A Regime’s Loss, A Nation’s Gain, By Garba Shehu

July 9, 2014

As the National Conference gradually inches to a close, the major surprise from its outcome may be the victory of the nation, as opposed to that of the Jonathan administration, the architect of the conference, which undoubtedly designed it in a way that it must fail.
In its short but memorable history, this country has had the fortune of so far surviving all the acts of brinkmanship by its rulers. We have gone through a civil war and survived it, and we have overcome countless other schemes to change the constitution for selfish reasons, mostly for the purpose of self-perpetuation by leaders.
It is inconceivable that the membership of a major conference of his nature would, in the first place be based on appointive representation, rather than elective one. But beyond this, the composition was so stacked against the North and Muslims in the country, that many thought, upon reading the breakdown, that it was intended to annoy these groups so that they would not agree to attend. There are about 300 Southerners to 200 Northerners. All past censuses put North-South population figures roughly at 54-46 percent. Sixty-two percent (62%) of the delegates are Christian, with Muslims and followers of traditional religions making up the balance of thirty-eight percent (38%). Christians make up 294 of the Conference membership.
The President had himself dilly-dallied for many years on whether to convene a conference or not to. In the beginning, he stoutly stood against it. Much later, he saw it as an opportunity to deflect attention from the woeful performance of his administration which had in turn generated tons of trenchant criticism on everyday basis.
Up to Seventy percent of membership of the conference was directly and indirectly appointed by the same administration. And they didn’t disappoint anyone by the way and manner they chose them. I must make clear that there are very several of them with undying passion for Nigeria, who are unimpeachably honest and hardworking; who are men and women championing the unity of the country. These are those who paved the way to Nigeria’s victory that I am celebrating this morning. They realized early enough that a President who had turned his party into rubble must not be allowed to do the same for the country.
Government made sure that there was not any one anti-national element left out that was not nominated to come to the conference. All those AGIPs – Any Government in power; the nation’s known “yes men” and “yes women”; the famous hacks tamed by government for barking in English; the political prostitutes selling their English speaking and articulation skills to criminally-inclined political masters over the past many years were the government’s first set of choices for the conference.
Many of those appointed delegates have no other jobs but are known for unsustainable life-styles that they desperately seek to hang onto.
In addition to the lopsided representation, the North’s leaders were skeptical about the Conference because government’s list was full of people seen as renegades and turn-coats, who had been associated with the unpopular policies of past regimes. In the South-West, many of their delegates were the self-styled sentinels of the republic, nearing expiry; people who have been dumped in the electoral garbage bin. The list was drawn up to spite the reigning leaders of politics in the region. In real politik, you can’t do political business in the South-West today without talking to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. A Conference that set aside 15 slots for the President’s Ijaw and none at the beginning for their Itsekiri traditional rivals did not set out to be fair in any respect. After they cried out aloud, the Itsekiri were awarded a nominal representation of one member.
Little wonder many of the government delegates ended up presenting trivial, meaningless, contrived, divisive, illogical and fallacious arguments.
Many of the so-called issues that the President copied and pasted from newspapers over the years as being Nigeria’s problems were settled issues. That is why they ended up being rejected as non-issues.
Delegates from the North surprised themselves in the same way they surprised many of their critics. In an era of 5G corruption and 10G insecurity, many believed that they will cave in to the greed and avarice of a given section of the country who wanted to gobble up the entire wealth of the nation. In the end, those of them seen as the usual suspects, the likes of Jerry Gana and John Dara may end up among the North’s real heroes. That the President’s religion-centered politics had failed to sunder the North is yet another key success of this get-together.
A loss by a government that chooses to throw the chance at history by playing the same set of drums of religion and ethnicity instead of rising above everything is a huge gain for the Nigerian nation. But celebrations over this victory will, however, pass for a short respite in view of the government’s growing provocation using the army through newspapers seizures, profiling of citizens on the bases of ethnicity and religion and the heat and cacophony on Northerners in the Eastern parts of the country.

Read More Articles From This Author: Garba Shehu

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Obasanjo Prevails On President Jonathan To Stop Govenor Nyako’s Impeachment

Greenbarge Reporters

July 8, 2014

There were indications that former President Olusegun Obasanjo prevailed on President Goodluck Jonathan to stop Adamawa state House of Assembly from going ahead with impeachment process on Governor Murtala Nyako.
Observers concluded that the presence of Obasanjo, for the first time in a long time, at the National Council of State meeting in the Presidential Villa, Abuja today was not a coincidence as the embattled governor also made a surprised presence.
Political watchers said that Obasanjo personally asked Governor Nyako to come for the meeting so that he would seize the opportunity to speak to President Jonathan on his behalf.
It would be recalled that the emergence of Governor Nyako and President Jonathan was the handiwork of Obasanjo, who believe that he still has a big role to play in the official lives of the two personalities.
Governor Nyako, who left the immediately after the meeting, refused to speak to newsmen.
“I don’t want to talk please,” Nyako said as he walked briskly pass the journalists.

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Chibok Girls: Obasanjo, Babangida, Gowon Others Agree Jonathan Is On Top Of Situation

Greenbarge Reporters

July 8, 2014

Former Nigerian leaders, including General Yakubu Gowon, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida, Ernest Shonekan and others have been convinced that the security operatives have found the whereabouts of the female students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno state who were abducted in April by members of Boko Haram.
The leaders, who converged on the Presidential Aso Villa, Abuja today, to meet with President Goodluck Jonathan under the aegis of National Council of State, also agreed that President Jonathan is on top of the sordid security situation in the country.
Breifing newsmen shortly after the meeting, the governors of Akwa Ibom state, Godswill Akpabio, Edo state, Adams Oshiomhole and Kaduna state, Lamaran Yero said that the meeting started with President Jonathan briefing the leaders on the measures he had so far taken to address the worsening security situation, particularly the abducted Chibok female students.
They said that the National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Dasuki (rtd) also briefed the leaders, upon which the former Nigerian Presidents and Heads of States in attendant expressed satisfaction.
“We are satisfied that security people know where the girls are right now and have to be meticulous in bringing them from their captors in a way that none of them would be killed in the process.
“We are satisfied that the military authority and other security agents are on top of the situation.”
The leaders then asked Nigerians to be patient with President Jonathan and the security people to continue with their good work to bring back the girls and bring Nigeria back to the path of peace and unity.
They made it clear that terrorism involving suicide bombing is a new security phenomena which the nation’s conventional security people were not used to, saying that such war in which there is no defined enemies is difficult to fight.
The leaders also appealed to news media not to celebrate terrorism even as they also called on the politicians avoid partisanship in the type of security challenges in the nation is going through.
The leaders who attended today’s Council of State meeting were the former Heads of State, Generals Yakubu Gowon, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar, former head of the National Interim Government, Chief Ernest Shenekan as well as former Presidents Shehu Shagari and Olusegun Obasanjo.
Former Head of State General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd) is conspicuously absent at the meeting.
The governors at the meeting include Murtala Nyako of Adamawa state, that of
Bayelsa, Delta, Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi, Taraba, Edo, Akwa Ibom, Gombe, Kebbi, Kaduna, Cross River, Niger and
Kogi states.
Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo as well as Senate President, David Mark and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal were also in attendance.‬

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Chibok Girls: Jonathan Will Not Dance To The Gallery, Says Dr. Abati

Greenbarge Reporters

July 8, 2014

Special adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati has made it clear that the President has no business trying to go public to reveal the position of the female students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno state abducted in April by Boko Haram, simply to please anybody and risk the lives of the girls.
Abati said, in reaction to editor Karren Attiah of the Washington Post today: “Mr. Jonathan won’t put the lives of these girls at risk by publicly revealing details of the recovery operation for the sake of satisfying his critics.”
Karren Attiah had written on what he said
“President Goodluck Jonathan should have written,“ but which Abati defended in his letter to the editor.
“Nigeria,” the Presidential spokesman said, “is aggressively confronting the Boko Haram threat.”
Calling Karen Attiah’s write up as misinformed, Dr, Abati said that the claim that the president has a “do-nothing” attitude toward rescuing the girls is not different than what was written about President Obama’s decision not to disclose his efforts to seize and arrest the alleged ringleader of the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans — until he did just that.
“Despite Ms. Attiah’s claims to the contrary, even before the abductions, the president was engaged in international intelligence-sharing involving West Africa, Europe and the United States, and he had also launched the Counter-Terrorism Centre in Nigeria.
“He has been working intensely on the very challenging situation posed by Boko Haram since assuming office, including declaring a state of emergency in May 2013 in the three most affected northern states.”

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Governor Oshiomhole Accuses PDP, Police Of Celebrating Lawlessness In Edo- Says He Can’t Be Intimidated

Greenbarge Reporters

July 8, 2014

Governor Adams Oshimhole of Edo state has lamented the lawlessness that is being perpetrated by four Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members in the state House of Assembly with full connivance and back up of men and officers of the Nigeria police in the state.
Oshiomhole, who spoke to newsmen at the side of the National Council of State meeting held at the Presidential Aso Villa today, said the PDP members have chosen to disregard a High Court ruling barring them from entering the Assembly even as the police continue to give them cover to disrupt peace in the state.
The governor said that as a unionist who had spent most parts of his adult life fighting the government and bad system, he would not allow himself to be intimidated by the federal government, using Police and four renegade members of the state House of Assembly.
He narrated how the four members decided to create unnecessary confusion in the governance of the state simply because they wanted to show their masters in Abuja that they are strong.
“The good people of Edo state know their antics and have placed them where they belong. They even asked the High Court that barred them from the premises of the Assembly to go to hell. That no court can stop them from doing what they want to do.
“What is happening in Edo state is a celebration of lawlessness by just four suspended PDP members of the House of Assembly with police providing them support.”

[myad]

President Jonathan’s PR Offensive Backfires In Nigeria And Abroad, By Tim Cocks

Greenbarge Reporters

July 8, 2014

Facing censure at home and overseas for a perceived failure to protect civilians from violent Islamists, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has launched an international media offensive to try to turn the tide of public opinion in his favour.

But those efforts have backfired abroad, where many greet his defence with scepticism, and at home, where he was slated for hiring U.S. public relations (PR) firm Levick for $1.2 million, in what critics called a waste of money.

Jonathan, and Nigeria as a whole, have suffered a worsening image problem since Islamist militant group Boko Haram kidnapped more than 276 school girls from the northeast village of Chibok, Borno state, in mid-April. Over 200 remain in captivity.

The attack overshadowed Nigeria becoming Africa’s biggest economy after a GDP rebasing in April, and its hosting of the World Economic Forum in May. Security is a major headache ahead of national elections in February that are likely to be the closest-fought since democracy returned in 1999.

An opinion piece by Jonathan in the Washington Post last month – in which the president wrote “nothing is more important than bringing home Nigeria’s missing girls,” but added that he had to “remain quiet” for their safety – drew open scorn.

Soon after, the Washington Post’s Karen Attiah published a satirical send-up of Jonathan’s op-ed. Her piece included lines such as: “Nothing is more important than stopping the machinations of Boko Haram, except maybe my desire to keep up appearances and show the international community that Nigeria was winning the war against the group.”

Analyst Bismarck Rewane, CEO of Lagos-based consultancy Financial Derivatives, thinks the president’s timing was wrong.

“That op-ed backfired partly because the negative narrative was still so strong,” he told Reuters. “But often the PR guys advising want the upfront fees and don’t care about the result.”

Jonathan’s media team declined to comment on their PR strategy. A presidency source confirmed Levick’s contract but said such PR initiatives were standard practice for governments.

“All over the world governments engage PR firms and lobbyists to achieve certain objectives within a particular time frame,” the source, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

In this case those objectives involve reversing months of damaging publicity over the Chibok girls’ abduction, magnified by a #BringBackOurGirls Twitter campaign that drew in celebrities including Michelle Obama and Angelina Jolie.

In the past week Jonathan’s articulate and Washington-savvy Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has toured the world doing press interviews, for example with CNN’s Christine Amanpour.

These often include earnest assertions that the Nigerian president is “doing his best” to get the girls back.

Ultimately, the bad publicity is unlikely to doom Jonathan’s 2015 re-election chances. In Nigeria, patronage can produce a ballot win more reliably than perceived performance, analysts say, as was proved in last month’s governorship poll in southwestern Ekiti state.

There, incumbent Kayode Fayemi, a well-spoken reformer with a track record of improving services was ousted by a populist former governor from the ruling party whose team gave out tens of thousands of bags of rice to voters ahead of the poll.

“BATTERED IMAGE”

Jonathan’s supporters and the army – the defense spokesman did not respond to a request for comment – see PR as a key part of the war against Boko Haram. They view each negative report on the security forces or president as a psychological victory to the “terrorists”. And there have been a lot of them.

First the military was pilloried for not protecting the Chibok school or responding quickly enough to a distress call. Then the absence of information on the girls’ whereabouts – and a bungled statement from the military briefly claiming to have rescued them from which it later edged away – worsened things.

Footage circulating showing Jonathan dancing at a political rally in the northern city of Kano shortly after the mass abduction didn’t help, neither did comments from Jonathan’s wife Patience, in which she publicly told the protesting parents of the abducted girls in the capital Abuja to “go back to Borno.”

“No PR firm can save Jonathan’s battered image,” Jibrin Ibrahim, director of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), a Nigerian NGO, wrote in the local Premium Times website. “Forget the public relations firm and concentrate on the task … The government did nothing for over three weeks.”

Jonathan’s administration says that is unfair, arguing it faces an enemy that is mobile over a wide, remote area and with a track record of wanton killing of civilians, so any rushed rescue could end up in a bloodbath. But few are convinced.

“Best wishes to Levick, merely the latest in a long line of Western image consultants that Nigerian governments have been known to routinely engage for miracle-working purposes,” popular blogger Tolu Ogunlesi wrote in local daily The Punch last week.

Ogunlesi told Reuters that “this time the stakes are so much higher. You’re dealing with a major national embarrassment.”

A weak response is to always deflect blame for Nigeria’s problems onto foreign elements, Ogunlesi added, such as Jonathan describing Boko Haram as al Qaeda in West Africa.

REVERSED PERCEPTIONS

Ironically, many of the characteristics for which Jonathan is now being publicly vilified – a perceived indecisiveness and weakness in the face of a determined foe – were what initially attracted voters fatigued with decades of bullying strongmen.

His initial humility, quiet demeanor, apparent openness to listening and an unpolished manner of speaking may at first have won Nigerians over. Now they cringe when he mumbles on international TV.

“He was something refreshing at the beginning,” Nigerian columnist Cheta Nwanze told Reuters. “But the office of the president is supposed to carry a lot of weight. Damage has been done by his being exposed to ridicule.”

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Council Of State Meeting At Presidential Villa, Abuja, Today

Greenbarge Reporters

July 8, 2014

COUNCIL OF STATE, OBJ AND CO — Former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Chief Ernest Shonekan, General Ibrahim Babangida and General Abdulsalami Abubakar at the Council of State Meeting in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, today.

Nigeria Soldiers Dislodge Boko Haram From Stronghold

Greenbarge Reporters

July 7, 2014

Nigeria soldiers were said to have captured the stronghold of the fighting members of Boko Haram after a fierce battle over the weekend, resulting in the loss of at least six Nigeria soldiers.
According to the Director of the Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade in a statement, the cleared stronghold of Boko Haram is located in Balmo forest which stretches from Bauchi through Jigawa States with links to the fringes of Sambisa forest. This base has been used by the terrorists as hideouts from where they launch attacks on various communities.
General Olukolade said that well-armed terrorists operating in the forests have been completely rooted out while some have been captured during the operation.
Among those captured, according to him, were two foreigners who are suspected to be mercenaries.
Also captured, he added, are several weapons and equipment, including power generating sets, communication equipment, vehicles, motorcycles, foodstuff and kitchen utensils.
The information director said that over 44 members of Boko Haram were killed in another military operation in Kerenoa and adjoining communities.
He said that their attack on the communities was repelled, adding that they were armed with IEDs and other high caliber weapons.
“A large number of terrorists had carried out a predawn attack on the communities but met with stiff resistance of the troops. During the operation, several of them were captured as well as weapons and ammunitions of various calibre.”
General Olukolade said that troops on routine patrol around Banki and Miyanti in Borno State also fought through an ambush laid by terrorists resulting in casualties on both sides.
“Altogether, a total of 6 soldiers were lost in the various encounters with terrorists during the weekend while those wounded are receiving treatment.” [myad]

Nigeria’s Pension Assets Now Stand At N4.21 Trillion, Says President Jonathan

Greenbarge Reporters

July 7, 2014

Nigerian President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has revealed that the country’s ten-year accumulated pension assets are now N4.21 Trillion as against the deficit of about N2 trillion (USD 12.9b) in 2004.
The President, who declared open on Monday, the World Pension Summit ‘Africa Special’ in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital, recalled that the Pension Reform Act was enacted by the Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration in 2004,, to address the recurring challenges experienced in the administration of pension and to enhance efficiency in the system.
“This reform initiative established the Contributory Pension Scheme, for the public and private sectors.
“In ten years of sustained policy innovation and meticulous management, these have facilitated confidence and credibility in our pension system and administration.
The President said that apart from strengthening the pension institutions, the pension Act has enable the government to restructure the system of administration of the defunct Defined Benefits Scheme in the public service.
The government under the Act, according to Jonathan, set-up the Pension Transitional Arrangement Department (PTAD) and appointed its substantive Head, in order to improve the scheme.
“Our goal is to digitize pension payments and streamline payment procedures to ensure prompt and ease of payment of pension benefits.”
President Jonathan announced that he had just signed into law, the new Pension Reform Act 2014, which repealed the 2004 Pension Reform Act.
“The new law seeks to consolidate the gains of reform, address the identified implementation challenges and provide the enabling legal environment to facilitate the creation of quality instruments through which pension assets could be best invested for infrastructure and real estate development.”
The President is confident that these fresh initiatives will assist in consolidating the remarkable achievements recorded by the National Pension Commission (PenCom) in the implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme, over the last ten years, for the benefit of contributors, and the entire economy.
He expected that PenCom would put in place the necessary regulatory and supervisory framework to facilitate and accelerate the objectives of the reform.
“Most especially, ensuring the safety of pension assets and hence, workers’ security in retirement. I believe that other African countries share similar experiences, and reform zeal, as Nigeria and it is encouraging that a number of African countries have visited Nigeria, to understudy our pension reform and share ideas which we believe can be useful to the entire continent.
“As we commit to share experiences and seek growth, let me conclude by emphasizing that the protection of pension assets for the payment of retirement benefits, as and when due, should always be our paramount objective.
“I am confident that participants will seize the ample opportunity offered by this inaugural World Pension Summit ‘Africa Special’ to reflect and share experiences on how best to fine-tune African pension systems to globally acceptable standards, while retaining tailored and unique adaptations.”

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Boko Haram, Insurgence Are All Politics, Says Sultan Of Sokoto

Greenbarge Reporters

July 7, 2014

Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III has made it clear that the Boko Haram insurgency and other form of insecurity in the country are just part of the struggle by politicians to gain upper hands against one another in the 2015 elections.

The Sultan who spoke during a chat with journalists at a Ramadan dinner held in his palace in Sokoto, Sunday night, maintained that the rising wave of violence and wanton killing of innocent citizens is being geared towards 2015 elections, adding that the incessant killing of innocent citizens is all politics.

According to him, politicians are behind the myriad of problems ravaging the country.

“Politicians are the main problem of this country. The whole issue of insecurity problem in this country is geared towards 2015 election and nothing more. If there is no election in 2015 and they said till 2030, everything will cool down.

“You see, everybody is trying to take his own position and put himself at a vantage point to gain an extra mile ahead of 2015. The whole thing is all about politics. That is why you see killings but what is paining us is that innocent people are being killed everyday, especially people that don’t even know what is politics.

“We are shedding too much blood of innocent Nigerians and God will not be pleased with us when we keep on shedding innocent blood because their cries mean a lot.”

Sultan Abubakar advised Nigerians to put aside their religion and ethnicity and come together to tackle the myriad of problems bedeviling the country, saying that those who are perpetrating the killings live among the people and as such, there is the need for concerted efforts by all and sundry in order to bring an end to the insurgency.

“The best thing is let us identify these problems, we need to just come together, let us leave religion and ethnicity out of this issue. Let us be sincere and trust ourselves by coming together to solve our problems.

“There are some insurgents killing our people how do we stop them? let us find a way to stop them. These people doing this are not spirits but human beings. So, let us work together to solve our problems.”

The Sultan stressed the need for the Federal Government to dialogue with the Boko Haram insurgents with a view to securing the freedom of over 200 school girls abducted in Chibok, Borno state. [myad]

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