BARRISTER KEYAMO: THIS IS WHERE I STAND!!! -By Joe Dauda

In December, 2014, Barrister Keyamo (a man that needs no introduction in Nigeria) wrote a piece that was widely publicized, taking his stand for General Mohammadu Buhari, acerbically criticizing Dr. Jonathan, and challenging other Nigerians to make their stand known.
This piece is my answer to that clarion call.

Joe Dauda
Abuja.
March, 2015

MY STAND

For every point I will make in this piece, I stand to be corrected, but I will liberally consult my memory in writing and request patient understanding for positions that may either be exaggerated, sentimental, wrong, or unacceptable to the reader on the basis of opinion or superior information. I mean no disrespect and have no malicious intent. It is just the way I feel and, as they say, I am entitled to my opinion.
— Anonymous

Although many people are making it look very difficult, if you ignore the propaganda and the media blitz and just focus your mind briefly on the main issues, the easiest presidential election the Nigerian electorate will ever face must be the 2015 General Elections, which is scheduled to take place on the 28th of March. This is simply because the characters and capabilities/liabilities of the major contenders are now open books and only those determined to be deceived (or who are self-deluded already) can make wrong choices. Permit me to give you a peek into my thoughts:

In 2015, Nigerians will be making a choice between a bloody civilian and a retired military general.

In 2015, Nigerians will be making a choice between a man that was once elected by majority of Nigerians and another man that has always been rejected by majority of Nigerians.

In 2015, Nigerians will be making a choice between a man that has never won an election in Nigeria and another man that has never lost an election in Nigeria

In 2015, Nigerians will be making a choice between a man that has deepened democracy and another man that destroyed democracy over 30 years ago.

In 2015, Nigerians will be making a choice between a man that became Head of State without the blessings of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, and another man who became President only after he was sworn in by the Chief Justice of Nigeria.

In 2015, Nigerians will be making a choice between a man that cancelled a railway project he did not initiate (even after the state that initiated it had paid a whopping $50m as counterpart fund), and another man that initiated, sponsored, and has actually built railway lines linking the north of Nigeria to the South of Nigeria and intends to do more.

In 2015, Nigerians will be making a choice between a man who is so scared of criticism he forbids anyone to say anything not favourable to his government and threatens any who attempts to do so with jail without fair hearing, and another man who is so confident in democracy and confident of himself that, in view of his legion of enemies and their ownership of media houses, not only signed the Freedom of Information Bill into law, but has publicly averred that no Nigerian will go to jail for criticizing him.

In 2015, Nigerians will be making a choice between a man that believes (by his actions and utterances) that becoming Nigeria’s president is his right, and another man that is grateful for the privilege to serve this great country as number one citizen.

In 2015, Nigerians will be making a choice between a man who, through his actions, resembles a hater of education and enlightenment than anything else, and another man who will go down in history as the first to consider the plight of the millions of uneducated street urchins parading street corners in the north, and who actually began to do something to change their story by building 150 Almajiri Schools for them, even though primary education is not really the responsibility of the federal government.

In 2015, Nigerians will be making a choice between a man that violently stopped the September 1985 National Conference of the National Association of Nigerian Students, attacked a press conference of the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities, ASUU, and even banned the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, and another man that has opened the floodgates of freedom of association and whose government has no political prisoners.

In 2015, Nigerians will be making a choice between a man that did not build a single institution (tertiary, secondary, or primary) throughout the time he was Head of State, and another man who loves education and loves to see others educated so much that he has given evidence for this by building 14 federal universities in just 4 years – an unprecedented record in Nigeria’s history.

In 2015, Nigerians will be making a choice between a man who is directly responsible for denying young people their right to life by retroactively applying a decree just to make sure they are killed, and another man that loves young people so much his government became the first to seek out young people and give them grants as much as N10m through his YouWin initiative and several others, just so that they can live a better life. NOTE: These grants are grants: they are not loans to be repaid.

In 2015, Nigerians will be making a choice between a man who has a tactical and reactive approach to fighting corruption (even though corruption is only a symptom of a more serious disease) and another man who has a strategic approach. This man has called corruption by its real name – stealing – and focuses on the diseases that lead to corruption by implementing a strategy of rapid education, infrastructural development, women and youth empowerment, and curbing actual corruption through the deployment of technology to make corruption impossible.

DETAILS

General Buhari is a military man. He was trained to destroy – to fight. This is why the General is always saying he is going to fight. He wants to fight corruption and guarantee security, which he will achieve by fighting. Even his economic plan is not based on key development initiatives but fighting waste. If there is more money, then, every other thing will take care of itself. Many people believe that General Buhari built our refineries, but he did so under the orders of another administration – the first Obasanjo administration: many also believe General Buhari built roads and several other infrastructures; but, again, he did so under another administration – the Abacha administration. On his own, the man seems a better destroyer than builder. It is on record that, all through his 20-month reign, General Buhari did not do much more than basically fight. Or is there a road somewhere I missed; or a hospital, or some tractors he bought, or a school he equipped, or even a barrack he built between December 1983 and August 1985? I will honestly like to know. During his brief stay in power, General Buhari was busy fighting. He fought politicians, he fought journalists, he fought drug barons, he tried to kidnap Umaru Dikko from Britain, he fought the Nigerian Medical Association, he fought ASUU, he fought NANS, he killed young people outside the law, he jailed respectable politicians, he harassed traditional rulers, he humiliated elected leaders, he fought ordinary Nigerians and had them whipped on the streets, he fought free speech and he fought freedom of association; he even attempted to fight men in green like himself, which was what led to his untimely ouster. Now, it must be noted that the fight of General Buhari is always for the common good – or so he always believes. This is what makes his brutal actions somewhat forgivable and I have no doubt that the man means well. The problem is that, in spite of his good intentions, it takes a lot more to be a leader. Together with the fact that the man is personally abstemious, not materialistic, and almost Spartan, it is no wonder that Buhari has some magical effect, especially in the north and especially among the peasants, who cannot be accused of any kind of sophistication in their mode of reasoning. When politicians associate with Buhari, it is always as a result of this secondary advantage of his, which means some secured voters. Democracy does not discriminate between the vote of a complete illiterate who does as he or she is told, and an employer of labour in the thousands who contributes to society and understands economics and the dynamics of politics and societal development; so, notwithstanding, Buhari has real electoral value.

Why has General Buhari suddenly become so important in the Nigerian polity? Is it even a mystery? Maybe it is an issue of memory.

Until November 2013, Buhari was only important in the sense that he was tending towards a Guinness World Record – as the man that had contested and lost more presidential elections in history than any other. He had contested against Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003 and lost; he had contested against Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2007 and lost; again, he had contested against Dr. Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 and lost, in an election adjudged free and fair by members of the international community as well as by local observers. Although the General did not accept the result of that election and even, unwittingly or otherwise, made statements that led to the deaths of several Nigerians, the point, for now, is that he lost. If Nigerians have rejected this man at least 3 times, why are they suddenly in love with him?
Or are they?

LOCAL FACTORS

1. IT’S ALL ABOUT POWER SHIFT
If PDP had a northern candidate, many of the politicians shouting today in support of General Buhari would have been singing a different tune. It is critically important for Nigerians to know that the 2015 election is not about corruption or development or any other indices of good governance. It is all about power shift: power shift from the south to the north. As a matter of fact, the north has been out of power for some time now, and this, not by choice. Somehow, the atrocities of General Sani Abacha were such that the north felt that, especially because Chief Moshood Abiola had won the last elections in Nigeria, it was fair and just to ensure that a man from his region became president. In some way, this was a kind of compensation for the life and presidency of Chief Abiola, who was not only robbed of his presidency, but was also robbed of his life. So, the north massively supported Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and he won. Eight years later, Obasanjo did not need to be told to return power to the north. He had done this exact thing decades earlier as a military Head of State, and this was even rumoured to be one of the reasons the north felt comfortable with the idea of supporting him in the first place. Although Obasanjo himself would have preferred a third term, when he saw the hand writing on the wall of the red chamber of the Nigerian Senate, he did all in his power and, on 29th May, 2007, a northerner in the person of Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua became president.

Unfortunately for the north, Yar’Adua had health issues and, in spite of the despicable treatment he was subjected to by people who had everything to gain as long as he was in power, the man breathed his last on the 5th of May, 2010, paving the way for his self-effacing deputy to ascend to power. The north (largely made up of fatalistic Muslims who submit to the will of God when they perceive it) recognized the ascension of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as an act of God, although many of the old guard did not care about this. So, in spite of the threats of some members of this old guard that they were going to render Dr. Jonathan’s government ungovernable, he still won the general elections — not without substantial support from the north.

Being an astute politician who could read the times, Bola Tinubu also joined the Goodluck bandwagon and even ditched the candidate of his own party at the 2011 elections, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. Tinubu admitted this much recently in Lagos and said he actually helped Jonathan win the 2011 elections. The perfidy of Bola Tinubu and the wholly selfish reasons for his actions will be bypassed, for now.
It seems that some more realistic and less rabid members of the old guard in the north decided to extract some guarantee from Dr. Jonathan that he will only go for one term (as condition for their support) and ensure that power returned to the north by 2015. Whether or not this deal actually happened is open to speculation but, as soon as it became obvious to these northern hawks that Dr. Jonathan was going to run for a second term, all hell broke loose. First, it was the successful merger of several parties which coalesced into the All Progressives Congress, APC, on the 6th of February, 2013. The most important political actors in the merger that formed the APC were Bola Tinubu and General Buhari. Since Tinubu, by virtue of the fact that he was Yoruba could not consider running for president so soon after the exit of his kinsman (Olusegun Obasanjo), it was an open secret in Nigeria that the APC was going to field General Buhari as its flag bearer.

This was where the northerners in the PDP decided to be true to their region rather than to their party. This was when they began to raise dust and demand a firm declaration from Dr. Goodluck Jonathan that he was not going to contest in 2015. When this did not happen, the biggest political tsunami Nigeria had ever witnessed was the result as these 7 governors (of Adamawa, Sokoto, Rivers, Niger, Kwara, Jigawa, and Kano States) decided to form what they called the New PDP. The involvement of the Governor of Rivers State in this group was purely an accident. It obviously had to do with issues he was having with the First Lady of Nigeria at the time. For political protection, this man pitched his tent with the “rebel governors”. Note that the remaining 6 governors were all northerners and all Muslims. Before someone reads a false meaning to the foregoing statement of fact, I will quickly add that the formation of the New PDP was politically legitimate. The fact is that the Nigerian South is considered Christian (even though this is hardly true) and the Nigerian North is considered Islamic (even though this, also, is hardly true). So, after 8 years of a Christian southerner, but for Yar’Adua’s death, the unspoken deal was that it was going to be 8 years of a Muslim northerner. So, the religious colour of the New PDP was clearly Islamic (and rightly so) even though they got help from a Southern Christian whose grievance with the PDP was for a different reason. And, like I already hinted, there was nothing wrong with this. The north has a right to fight anyhow they feel politics allows in order to get power back to their region. These New PDP Governors did not break any law by beginning their march, which eventually ended with all but two of them joining the APC. That is the nature of politics; but it is pure deception to suggest that their exit from the PDP was about anything else. It is a lie to think that the exit of these governors made the PDP a corrupt party (where it was clean) or that their exit from the PDP made the APC a better party than the people that were already there. All those kinds of talk are simply political and convenient and I dare to state that, if Dr. Jonathan had agreed not to run for a second term, these same men that are now praising General Buhari would have been the loudest voices demonizing him since their own northern brother would have been running on the platform of the PDP.
These New PDP governors had done their calculation. Knowing the Nigerian electoral map, they had decided that, with Lagos in the APC and now Kano also in the APC, they had a real chance of becoming the new power at the centre in 2015. Such was the confidence of these men that they were able to instigate the movement of all the House of Representatives Members and Senators from their respective States. Since Buhari did not stop being a northerner after these men joined the APC, this was how Buhari’s profile began to rise in the political space. It now looked like he could become Nigeria’s President. Most politicians that have dumped the PDP for the APC since that time have done so because of this possibility on the horizon – not because they love Buhari, or believe in the APC, or even know or care about what the APC stands for.

DESPERATE EFFORTS

Compared to some other northern politicians, the ones that claimed they had a one-term deal with Dr. Goodluck Jonathan were actually angels. At the least, these one-term dealers were willing to allow Jonathan run for one term. But there was a group that wasn’t that nice. Again, there is nothing wrong with people in a region wanting power to return to their region, in spite of what seems an act of God. It is their right to ignore what looked like a divine arrangement; but, there was something about these men who did not even want Dr. Jonathan to run in 2011. They were filled with enough anger to openly threaten that, if Dr. Jonathan ran for the 2011 elections and won, his government will be rendered ungovernable. Read, below, some statements from them. This one is from Lawal Kaita, prominent member of the Northern Elders Forum.
“It is becoming apparent that the recent replacement of Service Chiefs is part of President Jonathan’s plan to use state apparatus to scale the 2011 presidential hurdle. Anything short of a Northern President is tantamount to stealing our Presidency. Jonathan has to go and he will go. Even if he uses the incumbency power to get his nomination on the platform of the PDP, he would be frustrated out.”
“The North is determined, if that happens, to make the country ungovernable for President Jonathan or any other Southerner who finds his way to the seat of power on the platform of the PDP against the principle of the party’s zoning policy.”

When someone challenged Kaita that northern Christian were going to vote for Dr. Jonathan in the 2011 elections, this was his response:

“What you may call Northern Christians are concentrated more in Benue State where they may constitute about 90 per cent. In Plateau State, if you study that carefully, the Christian/Muslim population is 60 per cent for Christians, 40 per cent Muslims, so Plateau State is not an entirely a Christian State. The only state in the North that is substantially a Christian community is Benue State.”1
One wonders if this is why we often read of raids in these two states by Fulani herdsmen who are armed beyond the average Nigerian soldier.

BOMBS BOMBS EVERYWHERE

Without peace and tranquility, it is difficult for any government to achieve much. If you do not believe the above statement, it seems the men who threatened Dr. Jonathan believed it. Four months after Dr. Jonathan ascended to power as President to complete Yar’Adua’s tenure, a bomb explosion rocked the capital city of Nigeria. Since then, almost a thousand more bombs have been detonated within the Nigerian geographical space – and not by Nigerian soldiers conducting war games! Today, Boko Haram has name recognition in Nigeria and even the world; but before Jonathan came to power, not many people within and outside Nigeria knew they existed. As a terrorist organization, they gained their fame by killing people in ways meant to shock and awe and they have killed 99% of the people they have killed since they came into existence within the four years of Dr. Jonathan’s administration. In less than five years, the activities of these terrorists have cost Nigeria over 20, 000 lives, displaced over a million people, resulted in economic loss of staggering proportions, changed Nigeria forever, and engaged our military men in an asymmetric warfare that has tested their resilience like nothing else in their whole history. The Boko Haram group is Islamic and largely based in the north. In spite of what government officials say to sound politically correct, this group has stated, as its key objective, the Islamization of Nigeria and the implementation of Sharia law. I do not know if they have succeeded in distracting Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and rendering his government ungovernable as threatened, but it is clear that they have done their worst to make him look bad. The most important duty of a President and Commander-in-Chief is to guaranty the security of his country. If people are dying every day, does it not suggest failure in this regard? Many Nigerians have lost faith in the federal government and the head of that government, not realizing the intricacies involved in fighting terrorists – and Jonathan has fought terrorists all through his presidency! No Nigerian President or Head of State has had that honour (or misfortune) of fighting enemies of the state throughout his administration.

Is it now farfetched for an innocent and simple Nigerian observer to see a correlation between the overt threat made against the Jonathan administration by some northern hawks, and the Boko Haram insurgency?

Consider the following facts:
Some people in the north did not want Dr. Jonathan to be president beyond 29th May, 2011

Some people in the north felt so bad about Dr. Jonathan’s ascension they damned the consequence and the possibility of prosecution and openly threatened to make his government ungovernable

Some people in the north felt cheated by Yar’Adua’s death and felt Jonathan was an opportunist
Some people in the north did not believe that Dr. Jonathan deserved to be President even after Yar’Adua’s death
Some people in the north felt it was the right of the north to rule for 8 years, in spite of the fact of Yar’Adua’s death
Some people in the north have never spoken a word in condemnation of the Boko Haram insurgency
Some people in the north have never sympathized with the Nigerian government and military in their fight against Boko Haram

Some people in the north have never offered condolences to the families of those slain by Boko Haram’s bullets and bombs

Some people in the north have risen to the defense of Boko Haram at least once

Some people in the north have said that Boko Haram (which must now be seen as ISIS) should be treated by the government of Nigeria the same way the government of Nigeria treated Niger Delta militants

Some people in the north have accused the government of killing “their people” when the government launched an offensive against Boko Haram

Some people in the north have been so incensed by the killing of Boko Haram by Nigerian troops that they threatened to take Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff (General Ihejirika) to the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
Some people in the north vehemently opposed the state of emergency declared by the Nigerian government in some northern states, to help the military establish command and control to deal with the Boko Haram insurgency
Some people in the north have stated their preference for Sharia law, which is also in tandem with Boko Haram’s objective

Some people in the north . . .

Recall 1999
In October 1999, then Governor of Zamfara State, now Senator Ahmed Rufai Sani Yerima, nearly set Nigeria ablaze when he declared Sharia Law in his State. This act, which was against the categorical provision of Section 10 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, caused a lot of tension in the country, with Christian members of the population urging the federal government to declare the action of the State Governor null and void, and some radical Moslem members of the population counteracting by saying that the declaration was a dividend of democracy, since it was based on the yearnings of the people of the state. This unconstitutional declaration of Sharia Law was coming less than six months after Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian from the Southwest region of Nigeria, started his first tenure. It was a political booby trap and Obasanjo was in a quiet dilemma which many people did not appreciate. If he came hard on Sani Yerima, the ordinary Moslem on the street will believe the cry of persecution and highhandedness against him that Yerima and people like him in the elite class were sure to make. In that case, anything could happen because the automatic reaction of Moslems will be holy war, which is referred to as Jihad. On the other hand, as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it was Obasanjo’s exclusive responsibility to deal with the situation. It was a complicated situation and really tempting, for an old General who had seen conflict before. Chief Obasanjo decided to follow the middle ground: he declared Sharia as a political stunt and tried everything possible to ignore it, hoping it will die out naturally. In fact, he predicted that it would fizzle out.

Obasanjo’s lukewarm response did not stop the stringent reaction of Christians from all over Nigeria. On the very first day of November 1999, just a few days after this provocation by Governor Yerima, members of the Cross Rivers State House of Assembly threatened to declare Cross River a Christian State, with all the implication behind such a declaration. They stated their opposition to the declaration of Sharia Law in Zamfara State and demanded that the federal government halts the transfer of funds generated from the mining of mineral resources from their State to Zamfara State. As far as they were concerned, it was an invitation to anarchy for the federal government to take funds generated from resources in Cross Rivers State to pay the bills of Zamfara State, which had declared itself a Moslem State. On that same first day of November, Christians in Kaduna State held a protest march to demonstrate against the adoption of Sharia. To make matters worse, legislators in Kano State, Sokoto State, Yobe State, and even Kaduna State, were threatening to follow Zamfara State and embrace Sharia as State law. High ranking Christians began to sound the alarm bell. Even the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) at the time – Sunday Mbang — added his dignified voice to the issue by publicly stating that Sharia Law would deny non-Muslims their fundamental human rights and create disaffection among various groups in the country and endanger the peaceful coexistence of the citizens of Nigeria.

What happened in Kaduna less than two months later was as a direct result of this Sharia crisis. Moslems in Kaduna State felt that they would not be cheated out of this very beneficial Penal Code that amputated people’s hands and even legs for crimes as benign as theft of chickens and also required death by stoning for other crimes. Many people lost their lives during that season and death did not come nicely. Some were roasted alive; some were sawn asunder; some were beaten to death and some were crushed by rampaging mobs. Of course, some were shot and killed by bullet wounds. This was apart from the wanton destruction of property worth billions of naira.

Leaders of the North had to do something or risk a conflagration that would devour their region. On the 7th of March 2000 – just a few weeks after the Kaduna mayhem – the then Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Maccido, initiated a Northern stakeholders’ meeting that eventually resulted in the formation of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF). In order not to scare Christians from the North as to the agenda of the forum, former Military Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, was prevailed upon to serve as the Chairman of the Board of Patrons of the Forum. Although the forum itself was led by a Moslem – retired Inspector General of Police Mohammed Dikko Yusufu – another Christian was chosen to head its Board of Trustees. This was none other than Chief Sunday Awoniyi — now late. All these efforts were meant to reassure Christians who were either resident in the North or who hailed from the North, that leaders of the North were not going to fold their arms and witness their rampaging youths deny other people their right to life after every little provocation.

The point in this interesting true story is that Moslems in the north were willing to adopt Sharia law (against the provisions of Section 10 of the 1999 Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria) so soon after a Christian President from the South came to power. This action is instructive and must never be forgotten. If the majority of northern Moslems shared the attitude of these people behind the Sharia movement, Nigeria would have gone up in flames. Luckily for us, the majority of Nigerian Moslems are moderate Moslems who understand the intricate balance that is required to maintain peace between adherents of the two religions.

A WORRISOME DEVELOPMENT

I do not feel the need for political correctness and would have to state things like I perceive them. It seems that Nigerian politicians (maybe through acts of omission or commission) have succeeded in creating fault lines in Nigeria’s polity. If not, how come the only two Governors in the Southwest region of Nigeria who are not in the APC but are actually in the PDP are also the only Christian Governors in the whole of the Southwest? All the other Southwest Governors that joined the APC are Muslims; consider, also, that all but one of the PDP Governors that left the PDP and made the APC an important opposition party are all Muslims. For quite a while, the APC has had a clear Islamic colour. Of course, I am not about to blame anyone in particular for this development but only to mention that something is not right about this. Incidentally, the APC’s decision to make a pastor their Vice Presidential candidate adds, rather than detracts, from this theory because it sure smells of compensation. I do not believe that it is so, but this is why some people have tried to associate the APC with the Boko Haram insurgency. They simply seem to have too many common grounds.

WHY I DO NOT TRUST THE APC

As an individual who is more interested in the Nigerian project than in supporting the aspirations (even legitimate aspirations) of a particular region, I have come to develop a certain level of distrust for the APC. This, in no way, means I am totally satisfied with the PDP and even the PDP-led government, but that is a gist for another day. Here are some reasons why I do not trust the APC and believe they are more partisan than Nigerian.

When the situation called for it, the APC instructed its senators not to participate in the vote for a state of emergency in the Northeast. I will forever respect the APC senators in the Senate of the federal republic of Nigeria because they ignored the directive of their party and did what they believed in; they did what was in line with their patriotic sentiments. They overwhelmingly voted in favour of the state of emergency and gave President Jonathan one of his most eager senate approval of 100 votes, for, and 9 votes either against or abstained.

The willingness of the APC to field a Muslim-Muslim ticket was so shocking to me I could not believe it. In fact, the first time I heard it was from Chief Femi Fani Kayode and I simply did not believe him. I felt Fani Kayode was simply trying to justify his exit from the APC somehow. When I heard Bola Tinubu talking about the issue and about how he agreed to step down as a Vice Presidential candidate, I was amazed. This insensitivity of the APC to the sentiments of Nigerians made me see something about the party I was blind to before then. With the APC, it is all about winning and it is all about the interests of a few strong men. Certainly, it is not about Nigeria. Fortunately, many Moslem members of the society also kicked against the idea of a Moslem-Moslem ticket which the APC almost presented. Even this week, General Buhari’s wife was profusely thanking Bola Tinubu for sacrificing his personal ambition to ensure that Professor Osinbajo emerged as Vice Presidential candidate to her husband.2 In fact, at some point, almost all the national officers of the APC were Moslems; this was the real APC. After much clamour by Nigerians, they sold a dummy in the person of John Oyegun as National Chairman; but everybody knows he is little more than a figurehead.

When former Governor Kayode Fayemi lost his election to Governor Ayodele Fayose, he did something no politician in Nigeria has ever done. He created a name for himself as the first incumbent to congratulate a rival that had won an election. Actually, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan had already become known for congratulating the opposition party each time they won elections, since he became president; but what Kayode Fayemi did was a first from the opposition party. Instead of allowing this act of statesmanship to inspire the APC like Dr. Jonathan’s tradition of conceding his party’s defeat has inspired the PDP to become good losers, the APC decided to spoil the whole show by issuing a statement that basically counteracted Kayode Fayemi’s concession speech. That act gave me a bad feeling about the party. I don’t think Fayemi was naïve enough to have thought that there were no irregularities in the elections; but, as the Governor of the State, he had come to accept the result as approximating the will of the people. The APC have been bad losers ever since, and this does not add to positive sentiments in their behalf.
Even though we, in Nigeria, knew that INEC was not ready for elections on the 14th of February 2015, APC is, today, congratulating itself for “correctly” predicting that the PDP-led government was going to postpone the elections – giving the impression that the postponement was part of an evil agenda. The crass opportunism in this is mind-boggling. The same APC has since seen over 10 million Nigerians in states controlled by them take advantage of the postponement to collect their PVCs. If this kind of action makes the APC feel smart and clever, it makes them stink to persons like me because I basically dislike opportunists. Why should the APC pretend that the postponement of the election was not good and turn around to start declaring public holidays without senate approval for the collection of PVCs? Whether or not the PDP had anything to do with the postponement is immaterial. When you add the testing of the card readers to the equation, the odium just gets more unpleasant.

Again, simply because they are not the ones in power and maybe because they were afraid it will add to the credibility of their opponents, the APC decided to boycott the National Conference convened by Dr. Jonathan. I believe they also wished it will fail. Because it did not, people like Bola Tinubu, who have been in the forefront of true federalism (which was one of the main burdens of the conference), have suddenly had a volte face. This is not my opinion but that of the Leader of the Oduduwa People’s Congress, OPC, Chief Gani Adams. The man said he was amazed at Tinubu’s sudden change of mind because, according to him, it was Tinubu that even taught them federalism. This kind of action makes me wonder how far the APC can go in making the government in power look bad. I cannot help but remember an allegation that, in 1980, George Bush Snr. and Bill Casey offered the Iranians an arms deal so that the Iranians will hold the US hostages held in the US embassy longer and help get Ronald Reagan into the White House. Who knows if this is what is playing out in the Chibok girls saga? The APC has shown itself capable of shocking unpatriotic acts.

WHY I DO NOT TRUST GENERAL BUHARI

Members of Boko Haram are ruthless, devious, murderous, and vain; and now, they have pledged allegiance to ISIS, which is the worst terrorist organization the world has seen in recent times, making Al Qaeda look like good guys. Why would this group mention the name of General Buhari as the man that they trust (along with six others) to be a mediator on their behalf?3

Buhari was willing to go along with the Muslim-Muslim ticket, but for the opposition of some members of the APC and Nigerians in general. Since they calculated that, with Lagos and Kano, they could win, this shows how much respect this man has for the millions of Christians in Nigeria, especially against the backdrop of the continuing Boko Haram insurgency, which primarily targets Christians, even though moderate Moslems are also not spared.
It will be easier to just quote a news story published by Thisday to make this point. “Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has criticised the declaration of state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States and the subsequent military offensive against the Boko Haram Islamic sect. Buhari, who featured on the “Guest of the Week,” a Hausa programme of the Kaduna-based Liberty Radio, yesterday, said the Federal Government’s action was a gross injustice against the North. According to him, unlike the special treatment the Federal Government gave to the Niger Delta militants, the Boko Haram members were being killed and their houses demolished. He said he was not in support of the declaration of state of emergency in the three north-eastern states because President Goodluck Jonathan had failed from the outset in addressing the security situation in the country”.4

Buhari is alleged to be a religious bigot. This must be indicative of something. Buhari is not the only Moslem northerner in Nigerian politics and there must be a reason for this reputation of his. As they say, there is no smoke without fire. He is alleged to have once said, “I will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the Sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria… God willing, we will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the Sharia in the country”.5 This is no sheer propaganda because, even the respected Guardian Newspaper carried a very bold headline on the matter, namely, Buhari calls for Sharia in all states.
I am also concerned that Buhari has not apologized for retroactively implementing a decree that led to the killing of three young Nigerians. He also has a propensity to break the law “for the greater good” and I see the ultimate Buhari like the late Gaddafi – absolute welfarism at the cost of absolute control over the population.

THE INTERNATIONAL CONNECTION

There seems to be a kind of soft support for the candidacy of General Buhari from the Western World, including the United States of America. The other day, we read that the firm (or a man who was part of the firm) that handled Barack Obama’s campaign is also in charge of some aspects of the APC Presidential Campaign. We have also read about the endorsement of Buhari (or editorials favourable to his candidacy) by several international papers, including the Economist and the New York Times. In fact, the New York Times has gone as far as claiming that the election that was postponed was orchestrated by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to frustrate General Buhari and that Jonathan was trying to exhaust APC funds because he had access to virtually limitless state funds. Taking the tempo further, the New York Times followed the earlier editorial with another one in which they openly endorsed Buhari for President and lambasted Jonathan.

What is the truth behind all this?
Ten years ago in 2005, America’s Central Intelligence Agency — the CIA — purportedly predicted that, in 2015, Nigeria was going to disintegrate. I do not have evidence to back this up, but it became so stringent within the Nigerian polity that it elicited some response from our legislators at then and other government officials, all of who damned the prediction, denied it was a possibility, dismissed the authors, and generally ignored its dire implications. This was in spite of a 7-paragraph letter that former President Obasanjo sent to the Senate containing his reaction to the so-called prediction and challenging them to work extra hard, if only to eliminate the chances of the prediction coming true. This letter was sent on the 17th of May, 2005 and, below, I quote the first paragraph:

“As a means of informing ourselves, I hereby forward a copy of the United States National Intelligence Council document on “Mapping Sub-Saharan Africa’s Future” for your attention. I am sending this to you not because I am alarmed by the report but because if we know what others think of us and about us, we can prevent what they project for us.”
The last two paragraphs are also quoted below, just to give a clear impression of the content of the letter.

“I believe that we can and should disprove the modern experts of the United States Intelligence Council who are like the prophets of doom and by the Grace of God, for Nigeria in this first decade of the 21st Century, we must be determined to show that we are neither a basket case nor walking on a banana peel.

“I wish you well as you read the report and would very much appreciate your reactions, perspectives and suggestions. For me, it is a challenge and it calls for extra work. We owe that much to our people, to Africa, humanity and to God Almighty, our Creator. May God bless Nigeria and Africa.”6
I believe that the United States of America is the most popular country in the world today and many people have their respective opinions of this great country, which, though tottering, is still the undisputed World Super Power; the baddest kid on the block, if you like. There must be a reason why, particularly Arabs, are said to like the American people but hate the American government. Right now, although I am not an Arab and do not reside in an Arab country, I want to associate myself with that unsubstantiated Arabic posture, which I must have read about somewhere. I now nearly disdain the American government, dislike its current foreign policy, and certainly suspect its motives concerning my country, Nigeria; but, strangely, I have not lost my admiration for the Americans, who I consider the distilled version of humanity.

If the CIA or the United States Intelligence Council did, indeed, predict Nigeria’s breakup or “state failure” what role might they be playing to make this come to pass? Might they be propping up the Nigerian opposition to give them a false sense of security so that they will take laws into their hands and attempt to fight the federal government, thereby plunging the nation into chaos? The confidence of the opposition is growing daily and their threat to form a parallel government recently got a boost by the establishment of a radio station, whose base of operations remains unknown to the Nigerian government. Nigerians need to know that the CIA has a long and disturbing history of meddling, especially in Latin America, but all over the world as well. It is also no secret that President Barack Obama recently meddled into Israeli politics and tried to prop up the opposition at the expense of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because he and Netanyahu have different views about containing Iran’s nuclear ambitions. In spite of this, however, Netanyahu’s Likud party swept the polls convincingly a few days ago. All this information is in the public domain. As for CIA meddling, some of them are even from declassified CIA files. Here are a few recorded cases.

Researchers from three Japanese universities . . . unearthed US documents that detail CIA activities to monitor and influence Japanese politics in the early 1950s. Dubbed “The Ogata File”, the five-volume, 1,000-page document collection, which was declassified in 2005, relays CIA efforts to assist the electoral campaigns of Japanese conservative politician Taketora Ogata. Ogata led the Japan Liberal Party in the early 1950s and in 1955 was instrumental in merging his party along with other conservative groups into the Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan for most of the post-war period. In the early 1950s, the US was suspicious of Japan’s Prime Minister at the time, Ichiro Hatoyama, leader of the Japan Democratic Party, who wanted to mend his country’s relations with the USSR and considered resuming diplomatic ties with Moscow. To prevent this, the CIA decided to pursue electoral unity between the country’s opposition conservative parties, whose popularity had been severely damaged by their support of Japan’s imperial plans in World War II. The CIA station in Tokyo identified Ogata as the most likely unifying figure among the leaders of Japan’s conservative movement. It therefore initiated operation POCAPON in 1955, which involved weekly meetings between Ogata and CIA agents, as well as assigning agents to accompany the Japanese politician in his campaign trips. The Ogata File also reveals that the CIA considered Ogata as a reliable informer on Japanese politics and government. The CIA leadership was distressed when the elderly Ogata passed away in 1956. But the party he helped found, with CIA assistance, went on to rule Japan for several decades, effectively turning the country into a one-party state. In 2007, another collection of declassified CIA documents revealed a 1952 plan by Japanese right wing extremists working for the US government to topple the elected Japanese government and assassinate Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida.7

In 1954, the CIA overthrew the democratically elected Jacob Arbenz in a military coup in Guatamela. Arbenz had threatened to nationalize the Rockefeller-owned United Fruit Company, in which CIA Director Allen Dulles also owned stock. Arbenz was replaced with a series of right-wing dictators whose bloodthirsty policies resulted in the deaths of over 100,000 Guatemalans in the next 40 years.
In 1959 in the Island nation of Haiti, the U.S. military helped “Papa Doc” Duvalier become dictator of Haiti. He created his own private police force, the “Tonton Macoutes,” who terrorized the population with machetes. They killed over 100,000 during the Duvalier family reign. The U.S. did not protest their dismal human rights record.

In 1963, the CIA overthrew the democratically elected Juan Bosch of Dominican Republic in a military coup. The CIA then installed a repressive, right-wing junta.

Ecuador – A CIA-backed military coup overthrows President Arosemana, whose independent (not socialist) policies have become unacceptable to Washington. A military junta assumes command, cancels the 1964 elections, and begins abusing human rights.

1964
Brazil – A CIA-backed military coup overthrows the democratically elected government of Joao Goulart. The junta that replaces it will, in the next two decades, become one of the most bloodthirsty in history. General Castelo Branco will create Latin America’s first death squads, or bands of secret police who hunt down “communists” for torture, interrogation and murder. Often these “communists” are no more than Branco’s political opponents. Later it is revealed that the CIA trains the death squads.

1965
Dominican Republic – A popular rebellion breaks out, promising to reinstall Juan Bosch as the country’s elected leader. The revolution is crushed when U.S. Marines land to uphold the military regime by force. The CIA directs everything behind the scenes.

1968
Bolivia – A CIA-organized military operation captures legendary guerilla Che Guevara. The CIA wants to keep him alive for interrogation, but the Bolivian government executes him to prevent worldwide calls for clemency.

1973
Chile – The CIA overthrows and assassinates Salvador Allende, Latin America’s first democratically elected socialist leader. The problems begin when Allende nationalizes American-owned firms in Chile. ITT offers the CIA $1 million for a coup (reportedly refused). The CIA replaces Allende with General Augusto Pinochet, who will torture and murder thousands of his own countrymen in a crackdown on labor leaders and the political left.

1979
El Salvador – An idealistic group of young military officers, repulsed by the massacre of the poor, overthrows the right-wing government. However, the U.S. compels the inexperienced officers to include many of the old guard in key positions in their new government. Soon, things are back to “normal” — the military government is repressing and killing poor civilian protesters. Many of the young military and civilian reformers, finding themselves powerless, resign in disgust.

1989
Panama – The U.S. invades Panama to overthrow a dictator of its own making, General Manuel Noriega. Noriega has been on the CIA’s payroll since 1966, and has been transporting drugs with the CIA’s knowledge since 1972. By the late 80s, Noriega’s growing independence and intransigence have angered Washington … so out he goes.

1990
Haiti – Competing against 10 comparatively wealthy candidates, leftist priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide captures 68 percent of the vote. After only eight months in power, however, the CIA-backed military deposes him. More military dictators brutalize the country, as thousands of Haitian refugees escape the turmoil in barely seaworthy boats. As popular opinion calls for Aristide’s return, the CIA begins a disinformation campaign painting the courageous priest as mentally unstable.

1993
Haiti – The chaos in Haiti grows so bad that President Clinton has no choice but to remove the Haitian military dictator, Raoul Cedras, on threat of U.S. invasion. The U.S. occupiers do not arrest Haiti’s military leaders for crimes against humanity, but instead ensure their safety and rich retirements. Aristide is returned to power only after being forced to accept an agenda favorable to the country’s ruling class.

2002
Venezuela – The CIA attempts to overthrow the democratically elected government of Venezuela. According to intelligence analyst Wayne Madsen, “the CIA provided Special Operations Group personnel, headed by a lieutenant colonel on loan from the U.S. Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to help organize the coup.” Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has irritated the U.S. with his 2001 Hydrocarbon Law, which doubles royalties on foreign oil companies and requires a majority government stake in future joint ventures. Soldiers supporting the coup take control of the presidential palace, arrest Chavez and fly him to the Venezuelan island of La Orchil, where he is imprisoned. Businessman Pedro Carmona claims power. In his first move as president, he dissolves the democratically elected National Assembly, the Supreme Court and other key institutions, while arresting Chavez supporters. The U.S. immediately recognizes the Carmona government. However, the coup soon unravels when thousands of anti-coup protesters surround the presidential palace demanding Hugo Chavez’s reinstatement. Two days later, Hugo Chavez triumphantly returns to office.8

The United States also has not been in the best of terms with Nigeria lately. While our backs was against the wall battling Boko Haram, the United States refused to sell critical weapons to Nigeria even though we had the money to pay for these weapons and were fighting a legitimate war against an organization already classified as a terrorist organization by the United States. Nobody knows what America was playing at, but their charge of human rights abuses by our military is absurd. This is especially in view of the fact that the biggest customers of American weapons, including F16 war planes and other very modern weapons, are Middle East Arab nations, most of who have terrible human rights records but are such strategic business partners the US is willing to pretend nothing is wrong. They only react when things get out of hand. Switzerland recently cancelled a very big arms deal with Saudi Arabia over human rights concerns. The Americans have proven much more pragmatic on this issue and one wonders why they decided to treat Nigeria the way they did and even ended up being comical by giving us ships when the Boko Haram insurgency is land-based and requiring helicopter gunships, missile launchers, and other terrestrial heavy caliber weapons.

IT’S ALL ABOUT SEX

In January, 2014, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan took an unprecedented step in the history of Nigeria and signed the anti-gay bill into law. This law had been passed by the National Assembly amid global opposition, but the president sat in his Aso Rock office, took his green pen, and appended his signature to the bill anyway, making it a law in the federal republic of Nigeria — until repealed by another sitting president. I suggest that both President Goodluck Jonathan and Nigerians may not have realized how far the West would go over this issue of same-sex marriage. Just because men want to have sex with men and force others not to wince at this unnatural copulation, there is a lot they are willing to do about it and most people will be amazed to know what has already been done in the name of promoting the gay agenda in the West.

Again, Nigerians need to know that President Barack Obama is the most gay-friendly president the United States has ever had. When NBA veteran Jason Collins announced that he was gay, President Obama personally put a call through to him and congratulated him. In a White House Press Briefing on the issue, Obama said that Jason was a “terrific young man” and that his coming out to declare he was gay was “extraordinary progress.” He also called on Americans to be proud of Jason.9 On her part, Mitchell Obama sent a tweet with the following words to Jason:

“So proud of you, Jason Collins! This is a huge step forward for our country. We’ve got your back!”
The tweet was signed “mo” signifying that Mitchell personally wrote the message.10

In fact, there are many Americans that believe that Obama is bisexual, meaning he is gay. At least Joan Rivers, before her death, casually said that the US already had a gay president . . . while referring to Obama. We must remember that the United Kingdom threatened to cut off aid to Nigeria over the issue of this same-sex marriage. Already, the people behind this agenda have largely succeeded in intimidating the silent majority into submission in America and Europe, in spite of the fact that majority of Catholics, Pentecostal Christians, virtually all other Christian denominations, and even Moslems oppose gay marriage.

Is it possible that the posture of the Americans against Jonathan has something to do with his signing the anti-gay bill into law? I believe we can learn something from the New York Times.

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE NEW YORK TIMES?

The New York Times has been in the forefront of foreign media organizations castigating the Jonathan administration and endorsing Buhari. Many sincere Nigerians have wondered about this odd situation, in view of the obsession of Americans with human rights and the fact that, while Jonathan is a champion of press freedom and human rights, Buhari never hid his disdain for such lofty ideals while in power. Permit me to solve this mystery by suggesting that there is something gay about these endorsements. It may shock you at first but you need to read on.

Today, in America, something I can only describe as a devilish miracle has occurred and is ongoing. Only a few organizations now expressly prohibit same-sex marriages. The American Baptist Churches, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon), The Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod), The Orthodox Jewish Movement, The Roman Catholic Church, The Southern Baptist Convention, The United Methodist Church, and the religion of Islam are the few still holding out in this cultural war. But under sustained pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU, and countless gay and lesbian rights groups and a leftist media, the following have bowed to this last day spirit: The Presbyterian Church (USA), The Conservative Jewish Movement, The Reform Jewish Movement, The Society of Friends (Quaker), The Unitarian Universalist Association of Churches, The United Church of Christ, The Evangelical Lutheran Church, and even the Episcopal Church. All of these above listed organizations either support and approve same-sex marriages, or allow respective congregation ministers to determine whether or not to approve same-sex marriages in their congregations.

In just a generation, America has been transformed in the most negative sense of the word. From when America was founded until the mid-1960s, the penalty for homosexual behavior was serious indeed. Every state in America had laws that made homosexuality a crime, and a guilty verdict could lead to imprisonment or admission to a mental institution. However, things have changed forever in that country.
What has been the role of the New York Times in the above accomplishment by the gay agenda? According to Rev. Louis P. Sheldon in his book, The Agenda: The Homosexual Plan to Change America, the New York Times is “ . . . the highest profile purveyor of pro-homosexual propaganda . . .”11 in the United States.

The publisher of the New York Times since 1963 was Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Sr. Today, it is under the control of Arthur’s son, Arthur Jr. who is better known by his nickname, “Pinch.” So, Pinch Ochs Sulzberger now runs the New York Times. But who is Pinch Ochs Sulzberger by the way? Pinch became chairman of the New York Times Company after his father, Arthur, ceded control of the company to him in 1997. This was 5 years after Pinch became publisher of the New York Times, which is owned by the New York Times Company. The fact is that, since Pinch became publisher and then Chairman of the New York Times in 1992 and 1997 respectively, things have changed for the media giant. From the very first time he got an opportunity to get into the newsroom, Pinch became an outspoken advocate for homosexuals through the New York Times. Since then, Pinch has used that publication to further the gay agenda like no other mainstream publication in the US. Even as far back as 2004, The New York Times was being accused of “cheerleading” for the gay movement instead of objectively reporting about issues concerning gays and lesbians. As far back as this date also, as incredible as it may seem, up to 75% of the members of the editorial board of the New York Times were gay. This was 11 years ago and one wonders what must be going on there now. Chances are that every single member of the editorial board of the New York Times is gay now. What, then, should one honestly expect from the New York Times? Consider the following to see the gay activist posture of the New York Times.

After the 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Court decision allowing gay marriages in that state, a certain lawyer – J. Edward Pawlick – and his wife, Sally, led a citizen group that collected 130, 000 signatures for an amendment to overturn the court’s outrageous ruling. However, the New York Times and its other publication, known as the Boston Globe, launched an effort in support of the same-sex court ruling and severely pressured Massachusetts lawmakers to skip the vote – which they did – thereby silencing the voice of the people. As far as Attorney Ed Pawlick is concerned, Pinch has been using the New York Times to “ . . . further his personal agenda of imposing gay marriage nationwide . . .” Again, Pawlick wrote in his book that, “Gay marriage did not just happen in Massachusetts; it was engineered by the Times.”12 No wonder, organizations like Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) gave the New York Times an award for “outstanding coverage overall.” This is the kind of paper (ran by Pinch Ochs Sulzberger) that is, today, strenuously endorsing Buhari and castigating Jonathan. I will allow the discerning reader make his/own conclusions.

REAL REASON BUHARI IS BEING ENDORSED AND DR JONATHAN VILIFIED

Why should I not believe the allegation of Fani Kayode that Buhari has cut a deal with Western nations to repeal President’s Jonathan’s anti-gay law in exchange for their support? That is how desperate the APC is for power. What else would they not do? What else have they not done? Whatever the case, the fact is that the New York Times will never support Buhari except on the platform of the promotion of gay rights. That is what the paper basically stands for.

From the information at my disposal, I have no problem believing the “wild” allegation by Chief Femi Fani Kayode that, indeed, Buhari was approached and offered Western support and endorsement on the condition that he considers repealing the anti-gay law signed by Goodluck Jonathan. This matter could even have been in the works long before Fani Kayode released his bombshell. But I must confess that I thought Fani Kayode was a little crazy when I read what he initially said. I felt maybe he must have taken pawpaw with some onions and gotten such a bad stomach upset he needed to release the stress.

As an honest Muslim, I have no doubt that Buhari is facing the moral crisis of his life because of this. He is suddenly face-to-face with evil and he has to make a choice. He has come to understand, even more than Dr. Jonathan, the extent these people are willing to go to have men having sexual intercourse with other men and forcing others to clap instead of being naturally repulsed. The problem is that Buhari also wants to be president. He now knows what the endorsements are about. From the way things are going, under the pressure of wanting to be president, General Buhari may have already caved in. The giveaway in this orchestrated campaign is the New York Times.

Nigerians should hear this: knowing what it does in America and what it has come to stand for, there is no way New York Times will endorse Buhari (especially in view of the facts on the ground and Buhari’s human rights albatross) except in the belief that Buhari will be an asset to the gay agenda. Anyone who doubts this should pray and fast and that Buhari wins and just wait and see what happens next.

THE ECONOMIST

As for the Economist, it has also been a stringent supporter of the gay cause. In 1996, there was no country on earth that gave gays any marriage rights but, even from this early date, the Economist was one of a few papers that formally and openly came out in favour of gay marriage. Eight years later when only Belgium and the Netherlands had given full legal status to gay marriage, the Economist reiterated its support for gay marriage with another media campaign.13

You will notice that, although CNN carried a news item stating that Nigeria was the third fastest growing economy – not just in Africa but – in the world, it was a lone voice. In trying to make Jonathan look bad, the New York Times even went overboard and did something stupid: they alleged that Jonathan had postponed the election just to frustrate General Buhari. Now that the whole world can see that INEC was not ready for the election by 14th of February and that Jega was speaking Hausa in English when he said they were “adequately prepared,” I hope the New York Times will retract their editorial and apologize to both Jonathan and the Nigerian government. On this note, I am irritated by some civil society activists and commentators who like to make statements insisting that the elections must hold; and, later, that the rescheduled elections must hold. Why they do not use their voices to urge INEC to do all in its power to ensure that all Nigerians collect their PVCs beats me.

My advice to General Buhari is that he should be careful with the West because they must have a recording of the meeting where this proposal was made to him and they are sure to blackmail him for the rest of his life, whether in or out of politics. Whatever the General has done or is planning to do is his business but my interest is in informing Nigerians that, as farfetched as it may sound, there is something gay about the endorsements General Buhari is getting from the West.

The gay lobby is that powerful.
Muslims and Christians alike should beware that, under General Buhari (not because he believes in it but because of power), the anti-gay law passed by President Goodluck Jonathan may and will be repealed. Nigeria will become a gay country with all the diseases associated with that lifestyle – and the divine retribution it carries.

IN SPITE OF ALL THIS

In spite of these array of enemies that began to harangue Dr. Jonathan right from the start of his beleaguered administration, in spite of the Boko Haram onslaught with active support from members of his own government, in spite of his calm and genial nature which many misconstrue as weakness and which inspires their impunity, in spite of a mentor wanting to control him and rule Nigeria from his farm, in spite of all these, Dr. Jonathan has achieved a lot in less than five years. I will concede the point that he has had a weak communication team because many Nigerians (including my humble self) only got to know a lot of the things Jonathan has achieved recently. For brevity, I will not go into details. Interested researchers can go on the internet and will be amazed at the transformation silently going on in Nigeria. This is a summary.

The Economy
Created 1.6 million new jobs under various programmes including the Community Service Scheme (CSS), Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YouWiN!) and the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Program (SURE-P).

Created 250,000 jobs in the agriculture sector by enabling Dry Season Farming in 10 Northern states.
Launched the National Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) to spearhead private sector-led industrialization by strengthening the value chain of various manufacturing industries.

Today, Nigeria has become a major destination for multinational investment in car manufacturing. Big auto giants, including Peugeot, Nissan and Hyundai, now either assemble, or entirely manufacture, their cars, SUVs, trucks and buses at various locations in Nigeria. Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company (IVM), Nigeria’s flagship indigenous automaker, began the sale of its first made-in-Nigeria cars and SUVs in August 2014. National Automotive Industry has made it possible for ten Car manufacturing companies to open business in Nigeria. These include KIA, INNOSSON, NISSAN amongst others. Some of the plants that where already operational in the country but where forced to shut down due to influx of imported fairly-used vehicles, including Peugeot Automobile Nigeria, Leyland, Fiat, Volkswagen and Mercedes, would bring into the country complete knock-down vehicles.

Introduced SURE-P (The Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme), which has created 185,000 jobs across the country.

Lowered government fiscal deficit from 3.35% of GDP in 2010 to 1% in 2014.

Enhanced transparency in government financing through the publication of monthly FAAC allocations to Federal, States, and Local Governments.

Hosted the World Economic Forum on Africa for the first time in 2014, showcasing Nigeria’s impressive economic growth to a global audience and attracting further foreign investment.

Generated $68bn in Foreign Direct Investment, with notable projects including: Indorama’s $1.2bn fertilizer plant at Onne, Procter and Gamble’s $250mn consumer goods plant in Ogun, and SAB Miller’s $100mn brewery in Onitsha.
Tackled fraud in the oil subsidy regime, identifying N370 billion in fraudulent claims now targeted for recovery.
Spearheaded the YouWIN programme, aimed at creating youth employment and alleviating poverty. The programme will create 80,000 -110,000 jobs over 3 years.
Initiated the Community Works Programme to create 370,000 jobs in 3 years with all 36 states and the FCT benefitting.

Established the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) to manage the Sovereign Wealth Fund and oversee The Future Generations Fund, The Nigeria Infrastructure Fund and The Stabilization Fund.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Power:
Released the Roadmap for Power Sector Reform, laid out a strategy for expanding capacity, improving service delivery, and removing obstacles to private sector investment.
Instituted the Presidential Action Committee on Power (PACP) and the Presidential Task Force on Power (PTFP) to drive the implementation of reforms in the power sector.
Privatized the power sector, unbundling PHCN into 11 distribution companies (DISCO’S) and 6 generation companies (GENCO’S) and a single transmission company (TCN), and positioning the sector to respond adequately to growing power demands. The sale of PHCN’s assets was the largest and most transparent privatization transaction in Nigeria to date.

Secured $3 billion for investment in transmission capacity expansion through 2018.

Improved stability in electricity generation and distribution. Power generation increased from 3,514MW in 2011 to 4,500MW.

Roads:
Some 2,000 kilometers of road were built or rehabilitated by the end of 2013 – the highest in a single year by any government.

Increased good and safe motorable length of Federal Roads from about 52% (17,742km) to nearly 85% (28,320km).
Deployed 38 state-of-the-art Bergkamp FP5 Mobile Pothole patchers for year-round road repairs.

Introduced the SURE P Public Works Programme, which trained and hired more than 6,000 Nigerian youths to maintain and improve the country’s road system.
Installed street lighting along usually dark urban stretches of Federal highways and major bridges across the country.
Commenced construction of the 2nd Niger Bridge, which is funded through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.

Launched the rehabilitation of the 127.6km Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

Enabled the ongoing rehabilitation of the Oturkpo-Oweto Road in Benue State, Otukpa-Anyangba-Ajaokuta-Okene Road in Kogi, Ningi-Yadagumgume-Fuskar Mata Road in Bauchi, Wukari-Takum Road in Taraba and Benin-Shagamu Expressway in Edo State.

Water:
The Jonathan administration has revitalized the 12 River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) nationwide.
Completed the Greater Makurdi Water Supply Scheme to supply 50 litres of water per day to nearly one million people in Makurdi.

Brought the massive Galma Dam water supply project to 85% completion. This project will supply 186 million cubic metres for potable water to residents in 23 towns in Kaduna State.
Brought the Kashimbilla Multipurpose Buffer Dam Project to 65% completion. This project will supply 60 million gallons of treated water per day to citizens in Taraba State.
Completed the Mangu Water Supply project, which supplies more than 2.5 million gallons of clean water per day to the residents of Gindiri and Mangu township in Plateau State
Completed the Northern Ishan Water Supply project, which provides 2.5 million gallons of clean water per day to the communities of Uromi, Ubaiaja, Ugengu, Ugboha and Iguben in Edo State.

Brought to 35 percent complettion the Central Ogbia Regional Water Supply project, which will provide potable water and sanitation to 16 communities in Uteke, Bayelsa State.

Rail:
Produced a 25-Year Strategic Vision for Nigerian Railways.
Rehabilitated the Western Railway Corridor: Lagos-Ibadan-Ilorin-Jebba-Minna-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano, with a branch line from Zaria-Kaura Namoda.

Rehabilitated the Eastern Railyway Corridor: Port Harcourt-Aba-Umuahia-Enugu-Makurdi-Lafia-Kuru-Bauchi-Gombe-Maiduguri, with branch lines from Kafanchan-Kaduna and Kuru-Jos.

Modernized the Abuja (Idu)-Kaduna Standard Gauge rail line.
Rehabilitated and constructed the Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri Standard Gauge rail line.

Rehabilitated the Apapa Port railway network.
Procured 29 new locomotives and 20 new tank wagons.
Refurbished 240 coaches and wagons.

EDUCATION

Achievements:
Developed a 4-year strategic plan for the development of the Education Sector to strengthen the institutional management of education, improve access and equity, ensure quality, enhance teacher education and development, provide technical and vocational education and training, and improve partnerships and resource mobilization.

Launched the Safe Schools Initiative to ensure that young people are not only safe in going to school, but that schools are an environment ripe for learning, growth and development free of fear.

Introduced a Formal Early Childhood Education programme.
Constructed special girls schools in 13 states of the Federation in order to improve the Girls’ Education Programme, including girls boarding schools in Adamawa, Yobe, Zamfara, Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Delta and Akwa Ibom.

Launched the National Campaign on Access to Basic Education across the geo-political zones to reduce the number of out-of school children.

Established 14 new universities to improve access to higher education in the North and ensure that students in all states have access to a Federal University.

Constructed 64 Almajiri Model Schools, which has recently begun operation. These are part of a list of 89 schools being constructed by the administration through the Universal Basic Education, UBEC (the remaining 25 have been completed and will soon be handed over to the host states). 300 additional Almajiri schools have been slated for construction in line with the survey conducted.

Created a National Framework for the Development and Integration of the Almajiri Education into basic education.
Refurbished and equipped 51 Federal and State Polytechnics with modern laboratories to encourage participation in technical and vocational education and training.

Refurbished 352 science and technical laboratories in the 104 Federal Unity Colleges, in addition to providing 62 ICT centres and 40 sets of mathematical kits.

Distributed a total of 19.67 million instructional materials in the four core subjects of English language, mathematics, basic science and technology, and social studies to primary 1 & 2 pupils.

Invested in training and development for teachers, principals and vice-principals of primary and secondary schools as well as federal unity colleges across the country.

AGRICULTURE

Achievements:
Increased food production by over 8 million metric tons, averting a predicted food crisis from flooding.
Reduced food imports from N1.1 trillion in 2011 to N648 billion in 2012.

Ended four decades of corruption in fertilizer and seed distribution.

Revolutionized the way farmers receive farm inputs through the e-wallet system, which assures farmers receive subsidized agricultural inputs directly and prevents exploitation from middlemen and profiteers.

Drastically curtailed wheat imports by enacting policies that encourage production of Nigerian produced cassava flour.
Increased the number of farmers in Northern states who are profitably engaged in farming to over 250,000.
Increased grain storage capacity by over 300%.
Increased rice production, placing Nigeria on the path towards self-sufficiency.

HEALTH

Achievements:
Refurbished 1,500 primary healthcare facilities and provided them with essential drugs.

Introduced SURE-P (The Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme), which has provided vital funding to health care services, leading to a 26% decrease in the maternal mortality rate and a 22% decrease in neonatal mortality rate.

Implemented the “Saving One Million Lives” initiative, through which over 433,650 lives were saved from November 2012 to June 2013 by scaling up six cost-effective interventions including Maternal & Child Health, Nutrition, Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV, Provision of Essential Commodities, Malaria Control, Routine Immunisation/Eradication of Polio.

Rehabilitated and modernised teaching hospitals and medical centres such as OAU and UNIBEN teaching hospitals.

Reduced under-5 mortality from 157 out of 1,000 live births to 94 out of 1,000 live births.

Reduced maternal mortality from 545 women per 100,000 to 350 women per 100,000.

Introduced, for the first time in the history of Nigeria, a curriculum for the training of paramedics.

Recruited 11,300 frontline health workers who were deployed to under-served communities across the country.
Held a week-long Presidential Summit on Universal Health Coverage, with the aim of boosting efforts to provide access to affordable, high quality healthcare for every Nigerian.

DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Achievements:
Initiated the National Conference to deliberate and make recommendations on resolving Nigeria’s current political and socio-economic challenges.

Strengthened public watchdogs including the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

Actively fostered collaboration with human rights leaders and other civil society activists on constitutional reform.
Implemented the recommendations of the report of the independent electoral reform commission chaired by a revered former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Mohammed Uwais.

Reconstituted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and appointed as its chair, a highly respected university professor and human rights activist, Professor Attahiru Jega.

Ensured that INEC was made financially independent and its commissioners were not required to belong to political parties.

Fostered a competitive electoral system by refusing to deploy the instruments of federal power to determine outcomes of elections in Nigeria, as had been done by previous administrations.

FIGHTING CORRUPTION

Achievements:
Granted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) prosecutorial independence from the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, restoring the integrity of this formerly beaten-down anti-graft agency
Enacted the Freedom of Information Act, thereby empowering the press and Nigerian citizens to scrutinize the actions of public officials and institutions.

Uncovered over N2.7 billion in fraud in the Pensions’ fund and seized about 200 properties from corrupt public officials, including hotels and cash worth billions of naira.

Established an Independent Presidential Committee to monitor the activities of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

Dismissed judges found to be abusing their offices.
Ended four decades of corruption in fertilizer and seed distribution.

Signed the Anti-Money Laundering Act into law and became one of the first signatories to the Inter-governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA).
Established the Nigerian Extractive Industry and Transparency Initiative (NEITI), and forwarded the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) to the National Assembly for passage into law.14

In judging the Jonathan administration, we must try to imagine what he would have accomplished if there were no determined enemies within and outside the country trying everything humanly possible to make him fail. This means that, for every kilometer of road Jonathan has constructed, he may have constructed two or even three; for every hospital built, he may have been able to equip it better; for every university built, he may have been able to add more structures.

CAVEATS

a. On the issue of security
Nigerians must remember that Dr. Jonathan has once admitted that there were Boko Haram sympathizers in his government. The implication of this must be fully appreciated. What does it mean for Boko Haram sympathizers to be in the government?

The first thing we must realize is that there is no secret in government. Every activity of government leaves behind what is commonly known as a “paper trail”. It means you can know everything the government has ever done by looking at some papers – usually kept in files. The most interesting matter is that you can also know everything the government is planning to do by equally looking at some papers. If there are Boko Haram sympathizers within the Nigerian government, it means Boko Haram probably knows everything the Nigerian government is up to. You may have a non-sympathetic minister whose permanent secretary is sympathetic; you may have a permanent secretary that is non-sympathetic but whose personal assistant is sympathetic; so, it is really difficult to identify who is undermining the government for the benefit of Boko Haram. For the president to publicly admit this challenge means the matter had become serious. It means Boko Haram will always know the kind of weapons our military has, the challenges the military is facing, what the military is trying to do, what weapons they are trying to acquire, where they are trying to acquire the weapons, how much they are paying, when the weapons will arrive, the capabilities of the weapons, and other serious issues.

How easy will it be to fight them in this kind of scenario? It is like the wife of a man collaborating with the enemy of her husband to undermine her husband. Of course, if the husband knows this, the wife will be kicked out with alacrity: but what if the husband assumes his wife is on his side? Is she not the one he will tell his innermost thoughts and reveal his subsequent moves to?

While Boko Haram has this decided edge over the government because of people who secretly like what they are doing for religious and other considerations, the Nigerian government and military have no such advantages because the Boko Haram fighters are united in a manner that isolates every outsider.

Again, Boko Haram fighters fight without defensive strategy; if they kill you, they are fine; if you kill them, they do not care. They have visions of virgins welcoming them in a certain paradise when they die; so, for them, death is a journey to an erotic island of everlasting sensual pleasures. On the other hand, the federal government of Nigeria has no army that is trained to go to battle to die. Members of the Nigerian army (like every other army in the world) were trained to kill the enemy while trying to stay alive. They are committed to lay down their lives, but they will prefer to kill the enemy and return home to their wives and kids. This gives Boko Haram an advantage Nigerians are not aware of.

Thirdly, the United States did the most unfriendly thing and refused to give us weapons we requested for when we were facing our most trying war with deadly terrorists who had superior weapons which they got from Gaddafi’s arsenal. Many Nigerians may have forgotten, but the United States also refused to share intelligence with us: intelligence they are able to gather with drones and other sophisticated surveillance crafts. Is this not hostile action?

Fourthly, when the former Chief of Army Staff was beginning to win the war against Boko Haram by launching punitive raids against them consistently, the leaders of the north rose against the man and condemned him in unprintable words. Shortly thereafter, the man was retired. Why do Nigerians forget these things and seem to be in love with blaming President Jonathan?

Furthermore, Jonathan did say he underestimated the terrorists. Surely, as a normal human being, he did not know that there were other humans who were willing to die just to make his government look bad. Now, he knows better. Except we deal with the issue of BH and its collaborators, we may end up helping them achieve their aim. History will never pardon such crass error and our children will definitely pay for this oversight.

Besides all this, fighting terrorists is certainly not easy because of their modus operandi. If it were that easy to fight terrorism and extremism, President Obama of the United States and other world leaders would have already crushed the Al Qaeda, the ISIS and other terror groups by now.
As a civilian, President Jonathan has been accused of giving the military too much money. The positive part of this statement is often lost on Nigerians: the fact that, at the least, he has not given the military too little money. What does this mean, vis a vis his constitutional role as Commander-in-Chief? Wars are fought and won with money. The US, today, has the strongest military, navy, and air force in the world because they spend more money than any other country in the world in arming these branches of their military. I heard Professor Ibrahim Gambari say during a TV interview that the budget of the US Navy is more than the cumulative budgets of the next 14 navies in world rankings.
That must be something.

So, what can a bloody civilian president do, when faced with suicidal terrorists with foreign and local support, other than to make more money available to the military? If the Nigerian military (which owes its current strengths and weaknesses to things leaders in the past did or did not do) now chooses to fritter away the funds the president provides for them, how easy or safe is it to antagonize a military in the middle of a war? People just open their mouths and say things because they are blissfully ignorant of the big picture or emotionally charged and because they are taking full advantage of freedom of speech – without bothering about responsibility of speech. We must remember that Boko Haram fights without a care to their personal safety, making them more dangerous to engage in battle. Their brothers in Afghanistan, in spite of the superiority of the American military machine, sent almost 10, 000 American soldiers to an early grave during the second gulf war. How did they do this? By daring raids; by turning themselves and their transport vehicles into ground missiles; because they do not care whether they live or die.

None of the leaders in the past armed the Nigerian military, as a way of maintaining its fighting edge. Someone said that the last time our men were kitted was during the regime of Alhaji Shehu Shagari. In fact, Alhaji Shagari even commissioned three ships; since then, no other ships have been commissioned until last month, when Goodluck Jonathan commissioned four ships for the Nigerian Navy.
Many people are suspecting Dr. Jonathan of ulterior motives in the latest successful push against Boko Haram, insinuating that he is selfishly and politically motivated. What they do not know (and what I, too, would not have known except for patient enquiry and a teachable spirit and listening ears) is that, until the AU gave permission to our neighbours, and until these neighbours were willing to support us, Boko Haram fighters were playing hide and seek with our army, who were terribly disadvantaged because they could not just chase these terrorists into other people’s countries. Now, Chad, Cameroun, and Niger Republic have joined the fight and this has been a critical factor in the recent successes. It seems Boko Haram is now hemmed in, with no place to hide.

Do you get the picture?
b. On the issue of corruption
On the issue of corruption, the facts must be allowed to speak for themselves. The APC likes to present itself as a clean party but that is a lie. All APC leaders are corrupt; their corruption is so brazen it has stupefied their victims, who cannot call their acts corrupt because it is so unbelievable and bold. But, unlike the PDP, the APC practices its corruption in a refined manner. Just recently, it was proven that Bola Tinubu – erstwhile Governor of Lagos State – collects several billions every month through his company, which collects tax on behalf of the Lagos State government. There is no need to belabor this issue. Even Tunde Bakare (Buhari’s running mate in the 2011 elections and fierce critic of President Jonathan) recently said he trusts Buhari but not Buhari’s environment, which is the APC. This is a very serious statement. Some parents, when faced with a stubborn child, come up with a simple solution – send the child to a carefully selected boarding school. The belief of these kinds of parents is that everything required to make the child humble and teachable is incorporated in the boarding school. Other parents will prefer to vent their anger and spank the child. It’s all about methodology.

Dr. Jonathan seems to prefer making corruption impossible than actually trying to prove in court that someone is corrupt, even though his government is actually prosecuting many people in different courts for corruption cases. Looking at the way he has virtually eliminated corruption in fertilizer distribution in Nigeria lends credence to this assertion. Again, his administration has discovered thousands of ghost workers in the civil service and saved the government several billions as a result. Beyond plugging holes, Jonathan has been the most proactive president in Nigeria, in terms of education, youth empowerment, women empowerment, and other interventionist efforts. These are also ways of tackling corruption and insecurity. Many people are not even aware that Nigeria’s rating by Amnesty International has improved under the Jonathan administration. What is happening is that the opposition is hoping to use a type of Nazi propaganda method to brainwash Nigerians about the real facts. For example, they always like to say that Jonathan has spent 6 years in power. Except one is an independent thinker, you will soon find yourself repeating this naked lie. By 6th of May, 2015, Jonathan would have spent 5 years as president. But as early as last October, APC had started mouthing the lie that Jonathan had spent 6 years as President. Many Nigerians have swallowed this lie, unfortunately. Same goes for the accusation of corruption. Apart from the PDP under Jonathan, neither the ACN, the ANPP, the CPC nor any other party has charged their officials to court for corruption. Please, correct me if I am wrong.

Some years ago, a US lawmaker whose committee was in Nigeria to continue its nearly three years investigation of embassy and diplomatic security at high-risk overseas US State Department facilities, revealed that the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit had largely blocked off Boko Haram sources of funding. This is an example of how Dr. Jonathan works: he deploys technology to deal with some problems without making too much noise.

c. On the issue of power
Simply put, Dr. Jonathan has been able to raise Nigeria’s capacity in the power sector. However, as the Minister of Power almost tearfully lamented during a public event, the issue of sabotage in the gas sector has been their greatest challenge. My take on this is simple: if people are willing to blow themselves up just to make Dr. Jonathan look bad, I do not see why I should disbelieve the alleged sabotage that is today affecting power supply. I am willing to believe that all kinds of intrigues are going on in the power sector, which is a sector more susceptible to sabotage.

WHO IS FOOLING WHO?

In eight years, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his Vice, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, found a way to get the money required to build one private university each for themselves. These universities are Bells University and Abti-American University respectively. Only the children of the elite can afford to go to either of these schools but the profits of their operations go to their owners – Obasanjo and Atiku. Unlike these two former leaders, Dr. Jonathan built or will soon conclude building 150 Almajiri schools in the north and 14 new universities in states that did not have a university. Now, both Obasanjo and Atiku are opposing Jonathan and claiming to have left the PDP that gave them the mandate, which they used to build two massive universities for their pockets.
Who is fooling who?

DOWN MEMORY LANE

The other day, I heard General Buhari telling women that he was going to protect them and other nice things. I realized that politicians can say anything; this is their right. But the electorates do not have to swallow everything said by politicians and this is also their right. Every man must be judged by his actions. There is a way you behave and people call you “Pastor,” or “Imam” as the case may be. Nigerians are very good at labelling. Can General Buhari be accused of being friendly with either young people or women in general? In the case of Dr. Jonathan, he does not even need to say anything. This humble man has exerted his brain to think of ways to better the lot of women and young people and the result is out there in the open. I personally know two young people who have received N10m each from Jonathan’s administration and their lives are the better for it. It almost sounds fictitious but it is true. Many more have been so blessed by this friendly president.

INCONVENIENT TRUTHS

When nothing was at stake, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and now APC governorship candidate for Kaduna State, told the US Ambassador to Nigeria (Mr. John Campbell) something Nigerians may find interesting. At this time, Dr. Jonathan was the Governor of Bayelsa State. The source of this statement is wikileaks.

“The Minister said the PDP leadership had pushed for Rivers Governor Peter Odili as the Vice Presidential candidate, but that Odili, along with Governors Makarfi (Kaduna) and Mu’azu (Bauchi), face “integrity issues” at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), thus eliminating them from contention. Yar’Adua and Jonathan “were the only two governors that could have cleared the EFCC hurdle,” Rufai said. Further, he said that Gov. Goodluck Jonathan of Bayelsa was the only candidate that met Obasanjo’s guidelines – honest and Ijaw.”15

Now, El-Rufai says Dr. Jonathan is clueless, useless, brainless, incompetent, and corrupt. Although I admire El-Rufai as a person, I feel sorry for him for making these statements. Below are some statements El-Rufai made about Buhari a few years ago.

“The vicious response by the Buhari camp to a simple statement that their almost-70 principal should retire, is proof enough that a Buhari, the new Democrat, tolerant of views different from his own, is yet to evolve. And that is sad, for his fledgling party and its leadership.” Mallam Nasir El-Rufai.16

“In 1984, Buhari allowed 53 suitcases belonging to his ADC’s father, to enter Nigeria unchecked, at a time the country was exchanging old currency for new. Against all canons of legal decency, he used retroactive laws to execute three young men for drug-peddling after they were convicted by a military tribunal, and not regular courts of law”. Mallam Nasir El-Rufai.

“Buhari was so high handed that he gave himself and his officials immunity, even from truthful reporting. That obnoxious Decree 4, against which truth was no defense, was used to jail journalists and attempt to cow the media as a whole. That tyrannical legislation shows the essence of his intolerance. These are facts of recent history.” El-Rufai.17
“While it is true that neither youth nor age supplies wisdom on their own, it makes sense to ask those who have been recurring decimals in our country’s sorry history to leave the stage. I’m amazed that General Buhari cannot debate this matter without scurrying to the gutter, making claims that are baseless and unsupported by any facts.” El-Rufai.18
“. . . General Buhari . . . has remained perpetually unelectable because his record as military head of state, and afterwards, is a warning that many Nigerians have wisely heeded. His insensitivity to Nigeria’s diversity and his parochial focus are already well-known.” El-Rufai.19

WHAT CAN BUHARI OFFER?

After seeing what happened during the APC Presidential Primaries (during which dollars were shared among about 8000 delegates by all the contenders) I do not have much hope for any sort of anti-corruption drive from General Buhari. Of course, opponents will be conveniently hounded to preserve the façade, but nothing worthwhile will happen. On General Buhari’s behalf, thousands of dollars were given to each of 8000 delegates, running into billions of naira. Can the General pretend not to know that the money was not from Aliko Dangote or Michael Adenuga or Femi Otedola or Jim Ovia or Tony Elumelu or any of our billionaire businessmen but that it was actually state funds that belongs to the people? Why is it alright if corruption is the pathway to power and suddenly not so alright when committed by others? On which moral platform will General Buhari stand to tell Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Rotimi Amaechi not to continue stealing from Nigerians? Can General Buhari even say “no” to Tinubu on nominees for appointments or fire a candidate nominated by Tinubu over corruption allegations or anything for that matter?

What sort of administration will Nigerians witness, in the unlikely event that the APC wins? Are people extrapolating properly at all?

I did not believe until I actually saw the tape recording of the clip where General Buhari said he will not present himself again to contest for elections in Nigeria. This was a sincere Buhari talking and it was shortly after the 2011 elections. After correctly weighing the situation, he had decided that Nigerians simply did not want him. Even if he said something else to his supporters, deep down in his heart, he knew the facts. But for the northern power shift agenda that saw governors dumping the PDP for the APC just to see their fellow northerner become president in 2015, Buhari would have reenacted the fiasco of yesteryears.

MY STAND

In January 2013, I wrote and published a book (My Phlegmatic President: A thesis for smarter intercourse with President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan from the perspective of human psychology) in which I criticized President Goodluck Jonathan for his leadership but also offered some advice to help him compensate for something I analyzed to be a temperamental disinclination to supervision, which gives his appointees undue advantage over him. This effort was a patriotic gesture to help the president succeed, but I did not mince words in calling a spade a spade. I am the only young man and non-political actor I know who has criticized the president so openly and published this criticism in a permanent document. So, I have the credentials to recommend this president I have studied for years and no one should imagine that I am holding brief for Mr. President. I gave a copy of My Phlegmatic President to the President’s Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, and assume he must have read it. Again, in January, I also published an analysis of Jonathan’s and Buhari’s temperamental weaknesses and strengths in a little book I distributed freely to Nigerians titled, Jonathan Versus Buhari: The Psychological Perspective. This citizen education publication was well received by the public and I was invited to speak about the book by a few radio stations and at least one TV station. Until recently when I began to know things I did not know about this government, my attitude was a bit lukewarm about a Jonathan second term, even though I wished him well, for the sake of what I would refer to as the “Nigerian Project”. However, energized by the knowledge I now have of what this man has been doing, I now understand why he dared to tell Nigerians some time ago that he was going to be the most loved president ever. I see him achieving this stated goal.

Today, my stand is that Dr. Jonathan should be allowed to continue in power for the next four years. It is good for Nigeria; it is good for the respective regions; it is best for the north; it is good for the Nigerian project; it is good for the economy; it is fair; it is just; it will positively impact on the future of this country; and there is no need to have Buhari in power in 2015 because that will bring all sorts of problems and mean retrogression. It will also rob the north of a more vibrant and “agreeable” candidate.

THE NIGERIAN PROJECT

Dr. Jonathan is far from perfect. He has pissed me off times without number through his presidency and I have no apology for being angry with the president many times. Sometimes, he behaves in ways I find totally impossible to sympathize with. But I am an honest man. In my honesty, I am convinced that Dr. Jonathan has not performed so badly that his continuation for the next four years will mean a disaster for Nigeria. Rather, I can see that his continuation for the next four years will be good for the Nigerian project. This man is from the smallest state in Nigeria which sits on oil wells and his state is actually home to the very first oil well discovered in Nigeria. For years, Nigeria endured militancy from Niger Delta militants, who rightly felt they were being cheated of their resources without any form of compensation. The completion of Dr. Jonathan’s second term is Nigeria’s best opportunity to, once and for all, solve this problem. If Jonathan is allowed to rule for 8 years, never again will any Niger Delta activist be able to make a valid cry of marginalization. Besides, Dr. Jonathan is serious about implementing the CONFAB report, which will give financial autonomy to the various regions of Nigeria and bring peace and rapid development in a way Nigeria has never witnessed.
On the other hand, if Jonathan is denied a second term, how are we sure that the grouse of the Niger Delta would have been fully assuaged? And if not fully assuaged, have we not returned to square one after several years? For a long time, I wondered why the north could not manifest the sagacity they manifested in 1998 when they correctly read the times and decided that a Yoruba man had to be president. Why can’t the north do the same thing again? I admire the north for one thing: they understand politics and the game of power. I am calling on the north to submit to the will of God, vote Dr. Jonathan a second time, and bring a young, vibrant, and highly educated politician like Mallam Nasir El-Rufai in 2019 to run for President. In spite of his loquacious nature, I believe that Mallam Nasir El-Rufai is a northerner who is relatively clean, deeply intelligent, a good leader, and one who is young enough to spend 8 years without the fear of truncating his tenure due to health issues, all things being equal. Apart from these, El-Rufai also has political experience and he is loved my both Christians and Moslems. Of course, there could be other viable alternatives to El-Rufai, but my point is that there is no need for the north to go the way they are bent on going right now. If anything sad happens and Nigeria breaks up, apart from killing Igbos resident in the north and claiming property in Abuja, what, really, can the north do? Who will feed the millions of northerners in the north before the north finds a way to discover oil or engage in massive agriculture or mine solid minerals or get foreign aid?

IS THIS WHY?

Just on Monday, the leader of the OPC, Chief Gani Adams, alleged that the opposition against Dr. Jonathan was more economic than political. The man said that, from the information at his disposal, the gang up of several characters against Jonathan’s reelection was because, sometime in September this year, oil licenses will need to be renewed and many people who are in the APC are afraid that Dr. Jonathan will not renew their oil licenses. Knowing the power of money, this may be the reason why the gang up against Jonathan seems so buoyant. Is the north afraid of equitable distribution of oil blocks? I have often wondered about the north. Most of Dr. Jonathan’s interventions (especially in agriculture) have benefitted the north; yet, the north seems poised to largely vote for Buhari. Maybe not the north central; but the northeast and the northwest. Are they aware that Dr. Jonathan has done more for the north than any recent leader? The other day, I got information that amazed me. I do not even know how true it is but I will state part of it below:

President Jonathan gave the Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe, the go-ahead and approved 100% funding of $1bn for one of the country’s most ambitious Projects — the Kashimbilla Multipurpose Buffer Dam Project — which will not just prevent the devastating flood but harness its potentials to become a Major Source of Life. The Dam, presently at over 90% completion, will now serve to ensure Water Supply (60,000 Cu.m/Day), Irrigation (Net – 2,000Ha) and provide Electricity – Hydropower generation: (40MW).

The above project is in the north.
I believe the north must tread with caution. They should be mindful of the prediction of Nigeria’s break up also and do what makes sense. Should there be no humility in relating with a man whose region provides the resources that feeds the nation? Is Dr. Jonathan’s meekness going to cause the north to miscalculate and end this marriage inadvertently? Is it not because we are a country that oil wells that sit in Bayelsa will be lining the pockets of some Mallams in the north? Is it not because we are a country that proceeds from oil wells that sit in Delta will be used to pay salaries in Zamfara? Is it not because we are a country that taxes collected from ships that berth on the Lagos coast will be added to the common pool and shared with people from Nasarawa State? I know that the north has more than enough potential for self-sustenance, but has any of these potential been developed? How fair is it that a man that represents everything oily in Nigeria is being literally chased out of power by a gang up? Where is the spirit that led northern leaders in 1998?

Where is that political sagacity?
If the north is not careful, it will neither produce the Nigerian president in 2015, or 2019, or even 2023 and 2027 because there will be no Nigeria to preside over. Incidentally, the warning to the north is applicable to every other region.

CONCLUSION:

A man that steers the ship of state in spite of the presence of determined enemies within and outside his country, builds many universities to ensure that every state in the federation at least has something to fall back on, increases greatly the sponsorship of the PTDF, seeks out and empowers young people and women through specific programmes that include the giving of grants, rebases the economy to gain the psychological advantage of knowing that it is the largest in Africa and also to know the areas that contribute to the GDP in order to direct his intervention; a man that does the above and also convenes a national conference to help in restructuring Nigeria (which many honest commentators see as a panacea to virtually all our challenges) and guarantees the security of his critics by signing the Freedom of Information Bill, is not only a democrat, a strategic thinker and a good leader, but a true Nigerian. He is also a disease-treating doctor, and not a symptom-mitigating doctor.

REFERENCES
1. http://transformationwatch.com/2012/04/12/revealed-the-north-intentionally-created-boko-haram-naija-pundit/
2. http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/03/aisha-buhari-opens-up-on-how-tinubu-helped-her-husband/.
3. http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/11/boko-haram-names-buhari-5-others-as-mediators/
4. http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/buhari-military-offensive-against-boko-haram-anti-north/149256/
5. http://pointblanknews.com/pbn/exclusive/buhari-calls-total-sharia-nigeria/.
6. http://thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=18299.
7. http://intelnews.org/2009/07/28/02-118/
8. http://ciameddling.tripod.com/
9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFRSlAQACGU
10. http://www.breitbart.com/sports/2013/04/29/obamas-tweet-call-jason-collins/
11. The Agenda: The Homosexual Plan To Change America; Sheldon, Louis P. (page 42; para 1) Frontline Publishers.
12. Ibid. page 41
13. http://www.economist.com/debate/overview/191
14. www.forwardnigeria.ng.
15. http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/10/jonathan-is-clean-honest-wikileaks-quotes-el-rufai/
16. http://www.nairaland.com/841404/el-rufai-insists-buhari-unelectable-hypocrites
17. http://www.nairaland.com/841404/el-rufai-insists-buhari-unelectable-hypocrites
18. http://www.nairaland.com/841404/el-rufai-insists-buhari-unelectable-hypocrites
19. http://pointblanknews.com/pbn/exclusive/buhari-has-nothing-to-offer-should-retire-says-el-rufai/