The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has asked the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to stop panicking over election rigging in the 2019 general elections as President Muhammadu Buhari is bigger than election rigging.
He noted that the PDP has since started crying wolf about election rigging and has even written a letter of complaint to the United Nations (UN), when elections are yet to be held.
Oshiomole, who spoke yesterday, Sunday at a grand rally at Sani Abacha Stadium in Kano to welcome defectors from the PDP and the KwankwasiyyaMovement to the APC, said: “today our opponents in the PDP are crying even before the elections proper. They wrote a letter of complaint to the United Nations. I wonder who will carry the letter for them, forgetting that it was them who introduced a do or die affair politics during Obasanjo’s tenure.
“Buhari is highly respected across the globe, so he is bigger than rigging the elections.”
The APC chairman stressed that Nigerians would never again elect people that would loot the nations’ treasury the way PDP did for 16 years. ”Today, those who through a single telephone would make billions of Naira have regrouped when they ran to Port Harcourt. They have forgotten that what they destroyed in the last 16 years could not be fixed in just three and a half years.
“Never again will this country be governed by opportunists, who have in the last 16 years wasted the nation’s treasury.”
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on the National Assembly to commence investigation the circumstances surrounding the killing of over 100 Nigerian soldiers by Boko Haram insurgents.
The main opposition party said that the investigation into the killing of soldiers in Metele, Borno State, had become imperative given reports of compromises and alleged failure of the authorities to promptly act on a reported threat by insurgents to attack the base and other military locations in the area, a few days before the attack.
A statement today, Monday by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the probe has become expedient going by a disturbing video circulating in the public domain, showing soldiers, weeks before the attack, giving accounts of their neglect by the authorities, resulting in their vulnerability to insurgents.
“This is particularly worrisome given apprehensions that President Muhammadu Buhari has been distracting the military by dragging our Service Chiefs to participate in his re-election campaign activities, instead of concentrating on their statutory duties.
“Moreover, the apparent insensitivity of the Buhari Presidency to the killing as well as alleged moves by the authorities to sweep the matter under the carpet has created despondency among the citizens.
“The PDP therefore urges the National Assembly to unravel the compromises leading to the killing of our soldiers and those behind them”
The PDP recalled that the police had initially claimed that the witness was killed in the course of arrest, but later claimed that he died in the course of investigation, only to again declare that he was discovered dead just as he was about to be taken to court.
“The PDP notes that the conflicting reports by the police only point towards an attempt to cover a case of extra-judicial killing, ostensibly with a view to muting vital information and derailing the course of justice in the matter which has since assumed a political dimension targeted at key opposition leaders.
“The PDP therefore calls for a public investigation into the circumstances surrounding the killing, which will require an open questioning of all those involved in the arrest and detention of the suspect.”
The Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi has made it clear that he has no intention of probing his predecessor, Ayodele Fayose.
Governor Fayemi, who spoke to news men today, Monday shortly after an audience with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said: I am not EFCC; I am not ICPC; there are institutions that are charged with the reasonability to do that and it is entirely up to them if they want to probe the governor or not.
“Looking into books is the duty of any new governor; you need to check what you found on the ground; I just talked about visitation panel into the education sector, institutions in the state.
“It is not my business; I leave the governor to God; I have said that before.”
When the idea of an Adams Oshiomhole becoming the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, was broached, not a few party members scratched their heads. That the governing party was in a terribly bad shape going into the 2019 general election was never a matter of debate. The former chairman, John Oyegun was never pulling his weight as the leader of a governing party. Instead, he was being pulled by forces and tendencies which appeared to be working at cross purposes with the APC government.
For instance, right under Oyegun’s nose, the leadership of the National Assembly in APC government fell into the laps of the opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. It was even rumoured that through Oyegun, the man who “stole APC’s crown” in the Senate, appeared to have a controlling interest in APC while working for the opposition. Even some of the ministers and other political appointees of an APC President tellingly carried on as if their political party does not matter at all.
There was therefore a general consensus among party members and leaders that a change needed to be effected at the highest level of the party. Yet there were questions of how much change and when? It was therefore clear to even a blind man that once the forces rooting for the elongation of the tenure of the former national working committee were defeated and the name of the former Edo State governor popped up as the overwhelming choice to replace Oyegun, the issue of the direction of change envisaged in the party was settled.
Yet, those of us, who knew Oshiomhole too well, were not sure enough if the party would be ready to keep pace with the speed and amount of change the Comrade was carrying in his portmanteau. A man in a hurry, sometimes angry and sometimes iconoclastic, Oshiomhole once formally elected as his party’s chairman unfurled his agenda. He said he was going to listen to all and negotiate and be fair to all manner of men and women. He showed his hand very early in the day by coming hard and rightly so on two cabinet ministers who behaved as if their political party was a mere appendage. This led to a famous altercation between him and the minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr, Chris Ngige, another combustible character in his own right.
Next on the agenda was to stave off the embarrassing spate of defections of APC members in the Parliament. Had it not been for Oshiomhole’s proactive charge, it is possible that his party would have lost too many members in the legislature such that would make the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari an attractive option for the unethical opposition PDP. Once he was sure of the stability and the continued numerical superiority of APC in the National Assembly, Oshiomhole rallied his troops to attempt to effect a democratic change in the leadership of the National Assembly.
Interestingly the APC Chairman started off by pointing out to the nation the immorality of an opposition senator to be heading an arm of government in a democracy that is not tied up by coalition politics. Although Oshiomhole has not yet succeeded in removing Senator Bukola Saraki as President of the Senate, he has however succeeded in convincing Nigerians that the holder of that office is doing so immorally against democratic logic and public trust.
Even then as important as next year’s presidential election is to Oshiomhole and his party, APC, he, however, refuses to be blackmailed into driving with the handbrake on, just because an election is down the line. He believes that President Buhari has done enough in the past three years to earn him re-election next year for another term of four years. And so, all issues pertaining to justice to all party members and respect for the party constitution and manifesto cannot be suspended and even sacrificed on the altar of the general election by compromising the integrity of the primary elections, an euphemistic narrative carefully woven together by some governors to unleash impunity on the electorate.
To be sure, a few governors and a few party leaders had carefully picked and packaged their personal interests – some of which are very odious and hurtful to the voting public and the APC – and craftily wrapped them up with the supposed re-election of President Buhari. Pray, how can anyone in his right senses argue that by handing Uche Nwosu, son in-law and vassal to Rochas Okorocha, the APC governorship ticket in Imo State as irritating as it is to the people will help Buhari win in the state?
In Ogun State, the state governor simply hand-picked all the aspirants for elective positions in the State, that is, for governorship, senate, house of reps and state house of assembly and just asked Oshiomhole to endorse them. What kind of democracy would that be if Oshiomhole acceded to this immoral and criminal request? Similarly in Zamfra State, the governor drove away the committee sent to his State to conduct primary election simply because he wanted to impose his personal choices on the people. What a party man!
And true to his reputation as a vanguard crusader of justice and the peoples’ power, Oshiomhole bore all the insults and invectives hurled at him and withstood the pressures including alleged criminal cash inducements. He chose the noble path of upholding the letters and the spirit of the Nigerian constitution and APC rules and guidelines by ensuring free and fair party primary elections. It is therefore important for discerning Nigerians to locate the sources and reasons behind the recent attacks on the person of Oshiomhole.
The people behind the attacks are powerful; otherwise, a respectable institution like the DSS would not have been co-opted. Yet, as powerful as these adversaries are, they have shown how selfish and dishonorable they are in putting their personal interests over and above party interests. These people do not care one bit if President Buhari loses the election next year as long as they get what they want. And some of them are already singing how they are going to pull down the whole house.
It is significant for President Buhari and his loyal aides to understand that the attacks on Oshiomhole by accusing him of all manner of things including taking bribes are ultimately directed at the president himself. Attacking the party chairman this viciously at this time is a coordinated effort of a desperate opposition using moles from within to distract Oshiomhole and take his eyes off the ball at this critical period. Oshiomhole is simply taking bullets for Mr. President. The attackers would not mind if they achieve a collateral damage of the party and the President’s re-lection.
The good thing though is that Oshiomhole has succeeded in putting all the attacks behind him. Acting in concert with the Presidency, Oshiomhole has committed to a national reconciliation and peace effort. Committees have been set up to drive the process on zonal basis. There is no doubt that the outcome will be salutary to the party’s effort, under Oshiomhole’s leadership, to accomplish President Buhari’s re-election in 2019.
President Muhammadu Buhari has openly disagreed with his All Progressives Congress (APC) on its stand that aggrieved members of the party, especially in the last party primaries across the country, should not go to court to challenge the party.
The President insisted that such aggrieved party members should be allowed freedom to seek redress in court if they so wish, stressing that anyone who is displeased with the way and manner anything has been done, and feels deprived of his/her rights, should be at liberty to approach the courts for redress.
President Buhari, who, in a statement by his spokesman, Femi Adesina, reacted specifically to the APC forbidding members from dragging the party to court, said: “we can’t deliberately deny people of their rights.
“We agreed that party primaries should be conducted either through direct, indirect or consensus methods, and if anyone feels unjustly treated in the process, such a person can go to court. The court should always be the last resort for the dissatisfied. For the party to outlaw the court process is not acceptable to me.”
The APC, had, in a decision by its National Working Committee (NWC) last week, threatened to punish members across the country who had dragged the party to court over various issues.
In a statement the NWC had said: “the Party intends to activate constitutional provisions to penalise such members as their action is capable of undermining the Party and hurt the Party’s interest.
“We hereby strongly advise such members to withdraw all court cases, while approaching the appropriate party organs with a view to resolving any outstanding disputes. In addition to this, aggrieved members are urged to take full advantage of the reconciliation committees the Party has put in place.
“APC members should understand that as a progressive party that operates on the principle of change, it is not a matter of choice to keep to the rules.”
Meanwhile, President Buhari has advised members to work with the reconciliation committees empanelled for the six geo-political zones by the APC, and not a purported Presidential Committee on Reconciliation.
He made it clear that the Party is the only body authorized to constitute such committees.
President Muhammadu Buhari has confirmed a presidential order for the increase in the salary and other emoluments of police men and women across the country.
On the strength of such increment, the President demanded more commitment to the service by the officers and men of the Force.
President Buhari spoke today, Monday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja when members of the Nigeria Police Service Commission and the leadership of the Nigeria Police Force paid him a “Thank You” visit for the approval of Salary Structure Adjustment, by which salary, allowances and pension of policemen will be increased.
President Buhari, who assured that his administration will continue to give attention to the welfare and operational needs of the Police with a view to restoring its lost primacy in the internal security framework of the country, regretted that the inability of the police in their constitutional role as the frontline force in the prevention of crime, had led to military involvement in the maintenance of law and order throughout the country.
“From Taraba to Sokoto, to the South-South, people don’t feel secure until they see the military. I am pleased to make the increase in salary and allowances in the hope that it will increase the performance index of the police and strengthen Nigeria’s internal security system.”
President Buhari observed that the more efficient the police is, the more confident the government and citizens will be.
“The military should be reserved for higher tasks. The police should be able to cope well with the challenges of armed robbery, kidnapping for ransom and such crimes. In every town and village, there is the presence of the police. From all these places, they should be able to forward first class intelligence to you on which to act.
“There is a need to amplify the question of more men of the police, especially given the condition we are in – emergency in the North-East, pervasive insecurity and abduction for ransom and banditry in many parts of the country. I congratulate you on the success you recorded against criminals taxing people and stopping them from their farms. We are expecting more from you,” the President told the police.”
Full-time Commissioner in the Nigeria Police Service Commission, retired Justice Clara Ogunbiyi, who represented the chairman, Musiliu Smith, had informed the President that the Rank Salary Structure Adjustment would enhance police welfare and morale.
The Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, also assured that the police would redouble efforts to ensure free, fair and credible elections throughout the country next year.
Nigerian government and African Development Bank will soon embark on a joint establishment of a $500 million Innovation Fund to support activities in technology start-ups.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who dropped this hint today at the 22nd African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) Annual General Meeting and Conference in Lagos, said one the dominant themes in the discussions with the young entrepreneurs is the lack of affordable and patient capital.
“We are accordingly working with the African Development Bank to establish a $500million Innovation Fund that will support activities in this sector. Given the size of our economy and the potential of the technology and creative sectors, I am hopeful that capital market operators will work towards innovative financing solutions to lend further support to these two sectors.”
Professor Osinbajo insisted that capital markets must assist technology start-ups to find the resources they need to promote and grow their businesses, through an Advisory Group on Technology and Creativity created in Nigeria.
“It is evident that the African Securities Exchanges Association has a key role in our continental quest for economic growth and development. This is not only because of the vital role that capital markets play in our domestic economies but because the Association reflects the right spirit of collaboration and partnership required of African countries and their economic institutions, to bring about a more vibrant, dynamic continental economy.”
According to the Vice President, African companies that invest in the continent are expanding quite rapidly and the amount of intra-Africa foreign direct investment almost tripled in the decade till 2016, adding that this must also be innovative.
“They must innovate in response to new ideas and take advantage of unique features of the African economy. We must build on the great advances in FinTech like M-PESA, Paystack, Flutterwave and Eyo Owo, in Nigeria. Worthy of mention also are the insightful mini-packets for drinks, soap, milk, medicines, sugar and such likes that we find in the retail sector in many African countries.”
The Socio-economic Rights and Accountability Project, (SERAP) on Sunday appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently establish a commission of inquiry to probe the spending of defence and military budgets between 1999 and 2018.
In an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, SERAP says the investigation will be aimed at promoting transparency and accountability in the military.
SERAP said the probe would ensure that funds meant for military operations are spent for that purpose and end the vulnerability and killings of soldiers.
It cited the reported killing of many Nigerian soldiers in the recent Boko Haram attack in Metele village of Borno state, urging the President to refer all allegations of corruption in the spending of funds meant to purchase arms for Nigerian soldiers to the Internal Criminal Court.
The letter dated November 23, 2018, SERAP’s Legal Adviser, Bamisope Adeyanju, said: “several billions of naira allocated to the military to defend the country have neither contributed to improving the ability of Nigerian soldiers to fight Boko Haram and other armed groups nor provided the much-needed security especially for Nigerians in the north-east of the country.”
The group alleged that the army’s inability to respond adequately to the Boko Haram insurgency suggests mismanagement in the spending of the country’s defence budgets.
The leader of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) and generalismo of Yoruba land, Otumba Gani Adams has refused to be drawn into endorsing the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar insisting that Yorubas will vote only for candidate that is determined to bring about peaceful coexistence of Nigerians.
The Are Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland who spoke yesterday, Saturday when a former Governor of Ogun State and the Deputy Director General/Chairman, (South) of the PDP presidential campaign Council, Otunba Gbenga Daniel led a team of some stakeholders in the Southwest geopolitical zone to pay a courtesy visit on him at his Lagos residence, emphasised that restructuring is very key in Nigeria’s march towards nationhood, and that a candidate who preaches this as one of his core agenda in the coming election will be considered above others.
“The coming election will be based on ideologies rather than partisanship or sentiments as it was in the past.”
Otumba Gani Adams, however, acknowledged that Otunba Daniel had once averted what could have been a bloody scenario in the Yorubaland when two factions of the group were enmeshed in battle of supremacy some years back.
He recalled that it was Daniel who waded into the matter and established a lasting truce between the leaders and members of the two factions forestalling what could have snowballed into violent unrest.
The PDP chieftain had tried to convince Ona kakanfo why OPC and the Southwest should endorse Atiku, saying that a situation where the Yoruba people appear not to be getting it right in the governance of the country especially at the centre has been one of the reasons he got involved in national politics which took him round the country on about three occasions.
He assured that he is convinced of the electoral promises of Atiku Abubabar who he described as “a thorough and visionary politician who is so passionate about the Nigerian project, a lover of the Yoruba people, a honest and true Nigerian who will not say what he could not do.”
The struggle of Nigeria’s former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to mount the horse as the country’s President has been legendary and sustained. Since 2003, when he deputized for former President Olusegun Obasanjo (OBJ), the ambition to lead Nigeria has refused to quench like a candle in the wind.
When the main opposition PDP conceded its 2019 presidential ticket to Atiku, it seems his closest permutation to Aso Rock, Nigeria’s seat of power. Observably, since the day Atiku was crowned PDP’s presidential flag-bearer his excitement has known no limitations. It’s being the happiest moment of his life, beaming with smiles, anywhere he makes public appearance, as though he has been declared winner of Nigeria’s 2019 presidential ballot.
So, Atiku intensified his perpetually acerbic attacks on the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, disparaging every single effort of the APC led government. He promised Nigerians a redemption, which spurred fresh expectations of the magic his anticipated Presidency would offer the people.
At last the chance is here for Atiku to make an impact; but he has bungled it from the outset. Atiku stabbed himself on the back, November 18, 2018 with his vision in a launched policy document, variously christened “The Atiku Plan,” or “Let’s Get Nigeria Working Again.” It failed to inspire the confidence some Nigerians initially had in a possible Atiku Presidency. Echoes are loud that Atiku’s policy document was flat or watery on critical areas Nigeria is yearning for further rescue from the Buhari Presidency.
They faulted Atiku as barren of any grasp of problems of Nigeria and fresh insights, by his embellishments of most of the policies and programmes of Buhari, which he had relentlessly and voraciously criticized.
To put it mildly, the PDP standard-bearer failed to impress and others felt it on his change of stand on some of the issues he campaigned vigorously before his party awarded him its presidential ticket.
In some sections of the policy document, it dashed hopes and dampened spirits even in the camp of his most ardent supporters. Nigerians have been analyzing the “The Atiku Plan,” document from the perspective of various critical sectors of the economy.
Some Nigerians dissatisfied with the Buhari Presidency, point to the nuances of national insecurity; a tottering economy; hyper unemployment rate; a comatose industrial sector, reflected in abandoned national industries/companies; the clamour for restructuring and the least, but also, very important, power rotation among the six geo-political regions of the nation.
Disappointedly, Atiku’s vision in these sensitive sectors left a vacuum in the hearts of millions of Nigerians. Many have concluded that the Atiku quest for the Presidency of Nigeria is anchored on the crest of a swindle of Nigeria.
They could not reconcile how a politician who has sought leadership of the country for years and vociferous in condemning existing structures and performance had nothing strikingly different in his policy document. From the policy document, its discernible Atiku does not either know what is restructuring of Nigeria as currently canvassed especially by Southerners or has developed cold feet towards the idea even before the opportunity to occupy Aso Rock.
Quite clearly, Atiku dreads the North, which is viciously opposed to the idea of restructuring of Nigeria now. And in order not to offend sensitive interests of the Northern oligarchs, Atiku glossed over the idea like a pupil reciting nursery rhymes. He harped on independence of local government councils and mixed council autonomy with restructuring of Nigeria.
Thereafter, he strayed into natural resources.
Hear him; “Once power over minerals and mines is devolved to the concurrent list, states where deposits of mines and mineral resources are found will have control over those resources and only pay royalties to the center.”
This is sufficiently vague. It does not offer any clue on how his version of restructuring would be executed; but relied on an unconvincing probability of the devolution of powers from the concurrent list.
Atiku parroted the issue of restructuring of Nigeria, everywhere in Southern Nigeria to earn their support for party nomination and the actual ballot in 2019. People of the Niger Delta are infinitely discouraged about Atiku’s candidature.
He hinted in the policy document of providing incentives to investors to invest in Modular refineries in the North to source crude oil from Chad and Niger through pipelines under a Public Private Partnership. South-Southerners are already feeling a sense of alienation and abandonment under an Atiku Presidency.
The people are feeling the experimentation of the Buhari Presidency with Modular refineries’ in the South-South, where the oil wealth is domiciled as a better sense of judgment from a neutral and impartial leader. Nigerians are also averse to Atiku’s plan to privatize state-owned enterprises “including all three government-owned refineries and the concession of Nigeria’s sea and airports to reputable, strategic, and technically sound buyers.”
It is a roundly rejected bitter pill to swallow by majority of Nigerians. The OBJ/Atiku Presidency (1999-2007) conceived the concept of privatization of national assets. And Atiku was the chairman, National Council on Privatization and Commercialization (NCPC). It’s very clear to all Nigerians that the exercise was a rape of Nigeria, as the assets were undervalued and sold to cronies and undercover agents. Very few of them are functional at the moment and unemployment has exacerbated in Nigeria because of the dearth of such industries and companies.
The inclusion of this policy in the “Let’s Get Nigeria Working Again,” document is a veiled message to Nigerians of the intention of Atiku and his cabal to re-launch the final sale of Nigeria to themselves, if elected President in 2019.
It has stirred disquiet in many quarters. To demonstrate that Atiku is bereft of any fresh ideas for seeking to govern Nigeria, the policy document also endorsed removal of oil subsidy, like Buhari’s government. But it discloses his target of establishing what he called, a “Special Purpose Fund” for the funds to be domiciled and channeled to “building infrastructure in education, health and the empowerment of women and youth. What’s is new, Nigerians are asking?
It was the same OBJ/Atiku Presidency that scrapped PTF, a similar concept, which would now be smuggled back under a new nomenclature? Therefore, what informed his quest for the Presidency exactly, if all he knows is retaining and renaming old concepts?
Today, Atiku is concerned with expansion of modern railway lines, which are projects currently executed by the Buhari Presidency. The PDP 2019 Presidential candidate dropped the final bombshell by stating that “To increase the nation’s refining capacity, we shall privatize all four-outstanding government owned refineries to competent off-takers with mandates to produce agreed levels of refined output.”
Nigeria is stressed on national insecurity many fronts. The Boko Haram terrorism; militancy in the Niger Delta; armed banditry and cattle rustling; kidnapping and violent separatists agitations and herders/farmers clashes.
Atiku boasted when Buhari emerged President that if he were the leader of Nigeria, Boko Haram would have ended in six months. But his policy document shied away from intimating on the details of what would have passed as a marvelous master plan. Nigerians fault President Buhari for his insistence on grazing reserves for Fulani herders, instead of ranches, especially by most states in the Benue valley. Atiku does not see open grazing by herders; the clashes with farmers and mass deaths as a national security threat.
And so, his document is handily silent on it. Atiku’s failure to inspire the electorates with his long awaited policy document is his greatest nemesis for the quest to lead Nigeria in 2019. Worse still, while the North has just four more years to allow power transit to the Southern part of the country, Southeast possibly, Atiku plans his policy document extending to between six and eight years; an early sign of a sit-tight leader.
Having bared his mind, millions of Nigerians have come to the inevitable conclusion that President Buhari has no real alternative in 2019. With his cunning misadventure, through self-revelation, Atiku has made it an easy ride for Buhari’s success in the next general elections.
Okanga Agila Okanga wrote this piece from Agila, Benue State.
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President Muhammadu Buhari has openly disagreed with his All Progressives Congress (APC) on its stand that aggrieved members of the party, especially in the last party primaries across the country, should not go to court to challenge the party.
2019: When Atiku Stabs Self On The Back, By Okanga Agila Okanga
The struggle of Nigeria’s former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to mount the horse as the country’s President has been legendary and sustained. Since 2003, when he deputized for former President Olusegun Obasanjo (OBJ), the ambition to lead Nigeria has refused to quench like a candle in the wind.
When the main opposition PDP conceded its 2019 presidential ticket to Atiku, it seems his closest permutation to Aso Rock, Nigeria’s seat of power. Observably, since the day Atiku was crowned PDP’s presidential flag-bearer his excitement has known no limitations. It’s being the happiest moment of his life, beaming with smiles, anywhere he makes public appearance, as though he has been declared winner of Nigeria’s 2019 presidential ballot.
So, Atiku intensified his perpetually acerbic attacks on the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, disparaging every single effort of the APC led government. He promised Nigerians a redemption, which spurred fresh expectations of the magic his anticipated Presidency would offer the people.
At last the chance is here for Atiku to make an impact; but he has bungled it from the outset. Atiku stabbed himself on the back, November 18, 2018 with his vision in a launched policy document, variously christened “The Atiku Plan,” or “Let’s Get Nigeria Working Again.” It failed to inspire the confidence some Nigerians initially had in a possible Atiku Presidency. Echoes are loud that Atiku’s policy document was flat or watery on critical areas Nigeria is yearning for further rescue from the Buhari Presidency.
They faulted Atiku as barren of any grasp of problems of Nigeria and fresh insights, by his embellishments of most of the policies and programmes of Buhari, which he had relentlessly and voraciously criticized.
To put it mildly, the PDP standard-bearer failed to impress and others felt it on his change of stand on some of the issues he campaigned vigorously before his party awarded him its presidential ticket.
In some sections of the policy document, it dashed hopes and dampened spirits even in the camp of his most ardent supporters. Nigerians have been analyzing the “The Atiku Plan,” document from the perspective of various critical sectors of the economy.
Some Nigerians dissatisfied with the Buhari Presidency, point to the nuances of national insecurity; a tottering economy; hyper unemployment rate; a comatose industrial sector, reflected in abandoned national industries/companies; the clamour for restructuring and the least, but also, very important, power rotation among the six geo-political regions of the nation.
Disappointedly, Atiku’s vision in these sensitive sectors left a vacuum in the hearts of millions of Nigerians. Many have concluded that the Atiku quest for the Presidency of Nigeria is anchored on the crest of a swindle of Nigeria.
They could not reconcile how a politician who has sought leadership of the country for years and vociferous in condemning existing structures and performance had nothing strikingly different in his policy document. From the policy document, its discernible Atiku does not either know what is restructuring of Nigeria as currently canvassed especially by Southerners or has developed cold feet towards the idea even before the opportunity to occupy Aso Rock.
Quite clearly, Atiku dreads the North, which is viciously opposed to the idea of restructuring of Nigeria now. And in order not to offend sensitive interests of the Northern oligarchs, Atiku glossed over the idea like a pupil reciting nursery rhymes. He harped on independence of local government councils and mixed council autonomy with restructuring of Nigeria.
Thereafter, he strayed into natural resources.
Hear him; “Once power over minerals and mines is devolved to the concurrent list, states where deposits of mines and mineral resources are found will have control over those resources and only pay royalties to the center.”
This is sufficiently vague. It does not offer any clue on how his version of restructuring would be executed; but relied on an unconvincing probability of the devolution of powers from the concurrent list.
Atiku parroted the issue of restructuring of Nigeria, everywhere in Southern Nigeria to earn their support for party nomination and the actual ballot in 2019. People of the Niger Delta are infinitely discouraged about Atiku’s candidature.
He hinted in the policy document of providing incentives to investors to invest in Modular refineries in the North to source crude oil from Chad and Niger through pipelines under a Public Private Partnership. South-Southerners are already feeling a sense of alienation and abandonment under an Atiku Presidency.
The people are feeling the experimentation of the Buhari Presidency with Modular refineries’ in the South-South, where the oil wealth is domiciled as a better sense of judgment from a neutral and impartial leader. Nigerians are also averse to Atiku’s plan to privatize state-owned enterprises “including all three government-owned refineries and the concession of Nigeria’s sea and airports to reputable, strategic, and technically sound buyers.”
It is a roundly rejected bitter pill to swallow by majority of Nigerians. The OBJ/Atiku Presidency (1999-2007) conceived the concept of privatization of national assets. And Atiku was the chairman, National Council on Privatization and Commercialization (NCPC). It’s very clear to all Nigerians that the exercise was a rape of Nigeria, as the assets were undervalued and sold to cronies and undercover agents. Very few of them are functional at the moment and unemployment has exacerbated in Nigeria because of the dearth of such industries and companies.
The inclusion of this policy in the “Let’s Get Nigeria Working Again,” document is a veiled message to Nigerians of the intention of Atiku and his cabal to re-launch the final sale of Nigeria to themselves, if elected President in 2019.
It has stirred disquiet in many quarters. To demonstrate that Atiku is bereft of any fresh ideas for seeking to govern Nigeria, the policy document also endorsed removal of oil subsidy, like Buhari’s government. But it discloses his target of establishing what he called, a “Special Purpose Fund” for the funds to be domiciled and channeled to “building infrastructure in education, health and the empowerment of women and youth. What’s is new, Nigerians are asking?
It was the same OBJ/Atiku Presidency that scrapped PTF, a similar concept, which would now be smuggled back under a new nomenclature? Therefore, what informed his quest for the Presidency exactly, if all he knows is retaining and renaming old concepts?
Today, Atiku is concerned with expansion of modern railway lines, which are projects currently executed by the Buhari Presidency. The PDP 2019 Presidential candidate dropped the final bombshell by stating that “To increase the nation’s refining capacity, we shall privatize all four-outstanding government owned refineries to competent off-takers with mandates to produce agreed levels of refined output.”
Nigeria is stressed on national insecurity many fronts. The Boko Haram terrorism; militancy in the Niger Delta; armed banditry and cattle rustling; kidnapping and violent separatists agitations and herders/farmers clashes.
Atiku boasted when Buhari emerged President that if he were the leader of Nigeria, Boko Haram would have ended in six months. But his policy document shied away from intimating on the details of what would have passed as a marvelous master plan. Nigerians fault President Buhari for his insistence on grazing reserves for Fulani herders, instead of ranches, especially by most states in the Benue valley. Atiku does not see open grazing by herders; the clashes with farmers and mass deaths as a national security threat.
And so, his document is handily silent on it. Atiku’s failure to inspire the electorates with his long awaited policy document is his greatest nemesis for the quest to lead Nigeria in 2019. Worse still, while the North has just four more years to allow power transit to the Southern part of the country, Southeast possibly, Atiku plans his policy document extending to between six and eight years; an early sign of a sit-tight leader.
Having bared his mind, millions of Nigerians have come to the inevitable conclusion that President Buhari has no real alternative in 2019. With his cunning misadventure, through self-revelation, Atiku has made it an easy ride for Buhari’s success in the next general elections.
Okanga Agila Okanga wrote this piece from Agila, Benue State.