Nigerians Decides - THE END OF APC'S FABRICATED MOMENTUM.

I HAVE news for APC stalwarts. You don’t win an election in
Nigeria by being the champion of social media. You don’t win by
renting crowds to fill up your rallies. You don’t win by putting
up your billboards everywhere while tearing down those of your
opponents. You don’t win by master-minding in the media a
false sense of the inevitability of your victory. When you do all
this successfully, you simply end up deceiving yourself.
You win elections by mounting an effective ground-game at the
grassroots level; designed to bring out the people on Election
Day to vote for you. Instead, APC strategy was to stampede
the electorate into victory. The design was to proclaim victory
even before the election, laying grounds for protests and
acrimony in event of defeat.

Attempted coup d’état

The APC blueprint is see-through. Present a new refurbished,
suit-wearing and church-visiting Buhari to the electorate
chanting a mantra of “change.” Give him a Teflon-coated
Redeemed pastor as vice-presidential running-mate. Shield him
from public scrutiny and debates to hide his weaknesses and
absent-mindedness. Gloss over his objectionable past and
pedigree. Mount an aggressive image-laundering social media
campaign.
So doing, before the PDP and the public would be up to your
game, the election would be over. Nigerians would wake up on
February 15th to discover to our cost that we had been
hoodwinked into handing over power to Buhari and the Tinubu
cabal.

The APC mechanism for perfecting this plan entailed bullying
the PDP into defeat. In the North, PDP supporters were
threatened and harassed. Some quickly packed their bag and
baggage and left town. Even Goodluck Jonathan’s convoy was
stoned by APC “democrats.” In Gombe, a suicide bomber paid a
courtesy call on the president’s campaign rally.
But the killer-punch was to be the disenfranchisement of
literally millions of PDP voters. With the complicity of Jega’s
INEC, APC strongholds were supplied with PVCs: while PDP
strongholds were denied them. Ghost-voters came out of the
woodwork by their hundreds of thousands in unlikely places
like the war-torn North-east to collect their PVCs. However, in
peaceful higher-population places like Lagos and Kano, non-
indigenes were denied their PVCs, suspected of being likely
PDP supporters.

It is telling that, in all the ensuing brouhaha over 23 million
people not yet receiving their PVCs seven days to D-Day, APC
remained resolute that the election should go ahead
nevertheless. This indicates that it knew the missing PVCs
belonged disproportionately to PDP supporters.
The denouement
However, the entire strategy of the APC met its Waterloo with
the postponement of the election. With the postponement, the
Buhari election-train came to a screeching halt. Some have
argued that the postponement was a military coup by Jonathan
and the PDP. However, a more truthful assessment is that the
postponement scuttled the APC plan to win the election by
subterfuge.

APC blundered because it refused to entertain the possibility
that the election could actually be postponed. As a result, it
did not plan for that eventuality. In this gaffe, it was carried
away by its own hyperbole. APC big-guns shouted themselves
hoarse warning all and sundry that the election must not be
postponed, or else. Worse still, they believed their own
rhetoric.
APC is used to making threatening noises. It is all stuff and
bluster. If it loses, the dogs and the baboons would be soaked
in blood. If it loses it would form a parallel government. If the
election is postponed, Nigerians would not stand for it.
Therefore, it expended all its political and financial capital on a
14th February election. When it finally dawned on it that the
election might be postponed, Buhari made an unusual visit to
the Council of State to mount a pathetic eleventh-hour
resistance.
But alas, the APC was completely outplayed. INEC succumbed
to the inevitable and the election was postponed, and for six
weeks no less. As a result, the APC stampede came to an end.

The orchestrated Buhari momentum came to a screeching halt.
Since then, APC pundits have been in shock; scratching their
heads because, in all their impetuosity, they had no Plan B.
The APC was banking on the element of surprise. That is now
gone with the postponement. It was hoping to win the election
by disenfranchising PDP voters. That is no longer possible. It is
now confronted with fighting an election it always knew it
cannot win because it does not have the appropriate structure
on the ground at the grassroots level.

PDP fight back

Sixteen years in power had made the PDP over-confident. It
seemed to have been caught unawares by the scripted APC
nomination of Buhari and the gimmickry of choosing a
Redeemed pastor as his running-mate. As a result, an election
that should have been a cake-walk for it suddenly turned into
a tight race. Part of this was self-inflicted. PDP had a bad set
of primaries; creating considerable dissension within its ranks.
Moreover, the PDP was bested in the public relations
department; allowing the APC to define the narrative of the
election on social media.

Had the election gone on as scheduled on 14th February, it
would have been close but Jonathan would still have won. But
with six weeks delay, the election will not even be close. Even
though it was ebbing discernibly, APC had momentum for the
14th February election. By 28th March, that momentum would
have dissipated and disappeared. Even now, the momentum is
no longer there. Buhari is in London on a dubious visit. APC has
run out of breath.

Make no mistake about it; the six week postponement of the
election has effectively crippled the APC. It is no wonder then
that the party has been grumbling non-stop. In the meantime,
PDP has been able to get a full measure of the APC. Putting all
its eggs in the 14th February date, which it insisted cannot and
must not be changed; the APC played all its cards. It put all its
eggs in one basket. However, PDP held some in reserve,
banking on the postponement of the election.

APC’s confusion

What happens now? APC is confused. It is stretched for funds.
It has lost its mojo, scrambling in panic mode to raise
additional 50 billion naira from donors. Speaking to APC
stakeholders at the party secretariat in Lagos, Bola Tinubu
said: “We have to re-strategise; all of you should go back to
your various constituencies starting from tomorrow.” This is a
belated acknowledgment that the party now likely to win the
election is the one best able to mount an aggressive and
effective nationwide grassroots campaign.

In that department, the APC is clearly second-best. The party
best positioned to mount an effective ground-game and
mobilize votes at the grassroots level is the PDP. It has been
around for 16 years. PDP local government councilors account
for nearly 70 per cent of all councilors in Nigeria, comprising
6,521 members, making it a truly grassroots-based political
party. The APC, on the other hand, does not have the
nationwide political structure to win the coming election. To
date, it is a newspaper and television political party. It has yet
to build a formidable grassroots support. It is a JJC party, a
little over a year old.
With all the noise about Buhari, it should not be forgotten that
the man chronically lacks skills at building political party
structures. In the APC presidential primaries, Northern
delegates did not even vote for him; preferring instead
Kwankwaso and Atiku. He was elected primarily on the
strength of ACN votes. PDP strength on the ground
everywhere in Nigeria explains why Jonathan was able to win
37% of the vote even in Buhari’s home-state of Katsina in the
2011 election.

While APC was busy stoking up the press to create its air of
inevitable victory, PDP was busy mobilizing its local
government councilors. Its Presidential Campaign Organisation
brought all its elected and appointed councilors from all over
Nigeria to Abuja to mobilize them to secure victory for the
party at the grassroots level. In what was captioned
“Operation Deliver Your Ward,” Professor Jerry Gana re-
fashioned them as political foot-soldiers and grassroots
mobilisers for the PDP, split into six groups according to their
geopolitical zones.

Resurgent PDP

Since the postponement, Jonathan is no longer the issue. It is
once again Buhari; the coup-plotting former dictator and
alleged ethnic and religious jingoist. Thanks to the
postponement, Nigerians can no longer be panicked into voting
for Buhari. We now have enough time to appreciate that he is
old, and completely bereft of ideas as to what to do when in
power. It is not enough to shout “change, change.” The
question is: change to what? To this question, Buhari provides
a deafening silence.

In the meantime, the true message of Jonathan’s considerable
achievements in office is now resonating. With the
commissioning of new power-plants, we are now generating
5,500 megawatts of electricity: a new Nigerian record. We now
know from PricewaterhouseCoopers that the allegation that
$20 billion is missing from NNPC accounts is one big fat APC
lie. The army is now fully-equipped for battle. For the first time
in a long time, the Nigerian air force has come into the fray.

The Boko Haram is being bombed to smithereens up North.
There is even talk of capturing Abubakar Shekau alive.
Within the next six weeks, all that is left is for the PDP to put
its house in order and APC will be toast. Since Buhari has
whipped up himself and his supporters into an unrealistic
psychological frenzy in this election cycle, it is certain he will
end up at the tribunal, when it finally dawns on him that, in
spite of all the bluster, he has lost again. The fate awaiting
Buhari brings to mind that of Mitt Romney who was so
deceived into believing he would be elected America’s next
president in 2012, he had only a victory speech on election
night when he was roundly defeated.

When the history of the 2015 presidential election is finally
written, it will be recalled that the postponement of the
election for six weeks was the final nail in the coffin of the

By Femi Aribisala.

Nigerians decides - Why Jonathan wins

I’m just as mad as the next man about the failings of the
Jonathan administration. Many a Nigerian has wondered how
he hired some of those people who work for him and why they
serve him so poorly and, worse, why no one does anything
about it when they fail him.

The job of the President carries strict liability. He must accept
responsibility for all happenings. When bad things happen, we
know it is because of the reign of a bad king, the President.
Rarely do good things occur, or they happen so grudgingly,
they are so few and far between.
In an era of ‘Ghana must go’ wallets, there is so much envy of
the rich. You can feel it. And the trouble with the Nigerian rich
is that they are mostly men and women who made hay while
the sun shone, which makes the envy worse. And all this envy
is taken out on the one man who is the symbol of everything,
good or bad, the President.

People sometimes look at me reproachfully when I publicly con­
fess that I am a fan of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the
Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance.
I quickly try to explain that she is one person among the high
and the mighty who speaks naturally and frequently about
income inequality in Nigeria, and the dangers of widening the
gap between the rich and the poor.

A fortnight ago she was speaking about how corruption
subsists and will fester because Nigeria does not yet have
adequate tools to fight it. H ow I wished t he A ll Progressive
Congress (APC) had drafted her or someone like her for
President. This campaign would have been a truly ‘change’ cam­
paign, a “change you can believe in” as Mr. Barack Obama pro­
claimed in 2008. But I digress.

The Jonathan administration can be infuriating sometimes. Its
first action which truly rattled me was the seizure of
newspapers and the prevention of the circulation of the papers
in several cities by military personnel. It went on for a few
days and, mercifully, stopped.

The military people said they were searching for terrorists’
bombs in the newspaper vans. The Presidency people said they
have nothing to say about it because it was a “security issue.”

For a newspaper man who experienced government
suppression of the Press first hand and in all its forms in the
triple tyrannies of Buhari, Babangida and Abacha I was about
to exclaim “there we go again.”

Now, an ‘O’ level student of Government doesn’t need to think
twice to know that what the military was doing was brazenly
unconstitutional. So, where was President Jonathan’s domestic
policy adviser, or his State House Counsel or, for that matter,
the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice to order the
soldiers to “cease and desist” on the very first day.

I had hoped the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria
NPAN) would send a hefty bill to the Aso Villa for those
violations with an ultimatum, hoping the government would
ignore it so the NPAN can go to court to ask for declarations
and punitive damages for violations of Press freedom. I imagine
it all ended in a friendly ‘ol boy’ phone call to forgive and
forget. This kind of violation would be inconceivable in the
United States where respect for the Constitution is the
beginning of governmental wisdom.

Then there was the $9.3 million cash in the suitcase in the
plane from Abuja seized in South Africa. Had the South African
Customs not found and seized the cash what evidence was
there that the money wouldn’t have disappeared? The Ministry
of Finance didn’t know about the money, neither did Defense,
nor Foreign Affairs nor Department of State Security. Using
the office of the National Security Adviser to buy arms is a
double edged sword.
Trundling cash around the continent is not just illegal but
smelly. Whoever was responsible for that transaction made the
Jonathan administration look queer, inept if not corrupt. The
Igbos have a saying that if you are not a thief, never step on
the footprints left by a thief.

The phantom ceasefire with Boko Haram was the saddest of all
Jonathan Administration’s bunglings.It made many Nigerians
miserable. It was inexcusable. It marked the lowest point. The
Federal Republic of Nigeria, a victim of 419? Tell it not in Jos.
Publish it not in the streets of Ado Ekiti.

The above are the few that stick out with me above others.
Each is scandalous. None can happen in the United State where
there are layers of checks and balances to preclude their
happening. But if any of that happened, there would be hell to
pay.

The virtue of Jonathan is not that he is perfect. It is that he
knows that he is imperfect. So, he is bound to work harder,
read more, study issues more and be better informed. Because
he got there by fortunate occurrences, he wouldn’t have ar­
rived with a g rand vision. So, he would be open to whatever
works. Because he is an intellectual, he won’t be averse to
theories about anything. He wouldn’t have inferiority or Mr.

Know-All complex, or the Obasanjo complex also known as the
Messiah complex. He is not afraid of talented, accomplished
women as everyone can see.

He is a builder – 12 universities, 120 Al-Majiri schools. He plans
to build speed trains after reviving the snail trains and added
some standard gauge lines. How many power plants has he
built? Dozens. But certainly with the huge Gembu hydro under
construction, four coal plants being planned, and all the
integrated Independent Power Plants built and ready to go,
Goodluck Jonathan finally slew the power dragon, the
nightmare that had defied all administrations before his. Two
outstanding problems remain – gas and transmission. When
those are tied up Nigeria’s power problems would be history.

Jonathan’s body language is not that of a greedy, corrupt man.
Corruption in Nigeria is structural and, pessimists say,
Sisyphean. To make a dent on it, a sovereign national
conference needs to be convened. Nibbling at the edges is still
okay which is what the EFCC and ICPC do. The ICT tools like
IPPIS, electronic wallet to enable farmers access fertilizer
directly are all great. But as Chief Philip Asiodu, the ‘super
permanent secretary’ and statesman said a few weeks ago,
when a Nigerian senator earns four times the pay of an
American President, a clear case of unjust enrichment, how is a
president going to start a fight which would end with his
impeachment? Unjust enrichment is the beginning of all
corruption. Why has Gen. Buhari been quiet about the pay of
the National Assembly?

That Jonathan is a patient man is fairly obvious. He is
deliberative. He doesn’t rush to judgment. He doesn’t force the
process. He sometimes exhibits strength of character. He
defied the doubting Thomases and convened the National
Conference, one of the most momentous events of Nigerian his­
tory, in which thorny national issues were discussed candidly
in an atmosphere of freedom.

But above all, Jonathan wins because he has a democratic
temperament, a genial, non-threatening personality and a
sportsman-like spirit which made APC possible and created an
atmosphere of freedom and liberty unprecedented in Nigerian
history. He could have destroyed APC and squashed the party
if he were a typical Nigerian politician. But he is of a different
make-up.

The Action Group in the 60’s and the Peoples Redemption
Party in the 80’s were victims of political malevolence and ill
will. The APC would not have survived an Obasanjo regime,
much less threaten it. Jonathan guarantees democracy, his
opponent imperils it.

By Lewis Obi

Naira weakens further, sells at N224 to dollar at BDC

The Naira on Friday weakened further as it sold at
N224 against the dollar at the Bureau de Change
(BDC).

NAN reports that the Naira also exchanged against
the dollar at N220 at the black market.

But, the currency traded N199 to a dollar at the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The currency, however, gained N2 against the
pound at the BDC, selling at N330, from N332 it
sold on Monday.

At the black market, however, the Naira remained
stable, maintaining N335 to the pound, which it
attained on Feb. 23. It sold at N307.59 to a pound
at the CBN.

Against the Euro at the black market, Naira sold at
N255 as against N235 it was sold on Monday.

At the BDC, it exchanged at N245 against the
Euro, increasing from the N235 it was sold on
Monday, while at the CBN, it sold at N226.7.

Your blackmail can’t stop Buhari from winning the presidential election – APC tells Fayose

The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ekiti State
has said Governor Ayodele Fayose’s alleged
blackmail of its presidential candidate, Muhammadu
Buhari, cannot stop him from emerging victorious in
the March 28 election.

According to the APC, Fayose’s criticism of Buhari
is driven by self-preservation over the governor’s
past misdeeds and not in the interest of the nation.
The APC said Fayose is “fighting the battle of his
life” that runs contrary to the general mood of the
nation, and therefore advised him focus his energy
on how to ensure victory for PDP’s candidate,
President Goodluck Jonathan, instead of lecturing
APC on why Buhari shouldn’t be the party’s
presidential candidate.

The APC’s position was contained in a statement
by the state Publicity Secretary of the party, Taiwo
Olatubosun.

He said Nigerians had already made up their minds
to elect Buhari as their President on March 28,
adding that, “No amount of blackmail and rhetoric
fuelled by selfishness will change the course of
change sweeping across the country.”

Olatubosun, while reminding Fayose that APC was
different from the PDP, said, “PDP has an agenda
to kill all institutions of government as it is
currently doing and make corruption a creed. Never
in the history of this country have we recorded
cases of frauds and scandals as we have today in
Nigeria. These are the legacies that PDP can flaunt.
Unfortunately, Fayose is equating PDP with
Nigeria.

“Fayose has turned APC to a PDP affair. He said
former President Olusegun Obasanjo imposed a sick
man, the late Umaru Yar’Adua, on PDP in 2007
and President Yar’Adua died after two years in
office. The question is; is Buhari in PDP and is he
now being imposed by Obasanjo again? How does
Buhari’s old age threaten PDP’s bid to rule for 60
years?

“Again, Fayose said he had a vision that Buhari will
never be president. If he is sure of his vision, why
is he breathless about Buhari’s candidacy?”
Olatubosun also stated that Fayose was being
hypocritical in his criticism of Buhari and the
allegations he was raising over his health status,
noting that his actions pointed to the fact that
Buhari was the favored candidate majority of
Nigerians are clamoring for.

Please dissolve our one-week marriage, his manhood is too big, I can’t cope – Wife tells court

A Sharia Court in Samaru, Gusau, Zamfara State,
was thrown into laughter during the week, when a
housewife, Aisha Dannupawa, pleaded with the
court to dissolve her one-week marriage to her
husband, Ali Maizinari, because she could not cope
with the size of his penis.

When the case came up, Aisha told the court that
she married her husband after the failure of her
first marriage.

Aisha, who is a mother of three told the court that
before she packed into her husband’s house, as
the tradition demanded, she was invited into his
parents house, adding that “when he came, we had
sex but the experience was a nightmare. Instead of
enjoying the sex, it turned out to be something else
because his penis was too big.”

She also revealed to the court that after the
horrible experience, she took some medication,
which was given to her by her mother.

“I told my mother about the experience but she told
me to endure and that with time, I will be able to
cope. She then gave me some drugs,” she said.

She continued, “two days later when he came to
visit me, we had sex again, but the experience was
too much to bear. It was then I knew that I could
not continue with the marriage because of the size
of his penis.”

The husband, Maizinari, who did not deny the
wife’s allegation, told the court that he was willing
to divorce her only if she would pay back the
dowry and all that he spent on her during the
courtship.

When he was asked to state the total amount
spent, Maizinari said that what he expected from
her was N60,000.

However, the President of the court, Alhaji
Mamman Shinkafi, told the couple to try to reconcile
before their next date in court.

APC raise alarm over fresh plot by Jonathan, PDP to remove Jega next week

Members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in
the Senate have raised the alarm over an alleged
fresh plot by the Federal Government to prevent
the Independent National Electoral Commission,
INEC, Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, from
conducting the forthcoming general elections.

The APC senators, led by George Akume, disclosed
this in a news conference in Abuja on Thursday.
They said a reliable source informed them that the
Head of Service would direct Jega to proceed on his
pre-retirement leave next week.

“We have received information from a very credible
source that next week, the Chairman of INEC will be
given a letter from the office of the Head of the
Civil Service to proceed on a terminal leave,” they
said.

According to the APC Senators, the Federal
Government was trying to use a circular from the
HoS dated August 11, 2010 to place Jega on
compulsory pre-retirement leave.

“Whether the letter emanates from the HoS office
or the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation, it does not make sense. Even if we go
by the terms of the Civil Service circular of August
11, 2010, (it) is not applicable whatsoever to the
INEC chairman,” they said.

The APC lawmakers said that the circular, with
reference number HCSF/CMO/1772/TI/11, talks
about clarifications on pre-retirement leave, which
is only applicable to tenured officers who are career
civil servants.

They explained that anyone who has spent 30
years in service or has attained 60 years of age
was bound to disengage officially from the service,
adding that the case of Jega, however, did not fall
into any of these categories.

The lawmakers alleged that Jega’s offence was his
readiness to conduct the elections when the
Peoples Democratic Party-controlled Federal
Government was not ready for it.

They also stated that using the issue of card
readers to discredit Jega would not work because
the National Assembly appropriated money for that
purpose.

They said, “We want a credible election but in a
situation where we are being informed that because
the postponement of the elections attracted no
reaction from the people, Jega could be removed
for a plan-less person who will do the bidding of
the government, doesn’t hold water.

“You cannot start a game which is about to end and
suddenly you want to change the goalpost. You
don’t want a referee that is fair to all. You want to
have someone who will subvert the whole system
for sinister, personal purposes.

“We will continue to say no to impunity. We will
continue to say no to any attempt to undermine the
credibility of the forthcoming elections.

“We therefore want to appeal to Nigerians to be
steadfast to keep watch so that their labour will
not be in vain. If Ghana and other countries can get
it right, Nigeria can also get it right.

“We are opposed to the removal of Jega because it
is criminal, illegal and unconstitutional. They want
to remove him through the back door.”

Akume, however, said that President Goodluck
Jonathan reserved the right to remove Jega but
that he could not unilaterally do so without seeking
the permission of the National Assembly through a
two-thirds majority.

The APC lawmakers also stated clearly that
Jonathan lacked the legal powers to suspend the
Jega under whatever guise.

They said, “Section 157(1) clearly states that the
president can only remove Jega with the vote of
2/3 majority of all senators. Under whatever guise;
whether suspension, retirement or voluntary leave
he cannot be removed.

“Section 157 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as
amended), the President cannot remove the INEC
Chairman from office without getting approval of
the Upper Chamber.

“Section 157 (1) of the Constitution reads, “…a
person holding any of the offices to which this
section applies may only be removed from that
office by the president acting on an address
supported by two-thirds majority of the Senate,
praying that he be so removed for inability to
discharge the functions of the office.”

I have nothing personal against Buhari, but I won’t stop attacking him – Fayose

Governor of Ekiti state, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has
said that he will not stop attacking the presidential
candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC,
Muhammadu Buhari.

Fayose, who spoke through his Chief Press
Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, in Ado-Ekiti on
Thursday, said he owed nobody any apology for
exposing “the alleged hypocrisy of the APC
leaders.”

He also accused them of placing personal interests
above national interest
The governor, who said he had nothing personal
against the APC candidate was reacting to
criticisms that had trailed his campaign for the re-
election of President Goodluck Jonathan of the
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and his continuous
attacks on Buhari.

Fayose said the APC has not only packaged lies
and tried to deceive Nigerians, it had also
compromised the Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC, to rig the election earlier
scheduled for February 14 in their favour.

He said, “I remember then as the ad hoc chairman
of the PDP committee to shop for the presidential
candidate to replace former President Olusegun
Obasanjo, a crop of suitable, brilliant, healthy and
competent northern politicians in the PDP were
shortlisted by me for Obasanjo to pick from, but he
overruled the list and asked me to contact the late
Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua because he preferred him.

“In fairness to the late President, he objected to
the offer on health grounds, but Obasanjo insisted
that he must be the President.”
Fayose also questioned why Buhari could not
appear at the APC organised rally in London on
Wednesday if indeed he was not on hospital bed,
adding that the much-talked about Chatham House
speech was “a face-saving measure” to cover the
true position of Buhari’s health.

The governor alleged that most of those attacking
him were doing so because he stuck out his neck to
expose the lies of the APC, explaining that after he
proved to the world that Buhari was interviewed in
Abuja and not in London, the party (APC) has
failed to prove him wrong.