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Jonathan Heads To Election On Bribery Hope, By SKC Ogbonnia by sammiestar: 9:16am On Mar 24, 2015 |
Bribery has been a recurring decimal in Nigerian elections. But the case of the 2015 electoral season is well ripe for the Guinness Book of Records. The problem took a new dimension when President Goodluck Jonathan shocked the world by plainly rejecting a plan by Independent National Election Commission (INEC) to monitor campaign funds in the 2015 general elections. In Jonathan’s words, regulation can only be realistic, “if you’re getting funds from government, then you must set restrictions; but if you’re generating your own funds, then you’ve no restrictions.” The president followed by raising over N21 billion at one sitting, most of which interestingly came from state governors, federal government agencies and contractors. This brazen impunity was not only in utter violation of the electoral law which pegs the presidential campaign expenditure at no more than N1 billion, but the event took place when many states could not even pay their staff salaries. This is not good. Plagued by a woeful performance in office, and with most major local and international polls predicting a dizzying defeat, it appears President Jonathan plans to cling onto power by hook or crook. Rather than continuing to hold mass rallies around the country to make a serious case for why Nigerians should trust him again, events after events have shown that Jonathan’s main hope of winning the election is premised upon diverting his huge war chest to bribe voters. Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State triggered the first alarm, alleging that Jonathan’s party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had indeed offered N6 billion to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). One of the CAN pastors, Kallamu Musa-Dikwa, corroborated the crux of Amaechi’s story but marked up the figure to N7 billion. Many newspaper reports also cited instances where the president and his party were said to have bribed titular heads of tribal, religious, traditional, and militant groups. Notable among them are Ohaneze Ndigbo: N6.2 billion; Yoruba groups: N9 billion; and billions of money to some Northern emirs, to name just a few. Although counter bribery accusations were equally levelled against the major opposition party All Progressive Congress (APC), there are cogent reasons to ignore those. First of all, the accusers failed to provide any semblance of evidence in the form of witnesses, individual or group givers or takers of the bribe cases associated with the APC and its presidential candidate. Moreover, common sense dictates that the political logic of funding or winning a bribery war does not favour Nigerian opposition parties. Perhaps the ruling party attempted to brush aside the bribery charges as mere allegations. But that was then. A Roman Catholic Reverend Father, Camillus Ejike Mbaka, has dropped a bombshell. The popular priest swore in the pulpit that he rejected a bag of bribe money sent by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. This revelation is unique in a significant way: the man of God named two sitting Senators, Prince Gilbert Nnaji and Chief Ike Ekweremadu, as principal witnesses. A close ally of the president, Ekweremadu doubles as the Deputy President of the Senate and Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, and has remained a faithful adherent of the Reverend Mbaka. Besides, before the bribery scandal went public, both the senator and the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, visited the priest, who they had openly hailed as an unsung saint. What is more, the stoic silence within the Jonathan camp since the revelation is very suggestive of a stark acquiescence to the charges. Be that as it may, if the truth is told, producing evidence against President Goodluck Jonathan on bribery is as simple as deducing that his regime is the most corrupt in the annals of national history. The bribery pattern of his wife alone is an open book. Always at home with passionate hyperboles, the First Lady has branded her husband a messiah. Her idea of the dividends of democracy is hauling and sharing trailers of goods during solo campaign episodes around the country. The hope, of course, is to receive votes in return. Yet, the most disheartening is that Mrs. Jonathan preys on the unsuspecting masses — the very helpless and needy, the elderly, women, and unemployed youths who wallow in abject penury and despair due to massive mismanagement of public resources under the husband’s watch. Some of her inducing jingles tell the story better: “Vote for my husband”; “Goodluck is the messiah”; “other presidents have served for eight years. Now is our turn. Constitution provides two tenure of eight years. Why is our own different?”; “Anybody that tells you change, stone that person”; “I brought some ... CONTINUE HERE: http://www.beriahng.com/2015/03/jonathan-heads-to-election-on-bribery.html |
Re: Jonathan Heads To Election On Bribery Hope, By SKC Ogbonnia by babs01(m): 9:17am On Mar 24, 2015 |
Afta March 28 another thread will hit Fp with heading " HILARIOUS!!! pics of GEJ in Kirikiri" 3 Likes 1 Share |
Re: Jonathan Heads To Election On Bribery Hope, By SKC Ogbonnia by Nobody: 9:19am On Mar 24, 2015 |
He will be so disappointed & hospitalized in Otueke Hospital. 1 Like |
Re: Jonathan Heads To Election On Bribery Hope, By SKC Ogbonnia by Mogidi: 9:22am On Mar 24, 2015 |
Talking of bribery/corruption, I enjoin you to read this brilliant article by Shaka Momodu. [size=15pt]Switzerland, Buhari and Abacha Loot[/size] Having watched the presidential standard-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, campaign around the country in the last couple of weeks, noted the emptiness and the near hollowness of the whole exercise, and having watched him garner some endorsements both from within and outside the country, I have come to the inescapable conclusion that those promoting the Buhari candidacy must have other reasons for backing him than the advertised prospect of saving Nigeria and setting it on the path of rebirth. Except we have all agreed that, it is better to settle for less, I see no plausible reason to present such shallowness as change and then proceed to premise the hope of a country’s rebirth on such disjointed motley assemblage of promises. |
Re: Jonathan Heads To Election On Bribery Hope, By SKC Ogbonnia by viczing(m): 9:27am On Mar 24, 2015 |
babs01: You need work on your brain and thinking
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Re: Jonathan Heads To Election On Bribery Hope, By SKC Ogbonnia by POPdecorator: 9:38am On Mar 24, 2015 |
Bribing and corruption that is the work of pDP APC is wining sai buhari
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