A Drowning Administration Grasps At Its Straws
Being the text of a press conference addressed by the
National
Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC),
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Lagos on Wednesday, March 25th
2015
Good after gentlemen and thank you for honouring our
invitation to
this press conference.
It’s three days to the presidential and National Assembly
elections,
and the electioneering campaign is due to end tomorrow,
Thursday.
As newsmen yourselves, you are undoubtedly aware that,
since this campaign started, the PDP-led Jonathan
Administration has dwelt less on issues and more on
mudslinging. In particular, it has thrown everything but the
kitchen sink at our presidential candidate, Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari.
They say he does not have a secondary school certificate,
even when the school he attended publicly released his
results. They
say he is suffering
from a terminal
disease, even when
it was clear that the
medical report they
used to back that
claim was forged.
They say he won’t
be the one to rule,
they say he will
approve same-sex
law, they say he will
jail all Nigerians
and they say he is a religious bigot.
Plus they commissioned and ran the most untruthful and
irresponsible documentary ever made, just to demonize
him.
When all the muckraking failed, woefully, because the stock
of our candidate rose in direct proportion to the
mudslinging he was subjected to, they went and
commissioned an American media man, Richard Grenell,
whom they fraudulently called an ex-US Envoy, to write an
uninformed opinion piece that Gen. Buhari would Islamise
Nigeria if he is elected.
What an idiotic postulation! Had Mr. Grenell not been in a
hurry to earn his pay, he would have engaged in a little
logical thinking. A man who, as a military leader with little
checks and balances, could have taken Nigerian to the
Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) or introduced the
Sharia if he so wished, but did not, could not be
characterized as a religious bigot. A man who rose to the
lofty height
of a General in the army could not have been a religious
bigot,
because no religious bigot will reach that height in the
military. Of course, no religious bigot will have among his
personal staff adherents of a different religion from his, and
give them Sundays off so they can go to church!
Out of their desperation, they resorted to lies and frittered
away millions of Naira. After commissioning Grenell to write
his misleading and unintelligent article, they then went
ahead to advertise the trash on the front page of many
newspapers for several days, at a huge cost of more than
400 million Naira! There is no better illustration of the
idiomatic expression: Grasping at straws! Left with nothing
more to use against Gen. Buhari, they held on tight and
celebrated what is nothing but trash!
But who indeed is the author of that 419 article? Richard
Grenell was never a US Envoy, as they claimed, but a
spokesman for a US Ambassador to the UN. Wikipedia listed
his occupation as speechwriter and lobbyist. He briefly
served as a spokesman to Mitt Romney when he was a
Republican presidential candidate, and he was disgraced out
of the job! He is a Partner with the Los Angeles-based
Capitol Media Partners. He works for his pay, and will work
with any government, whether or not it is a global pariah.
Mr. Grenell has worked for clients in Iran, Kazakhstan, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, and
Somalia, among others. This is the man that was sold to the
Nigerian public as a former American Envoy to con them
into believing that his opinion represented the thinking in US
Government circles. What a monumental scam from a
fraudulent administration!
Gentlemen, apart from being fraudulent, this PDP-led
Jonathan
Administration is also patently wasteful and corrupt! Or how
else does one describe an Administration that has been
wooing voters with huge bribes?
Never in the history of our country has a President
superintended over such a morally-repugnant act as the
massive bribery of Nigerians in recent times, especially in
the six weeks for which the elections were cunningly
postponed. We make bold to say that no President has ever
encouraged bribery and corruption as President Goodluck
Jonathan has done by ferreting public funds into the pockets
of a few in the desperation to woo voters.
What this President has done by wooing voters with money
amounts to undermining democracy, an action that is
unbecoming of a democratically-elected leader of any
country.
According to the information in the public domain, an
immense amount of money, some as high as 250,000
dollars per head, was given to traditional rulers, youths,
entertainers, market women, ethnic militias and artisans.
If the money being recklessly given away is from the public
treasury, the implication is that they want to loot the
treasury to such a level that if they lose the elections, the
next government will have no money to spend.
If they say the bribe money is not from the public treasury,
then where is it from? If the money being nonchalantly
frittered away is the President’s personal money, where did
he get that kind of money from?
To make matters worse, the bribe money has transformed,
in the Jonathan Administration’s skewed meaning of that
word, from Naira to the US dollar, a clear indication that the
Administration has lost confidence in the national currency
and has nothing but disdain for it.
People are wondering why the Naira, which was exchanging
at 160 to the Dollar when the Jonathan Administration
assumed office, is now exchanging at an all-time high of 226.
Well, apart from the falling price of crude oil in the
international market, the reason for the huge depreciation
in the value of the national currency is the unprecedented
abuse to which it has been subjected by the Jonathan
Administration, which apparently is engaging in a frenzied
mop-up of the Dollar for bribery purposes.
What the Jonathan Administration did not realize is that it
would not have needed to bribe Nigerians to vote for it, if it
had spent the past six years engaging in purposeful
governance, instead of shameless politicking.
When they should have worked diligently for the betterment
of the lives of Nigerians, in accordance with their oath of
office, they opted to work for themselves. When they should
have served the people, they chose to serve themselves.
Now they need the votes of the same people and, having
realized they have not served them, they decided to bribe
them to get their votes. Nigerians are not stupid, as the
Jonathan Administration will soon realize.
Gentleman, recall that on March 21st, our party issued a
statement in which we raised the alarm over a plot to arrest
some of our leaders, especially Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,
on trumped-up charges.
Though they rushed to deny it, we have it on good authority
that they have not given up on that evil plot. In fact, they
have now cast their net wide to ensnare more APC
chieftains, including Senator Bukola Saraki, Malam Nasir El-
Rufai, Senator Femi Ojudu, Hon Dakuku Peterside, Senator
Isiaka Adeleke, Senator Sola Adeyeye, Senator Jajere,
Senator Serika Hadi, Senator Jide Omoworare, Hon
Nathaniel Agunbiade and Hon Bimbo Daramola.
The plot is to plant ammunition, PVCs and card reader
jammers, which they have dubiously acquired, in the
residence, office or vehicle of these APC chieftains. The APC
chieftains will then be arrested with fanfare and subjected to
trumped-up charges.
Now, as Nigerians go to the polls on Saturday, we urge them
to do so peacefully but resolutely. Irrespective of the
conflicting signals from the police, they should not just vote
but stay behind to defend their votes. Recall that the police
first said Nigerians should vote and go home, and later
reversed itself and said voters may stay back after casting
their ballots. This confusion is aimed at confusing them.
As we said earlier, voters should ignore the unlawful order
from the Inspector-General of Police urging them to go
home after casting their ballots. Voters should rather listen
to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, who said the
electoral law does not state anywhere that voters cannot or
should not wait to watch and ensure that their votes are
counted. We are therefore urging the electorate to make
sure they stay behind to protect their votes after casting
their ballots, as was the case in 2011.
On a lighter note, we have received support from unusual
quarters on this issue. First Lady Patience Jonathan has also
asked Nigerians to ignore the police directive and defend
their votes. At least on this issue, we and the First Lady are
on the same page!
In conclusion, we have just learnt of the statement by Dr.
Fredrick Fasheun of the OPC that he will deploy OPC
members to every polling unit across the country to monitor
the presidential elections. This is simply outrageous and
nonsensical. In the first instance, Dr. Fasheun’s party, the
UPN, is not even on the ballot because a court has ruled that
it cannot contest the elections. Secondly, in what capacity
will Dr. Fasheun deploy OPC members to monitor the
elections?
Is OPC accredited by INEC to monitor the polls? When did
ethnic militias become election monitors? This is what
President Jonathan has caused by drafting outlaws into the
electoral process, all in a desperation to win. Now, those
who should be in jail are calling the shots on national
elections. What an anomaly!
We will like to remind Nigerians that the issues that will
shape these elections remain the same: Unemployment,
especially among our youths; insecurity of lives and
property, as can be seen in the continued disappearance of
the Chibok girls and the killing of over 15,000 innocent
Nigerians by the terror group Boko Haram; unprecedented
corruption, or stealing if you like to use their parlance and
dilapidated infrastructure. These issues must not be buried
under the avalanche of muckraking and sleazy campaign
embarked by the PDP-led Jonathan Administration.
We will like to use this opportunity to thank Nigerians for
their immense support for our party since the electioneering
campaign started. We thank them for conducting themselves
in a peaceful manner despite the provocations. We urge
them to be extra vigilant in the days ahead, because anti-
democratic forces will do everything to thwart the will of the
people. Above all, we ask all our members and supporters
to be peaceful before, during and after the elections. We say
no to violence of any kind, and we are supremely confident
that in the end, the will of the people will prevail.
I thank you for listening
Alhaji Lai Mohammed
National Publicity Secretary. www.vanguardngr.com/2015/03/what-the-jonathan-administration-did-not-realise-apc/

[s][/s]

sammynash11:
A Drowning Administration Grasps At Its Straws
Being the text of a press conference addressed by the
National
Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC),
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Lagos on Wednesday, March 25th
2015
Good after gentlemen and thank you for honouring our
invitation to
this press conference.
It’s three days to the presidential and National Assembly
elections,
and the electioneering campaign is due to end tomorrow,
Thursday.
As newsmen yourselves, you are undoubtedly aware that,
since this campaign started, the PDP-led Jonathan
Administration has dwelt less on issues and more on
mudslinging. In particular, it has thrown everything but the
kitchen sink at our presidential candidate, Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari.
They say he does not have a secondary school certificate,
even when the school he attended publicly released his
results. They
say he is suffering
from a terminal
disease, even when
it was clear that the
medical report they
used to back that
claim was forged.
They say he won’t
be the one to rule,
they say he will
approve same-sex
law, they say he will
jail all Nigerians
and they say he is a religious bigot.
Plus they commissioned and ran the most untruthful and
irresponsible documentary ever made, just to demonize
him.
When all the muckraking failed, woefully, because the stock
of our candidate rose in direct proportion to the
mudslinging he was subjected to, they went and
commissioned an American media man, Richard Grenell,
whom they fraudulently called an ex-US Envoy, to write an
uninformed opinion piece that Gen. Buhari would Islamise
Nigeria if he is elected.
What an idiotic postulation! Had Mr. Grenell not been in a
hurry to earn his pay, he would have engaged in a little
logical thinking. A man who, as a military leader with little
checks and balances, could have taken Nigerian to the
Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) or introduced the
Sharia if he so wished, but did not, could not be
characterized as a religious bigot. A man who rose to the
lofty height
of a General in the army could not have been a religious
bigot,
because no religious bigot will reach that height in the
military. Of course, no religious bigot will have among his
personal staff adherents of a different religion from his, and
give them Sundays off so they can go to church!
Out of their desperation, they resorted to lies and frittered
away millions of Naira. After commissioning Grenell to write
his misleading and unintelligent article, they then went
ahead to advertise the trash on the front page of many
newspapers for several days, at a huge cost of more than
400 million Naira! There is no better illustration of the
idiomatic expression: Grasping at straws! Left with nothing
more to use against Gen. Buhari, they held on tight and
celebrated what is nothing but trash!
But who indeed is the author of that 419 article? Richard
Grenell was never a US Envoy, as they claimed, but a
spokesman for a US Ambassador to the UN. Wikipedia listed
his occupation as speechwriter and lobbyist. He briefly
served as a spokesman to Mitt Romney when he was a
Republican presidential candidate, and he was disgraced out
of the job! He is a Partner with the Los Angeles-based
Capitol Media Partners. He works for his pay, and will work
with any government, whether or not it is a global pariah.
Mr. Grenell has worked for clients in Iran, Kazakhstan, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, and
Somalia, among others. This is the man that was sold to the
Nigerian public as a former American Envoy to con them
into believing that his opinion represented the thinking in US
Government circles. What a monumental scam from a
fraudulent administration!
Gentlemen, apart from being fraudulent, this PDP-led
Jonathan
Administration is also patently wasteful and corrupt! Or how
else does one describe an Administration that has been
wooing voters with huge bribes?
Never in the history of our country has a President
superintended over such a morally-repugnant act as the
massive bribery of Nigerians in recent times, especially in
the six weeks for which the elections were cunningly
postponed. We make bold to say that no President has ever
encouraged bribery and corruption as President Goodluck
Jonathan has done by ferreting public funds into the pockets
of a few in the desperation to woo voters.
What this President has done by wooing voters with money
amounts to undermining democracy, an action that is
unbecoming of a democratically-elected leader of any
country.
According to the information in the public domain, an
immense amount of money, some as high as 250,000
dollars per head, was given to traditional rulers, youths,
entertainers, market women, ethnic militias and artisans.
If the money being recklessly given away is from the public
treasury, the implication is that they want to loot the
treasury to such a level that if they lose the elections, the
next government will have no money to spend.
If they say the bribe money is not from the public treasury,
then where is it from? If the money being nonchalantly
frittered away is the President’s personal money, where did
he get that kind of money from?
To make matters worse, the bribe money has transformed,
in the Jonathan Administration’s skewed meaning of that
word, from Naira to the US dollar, a clear indication that the
Administration has lost confidence in the national currency
and has nothing but disdain for it.
People are wondering why the Naira, which was exchanging
at 160 to the Dollar when the Jonathan Administration
assumed office, is now exchanging at an all-time high of 226.
Well, apart from the falling price of crude oil in the
international market, the reason for the huge depreciation
in the value of the national currency is the unprecedented
abuse to which it has been subjected by the Jonathan
Administration, which apparently is engaging in a frenzied
mop-up of the Dollar for bribery purposes.
What the Jonathan Administration did not realize is that it
would not have needed to bribe Nigerians to vote for it, if it
had spent the past six years engaging in purposeful
governance, instead of shameless politicking.
When they should have worked diligently for the betterment
of the lives of Nigerians, in accordance with their oath of
office, they opted to work for themselves. When they should
have served the people, they chose to serve themselves.
Now they need the votes of the same people and, having
realized they have not served them, they decided to bribe
them to get their votes. Nigerians are not stupid, as the
Jonathan Administration will soon realize.
Gentleman, recall that on March 21st, our party issued a
statement in which we raised the alarm over a plot to arrest
some of our leaders, especially Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,
on trumped-up charges.
Though they rushed to deny it, we have it on good authority
that they have not given up on that evil plot. In fact, they
have now cast their net wide to ensnare more APC
chieftains, including Senator Bukola Saraki, Malam Nasir El-
Rufai, Senator Femi Ojudu, Hon Dakuku Peterside, Senator
Isiaka Adeleke, Senator Sola Adeyeye, Senator Jajere,
Senator Serika Hadi, Senator Jide Omoworare, Hon
Nathaniel Agunbiade and Hon Bimbo Daramola.
The plot is to plant ammunition, PVCs and card reader
jammers, which they have dubiously acquired, in the
residence, office or vehicle of these APC chieftains. The APC
chieftains will then be arrested with fanfare and subjected to
trumped-up charges.
Now, as Nigerians go to the polls on Saturday, we urge them
to do so peacefully but resolutely. Irrespective of the
conflicting signals from the police, they should not just vote
but stay behind to defend their votes. Recall that the police
first said Nigerians should vote and go home, and later
reversed itself and said voters may stay back after casting
their ballots. This confusion is aimed at confusing them.
As we said earlier, voters should ignore the unlawful order
from the Inspector-General of Police urging them to go
home after casting their ballots. Voters should rather listen
to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, who said the
electoral law does not state anywhere that voters cannot or
should not wait to watch and ensure that their votes are
counted. We are therefore urging the electorate to make
sure they stay behind to protect their votes after casting
their ballots, as was the case in 2011.
On a lighter note, we have received support from unusual
quarters on this issue. First Lady Patience Jonathan has also
asked Nigerians to ignore the police directive and defend
their votes. At least on this issue, we and the First Lady are
on the same page!
In conclusion, we have just learnt of the statement by Dr.
Fredrick Fasheun of the OPC that he will deploy OPC
members to every polling unit across the country to monitor
the presidential elections. This is simply outrageous and
nonsensical. In the first instance, Dr. Fasheun’s party, the
UPN, is not even on the ballot because a court has ruled that
it cannot contest the elections. Secondly, in what capacity
will Dr. Fasheun deploy OPC members to monitor the
elections?
Is OPC accredited by INEC to monitor the polls? When did
ethnic militias become election monitors? This is what
President Jonathan has caused by drafting outlaws into the
electoral process, all in a desperation to win. Now, those
who should be in jail are calling the shots on national
elections. What an anomaly!
We will like to remind Nigerians that the issues that will
shape these elections remain the same: Unemployment,
especially among our youths; insecurity of lives and
property, as can be seen in the continued disappearance of
the Chibok girls and the killing of over 15,000 innocent
Nigerians by the terror group Boko Haram; unprecedented
corruption, or stealing if you like to use their parlance and
dilapidated infrastructure. These issues must not be buried
under the avalanche of muckraking and sleazy campaign
embarked by the PDP-led Jonathan Administration.
We will like to use this opportunity to thank Nigerians for
their immense support for our party since the electioneering
campaign started. We thank them for conducting themselves
in a peaceful manner despite the provocations. We urge
them to be extra vigilant in the days ahead, because anti-
democratic forces will do everything to thwart the will of the
people. Above all, we ask all our members and supporters
to be peaceful before, during and after the elections. We say
no to violence of any kind, and we are supremely confident
that in the end, the will of the people will prevail.
I thank you for listening
Alhaji Lai Mohammed
National Publicity Secretary. www.vanguardngr.com/2015/03/what-the-jonathan-administration-did-not-realise-apc/

[s][/s] at this age I hate listening to rubbish

Professor Wole Soyinka has said, "Only four sets
of people can vote and support Goodluck
Jonathan 2015:
(1) those who are intellectually blind.
(2) those who are blinded by ethnicity.
(3) those who are blinded by corruption and
therefore afraid of the unknown, should power
change hands.
(4) those who are suffering from a combination
of all the above terminal sicknesses"
It's only a fool that will vote for GEJ
# WhyIvoteBuhari
In Buhari we truth, like if you believe GEJ will go back otukwe
Sai Buhari
Sai Baba