[img]http://mile2herald.files./2014/12/yemi-osinbajo-2.jpg?w=614[/img]

By Azubuike Ishiekwene





I received a strange call after midnight on Monday. A top presidential aide wanted to know if the All Progressives Congress had finally chosen a running mate for the party’s flag bearer, General Muhammadu Buhari.

It was already four days after Buhari emerged, and both the candidate and his party seemed to be in misery about choosing a running mate. The Monday night caller from the ‘other camp’ had a legitimate interest in trying to find out. And the reason is simple: the choice of a running mate would make or mar the APC.

But what’s there in a position once described by a former U.S. vice president as not worth more than a bucket of warm piss?

Since religion and ethnicity have split the country down the middle under President Goodluck Jonathan’s regime, no serious ticket could hope to win votes, much less start the healing, without addressing religion
and ethnicity.

That’s how the running mate has become the key. It wasn’t always so. Former governor and presidential adviser, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, once described deputies as spare tires because, according to him, they have no constitutional role.

At the time, President Goodluck Jonathan was still deputy governor of Bayelsa State. He was so upset by Ezeife’s description of deputy governors that he said if he were president, he would have advised him to resign. Who would have imagined then that the same Jonathan would create a country so stricken
and divided that any electoral ticket, even in the most liberal states, would be hostage to religion?

[b]The APC’s nearly one-week delay in choosing Buhari’s running mate seemed like the party had taken time off to campaign for Jonathan’s re-election.

With the emergence of Yemi Osinbajo as Buhari’s running mate on Wednesday, the battle is joined. This newspaper had said, when it first forecast the emergence of Osinbajo last Friday, that once the wind of religion is taken from Jonathan’s sail, his re-election would be stranded in shallow waters.

For the APC to win the next election, it needs block votes in two zones with the highest number of registered voters on the roll. Out of 71 million registered voters, the north has combined (block) votes of 36 million while the south west has 14 million.

Though there are states in the north, like Taraba, Adamawa, Niger, Gombe, Plateau, Nasarawa, Kaduna and Benue where Christians make up between 25 to 65 percent of the population, it is improbable that, in his current form, Jonathan would get more than 25 percent of the votes in more than four or five of these states.

Is the south west still a block, with two states gone and the PDP resurgent? And can two APC governors – Ogun and Oyo – whose jobs will be on the line two weeks after the presidential election stand firmly behind their party’s candidate? It’s more likely than maybe.

That leaves Jonathan’s base, north south south and the south east, as battleground zones, the former fraught with the bitter fallouts of the National Assembly and governorship primaries in the states.

It’s silly to reduce this election to a game of religious and ethnic chess, but Jonathan started it. It was not his fault that he started it, though. He had nothing else to use.

Except for a few inside Aso Rock and their cronies, life outside the villa has been a nightmare. It’s true that the size of the economy has grown and that more and foreign investors want to come and do business.

But that has hardly changed the price of fish for 64 million Nigerians who are still unemployed, millions who cannot get electricity to light up their homes or run their businesses, or millions more whose lives have been shambled by terror and corruption.

This campaign should be about security, jobs, corruption, power and education. It should be about how we can get our lives back from incompetence.

If Jonathan had been at his desk in the last five years, we’ll probably not be where we are today. But he’s been hiding behind the veil of religion, holding preachers by the hem of their garment and visiting church after church every Sunday for the laying on of holy hands, only to return to his old habits the day after.

The opposition had to find a suitable response.

If Jonathan has CAN president, Ayo Oritsejafor, in his corner, Osinbajo’s emergence was obviously calculated to put Oritsejafor in a difficult spot. The CAN president would now have to choose between two Christian front-runners in a contest where one of them, Osinbajo, is a favourite of Pastor Enoch Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God and a pastor in the church.

But the choice of Osinbajo presents more than a religious predicament for Camp Jonathan.

He is a strong moral voice for a party that craves change and a truly new face in every sense of the word. His accomplishments as attorney-general and commissioner of justice in Lagos changed the face of Lagos judiciary and made it an example to other states and the federal government.

It’s not the first time his name would be mentioned for a top job. In 2011, when the ACN and CPC were contemplating a merger, Osinbajo was penciled in as possible running mate to Buhari. That turned out to be a story of almost there, which has taken three years to come true.

The combination of Buhari and Osinbajo is the first real message that the APC might, indeed, be serious about change.

The spare tyre has reset the contest.[/b]

…What Is RCCG Up To?
On Wednesday, after an excited follower tweeted, “Let somebody shout hallelujah,” with the photo of Yemi Osinbajo on @rccgworldwide, the Redeemed Christian Church of God headquarters rushed out with a disclaimer of the tweeter handle, saying its own authentic address is @rccghq.

I checked and found that @rccgworldwide had been in use since 2010 with 181,000 followers, while @rccghq, which has no registration date, has only 8,193 followers.

Why did the church wait for four years to find its voice?

This was a needlessly embarrassing attempt to show its neutrality and please the powers that be. Why?


Courtesy: Leadership Nigeria

If Jonathan had been at his desk in the last five years, we’ll probably not be where we are today. But he’s been hiding behind the veil of religion, holding preachers by the hem of their garment and visiting church after church every Sunday for the laying on of holy hands, only to return to his old habits the day after.

You reap what you sow...

GEJ all the WAY...

''It’s silly to reduce this election to a game of religious and ethnic chess, but Jonathan started it. It was not his fault that he started it, though. He had nothing else to use.''

the naked truth

RCCG truly endorsed Osinbajo afterall, they only dont want it to be too obvious to jona that like king saul, he has abused the anointing and a david has been chosen

…What Is RCCG Up To?
On Wednesday, after an excited follower tweeted, “Let somebody shout hallelujah,” with the photo of Yemi Osinbajo on @rccgworldwide, the Redeemed Christian Church of God headquarters rushed out with a disclaimer of the tweeter handle, saying its own authentic address is @rccghq.

I checked and found that @rccgworldwide had been in use since 2010 with 181,000 followers, while @rccghq, which has no registration date, has only 8,193 followers.

i'm not interested in religious politics o..........jona started it with the below

That leaves Jonathan’s base, north south south and the south east, as battleground zones, the former fraught with the bitter fallouts of the National Assembly and governorship primaries in the states.

It’s silly to reduce this election to a game of religious and ethnic chess, but Jonathan started it. It was not his fault that he started it, though. He had nothing else to use.

You reap what you sow...

Nonsense thread.








.

Emergence of Osinbajo as V.P candidate has rattled GEJ and his supporters since Tuesday. The Satanists and PDP at large have been in disarray for three straight days. They were hoping for Muslim/Muslim ticket so they can run wild in the market. The emergence of Osinbajo was a masterstroke that rattled the den of Jonathanians. The Jonathanians ought to be fearful.

The change we want is almost here.

Sai Buhari/Osinbajo!

Not quite. Buhari has been deceiving the people since 1951. If he likes he can pick the pope, it will not change the fact that he is a religious zealot and an islamofascist. Osinbajo is just fronting for another Muslim brotherhood member. Buhari cannot be saved from himself.

FastShipping:
Emergence of Osinbajo as V.P candidate has rattled GEJ and his supporters since Tuesday. The Satanists and PDP at large have been in disarray for three straight days. They were hoping for Muslim/Muslim ticket so they can run wild in the market. The emergence of Osinbajo was a masterstroke that rattled the den of Jonathanians. The Jonathanians ought to be fearful.

The change we want is almost here.

Sai Buhari/Osinbajo!

They've been salivating and waiting to divide and campaign with religion and bigotry, but the APC took that weapon away from them. The APC not only have a christian VP candidate, but they also have a well educated and accomplished professional and on top of that, a popular pastor...

Be careful what you ask for sometimes..

sufido123:
Not quite

Nigerians are too smart to fall for lies, deception, tribalism and religious bigotry all over again so find better market for your odious bigotry..

It’s not the first time his name would be mentioned for a top job. In 2011, when the ACN and CPC were contemplating a merger, Osinbajo was penciled in as possible running mate to Buhari. That turned out to be a story of almost there, which has taken three years to come true.

Better late than never...

PhockPhockMan:
Nonsense thread.








.

Super Nonsensical Nonsense

temitemi1:
GEJ all the WAY...

JERK sorry GEJ all the way to the dustbin.

Dreamers

Reasons why Buhari is not the Messiah

1) Buhari just like his Hausa Fulani people will never encourage resource control, fiscal federalism and privatization which are the fastest economic route for Nigeria.

He will never allow States LGAs Corporations and individuals to aid FG in economic development.

2) Buhari just like his Hausa Fulani people will never encourage political federalism where States will have autonomous legislative powers to make laws that will help them grow economically politically socially and financially eg State police, State railways, State international airports etc.

3) Buhari will waste all his energy fighting a partial anti corruption war against individuals instead of restructuring Nigeria in a proper way that will help reduce the impact of corruption on the society


So SW people like aresa keep allowing greed for VP position deceive you guys that Buhari whose Hausa Fulani people have opposed decentralization of Nigeria really stands for change.

@OP

It is arrant nonsense and pitiable display of ignorance for anybody to insinuate that “religion and ethnicity have split Nigeria down the middle under President Goodluck Jonathan’s regime”. The geographical expression known as Nigeria has been divided into numerous pieces by religion and ethnicity even before the amalgamation of southern and northern protectorates. It is idiotically disingenuous for any moronic Nigerian to attribute the religious and ethnic division of the jungle called Nigeria to Goodluck Jonathan’s regime. Articles such as the OP define Nigeria as doomed country.

aresa:


Nigerians are too smart to fall for lies, deception, tribalism and religious bigotry all over again so find better market for your odious bigotry..

These words describe your hero not me. You have no scintilla of evidence to support what you just said. However, I have tons of evidence to support that Buhari is all what you just said plus more. Attack the message not the messenger.

sufido123:


These words describe your hero not me. You have no scintilla of evidence to support what you just said. However, I have tons of evidence to support that Buhari is all what you just said plus more. Attack the message not the messenger.

Bigoted posts ans sentiments bore me so find another market for your rubbish...