the incumbent president on a journey into the unknown?

    When you think of Buhari the adjectives that come to mind are firm, stern, strong and honest. Think of Jonathan and words like humble, amiable, deliberate come to mind. But you also think weak and indecisive.

    This may not be a totally fair assessment of the president but it is the perception out there – one that is reinforced by quotes like the one from former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s controversial new memoirs, “My Watch”, that insinuated Patience Jonathan, Diezani Alison-Madueke, Petroleum Minister, Stella Oduah, former Aviation Minister and Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, were all ‘Presidents’ of Nigeria. Jonathan, he wrote, was the weakest of them all.

    Buhari’s strongest point – one on which friends and foes largely agree – is that he is honest and that in a country where a large chunk of the elite have been besmirched by corruption, he has remained sleaze-free. The PDP recognises this as his strong suit and is challenging that image.

    We are now being reminded that when the nation’s borders were shut amidst currency reforms in the mid-80s, the then military ruler’s aide-de-camp, Major Mustapha Jokolo, pulled rank to get 53 suitcases belonging to an emir into the country. The bending of the rules to allow the privileged bring in the banned baggage with unknown content remains a sore point that dogs the General’s steps.

    This one incident is what critics point to when they raise doubts about Buhari’s saintliness. But to put things in perspective we should also note that the man has held several high profile offices – including supervising the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and yet has no house in Abuja or a foreign bank account. Most people accept that he’s an honest man with a modest lifestyle, that is why attempts to paint him otherwise always ring hollow.

    Under his watch three convicted drug pushers were executed under the retroactive laws instituted by the military junta of the day. Of all the actions of that tough regime, this is perhaps one of the most wrongheaded and troubling. It is one which he would one day need to confront and apologise for.

    But if we were to use the atrocities of former military regimes to exclude people from participating in the political process, then a large swathe of powerful figures in the land today would be disqualified – everyone from Obasanjo to Babangida, David Mark and others who participated in the annulment of the June 12 election results, or who rubberstamped death sentences arising from trumped-up coup plotting allegations.

    The ruling party supporters may be dismissive of Buhari in the belief that as they successfully did in times past they can define him again as some sort of religious nut. Against the backdrop of a polity polluted by sectarian disputes made worse by the atrocities of Boko Haram, this old trick could be used to damage the man before the undiscerning.

    True, Buhari has said in the past that he supports Sharia. But I’m yet to see a Muslim who is opposed to the legal code that is part and parcel of their religion. Indeed, knowledgeable people would tell you that it had always been in the statute books in Northern Nigeria before and after Independence. The turning point was when Sani Yerima, then Zamfara State governor, dramatised and politicised the adoption of the code by his state in 2000.

    Beyond one or two ill-thought out utterances, fair-minded people should look at Buhari’s life, actions and associates and determine for themselves whether he fits the mould of an Islamic fundamentalist. Let’s not forget that this same individual led the military push to destroy Maitatsine in the 80s. This last July, he barely survived a bomb attack carried out by extremists he is supposedly sympathetic towards.

    Those who dismiss the APC candidate as easy to beat should ask themselves whether over the last four years he has shed support like his opponent for the February 2015 polls. Most people who voted back for Buhari in 2011 are still likely to back him today. After seeing what he has done with power , Jonathan has lost many erstwhile supporters.

    What should disturb the ruling party more is that people are becoming increasingly resistant to the old propaganda. They take the position that Buhari may not be an orator, he may not be an angel or discuss economic policy like Okonjo-Iweala, still they would risk their votes on him because they are fed up with Jonathan’s Nigeria.

  • Buhari’s fourth try: It will be real now

    My instinct made me to believe, that General Muhammadu Buhari would clinch the just concluded All Progressives Congress (APC’s) primaries

    The other four contenders- Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, Governor Rochas and Mr. Sam Isaiah will not really pose any threat in making the Buhari candidacy under the platform of the APC, because the retired General has enjoyed and still enjoys the people’s confidence in yearning for positive change in this country.                                      It is therefore not a surprise, that when counting of the ballots started at the primaries, General Muhammadu Buhari polled a total vote of 3,430 out of the more than 7,000 delegates votes.              It is only General Muhammadu Buhari, in the whole of this country that can still be enjoying mass appeal of the people. A lot of things that are unexpected happened as the primaries was held in Lagos and one of the things that came to the open was the acceptability of General Buhari in South-East and the South-South by the people.

    The massive supports given to General Buhari during the concluded primaries has break the jinx, that was associated with him as a strong religious bigot, who only care for the Muslims.                                      Those who tagged him with such incredulous label are political adversaries that are threatened by the support he enjoys from the people of this country from different parts of this country. It is clear that General Buhari in the election proper in 2015 would give the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan a good run for his money.

    Most of the co-contenders like the former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has shown good sportsmanship by conceding defeat and congratulating the General over his victory.

    The task has now shifted from General Buhari to all the party men and women to now vigorously come out from any shell they may be in to assiduously work for the victory of the party, and General Buhari, at the polls next year.

    General Buhari stands a good chance in becoming the next

    President of this country in next year’s election once the people will put aside any primordial interest and work in unison for the success of the party and the candidate against the dreaded PDP and its candidate.  People should eschew political rancor and money bags and vote according to their conscience in order to ease out the PDP and their presidential candidate.

    The people have suffered too much especially in the North East where insurgents have ravaged so many towns and villages with scores of people losing their lives and hard-earned properties worth billions of naira.

    Insecurity has scuttled the business opportunities of the people as people now live from hand to mouth. The year for real General Buhari’s presidency is now and the people should rally round and see to its actualization.

    General Muhammadu Buhari will transform this country that all can claim to be worthy in staying. This generation and indeed future generations yet unborn have no any other country than Nigeria and we must stay here and salvage it together.

    – Santuraki is a Political Analyst/ public from Yola.

  • APC commends security agencies, media, Lagosians for successful convention

    APC commends security agencies, media, Lagosians for successful convention

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has expressed its gratitude to the security agencies, the media, party members/supporters and the entire people of Lagos for their immense contributions to the runaway success of the party’s two-day national convention that saw the emergence of its presidential candidate without rancour

    In a statement issued in Lagos on Friday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said going by the efforts and perseverance of these groups, it is now clear that Nigerians are ready to make the necessary sacrifice for change.

    It said the military, police, DSS, Civil Defence and the various Lagos State security agencies, among others, went beyond the call of duty in carrying out their assigned tasks during the two days that the convention lasted.

    ‘’What this shows is that with proper political leadership and guidance, our security agencies can be the best in the world. We are indeed gladdened by their sacrifice,’’ APC said.

    The party said the media also did not disappoint, as many journalists reported at the venue from 9 am on Wednesday and did not leave until the results of the voting was announced at about 6 pm the second day, all the while reporting the event as it happened.

    ‘’As always, the Nigerian media played their watchdog role with a rare commitment and impressive professionalism. They were there for us all through,’’ it said.

    APC said the entire people of Lagos made a great sacrifice by bearing the inconveniences imposed by the convention without much complaints.

    ‘’For a city prone to gridlock, there is no doubt that the convention brought about extra inconveniences for the residents as they moved around to perform their daily duties.

    “But based on the feedback we have received from across the state, the people believe that whatever inconveniences they suffered while the convention lasted were just a little of the sacrifice they have to make in the collective efforts to build a new Nigeria. We appreciate this very much,’’ the party said.

    It said the party’s members and supporters, especially the delegates who came from all over the country, were simply outstanding in their contributions to the success of the convention, a development that has given the party much hope and confidence that it can always count on its core group (members and supporters) for support

    APC said with the fairness, transparency, violence-free and the overall success of the convention, the party has shown that it is indeed ready and able to bring the much-needed change to Nigeria and make the country, once again, a proud member of the comity of nations.

    ‘’In the tough task ahead, we have no scintilla of doubt that we can always count on all those who have made our convention a success,’’ the party said.

  • 2015: Nigerians told to reject PDP

    2015: Nigerians told to reject PDP

     A pressure group, the APC Volunteers (APC-V), has called on Nigerians to vote against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 general elections.

    The group, which promotes the interests of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said the PDP and its government under the leadership of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan had thrown Nigerians into sorrow through problems created as a result of gross incompetence.

    In a statement issued yesterday in Abuja and signed by the group’s National Coordinator, Barrister Olusegun Bamgbose, Nigerians were advised to vote for the APC described as the only party with solutions to the nation’s serious challenges.

    The statement reads in part, “ It is becoming increasingly obvious from political developments that the possibility of the PDP surviving the 2015 general elections is very slim. The party has fallen from grace to grass. The party has been battered by many internal crises.

    “Considering also the political mood of the nation and the people eagerly yearning for a change, the PDP’s chances of retaining power at the centre may be elusive. The time has come in the history of Nigeria when we must tell ourselves the whole truth. The PDP under the Jonathan administration has only succeeded in underdeveloping Nigeria. It is a case of outright failure on the part of the government.

    “Jonathan has failed to properly address the problem of insecurity to the satisfaction of Nigerians. The rate of unemployment has consistently been on the increase. The infrastructural development has not been encouraging.

    “After careful appraisal and analysis of the Jonathan administration for almost six years, it has become very clear that Jonathan lacks what it takes to move this nation forward. His best is not good for Nigeria. He is not competent to govern Nigeria beyond 2015.

    “It is then proper to submit that with what we have on ground now, the opposition will likely form government in 2015. It will amount to be a political gamble to give the PDP another four more years to govern Nigeria.

    “Our unity and peaceful co-existence as a nation are seriously at stake. The PDP government has succeeded in bastardizing the enviable image of our country both locally and internationally. It will be economically and politically injurious to permit the PDP to rule Nigeria for another four more years. Our unity has never been so fragile as we have it now.

    “It is, therefore, politically expedient to kick out the PDP in 2015. One needs to understand that the PDP is terminally ill. It would, therefore, be politically suicidal to allow the PDP to govern Nigeria beyond 2015. Nigeria will certainly be in ruins should that happen.”

  • APC aspirant congratulates candidate

    APC aspirant congratulates candidate

    Lagos House of Assembly aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ifako/Ijaiye Local Government, Hon.Mutairu Balogun, has congratulated the winner of the Federal House of Representatives primary of the party, in the Ifako/Ijaiye Federal Constituency, Dr. Elijah Adewale popularly called Dr.Jah.

    Balogun also pledged his unflinching support and loyalty to the party and the National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    He said: “The victory of Dr. Adewale is a reflection of his hardwork and popularity within the party. I therefore wish him and the party a resounding success in the forthcoming elections.

    “ I also want to use this opportunity to call on Lagosians and Nigerians in particular to vote for our great party in the 2015 elections as APC remains the only credible party that will usher in the much desired change Nigerians  have been yearning for.”