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Tag: Goodluck Jonathan

  • In an era of change, Nigerians expect to see credible, measurable changes

    In an era of change, Nigerians expect to see credible, measurable changes

    It is obviously not worth her oily concern that the Nigerian poor, who literally never get to see kerosene, are still made to part with N150 for a subsidised product expected to sell at N50 per litre

    The Nigerian economy has continued to experience declining growth, increasing unemployment, galloping inflation, high incidence of poverty, worsening balance of payments, debilitating debt burden and increasing unsustainable fiscal deficits” – Benjamin Dikki, Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, speaking on the theme, The Nigerian Reforms & Privatisation Policy, Processes, Gains, Challenges and Prospects, to members of the IBB International Golf and Country Club, Abuja.  If there should be any official of the Goodluck Jonathan administration who could tell the world a more robust view of the state of the Nigerian economy, it should be none other than Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Minister of Finance & Coordinating Minister of the Economy. But what do we have? Unfortunately, Okonjo-Iweala would rather tell Nigerians such platitudes as: “We now have a Nigeria, which is the largest economy on the continent. … I also feel that with this strong base that we have, if we just keep steady, we will be able to exit, and the value of the naira will strengthen, because we have got the different sectors etc.” And you ask: keep steady at what?

    With Dikki’s  down-to-earth views on the Nigerian economy, no time can be more opportune than the imminent  inauguration of the Buhari administration to blow off the lies and stunts Nigerians have been fed with these past 16 years; especially in this current regime, be it in its lodestar Ministry of  Agriculture, whether in its glamourised ‘transformation’ in the railways which was hardly anything more than repainting old wagons or whether in a promised forensic audit into the NNPC cesspit which turned out to be a none audit.

    Any keen observer of the Nigerian economy, especially in the 16 years of a now haemorrhaging PDP, must have seen that it is  nothing more than a kalokalo, generator economy, underpinned by a gripping renteer-sm  that kept  that largest ‘rally’ in Africa going.

    One such keen observer has been former U.S Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, who, in his: Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink explored the country’s post colonial history, offering a nuanced explanation of the events and conditions that have severally propelled it to the edge. Central to his analysis are oil wealth, endemic corruption, and elite competition, all of which have combined to undermine her nascent democratic institutions as well as alienated its increasingly impoverished people. That last bit, the alienation, no, pauperisation, of the Nigerian people, more than anything, accounted for the ouster of President Jonathan whose tenure had been largely corruption-ridden and effete.

    As a result of the president’s listless approach to governance, all manner of crass opportunists carved out empires from which they rummaged on the Nigerian economy. Ex-militants, who most probably browbeat the president, became proud owners of multi-billion naira oil pipeline security contracts which recently saw total illiterates in professional arms-handling, like the Odua Peoples Congress (OPC) emerge one such beneficiary. The direct result of that was the unfortunate, fatal shooting of a young pregnant lawyer, Mrs Adebimpe Fajana, at Arepo, near Lagos, only this past week. However, none of these ‘empires’ would compare with the NNPC where all manner of cabals mushroomed, literally economically killing off Nigeria.  On the first day of January, 2012,  an ill-thought through removal of subsidy on petroleum products had led to  an unprecedented mass protest which on being probed further, led to the exposure of  a multi-billion dollar cabal oil subsidy fraudsters who were paid billions of dollars for petroleum products that were never delivered. Quite unsurprisingly, children of two former PDP Chairmen were named among them.

    But the mother of PDP’s inhumanity to the Nigerian poor, planned and executed under the watchful eyes of a complicit Goodluck Jonathan government, is the fleecing of poor, helpless Nigerians through the kerosene subsidy. This ungodly scam, responsibility for which must go directly to the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Madueke, is a double jeopardy because just as it defrauds the Nigerian poor, who hardly ever gets kerosene to buy even at between N120 – 150, so does it cream off a monthly $100 Million from the Federation Account. The former Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, testifying at the resumed Senate Investigative Public Hearing on un-remitted oil revenue in Abuja,had told the panel that the $20 billion  spent on subsidising kerosene, belonged to the Federation Account. Relying on data from the National Bureau of Statistics which confirmed that kerosene was not a subsidised product he also produced evidence to the effect that former President Yar’Adua, indeed, issued a presidential directive eliminating subsidy on kerosene, effective from July 2009.

    Speaking on the same issue at another occasion, Dakuku Peterside, Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), said: “In 2010, we spent N110, 068,533,988 to subsidise kerosene. In 2011, the government spent N324, 089,961,319 and N200bn in 2012. So, in three years, we spent a total of N634bn, subsidising kerosene. This is a third of what we spend in a year on capital budget.”

    In a statement that would be extremely difficult to surpass in its outright vacuousness, Diezani Alison-Madueke, Minister of Petroleum Resources, claimed before a Senate Committee hearing, that the Jonathan government could not implement President Yar Adua’s order to remove subsidy from kerosene because, hear the kind mum: “it would be inflicting hardship on the citizens,” as if she did anything else in all her yeas in public service. As you read this, Nigerians are buying a litre of petrol, fixed by government at N87, at more than N150. It is obviously not worth her oily concern that the Nigerian poor, who literally never get to see kerosene, are still made to part with N150 for a subsidised product expected to sell at N50 per litre. In case it could still be of any help to Mrs Madueke on her way out, let me quote her the words of Beatrice Kelvin, a restaurateur: ‘‘the last time I bought kerosene, it was as if the commodity was going to be sold for the last time in Nigeria that day. Every space in the filling station was occupied by intending buyers. It was indeed a sight. Many people buy kerosene at a rate higher than N50 and I know that it is not also available.’’

    President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, must see the above as only the tip of the ice-berg in the economic ruination President Jonathan would be handing over to him on May 29th. The entire Nigerian space is crawling with evidences of despoliation by a PDP that survived almost solely on corruption. Reacting to one of my articles recently, a reader from tel. no 080523631- – wrote: “My theory about the PDP being a criminal organisation is proven now. It is one thing for a party to harbour criminal elements, quite another for the party itself to be criminal like those mafias in Southern Europe. For better, for worse, it seems good now that that organisation has been dislodged from Abuja. In a society where nation building is taken seriously, it ought to be legally disbanded, criminalised and banned like the Nazi party.”

    That, Mr President-elect, is the picture of the ruined country you will be confronted with on May 29, 2015. Nigerians are eagerly waiting to see decisive and measurable changes from that date. And you can, the very minute President Jonathan bows out, promptly stop this scam which was put in place for the presidency’s ‘weeping boys’ and its other cronies, some of who practically owned the NNDC.

  • Download Full Audit Report of NNPC ‘$20bn Unremitted’ fund

    Download Full Audit Report of NNPC ‘$20bn Unremitted’ fund

    President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday ordered the immediate release of the full report of PriceWater Cooper’s investigations into the allegedly unremitted $20 billion to the Federation account by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    Download full report

  • Jonathan to handover May 28

    Jonathan to handover May 28

    President Goodluck Jonathan will formally handover to the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari at a dinner on May 28th, 2015.

    The Minister of Information, Patricia Akwashiki disclosed this to State House correspondents on Wednesday at the end of Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Jonathan.

    According to her, May 29th has been reserved for the incoming government while many activities have been lined up all through that week to showcase what Jonathan’s administration has achieved.

    She said that the President has also directed all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to submit their transitional briefs to the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) by 20th of this month.

    Stressing that the Council is already in transition, she said that all the MDAs have also been directed to submit before the 13th of May, 2015 anything requiring President Jonathan’s approval.

    Valedictory FEC session, she say will be held on the 20th of May, 2015, while there will be dinner on the 28th of May, 2015.

    She said: “By May 28th the president intends to have the formal handing over done at a dinner so that we can reserve the 29th for the incoming. By May 28th we expect to have concluded our governance and we are welcoming incoming government.”

    “Also you know May 29th is our democracy day so we have activities lined up all through that week, showcasing all what we have achieved and all other things we do normally on our democracy day except that this year is special with the inauguration of our new president that is coming up on the May 29th.” She said

    She went on: “You know we are already in transition so there is very little to report. What we discussed with the President in council, he emphasized on the need for all MDAs to submit their handing over notes to the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation by 20th of this month, that is next Monday.”

    According to her, a format has been developed for all the MDAs to follow in preparing the notes.

    She said: “So we are going to be very busy this weekend putting our handing over notes together. The president also emphasized that he would require another little briefing from all MDAs to indicate inherited projects, how far it has been executed and initiated projects by his administration and the level of completion, whether completed, ongoing or abandoned.”

    “If they do that it will be easier for the president to compile everything. The formate is to ensure you submit everything before they pass it to the incoming government.”

    Continuing, she said: “We discussed other issues but we are particularly paying attention to the transition and how to make it effective. As you are all aware we have transitional committee already set up by president, headed by the Vice President. Other than that we have an inaugural committee that is headed by the SGF.”

    “So everything we are doing we are doing to achieve smooth transition, getting all our notes together.”

    On whether the FEC meeting will continue to hold, she said: “It is for the MDAs to submit their notes to the SGF who will handle the total package of the handing over to the incoming administration. It doesn’t mean that is the exact notes that will be passed on.”

    “That is not to say that governance has stopped, of course we are in government until the day the president-elect takes oath of office.”

    “There is no space vacuum there are things happening. And if you have any pending contract approval it has to be submitted before the 13th of May. Everything that requires the president’s approval should be submitted before May 13th.”
    “We also do not want the incoming administration to accuse us of rushing projects which is normal so we are guided by that. And if you have approvals we are going to have federal executive council every week, the last one that will be the valedictory one will be on May 20th.”

    “So governance is not stopping, we are still working and in the event you have approvals it must be concluded before 13th.” She stated

  • This defining moment

    This defining moment

    Far from confirming the claim of the incurably deluded spokesperson for Goodluck Jonathan’s doomed re-election campaign that his principal had conceded defeat out of patriotism rather than because he lost irredeemably, last weekend’s gubernatorial and state assembly elections show dramatically just how diminished, how washed-up the “biggest political party in Africa” has become.

    One of its chieftains, who would later stand trial for criminal embezzlement (he was cleared by the courts) had declared that the PDP would rule Nigeria for 60 years “in the first instance.”

    More recently, as she barged from one campaign stop to another, hurling coarse abuse at her husband’s opponents and inciting rented crowds to stone anyone demanding a change from   the status quo, Dr Jonathan’s wife had stamped her ample personal authority on continuity:  60  years of PDP power, nothing less.

    In the event, the PDP’s reign, which has drawn far more tears than cheers, is mercifully set to expire after just 16 years.

    An obituary notice to that effect, a spoof on the standard Nigerian fare, has been doing the rounds. With due acknowledgement to its anonymous author and high praise for his or her creativity, I quote the epitaph in part:

    “With gratitude to God and total submission to the will of the Nigerian Electorate,  we announce the death of our party, grand party and great-grand party, PDP, on March 30, 2015, after a prolonged illness from corruption, impunity, arrogance, bomb blasts, etc.

    “Funeral services will be held on May 29, 2015, at Eagle Square, Abuja, at 10 a.m”

    To be sure, the reports of the PDP’s death are somewhat exaggerated.   However, persuaded that it has served its time and now faces a bleak future, many of its hardiest denizens are bailing out as if it were a ship on which an outbreak of Ebola fever has just been confirmed.  The PDP, they have now realised, with their own Iyiola Omisore, is nothing without the Presidency.

    Sic transit gloria.

    As things stand now, the APC has, in addition to winning the Presidency, racked up comfortable majorities in both houses of the National Assembly, and all the principal officers of that body will come from its ranks.  It also has some 20 gubernatorial chairs and the same number of state assemblies under its control.

    Not bad for an opposition party that Dr Jonathan’s wife derided endlessly as an “expired drug”’ that has undergone so many name-changes that it might yet call itself “Ebola” — a party against which her husband who was only last week being hailed as a statesman for merely doing the decent thing, re-launched a vile, divisive, money-drenched campaign in a desperate but ultimately futile bid to supplant in Lagos, its stronghold.

    Oba Rilwan Akiolu’s bellicose warning to the Igbo to vote for the APC gubernatorial candidate Akinwunmi Ambode or face the consequences may well have been his answer to Dr Jonathan’s dishonourable campaign. But that is no justification. Whatever happened to noblesse oblige?

    Fears that Nigeria may become a one-party state, what with the rate at which members of the PDP are abandoning ship for the victorious APC bring to memory the aftermath of the 1983 general elections during which the NPN, inebriated with its stolen victories across Nigeria, declared that all other political parties had become “irrelevant.”   Three months later, it was swept into oblivion by the military.

    The APC must not for a moment indulge in such hubris.  Nothing stops the PDP from re-building itself into a strong and credible opposition party the way a decimated Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) under the dynamic and committed leadership of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu had done before the merger that produced the APC

    For one thing, even in those geopolitical zones where it is weakest, the PDP still has some diehard supporters, witness its entrenchment in the South East and South South where the plucky Rochas Okorocha and the much-persecuted but resolute Chibuike Amaechi are the last men standing, its tenacious grip in Ondo, its close run in Lagos, and its comprehensive sweep in all the elections held in Ekiti in the past two weeks.

    At his inauguration last July, Ekiti Governor Ayodele Fayose had in a speech that sounded as if it was an entry in the diary of a mad man, had vowed to drive the ACN not just out of Ekiti but out of Yoruba land and Nigeria.

    A delusion, to be sure; but he seems to have succeeded in driving it out of Ekiti.

    In the June 2014 election that returned Fayose to power after a previous outing remembered mainly for high scandal, arbitrariness, brazen corruption and sophomoric stunts, he won a majority in every local government to defeat the incumbent, Dr Kayode Fayemi.

    We now know, through damning documentary evidence produced by a competent witness, that the victory was procured, not by the so-called stomach infrastructure strategy, but by good old-fashioned skullduggery.

    But the formula Fayose employed to deliver Ekiti to Jonathan in the presidential race, secure the election of three senators, six members of the House of Representatives and 26 members of  the state assembly, all of whom he had personally handpicked, without challenge  – how Fayose constituted Ekiti into a one-party state remains one the best-kept secrets of Nigerian politics.

    Household per household, Ekiti is reputed to have the largest number of holders of advanced degrees not just in Nigeria but in all of Africa, and surely ranks high in the world league for that distinction, if it does not sit at the very top.

    That a delinquent who parades his mother’s infirmity of the most intimate kind in the market square to score a cheap political point can hold them in thrall, pervert all they hold dear and block every recourse to justice and redress, is an affront and a standing rebuke to the learned and highly accomplished people of Ekiti, and the elders who won’t call him to order.

    History will show that Fayose could not have done it without Dr Jonathan’s close collaboration or active connivance.  But how will the Ekiti people explain this tragic turn in their history to their progeny?

    To return to what lies ahead, at this defining moment:  The task before the APC now is to transform a loose coalition into a focused governing party and translate slogan into actuality.  It must deliver change – change that Nigerians can feel and see in their living conditions and in the lives of their children.

    Not change that will occur in a nebulous future, like regular power supply, but change with an immediate impact.

    It cannot be business as usual.  Governance cannot be a jobs-for-the boys scheme.  In this data-driven age, it cannot be an encounter of the unprepared with the unforeseen.

    Public expectations are high.  There is so much do, so much to fix.

    During World War II, one American military unit had this as its motto:  “The difficult task we do right away; the impossible takes a little longer.”

    That is the spirit that should animate the APC as it prepares to take power and guide it throughout its rule.

    This must not be another false dawn.

  • Jonathan: I will speak at the right time

    Jonathan: I will speak at the right time

    President Goodluck Jonathan has promised to speak on his experiences during his tenure in office and other issues at the appropriate time.

    He made the promise while speaking to State House correspondents at the end of the Good Friday Service organised by the Aso Villa Chapel.

    The president, however did not say when the appropriate time will be.

    He said: “Don’t worry, I will talk to you at the appropriate time.”

    The seven short exhortations that accompanied the seven lessons during the service centred on the sacrifice the preachers said Jonathan made to keep the county united.

    They likened his decision to concede defeat in the last Saturday’s presidential elections to the sacrifice Jesus Christ made to safe mankind.

    All the preachers noted that the bold step taken by the President at the appropriate time was commendable.

    They urged him to remain focus because his future is in the hands of God.

    “This man (Jonathan) said here that he is the most criticised President and he prophesied that by the time he will be leaving, he will be the most celebrated President. That has come to pass with the way he is being celebrated worldwide for conceding defeat,” one of the clergymen who led intercessory prayers said.

    They also congratulated the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress.

    The service also featured renditions of special hymns as well as intercessory prayers for the President, for peace and for the country at large.

    He was accompanied to the about three-hour service that featured the Seven Words of Christ on the Cross by Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State; and the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Christians Pilgrims Commission, Mr. John Kennedy-Okpara.

    Others were the Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission, Mrs. Joan Ayo; Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria, Mr. Ima Niboro; and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Power, Ambassador Godknows Igali.

  • PDP won’t lose its states in guber polls, says Akpabio

    PDP won’t lose its states in guber polls, says Akpabio

    The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum and Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio on Wednesday maintained that the party will not lose any of its states during April 11th governorship elections.

    The party lost the Presidential election last Saturday to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Speaking with State House correspondents after meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan along with other PDP governors, Akpabio commended Jonathan for sacrificing his political ambition for the sake of Nigeria.

    According to him, Jonathan has set a statesmanlike record in Africa by conceding victory to the opposition despite glaring flaws characterising the election like malfunctioning voter card readers, and intimidation.

    He reiterated the party’s position that it would explore possible legal options in seeking redress over the anomalies observed during the election.

    He said: “I am sure the PDP as a party will react on matters connecting with the elections of March 28. But as governors we came to pay solidarity with our president and to commend him for being a statesman.”

    “Honestly he has done something that no African leader has done in such a flawed exercise, with underage voters everywhere, with disparity between states, some using card readers, some failed card readers, some using manual and some states not using manual and some just taking ballot papers to government houses, particularly in certain parts of the country.

    “Yes, very flawed exercise; yet he looked at it and said in spite of it all I want to ensure peace, unity and stability of the country, let me give an opportunity to the APC Presidential candidate to come in and then give his own to the country.

    “That kind of sacrificial stand by a president can only come from a PDP president and that is why we are very proud of what has happened,” Akpabio  added

    He also said that the PDP was glad not only to have pilot the affairs of the country for the past 16 years  but also giving Nigeria a very peaceful transition that had shocked all and sundry.

    The governor also dismissed reports that the PDP National Chairman, Adamu Muazu had resigned his appointment.

    He said that he spoke with Muazu 30 minutes earlier and nothing of such had happened

    He also explained that some of the PDP governors could not make it to the meeting with the President because the notice was too short.

    Among the PDP governors who met with President Jonathan include Theodore Orji (Abia); Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa) and Liyel Imoke (Cross River).

    Others are Idris Wada (Kogi); Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta); Martin Elechi (Ebonyi); Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe); Murktar Yero (Kaduna); Jonah Jang (Plateau); and Sullivan Chime (Enugu).

    Some Minsters who also met with the President were Dr. Akinwumi Adesina (Agriculture); Ibrahim Shekarau (Education); Musiliu Obanikoro (State, Foreign Affairs II); Professor Viola Onwuliri (State, Education); Mohammed Adoke (Attorney General); Abba Moro (Interior); Aminu Wali (Foreign Affairs) and Suleiman Abubakar (National Planning).

    Others are Zainab Maina (Women Affairs); Omobola Johnson (Communication Technology); Sarah Ochekpe (Water Resources); Laraba Mallam (Environment); and Akon Eyakenyi (Land and Housing).

  • Polls: Jonathan, an example to the world, says EU

    Polls: Jonathan, an example to the world, says EU

    The European Union (EU) Observer Mission for Nigeria’s 2015 general elections on Wednesday described President Goodluck Jonathan as a good example to the world following the conduct of the polls and concession victory to his opponent without rancour.

    Jonathan had on Tuesday before the final collation of result of the presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), telephoned his opponent, General Muhammadu Buhari, congratulating him for winning.

    ‎Head of the EU Observer Mission, Santiago Fisas‎, who commended Jonathan for his action led a delegation of the Mission to present an interim report of its findings to the President at the Aso Rock Villa.

    ‎
    ‎He said: “I congratulate him (Jonathan) for that and I seized the opportunity to give to him our preliminary report about the election.

    “He was very happy and of course, I will come back in July with the final statement at a press conference and to give it to the new President and our recommendations would be contained in the final report.

    “The elections are so important for the people of Nigeria, but it is an African example for all Africa and countries in the world.

    “You know many people didn’t expect that the elections will be peaceful, they expected a lot of violence after the elections but it turned out not to be true.

    “Also, I congratulate President Jonathan but I would like to congratulate Nigerian people because they showed a lot of commitment to that election.

    “Not in all circumstances would you see such that, people stood in the sun for a very long and hot day, despite some of these problems. It shows that you Nigerians are truly democratic.”‎ he said

    ‎
    According to him, it would remain the discretion of the Nigerian government to decide what recommendations to adopt or reject from the Mission’s findings about this year’s elections.

    He said: “It is up to Nigerian government to accept or not to accept the recommendations. We are observers and we have made our recommendations and I don’t want to advance the final report that will be finished after the gubernatorial elections.

    “When we can embark on a new ideas with a new President, probably that will be in July, then we will make recommendations public”, he said.
    ‎

  • Ijaws call for peace, congratulate Buhari

    Ijaws call for peace, congratulate Buhari

    President Goodluck Jonathan’s kinsmen, the Ijaw National Congress (INC), have congratulated General Muhammadu Buhari as President-elect.

    They also admonished Nigerians to eschew any act that was capable of endangering the peace, unity and corporate existence of the country.

    INC, through its President, Boma Obuoforibo, in an online statement on Wednesday stated that President Jonathan did well on Tuesday evening by conceding defeat and congratulating Gen. Buhari, even before the formal announcement of the final results by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega.

    President Jonathan’s kinsmen said: “On behalf of the Ijaw ethnic nationality, we commend President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for his courageous outing in the 2015 presidential election. He made all Nigerians proud by his unprecedented show of sportsmanship in accepting the verdict of INEC.

    “His telephone call to congratulate General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) on his victory at the poll, even before the formal declaration of results by INEC, is a statesmanlike act that has endeared him as a role model for emerging leaders of our country and Africa.

    “We congratulate General Muhammadu Buhari on his victory at the poll and wish him divine wisdom and courage to lead our dear Nigeria into a new era of peace and broadly-shared prosperity.”

    INC also lauded all the persons who rallied round President Jonathan all through his re-election bid, while pleading with them to take solace in the shining example of Jonathan as a democrat.

  • Buhari beats Jonathan in Adamawa

    Buhari beats Jonathan in Adamawa

    The All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, has won the election in Adamawa State.
    He defeated President Goodluck Jonathan in 14 Local Governments areas of the state against seven won by Jonathan.
    In the result announced Monday evening by the state returning officer, Okogbaa Geoffrey, Vice Chancellor of Federal University Wukari, APC scored 374,701 while PDP polled 251,664 votes.

  • Map for map, they marched to ‘electoral’ war

    Map for map, they marched to ‘electoral’ war

    It was billed either as a contest of ideas — such ideas and philosophies as could be gleaned from their disparate thoughts and statements — or as a contest of men: with Muhammadu Buhari on one side, stolid, taciturn, combustive and unyielding; and Goodluck Jonathan on the other side, flighty, prickly, variable and conspiratorial. Perhaps, in some ways, the contest for the presidency, which took place yesterday, was some of these. But after reporting the contest for months, the media, in the last week of the campaign, turned it into a contest of maps. Map for map, both media and contestants marched into battle, their ensigns held behind their backs or trampled under feet, their principles in abeyance, and their virtues a smouldering wreck.

    First to fire the early shots among the great national newspapers last Sunday were The Nation and The Punch whose predictive maps looked eerily similar in many respects. Eight states would be battlegrounds, predicted The Nation — three from the North-Central, two from the Northeast, two from the South-South, and one from the Southeast. The paper gave Ekiti in the Southwest to Dr Jonathan, perhaps on account of the disruptive power of Governor Ayo Fayose rather than the conviction of the state’s electorate. But The Punch thought seven states and the FCT would be battlegrounds, with one form the Southwest, three from the North-Central and the FCT, and two from the Northeast. Minus the battleground states, both The Nation and The Punch seemed to give Gen Buhari victory, especially because the APC was expected to sweep the states with high electoral votes.

    Not to be outdone, The Sun published its own map a few days before the poll. Only five states, according to the paper, would be battlegrounds — two in the North-Central plus the FCT, and two in the Southwest, among which was, shockingly, Lagos. In terms of the high electoral votes states, The Sun seemed to say the contest could go the way of Gen Buhari. With three major newspapers appearing to give the contest away to Gen Buhari, it was like telling Dr Jonathan to go into pasture. But not if the Jonathan campaign could come up with a joker of its own, literally and figuratively. And, presto, Dr Jonathan’s men came out bullish with their own map published on the front pages of many newspapers across the country, expenses not spared, and with no thoughts absolutely for moderation.

    In the great contrarian map, the PDP/Dr Jonathan camp gave the battle to themselves, not by a whisker, but by a huge and insurmountable margin. Let Gen Buhari go and hang if he wished, the new map seemed to indicate. Whereas the three major newspapers based their cartographic enterprises on explicable and internally generated sleuthing, the Jonathan map based its own on far-flung authorities, including an unknown Nigerian newspaper, and surveys by a potpourri of faceless international risk analysts. Risk? Ah, well, why not, it’s politics, isn’t it?

    In the Jonathan map, only six states were grudgingly conceded to Gen Buhari, and five states were regarded as battlegrounds. The remainder were allotted willy-nilly to Dr Jonathan, lock, stock and barrel, for him to take gaily and triumphantly into his barn. The entire Southwest, minus Osun, was allotted to Dr Jonathan; so, too, the entire Southeast, all totalling 26. The battle needed not to have been fought in the first instance, going by that phantasmagoria from Dr Jonathan’s electoral and cartographic camp.

    Miffed by the abuse of the fine science of cartography, and pleasantly shocked by responses from states like Gombe, Kogi, Edo and Ekiti whose leading lights swore there had been political and electoral changes in all four states in the past few weeks, changes they argued the paper’s correspondents failed to capture, The Nation felt compelled to revisit its map, and redraw it. The fresh map published on Friday was a stirring, ringing and thunderous one-sided contest and victory for Gen Buhari. It also showed that the Buhari territory had broadened considerably, while the Jonathan country had shrunk ominously. Nine states became battlegrounds, instead of eight. Alas, the Jonathan camp could not respond to this new cartographic affront from The Nation: it was just one day to polling.

    After the results are known, perhaps late Monday or early Tuesday, it will be evident which newspapers hosted the most gifted cartographers, and which ghosts had the temerity to adjust boundaries while wearied and innocent men slept. Who knows, if the polling went well, the elections could become a landslide, and poets could even compose all sorts of poems such as the one below.

    Map for map, the media marched to war.

    Cheek by jowl they drew and shuffled their boundaries,

    Partisan cudgels on their necks like albatrosses;

    Swayed by the morsels of PDP and APC.

    Ethics foresworn; logic vaporised,

    To convince all who of the two candidates deserves victory.

    Map for map, they thrust forward,

    Marching drunkenly between transformation and change.

    The maps may not be the most important landmark of the 2015 electioneering, considering the role money has played and the expertise the PDP has deployed into dispensing financial inducement. Indeed, the entire Southwest was abuzz three to two weeks to the election, as President Jonathan virtually took control of his own campaign and sidelined his campaign organisation. He swept through the Yoruba country and smooched with traditional rulers, and according to reports, distributed financial largesse on  a scale that beggars belief. The Ondo State governor, Olusegun Mimiko, also organised youths and freelance Afenifere leaders for Dr Jonathan in the guise of creating a favourable momentum for the president to implement the 2014 national conference report.

    Then there was the irrepressible chicanery orchestrated by the Jonathan campaign to discredit INEC, humiliate the electoral commission chairman, subvert the use of permanent voter cards and card readers, and empower militants and militias as a counterforce to established and lawful security and paramilitary agencies.

    But on the whole, the maps were the most noticeable tools that drove electioneering to giddy heights in the closing moments of the elections. They will be remembered for a long time, if not for their cartographic accuracy, at least for their political razzmatazz, and as a catalyst for politics as entertainment. The competence of media cartographers will doubtless increase in the coming years, with many of them developing skills that cannot be gainsaid domestically and internationally. Should maps in fact be capable of winning elections, Gen Buhari would be crowned tomorrow or next. But as religious leaders always say, the electorate should pray against inconclusive elections on account of the problems with card readers.