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Tag: GEJ

  • GEJ’s phone call to GMB: the dangers of hyperbole

    GEJ’s phone call to GMB: the dangers of hyperbole

    Whatever criticisms anyone may make of President Goodluck Jonathan’s six-year presidency which will end on May 29 – and God knows there’s a hell lot – he cannot be denied credit for his statesman-like March 31 phone call to his rival, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, in which he accepted defeat ahead of the formal declaration of the opposition All Progressive Congress’s (APC) presidential candidate as victor, the following day.

    That simple call was possibly, even probably, the most difficult decision of the president’s political life, considering the unprecedented bitterness that had characterised this year’s general elections, thanks mostly to the hawks the man surrounded himself with, several of whom had sworn, presumably with a wink from him, that Buhari will never be elected president of this country.

    However, while the president deserves the praise singing that has been heaped on him for that simple but, at the same time, difficult, phone call, it must be said that the country stands in the grave danger of over-exaggerating its significant, in the sense that it is being made to look as if it is enough to atone for the enormous sins the man, his lieutenants and his Peoples Democratic Party have committed against Nigeria and Nigerians the past 16 years.

    No doubt the phone call averted the descent into chaos which many a doomsday prophet – not least semi-official American institutions that had predicted Nigeria’s implosion this year – had prophesied for the country. Even then anyone who thinks that that phone call alone has completely dispersed the storm that had gathered over the nation before and during this year’s general election may be in for a great shocker.

    There are critics of the president who say his concession was forced. Perhaps it was, perhaps it wasn’t. However, a two-page statement issued on Monday by the Chairman of PDP’s Board of Trustee, Chief Tony Anenih, titled “Marching on with Hope” suggests that the phone call wasn’t so voluntary.

    “President Jonathan,” Anenih said in the statement, “has worked, selflessly, to deepen democracy in Nigeria. His consistent advocacy of the rights of the people to freely choose their leaders had earlier yielded free, fair and credible elections in some States of the Federation. Now, a peaceful transition is expected to follow after the general elections.” (Note his phrase, “in some states”, presumably PDP).

    Coming from a man who originated and popularised the notorious phrase, “No vacancy in Aso Villa,” the man must think Nigerians are idiots to believe his claim that anybody in PDP can deepen, or has indeed deepened, democracy in Nigeria; after all, advocacy is not practice, and no one resident in Nigeria the last 16 years will agree with “Mr Fix-it” that PDP chieftains ever practiced the principles of anything they preached.  In any case by apparently tagging the election as half-free, it is obvious that his party, and certainly the man himself as its presumed conscience, did not accept Buhari won it fair and square.

    Yet, in spite of Anenih’s dubious caveat about the credibility of the election, President Jonathan’s phone call may have been sincere. However, there are at least two tests by which the president can prove his sincerity beyond any reasonable doubt, one immediate, and the other during and after the transition.

    The immediate test is his willingness to call to order the governors of PDP states and Abuja-backed PDP elements in opposition states who made it almost impossible for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to use card readers in their states and generally made their states hell on earth for the opposition in the March 28 elections through the use of thugs, army and the police, notably Akwa-Ibom and Rivers, the First Lady’s home but opposition state. The president should charge these governors and PDP Abuja politicians to allow for free, fair and credible governorship and Houses of Assembly elections in their states this weekend.

    In addition, he should prevail on the PDP governors who lost their senatorial bids on March 28 – notably those of Niger and Benue states – not to resort to the Samson’s Option of bringing down the roof on everybody’s head they seem hell-bent upon adopting in the same election as punishment against voters in their states for their rejection.

    The second, and bigger, test is how willingly the president cooperates with the in-coming administration in personally accounting for his six-year rule and how far he succeeds in persuading all his lieutenants to do the same.

    General Buhari has assured that his administration will not “witch-hunt” anyone. This is as it should be. However, this cannot mean letting all bygones be bygones. To do so would be to teach the wrong lesson that all it takes for politicians and their sidekicks to get away with the kind of corruption and impunity we witnessed in this country in the past 16 years, the last six in particular, is simply for an incumbent to anticipate the formal announcement of his defeat.

    Re: “Buhari- Fourth time lucky”

    Sir,

    Let us join hands and thank God for Saturday March 28, 2015. We asked for it, and He graciously gave it to us.

    Chief Tony Chigbo,

    +23450494477.

    Sir,

    APC has won the elections. Let sleeping dogs lie.

    +2348057366302.

    Sir,

    Your piece today (April 1) is as usual solid but for the constant recourse to religion and ethnicity. It’ll be good if you could stop looking at the Nigerian crises from the prism of ethnicity and religion.

    Chijioke Uwasomba,

    OAU, Ife,

    +2348037058775.

    Sir,

    I don’t know the inner workings of our darling APC, but to ascribe the ‘poor outing’ in the South-South to Gov. Amaechi’s failings is disingenuous and cruel. Please we need to close our flanks.

    Mikefe Tanno

    +2348062322295.

    Sir,

    I hardly reply to articles but in your case of Wednesday April 1, I couldn’t hold myself. Please don’t set a dangerous agenda with your attack on Gov. Amaechi. The fact that GMB won is a testament to the good job he did as DG. You must appreciate the high risk he took in his fight with the presidency on behalf of GMB. Even some of us who were unknown supporters were nearly mobbed in several quarters.

    The point I am making is that it was not easy being a Buhari supporter down south. Therefore, your early attack on Amaechi’s style is unwarranted and uncalled for.

     +2348030784586.

    Sir,

    Your article, “Buhari: Fourth Time Lucky”, was another insightful piece.  However, permit me to strongly disagree that Governor Rotimi Amaechi, the Director-General of the Buhari campaign team, “came highly recommended”.  If truth is not to be turned on its head, Amaechi came to the position with more brawn than brain.  That was why he found it almost impossible to run a cohesive campaign where all the various tendencies could have been carried along.

    Yes, Amaechi may have been right in trying to check the over-bearing excesses of some leaders, but the limited presence of the other serving Governors and party leaders in the campaign, would have brought Buhari’s electoral bid to grief, but for God’s grace.  This is why, without doubt, many discerning minds rightly say the triumph of GMB was hardly due to the efforts of his party.

    Segun Adewale

    Sir,

    There you go again trying to cause schism among APC leaders and followers. Amaechi never alienated Tinubu and others. They worked together as a team. APC lost the S/E and S/S to money politics, the army and corrupt INEC officials.

    +2348075476140.

    Sir,

    Thanks for your usual great attempts at an equilibrated presentation. A word, however, on the perennial suspicion of GMB for Islamic fundamentalism.

    He is said to have made the application for the thorny membership of Nigeria with the OIC, which IBB later ratified. On the other hand, I read from factchecking.ng in GMB’s defence,  that the OIC Conference of Minister, the OIC organ responsible for treating application did not discuss Nigeria during GMB’s military rule, and therefore it was not he who applied for it; in fact, that he refused to sign to full membership of Nigeria because Nigeria was a secular state. In any case, since secrecy has surrounded the ratification of full membership, some of us are still unaware of the details.

    Be that as it may, could GMB add to his top restoration agenda the restoration of that secular status please?

    I believe this message can reach the president-elect through you.

    Sincerely,

    JOSEPH AKAA

    joeakaa@yahoo.com

     

    Sir,

    I have watched good writers of our time like you doing good job. But personally, I would like you people, using your influence and contact, to ensure that that patriotic and uncompromising army captain who leaked the rigging of Ekiti governorship election is reinstated in the army.

    This captain must not lose his job. He is the unsung hero of our time.

    Alhaji Abiodun Hussain,

    +2348023311676.

    Sir,

    FFK (Femi Fani-Kayode) is Publicity Director, not Director General of PGEJ’s (President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan) campaign organisation. The DG is (Col) Ahmadu Ali.

    +2348073647104.

     

    I stand corrected. The error was inadvertent. Another error was my reference to Buhari’s running mate as Professor Femi Osinbajo, instead of Yomi. Both errors are regretted.

  • ‘Nothing in life became him like the leaving it’

    ‘Nothing in life became him like the leaving it’

    •For GEJ, the General, and the Nigeria Project

    It is Wednesday 1stApril, 2015. 9am.

    It has the feel of a new day – this morning. There is something different about the air.

    Yesterday something unknown in the annals of Nigeria’s history happened. A serving President telephoned his opponent to congratulate him on his success at the polls, effectively conceding victory.

    The import of the occasion seemed to get lost in the reportage. To hear some people talk, it was almost as if it was the most natural thing in the world. What options did the man have, anyway? There was quite clearly pressure from ‘elders’ and ‘outsiders’ interested in the survival and well being of the Nigeria project. The handwriting, as the cliché went, was on the wall. The experts who reveled in crunching numbers were very specific. At the time the telephone call went, there was only one state’s vote left to add to the tally – Borno. Borno had one point four million PVCs. Even if all of them were deployed to vote for the incumbent, the tally would still favour the General.

    Such reasoning missed the point.

    From Monday, the day after the two-day elections, the tension in the nation had been electric. The traffic in the normally bustling roads of the Lagos metropolis had thinned out considerably. Banks sent out text notification to their customers that they were closing early. The State Secretariat in Alausa emptied out by mid-afternoon, on the strength of a rumour, later refuted, that the authorities had instructed early closure, fearing some kind of trouble. Schools had closed early for Easter break, and parents kept their children at home. Many shops were closed, or opened only partially for business, with the shop owners keeping a wary eye out for trouble. Here and there, armed Police patrol teams were seen on the streets. Teams of soldiers in patrol vans were in evidence, driving up and down the streets. The sight of the law enforcement agencies simply added to the fear. The soldiers especially to some people exuded the air more of an occupying force than a calm and reassuring protector of the public peace. They would weave through the traffic, their guns trained menacing on the distance, and the man in the street would quickly arrange to move his body or his travelling contraption out of the way. The air all around was thick with foreboding. Nobody was clear what the danger was, and where it would come from. The closest anyone came to giving an explanation of the strange general anxiety was that some aggrieved persons might react when the vote tallies were announced, if the vote went against them.

    This was the prevalent atmosphere up till the morning of Tuesday, the second day of the announcement of results.

    And then came the bizarre incident of the man in the bowler hat, who held up proceedings at the International Conference Centre, Abuja for close on thirty minutes, as all the world watched.

    Was this a spontaneous vituperation from an ‘elder’ with more wind than sense? Was this the carefully planted booby-trap some people had been anticipating, designed to blow up the electoral process, and light the tinder-box of violence across the nation?

    Different scenarios offered themselves to the imagination on how the drama could have evolved. Most scary, and most certain to lead to disaster was the ‘law and order’ approach, where the INEC Chairman, reacting to the disruption of procedure and the personal abuse, would order the forcible removal of the individual from the premises, as he was entitled to do. A scuffle would ensue, the bowler hat would fall off, and the man would fall to the ground. The hall would erupt in chaos. And the streets outside, including those a thousand kilometers away, would erupt.

    Was this the script?

    Or was it just a temporary lapse of judgment in a man who felt his world of unearned privilege ebbing away from him every minute as the results tumbled out, and needed to react in some way?

    Whatever it was, the import for Nigeria was clear. There were people in powerful places who, as the certainty of defeat loomed, were not going to go down without a fight. And – oh! –what a fight it could be!

    On the streets, people reset their agendas. People who had planned to get home a little early reset their schedule to get home very early indeed.

    In the event, the handling of the incident by Professor Jega could not have been bettered by the most consummate practitioner of what may be called Power Psychology.

    Allow the hot air to dissipate. Do not get into an argument. Do not raise your voice. And – yes – have the last word.

    If this was a booby-trap, was this just the first in the queue? Were there others to follow, as the proceedings moved inexorably to a predictable conclusion? Would we be hearing from AsariDokubo? Would MASSOB be out on the streets? And the hordes on the streets of Kano, reacting?

    This was the context into which the news of the President’s phone call of congratulation and concession arrived.

    No one act by anyone could have changed the game, as did that simple conversation. By making the call, President Goodwill Ebele Jonathan reset the bar of what is possible in leadership in Africa – not for beyond-the-reach titans such as Nelson Mandela who come once in a generation, but for the regular Joe who finds himself in a position of leadership and has to make a decision about whether to stay and damn the consequence, using the formidable machinery of state, or bend to the people’s wish – unfair or uninformed as it may be in his judgment, and go. In going, he would be risking the ire of the coterie of ‘kinsmen’ and ‘supporters’ who have formed a consortium for which he is merely the fronts man.

    The story of Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast is still fresh in the mind. After his election loss, it took the expert skills of a French expeditionary force to smoke him out of his impregnable redoubt in his undershirt, so determined was he to stay. The idea of ‘losing gallantly’ to his ilk was simply a contradiction in terms, a virtual oxymoron. The political culture of Africa, and Nigeria in particular, is shot through with such sentiment.

    When the history of the GEJ years gets to be written, the manner in which he raised the bar for the exit culture on the political podium is certain to be noted as one of his major achievements. By taking ownership of the situation and defusing the impending crisis, in the evening of Tuesday the thirty-first of March, 2015, the President led Nigeria away from its worst fears into – at least – the possibility of a new beginning. In his moment of grave defeat he achieved his greatest victory.

    Shakespeare’s MACBETH is a study of the physical and psychological consequences that can be suffered by a man in the throes of ambition. In a supernatural encounter with three witches, a general in the Scottish army is informed he will be Thane of Cawdor, and King of Scotland, both of which positions are currently occupied by others. He is also assured that he cannot be killed by ‘any man born of woman’. Soon after the encounter, he is made Thane of Cawdor, because the incumbent has been caught in treachery against the king, and sentenced to death. The quick fulfillment of one prophecy becomes a logical premise for him to ‘claim’ the other prophecy, egged on by an overweening wife. He kills the King to take the throne.  But that is only the beginning of tragedy culminating in ignominious death. He is killed in combat by a man who is not ‘born of a woman’ because he was surgically taken out of his mother’s womb.  An illustrious career ends on a note of shame. Juxtaposed is the career of the erstwhile Thane of Cawdor, who before his exit confesses his treachery, begs the king’s pardon, and reconfirms himself as a nobleman in the best ethical tradition of ancient Scotland. It is in reporting the death of this noble man to the King that a Prince of the land makes the famous, pithy statement:

    ‘Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it…’

    It is very likely that the significant story of the GEJ era will end on the high note of that phone call. The remainder will just be detail.

    But what a story it has been. The poor boy from Otuoke who had no shoes and walked barefooted to school.The boy from nowhere who made good and aspired to the highest office in the land. It was touchingly romantic. For fair-minded Nigerians of every description, especially the youths, it was emblematic of a yet-to-crystallise Nigerian dream – where anyone from anywhere could aspire to be anything based on his God-given abilities and the promise offered him by the Nigerian nation. In your voting booth on election day, you observed that most voters simply ignored party loyalties and voted for the boy from Otuoke. The sentiment was very similar to the reaction of Americans – friend and foe, to the story of Barack Obama while he was in the struggle to becomethe first black President of the United States of America. Everybody realized that history was being made, and felt they were part of it.

    Has the heady promise been fulfilled in the years since?

    Every so often, you got the sense of a man struggling to find his form and stand out from the morass of contending interests surrounding him.Predominant among them were his ‘it is our turn’ kin,and the overweening presence of a better half who would be a challenge to any public figure.

    Every so often he talked the talk. Innovation. Enterprise. Diversification of the economy. Empowering the youth.

    Yet where was the high ground? Where was the compelling Vision?

    If they existed, they did not come across with vigour, and they were not executed with authority. The Nigerian essence was not projected in a way to commandthe respect of others at preexisting levels, not to talk of acquiring fresh impetus. People made snide remarks about Nigeria – with apparently good reason. A country with hordes of private jets, but not a great deal of sense or purpose.

    Winston Churchill once described one of his contemporaries as ‘a modest man with much to be modest about’ (or words to that effect).

    The ‘he’ there could describe the Nigeria of the GEJ years.

    And now?

    And now, here comes the General, in his second incarnation.

    There is a heady promise of redemption, individual and collective, a chance perhaps to right old wrongs, to apply new and better solutions to old problems. A new beginning for the Nigeria project – the nation, the citizenry, the leadership.

    It cannot, must not, be business as usual. It cannot, must not, be the logic of ‘it is our turn’ on anybody’s part. It is Nigeria’s turn.

    Transparency is good, but it is not an end. It must be informed by vision, by evidence, by innovation. There is a requirement to build a ‘knowledge’ economy. Leadership must meet the basic yearnings of the people, but it must also ‘do the Vision thing’ and  ‘see round the corner’. Some kind of ‘Marshall Plan’ is required for the most vulnerable populations in the blighted areas of the country. For a change, the system must get a handle on the basics. Compulsory School Enrollment.A health facility – government or private, appropriately standardized and monitored, within easy distance of every neighbourhood.Compulsory birth and death registration, with no one falling outside the net.

    But the issues of Nigeria are not just the physical structures. The issues include how Nigerians think, and how they behave. Nigerians beat the red traffic light, and do not like to take their turn in the queue. They do not regard public property as their responsibility, and would drive by when they see someone damaging structures on the road median, or unscrewing and carting away the metal railings on the Eko Bridge. In his first incarnation, the General dealt with some of these by regimentation, by a strict enforcement regime, sometimes including the threat or actuality of corporal punishment from soldiers. There is a limit to the possibility of the more florid forms of this approach in a democracy. But even in the most ‘disciplined’ societies, enforcement has a place in the psychological mix. Sustaining behavior change in people however requires getting their buy-in. It requires education to ‘catch them young’, because many adults are set in their ways, while children are more malleable. It requires ‘social marketing’.

    Some months ago Lagos State held an international ‘Livable City’ conference focused on assessing the experience of citizenry about their lives in the city and how these could be improved.Lagos is the only Nigerian city that is internationally ranked on ‘Livability’. It is ranked rather low. But the things that need to be done to improve the living experience of citizens are quite clear, and eminently doable if the will is there and public and private resources are deployed. The consequence will be improvement, leading to upward movement in the chart. Colombo in Columbia did it in the past, moving up more than twenty places after concerted action. And if it can happen in Lagos, it can happen in other cities in Nigeria. Abuja. Kano. Port Harcourt, Enugu. Onitsha. And so on.

    What are the rights of citizens in society? What is their entitlement from society? Which aspects are rights, and which are privileges? What are the duties they owe society? How cognizant are they of these duties?

    What is their experience of the Police, for example? What is their expectation? And vice versa.

    The rules guiding social interaction in Nigeria are very imprecise, which is why people often get in each other’s faces. If a citizen is stopped at a check point, what is the law officer entitled to ask for, so that the citizen is certain if he has them, he can go about freely? The issues look trivial, but they are the determinants of the trust the people have in social institutions, and they go to the very heart of the livability of Nigeria as a nation. They also go to the heart of the ownership and entitlement people need to feel about their nation. They are responsible for the unique entity known as ‘Patriotism’, which is a love and readiness to commit to, and sacrifice for, the collective. This is freely given, and cannot be enforced. It goes beyond sporting events, and encompasses all aspects of life. It is the certainty that a Nigerian citizen, including a girl from Chibok, must feel that her nation will come to rescue her from danger, sparing no risk and balking at no cost.  In return, she will do her duty, including the possibility of military or social service, by the nation. It is part of what makes great nations great, and when once-great nations lose it, anomie sets in, and they become history.

    The Nigerian project can over time engender a genuine patriotism. Leadership, if it is sustained, can create the right environment in the minds of the people.

    Nigeria is a great nation, bursting at the seams with human energy. It is the largest nation in the world that is made up of indigenous Africans. It is a potential top twenty world power.

    For leader and citizen, redemption and transcendence beckon, as the Nigeria Project cranks up for the new day, massing up behind the General.

  • Sultan to ‎GEJ, GMB: Accept election result in good fate

    Sultan to ‎GEJ, GMB: Accept election result in good fate

    The Sultan of Sokoto and President General of Jama’atu Nasril Islam (‎JNI), Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III has told President Goodluck Jonathan, General Muhammadu Buhari and other political gladiators to accept whatever is the outcome of Saturday Presidential election in good fate.

    He also charged Muslims in the country to embark on fasting and prayer on Thursday for a violence-free election.

    Sultan made the call in a statement he issued through the Secretary-General of JNI, Dr. Khalid Abubakar Aliyu and made available to newsmen in Kaduna Wednesday.

    According to the statement, ‎”In the event that the Results are announced by the Electoral Empire, JNI implores the political gladiators to take the outcome in good fate and be sportsmanship. This is so because, if ALLAH (SWT) spares our lives, we shall witness many more elections in Nigeria.

    “The polity should not be overheated and the fragile peace in Nigeria should not be jeopardized.

    “All forms of irregularities should be appropriately directed to the competent courts of law which are in tandem with best known practices across the globe.

    “It ‎is our prayers that free, fair, and credible General Elections would be held in Nigeria. May the Almighty Allah continue to grant us peace, security, prosperity and development in Nigeria. Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria

    “Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) under the leadership of His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General, JNI, urges the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria to continue praying fervently for a hitch free General Elections in Nigeria.

    “Consequently, he specially calls on all Muslims to utilize the usual Thursday voluntary fasting coming up on 26th March, 2015, to fast and seek Allaah’s intervention in the forth-coming General Elections.

    “In the same vein, all Jumu’ah Mosques Imams’ are implored to centre their respective Khutbah-sermons for this coming Friday, 27th March, 2015, on violence free General Election period and offer special prayers to that effect.

    “On the other hand, JNI calls on all parents, guardians and other stakeholders to monitor very closely their children/wards before, during and after the elections. The youths should in the name of ALLAH (SWT) sheath their swords, as there are many more General Elections ahead, thus they should be calm, peaceful and law abiding before, during and after the General Elections.

    “Likewise, opinion leaders, labour and student unions, community leaders, women and youth organizations should closely synergize with security agencies at their respective domains in order to maintain absolute peace,” the statement read.

  • Fani-Kayode: fighting GEJ’s battle without grace

    It is no more in doubt that President Jonathan is a very cynical leader. And with the on-going PDP’s game of deceit, appeal to religion and ethnic sentiments after 16 years of uninspiring leadership, Nigerians must have come to the sad conclusion that PDP is contemptuous of Nigerians. And if Nigerians needed any further proof, the appointment of Femi Fani-Kayode as Director General of PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, (PDPPCO) and his on-going war against the person of General Muhammadu Buhari is all that is needed. Add this to the President’s admission during his chat with Tell editors shortly after his inauguration back in 2011 that he is ‘never moved to action by  public opinion’, the picture one gets is that of a President who does not give a damn about how we feel as Nigerians.

    For a man  who few months back wrote the President off as “a wicked and insensitive leader”, whose “chapter has been finally closed by OBJ with his letter”; who predicted that “All Progressives Congress, APC, would form the next government at the centre” and wrote off PDP by saying “PDP as we once knew her has gone forever; the ship has hit the rocks and she has sunk to the bottom of the sea; she is dead and buried” to have emerged as the best the President and PDP can find to launder their image is a measure of the value they place on credibility. And finally that a man standing trial before a High Court in Lagos for alleged money laundering  was appointed by the President and his party as chief  image maker, is not only scandalous, it is an assault on our collective sensibilities. It speaks volumes about “the President Jonathan we don’t know”. (apology to Reuben Abati)

    The ignoble role his father played in the destruction of Yoruba land is well documented. Chief S B Falegan, a former Managing Director of Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) in his new book My Yester-Years describes Chief Remi Fani-Kayode as “belonging to a group of political rascals who engaged in the selfish pursuit of greed, and personal enrichment at the expense of the country.”  And reviewing for Nigerians, Chief Remi Fani-Kayode’s rascal antecedents in the Nigeria’s politics during the NPN, he says, Femi Fani-Kayode, ‘who could say President Jonathan government is a bad omen to the country and thereafter decamp to the PDP to engage in a  re-twisted propaganda, has only taken  after his father’s styles”. And in fighting Jonathan’s war, Femi like the chip of the old block, has been trying to outdo his father who literarily aided the NPC ruling party to dig its own grave.

    First, it was about Buhari’s West African School Certificate. Sponsored government paid agents laid siege on television houses especially the respected Channels TV tasking our patience by insisting that Buhari, a retired four star General of the Nigerian Army, who attended the best military schools in the world, a former military Head of State ‘has no papers’, and therefore not qualified to contest for a position he had vied for thrice between 2003 and 2011. And when finally the authorities of Buhari’s old school presented his WAEC results, Fani-Kayode accused Buhari of perjury.

    Thereafter, Fani-Kayode’s heartache became Buhari’s age despite evidence of serving heads of states around the world that are of Buhari’s age. Fani-Kayode moved on to accuse Buhari of toppling Shagari’s government. It turned out Shagari was in fact removed by Babangida, Gusau and Abacha who merely used Buhari to buy credibility and legitimacy because of his personal integrity. Twenty months later, they deposed him  and unfolded their own agenda which included ‘a transition without end’, acceptance of IMF loan and liberalization of our economy which started the era of sharing of our national patrimony among privileged members of the military and their political and socio economic counterparts.

    Then last week on the eve of presidential election that would have  held two weeks back but for the mischief of panic stricken PDP, Fani-Kayode addressed journalists in Abuja to announce that “the Federal Government has concluded arrangements and may soon drag General Buhari before the International Criminal Court” for the mindless killings that followed Jonathan’s victory in 2011. But they would wait until after the election Fani-Kayode swore would be won by PDP.

    But for now, following Buhari’s successful outing in London to sell himself, his agenda and counter PDP’s propaganda that cast him as an irredeemable dictator, Fani-Kayode has opened another battle front. He swore “General Muhammadu Buhari last Thursday’s outing at the Chatham House in London was a monumental failure.”  He also took on Chatham House, blaming it for offering “its prestigious platform to sell a bad product to the world”.

    The question is why Fani-Kayode who in view of his new position is at liberty to change  his earlier perception of Jonathan as “‘wicked and insensitive leader” is losing sleep over  Buhari’s ‘failed’  visit that may not necessarily take anything away from the engrained image of his principal’s among the western nations as ‘a deeply corrupt government’ (Hilary Clinton,) ‘A failed Nigerian leader’; (Economist), ‘A failed president’ (Washington Post), and A lousy incumbent’ (New York Times).

    Jonathan’s government, whose intelligence has failed it in locating the whereabouts of close to 300 secondary school girls abducted from their dormitories about 10 months back or finding out the identities of the criminals who engage in an orgy of killing of women and children in their sleep in the middle belt region of Nigeria, has suddenly rediscovered itself only two days after Buhari’s visit to Chatham House. Fani-Kayode listed “some interesting facts about Buhari’s Chatham House out”, gathered through intelligence: ‘The event was organised only two days before it took place and well after Buhari had arrived in London; ‘The questions that were asked were given to him two days before the event and the answers were prepared for him and given to him to rehearse’; and ‘The programme lasted for only 55 minutes and only five questions, which were all planted, were asked’.

    Lest we forget, government intelligence according to Fani-Kayode also indicated that Buhari who depends on donations of as low as N100 from the masses of Nigeria who have faith in his ability to fix Nigeria, budgeted N5 billion for what was termed “the Buhari’s London jamboree”.

    Government intelligence however missed out Buhari’s plan to turn all the aircrafts in the presidential fleet to form the nucleus of a new Nigeria Airways because he considered it wasteful for President Jonathan to keep a fleet of over six aircraft when the Prime Minister of Britain like many of his western counterparts fly public airlines.

    But I think what should worry Nigerians is Fani-Kayode’s foreboding boast that “the government would first demystify Buhari by defeating him at the polls”, and that the PDP “would win the Presidential and general elections slated for March 28 and April 11 respectively”   while vowing that “the APC will never smell power”.

    But looking at the past and critically assessing PDP that often scores landslide victories in opposition strongholds as it recently did in Ekiti state,  I think there is the need for eternal vigilance by the opposition as well as all Nigerians that still have faith in our nation.  Chief Remi Fani-Kayode, after defecting to the opposition NCNC in the First Republic first called on the federal government to declare state of emergency in the West and later told the Yoruba that whether they voted for his new party or not, NNDP would win the election. It is part of our history that the Balewa government illegally declared state of emergency and went ahead to supervise the rigging of the 1965 Western Region election.

    President Jonathan and PDP have always found a way to undermine the constitution to achieve their set goals. The cases of the illegal removal of Justice Ayo Salami, the illegal suspension of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as CBN governor and to some extent the President’s open support of losers of Nigerian Governors Forum election are clear indications that President Jonathan and PDP can swing any surprise.

    They just don’t give a damn.

  • Cristiano Ronaldo supports GEJ?

    Cristiano Ronaldo supports GEJ?

    On the official facebook page of the Niger Delta Peoples Salvation Front (NDPSF), a photo of World footballer of the Year, Cristiano Ronaldo surfaced on monday. The photo featured the footballer holding a placard with ‘vote GEJ for 2015” inscription.

    Many are still speculating it is photo shopped due to the fact that the Portuguese star has never played against Nigeria, visited the West African nation nor met the incumbent president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in person.

    The photo is however gaining momentum and its authenticity still under investigation.

     

  • Now, it’s GEJ versus Soludo!

    Now, it’s GEJ versus Soludo!

    Just as I predicted, the dust raised by former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Chukwuma Soludo on Nigeria’s missing trillions, seems unlikely to settle anytime soon. Once I had thought the matter settled – disappointingly – after Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala contemptuously dismissed the weighty issues raised by Soludo as “outright nonsense and self-seeking aggrandizement that need not be dignified with a response”. With last week’s response by President Goodluck Jonathan as reported by Premium Times (the latter quoting Thisday), the season of indifference is not only over; the matter – mercifully – has become live again!

    Permit yours truly, dear reader to bring you up to date on a controversy that the administration would rather sweep under the carpet. In January, Soludo had observed in a letter to the Finance Minister and Coordinator of the economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala that “the basket of our national treasury is leaking profusely from all sides”. He cited examples. First is the issue of oil theft which he noted averaged 400,000 per day which came to about $60bn ‘stolen’ in just four years. He put the cost in naira to about N12.6tn.

    The second was the issue of foreign reserves. Soludo had claimed that minimum forex reserves should have been at least $90bn instead of the current level of $30bn. To him, the gross mismanagement of the reserves has denied the country some $60bn or another N12.6tn.

    Expectedly, he brought up the issue of ‘missing’ $20bn from the NNPC (N4tn); the fuel subsidy racket and the import duty waivers bazaar. He asked: “How many trillions of naira were paid for oil subsidy (unappropriated?)? How many trillions (in actual fact) have been ‘lost’ through customs duty waivers over the last four years? How many trillions of naira self- financing government agencies earn and spend?”

    His conclusion was that “probably more than N30tn has either been stolen, or lost, or unaccounted for, or simply mismanaged under your watchful eyes in the past four years. Since you claimed to be in charge, Nigerians are right to ask you to account. Think about what this amount could mean for the 112 million poor Nigerians, or for our schools, hospitals, roads, etc.”

    And what did the super-minister, the lone official in the eye of the storm have to say to the matters that are not only legitimate but of immense public interest? A rude and haughty riposte delivered through an aide, Paul C Nwabuikwu. Dismissing Soludo’s charges off-hand as “littered with abusive and unbecoming language” she stated that the comments “shows how an embittered loser in the Nigerian political space can get so derailed that they commit intellectual harakiri by deliberately misquoting economic facts and maliciously turning statistics on their head to justify a hatchet job…We hope all the intellectuals in the international circles in which Professor Soludo has told us he flies around in will read what a Professor of Economics has chosen to do with his intellect”!

    Mercifully, yours truly is not alone in finding the language offensive; I recall that the descent to vulgar abuse actually prompted Obiageli Ezekwesili to write on her Twitter handle shortly after – the “nation and people seem to be on an accelerated race to the bottom. So sad! Why would a statement from (the) government read like that? Gosh!”

    Did the President finally clear the fog? Let’s hear the President speak through Thisday as reportedby Premium Times:  “Not too long ago I read in one of the papers, I think Vanguard, that former chief economic adviser to President Obasanjo who also went to become a CBN governor… Soludo is a professor and first class material. Yes, making a first class in economics, he is a brilliant person. His secondary school records are fantastic. So by all standards he is a brilliant person… he accused Ngozi; that N30 trillion was stolen under the watch of Ngozi in four years.”

    He went on: “Ngozi became a finance minister, let’s say from 2011 till date. From that time till now, our annual budget is between N4.3 trillion and N4.9 trillion. So even if you put all together, it is about 18 plus trillion naira, and not 30 trillion. The budget for these four years is less than N20 trillion, but Soludo said that under Ngozi’s watch they stole N30 trillion. This is in the papers, social media, stored in the clouds and will continue to be there. And when you type it in it will come out that during President Jonathan’s time they stole N30 trillion.”

    You think the President deliberately muddled up the issues? Then wait for this assault on the professional integrity of Soludo:  “We asked Ngozi how her colleagues in the World Bank saw the accusation and she said they were laughing and couldn’t believe it. There are certain things that you just cannot believe and if that is coming from somebody considered to be cerebral like Professor Soludo, then of course you know what the ordinary person would say. It is all political.”

    Interesting isn’t it? Soludo ignorant, doing mischief – or simply playing politics? Ignorant? That seems extremely doubtful. Mischief? Even more unlikely. Playing politics? The President should know – after all, he’s been doing a lot of shuttles of late, doing rounds to revamp his beleaguered presidency. So what’s wrong with Soludo taking a sip from the giddy brew?

    Expect Soludo to thunder again – if only to defend his honour being rubbished by the President and his appointees. It would be most tragic should Soludo be forced into an arrangee silence so as not to further ruffle feathers.

    Now to the substance. I am alarmed that a matter as serious as those raised by Soludo – on which several other Nigerians have also voiced alarm – would be reduced to a trivia by a President obviously in awe of his appointee! If you ask me, I’ll say that the President needed not have reminded us that his super-appointee to whom he outsourced his economic management has his roots in the World Bank – where all knees must bow when it comes to economic wisdom! As if we didn’t know that already. After all, where else, except in Jonathan’s Nigeria would an appointee secure appointment on such terms as to negate the federalist principles, and in such undisguised affront to the constitution of the republic? Or is the president saying that a sojourn at the World Bank automatically translates to immunity from questions over an individual’s stewardship?

    By the way – I am unaware of the resolution of the import duty waiver bazaar – in which our untouchable minister would swear that her ministry granted waivers and exemptions worth N55.96 billion in 2011, N55.34 billion in 2012 and N59.42 billion in 2013 – totalling N171 billion while the implementing agency, the Nigeria Customs Service, would show that a whopping N1.4 trillion waivers were granted during the same period.

    So much for the Jonathanians and their white-washed sepulchres.

  • Thought of another GEJ Presidency?

    SIR: I was not born at the time General Muhammadu Buhari was Head of State from 1983 to 1985 but I have read and heard a lot of different accounts of his reign. I read that he overthrew Shagari’s democratic government; I also read that he was a tyrant and an extremist who made sure that all critics of his government were thrown in jail. That he also passed Decree Number 4, which stifled communication (written or spoken) that would bring the military government, the state government or any public officer to ridicule.

    The mere fact that we would consider casting our votes for a man who stands accused of many wrongs is a clear indication of the failure of the Jonathan led administration, a once loved, widely voted government which presently wallows in unpopularity and rapidly increasing disfavour with the people.

    I voted for the first time in 2011, circumstances and age having stopped me from voting in previous elections. I voted for President Goodluck Jonathan. I was convinced at the time that I was doing the right thing. I was happy that my vote would count too. I was glad to lend my puny strength to the cause of a better Nigeria. “Fresh air” was the slogan at the time, very much like the “Change” I presently cry. I believed that the President was not a chip off any old block; I believed that the President was a deviation from the norm of recycled leaders and that he represented our hope for a better, progressive Nigeria where visionary “young” people would pilot the affairs of the nation.

    Buhari had no prayer of winning that election, not with the zeal and the passion with which we trouped out to vote the President. As at the 2011 elections, Buhari’s chances of winning the presidency were at their lowest. Four years on, the chances of the same man, with the same history are at their highest. Many Nigerians who voted the President in 2011 (myself included) will now rather vote Buhari. There is deafening clamour for change and the clamour is not restricted to geographical zones or religion or age. The clamour is all thanks to the failures of the present government.

    For every year of Jonathan’s tenure, Nigerians have suffered great setbacks and problems that could have been addressed by quality planning and decisive leadership. To usher in 2012, we had the subsidy removal which increased the burden of the citizens, crippled the nation for weeks (the strike) and later was the source of the huge legislator/businessman bribery scandal (now under the carpet). In 2013, the universities were on strike for more than half the year, our future leaders (if they ever get the chance) were denied of an education in a rapidly declining education sector.

    In 2014, the doctors were on strike for the greater part of the year, in response to the strike, the President fired all resident Doctors and after the Doctors called off their strike, JOHESU went on strike. Need I refer to the Chibok case, to the many bomb blasts and unrest in the north-east? The sad heart-rending case of the FGC Buni-Yadi students burnt in an attack? The recent Baga case that went largely unnoticed?

    Hit after hit, pain after pain and our “transformational “President in whom we put a lot of trust and hope remained inactive. Making promises, fulfilling nothing and returning in the face of our anguish to declare his intentions. Really?

    The failures of the present government make exceedingly light the tyrannies of the Buhari government. Buhari’s heavy-handedness fades into insignificance for Nigerians who have experienced the Jonathan’s non-delivery. The frenzy is on; mudslinging campaigns on pages of newspapers fly back and forth. The campaigns make no difference to me. All I see are years of hope and trust betrayed. They speak louder than any campaigns for and against.

    Thought of another Jonathan Presidency? No, thanks.

     

    • Nneoma Anieto

    adaanieto@gmail.com

  • As GEJ continues to re-define graft

    SIR: For those who had been following the ongoing presidential campaigns of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, something must have come very clear by now. The President will not do anything tangible, now or in the immediate future, to curb the mindless corruption that is almost choking the nation to death under his watch.

    Public outcry on pervasive official corruption under the present administration, became accentuated after the mass anti-government protests that followed the fuel price hike of 2012, which shut the nation down for 10 days and the subsequent outcome of the various probe reports, which revealed a massive plunder of the nation’s resources, especially by friends of government.

    The people had anxiously waited for the prosecution and recovery of the humongous amounts allegedly pillaged by those involved, but nothing concrete has happened two years after. Instead, those indicted has arrogantly continued to trot the corridors of power, wining and dining with the powers that be.

    Nigerians might have unwittingly had an inkling of the President’s mindset in May last year, when he said in answer to a question during a session of his quarterly media chat, that: ‘over 70% of what is called corruption, even by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and other anti-corruption agencies, is not corruption but common stealing’. Reactions to this was mixed at the time as some people believed it was probably his usual laconic way of reacting to issues he considered over exaggerated.

    That the President meant every word of what he said on that occasion is now no longer in doubt, as it has become a major plank of his electioneering campaign. He had re-stated this position at every stop on his campaign trail and he does not appear apologetic about it, even in the face of harsh public criticisms. Added to this is what looks like his bizarre template for curbing corruption which tends to emphasize persuasion rather than punishment.

    First, he believed that the average Nigerian’s perception of corruption and how it should be curbed, were totally wrong, archaic and not in sync with what, in his view, obtains in civilized environments. He did not believe in arresting people and putting them in jail, because, according to him, that will not stop them from stealing again.

    Although, he agreed that corruption should be fought, he had his own template that has kept his countrymen dazed. No arrests, no lock-ups, no imprisonments. Just restructure the system using ICT in a way that people holding public offices will no longer have direct access to funds, he said. Reactions to this had been rather cynical especially from anti-corruption crusade groups who had little trust for a government notorious for shielding its corrupt officials.

    Public perception of his recent thoughts and utterances on corruption more than give credence to fears that the President lacks the guts to confront endemic graft in the system frontally. This is because, always  by his side on the podium and cheering ecstatically whenever he speaks, are top members of his party, especially his  re-election campaign team, which is populated by those who, or their children, are still answering corruption charges in the courts.

    For those who believe that the President may have squandered his goodwill and even his good luck, redemption may be farfetched especially in an election year. Any effort towards this will depend on if he rolls back his mindset and begin to listen to wise counsel from those who mean well for the nation and the coveted office of the President.

    It’s been said that a President who openly defends his corrupt officials as Jonathan has been doing, loses self respect both at home and in the international community. But then, it is the nation that suffers such indignity the most.

     

    • Olu Adebayo,

    Lagos.  

     

  • Ijaws, GEJ & amnesty

    Sir, It would be most ironic that the socio-economic problems that pushed the Niger Delta youths to the creeks to take up arms against the Federal Government are still largely unaddressed. Jonathan’s predecessor, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, in 2009, declared amnesty for the Niger Delta insurgents. He also created the first ever Federal Ministry for Niger Delta Affairs. Amnesty office was subsequently created, all in a bid to end unrest which had rocked and claimed the soul of the region. That amnesty programme as it is today has become a mere conduit pipe for siphoning public fund by those directly in charge. The programme after Jonathan’s  six years today is the turning of few ambitious Ijaw youths and some Niger Delta militant kingpins into over-night millionaires at the expense of the entire Ijaw ethnic group and the Niger Delta as a whole.

    The Ijaw man over the years had articulated his existence on hard work, creative energy and positive agitation for proper recognition in the Nigerian state. But the message of President Jonathan’s amnesty to his Ijaw kinsman is that all he needs do to become a millionaire, is not to study or work hard but to be an appendage or a relative of those directly in charge of execution of the programme of amnesty.  This is the extent to which Jonathan’s amnesty has devalued the values of an Ijaw man. It has deflated his cultural pride of dignity inherent in labour and personal achievement through sheer hard work. The hard-working Ijaw professionals dare not stand where the amnesty boys, ‘repentant militants’, display their emergency wealth, which they flaunt in naked worship of material vanity. This dangerous trend must be reversed by the electorates. They only can and the time is now.

    The Niger Delta of today is plagued by more violence and insecurity of life;  youths are being shipped abroad in droves, some to expensive Nigerian private universities, to be trained by the amnesty office at prodigal expense as if lack of training or lack of education is the problem with the Niger Delta youths, a region which has produced many good brains in the field of arts, even in the face of  the many odds of their time.

    The Ijaw man ought to know by now that Jonathan’s government is an ill-will that blows them no good. The Ijaws, who alone do not constitute the Niger Delta region, should be saddened that they really wasted a rare opportunity to showcase a quality leadership precedence in the art of governance for the last six years in the country. Although this will expectedly not go well with those who benefit from nepotistic amnesty booties of the Jonathan presidency, it is years after Jonathan would have left government that the sober ones among the Ijaws who do not partake in this infamy will realize that their kinsman has succeeded in raising dust by dancing around like a masquerade without moving the region forward. This is a historical monumental loss.

     

    Tope Temokun,

  • That GEJ/GMB hug

    SIR: Our country men, women, youths and children need to have critical look at the picture of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari as captured in the front page of The Nation of Thursday, January 15, tagged “A hug against violence”.  It would seem that while their exellencies are glaringly presenting the gesture of rival captains in just a friendly match in preparation for their main contest, they might have humorously warned each other not to engage in any outregeous cheating in the election proper.

    Let us thus pray and hope that the Hug Against Violence would practically or even symbolically translate  into A HUG AGAINST OUTREGEOUS RIGGING in main elections. And may God answer our prayer.

     

    • Gavers C. Ihematulam Esq.

    Mandegavers@gmail.Com