Southern Nigeria Professionals Disown Those Calling For Professor Jega’s Sack

February 7, 2015

A group, going by the name, Southern Nigeria Professionals in Defense of Democracy has disowned the call by the Southern Nigeria Peoples’ Assembly for the sacking of the chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega.

The Southern Professionals, in a statement signed by Engineer Rotimi Fashakin, Barrister Okoi Obono Obla and Chief Osita Okechukwu, described the outing of the Southern Nigeria Peoples’ Congress as shameless, adding that it had no mandate of the Southern Nigeria People.

Full text of the statement goes thus:

We belong to the Southern Nigeria Professionals in Defense of Democracy. This is an amalgam of Youth groups, socio-political contacts groups in the three geo-political zones in Southern Nigeria

You are all witnesses to the Press statement on 5^thFebruary, 2015 by a group called the Southern Nigeria Peoples’ Assembly. In the said statement, the group alleged, among other things, bias of the INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, towards the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari, in the forthcoming Presidential election. The group further asserted that Professor Jega has concluded arrangements to declare this Party’s candidate as the winner of the election irrespective of the electoral performance of their favoured candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. In conclusion, the group lambasted the INEC chairman as an ethnic bigot and demanded his resignation, while also calling for a shift of the elections by eight weeks, precisely to April 2015.

The shameful outing by this group, which cannot be said to have the mandate of Southern Nigeria people, however, failed to answer certain salient questions:

Was Professor Attahiru Jega also an Ethnic Bigot when the INEC under his leadership conducted the 16^th April, 2011 Presidential election and returned Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as validly elected, an election in which General Muhammadu Buhari was also a candidate?
Was Professor Attahiru Jega also responsible for ensuring that General Muhammadu Buhari won the Presidential Primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on 10^th December, 2015.
Must the Powers given to INEC to conduct elections and fix election timetable be subjected to the whim and caprice of an ethnocentric group of unpatriotic zealots?
How did the election timetable fixed by INEC more than six months ago become a subject of much hoopla, just a few days to the conduct of the election?

Much as we appreciate the desperation of these ethnic champions, in their bid to rebuild their Stomach Infrastructure that is fast falling apart, we are appalled that any group, peopled mainly by Ancients, can so bizarrely make calls that threaten the entrenchment of true democratic values in our Nation. We are equally ashamed that these latter-day ethnic jingoists have once occupied enviable positions in this country from which they preached national cohesion; they have now preferred to heed the calls of the Stomach more than the calls of true Patriotic service to the Fatherland. As people belonging to the Younger generation from Southern Nigeria, we wholeheartedly reject the calls by these people. We refuse to allow them to destroy our future by their shallow perception of the electoral process. We affirm that, before President Goodluck Jonathan, there had been democratically Presidents and after him, there shall be other democratically elected Presidents. Nigeria’s unity and sovereignty must remain sacrosanct. Furthermore, these zealots, in their blinkered view of nationhood, have unwittingly boxed Dr. Goodluck Jonathan into the conundrum of a sectional President. This becomes disappointing in view of the overwhelming support that VP Goodluck Jonathan enjoyed from a broad spectrum of the Nigerian citizenry, for him to be made Acting President during the debility of the late President Umaru Musa-Yar’adua in 2010!

The issues before the Nigerian voters are beyond INEC as an electoral Umpire. Nigerians are miffed by four years of broken promises by the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan. The less than 4, 400 Mega Watts currently generated in the country is a far cry from the promised harnessing of alternative sources of energy such as coal, wind and solar to generate an initial 13,000mw. There is palpable insecurity in the land which has consigned portions of our fatherland under the suzerainty of Insurgents while the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces appears incompetent to deal with the threat responsively. As we speak, over two hundred teenage girls have remained in the captivity of Insurgents while the President appears more preoccupied with his reelection bid. Just a few days ago, Chadian Forces moved into Nigerian territory to assist in killing off some of these Insurgents. But we know that there was a time in the history of this land that our Military was strong enough to repel, very forcefully, the expansionist adventure of the Chadian Army. But, quite unfortunately, under President Jonathan, Nigeria has become a laughing stock in the weakening of its Military to valiantly defend her territorial integrity. Corruption is rife because Nigeria’s President does not give a damn in leading this fight against institutional corruption from the front. Quite recently, the Price Water House (PWc) forensic audit report of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has come out with a damning indictment of the Oil Conglomerate. The corporation has been told to remit a minimum of $1.48Billion into the federation account. In 2010/2011 financial year, N240Billion was set aside for oil subsidy but ended up spending more $16Billion (according to the statement of the former Central Bank Governor, Mallam Sanus Lamido Sanusi).

These are the issues that have remained intractable under the Presidency of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. The attempt by the Southern Nigeria People’s Assembly to change the narrative from these serious issues to the mundaneness of ethno-religious bigotry must be resisted by all Nigerians that love the Nation State. As they have always failed in their devious schemes to continue to elongate the Presidency of Dr. Jonathan beyond 29th May, 2015, they shall continue to fail.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Engr. Rotimi Fashakin. Barrister Okoi Obono Obla. Chief Osita Okechukwu. [myad]

Frightening Political Storm In Nigeria, By Yusuf Ozi-Usman

Yusuf Ozi-Usman

February 6, 2015

Typical of Nigerian situation, the small talks a few days ago about the shifting of the dates for elections in the Nigeria’s march again to the next level of democratic practice have developed into a big national headache, threatening to tear the country apart. National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki set the tone of the fire in far-away London at a think-tank a couple of weeks ago, the fire that is spreading fast and threatening to consume all of us.
And, the curious thing in the unnecessary storm that has been raging on which actually drew the attention of the nation’s present and past leaders at a National Council of State meeting yesterday, is the fact that those who insist on the original dates of February 14 and 28 are coming purely from the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) and its sympathizers while those agitating for shift in the dates are coming from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Presidency with their sympathizers in tow.
From the way the dates for election are being canvassed and opposed, it appears that there are more to it than the two sides, especially, the PDP is ready to tell Nigerians.
The call for shift in the dates for elections has been unmindful of the fact that the original dates for the elections were fixed several months ago, with the inputs from, and acceptance of, all the stakeholders, including all the political parties without exception. It is on the basis of the dates that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been working. Indeed, it is on record that INEC had had about four years preparing for these elections, climaxing in the fixing of the dates.
It beats one imagination why, just as the nation is bubbling in high spirit for the elections, some group of people, led by the party that appears to have been in the forefront as regard the practice of democracy for the past 16 years, would suddenly wake up to want to twist the hand of INEC to shift such dates.
Coming to what looks now almost a dead-end; the politicians have placed this country at the precipice, not minding the Independency of the electoral body.
If the Presidency and PDP which have just indicated that they would not be comfortable with the original dates of February 14 and 28 succeed in their stand, what would make them to think that APC and its sympathizers would concede to other dates to which the elections might be shifted?
More importantly and dangerous is the idea that if INEC is accused of not been able to put its act together in the last 48 months, there is practically no magic which it would perform to correct such anomalies even in the next 12 months.
A new dimension was brought into the agitation for shift in the dates for elections when, today, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), led by Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor just came up to say that the Christians in the country would not accept any election (conducted on February 14 and 28) that excluded about 20 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the various bomb blasts and other security problems across the country.
What the CAN implied was that about 20 million people that have been displaced are all Christians and that they are not likely to have the opportunity of casting their votes. And who counted them to arrive at 20 million? And that they are all Christians?
The CAN’s lie, just so that it can make a case for election postponement is that there can be no way Nigeria would be having now as much as about 20 million IDPs out of the nation’s total population of about 170 million, in deed, it looks very frightening and self-defeatist to even say that the Goodluck Jonathan government has gone so low as to create a sordid condition that make way for such mouth-watering number of IDPs, which is a big chunk of the nation’s population.
In any case, whoever told CAN that the 20 million IDPs, assuming they are all Christians would all have voted for only one candidate to the exclusion of others? Is CAN saying that all Christians in the country will end up voting for only one candidate to the exclusion of others? This is one dangerous dimension: of religion and telling blatant lies by a religious body, that is being frantically brought into the present quarrel over dates for elections. CAN, in a situation Nigeria has found itself now, is supposed to regulate the thinking process of its members for a better, peaceful and united society. But, it is obvious that it has become more political than the registered political parties!
And, the idea of calling INEC, especially its chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega all sort of names by those who imagined that they are losing the grips of power amounts to setting a very dangerous precedent. Those people are simply implying that if they think they cannot have their way, it is better the country is thrown up in disarray.
Of course, Pastor Oritsejafor remembered however to remind the politicians who would rather throw the country into crisis because they are losing out in the power game. of the fact that they do not mean well for this country.
The position which Nigeria is in now, with the two political giants at diametrically oppose position on the dates for the elections, we may be headed for confusion that could result in what APC has been crying about loud: Interim Government!
Why not, if one remembers that the governor of Akwa Ibo state, Godswill Akpabio vowed, in one of the Presidential campaign platforms a couple of weeks ago that “PDP will never hand over power to APC” and added: “God forbid!”
Our politicians should know that history is gradually recording each move they make. What they do today may look either insignificant or self-satisfying and or group-satisfying, but when the chips are down, they would be held accountable, if not at all times but at some auspicious times, and if not by men, but by God. [myad]

CAF Fines Morocco $1 Million, Bans It From 2017, 2019 AFCON

Greenbarge Reporters

February 6, 2015

Confederation of African Football (CAF) has kicked out Morocco from the 2017 and 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and fined it $1m for refusing to host this year’s event due to fears over Ebola.

The continental game’s ruling body also ordered the Royal Moroccan Football Federation to pay eight million euros in compensation.

Equatorial Guinea took over the 2015 tournament which ends on Sunday. [myad]

PDP’s Dangerous Campaign Places Nigeria Firmly On Threshold of Change, By Peter Claver Oparah

Greenbarge Reporters

February 6, 2015

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]

I’ve Not Come To Campaign Because I’m Sure Of Your Vote, Jonathan Tells His Kinsmen In Bayelsa

Greenbarge Reporters

February 6, 2015

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]

Nigeria’s Presidency Still Not Comfortable With February 14, 28 Polls

Greenbarge Reporters

February 6, 2015

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]

Commonwealth Election Director, Fisher, To Lead Observer Group For February Nigerian Elections

Greenbarge Reporters

February 6, 2015

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]

Osun Governorship Election: Aregbesola Smiles Home With Victory Against Omisore

Greenbarge Reporters

February 6, 2015

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]

Abati Angry With Economist For Endorsing Buhari, Says It Is Patriotic Nigerians That’ll Re-Elect Jonathan

Greenbarge Reporters

February 6, 2015

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]

Former Nigeria Leaders At Council Of State Meeting Today In Presidential Villa

Greenbarge Reporters

February 5, 2015

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 5^th. [myad]

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