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Tag: Jonathan

  • 2015: Jonathan, Buhari, the Rich and the poor (7)

    Under intense pressure from many fronts last Saturday, Prof. Atahiru Jega’s Independent National Election Commission (INEC) postponed the Presidential election from February 14 to March 26. That is a whopping 40 days ample leg room for President Jonathan and the PDP which can make or unmake the success chances of many politicians. President Ebere Jonathan, rated far behind challenger Gen. Mohammadu Buhari (rtd), should heave a sigh of relief and clink champing glasses with his backers in the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP). In the All Progressives Congress (APC) there may have been a momentary grave yard silence. Gen. Mohammadu Buhari (rtd), tipped he win the polls, may have lapsed into a swoon. To start with, the PDP has enough money to foot another round of campaigns over 40 days which the APC cannot afford. For the first campaigns, PDP raised about N25 billion from only about four of its members. Gen. Buhari depended largely on the N100 personal donations through cell phone recharge cards. The winning joter of the President was the statement credited to the Army that, because it was fighting insurgents in 10 local governments areas in the north, it couldn’t provide adequate security cover for the polls. The police, too, followed in tow. It was a warming to INEC and the country that going ahead with the polls on Saturday could be calamitous, and Prof. Jega, defiant and independent as he may have wished to be, should know a bait had been set for him. And, simultaneously, the PDP began to assail his person as they did Gen. Buharis. The assaults were led by Chief Edwin Clark, a respected South-South region of Nigeria leader who sees nothing wrong with the Jonathan Administration and has become its number one spokesman and apologist. If Prof Jega stuck to his guns, the PDP would, very likely, boycott the elections, plunging Nigeria 51 years back to the 1964 general elections which was boycotted by UPGA, (United Progressive Grand Alliance), a political coalition of the Eastern and Western regions of Nigeria. That boycott discredited the election under which Alhaji Tafawa Balewa became Prime Minister of Nigeria, fermented killings and arson in the Western region and led to Nigeria’s first military coup and the Biafran civil war.

    Even with Prof. Jega refraining from taking a plunge from the cliff to wherever the leap would lead, the government saw the postponement of the polls as dangerous enough to cause trouble that it deployed troops around Lagos and some important cities ahead of the announcement. That was intriguing. For this was the same Army credited with saying it had no potential to provide cover for peaceful elections deploying troops to combat protests. The Army left at least three questions unanswered in a security report of its preparedness for its professional duties to Nigeria it was said to have given the government.

    •If the Army should, but cannot provide cover for a purely civil event, what would happen if the Cameroun or Cod’voire or Niger or Chad were to invade Nigeria in search of territory? Many people know the Nigerian Army would not tolerate that, that it is robust, that it is one of the worlds best Armies, that Boko haram get as e bi, as we say when, the more we look, the more we look at something, the less of it we see. If the Army statement is a political statement, as many people suspect, it would be an unfortunate event that could politicise the Army. We cannot blame President Jonathan for starting this in a civil society in which the army would appeared to be giving instruction to a civil government instead of taking orders from it, or supporting and defending the public will. President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose creation is the Jonathan Administration, deployed troops to win elections he couldn’t win. Now helpless, he must be sad watching whirlwinds and morsoon winds growing out of the winds he unleashed while in office.

    2)               Much as I am a novice in military matters, I believe it is reasonable to assume that soldiers are trained to kill and destroy, when necessary, and that, in civil matters in civilised society, it is to the police that the primary duty of maintaining law and order is assigned. Why do we think there would be such crisis on Election Day that requires the Army’s attention to quelle if we do not believe the elections would be rigged and the voters would protest it. Such indicators are prouded by the President himself in a statement during the last Osun State governorship election when he said the election was a do or die affair”.

    •If the Army cannot overrun Boko Haram in 40 days, what, again, happens to the elections. Will they be shifted again, If they are, with Prof Jega’s appointment be renewed? If the President brings someone else, will the election not be flawed before it has taken place? If the Army is not ready before the President’s tenure lapses, will Nigeria head for an Interim National Government? Is the ING idea the plan of the Establishment to save itself from a probing Buhari Administration? In other words, is it a way of defusing a political bomb inimical to Establishment interests? Will it fit into the theory of the Establishment employing such tactics to save itself politically and economically?

     

    f we fear the Army is being politicized, the church has long fallen prey to mammon. The churches now appear to be competing for the President’s attention and should get plenty of it in the coming 40 days. In which major Pentecostal church has the President not gone to campaign for re-election in a manner which may pitch Christians against Moslems and disturb our Nigeria’s fragile religious peace? Redeemed Christian Church of God? Winners Chapel? Chosen? Each visit has been followed by poisonous propaganda by the President’s men. After the Redeemed visit, it was that he couldn’t anoint two men for the same office. This was a veiled reference to his support for President Jonathan in 2011 and inability, therefore, to swing for Prof. Osinbajo, a Vice Presidential candidate of APC and a senior Pastor of Redeemed. In other words, say the propagandists, President Jonathan has the nod for 2015.

    A worse propaganda broke out after the Winners’ visit the General Overseer, Oyedepo, was said to have threatened to open the gates of hell for any member who voted against President Jonathan. Oyedepo was wise. He taped the proceedings. And according to people who claimed to have watched it, no such thing was said. To have said so would have been calamitous for this gentleman. For hell is not in paradise, and only a resident of hell can open the gates of hell for the inmates. I do not subscribe to the speculations that, like the tail of Halley’s Comet or other comets, made up of gas and dust, hard currency constitutes the tails of these Presidential visits. Over which the churches, excepts perhaps the Catholic Church, are falling over themselves. But I believe the visits, if successful, may set Christians up against Moslems in the South-West region which would appear to be vehemently opposed to a second term for the President. To counter this offensive, the APC would have to keep up the tempo of any damage to the economy by the Jonathan Administration. The APC would appear not to have roasted this meat well enough. Former Central Bank Governor Charles Soludo may not be its card – carrying member, but he has shown the way economic issues can be focused in a campaign focusing on the economy.

    In only two well – researched articles he has shown about #30 trillion from crude oil sales could be in privates pockets! In whose pockets is the money nestling, we are yet to know. APC Vice Presidential candidate Osinbajo is a professor of law. In the next 40 days, can he give us a professional dissertation on the damage to the rule of law which the President swore on the Bible to uphold but damaged? I remember the case of Mr. Justice Salami of the Federal Court of Appeal Vs the Supreme Court Justices. I remember, also the Judge in Ekiti State who was beaten up in the Court room and who had to flee through the window. A President who swore on the sacred Bible to uphold the Rule of Law would have fished out the Judges attackers and brought them to book. But what happened?

    Alfred Rewani

    n a time such as this, Nigerians who genuinely what their country to run well and beautifully cannot forget Pa Alfred Rewani, a state murder victim during the regime of Gen. Sanni Abacha. He characteristically, this prolific writer would have linked us to the past at this time, to enable us know where we are coming from, so we can take only sure steps into the future. When Prof Jega stood his ground against the President and the National Cainal of state did likewise, I wrote the following test, based on my memory of the past about which Pa Rewane would have connected us. The unfolding political event which led to this commentary has been overtaken. But I have decided to live it as intact as I wrote it. I cannot do it as well as he would have…

    CONGRATULATIONS, NIGERIA. By averting a postponement of Saturday’s Presidential election, Nigeria may have averted a dangerous political crisis. An election crisis brought the military to power in 1966, led to the 1967-70 Biafran civil war, led to the overthrow of Gen. Yakubu Gowon’s military government, Saw Gen. Ibrahim Babangida out of power, paved the way for gen. Sanni Abacha to take power and later destroyed him, brought Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd) back to power, and, under President Ebere Jonathan, may have led to a crisis of yet unknown dimensions. When it comes to protecting personal or party interests, politicians never appear to have a sense of history. Already, the country appears politically divided along the physical shape of the Biafran war years… the eastern region of Nigeria on one side, and the rest of Nigeria on the other. And all it would take to cause commotion could be a careless and unjustifiable political manoeuvre or statements.

    If political campaigns have no other value, that is if election results had been predetermined and polls are mere formalities, they are at least handwritings on the wall. We all interprete political campaign handwritings differently, depending on our education about political behaviour and our emotions. But when you notice panic in a political camp, that’s another handwriting on the wall super-inposed  on those of the political campaigns.  There is no doubt that President Jonathan had a bad product to sell to the electorate. That bad product was what his government has made of the economy of Nigeria in the last four years. On the eve of the campaigns, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the President’s party, sought to present the economic mess as Nigerian feature of a global economic crisis triggered by the collapse of crude oil price in the world market. But the government could not explain why Nigerian pump price fell by only 10 percent against 60 percent in even some non-oil producing countries, and why Value Added Tax (VAT) simultaneously leapt from five to 10 percent.

    To worsen matters on an Election Eve, Nigeria’s currency, the Naira, was devalued from about N165 to the United States Dollar to about N205 today. That means inflation. Many state governments and the Federal Government owed workers salaries for about five months. Meanwhile, the President and some of his ministers lived in opulence. The President had 12 jets in his Presidential fleet against only two jets left behind a few years ago by President Olusegun Obasanjo who left behind a tidy foreign reserve and even sovereign reserve. Both reserves were squandered, and President Jonathan was in the process of adding a 13th jet to the fleet before the campaigns. Even the Minister of Petroleum had an official private jet. It would appear this jet was not in the budget approved for the President by the National Assembly. And this bears testimony to claims by the opposition that the government spends more money out of the Budget than in the Budget. Public finance watchers believe the free petro dollar comes from oil sales not accounted for. In the recent public exchanges between Professor Charles Solido, Former Governor of the Central Bank, and incumbent Finance Minister Mrs. Okonjo Iweala, Professor Solido has used her own data of oil revenue outside the books, which are conservative figures, to show that this free cash circulating in the corridors of power has amounted to N30 trillion!

    I believe the mistake of President Jonathan is his assumption that the presidency is a tea party. He probably didn’t realise early enough that the President is the driver of the craft, the chief servant of the public. He took a back seat, far away from the rigour of work, and handed the work to other people. These other people were no fools. They stormed the treasury, and helped themselves to free cash. The government became loose and he did not have firm control over anything. And, so, when the report card hard to be written four years after in an election, there was nothing substantial to write home about the economy. Corruption had so eaten deep into the government and society that even Gen. Ibrahim Babangida whose regime was before now widely acclaim to aggravate corruption in Nigeria, would now publicly say that, compared with President Jonathan’s, he was a saint! And, to worsen matters, President Jonathan went about making light jokes about corruption. One of his famous comments on corruption was that “stealing is not corruption”. At campaign rallies, he said he couldn’t send corrupt people to jail because the prisons would not take them all. At another forum, he said he couldn’t jail his friends simply because they were corrupt.

    And, so, quite naturally, the entry of Gen. Mohamadu Buhari (rtd) as a major challenger for the presidency would cause a stir, if not a scare in the PDP. He immediately lay his person bare: he has only two houses in the whole wide world, and less than one million in his bank account. This was a challenge to President Jonathan to publicly declare his assets. The President would not. Even in 2007 when he was Vice-president to President Yar A’dua, who publicly declared his asset of about N960 million, Vice-president Jonathan made no such declaration.  In contrast, Gen. Buhari says his ministers would publicly declare assets and he would empower the now moribund Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to do its job independent of the government.

    The PDP tried to move the campaign away from corruption and the economy. Thus, the person of Buhari became its punch bag. He was hit left and right and all over about his age, health, education, family life and his life span. But it always turned out information about Buhari’s person was false and the lies against his person won him pity and support. There ploys having failed to subsume the challenger, two king jokers were wheeled out of the armoury. One was to trick him into a public debate with President Jonathan who himself avoided a public debate in 2011. Gen. Buhari is not a man of many words. And he may easily get angry. Besides, he could easily make the mistake of a Chief Obafemi Awolowo or a Chief Moshood Abiola. In Aba, heart of igboland, Chief Awolowo said he would ban the importation of stockfish and second hand clothes. Stockfish was, and still is, a culinary delicacy in Eastern Nigeria. Chief Awolowo said life had been drained away from it with the extraction of Cod Liver oil and that it was the sun-dried chaff Norway was selling to Nigeria. For second-hand clothes why should any-one dehumanise himself or herself by wearing clothes, shoes, brassairs and undies someone else had won life out off and discarded? Why should we make ourselves “second-hand” human beings? Unfortunately, these are what a majority of Nigerians have become, unable to break free of the spiritual yoke, which makes them substandard to other human beings, given the huge business in second-hand “everything imaginable” in Nigeria today.

  • Like Babangida, like Jonathan

    Babangida is my father”, President Jonathan recently told reporters after a courtesy call on the ex-military dictator. He, by that declaration, traded off his estranged godfather, ex-President Obasanjo who he now says “is nothing but a motor park tout” for an evil genius and an acclaimed Maradona of Nigerian politics. The truth of the matter is that Babangida and Jonathan have so many parallels that will shock Nigerians. Babangida attained power through act of subterfuge on a night of many knives.  Jonathan adopted the same strategy betraying the spirit and the letter of PDP constitution and its rotational policy.  Sambo Dasuki, one of Babangida, Abacha and Gusau’s foot-soldiers during their coup against Buhari, became Babangida’s ADC (aide-de-camp). By strange coincidence, Dasuki, is today the National Security Adviser to President Jonathan who is contesting against General Muhammadu Buhari in an election now derailed by what many Nigerians regarded as Dasuki’s spurious security report.

    And still on similarities between father and son; Babangida embarked on a ‘transition without end’ immediately after a successful coup and went on to dribble Nigerians for eight years.  Jonathan’s first concern on attaining power in 2011 was to float the idea of a six-year presidency. Now after six years of failed presidency, he wants another four years.  And Just as Babangida had Arthur Nzeribe’s Association for Better Nigeria (ABN), Jonathan’s Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) that would rather have him adopted than face election. And just as Babangida relied on “Nigerian Army of anything is possible’’ now ably represented in PDP to torment Nigeria for eight years, Jonathan is today using a politicized military to increase our nightmare.

    Similarly, Babangida institutionalized corruption, but Jonathan, surrounded by indicted party officials and ex-governors who stole in billions and trillions has improved on his ‘father’s legacy.  While Babangida destroyed the economy resulting in the devaluation of naira, he was awarded the Fellowship of Nigeria Economic Society, (the authoritative body of Nigerian scholars on Nigerian economy and social problems) as ‘a visionary in the management of our economy’. Now Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Finance Minister and former World Bank celebrated officer, has praised the president for his bold economic strides especially with the rebasing that has now established our economy as the biggest in Africa. This is in spite of millions of Nigerian unemployed university graduates roaming the streets and the exchange rate which was $1-85 in 1999 but now $1-N210.

    While the above parallels may be lost on Nigerians and the innocent 18 year-olds President Jonathan has tried to cultivate, the assault on Nigerians last Saturday by President Jonathan should be a source of concern. From the diary of events, it is apparent that postponement of the election was a panic measure by a government facing an imminent defeat hoping to buy time for more sinister strategies and desperate measures just as Babangida did back in 1993.

    For instance, until last week when the president’s game of subterfuge finally unfolded, he had pretended his relationship with INEC was anchored on ‘delegation by abdication’. He and his party pretended all was well with INEC.  In fact, it was the opposition that was in the forefront of ensuring voters gets their PVCs. It was the opposition that passed a resolution at the Lower House to the effect that the electorate be allowed to use their temporary voters card if INEC failed, and it was the opposition that declared public holidays in the states they controlled to enable voters collect their PVCs .The President remained unruffled. In fact, he in early January still assured Nigerians of his commitment to the election and mandated INEC to ensure all eligible voters receive their PVCs before the election. INEC was working round the clock to achieve that objective when the President’s National Security Adviser  went to Chatham House London, to give what he described as a personal advice – that INEC  postpones the election to enable  all eligible voters collect their PVCs.

    The international community that has been treating President Jonathan and his PDP like a bull in a China shop immediately saw through government ploy. They knew it was the hand of Jacob but the voice of Esau. They advised Jonathan against shifting the election date and President Obama went further by sending John Kerry, his secretary of state to prevail on President Jonathan not to tamper with the electoral process.  President Jonathan like Babangida back in 1993 assured President Obama of his commitment to February 14.  But curiously, on February 4, the NSA wrote a letter, not to the President but to INEC chairman telling him the obvious – 14 of the country’s 774 LGAs are unsafe for the conduct of the election. But long before the NSA’s game of deceit, Nigerians as well as stakeholders from the besieged North-east knew that as a fact. On February 5, the president, still hiding behind one finger, invited his security chiefs to brief the Council of State about the security situation in the North-east. The body rightly washed its hand clean asking INEC to go on with its job after due consultation with stakeholders.

    Doyin Okupe was at this stage forced to spill the beans. According to him, the security chiefs “cannot guarantee the security of electoral materials, INEC staff and the voting population in areas currently engulfed by the war against insurgency.”  Besides “with the arrival of new effective combatant equipment and machinery, the situation in the affected states will be brought under such reasonable control that will guarantee safety of the electoral process  …at a no distant future”, he concluded avoiding mentioning six weeks. Mike Omeri, the Director-General of National Orientation Agency followed with a press conference. He was in possession of a security report that pointed to the possibility of some women infiltrating queues on the voting day to detonate bombs hidden in their Niqabs. Then came Edwin Clark, Alex Ekwueme, Walter Ofonagoro, Femi Okunrounmu, Chukwuemeka Ezeife and others, all rabid supporters of Jonathan’s re-election under the aegis of Southern Nigerian Peoples Assembly, SNPA calling for “the postponement of the February 14 presidential election, the sack and arrest of the Chairman of INEC, Attahiru Jega to allow for the re-constitution, repositioning and reprocessing of INEC to discharge its responsibility of conducting an impartial election.”

    Their grouse: Jega allegedly directed the release of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to Emirs, District Heads and top politicians in the north.

    Even if this were true, how can one entrust such roles to people like Chief Edwin Clark under whose watchful eyes, successive governors of the Delta states diverted about 70% of their states allocations for personal use or Dr Alex Ekwueme who saw nothing and heard nothing when some past Anambra State governors expended their state allocations in servicing godfathers or when Ngige was kidnapped in broad day light by aggrieved godfather?

    Desperate times are here again; Panic has set in. It is like Babangida’s era all over again with oil bunkerers and militants responsible for the loss of 500,000 barrels of crude oil a day, fuel subsidy thieves responsible for the theft of N1.6 trillion, banking sector fraudsters responsible for the collapse of the sector, and the stock exchange market back in 2009 and shameless elders assaulting our sensibilities on television. And putting pepper in our eyes, President Jonathan says he is acting in good faith.

  • I’m not planning to sack Jega – Jonathan

    I’m not planning to sack Jega – Jonathan

    President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday dismissed reports that he is planning to sack the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega.

    Speaking at a presidential media chat on Wednesday, the President said he has not told anybody that he wants to remove the INEC boss.

    “I appointed Jega and other national commissioners and I’m not planning to sack them,” he stated.

    He also said 2015 general election will go ahead as planned irrespective of what happened in the ongoing counter-insurgency operation against the Boko Haram sect.

    He restated his determination to conduct elections that will be acceptable to Nigerians and the international community.

    On the elections, President Jonathan said the primary objective of the operation against the Boko Haram sect is to improve the security architecture in the northeast and not to completely wipe out the insurgents.

    “In 2011, we had the Boko Haram and elections still took place. What we are saying is that, these times around there are several things we must do. We must make advances in our operations against the sect. We don’t need to wipe out Boko Haram before we conduct elections,” he stated.

    On Chibok girls, the President assured that the girls would be rescued alive.

    “We are hopeful more than before because of the cooperation in terms of security between Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon. Within a shortest possible time, the girls would be rescued alive and returned to their families.

    “I don’t want to give a timeline, but I assure you the girls will be rescued alive,” he stated.

     

  • APC to Jonathan: Elections’ shift, one of your jokers

    The postponement of the February 14 presidential election to March 28 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has been described as one of President Goodluck Jonathan’s jokers to suppress the influence of the All Progressive Congress (APC).

    But the move by the Presidency will not deter the opposition party from gaining victory in the March and April elections.

    Speaking with The Nation on Tuesday in Awka, Anambra State, the Secretary of the party in the state, Chukwuma Agufugo, said what the government of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) did was a kind of calling the referee to change the goal post at the middle of a football match.

    He said that PDP government hoodwinked INEC into taking such decision in order to make Nigerians to lose hope in the electoral process.

    He said,“This is the time for change the masses of Nigerians have been yearning for, this is the time people have been waiting for God’s intervention in Nigeria and nobody can change that, postponement or not.

    “What Jonathan and INEC have done is shifting the date of a funeral, but they cannot raise the dead, everybody is yearning for change and that is what APC is bringing to them.”

     

  • Jonathan, service chiefs under fire over polls shift

    Jonathan, service chiefs under fire over polls shift

    U.S., U.N., ASUU, TUC disappointed

    Falana alleges treason

    President Goodluck Jonathan and the Service Chiefs came under attack yesterday for weekend’s postponement of the general elections.

    The President, who is also the Commander-in-Chief, by the action of the military chiefs who said they could not guarantee security for the exercise, has committed an impeachable offence, All Progressives Congress (APC) vice presidential candidate Prof. Yemi Osinbajo said.

    The military chiefs should resign, rights activist-lawyer Femi Falana said.

    Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Attahiru Jega said the agency was persuaded by the memorandum from security chiefs that they could not guarantee protection for the process. INEC  moved the elections from February 14 and 28 to March 28 and April 11.

    Jega said the commission was ready for the elections, but could not ignore the written security advice, which many believe was made up by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led Federal Government to halt the momentum of support for the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

    Expectedly, the PDP has hailed the polls shift as necessary in the nation’s interest, but the APC described the decision as “a major setback for democracy and highly provocative.” It nevertheless urged Nigerians to remain calm.

    The United States expressed disappointment with the postponement, especially since Secretary of State John Kerry visited President Goodluck Jonathan and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari last month to extract a promise of a violence-free poll to be conducted as scheduled.

    Kerry said the U.S. is deeply disappointed” by the decision to postpone Nigeria’s presidential election.

    “Political interference with the Independent National Electoral Commission is unacceptable, and it is critical that the government not use security concerns as a pretext for impeding the democratic process.

    “The international community will be watching closely as the Nigerian government prepares for elections on the newly scheduled dates. The United States underscores the importance of ensuring that there are no further delays,” Kerry said.

    United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged electoral authorities “to take all necessary measures… to exercise their right to vote in a timely manner.”

    He added: “This is imperative for ensuring a credible, free and transparent election.

    In the statement issued yesterday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and made available by the National Information Officer, United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Nigeria, Oluseyi Soremekun,  Ki-moon said he had separate telephone conversations with President Jonathan and Gen. Buhari last week during which he reminded them of the need to abide by the Abuja peace accord on non-promotion of violence during the elections.

    “The Secretary-General notes the decision of the Nigerian Independent Electoral Commission to postpone the general elections, initially scheduled for 14 February 2015.

    “He urges the electoral authorities to take all necessary measures, such as the rapid distribution of the remaining Permanent Voter Cards, to enable all eligible citizens, including those displaced, to exercise their right to vote in a timely manner.  “This is imperative for ensuring a credible, free and transparent election.

    “He looks to Nigeria’s authorities to uphold their commitment to ensure a violence-free election and put in place adequate security measures so that citizens across the country are able to exercise their civic duty safely and without fear.

    “The Secretary-General hopes that the forthcoming elections will meet the high expectations of the Nigerian people and the international community.

    “The successful conduct of these polls would strengthen Nigeria’s democracy and enable the country to continue to play a leading role in the promotion of regional peace and security,” he said.

    Lagos lawyer Femi Falana said the security chiefs who said they could not guarrantee security for the poll could be tried for treason.

    In an open letter yesterday, Falana said: “Since the President could not persuade the National Assembly to pass a resolution for tenure elongation on spurious grounds, the service chiefs allowed themselves to be manipulated to subvert the democratic process. “Thus, by causing the election to be postponed, the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the security chiefs have staged a coup against the Constitution.

    “They are liable to be prosecuted for the grave offence of treason at the appropriate time.”

    He added: “If the satanic Boko Haram sect is not defeated by the armed forces of the republics of Chad, Cameroon and Niger in the next six weeks, the security chiefs are likely to ask for another postponement of the general elections on the grounds that the operations in the Northeast have not been successfully concluded.

    “As such extension cannot be accommodated under the Electoral Act and the Constitution the democratic process may be terminated by the security chiefs to pave the way for the much-touted Interim national government.”

    Sokoto State Governor Aliyu Wamakko called for the resignation of the service chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police for orchestrating the shift in the elections.

    The governor said: “All the service chiefs and the IGP should resign now for dereliction of their duties as they have failed the nation and Nigerians.

    “The shift in dates was orchestrated by the PDP but the action is just akin to the fruitless efforts of a sinking ship or a dying person.

    “They should therefore honourably resign as they could not guarantee safety of Nigerians on election days as their statutory and civic duties.

    “How can the Boko Haram and a myriad of security challenges, which have been bedeviling Nigeria for some years be solved in paltry 36 days.

    “All of us should be patriotic and pious enough to put Nigeria first above our egocentric and diabolical interests,” Wamakko, urged.

    He said the APC and its members were law-abiding; “hence, abhor any acts capable of causing a breach of the peace and unity.”

    Gen. Buhari’s running mate  Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, said President Jonathan should resign or be impeached for his failure to secure the country.

    In a tweet on his handle @Prof Osinbajo, he said “If the president says ‘I’ve lost the capacity to guarantee the security of lives and property’, it’s certainly an impeachable offence.

    “If a government needs to put adverts in the (news) papers, to advertise what they’ve done after six years, then there’s a big problem.

    “My personal reaction (to the polls shift) was one of disgust. I was disgusted that government chose to be so devious.

    “All former Heads of States agreed: if the insurgency is happening in 14 LGAs, surely the elections can go on?

    “It’s ironic that in many countries where insurgencies happen,  elections go on, Nigerian troops keep the peace there.

    “PVCs collection in Adamawa and Yobe, where there is insurgency, is over 70%.

    ”We’re becoming accustomed to the impunity of this government. And I think it’s so sad that they would go against the wishes of the people. “

    Also speaking on a radio programme monitored in Lagos yesterday, Osinbajo said: “I think it’s so sad that they would go against the wishes of the people.

    “There has never been 100 per cent Permanent Voter Card collection. Ekiti and Osun states; less than 60 per cent, all of a sudden, the government is concerned.”

    Former Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi accused the Presidency of “polluting the military” to facilitate the polls shift against the wishes of Nigerians.

    “It was apparent that the military and presidency boxed INEC to a tight corner by merchants of retrogression to get the postponement to achieve their devilish motives.

    “I believe what we are expected to do as democrats must be those things that would strengthen democracy. For military to be saying that it would overcome insurgency it had failed to curtail in five years. Is that not standing logic on its head? You could see that Nigerians are very unhappy.

    “To me, this is more of a civilian coup against democracy because for military to have said that it cannot provide security for INEC top prosecute the election implies that it is hands in gloves with the presidency. This is a travesty and a danger to our democracy.

    “Military is a product of Nigeria and not the father of Nigeria and it must do everything to protect this democracy.”

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) also flayed the polls shift.

    ASUU President Dr Nasir Fagge told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the security issue which the shifting of the polls was predicated on, was not sufficient.

    He expressed doubt if the six weeks extension would be enough to tackle the security issue.

    “However, if the election umpire has been convinced enough to have the elections postponed, especially as it concerns security, then let us give them the benefit of doubt.

    “All I can say at this point is to call on Nigerians to organise themselves very well and keep their eyes open.

    “I also want to seize this opportunity to appeal to them to use this period to ensure that they collect their voter cards and ensure that they do not only vote but also ensure that their votes count,” Dr. Fagge said.

    TUC President Bobboi Bala Kaigama described the

    postponement as “a great setback capable of truncating the country’s frail peace.

    The Congress urged Nigerians to remain calm and desist from violence.

    “We therefore charge the security agencies to put their acts together to return the country to the path of peace devoid of security challenges that may serve as another set of excuses for further postponement. The national institutions must not be trivialised on the altar of politics.

    ”We wish to reiterate that the swearing in date (May 29) is sacrosanct to avoid plunging the country into constitutional crisis,” TUC said.

     

  • May 29 stands, says Jonathan

    May 29 stands, says Jonathan

    Despite the postponement of the 2015 general elections from February to March and April, President Goodluck Jonathan as insisted that May 29th handover date is Sacrosanct.

    Jonathan, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, appealed to all stakeholders to accept the adjustment of the election dates by INEC in good faith.

    Urging politicians not to make statements that may overheat the polity, he said it is time to show understanding and support INEC.

    The statement reads: “Following the adjustment of the dates for the 2015 general elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from February 14 and 28 to March 28 and April 11, yesterday, President Goodluck Jonathan has reassured the nation of his commitment to the sanctity of May 29, 2015 as the terminal date of his first term in office.

    “He strongly reaffirms that May 29 is, has been, and will remain sacrosanct.

    “The President appeals to all stakeholders to accept the adjustment of the election dates by INEC in good faith, as the electoral body has a responsibility to conduct credible elections in which every Nigerian of voting age is afforded the opportunity to exercise their civic right without any form of hindrance.”

  • Jonathan’s coup against Nigeria

    Jonathan’s coup against Nigeria

    While this entire shenanigan was going on, the usually very articulate civil societies in Nigeria saw through it all and knew that the Commander-in-Chief had something up his sleeves.

    They started asking questions: ‘What on earth could have led to the Presidency and the president’s jolly fellows to begin to chicken out in the face of an imminent election? Why should they be falling down one by one when Death was yet to knock on their doors?

    Finally, the Commander-in-Chief struck! The elections would have to be postponed because the Commander-in-Chief had now just gathered his strength to lead an onslaught on Boko Haram now that Chad, Cameroon and Niger had shown what leadership was all about.

    The Commander-in-Chief announcing the coup through his service chiefs says that his forces will be commencing offensive against insurgents the very day the whole of Nigeria and the international community had concluded to hold a most popularised election.By this coup, Jonathan has exposed the underbelly of the Nigerian nation to a most unpardonable ridicule. Never in the over 100-year history of the country have elections been postponed. And it is an irony that Nigeria that used to be the toast of the world in international peace keeping operations and had in fact rescued Liberia, Congo and Sierra-Leone from destruction is now the same country being rescued by land-locked Chad. A greater irony is that the same Security Agents that could not muster forces to quell insurgency in the North East is now battle ready to squash Nigeria’s hopes and aspirations. They cannot fight the insurgents but they can terrorise law abiding Nigerian citizens and prevent them from their basic civic duty of electing their leaders.

    This coup master-minded by the Commander-in-Chief is billed to throw Nigeria back for twenty years. And it may just be the beginning scenario for more coups to unfold from the arm pit of the Commander-in-Chief. The Commander-in-Chief has already deployed his armoured tanks to strategic places in the country. This ferocious step is a confirmation of the fears and suspicions which the Nigerian populace had nursed all along; that the Jonathan government being seriously afraid of its own shadows will truncate the planned elections to ensure the unpopular government remains in power for as long as the Commander-in-Chief is in control of all forces of intimidation, coercion and terror and also to ensure for its beneficiaries an undisturbed flow of illicit money to their bank accounts.

    The coup of February 9 2015 will forever be a date to remember!

    All hail Jonathan, our very smart Commander-in-chief!

  • Jonathan: Fretting to Golgotha of voters

    He cuts the worst image of temperamental mien of choleric Abubakar Shekau, the wily terrorist who frets at his imaginary enemies with brutality fueled by uncontrollable sectarian anger. His eyes blazing like a scarlet coal reminds of the visage of the Benin knight of the underworld, Lawrence Anini, as he drooped  in submission to the stake to embrace the fate that awaited him that hot afternoon in the Benin red square. The reality of  the moment choked the presidential air out of a man desperate to win the last battle of his life to lead Nigerians again.

    That is President Goodluck Jonathan at the opening of his presidential campaign rally in Lagos where he lost his presidential graces to both anger and fear of survival. But while Anini took advantage of his offences against humanity to plead guilty before God and man and was in a hurry to join his fellow Barabbas in hell that afternooný, Jonathan in Lagos was evidently scared of warming his way to the Golgotha of Nigerian voters as he raved and raked, beating his chest and tearing the air to convince that he is best placed to begin and finish the process of Nigeria’s renewal in four years, which he failed to do in six years.

    There are glaring facts that emerged from the Lagos rally, which also laid a foundation for other issues he canvassed in other places as he promised in his campaigns to give Nigerians hope again.

    Shortly after that Lagos effusion of anger, President Jonathan stormed Enugu where he confounded the observers of Nigerian politics as a president with scant knowledge of the history of the military he commands, dishing out incorrect information and outright lies on the military strength of his country under General Muhammadu Buhari that is well-known to the leaders of Congo and Chad republics.

    He ýaccused Buhari of not buying a single arm for the military to strengthen the armed forces when he was head of state. Pronto, students of Nigerian history, who do not hold PhD like Jonathan, flashed the Nigerian military books before the President with facts and figures of the military purchases by Buhari that placed the Nigerian armed forces as the best equipped in the sub-saharan Africa.

    Just like he did not know for six weeks as the nation’s chief security officer that the Chibok girls were seized by Boko Haram, the President did not also know for six years as commander-in-chief of the armed forces  the history of his nation’s strength in her armament programme.

    ýFrom all indications, it is that lack of knowledge of the capability of his armed forces and the need to strengthen it that is responsible for the shame Nigeria is facing in Sambissa forest today where Shekau is kicking the arse of the Nigerian military and drinking from the well of cowardice of the Nigerian soldiers, who think first of their lives before the life of the nation they swore to protect and preserve at all costs, courtesy of alleged ill-equipped military.

    The soldiers anger, never a misplaced one, derived from ýtheir knowledge of what it is to be an officer and what it is to be a soldier in the war front. Ill-equipped with poor motivation in the face of yearly budgetary allocations that took great chunks of the nation’s resources, Nigerian soldiers are exposed to the dangers posed by the ferocity of the poorly trained but highly prepared Boko Haram fighters that have become the worst nightmare that Jonathan is facing today but which the President would blame on Buhari for not purchasing a single military equipment when he was Head of State.

    But the truth that the President will not tell Nigerians is that Buhari as Head of State confronted the deadly Maitatsine sect in just few days and ran them out of steam.ý Once defeated, they never dared or tried Nigeria’s patience again.

    But under Jonathan, Boko Haram, armed with guns, machetes, bows and arrows inside their ramshackled Hilux vans and motorcycles chased Nigerian soldiers in their tanks to Cameroun to seek protection from a better equipped army of that country.

    In the Lagos rally, the Commander-In-Chief demonstrated that he was not in charge of a fighting army. He was also oblivious of the fact that history had already recorded Buhari as a Commander-In-Chief that went to wars to win battles.

    Jonathan upped the ante in Enugu rally where he shockingly read Generals Ibrahim Babangida/Sani Abacha coup speech to despise Buhari who the duo in that speech castigated as not doing enough to place Nigeria in her pride of place in the comity of developed nations while he was Head of State. But President Jonathan  again did not tell Nigerians that the two military Heads of State later regretted their actions in Buhari’s ouster.

    It is on record that Abacha later praised Buhari for his integrity and hardwork while inaugurating the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), which Buhari headed. Abacha had said: ”I have realized our collective mistake in over-throwing you. I have seen the terrible damage which our inaction caused to the Nigerian psyche. I am most sorry. Please, come and do what is best known about you. Patriotic service to the nation.ý”

    Then Babangida capped it all when Buhari threatened to quit PTF and Nigerians were begging the retired Head of State to stay: “If Buhari quits PTF job as he promises and as we knew him to mean his words, all along, I support the idea of scrapping PTF as no one else can do the job as him”.

    ýThese statements by the duo should have advised the President to stay on the side of caution and history never to use the coup speech against Buhari. But is the President on top of the history of his country and the military he commands?

    Then Jonathan’s clincher in Enugu:  ”Our generation has failed. It is now left for the younger generation of Nigerians to take over.”

    Pray, what is the business of a man who is tired out at the beginning of a trip he has never taken a step in this arduous task to salvage Nigeria from the myriads of her socio-economic predicaments? Of course this is a clear capitulation of a man who is conscious of ýhis modest endowments to take Nigeria to the heights of our collective dream.

    Throughout his campaigns, Nigerians have not heard anything different from old promises. It has been direct attacks on the presidential candidate of APC or talks about some national leaders who count for nothing but motor park touts. In some cases, we have heard about some leaders who do not possess certificates. There are also instances of promises of millions of jobs without explaining how such jobs would be created.

    There is nothing from the President on how to end Boko Haram menace. The oil thieves in the Niger Delta have nothing to worry about because there is nothing to fear as there is no plan to check their activities. The thieves in government would continue to be protected to cause pains in the lives of ordinary Nigerians because it is “callous and rigid” on the part of any President to check their activities by sending them to jail.

    What all these point to is a President seeking another term without telling us what in concrete terms he wants to do to make Nigeria great. He has not also told us why he is justified to earn our trust again in leading an economy that his administration has failed to grow. The president does not believe that Nigerians have the right to protest against playing ludo with their lives.

    He has not also convinced us that the reign of impunity that has killed government’s institutions and made judges to hide under the table to escape the anger of his (Jonathan) men would stop. For now, it is all about venting anger against Nigerians who have made up their minds for a change and  chart a fresh course to a purposeful governance after years of a clueless administration that is bereft of ideas of how to build a verile nation.  The welfare and development of Nigerians cannot be placed in the hands of a government that  lacks capacity to evaluate the past and develop a blueprint for the future development of Nigerians.ý What six years of patience and sacrifices among Nigerians cannot do, definitely anger and rhetoric cannot achieve it.

    That is the meat Nigerians must chew if we truly love our country on the Love Day of February 14, the day a Roman Priest, St Valentine, chose to sow the seed of love in the hearts of ancient Romans who desired a change, productivity and freedom.

    • Olujobi, Special Adviser to Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly, writes from Ado-Ekiti

  • Eligibility: Court orders service of documents on Jonathan

    Eligibility: Court orders service of documents on Jonathan

    A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered that President Goodluck Jonathan be served with court documents in relation to a fresh suit challenging his eligibility to stand for re-election.

    Justice Ahmed Mohammed granted an ex-parte order directing the service of the court documents on the President either through the office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF) or the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).

    The judge made order for substituted service on the court documents on Jonathan in view of the complaint by the plaintiff, Nkemjika Nkemjika that it was impossible to effect personal service on the President, who resides in the well-fortified Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.

    Nkemjika, in the suit is urging the court to determine whether, having regard to the provisions of sections 135(1)(b) and 135(2)(b) of the Constitution, President Jonathan was qualified  to contest this year’s presidential election.

    Named as defendants with Jonathan, include the AGF, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the National Assembly.

    It is the plaintiff’s main contention that President Jonathan’s second term in office will end on May 29 this year, because Section 135(2)(b) of the Constitution that determines the tenure of office of the country’s President, did not make any provision for a Vice-President to complete the unexpired tenure of office or unexpired term of office  of a deceased President.

    He contended that President Jonathan would have been eligible to contest this year’s presidential election if he had won an election overseen by the Senate President in 2010 in accordance with the provision of Section 146(2) of the Constitution.

    Justice Mohammed has adjourned hearing in the case to February 26.

  • Jonathan does not deserve second term, says group

    Jonathan does not deserve second term, says group

    A socio-political organization, the Southern Nigeria Peoples Mandate (SNPM) has said President Goodluck Jonathan has failed Nigerians and does not deserve another term in office.

    The group, made up of Concerned South-South Movement (CSSM), South West Business League (SWBL), South East  Peoples Agenda  (SEPA) and Ndigbo Unity Forum (NUF), in a communique signed by their president, Augustine Chibudum, made available to The Nation in Calabar, said, “We gathered to review the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan and recent happenings in the country, especially as it affects the people of southern Nigeria, and a unanimous votes of no confidence, necessitated by his failure to fulfill numerous promises made by him to the region, was passed on the president.”

    The communique read, “It will be recalled that President Jonathan promised to build two new refineries in Lagos and Baylesa states in 2010. He also gave us assurances that the old refinery in Port Harcourt and Warri will be rehabilitated so that our people will no longer imported refined fuel.

    “Two years later, instead of bringing our suffering to an end, President Jonathan, on January 1 2012, increased the price of petrol from N65 to N125 despite all the cries by Nigerians. Today, the cost of petrol is N100 per liter instead of N87 and kerosene N120 instead of N50 per liter,.

    “Nigeria is the only country in the world that sells kerosene higher than petrol. Today, the two old refineries President Jonathan promised that will resume full production by December 2012 are in decay, while the new ones he promised to build are non-existent.

    “The administration is also reluctant in the upgrading of Enugu and Sam Mbakwe Cargo Airport to international standards, thereby creating hardship for businessmen from the south east.

    “Despite the media hype of the Onitsha seaport, we have nothing. Also, the railway sector is nothing to write home about because they have not constructed the Lagos-Ontitsha-Aba- Port Harcourt rail line. This has made transportation of human and goods very expensive.

    “The same thing is also applicable to our industrial sector, despite having the biggest markets in the country, which include the Onitsha Main Market, Ariaria Market, Aba, and the Mile 3 Market Port-Harcourt among others.