Going into the February elections, Nigerians are deeply divided along tribal, ethnic and religious lines. More than any other ruler in the chequered history of Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan has worked very hard to amplify the differences among Nigerians. He had done tremendously to make us realize that we are not of the same tribe, tongue or religion. He had invested handsomely in reifying the divisive tendencies that undergird the Nigerian nationhood such that the coming election is coming with fearful promises of deepening the schisms, the divides and possibly leading to the disintegration of the country. A sneak preview into the embarrassing campaign of President Jonathan and his PDP reveals this scenario. When Nigerians feel that a president that should leverage on whatever are the achievements he wrought with a six years unprecedented oil windfall (the highest in the history of the country) to advertise his competence for additional tenure, all they get are mudslinging, character assassination, muck raking, blackmail, abuses, fabrication of lies and incendiary hate propaganda against their main challenger, General Muhammadu Buhari.
But then, elections, for ruling parties, are about giving accounts of stewardship and tapping on that to seek for elongation. For a ruling party, election time is time for testimony of the good things it had done and the need to trust it with more time to do more. But Nigerians are not getting that from Jonathan and the PDP as they strive so desperately to parry our attention from the most critical question of how well they have managed our affairs in the last six years. Where we would have been told (even as we don’t experience it) how our lives had been improved by the government, we are fed with tons and tons of hugely fabricated lies and insidious propaganda against just one man.
When Nigerians expect fruitful results from the providential oil windfall that has blessed the six years of Jonathan, how he will work to improve the pallid state of the country under his insipid watch, all they get are unflagging abuses, character assassination and woeful resort to throwing brickbats at their main opponent. Most importantly, Jonathan seems to have invested so much in driving knives of hate and intolerance among the country’s Christians and Muslims, among Southerners and Northerners and thereby precipitating a conflagration among Nigerians, having realized that the probabilities of his retaining power is practically gone.
But there is no escaping the sordid underpinnings of the Jonathan presidency however it tries to divert our attention. Recently, Charles Soludo, the former Governor of the Central Bank made a startling revelation that a huge N30 trillion has been stolen from the country’s treasury during Jonathan’s tenure. This only followed the yet to be resolved revelation by Soludo’s successor as CBN Governor, Emir Lamido Sanusi that $20 billion was diverted from the country’s treasury and also the bombshell from former President Obasanjo that the foreign reserve he built up in his eight years has been completely depleted. These are just infinitesimal bits of the In the face of these hair-raising revelations by those that should know, Nigerians are getting poorer to the extent that the country is on the verge of becoming the country with the highest number of poor people in the world, infrastructures continue to decay, standard of life continues to plummet, life expectancy is on such a free fall that the respected Economist Magazine wrote that Nigerians die eight years younger than their counterparts in poorer Ghana! Public power supply has dimmed considerably from where Jonathan met it despite the fact that billions of dollars have been poured into it, our health sector survives as an expansive mortuary as the death rate continues to expand, and hunger, disease and want ravage millions of Nigerians to no end.
Also, corruption and stealing of public resources have become integral parts of government. Jonathan insists that stealing is not corruption and maintains that he will not send corrupt people to jail. This has been the well exploited license that has opened the huge resources of the country to free pillaging as the Jonathan regime feels satisfied celebrating the corrupt beneficiaries of its quaint predilection to Byzantine corruption as the hallowed fruits of his paradoxical economic growth. Nigeria under Jonathan is bankrupt today as a dip in oil earnings has wrecked the states and ensured that states and even the federal government owe workers’ salaries for several months. Today, and despite the gloating of a booming economy, Nigerians are hungry, angry, frustrated, demeaned, agitated and edgy, as Jonathan presents himself for re-election.
In its latest editorial dedicated to the coming February General election, The Economist has this to say of the Jonathan government;
“Start with Mr Jonathan, whose People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has run the country since 1999 and who stumbled into the presidency on the death of his predecessor in 2010. The PDP’s reign has been a sorry one. Mr Jonathan has shown little willingness to tackle endemic corruption. When the governor of the central bank reported that $20 billion had been stolen, his reward was to be sacked.
“Worse, on Mr Jonathan’s watch much of the north of the country has been in flames. About 18,000 people have died in political violence in recent years, thousands of them in January in several brutal attacks by Boko Haram, a jihadist group that claims to have established its “caliphate” in territory as large as Belgium. Another 1.5m people have fled their homes. The insurgency is far from Mr Jonathan’s southern political heartland and afflicts people more likely to vote for the opposition. He has shown little enthusiasm for tackling it, and even less competence. Quick to offer condolences to France after the attack on Charlie Hedbo, Mr Jonathan waited almost two weeks before speaking up about a Boko Haram attack that killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of his compatriots.”
This is just a summation of the damning international opinion on the Jonathan government, which goes like this;
Influential Newspaper, New York Times, writes, “Mr Jonathan, who leads a corrupt government that has little credibility.”
Britain’s TV station Sky News thinks, “President Jonathan is at best naive, at worst manipulative.”
Well respected financial publication, The Economist, says ,“Jonathan’s government incompetent, callous and very corrupt”.
British Newspaper, The UK Guardian, writes on the president’s corruption record,“Jonathan’s record on corruption is a disgrace”.
Former United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, describes the Jonathan government saying, “Nigeria under Jonathan, squandered oil wealth, and breeds corruption.
Former US presidential candidate and Senator, John McCainspeaking on the Chibok girls said, “We shouldn’t have waited for a practically non-existent government to give us the go-ahead before mounting a humanitarian effort to rescue those girls”.
According to the US State Department,“Massive, Widespread and Pervasive corruption affecting all levels of government under President Jonathan”.
The local opinion is more damning and forms the preface for the February 14 election. This is the kind of indicting scenario Jonathan and his PDP are trying desperately to run away from and what better way to do that than to go personal and divert discourse and election campaigns to banalities with liberties to sell lies and falsehood and hoodwink unsuspecting and ill exposed citizens? What better way than to indulge in infantile trading of lies, mischief and inanities as a campaign manifesto? For this dirty job, PDP and Jonathan have gathered a hefty cache of jobbers when they should have gathered economic, political and governance experts to drive their campaign. With the huge resources salted from the treasury, the PDP has bought off the entire media; print, electronic and online with a singular mission to engage in lies, blackmail, forgeries, haul dirt at their presumed nemesis, Gen. Buhari and these are over working themselves to earn their illicit commission. Sadly for them, the more they engage on these dirty campaigns, the more they mobilize Nigerians on the great need to rusticate them on February 14.
A sample; Few days ago, AIT, a station committed irrevocably to the corrupt interests of the PDP did a very dangerous documentary with the sole purpose of generating lies and evil propaganda to tarnish the image of Buhari. The documentary was meant to put a final seal on Buhari and for this, AIT smiled to the bank. After repeatedly airing this one hour documentary for some days, AIT opened an online poll to gauge how well its hate mission has sunk with Nigerians. Lo and behold, Buhari so roundly trounced Jonathan in the poll such that 79 per cent voted Buhari while a paltry 19 per cent voted Jonathan! Embarrassed and roundly humiliated at the failure of its mercenary job, AIT pulled down the poll, making a face saving claim that some people hacked into its site!
What is becoming so obvious to the PDP and Jonathan presidency is that the more they sow lies and falsehood to arrest the soaring Buhari candidacy, the more Nigerians get mobilized around him as a panacea to the continued decay and rot that have pockmarked PDP’s years in power. As it stands today, the coming election has been called for Buhari by Nigerians that refuses to buy PDP’s jaded market of mudslinging as a campaign tactics. The expectation is that given the rancor and division the PDP has slyly sold in Nigeria, a Buhari presidency should start working on a untive template to weave Nigerians from every tribe and religion together again, heal the fractures that have been inflicted on the Nigerian state and lead the country to recovery from the blisters of the present. What we have presently is a fruit of total failure of leadership as exemplified by Jonathan’s six years of failed leadership. It behooves the coming leadership to hit the ground running as soon as it is elected and mop up the strains the PDP has brought to bear on the structures and people of the country.
President Ggodluck Jonathan has thanked his kinsmen and women in his home state, Bayelsa, for the support they have given him since 1999 when he became deputy governor up to the time he became Vice President of Nigeria and eventually President. President Jonathan, whose campaign train landed today in his home state of Bayelsa, told a mamoth crowd of supporters that he had not gone there to campaign since he is sure of their support at all times. He asked them however, to continue to support him and all candidates and members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at all levels during the February polls and beyond. The President who spoke against the backdrop of reported division within the PDP in the state, urged his kinsmen to extend the same support they have for him to the sitting governor, Henry Seriake Dickson. The President stressed the importance of working with the governor to keep delivering dividends of democracy to the people. He emphasised the need for the Bayelsans to support their governor at all costs and that they stop listening to the gospel of people who are out to destroy the state. “We have done a lot of work in the state which we don’t need to start mentioning here in order not to bore you. I am working with the governor. I have to work with him to be able to succeed. “Don’t allow people to spoil your minds. If you support me, you must also support the governor. You must work with the governor of the state. We are together. We will bring the more dividends of democracy to the state. Some people are out to destroy the state by poisoning your minds. Don’t listen to them.” Vice President, Mohammed Namadi Sambo trook the running mate of All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate, Professor Yemi Osibajo who said APC would put Buhari in front in the fight against insurgents to task. Sambo insisted that Buhari is an old retired general who can’t run more than a few metres before falling. [myad]
The Nigeria’s Presidency has expressed its discomfort with the February 14 and 28 general elections in the country, listing some of the reasons to justify the fear and discomfort that holding the elections on the dates will “throw the country into turmoil and confusion.”
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, who conveyed the feelings of the Presidency today at a press conference, said however that President Goodluck Jonathan would not engage in any form of subterfuge to pressurise Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to change the dates of the elections.
Dr. Okupe said there was no time during the meeting of the National Council of State yesterday, held inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja, that the chairman of INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, insisted on the February dates as quoted by some media reports.
He listed the level of preparedness of the electoral body and security situation in some parts of the country as some of the reasons why it will be wise to revisit the February dates.
On the issue of preparation, Dr. Okupe said that in all INEC’s submissions at the meeting, the only process that was 100 percent concluded was the preparation and availability of the voters register.
According to him, all other processes including provision, distribution and collection of PVCs, printing of ballot papers, distribution of verification machines and other non –sensitive materials, recruitment and training of ad hoc staff are all “work in progress.”
He added that Jega himself admitted that given a little more time, INEC would be in a better position to perfect the processes and its readiness for the elections.
“Also in his presentations to the Council, the INEC Chairman, stated clearly that for the electoral process to be free, fair, and credible, there are other matters which were not under the control of INEC, principal among which is the issue of provision and guarantee of security of lives and properties.
“The Security Chiefs were unanimous in their advice to the Council that it will be impossible for now for them to guarantee security of electoral materials, INEC Staff, and the voting population in the areas currently engulfed by the war against insurgency.”
Dr. Okupe said that while some opinions were proffered that elections could be allowed to hold on February 14 in 32 states not affected by insurgency, Jonathan made it clear that he would not allow an election where some people will be excluded for no fault of theirs.
He quoted the President as further saying that endorsing such would tend to confirm the falsehood already being propagated in some parts of the country that he was encouraging the war in the North East to ensure that voters in the APC states were not allowed to vote in the 2015 elections.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Nigerians are hereby re-assured that there has never been, and never shall be any plan to cancel the 2015 elections, for any reasons whatsoever. It will not happen, and the May 29th date for the swearing-in is sacrosanct. All talks about interim government arrangement is pure fiction.
“The consideration behind the possibility of change of date is to allow those who may be disfranchised from voting on the 14th February to have an opportunity to exercise their lawful rights to vote and participate in the general elections.
“The new wave of successes being recorded by the Military in the War against insurgency, especially with the arrival of new effective combatant equipment and machinery, plus the newly revamped cross border co-operation with Niger, Chad and Cameroonian Military, offer a very genuine hope that in a very short while, the situation in the affected states will be brought under such reasonable control that will guarantee safety of the electoral process and electorate in the war front region of the North–East at a no distant future.
“We repeat that the only set of people who stand to benefit from a shift in election dates are Nigerians who desire to vote and have not been able to collect their Permanent Voters Cards and other innocent citizens living in the war zone who may not be able to vote on the 14th February.
“We also wish to recollect that in 2003, 2007, and 2011 the elections were held in April, and the hand over date was not affected.
“We therefore challenge the opposition to tell Nigerians in clear terms, what dangers the change of date from February 14th portends to the electoral process or to the Nigerian electorate. It will also be good if the opposition tells us who stands to benefit or be disadvantaged from any shifting of date and how.”
Dr. Okupe said that INEC is not fully ready for the elections, and dared the commission to direct its Resident Electoral Commissioners to swear to an affidavit to prove their readiness for the polls.
“It will be very re-assuring if the INEC can get its RECs to attach their state of readiness to a sworn affidavit and show it to Nigerians.
“The interest of this government is to ensure that we do not have a rancorous and poorly conducted general elections that will throw the country into turmoil and confusion with the likelihood of an unnecessary internal and external rejection and condemnation.”
Dr. Okupe claimed that in Sokoto State, nine local government areas are yet to receive PVC for the continuous voters registration, barely nine days to the election.
He also claimed that the majority of the 960,000 ad hoc staff needed by the commission are yet to be recruited and trained especially on the operations of card readers that are yet to be made available.
He added that Lagos State is yet to receive a balance of about 12,000 card readers.
Also, the former Nigeria Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and a member of the board of trustees of the People Democratic Party, Mohammed Abba Gana has said that it will be dangerous and illegal to hold the general elections later this month.
He called for the postponement of the elections to April this year, stressing that the Electoral Act permits the shift of the polls considering the fact that over 20 million voters had yet to collect their permanent voter cards.
Gana, who spoke todat at the sidelines of an event organised by the Change Initiative Forum in Abuja to formally present the book: ‘Why Goodluck Jonathan should be re-elected,’ said that it is legal to shift the dates for the conduction of the elections.
“The extension of the election is both a legal and technical issue. What we are saying is that since about 20 million PVCs have yet been distributed, and also since it is legal and within the electoral law to shift the elections to sometime in April, then it should be shifted. The electoral law says elections will be held not earlier than 90 days before the handing over ceremony on May 29, and not later than one month before, therefore it is legal and within the constitution or the electoral Act to say that election should be shifted to April this year.
“This will enable INEC to use two months, the whole of February and March, to conclude all these challenges they are facing because anything worth doing must be done very well. And I am sure that is the reason why the Council of State yesterday (Thursday) advised INEC to consult very widely and inform the nation since they are the only institution empowered by the constitution to conduct elections.
“And now since we have problems of logistics, shortages and other things, and since there are clear two months with which INEC can help if they want to because the elections can be done in April and since it is within the law and the electoral Act, they can do all the elections in April.
“I’m sure the Council of State properly advised Prof. Jega and his team to consult widely and to do what is right for the country. Doing it in a hurry is very, very dangerous, because if 20 million voter cards have not been distributed and you say you are going to conduct elections; that is unkind. Because you will be disenfranchising 20 million people and this is extremely reckless.” [myad]
Director of Elections, Orrette Fisher is set to lead a Commonwealth Observer Group for presidential and National Assembly elections coming up in Nigeria on February 14 and 28 respectively.
The Commonwealth invited the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) to join the eleven-member team observing the February 14 polls, and Fisher was selected to represent the Commission.
Guyanese Member of Parliament, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine is the other Caricom representative in the observer group.
The Commonwealth says that the group’s mandate is to observe and consider the various factors affecting the credibility of the electoral process as a whole, and to determine in its own judgment whether the elections have been conducted according to the standards for democratic elections to which Nigeria has committed itself.
Fisher, who has notable experience in election observation, and has been director of elections since 2008, says he is looking forward to any lessons that can be garnered from a considerably larger democracy than Jamaicas.’
Nigeria has a population of more than 173 million, with more than 70 million registered electors. [myad]
The Election Petitions Tribunal, hearing cases arising from the Osun State August 9, 2014 governorship election in the state, has dismissed the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the election, Senator Iyiola Omisore, challenging the victory of Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In the judgment, lasting over seven hours, the tribunal dismissed the prayers of the petitioner, alleging malpractices and substantial non-compliance of the poll with the Electoral Act as amended.
The petition was dismissed in a unanimous judgment, which started at 9.10am and concluded by 4.38pm, read by tribunal chairman, Justice Elizabeth Ikpejime. The judgment was read amidst heavy presence of security men at the court premises.
The tribunal held that Aregbesola, who scored 394,684 votes credited to him by INEC, was validly elected and returned as the winner of the poll. Omisore scored 292,747.
Three issues were formulated for determination by the tribunal.
The first issue was whether the tribunal has jurisdiction to hear the petitioner’s petition.
The second issue for determination was whether the election was vitiated by the reason of alleged substantial noncompliance with the Electoral Act and the third issue was whether the first respondent ( Aregbesola) was validly elected and returned as the winner of the poll.
The first issue of jurisdiction, which the first respondent complained against in an application, was resolved against him.
The only issue, which was resolved in favour of the petitioner, which allowed his petition to scale the first hurdle put against it by the first respondent, did not avail him of victory at the end as the tribunal went ahead to expose the weaknesses in the allegations contained in his petition.
On the issue of substantial noncompliance, the tribunal resolved the issue against the petitioner. [myad]
Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on media and publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati is angry with Economist International Magazine for not only endorsing the Presidential candidate of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari for the 2015 election but going ahead to vilify the President. In a statement today in Abuja, Dr. Abati protested against the “magazine’s baseless, jaundiced and rather malicious vilification of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.” The Presidential spokesman was surprised the Economist Magazine’s “tongue-in-cheek endorsement of General Muhammadu Buhari in the run-up to Nigeria’s general elections.” He made it clear that President Jonathan still retained the trust and confidence of majority of Nigerians and that the outcome of the Presidential election shortly, will undoubtedly demonstrate. “We are sure that many Nigerians and other readers of the usually urbane, thoughtful and well-reasoned editorial opinions of the Economist will be shocked that the magazine has taken the very ill-considered decision to throw its weight behind a candidate who, as a former military dictator, curtailed freedom of speech, ordered the kidnapping of opponents and jailing of journalists, and is accused of incitement to violence and grave human rights violations in Nigeria’s current democratic dispensation.” Dr. Abati accused the Economist of feigning ignorance of President Jonathan’s remarkable achievements as leader of his country in the past six years, saying that Nigerians are fully in acknowledgement of such achievements. He said that Nigerians, who will actually vote in the country’s forthcoming presidential election, know that President Jonathan has worked very hard to fulfill all the major promises he made to them on assumption of office. “Nigerians know that President Jonathan has developed our economy and created more jobs. They know that he has given policy support to the real sector of the economy, so that Small and Medium Enterprises can thrive. They know that he has encouraged locally owned enterprises to take advantage of our resources in growing the domestic economy and they also know that he has successfully attracted greater foreign direct investment to the country. “Unlike the clearly poorly informed and distant authors of the Economist Opinion titled “The Least Awful” appreciative Nigerians are also aware that President Jonathan has worked tirelessly to improve power supply across the nation, rebuild and expand national infrastructure, improve public transportation and provide greater access to quality education for all Nigerian youth. “They know very well too that President Jonathan has significantly improved healthcare services in the country, revolutionized agriculture, promoted gender equality and women empowerment, and done his very best to stem corruption in government. Dr. Abati said that contrary to the Economist’s assertions, Nigeria, under President Jonathan, has made very considerable progress, adding that in spite of the significant challenges of terrorism and insurgency the nation faces today, President Jonathan has ensured that Nigeria becomes a more vibrant democracy with free media, an independent judiciary, free, fair and credible elections, and greater respect for human rights. “The Economist is entitled to its erroneous opinion on who represents the best leadership option for Nigeria in the coming elections, but happily for the country, it is not the magazine’s lead writers, but more knowledgeable and patriotic Nigerians who actually work and live in the country, that will vote and re-elect President Jonathan for a second term in office. “They will do so, because unlike the Economist’s opinion writers, they understand that a Buhari Presidency will, for their beloved country, represent a stark setback and retrogression from the tremendous ongoing positive transformation of Nigeria under President Jonathan’s leadership.” [myad]
L-R: Former President Shehu Aliyu Shagari; former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari; former military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, former head of Interim National Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan and former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar at the National Council of State meeting at the National Council of State meeting in the Presidential Aso Villa, Abuja today, Thursday 5th. [myad]
The Nigerian National Council of State rose from about seven-hour meeting at the Presidential Aso Villa today, avoiding a situation where it would dictate to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) whether or not it should hold the general elections as scheduled, on February 14 and 28. This is even as the electoral body has scheduled a meeting with all its Commissioners, the 36 State Electoral Commissioners and that of the nation’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja before taking the final decision.
Briefing newsmen today after the Council of State meeting, attended by President Goodluck Jonathan, former military President, Ibrahim Babangida, former Head of State and Presidential candidate of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari, all the governors of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and APC as well as other leaders, governors Rochas Okorocha of Imo state and Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo state said that the Council did not tamper much with the February 14 and 28 for the election.
Though governor Okorocha said that INEC had been advised by the council to perform its civic responsibility with regards to this month’s elections even as governor Mimiko said that INEC was advised by the council to embark on consultations with stakeholders and see if it is possible to go ahead with the election or not, it still stands that the electoral body has been thrown the challenge of independently coming up with the final say on this.
Shortly after the Council of State meeting, INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega announced that he would hold a meeting on, Friday, with the national electoral commissioners and another one with the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory on Saturday. The aim of the two meetings is to enable the INEC chairman to brief the national commissioners on the outcome of the National Council of States meeting and on Saturday hear the situation of things on ground from the Resident Electoral Commissioners before coming out with a clear position on the general elections. The meeting with the Resident Commissioners will be for an on the spot assessment of the distribution of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs). According to National Commissioner, so far, only over 45 million PVCS have been distributed. So the meetings will assess everything before a final decision. It was gathered that there may be a stakeholders’ meeting with political parties on Monday before a final decision is taken. [myad]
Sometimes there are no good options. Nigeria goes to the polls on February 14th to elect the next president, who will face problems so large—from rampant corruption to a jihadist insurgency—that they could break the country apart, with dire consequences for Nigerians and the world. And yet, as Africa’s biggest economy stages its most important election since the restoration of civilian rule in 1999, and perhaps since the civil war four decades ago, Nigerians must pick between the incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan, who has proved an utter failure, and the opposition leader, Muhammadu Buhari, a former military dictator with blood on his hands (see article). The candidates stand as symbols of a broken political system that makes all Nigeria’s problems even more intractable.
In this section
Start with Mr. Jonathan, whose People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has run the country since 1999 and who stumbled into the presidency on the death of his predecessor in 2010. The PDP’s reign has been a sorry one. Mr. Jonathan has shown little willingness to tackle endemic corruption. When the governor of the central bank reported that $20 billion had been stolen, his reward was to be sacked. Worse, on Mr. Jonathan’s watch much of the north of the country has been in flames. About 18,000 people have died in political violence in recent years, thousands of them in January in several brutal attacks by Boko Haram, a jihadist group that claims to have established its “caliphate” in territory as large as Belgium. Another 1.5m people have fled their homes. The insurgency is far from Mr Jonathan’s southern political heartland and afflicts people more likely to vote for the opposition. He has shown little enthusiasm for tackling it, and even less competence. Quick to offer condolences to France after the attack on Charlie Hedbo, Mr Jonathan waited almost two weeks before speaking up about a Boko Haram attack that killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of his compatriots. The single bright spot of his rule has been Nigeria’s economy, one of the world’s fastest-growing. Yet that is largely despite the government rather than because of it, and falling oil prices will temper the boom. The prosperity has not been broadly shared: under Mr Jonathan poverty has increased. Nigerians typically die eight years younger than their poorer neighbours in nearby Ghana.
Goodbye Jonathan
Voters have ample cause to send Mr. Jonathan packing. In a country where power has often changed through the barrel of a gun, the opposition All Progressives Congress has a real chance of winning through the ballot box. Yet its candidate, Mr. Buhari, is an ex-general who, three decades ago, came to power in a coup. His rule was nasty, brutish and mercifully short. Declaring a “war against indiscipline”, he ordered whip-wielding soldiers to ensure that Nigerians formed orderly queues. His economics, known as Buharism, was destructive. Instead of letting the currency depreciate in the face of a trade deficit, he tried to fix prices and ban “unnecessary” imports. He expelled 700,000 migrants in the delusion that this would create jobs for Nigerians. He banned political meetings and free speech. He detained thousands, used secret tribunals and executed people for crimes that were not capital offences. Should a former dictator with such a record be offered another chance? Surprisingly, many Nigerians think he should. One reason is that, in a country where ministers routinely wear wristwatches worth many times their annual salary, Mr Buhari is a sandal-wearing ascetic with a record of fighting corruption. Few nowadays question his commitment to democracy or expect him to turn autocratic: he has repeatedly stood for election and accepted the outcome when he lost. He would probably do a better job of running the country, and in particular of tackling Boko Haram. As a northerner and Muslim, he will have greater legitimacy among villagers whose help he will need to isolate the insurgents. As a military man, he is more likely to win the respect of a demoralised army. We are relieved not to have a vote in this election. But were we offered one we would—with a heavy heart—choose Mr Buhari. Mr Jonathan risks presiding over Nigeria’s bloody fragmentation. If Mr Buhari can save Nigeria, history might even be kind to him.
All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Organisation has asked Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government to tell Nigerians what happened to $1.5 Billion (about N300 Billion) which the US Exim Bank provided for investors in the power sector even as it dismissed President Jonathan promise, four years ago, of improving electricity, as a ruse. APC Presidential Campaign Organisation, in a statement by its Director of Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said that as at today, the government has not come out to tell the nation about the status of the credit line by US Exim Bank, lamenting: “no one can show exactly where all that money has gone.” Garba Shehu recalled that while campaigning for the 2011 presidential elections, President Jonathan made a number of promises to Nigerians, including the rehabilitation of all existing power generation, distribution and transmission assets to give a minimum of 6,000mw of electricity; the harnessing of alternative sources of energy such as coal, wind and solar to generate an initial 13,000mw, and the unbundling of PHCN into 18 successor companies. The APC’s Director regretted that four years after he made those promises, President Jonathan is still making more promises to Nigerians, when he clearly has no intention of fulfilling them the same way he has not fulfilled those regarding power. He said that, in initial moves craftily aimed at convincing the nation that he was true to his word, the PDP candidate went on to create the Nigeria Bank Bulk Electricity Trading Plc. and undertook an MoU with General Electric mostly to add up to 15 percent in power projects to achieve 10,000mw addition by 2020. “However, till date, unacceptable lapses are still seen in the power sector,” Shehu said. “All over Nigeria, from Yola to Port Harcourt to Ibadan, Nigerians are complaining about the poor supply of electricity to their offices and homes.” Garba Shehu said that Nigeria’s current capacity is still under 4400MW, despite the PDP government’s promise to complete all National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP) to deliver at least 4,000 MW by 2012. “As of 2015, NIPP has not met 50 percent of what it said it would achieve by 2012,” Shehu said. “NIPP’s involvement in the power sector requires more transparency and disclosure.”
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PDP’s Dangerous Campaign Places Nigeria Firmly On Threshold of Change, By Peter Claver Oparah
Going into the February elections, Nigerians are deeply divided along tribal, ethnic and religious lines. More than any other ruler in the chequered history of Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan has worked very hard to amplify the differences among Nigerians. He had done tremendously to make us realize that we are not of the same tribe, tongue or religion. He had invested handsomely in reifying the divisive tendencies that undergird the Nigerian nationhood such that the coming election is coming with fearful promises of deepening the schisms, the divides and possibly leading to the disintegration of the country. A sneak preview into the embarrassing campaign of President Jonathan and his PDP reveals this scenario. When Nigerians feel that a president that should leverage on whatever are the achievements he wrought with a six years unprecedented oil windfall (the highest in the history of the country) to advertise his competence for additional tenure, all they get are mudslinging, character assassination, muck raking, blackmail, abuses, fabrication of lies and incendiary hate propaganda against their main challenger, General Muhammadu Buhari.
But then, elections, for ruling parties, are about giving accounts of stewardship and tapping on that to seek for elongation. For a ruling party, election time is time for testimony of the good things it had done and the need to trust it with more time to do more. But Nigerians are not getting that from Jonathan and the PDP as they strive so desperately to parry our attention from the most critical question of how well they have managed our affairs in the last six years. Where we would have been told (even as we don’t experience it) how our lives had been improved by the government, we are fed with tons and tons of hugely fabricated lies and insidious propaganda against just one man.
When Nigerians expect fruitful results from the providential oil windfall that has blessed the six years of Jonathan, how he will work to improve the pallid state of the country under his insipid watch, all they get are unflagging abuses, character assassination and woeful resort to throwing brickbats at their main opponent. Most importantly, Jonathan seems to have invested so much in driving knives of hate and intolerance among the country’s Christians and Muslims, among Southerners and Northerners and thereby precipitating a conflagration among Nigerians, having realized that the probabilities of his retaining power is practically gone.
But there is no escaping the sordid underpinnings of the Jonathan presidency however it tries to divert our attention. Recently, Charles Soludo, the former Governor of the Central Bank made a startling revelation that a huge N30 trillion has been stolen from the country’s treasury during Jonathan’s tenure. This only followed the yet to be resolved revelation by Soludo’s successor as CBN Governor, Emir Lamido Sanusi that $20 billion was diverted from the country’s treasury and also the bombshell from former President Obasanjo that the foreign reserve he built up in his eight years has been completely depleted. These are just infinitesimal bits of the In the face of these hair-raising revelations by those that should know, Nigerians are getting poorer to the extent that the country is on the verge of becoming the country with the highest number of poor people in the world, infrastructures continue to decay, standard of life continues to plummet, life expectancy is on such a free fall that the respected Economist Magazine wrote that Nigerians die eight years younger than their counterparts in poorer Ghana! Public power supply has dimmed considerably from where Jonathan met it despite the fact that billions of dollars have been poured into it, our health sector survives as an expansive mortuary as the death rate continues to expand, and hunger, disease and want ravage millions of Nigerians to no end.
Also, corruption and stealing of public resources have become integral parts of government. Jonathan insists that stealing is not corruption and maintains that he will not send corrupt people to jail. This has been the well exploited license that has opened the huge resources of the country to free pillaging as the Jonathan regime feels satisfied celebrating the corrupt beneficiaries of its quaint predilection to Byzantine corruption as the hallowed fruits of his paradoxical economic growth. Nigeria under Jonathan is bankrupt today as a dip in oil earnings has wrecked the states and ensured that states and even the federal government owe workers’ salaries for several months. Today, and despite the gloating of a booming economy, Nigerians are hungry, angry, frustrated, demeaned, agitated and edgy, as Jonathan presents himself for re-election.
In its latest editorial dedicated to the coming February General election, The Economist has this to say of the Jonathan government;
“Start with Mr Jonathan, whose People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has run the country since 1999 and who stumbled into the presidency on the death of his predecessor in 2010. The PDP’s reign has been a sorry one. Mr Jonathan has shown little willingness to tackle endemic corruption. When the governor of the central bank reported that $20 billion had been stolen, his reward was to be sacked.
“Worse, on Mr Jonathan’s watch much of the north of the country has been in flames. About 18,000 people have died in political violence in recent years, thousands of them in January in several brutal attacks by Boko Haram, a jihadist group that claims to have established its “caliphate” in territory as large as Belgium. Another 1.5m people have fled their homes. The insurgency is far from Mr Jonathan’s southern political heartland and afflicts people more likely to vote for the opposition. He has shown little enthusiasm for tackling it, and even less competence. Quick to offer condolences to France after the attack on Charlie Hedbo, Mr Jonathan waited almost two weeks before speaking up about a Boko Haram attack that killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of his compatriots.”
This is just a summation of the damning international opinion on the Jonathan government, which goes like this;
Influential Newspaper, New York Times, writes, “Mr Jonathan, who leads a corrupt government that has little credibility.”
Britain’s TV station Sky News thinks, “President Jonathan is at best naive, at worst manipulative.”
Well respected financial publication, The Economist, says ,“Jonathan’s government incompetent, callous and very corrupt”.
British Newspaper, The UK Guardian, writes on the president’s corruption record,“Jonathan’s record on corruption is a disgrace”.
Former United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, describes the Jonathan government saying, “Nigeria under Jonathan, squandered oil wealth, and breeds corruption.
Former US presidential candidate and Senator, John McCain speaking on the Chibok girls said, “We shouldn’t have waited for a practically non-existent government to give us the go-ahead before mounting a humanitarian effort to rescue those girls”.
According to the US State Department, “Massive, Widespread and Pervasive corruption affecting all levels of government under President Jonathan”.
The local opinion is more damning and forms the preface for the February 14 election. This is the kind of indicting scenario Jonathan and his PDP are trying desperately to run away from and what better way to do that than to go personal and divert discourse and election campaigns to banalities with liberties to sell lies and falsehood and hoodwink unsuspecting and ill exposed citizens? What better way than to indulge in infantile trading of lies, mischief and inanities as a campaign manifesto? For this dirty job, PDP and Jonathan have gathered a hefty cache of jobbers when they should have gathered economic, political and governance experts to drive their campaign. With the huge resources salted from the treasury, the PDP has bought off the entire media; print, electronic and online with a singular mission to engage in lies, blackmail, forgeries, haul dirt at their presumed nemesis, Gen. Buhari and these are over working themselves to earn their illicit commission. Sadly for them, the more they engage on these dirty campaigns, the more they mobilize Nigerians on the great need to rusticate them on February 14.
A sample; Few days ago, AIT, a station committed irrevocably to the corrupt interests of the PDP did a very dangerous documentary with the sole purpose of generating lies and evil propaganda to tarnish the image of Buhari. The documentary was meant to put a final seal on Buhari and for this, AIT smiled to the bank. After repeatedly airing this one hour documentary for some days, AIT opened an online poll to gauge how well its hate mission has sunk with Nigerians. Lo and behold, Buhari so roundly trounced Jonathan in the poll such that 79 per cent voted Buhari while a paltry 19 per cent voted Jonathan! Embarrassed and roundly humiliated at the failure of its mercenary job, AIT pulled down the poll, making a face saving claim that some people hacked into its site!
What is becoming so obvious to the PDP and Jonathan presidency is that the more they sow lies and falsehood to arrest the soaring Buhari candidacy, the more Nigerians get mobilized around him as a panacea to the continued decay and rot that have pockmarked PDP’s years in power. As it stands today, the coming election has been called for Buhari by Nigerians that refuses to buy PDP’s jaded market of mudslinging as a campaign tactics. The expectation is that given the rancor and division the PDP has slyly sold in Nigeria, a Buhari presidency should start working on a untive template to weave Nigerians from every tribe and religion together again, heal the fractures that have been inflicted on the Nigerian state and lead the country to recovery from the blisters of the present. What we have presently is a fruit of total failure of leadership as exemplified by Jonathan’s six years of failed leadership. It behooves the coming leadership to hit the ground running as soon as it is elected and mop up the strains the PDP has brought to bear on the structures and people of the country.
Peter Claver Oparah
Ikeja, Lagos. [myad]