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Tag: Jonathan

  • Jonathan’s visit: Police beef up security in Damaturu

    Jonathan’s visit: Police beef up security in Damaturu

    The Yobe Police Command said it had beefed up security in and around Damaturu ahead of the state visit by President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday.

    The Commissioner of Police in Yobe, Alhaji Sanusi Rufa’i, told journalists in Damaturu on Wednesday that “teams of mobile policemen have been deployed to the state to reinforce the security on ground.

    “We are determined and working towards a peaceful and hitch-free presidential visit to the state,’’ the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the police commissioner as saying to journalists.

    He said the command had deployed its personnel to all the nooks and crannies of the state capital.

    “Although we now enjoy relative peace, we will leave no stone unturned to provide adequate security for the presidential visit and the people.

    “We have adequate manpower and logistics to ensure a peaceful visit. We implore the public to conduct their lawful businesses, remain law-abiding and cooperate with the security agencies.’’

    In Damaturu, Jonathan is scheduled to inaugurate the state university, the dual carriageway ring road, 300 housing units and an ultra-modern hospital.

    The Commissioner for Housing, Alhaji Ago Dala, said government constructed 1, 179 housing units from 2007 to date in compliance with the Millennium Development Goals’ target on housing.

    “The houses were sold out to people on owner/occupier basis with 65 per cent subsidy. This means, beneficiaries are paying only 35 per cent of the cost price of the houses.

    “The state housing programme was designed to shift from house renting to house ownership with little stress.

    “As a matter of policy, Yobe Government offsets outstanding balance of houses for families of deceased persons,’’ he said.

     

  • They stole Jonathan’s plan, says Okupe

    They stole Jonathan’s plan, says Okupe

    The Presidency appears to be bellyaching over last week’s visit of nine opposition governors on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to Borno and Yobe states.

    Senior Special Adviser to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe has accused the governors of “stealing” President Goodluck Jonathan’s scheduled plan to visit the two troubled states.

    At a news conference in Abuja yesterday, Okupe said Jonathan had long been scheduled to visit Borno State this week, adding that having got wind of the President’s plans, the governors hurriedly packaged the visit to preempt the President’s planned visit.

    Okupe labelled the governors as crass opportunists, adding that the tour was superficial and a media stunt.

    He said: “The APC Governors’ visit was hurriedly packaged to preempt the visit of Mr. President which had been planned and scheduled several weeks ago. This is surely an act of crass opportunism and political desperation on the part of these Governors and the party they represent.

    “We regard that visit as a media circus, stunt and photo-ops by these governors who were apparently in Maiduguri to feather their political nests. If I may ask, where were these governors in the last 18 months that they had been in office?

    “It is obvious that it is part of their mobilization drive that took them to Borno State rather than any patriotic call to duty. These are desperate power mongers who flock together in spite of their obvious conflicting political philosophies and inordinate ambitions”.

    Stating that insurgency is no longer an emergency situation in the country, Okupe went on: “Lastly, we will like the ACN to explain to Nigerians the benefits that the celebrated visit has brought to the citizens of Borno State and what effect it had on the activities of the Boko Haram sect which even carried out bomb attacks while the APC meeting was in progress.

    “That visit which was borne out of sheer political recklessness could have caused Nigeria major security embarrassment but for the fact that the Federal Government and its security apparatus took extra efforts to ensure the visiting governors were safe.

    “Being elected officials, the onus was on the Federal Government to ensure that they were safe in spite of their being oblivious of the peculiar security implications and real potential dangers inherent in their hurriedly packaged visit”.

    Asked why it has taken the President close to two years to plan his visit to the bomb-ravaged states, the President’s aide retorted that Jonathan’s visits are scheduled ahead of time and that it was not yet the turn of Borno in the President’s itinerary.

    When confronted with the fact that the President had visited Kano and Kaduna states a few days after bombs shattered the peace of the two Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-controlled Northwestern states at intervals last year Okupe drew a line between the two scenarios.

    He said: “The Kano bomb blast was an emergency situation, whereas the insurgency in Borno is not an emergency. Boko Haram insurgency is no longer an emergency situation in the country.

    “President Jonathan is not a showman who wants to be praised for his actions. He has all the while having sleepless nights, mapping out security strategies to tackle insecurity. He does what is needful at all times”, the President’s aide said.

    When it was pointed out that the governors deserved commendation for the visit, instead of condemnation, Okupe countered that they only played to the gallery.

    “I am not a fool and I cannot be fooled. Where were these governors 18 months ago. Have they just seen people being killed. We don’t play to the gallery the way they do”.

    Apparently to cushion the effects of scathing criticisms against President Jonathan’s perceived insensitivity to the plight of Borno, as alleged by the government and people of the state, Okupe said Vice President Namadi Sambo’s visit to Borno early January was at the instance of the President.

    “The Vice President went to Borno to represent the President”, Okupe said, adding that the President and the PDP governors would not go to Borno to canvass for votes like the APC governors did.

    The President’s aide tongue lashed the opposition parties for criticising the Federal Government’s poor handling of the security situation in the country, saying that insecurity has been reduced to the barest minimum under the Jonathan administration.

     

  • Nigeria owes Obasanjo gratitude, says Jonathan

    President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday congratulated former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, on his 76th birthday and said Nigeria owes him a debt of gratitude.

    The President, according to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media & Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, noted that Chief Obasanjo has been committed to the cause of peace, stability, growth and development in the country.

    He said: “On behalf of my family, the government and people of Nigeria, and on my own behalf, I write to express warm felicitations to you on the occasion of your 76th birthday anniversary, which comes up on Tuesday, March 5, 2013.

    “Over the years, you have always readily given of yourself to the cause of the peace, stability, growth and development of our country. For this, we owe you an enduring debt of gratitude.

    “As you celebrate with family, friends and well-wishers, I pray that Almighty God continue to guide, guard and prosper you, even as He blesses you with many more years of robust health and abiding fulfilment.”

    President Jonathan wished Chief Obasanjo a very happy birthday.

  • Jonathan, Northern governors greet Obasanjo at 76

    Jonathan, Northern governors greet Obasanjo at 76

    President Goodluck Jonathan and the Northern States Governors Forum on Tuesday congratulated former president Olusegun Obasanjo on the occasion of his 76th birthday.

    The president hail Obasanjo’s role in ensuring the peace and stability of the country.

    The governors on their part said the former president remained the reference point on good governance, statesmanship, diplomacy, conflict resolution and prudent management of resources.

    A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, quoted Jonathan as saying that Nigerians owe the former president a debt of gratitude for readily giving himself for the peace and stability of the country over the years.

    Paying tribute to Obasanjo, the NSGF through its Chairman and governor of Niger State, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu said the former leader has lived a fulfilled life of service to Nigeria and humanity.

    In a statement signed by Aliyu’s Chief Press Secretary, Malam Danladi Ndayebo, the forum said Nigeria was lucky to have Obasanjo at every twist and turn in our march to nationhood.

    It recalled that Obasanjo had a distinguished carrier in the military and then went on to become head of state and later democratically elected President, during which period he showed rare vision, courage and exemplary leadership.

    ”It is no longer news that in 1976, destiny beckoned on General Obasanjo to become Nigeria’s Head of State; an era that ushered in huge developmental drive in our journey to nationhood and in the exercise of greatness, he voluntarily relinquished power and handed it over to a civilian administration in 1979.He returned to the presidency in 1999 from the verge of death to the flourishing tree of democracy he planted, this time as the gardener and the nourisher,” the statement said.

    The forum said Obasanjo left legacies in all sectors of the economy: nation-building, national reconciliation, the Niger Delta issue, national security, foreign policy, the telecommunications revolution, debt management, banking sector reforms, education, agriculture, health, environment, power sector reform and oil and gas development.

    Others are solid minerals development, tourism, war against economic and financial crimes and pension reforms among many other things.

     

  • Jonathan, Mark, Tambuwal to meet over budget row

    Jonathan, Mark, Tambuwal to meet over budget row

    The row over Budget 2013 persisted yesterday.

    Worried by the four conditions given to the Executive by the National Assembly, President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday invited principal officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives for talks.

    The session might also touch on the proposed amendments to the 1999 Constitution for which the executive is finalising its proposals, it was learnt.

    In readiness for the talks, the principal officers of the House met for two hours yesterday in Abuja.

    As the National Assembly leaders were getting set for the meeting, there was tension following alleged plans by Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to speak on the budget row on Thursday.

    The Assembly leaders vowed to “retaliate”, if Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala attacks them at the proposed briefing.

    After persuasion by Senate President David Mark, the President had last week assented to the 2013 budget with a caveat.

    The budget comprises N2.3 trillion recurrent non-debt expenditure; N1.6 trillion for contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure; N387.9 billion statutory transfers; N591.7 billion for debt service; and a $79 a barrel benchmark.

    In spite of the signing of the instrument, the Executive and the National Assembly have not agreed on four key areas.

    The areas of disagreement are:

    •no-access by the Executive to the budgetary allocations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) until its Director-General, Ms Arunma Oteh, is removed;

    •extension of the lifespan of the 2012 Capital Budget to April;

    •2013 budget benchmark to remain at $79 per barrel; and

    •mandatory quarterly briefing of the National Assembly by Dr. Okonjo-Iweala on the budget’s implementation.

     

  • Jonathan signed agreement on serving one term, says Junaid

    Jonathan signed agreement on serving one term, says Junaid

    DID President Goodluck Jonathan sign a secret agreement to serve a single tenure? The controversy continues yesterday, with a leading Northern voice, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, saying that such a document exists.

    Mohammed, who spoke on Sunrise Daily, a breakfast programme on Channels Television, said he had seen the document, which he said was signed by the President, some governors and two deputy governors prior to the 2011 elections.

    Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu, in a radio programme in Kaduna last month, sparked the controversy. The Presidency debunked the claim, daring anyone in possession of such an agreement to release it to the public.

    Mohammed said: “I am persuaded to say that such an agreement exists and it was signed by some governors, and I think, two deputy governors at the time. I have sighted the document and I got to know this from people whom I have known from 40-50 years that the agreement exists.

    “People are prepared to deny the existence of the paper because of our culture of double talk. We do not need a lower ranked aide of the President to deny it. As far as I am concerned, something of that magnitude should have been cleared by a very senior person at the highest possible level —someone at the Presidency. Dr. Doyin Okupe is my friend and he did the same thing for Obasanjo until he was fired.”

    The public affairs analyst and former lawmaker, accused Jonathan of lacking the political will to reshuffle the cabinet because of the activities of powerful forces hanging around the corridors of power.

    “There are clearly many powerful forces that are stopping the President from reshuffling the cabinet because there are two women ministers who think they cannot be removed from their posts.

    “The discourse on the 2015 election is premature but it was started by Jonathan. All we’ve had from 2011 to date was slogan. Promises were made and they have not been kept. The promises have been kept aside. You have to blame the President on early talk of 2015 and he is unleashing his attack dogs on the nation.

    “Nobody would believe the tale that the President would not run in 2015. The man is behind it and his body language says a lot. The body language indicates that he would be running. They have started preparing the war chest for 2015. They are pulling money for election through deliberate, half-hearted implementation of annual budgets. They leave no room for anybody to trust them and I, for one, do not trust them.”

    Asked to clarify where he belonged on the political radar, Mohammed said: “I am not and will not be a member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party because the party is fixated to the primordial sentiments of zoning and rotation.

    “I don’t believe that I speak for the North because the leaders of the North who claim to speak for the region are not sincere. That is why they would enter into an agreement with people who cannot keep to the terms of that agreement. Tough luck to them!”

     

  • Governors Forum: Why Jonathan is mistaken

    Governors Forum: Why Jonathan is mistaken

    When the dust finally settles on the on going face off between President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s led Nigeria Governors Forum, the wind would have blown and the fowl’s backside would have been revealed.

    If you don’t know what I am talking about then ask your neighbour as you are probably the only one around still in the dark about how the president’s rabid ambition to run a second term is tearing apart almost every known political structure and power blocs in the country including the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Jonathan in case you don’t know is hell bent on running for the presidency again in 2015 and an Abuja court last week cleared the way for him to do so if he so desires, and there is no denying that’s exactly what the man wants. And there is nothing wrong in that if his party believes so much in his ability to win the next presidential election and hands him the PDP ticket. But he will still need to contend with the opposition, now growing in strength and confidence, and the electorate who are more than disappointed with his performance.

    But the man doesn’t seem to care about what the electorate think of him and his administration, all that matters to him is winning the PDP’s ticket by hook or crook and once again rigging his way to the presidency, and he appears to be well on the way to achieving that. Rightly or wrongly, he has identified the seeming obstacles to achieving this and has set about destroying them, but how far he can go remains to be seen.

    The first major obstacle it seems is the PDP and the man has succeeded, or so it seems, in hijacking the party’s leadership with the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) and the Board of Trustees (BoT) firmly in his pocket and gunning for the soul of its National Executive Committee (NEC), the highest decision making body in the party. NEC comprises of all the national leaders of the party including the powerful state governors and their chairmen. And he seems to be facing difficulty here.

    While he has pocketed Bamanga Tukur’s NWC with the sacking via the court of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s men, and succeeded in installing his Yes man, Tony Aninih as BoT chairman, getting the PDP governors and their state chairmen on his side has been an uphill task, and this is where Rotimi Amaechi and the Nigeria Governors Forum come in.

    For lack of understanding of what the NGF is really is or absolute ignorance or both, President Goodluck Jonathan believes Governor Amaechi should be able to goad the NGF to do his (Jonathan’s) bidding, irrespective of the feelings of other governors, simply because Amaechi, as Governor of Rivers State is from the same south/south geopolitical zone as Jonathan, in essence, a paddy-paddy affair. Rubbish.

    Those who know Governor Amaechi very well would tell you the man is made of better stuff. He would not do a thing unless he is convinced it is in the best interest of the people, your closeness to him or otherwise notwithstanding. Moreover, leading a team of equals as the NGF is, Amaechi knows that he has to say and do what his brother governors want lest he loses their confidence and gets thrown out.

    Blaming Amaechi or trying to punish him for the president’s inability to get the governors behind his second term project is missing the point. Jonathan’s failure to rally the governors behind him is down to his lack lustre performance as President and Commander In Chief and has got nothing to do with Amaechi’s alleged refusal or reluctance to back him. And as just been revealed by the governor of Niger State, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, Jonathan refusal or failure to honour the agreement he made with PDP governors in the run up to the last presidential election to serve just one term, is also at the root of his problems with the governors. So, bringing Amaechi into the picture is akin to hiding behind one finger.

    The NGF as we have been made to believe and as shown by the utterances of its members is just a club of state governors and a forum for them to rub minds on issues of mutual interest. More often than not the Forum had been criticized for being too selfish, but that was exactly what it was supposed to do; selfish on the side of the states. And no state or state governor has come out to deny or back off what the Forum has been doing.

    Because more often than not the issues that cut across the states’ interests have been against or in sharp contrast to Federal Government’s position, the governors are seen as being antagonistic to not just the federal government but also President Goodluck Jonathan, and because Governor Amaechi as their leader often speaks for them and rightly so, he is erroneously perceived as an enemy of President Jonathan. This is wrong. Amaechi as those who know him well will say is a man of strong character who will never let his people down, hence he continues to enjoy their support and confidence. He may disagree with them and make his point or position known to them, but once a decision was taken and he was part of it, as the leader, he is bound by it and he goes out to vent and defend it. So, if speaking the minds of the governors is his offence, then all the governors are guilty.

    But is it not even stupid and unrealistic for the President and his men to think Governor Amaechi could swing the minds of all the 36 state governors from six different parties when the issues that bring them together are as diverse as Nigeria? I am sure the governors will be united and probably think one way as long as the issues at hand concern them equally, as we have seen with the issue of sovereign wealth fund, excess crude revenue and local government autonomy. When the Forum attempted to speak with one voice on the issue of state police we all saw what happened.

    But I am sure if the issue of a second term for Jonathan were to come up for discussion whether within the newly formed PDP Governors Forum or the more respected Nigeria Governors Forum today, the answer would be NO. So, Jonathan, Amaechi is not your problem neither is it the NGF. Look at the mirror and you’ll see your problem

    It is convenient for the federal government and the PDP to see the NGF as a trade union or pressure group that must be destroyed now simply because they can’t have their way with the governors. When the Forum intervened in the face off between Labour and Government to save the neck of the president and also sided with Federal government on fuel subsidy removal, it was a good body and Amaechi a good boy. But now that they can not pocket the group, NGF is a trade union and Amaechi an enemy. Ehn Mr. President? Time will tell whether what you are doing now is right or wrong but Nigerians surely know who their leaders are. They know who to trust and they will deliver their verdict at the right time. Chikena.

  • PDP urged to nominate Jonathan for second term

    THE, concerned Advocates for Good Governance (CAGG) has said that it is in the interest of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to support President Goodluck Jonathan for a second term.

    Its leader, Olusegun Bamgbose, a lawyer, said the PDP can only retain power in 2015, if it remains a united house.

    However, a polytechnic teacher, Okechukwu Okereke, said that PDP would lose power, if the President inisists on a second term ambition.

    Okereke, who teaches Public Administration at the Abia State Polytechnic, urged the ruling party to put its house in order.

    Bamgbose said the party will suffer from the heat of the succession battle, if Dr. Jonathan is not made the presidential candidate.

    He described President Jonathan as the best candidate who can retain presidential power for the party because he has the power of incumbency.

    Bamgboye added: “It is obvious that PDP is in crisis and this can be traced to the fact that some governors in the PDP have their eyes on the Presidency in 2015. This is a lawful ambition, but this should not be done in a manner capable of destroying the foundation of the party.

    “The earlier PDP understands that Jonathan holds the ace to the Presidency for them in 2015, the better. Anything short of that is failure. Jonathan remains the man to beat. The merger is not a threat to PDP. 22 rats cannot confront one cat”

    Okereke, who holds a contrary view, said that power should shift to the North, adding that five years are enough for President Jonathan to serve the country.

    He said the nation has given President Jonathan to serve, noting that, apart from completing his predecessor’s term, he was also elected as President in 2011.

    Okereke said: “Given the way we run politics in Nigeria, anything could happen. But under normal circumstances, I would believe that Jonathan would not want to run because, though I am an Ibo man, I do appreciate that the Northerners, if we are to say the truth, need to be given that chance and this is based the fact that Yar’ Adua governed for twoyears and died.

    “But if the President runs, I think it might bring great crisis to PDP and the possibility is that many big wigs in the PDP may move to the All Progressive Congress (APC). That will weaken the PDP. I do not see how Jonathan would win under that circumstance.”

  • Jonathan bares his fangs

    Jonathan bares his fangs

    After last week’s duel between President Goodluck Jonathan and the Nigeria Governors Forum, it seems unlikely that anyone would ever again dare to underrate the capacity of the President to take on his opponents or even doubt that he has come to his own. Not with the serial victories of the last fortnight starting with the one over his nemesis, Olusegun Obasanjo. Like a good learner, such has been the unaccustomed dexterity of the erstwhile godson that the structure inelegantly put together by his Baba has been taken down with barely audible whimpers. Like the Biblical quest, Jona’s lines are at the moment falling onto their right places!

    Now, the anointing of Anthony Anenih as the chair of PDP Board of Trustees was supposed to be the icing on the presidential cake. The president obviously got a double in the long-awaited onslaught against the Nigerian Governors Forum – and by extension, the spat with the irrepressible Rivers Governor Rotimi Amaechi – which came within micro-seconds of the former.

    Thanks to President Jonathan and his PDP Governors Forum, the nation has a lot to learn from the power arithmetic in which a part is deemed to be more than the sum of the whole. A PDP Governors Forum is after all, some steps to decapitation of the bigger body. The President may not have had the head of the chair of the NGF on a platter –John the Baptist-style, the journey to its internment is well on course. The trophy of the PDP governors’ forum is after, all as good any.

    If we add last week’s judicial victory clearing the coast for candidate Jonathan in 2015, the momentum of unchallenged and unchallengeable power would seem infinite. We expect more of such victories – either procured or earned – even as the premature countdown to the 2015 polls begins in earnest. And as Governor Godswill Akpabio, the President’s Man Friday cared to remind last week, part of the sideshow is to fix the Judases and the traitors in the party. By then, the move to carve the PDP in the image of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan would have been near perfect – completed.

    Not even for most part of the imperial Presidency of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, did we see him herd the club of governors to the Villa with the sole aim of choosing their leader for them. Of course we know why the Presidency would pay so much attention to a body it once charitably (?) described as an extra-constitutional body. One Presidential minion – Ahmed Gulak – actually described the body as a trade union. Earlier, Presidential godfather Edwin Clark had described it as an opposition movement perpetually in breaches of both the 1999 Constitution and the constitution of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

    The story goes all the way back to a minor incident in the Okrika waterfront in 2010. Nigerians would recall how a visiting Dame Patience Goodluck chided the elected governor of her home state over the latter’s use of “must” to convey his administration’s resolve to demolish and upgrade the blighted Okrika waterfront. The spectacle of the President’s spouse snatching the microphone from Amaechi and the equally dramatic putdown of the former with undisguised venom is one Nigerians are unlikely to forget: “I want you to get me clear. I am from here (Okrika). I know the problems of my people. So, I know what I am talking. I do not want us to go into crises….But what I am telling you is that you always say you must demolish. That word ‘must, you use is not good. It is by pleading. You appeal to the owners of the compound, because they will not go into exile. Land is a serious issue.”

    Of course, Amaechi’s sins have since grown in leaps and bounds. His leadership of the NGF has been uncompromising in its opposition to the Federal Government’s expropriation of funds belonging to the states and local government to establish the Sovereign Wealth Fund. There is also the lingering matter of the excess crude account which the federal government sought to disburse as it pleased but which his leadership of the NGF would insist on contesting in court. The dispute between Bayelsa and Rivers over the status of some oil wells and which the Rivers Governor had openly accused the President of meddling in favour of his home state of Bayelsa merely added salt on a gaping wound.

    Governance is however not the only area of disagreement. If the raging battle in Adamawa is a revelation of the extent to which the governors club is locked in combat with the President and the national chairman on just about every and any issue, the tension between the National Working Committee of the party and its executive council are as equally revealing of a party in turmoil.

    However, just as much has been written about the struggle for the soul of the PDP as the 2015 race hots up as the driver of the animosities, there is another factor often glossed over. Psychoanalysing the President is certainly far from my mind. However, one only needs to go back to the travails of former Governor Timipre Sylva for an inkling into the character flaws of the number one citizen. I refer here to his intolerance of those perceived as remotely challenging his authority, plus his inability to overlook a hurt or forgive an injury. To these add his penchant to elevate personal issues to state matters and his lack of restraint in the use of state instruments to push a personal agenda.

    Now, where do these lead? I make some guesses. Already, with two fixers in office, there shouldn’t be shortage of enemies to find and fix in the run down to 2015. It is futile to ask a man riding the crest of victory to slow down or dismount.

    Not unexpectedly, the developments have come with interesting side shows. Just like in Sylva’s case in which an alleged insubordination would become the subject of a thriller at the Villa, Amaechi story is already being promoted in Jonathan’s court as a block buster in gubernatorial insolence! How about something to excite the bored presidency?

    The point is – this presidency knows a bit or two about the use of power – in a perverse way. Gone are the days when presidents drew from the well-spring of moral authority to get things going. With President Jonathan, the seduction to raw power has become so irresistible as to constitute the barometer to measure the decline of the moral authority.

    Sure enough, everyone is guaranteed to learn the unknown equation in power relations: the rule of unanticipated or unexpected behaviour. It’s something for the gloaters to ponder over.

  • All Progressives Congress steals Jonathan’s thunder in Maiduguri

    All Progressives Congress steals Jonathan’s thunder in Maiduguri

    It may be too early to begin to speak in superlatives about the All Progressives Congress (APC), a party still in formation but comprising some four political parties determined to challenge the dominance of the PDP. Last Thursday, nine governors and one deputy governor belonging to the four parties in the APC met in Maiduguri, Borno State, the hotbed of Boko Haram fundamentalist violence, for talks on their proposed merger. The meeting, which was third in the series of meetings being held for the special purpose of unification, was successful. The APC probably shifted the venue to Maiduguri because President Goodluck Jonathan was yet to visit the unsettled state. It was a deft political move. In fact, it was a move that stole the thunders of both Jonathan and the PDP.

    The APC governors pressed home their advantage by moving round some parts of the city to soak in the adulation of the wearied but grateful Borno people. They also very significantly donated N200m to succor victims of Boko Haram violence. And with an eye on the main chance, they told the press at the end of their meeting that they came to Maiduguri to show solidarity with the people and to prove that leaders needed to show courage in the face of danger. The message was not lost on Jonathan’s government. Cut to the quick, presidential aides quickly announced that the president had planned to visit the state on March 7, and that the APC leaders merely preempted the president.

    Planning to visit is unfortunately not the same as actually visiting. By meeting in a city wracked by sectarian and socio-economic uprising, APC has indicated it is capable of thinking on its feet. In addition, the party, even before it is registered, is exhibiting the advantages of nurturing another party to shake the PDP out of its complacency. It will no longer be business as usual. Not only is the polity gradually transiting into a two-party system, it is also evident that the race to 2015 has really begun. Many elements favour the APC already, including dominance in critical regions. If the party can overcome its teething problem, get its zoning arrangement right without the constraints that shackle the PDP, and conducts rancor-free primaries to produce credible and popular candidates, it is hard to see them losing the next polls, or winning by a margin that is less than assertive.

    But far beyond whooping for a political party, Nigerians must begin to think less partisan by ensuring that real democracy is enthroned through the availability of credible choices. The way to begin is to defeat the rather incestuous PDP in the coming polls, give a new party with a different set of developmental and socio-political paradigms the opportunity to preside over the country, and let the people have the satisfaction of knowing that waiting in the wings every election year is another beautiful bride in a brilliant, lawful and luxuriant polygamy.