The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Goodluck Jonathan

  • Between columnist and reader on JEG

    Between columnist and reader on JEG

    My last column “GEJ:  No second term” (May 13, 2014) drew some 90 sms text responses, the third largest since I started writing At Home Abroad.

    A casual textual analysis suggests that some of them were written by the same person under different names or no names at all. A friend in my line of business tells me that an army of retainers, funded by shadowy organisations fronting for the Presidency, is on permanent alert to manufacture responses to articles critical of that institution.

    The responses break down roughly into 55 per cent for President Goodluck Jonathan, and his undeclared but undisguised second-term bid, and 45 per cent for the column’s position­ that he should not seek re-election.

    What follows is a representative sample, edited where necessary for clarity and good taste.

    I am not sure that the authors are who they say they are, and I do not wish to attribute to any person even inadvertently  a view he or she may not hold and may not have expressed.  So, I  have omitted the names.

    The tenacious Lai Ashadele, who never lets a column in The NATION pass without comment even if the comment is often grounded on a complete misapprehension, will no doubt recognise his comment even without his name.  So will other correspondents represented in this selection,

    For GEJ:

    I am not surprised you must write what you write to be in the good book of Bola Tinubu your pay master. Jonathan will contest.  Please allow the voters decide who they want.

    No 2nd term for JEG is your wish/personal opinion or that of your paymasters? I don’t know your faith but the Bible let me know that God is the maker of kings and rulers! Beware, you may be cursing one of God’s anointed! O God, forgive us all for we know not what we do, Amen.

    Your comment is too abusive and aggressive. You need to respect that office . Security of a nation should not be left to the President alone. What of the governors, (local government) chairmen and individuals for information?  Even you journalists.  Let us be constructive and make positive suggestions.

    As Jonathan is not qualified, you can declare your intent to contest in your party APC.  I have it on good authority that you are a heavy drinker so when you become APC President you can drink till day break.

    Whether you and your paymasters the sponsors of Boko Haram like it or not, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will win landslide in next year. If your paymasters like, let them turn Northern Nigeria to another Somalia.  By the way who is the APC presidential candidate or are you people planning to adopt President Jonathan? Well that should be your best move in order to avoid humiliation.

    What you should do as a card carrying member of APC is to defect to PDP and vote against President Jonathan during d PDP primaries.

    Who in Nigeria is unaware that Jonathan’s problems are brewed by people whom God taunted to declare their plans against him before his ascent to presidency? Even his most virulent foe is now opting to team up with him to quell a device he designed to frustrate Jonathan which backfired at him. Whoever plans to undo God’s deed calls for His wrath upon him. Such a one is in condemnation on earth and beyond. Shettima had an opportunity to save the Chibok girls when WAEC advised him to shift base of their examination to a safer haven. He never provided security as Chief Security Officer of the state. Steer clear of God’s wrath. Be fair in judgment.

    I want to draw your attention to some facts about President Jonathan.  He rose from university lecturer to deputy governor to Vice President to Acting President to President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria. All these positions, almost effortlessly, when Zik, Awo, Abiola and other prominent Nigerians worked hard and even died to be the President of Nigeria.  God’s hand must be in this project – Jonathan.

    Are you and other NATION newspaper columnists not tired of your vendetta against Jonathan? Jonathan will seek re-election and win by a landslide. He is doing well. You are not blind to transformation in the agric and power sectors, the massive airport, road and rail rehabilitation. Try to be objective.

    It is quite a shame that people like you find yourself in chop-chop journalism. You leave out the main issue at stake in the country, and talk politics, shame to you and your sponsors.  You were once a good and respected journalist, but you have lost touch and respect of journalism.

    You are a Yoruba man going by your name and an unrepentant member of APC.  Can you if made the President of Nigeria do better?  Let’s agree that your kinsman the former President Olusegun Obasanjo was the best thing that happened to Nigeria.  GEJ will at the appropriate time declare his interest. After all, God has always been on his side.

    Even if you like, fill the whole pages of Tuesday in The NATION with flimsy and irrelevant reasons why Mr President shouldn’t contest for a second term, it makes no difference because no one cares for your opinion.  If he (president) is a Yoruba man will you publish that rubbish? You are a tribalist and the likes of you are not good for our great nation (Nigeria).

    Is the presidency of this nation Nigeria the preserve of the Hausa’s and Yoruba’s only?

    Against GEJ:

    Bless you for today’s column “JEG: No second Term”. Regrettably the man has even stepped further into more infamy by ordering the arrest of anybody who protests his failure. Sometimes I wonder if he really earned the Ph.D. he parades. Most regrettably the PDP is Nigeria’s worst enemy but we don’t seem to be tired of this govt’s cluelessness. They think that governance is the same as mere grandstanding. A pity.

    Your today’s article as usual is fantastic and I entirely agree with what you said.  Please continue the excellent work you are known for.

    JEG should pack and go in 2015. All the religious, traditional leaders supporting him will be disgraced because of all evils perpetrated by this administration through corruption and bad leadership. Looking at JEG, one can see that he is unserious.

    Do you know that you have spoken the heart of Nigerians?  Mr President has disappointed Nigerians. He should leave in 2015.

    Your column is a scientific assessment of an inept, corrupt and visionless government that came on board by accident and I am afraid if the political mess foisted by a cabal will not also be uprooted by a bloody accident.  JEG is not prepared to quit.

    For once you’ve abandoned satire for reality. And you are angry. Good. But what the SA told you, I had already shared with my officers that the man should go for councillorship or a junior pastor. Thank God for little mercies, you’ve seen the light but where did u get the name “FAKA” for the DAME? Keep angry, please.

    Thank you for JEG: No second term. There is nothing anybody can add to what you have written. Indeed, Nigeria deserves much, much better.

    I have never been afraid for Nigeria and Nigerians as in the last three weeks. We are saddled with a leader who seems not to have the strength nor words to bring out the best in us. I salute your courage for speaking the truth.

    I have said it times without number that GEJ is not supposed to lead Nigeria.  Look at the mess he and PDP have put us into.  It is time Igbos take over the government and progress and peace will reign.

    I have been following you for years. Just finished reading your article…No second term. Wish we all had your guts. Think seriously about seeking a public post. You will have my vote.

    Hmm, where did you get the courage to write these truths! I dey fear for your life o!

    Your article “JEG:  No second term” is reflective and blunt.  It is straight to the point and a masterpiece. Please expect visitors from Aso Rock and the PDP.

  • Southwest conference delegates insist on regional autonomy

    Southwest conference delegates insist on regional autonomy

    Southwest delegates at the National Conference are insisting on institutionalising regional autonomy.

    The delegates, in a position paper circulated to delegates from other zones yesterday, said the 2014 National Conference must be a discourse aimed at and inclusive nation building.

    They insisted that “Yoruba people will not be part of a charade that will not create the needed national consensus on key issues in the country. The National Conference must emerge with outcomes that must be enduring solution to perennial and contentious national issues.”

    The 85-page position paper is entitled, “Regional autonomy or nothing” with a subtitle “The unity of Nigeria is negotiable and must be negotiated”.

    It appeared as a response to a position paper circulated by Northern delegates marked ‘Key’ issues before the Northern delegates to the 2014 National Conference” with a subtitle “Northern Nigeria, the backbone and strength of Nigeria.”

    The Southwest delegates noted that the National Conference commenced against a backdrop of pervasive cynicism about the real intention of President Goodluck Jonathan and serious doubts about the leadership’s capacity-implying a requirement of personal strength of character and political clout, to deliver the radical restructuring that are necessary to resolve the fundamental problems of the legitimacy of the ‘Nigerian project.’

    They said that “despite these thoughts and views, it was rightly decided that a strong presence of Southwest delegates are required at the conference to advocate a radical restructuring of Nigeria.

    Optimists, they said, perceived the conference as a golden opportunity to undertake a holistic transformation of the federation, to realign its structures and commence the institution of attitudinal changes necessary to locate Nigeria on a trajectory of political stability and economic development.

    The delegates said the first two weeks of the conference was used to debate the president’s speech, which they said appeared a delay tactics and red herring.

    The delegates added that “the Emir of Adamawa’s submission on the floor of the National Conference on 27th March 2014 signaled some of the North’s intent which has been suggested to be blackmailing the nation to submission, resulting in the retention of the status quo”.

    The delegates noted that it had been well argued that a multi-cultural and multi-lingual country needs, at least, a federal system of government if it is to achieve any measure of economic, social and political development.

    They regretted that “ however, signals emerging from the on-going national conference indicate a resistance to the radical restructuring of the country to consolidate the nation’s unwieldy and unsustainable political structures.”

    According to the delegates, “this direction of travel is a rejection of the imperative for a profound realignment of and political restructuring of the nation by the consolidation of the unwieldy and unsustainable 36 states structure into six geo-regional political arrangement.”

    They noted that “ with this impending outcome, the 2014 National Conference appears to have entrenched the very logic of operations that has brought Nigeria to the precipice.”

    On the stand of the Southwest, the document said that “The Southwest is committed to the consolidation of the 36 states’ structures into a regional structure.”

    The delegates noted that the arrangement “is what is in the best interest of Nigeria and the people of each region.”

    The delegates said, “The Southwest is reaffirming and rededicating itself to this principle. Any attempt to only tinker with the splintering of Nigeria (for instance, the recommendation to create an additional state in the South East) will only entrench a logic that has proven deleterious for Nigeria’s political and economic development.”

    They noted that the continuing structural imbalance of Nigeria is detrimental to the attainment of dynamic and progressive constituent units of the country and would continue to be an impediment to social and economic development of the Southwest, Southsouth, South East and indeed the ‘North’.

    The delegates noted that as a nation, there is the need to achieve a radical transformation of ‘project Nigeria.’

    They warned that inherent in the emerging outcome of the 2014 National Conference is the danger of exacerbating the problems of the more dynamic constituent sections of the country that are determined to join the global race for rapid transformatio, such as Yoruba people.

    “Hence, the Yoruba people would not be nail roaded into endorsing premeditated outcomes that further undermine our development and the execution of laudable Regional developmental initiatives.

    The delegates noted that the publication that acknowledges the collaboration of the Northern Governors and other socio-political organisations in the North presented to the 2014 National Conference titled “Key issues before the Northern delegates to the 2014 National Conference” attempted to “distort Nigerian history and re-calibrate the geography of the nation in a manner reminiscent of Hausa-Fulani approach to national political matters, before and after independence.”

     

     

    They described the publication as “a hyperbolic self-assessment- explicitly directed at and against the South,” and “littered with non-evidenced and poorly referenced assertions and claims about the North being the backbone and pillar of Nigeria.”

    The delegates noted that “the publication that insults the rest of the country with imperial language that subtends its claims,” is at variance with the pronouncement presidential address that delegates should not approach issues with suspicion and antagonism.

    They said that the Northern publication was needlessly provocative.

    The delegates agreed that without doubt, a release with the subtitle of “Northern Nigeria the backbone of Nigeria” smacks of gross insensitivity to the feelings of ethnic nationalities outside the orbit of the North.

    They said that the National Conference appeared to have created a space for ethnic nationalities to unearth their long established fear, political, ethnic and cultural subconscious.

    “Therefore, Northern Governors, Arewa Consultative Forum, and other organizations consulted before the crafting of the North’s position paper have clearly exteriorised the innards of the Region’s political assessment of Nigerians, and indeed the South,” they said.

    The delegates dismissed the claims of the North on oil exploration and production in the country, revenue allocation and others.

    The South West made the following demands: Regionalism which embodies a restructured Nigeria federation consisting of a central government and regional governments of other ethnic nationalities that could be based on the current six geo-political zones.

    The delegates said that the South West Region must include all Yoruba people outside the imposed artificial boundaries, in Edo, Delta, Kogi, and Kwara States.

    The demanded a negotiated legislative Exclusive, Concurrent and Residual List and a unicameral legislature at the centre and a parliamentary form of government at the centre.

    The also wanted a right to self determination on and up to the right to secede among other demands.

    The South West delegates concluded that “ Whilst the focus of the North should be on developing this new form of required leadership-hopefully with less focus on dependency on oil revenue and the quest to perpetually rule Nigeria- the focus of Yoruba people continues to be the development of a people and a nation, upholding our core values and the strength to defend ourselves, whilst continuously seeking ways to be cohesive and focused as a nation so as to keep advancing in properity.”

    “For Yoruba people, it is regionalism or nothing,” they re-emphasised.

     

  • Extension not enough

    Extension not enough

    •Devising strategies for curbing terrorism in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states should go beyond extending the emergency rule

    YESTERDAY, the emergency rule imposed on three North-Eastern states lapsed. In anticipation, President Goodluck Jonathan had, last week, made a proclamation extending it and forwarded same to the National Assembly for ratification. However, while it had a smooth sail in the House of Representatives, the Senate has deferred discussions till this week. Eminent persons, political leaders and governments of the affected states have rejected the bid to extend the emergency, arguing that equipping and boosting the morale of government troops would be more effective.

    We find it difficult to agree with the contention by the Federal Government that an extension would help curb the insurgency and save the populace from undue harassment and displacement. Since the emergency was imposed May last year, the terrorists have struck at will in schools, villages and markets. State governments have continued to wonder how convoys made their way to public places and slaughtered the innocent. In some cases, Nigerian soldiers have lamented the superiority of arms and ammunition available to the Boko Haram terrorists.

    It is our view that mere extension without a thorough review of the operations of the security forces and improvement in welfare package for the troops would be counter-productive. The recent mutiny by some soldiers of the 7th Division of the Nigerian Army is an indication that something grave is happening which requires more than cosmetic attention.

    Already, having lasted more than one year, the emergency in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states is the longest in the history of such unusual situations in the country. In the First Republic when the confusion in the Western Region led to the appointment of Chief Moses Majekodunmi as administrator, with consequent conferment of extraordinary powers on him, normalcy was restored within six months. The emergency was not extended.

    In May 2004, the Federal Government imposed emergency rule on Plateau State following communal conflicts that had engulfed the state and threatened to spill to others. The tenure of General Chris Alli who was appointed the administrator was not extended after it lapsed in November.

    Similarly, in October 2006, a state of emergency was declared in Ekiti State and another retired general, Adetunji Olurin, was made the administrator. His tenure had to be slightly adjusted to cover the one-month gap to the installation of an elected governor.

    By nature, emergency periods are supposed to last only a short period. While it could be argued that the situation that called for taking the measures has not abated, it should be equally noted that the emergency has not succeeded in ridding the territory of the terrorists.

    We also note that in none of the previous cases did the emergency rule cure the society of the ills that provoked such extraordinary measures. In the current case, the ease with which the insurgents, especially the outrageous recent kidnap of about 273 girls from the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, calls for a new approach by the military and civil authorities. Whether the emergency is extended or not, security of lives and property in the affected states and the contiguous region should be paramount.

    If two terms of the emergency could not stamp out the menace, there is no assurance that a third term would perform the magic.

     

  • Chibok Haram and state’s seeing business

    Chibok Haram and state’s seeing business

    In his Presidential Media Chat on Sunday May 4, President Jonathan in response to a question about the allegation of missing $20 billion had replied that in Nigeria, we talk about billions in a manner that clearly shows our inability to appreciate what huge sum a billion is in monetary terms. He is absolutely right! But his next curious statement is: “if someone stole even five billion, the United States would have seen it and told us this is where the money is”.

    The following Friday, the President publicly denied the report that the abducted Chibok girls had been taken to Cameroon. His reason, according to Reuters is this: “if they move that number of girls to Cameroon, people will see …”

    But the same President had admitted in his media chat that the government did (and still does) not know the girls’ whereabouts. So, how can a president who does not know where the girls are possibly know they have not been moved across the border?

    The President’s logical answer to this is that people, and not the government, would have seen this large number of girls being moved. This is precisely the problem, and our tragedy as a nation. Why? The state is an idea that must have existential reality on people’s lives. And the government is tasked with giving substantive meaning to this idea.

    To be sure, the state is in the seeing business. It is in fact part of the fundamental duties of the state to be able to see far beyond the citizens’ imagination and appreciation of the dangers that threaten them, and to also nip these in the bud whenever and wherever possible. Put differently, the state’s raison d’être is to see to the citizens’ welfare, well-being and primarily their security. Hence, seeing is integral to the state’s functioning and constitutes an unavoidable task of government.

    But what we are being made to believe is that President Jonathan is presiding over a blind state; a state that cannot see. And the government is comfortable contracting its seeing business out to another country –the United States – and the ordinary people. If the United States had failed in its own seeing business, it would hardly have qualified for that contract; just as the people would have had no need for government if they had the capacity to see better than it can and should.

    The President had admitted in the same media chat that the capacity of the country’s security forces had gone into precipitous decline, and his government was just trying to rebuild it. This is affirmed by a senior military officer, according to Amnesty International, that “There’s a lot of frustration, exhaustion and fatigue among officers and (troops) based in the hotspots … many soldiers are afraid to go to the battle fronts”. Further evidence of this capacity decline is the Amnesty report that the military headquarters in Maiduguri was alerted of the abduction plot some four hours before the Chibok attack took place,

    But the question to ask is when this security decline was discovered; yesterday or since the inception of this administration? After all, this President has effectively been in charge of this country for about four years now. If there had been a determined action to fix this decline over a period of four years, this shameful tragedy could have been averted. How more grievous could it be for our country that a handful of demented insurgents could hold a whole country – and we are talking about the largest country in Africa with a population of 167 million – to ransom?

    The state perforce is an overseer that must see to its citizens’ need for welfare and a guarantor of their requirement for security. Consequently, in pursuit of these aims, a state must develop the keen and broad vision of an eagle, complemented by the sharpened and ready fangs of a tiger. It’s called state capacity. However, the question for us is whether a state that cannot see beyond its own nose can see to the protection of its citizens. The brazen abduction of the Chibok girls, and the ensuing helpless ineptitude, is an eloquently negative answer of this government to that question.

    The President was quick to cite the example of Pakistan to rationalise the sorry state of our security incapacity. That was in bad taste! He ought to have been told by his advisers that with Pakistan, nothing is as real as it seems. That country’s apparent problem with insurgency is largely its own making; it is less of absence of capacity than a deliberate political decision by its rulers. Of a truth, Pakistan (through its Inter-Services Intelligence, ISI) trains, arms, funds and directs the insurgents on its soil (the Akani Network, Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Taliban etc.) in its war with its arch enemy, India, and in its double game with the West. Hence, Pakistan’s insurgents know where to draw the line.

    Once in 2009 when the Pakistani Taliban decided to push that limit and advanced to within 60 miles of the capital, Islamabad, the military crushed the insurgency with unmitigated swiftness and ruthlessness. In its insurgency war games, the Pakistani state calls the shots.

    In any case, in governance and statecraft, the models to look up to are not those states that fail in their seeing business; but those that have the capacity and the will to demonstrate that no individual or group can toy with their security brief.

    Whereas it is the leadership’s task to raise the quality of governance to the best global standards; Jonathan’s presidency has been defined by a reduction of governance to catastrophic ineffectuality in the face of mounting menace to the country’s well-being and integrity.

    It’s time for this President to act on his admitted failure and confounding dereliction by seriously focusing on governance in order to save us from witnessing more ChibokHaram-like national disasters.

     

    • Jimoh is a Graduate student at University of Ibadan
  • I don’t have to visit Chibok, says Jonathan

    I don’t have to visit Chibok, says Jonathan

    •African Leaders declare war on Boko Haram

    President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday in Paris, France explained that it was not necessary for him to visit Chibok, Borno State.

    He said that visiting the town would  not lead to the release of the over 200 school girls abducted last month by Boko Haram from the Government Girls Secondary School,Chubok.

    He said his   main interest was to locate and rescue the girls.

    He spoke at a  press conference held at Elysee Palace,Paris at the close of the regional summit on security in Nigeria.

    The President explained that he was not averse to visiting bomb explosion sites, as he had done so in the past.

    He said, “These girls are not held in Chibok. Sometime, people want the President to go to Chibok. If the President goes to Chibok today, it does not solve any problem.

    “The problem facing the President and indeed the Nigerian Government is how to get these girls from wherever they are.”

    Jonathan said the service chiefs had since visited the area, adding that the emphasis now was on the rescue of the girls abducted over a month ago.

    The President assured that the military were being trained to develop the necessary capacity to adequately deal with the terror threat.

    He said that there were challenges in containing the insurgents because terrorism was a relatively new phenomenon in the country.

    He defended the military saying allegation of misappropriation of funds against the military was exaggerated.

    West African leaders at the meeting agreed to wage a total war against Boko Haram.

    The USA,UK,EU and France all of which were represented at the meeting pledged their support.

    “Today we’ve decided on a plan of regional and global action that is medium and long term,” French President François Hollande told reporters after meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan  and other West African leaders as well as US,UK and EU delegations on plan to  rescue the over 200 school girls abducted in Borno State by the sect last month.

    The plan, Mr. Hollande said, calls for Western powers to cooperate with Nigeria and neighbouring countries in surveillance and patrols along Nigeria’s borders.

    Western powers with sophisticated intelligence-gathering capabilities have also agreed to share some of their information with Nigeria, Mr. Hollande said without elaborating.

    The summit also resolved to support ” human rights and particularly the protection of girls who are victims of violence and forced marriage or threatened with slavery.”

    Accordingly Nigeria and its neighbours will “build analysis and response capabilities that will contribute to enhancing the security of all populations and the rule of law in the areas affected by Boko Haram’s terrorist acts,” and will immediately proceed to

    • Implement coordinated patrols with the aim of combating Boko Haram and locating the missing school girls;

    •Establish a system to pool intelligence in order to support this operation;

    • Establish mechanisms for information exchange on trafficking of weapons and bolster measures to secure weapons stockpiles; and

    • Establish mechanisms for border surveillance.

    At multilateral level, the summit agreed to establish an intelligence pooling unit and create a dedicated team to identify means of implementation and draw up, during a second phase, a regional counter-terrorism strategy in the framework of the Lake Chad Basin Commission.

    President   Jonathan said he was “totally committed” to finding the schoolgirls who had been taken hostage by Boko Haram.

    Chad’s President Idriss Deby echoing the sentiments at the meeting said they were all ready to wage war against Boko Haram.

    “There is determination to tackle this situation head on … to launch a war, a total war on Boko Haram,” he said.

    A follow up meeting will be hosted by UK next month.

     

  • Kuku: Niger Delta militants had no plan to destroy Nigeria

    Kuku: Niger Delta militants had no plan to destroy Nigeria

    THE Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Amnesty, Kingsley Kuku, yesterday said armed youths who took up arms in the Niger Delta region against the federal government did not plan to destroy the country.

    He said at Oporoza, Warri Delta State at the weekend.

    Kuku clarified tthat he militants merely tried to draw attention of the federal government to the plight of the oil-bearing communities in the region.

    According to him: “The struggle we initiated we didn’t intend to destroy the Nigerian nation. The intent was to draw the attention of government to communal land issues, justice in the area of environment, rights of our people for political space and equal opportunity.”

    Speaking when President Goodluck Jonathan performed the formal groundbreaking ceremonies of the Nigeria Maritime University and NIMASA Shipyard and Dockyard in Okerenkoko, Warri South West Local Government Area, Kuku said the emergence of a Niger Deltan as president was the result of the agitation for better deal.

    He said: “Today, we have a president you can’t talk about resource control anymore because for us the honest dividend that the Niger Delta struggle has brought is the office of the president.

    “Today, Gbaramatu Kingdom, which experienced a military attack, is celebrating. This place where the president is sitting celebrating with us is particularly the place that was palace to the late Agadagba.”

    The presidential adviser also described the Director General of NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokemi, as a product of the struggle, adding that he understood the need for manpower development for the Niger Delta.

    “He has brought about this project, the first ever in West Africa. Maritime University is now situated in Okerenkoko in Gbaramatu kingdom.

    “This is the benefit of appointing people who understand the plight of their people and who are products of the struggle.”

     

  • Boko Haram is West Africa’s Al-Qaeda, says Jonathan

    Boko Haram is West Africa’s Al-Qaeda, says Jonathan

    President Goodluck Jonathan said yesterday that Boko Haram has become West Africa’s Al-Qaeda.

    He told a news conference in Paris following a meeting of West African leaders that “Boko Haram is no longer a local terrorist group, it is operating clearly as an Al-Qaeda operation, it is an Al-Qaeda of West Africa.”

    President Jonathan said the sect has killed over 12,000 people since it launched its terror attacks in the North.

    “We have developed intelligence, which indicates clearly that global terrorist networks are deeply involved in the recent activities of Boko Haram, which has now turned into an integral part of the Al Qaeda network as the West African Branch. More tellingly, the group runs an international network of training and incubation centres in such places as Gao and Kidal areas of Mali, the Diffa, Maradi and Maina Soro areas of Niger Republic, Maroua and Garoua areas of Republic of Cameroun, the Zango and Ridina quarters in Ndjamena, Chad, the Ranky-Kotsy area of Sudan, and also some cells in the Central African Republic,” he said.

    “The group is hostile to democracy; it uses every means to indoctrinate its members; its ultimate objective is to destabilize the country, and take over Nigeria in order to turn it into a base of operation in West Africa and the entire continent”.

    He said  the “reprehensible abduction of innocent school girls in Chibok, Borno State is another manifestation” of  Boko Haram’s  criminality.

    Government, according to him, is “already making thorough intelligence efforts to identify their sponsors and their sources of funding and arms supply,” and declared: “We will not succumb to terrorists and their dangerous tactics. Terrorists will not be allowed to define who we are or instill fear in our people and cause destruction and mayhem.

    “The abduction of young innocent school girls in Chibok represents a watershed, and a turning point, in the global terrorist war against human civilization. The escalation by the terrorists should not go unanswered by us. The world is entering a new stage and we must stand firm to protect our civilization.”

    Cameroon President Paul Biya said yesterday’s summit prompted partnering countries “to take stronger measures to eradicate” Boko Haram

    “We’re here to declare war on Boko Haram,” Biya  added.

    French President Francois Hollande branded Boko Haram a  bigger terror threat than first portrayed — beyond Nigeria and even Africa.

    “Boko Haram is an organization that is linked to terrorism in Africa and whose will is to destabilize the north of Nigeria, certainly, and all the neighboring countries of Nigeria and beyond that region,” Hollande said.

     

  • Massive deployment of troops to Sambisa Forest begins

    Massive deployment of troops to Sambisa Forest begins

    •2.17b people join #BringBackOurGirls  campaign

    The Defence Headquarters has massed more troops close to Sambisa Forest in Borno State in the build up to the planned rescue of the over 200 school girls abducted in the state last month by Boko Haram.

    Though the military was silent on the actual figure, President Goodluck Jonathan said in Paris that about 20,000 had been sent to the North-East.

    The troops have succeeded in creating a blockade to restrict the sect members to the forest.

    It was gathered that troops were awaiting the outcome of the ongoing intelligence collaboration between Nigeria and the United States and other Allied Forces before their next line of action.

    A top military source said: “So far, we have carried out massive deployment of troops to the fringes of Sambisa Forest in readiness for the rescue operation.

    “The troops have laid siege to all routes leading to the forest. It is a kind of blockade restricting the sect to the forest.

    “Based on intelligence brief available to us from the military and foreign collaborators, we will soon rescue the girls.

    The source added: “A lot of air surveillance is ongoing in Sambisa Forest area to locate where the girls are camped.

    “The real mission is to rescue the girls alive. This is why we have not been able to engage in bombing of all parts of the forest.”

    About 2.17 billion people across the globe are said to have joined the #BringBackOurGirls  campaign, according Cyberschuulnews.com.

    The world’s population as at May 17 was put at about 7,230,723,512.

    Cyberschuulnews.com said: “One week after the whole wide world united in venting pent-up anger against Nigeria and its government, Google search picked up 2,170,000,000 hits for the #BringBackOurGirls, a social media campaign designed to build worldwide pressure to find school girls who were abducted in Nigeria.

    “And that came 3 weeks after it looked like the abduction of 276 girls (the highest of the various figures: 234, 239, 274, 276, ‘over 200’) which authorities in Nigeria mindlessly used as the number of school girls abducted by Boko Haram remained unresolved.

    “The sect had taunted the government with bombing, kidnapping, and threats over the internet with amazing helplessness as response of government and its might. ”

     

     

  • Lamido: Jonathan moves to tighten hold on PDP

    Lamido: Jonathan moves to tighten hold on PDP

    The camp of President Goodluck Jonathan is tightening its hold on the machinery of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as part of its response to   moves by Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State to seek the party’s ticket for next year’s Presidential election.

    After one of the several meetings held to evaluate Lamido’s interest in the race, the President’s men decided to scrutinise the party’s leaderships at local government and state levels across the country to ensure that the President has majority of his supporters in charge.

    A former National Secretary of the party was appointed to head a 10-man committee set-up by the President’s strategists to work closely with the party leadership on the scrutiny, a source said.

    The committee was also mandated to pay particular attention to the North and South West in carrying out its assignment.

    The job is already underway in some states where state Executive Committees are sifting through the political profiles of likely delegates at the grassroots level.

    The Nation also learnt that the stakeholders resolved that the Jonathan camp should work harder at winning the minorities in the North   to neutralise the influence  of the core North.

    A source familiar with the working of the group said:”The stakeholders’ meeting which had in attendance nearly all the members of the Board of Trustees (B.O.T), the National Working Committee (NWC), some Governors and prominent national assembly members, also resolved to have a team that will work hard at selling the Jonathan candidacy in the north, especially to minority northerners.

    “The idea is to polarize the North by infiltrating the political circles in the minority groupings within the zones. To be seriously targeted are the North central states as well as Adamawa, Gombe, Borno, Taraba and Yobe states in the Northeastern part of the country.”

    Supporters of the Jigawa governor  are currently reaching out to party chieftains across the country  to  consult them on Lamido’s renewed presidential ambition. The Nation also learnt that the governor has personally informed some top party members of his resolve to vie for the presidential ticket of the PDP.

     

  • The Tragic Presidency

    The Tragic Presidency

    Like a badly damaged second hand tape, the Jonathan presidency is unraveling before our very eyes, reeling its way into a tangled mass of confusion. It is not a funny sight, more so since Goodluck Jonathan started out with an outpouring of genuine national good will. All that has disappeared now, leaving in its wake angry nationals and affronted citizens. Increasingly, Jonathan himself is looking like a tragic figure but without the elemental force of personality, the grand passions and the towering pathos of those titans of historical tragedy.

    Of late, he has been showing some irritability and testy distemper which sit oddly with the carefully cultivated and calibrated image of a man of Olympian equanimity and profound self-possession. Manipulated by his own manipulations and by the mannequins of power and state marionettes surrounding him, he is beginning to imagine himself as a victim of some apocalyptic conspiracy on a national and international scale.

    The past fortnight must have been a nightmare. History moves like a cattle rustler: silently, secretively and with much stealth. Six weeks ago, no one could have imagined  Chibok and the Bring Back our Girls Campaign. But now they are with us, and the venom and international outpouring of grief have exposed the septic underbelly of the Jonathan presidency. It is unlikely to survive the opprobrium. When all is quiet, it shall be said that at a time of grave national emergency, Jonathan dithered and dissimulated when he ought to have acted with swift expediency and compassion for the victims.

    But let no one rejoice. This is a collective tragedy. It is a collective tragedy because Jonathan is a product of our collective imagination. In rooting for him, we plumbed for youth and national idealism at the expense of experience and granite integrity. It was a defining moment in our national history. For once, most Nigerians spoke with one voice, which was that there must be no ethnic bar or barrier preventing any Nigerian from aspiring to the highest office in the land. The Nigerian presidency is not the perpetual birthright of any religious cabal or ethnic conclave however self-regarding or self-perpetuating.

    Yet as Shakespeare famously noted, youth is a stuff that will not endure. Neither is national idealism particularly when not leavened by pragmatic expediency. Jonathan may well be a mess. But he is not just his own mess. He is our mess. We must bear this in mind as we contemplate the tragic mess of the Jonathan presidency. Going forward, we must focus on the ball and not be distracted by attractive but meretricious ephemerality. This is the only way to learn the correct lesson from the tragedy unfolding.

    Jonathan’s die-hard apologists are wont to see an ethnic conspiracy in even the most innocuous of criticisms. But they have forgotten that the Jonathan presidency is itself a product of a grand pan-ethnic conspiracy. They often point out that some people had vowed to make Nigeria ungovernable if a “foreigner” should come to power. But no one can be forced to stumble unless such a person is already predisposed to wobbling.  In any case, it is a reflection of Jonathan’s miserable gifts as a leader of a complex multi-ethnic nation if he is unable to hold together the pan-ethnic alliance that propel him to power in the first instance. People make history but never under the circumstances of their choice.

    But as usual, we may be looking for the wrong lesson in the right place. The presidency of any nation is a perpetual work in progress. A particular president needs not be a great person or a great president. It is in the nature of human folly and modern anxiety that we expect too much from a president without factoring into the equation the circumstances of presidential progeny. If only when the time comes, and very soon, too, Jonathan will bid goodbye to the presidency with the same courtesy, civility and decorum with which he acceded in the first instance, history will give him a grudging applause. This is a glorious legacy that will survive the current appalling mess.

    But if he were to plunge a country that he owes so much into a terminal civil war in a futile bid to hold on to power, he stands the chance of entering the history books as the worst ruler in Nigeria’s blighted history. Even a poor ruler must have a sense of an ending, or he may invite a terrible tragedy on himself and his nation. That end appears to be in sight for the tragic presidency of Dr Goodluck Jonathan.

    This morning, in order to arrive at a correct perspective of what is going on, we publish excerpts from two old pieces which welcomed Jonathan’s ascendancy but which also foreshadowed its tragic trajectory. The one hailed his surefootedness in negotiating the political landmines while the other compared him with President Gerald Ford. Perhaps it will help Jonathan’s most rabid propagandists to regain their balance and sense of perspective.