Political party stakeholders and
supporters must have gone into
spending overkill, bank loans must
have been accessed and properties
sold off with proceeds expended on
supporting candidates running for
office. A thick stratum of emotion and
piles of mental strain must have
been infused into the electioneering,
and the cost of preparation for the
adjourned democratic process earlier
scheduled for Saturday, February 14,
must have been more than an arm-
and-a-leg.
For those who are pulling for either
President Goodluck Jonathan or Maj.
Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.),
what they had anticipated would be a
celebratory, champagne-popping
romantic love day-out on Valentine’s
Day hooraying their candidate’s
victory, will be nothing but a saggy
Saturday in Nigeria. The
announcement by the Independent
National Electoral Commission
Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, last
week that this month’s elections had
to be postponed for six weeks
because of the fear of Boko Haram’s
butcher-knives, bayonets and tanks
in some parts of the North, carves an
ominous picture.
I hope I am wrong; I hope I am
misreading the verbal and nonverbal
languages of some people seated in
high places; the postponement is an
awkward genesis of a strange
development in our polity, and the
attending noises for and against are
only the first leg in the roll-out
process of a national horror-movie
we all may be forced to watch. The
apprehension and suspense among
Nigerians about the future of the
country thus linger on with no
foreseeable end in sight. The truth,
my friends, is that the likelihood that
elections will be conducted in Nigeria
this year is not only gasping for
breath, it is sliding into a near-death
situation.
On Wednesday, February 4, 10 clear
days before the original election date,
I had written through the social
media platform these words about
the elections and they are still on
record: “… There may be no elections
held in Nigeria this month… I hope I
am wrong; I pray I am just jiving, but
I can’t stop thinking what I am
thinking. There is something eerie
about February 14, and it’s not
LOVE!”
On February 7, three days after my
prediction, Jega announced a six-
week postponement of the process
under what many now believe may
have been a situation of duress and
coercion. The Professor who had
aforetime bragged and almost sworn
that nothing would change the date
now came out defending what he had
viciously attacked. The new rhythm
and rhyme sung by Jega was not the
INEC Chairman’s script.
We all know that elections are
conducted in convivial cohort with
other agencies over which INEC has
no overriding charge; but if in the
hotbed of widespread terrorist wars
and battles like Pakistan, Syria, and
Afghanistan elections are conducted
without a botch or bungle; if in
places where bombs are dropped
hourly and guns are fired by-the-
minute communities still chose
leaders through the ballot box,
February’s elections in Nigeria
should have been held without
qualms.
Many of us now think that there is
more to the prevalent narrative of
fear-mongering; and there may be
something deeper in a realm
unknown and unseen where the
Machiavellian move for postponement
was hatched by men who assume
that their varying interests (whatever
they are), are threatened. The
security issue raised may be nothing
but a crafty gloss over the real
reason for a change in date.
With recent developments of
contradictory statements by those in
power, with mean-looking armed
men cordoning off our once-peaceful
streets and armoured tanks rolled at
the gates of opposition henchmen’s
homes, it is certain that the thought
of relinquishing power by President
Jonathan and the ruling party will
remain a wish, fantasia and chimera.
The lofty words of assurance and
beating-of-the-chest by Sambo
Dasuki regarding the sacrosanctity of
the new dates notwithstanding, some
people somewhere are only trying to
buy time to bite and spite Nigerians.
Every nation of the world has men
who are not in power but possess
immense authority over who is.
These men are found in all aspects
of a nation’s economy and they have
the power to build up and pull down.
These men are the ones Pastor
Tunde Bakare calls power-brokers,
and some of us call some of them
elder statesmen. Some religious
people call them powers-and-
principalities, occult folk call them
rulers-of-the-darkness of this world.
Some angry, perturbed and
beleaguered people in power may
call them “motor park touts”; but I
call them powerful and sometimes
surreal voices hiding behind the
mask of the Ides of March. These
men may have decided who will not
be sworn in as president come May
29. Are they God? No! They are men
who think they are God and get away
with many acts. If you mess with
them, they’ll mess you up; if you are
too stubborn, they’ll turn you into
stubble.
These people, in cunning compeer
with those who love to perpetuate
themselves in power, are flying a kite
that has no wind behind it in an
attempt to continue with a
government train whose engine is
about to pack up in ignominy.
Is the President amongst the men?
He has no reason to be. God loves
GOODLUCK JONATHAN, and he
knows it. A man who walked from
absolutely nothing to the pinnacle of
prominence and power? No!
Goodluck cannot be amongst those
men because good luck has fulfilled
destiny and he does not have to rule
for 10 years to prove anything. The
future of Nigeria is important to
Goodluck and he knows that he will
be pushing his good luck too far if
he is numbered among those men.
Oh No! The President cannot be one
of them. If he is, whoever is telling
him that he can pull a perpetuation
through is lying to him. Mr. President
knows that the consequences will be
untold. He knows the roof will cave
in on Nigeria, the walls will tumble
in, the land will be scorched, the
territory will be unbearably thermal,
and the foundations will be shaken.
That is not a legacy Mr. President
wants. Goodluck should know that
power is transient and God-given.
No! Mr. President cannot be
numbered amongst those men who
want a sit-tight situation. Jonathan
will not want to push his good luck;
our President loves Nigeria first
before himself! But who is scared of
a possible Buhari presidency? A lot
of people! They are those scheming
behind iron doors that we don’t have
an election. But much more than the
schemers, numbers are rooting for
the General.
I have bad news for those men,
whoever they are. The voices of the
people have the ability to demobilise
any horrendous conspiracy, the
voices of the people are resolute, and
the voices of the people are rooting
for a change. It was the
vociferousness of the people’s
voices that kicked a certain Ibrahim
Babangida to the side after the June
12 chaos; it was the unison in the
people’s voices that sank Sani
Abacha’s ship of hardship and terror
in 1998; it was the concurrence in
the people’s voices that compelled
Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar to hand
over power to a democratically
elected Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, and
the same voices in tandem screamed
against a Third Term sleek move by
the latter.
These same voices rose up
undauntedly for Jonathan to become
the substantive president after his
predecessor’s sudden demise, and
the same voices became the wind-
beneath his wings strolling to the
Presidency against this same Buhari
in 2011. These are the same voices
that some garroting Godzillas now
want to muffle and mute. Somebody
must remind them to remember
history. All we are asking for is that
the people’s voices be heard at the
polls. Are the elections going to hold
on March 28 and April 11? Yes!
Goodluck will let them hold; because
Goodluck knows that doing otherwise
is heavily pushing his good luck.
www.punchng.com/opinion/is-jonathan-pushing-his-good-luck/

God is with GEJ

Believe it or not ,God is with GEJ

Who God has choosen can not be down but up,that's GEJ up in Aso Rock

Goodluck all d way!

I am not of the opinion that Buhari is a corrupt fellow but those who sorrounds him are already made corrupt people. As for me, gej till 2019

Good leadership is needed in Nigeria, not good luck. Goodluck Jonathan is an epitome of bad leadership.

GEJ is jittery and desperate! He knows the time is up for him and his game. Nigerians will stand against any totalitarian government.

#March4Buhari