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Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe - Politics - Nairaland

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Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe by Gbawe: 7:09pm On Apr 05, 2015
http://saharareporters.com/2015/04/05/not-so-soon-nigerians-okey-onyejekwe


Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe



The certificate issue almost led to a constitutional crisis on the eve of the Presidential Election. General Mummadu Buhari has consistently maintained that his High School certificate was in the custody of the military. He was scorned and vilified by the PDP. Several Radio, TV and newspaper advertisements ran, days on end, calling him a liar, a cheat, an illiterate. Presidential spokespersons, namely: Dr. Doyin Okupe, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode and Dr. Reuben Abati all took turns to ramp up the "Certificate-gate". They saw this as their ace against Buhari. As all these efforts failed to resonate with the public, they engaged all manner of surrogates to file lawsuits hoping to find any willing and purchasable judge who would disqualify Buhari. The man himself possesses unassailable integrity and honesty, tested over decades. There must be a thorough investigation on how some in the military became complicit in this travesty. There must be accountability.

Meanwhile, Jonathan is being hailed now as the "New Mandela” of Africa for conceding defeat after he was rejected by the Nigerian electorate. [b]I am astounded and feel insulted that we are being sold a bill of goods that a Statesman status is conferred by simply conceding an electoral defeat. Never mind that the new "Statesman" presided over a totally failed and massively corrupt administration, coopted all the security agencies to thwart the democratic process in many despicable ways at every step of the way; trying to stop the use of PVCs, Card Readers (designed to eliminate all forms of electoral fraud), including violence and massive vote rigging on Election Day. In the South-South and South East States, in full view of the security agencies, polling officials were video taped filling out ballot papers and result sheets. Bags and bags of dollars from public coffers were doled out in public view to many "ethnic brokers" to buy votes. Paradoxically Nigeria just recently made the dubious list of "extremely poor nations", with over 70 % rate.

In Ekiti and other States, touts were recruited and given military and police uniforms to intimidate and brutalize voters in order to assure victory for the ruling party.

The world watched a last ditch effort by the incumbent party to derail our democracy. While the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega was announcing the last batch of the election results, lo and behold, [Jonathan’s] former Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, [Elder] Godsday Orubebe, appeared and held the nation/world hostage in an orchestrated last ditch ploy to stop the announcement and render the election inconclusive. They expected the security forces to engage him and all hell would break loose in the room and then his touts in the Conference Center, outside and in the States were ready to cause mayhem. Thanks to the steel disposition of Jega, Nigerians will be telling a different story today. Mr. Orubebe was not a lonely wild wolf on the prowl. He was acting from a script, which came out of a meeting held the previous evening and chaired by PDP elder "statesman", former Minister Edwin Clark, also a political Godfather of President Goodluck Jonathan.[/b]

Apologists are arguing that President Jonathan deserves to be hailed as a Statesman for saving Nigeria from violence and also for setting an example for Africa on how to concede when defeated. Some are even more bizarre to suggest that he should be awarded a Nobel Prize! Obviously, Nigerians are glad that he, egged on by the insane sycophants and self-centered praise-singers, did not act foolishly in an attempt to truncate the process. [b]But having said this, please let us not get carried away, totally out of context and proportionality. The incumbent created a situation ante, which led to a context in which the whole world was forced to hold its breath.

The question we must ask is this: when you contest an election and you lose, are you not supposed to concede? [/b]Why is this an extraordinary feat deserving of a Nobel Prize, regardless of his extremely anti-democratic record leading to the elections? Incumbents in other African states have lost elections, conceded and left office in Benin twice. Didn't President Diouf of Senegal lose and concede to Wade? Didn't President Wade of same Senegal lose to Macky Sall and conceded? Didn't President Thabo Mbeki bow out, without a whimper when he was defeated by Zuma in the ANC convention? Incumbent parties have lost elections in Ghana and all hell did not break loose. Come to think of it, didn't President Olusegun Obasanjo, a military Head of State, hand over to a civilian regime in 1979? It is even more noteworthy for a military regime to voluntarily surrender power to a civilian dispensation, given its monopoly of the instruments of violence, than from one "democratic" dispensation to another.

I can understand it when the Western world hails Jonathan's concession as an earth-shattering event because in their usual condescending way, they don't expect higher standards from us. Foreign observers will usually adjudge African elections to be "free and fair, by African Standards" no matter how flawed. We are often judged by a minimalist threshold. [b]But it is more painful when we ourselves begin to tout the same nonsense and judge ourselves by the same threshold and expect to be taken seriously.

This whole issue has become a total distraction from what was a courageous and remarkable effort, against all odds, by the Nigerian electorate to reclaim their mandate. That should be the real story, not on President Jonathan's concession whose administration and party, had turned the whole electoral process into a war like exercise in which they were determined to hang on to power by any means necessary. Nigerians must continually ask how we got to this point where we are willing to award a Nobel Prize just for conceding a defeat. It is because we are relieved that we averted a conflagration because the incumbent was determined to stay on by hook or crook? Or because when pressured by the "big boys" and the enormity of the defeat he did the right thing at the nick of time, especially after the "Orubebe Show of Ignominy" had failed? We are glad nevertheless.[/b]

Some are claiming that he could have clung on to power had he chosen to hang on. I argue that every action of the administration, including the postponement of the election, leading to the election suggest otherwise. The electorate had spoken thunderously and the world community, in unison, had warned, in no uncertain terms, that the will of the people must not be subverted. Most of the average members of the security agencies would not have acquiesced in any forlorn attempt at foolishness. Evidence: The president lost decisively in the polling units in the Army and Police barracks, as well as those in Aso Rock, the seat of power. The appetite for Change was voracious and insatiable.

We must not forget that many were brutalized, imprisoned, even died before, during and after the elections just for daring to exercise their constitutional rights, in what is supposed to be a democracy. We must not forget that these are the real heroes before we are affected by collective amnesia in the quest to move on quickly and forget the ugly past. Not so soon please! We cannot say "Never again", if we chose the convenient path - The Big Lie!

Professor Okeychukwu Onyejekwe was African Governance Expert at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)

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Re: Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe by Eggcelent(m): 7:30pm On Apr 05, 2015
Such a great piece. There are basically two sets of people celebrating GEJ for conceding electoral defeat. They are; his die-hard supporters who are holding on to the last straw by finding something, no matter how irrelevant, to celebrate about their principal; 2. those who lack understanding of democratic principles & consequently think that a President is like a god whose Will cannot be questioned & hence, his weakness/failings should be seen as benevolence. The latter group are in the majority. However, we shall get there one day when Nigerians won't see their elected officials as benefactors, but contracted & well-paid public SERVANTS. Until then, the informed minority will have to keep bearing with, while also enlightening the vast ignorant and/or sentimental majority.

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Re: Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe by Nobody: 7:37pm On Apr 05, 2015
I find it rather absurd and demeaning the attempt by Jonathan supporters to want Nigerians to hero worship jonathan after all that happened prior ...during and after the elections.

He just had no choice but to accept defeat as Nigerians have clearly rejected him.

3 Likes

Re: Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe by seunfly: 7:38pm On Apr 05, 2015
The most annoying thing was when Jonathan extended is corrupt attitude to military to deny him of his certificates. It is a very bad precedence which we should not allow other presidents to emulate, imagine if your university denied you being the student only because you are contesting against one useless, power Hungary desperate president.

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Re: Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe by Pataki: 7:53pm On Apr 05, 2015
Is it not certified mental idiocy that the same Western world this Jonathanians deride for their influence in Jonathan's clueless administration, is the same Western world they are expecting a Nobel prize from for their clueless otuoke fisherman?!

Grandiose delusion.

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Re: Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe by Nobody: 7:54pm On Apr 05, 2015
He is not anyone hero.....simple!
Re: Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe by oduastates: 8:18pm On Apr 05, 2015
Whichever way one look at it, regardless of what came before, Jonathan created a precedence in Nigeria. Every occupier of the Nigeria ultimate seat of unitary powers will be judged by that precedence,and how he has improves on it.
Re: Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe by Gbawe: 8:34pm On Apr 05, 2015
Eggcelent:
Such a great piece. There are basically two sets of people celebrating GEJ for conceding electoral defeat. They are; his die-hard supporters who are holding on to the last straw by finding something, no matter how irrelevant, to celebrate about their principal; 2. those who lack understanding of democratic principles & consequently think that a President is like a god whose Will cannot be questioned & hence, his weakness/failings should be seen as benevolence. The latter group are in the majority. However, we shall get there one day when Nigerians won't see their elected officials as benefactors, but contracted & well-paid public SERVANTS. Until then, the informed minority will have to keep bearing with, while also enlightening the vast ignorant and/or sentimental majority.

"Eggcelent" observation. The desperate fans of the worst President Nigeria has had think one self-serving action will launder the universally and deservedly soiled image of the messiah they worshipped clannishly and illogically. Terrible time to be a GEJ fan and worse , by far, to come still.

3 Likes

Re: Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe by Gbawe: 8:39pm On Apr 05, 2015
ilugunboy:
I find it rather absurd and demeaning the attempt by Jonathan supporters to want Nigerians to hero worship jonathan after all that happened prior ...during and after the elections.

He just had no choice but to accept defeat as Nigerians have clearly rejected him.

Completely spot on. How, for example, does one celebrate a "democratic act" from the same President who was happy to watch callously as over 15,000.00 of our fellow Nigerians were murdered by Boko Haram over 5 years only to then initiate a military operation against the terrorists merely to win votes after it was clear he was on course to lose the election? The author of the article illustrates your point, i.e Nigerians are slavishly used to low standards, with the quoted section below:

I can understand it when the Western world hails Jonathan's concession as an earth-shattering event because in their usual condescending way, they don't expect higher standards from us. Foreign observers will usually adjudge African elections to be "free and fair, by African Standards" no matter how flawed. We are often judged by a minimalist threshold. But it is more painful when we ourselves begin to tout the same nonsense and judge ourselves by the same threshold and expect to be taken seriously.

2 Likes

Re: Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe by Moheat(m): 8:42pm On Apr 05, 2015
Gbawe:
http://saharareporters.com/2015/04/05/not-so-soon-nigerians-okey-onyejekwe



Buhari is certificateless! Agreed ge won but that doesn't change the fact that he is certificateless!
Re: Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe by Gbawe: 8:45pm On Apr 05, 2015
seunfly:
The most annoying thing was when Jonathan extended is corrupt attitude to military to deny him of his certificates. It is a very bad precedence which we should not allow other presidents to emulate, imagine if your university denied you being the student only because you are contesting against one useless, power Hungary desperate president.

That was awful. That was why all our prominent high-ranking military men (Danjuma, IBB, OBJ et al) came out to warn against the politicisation of the Nigerian Army. How could the Army take part in the deliberate ridiculing of one of their own finest because of 'inducement' from a corrupt and totally amoral President?

The Captain Sagir Koli Ekitigate scandal was another example of the destructive GEJ compromising our Army. The NPF is a joke under GEJ and the DSS should not even be mentioned as a serious outfit. There will be a lot of 'house cleaning' for Buhari to do everywhere.

2 Likes

Re: Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe by PapaBrowne(m): 8:50pm On Apr 05, 2015
Eggcelent:
Such a great piece. There are basically two sets of people celebrating GEJ for conceding electoral defeat. They are; his die-hard supporters who are holding on to the last straw by finding something, no matter how irrelevant, to celebrate about their principal; 2. those who lack understanding of democratic principles & consequently think that a President is like a god whose Will cannot be questioned & hence, his weakness/failings should be seen as benevolence. The latter group are in the majority. However, we shall get there one day when Nigerians won't see their elected officials as benefactors, but contracted & well-paid public SERVANTS. Until then, the informed minority will have to keep bearing with, while also enlightening the vast ignorant and/or sentimental majority.

In which of the two groups does APC belong? Because the official release from APC described his actions in effusive words a la 'statesman extraordinaire' et al?
Re: Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe by Areacode213: 9:07pm On Apr 05, 2015
On an inscrutable Jonathan, low bars yet abysmal results and destructive indifference. No small relief flipping past this avoidably gory chapter @ last.
Re: Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe by Nobody: 9:10pm On Apr 05, 2015
Gej can never b a HERO. He allowed 15000 of myy kins 2 die in NE. Including 86 slaughter in GSS Buni yadi
Re: Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe by Nobody: 9:25pm On Apr 05, 2015
oduastates:
Whichever way one look at it, regardless of what came before, Jonathan created a precedence in Nigeria. Every occupier of the Nigeria ultimate seat of unitary powers will be judged by that precedence,and how he has improves on it.

What other alternative was opened to him.....?
Re: Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe by Gbawe: 5:41pm On Apr 10, 2015
IbnSultaan:
Gej can never b a HERO. He allowed 15000 of myy kins 2 die in NE. Including 86 slaughter in GSS Buni yadi

To be honest, I am waiting for the period after Buhari is sworn in. Yes the international community brokered a deal to see peace reign and give GEJ a 'soft landing' in the process but why should Jonathan not be held accountable for the preventable deaths of over 15,000 Nigerians? Who will get justice for those people allowed to die as 'collateral damage' by a callous President who openly and shamelessly placed politics above Nigerian lives?
Re: Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe by theV0ice: 5:50pm On Apr 10, 2015
Gbawe:


To be honest, I am waiting for the period after Buhari is sworn in. Yes the international community brokered a deal to see peace reign and give GEJ a 'soft landing' in the process but why should Jonathan not be held accountable for the preventable deaths of over 15,000 Nigerians? Who will get justice for those people allowed to die as 'collateral damage' by a callous President who openly and shamelessly placed politics above Nigerian lives?

I think we should even wait for him to hand over first........

To paraphrase Kongi, ''With Nigerian politicians, you never can tell even if they just finish taking communion with the pope''.....
Re: Not So Soon Nigerians! By Okey Onyejekwe by ndcide(m): 7:43pm On Apr 10, 2015
People can choose to be simpletons and sound intelligent.
Fact, -GEJ was defeated at the polls in 2015.

Fact- Buhari was also defeated in 2011.

Fact- Buhari never conceded defeat, and congratulated GEJ his opponent.

Fact,- Because Buhari didn't do this, his supporters went on a killing spree.

Fact- That by this same period in 2011, the country and this government was faced with post election violence.

Fact- that the post election violence is linked to boko haram of today.

Fact - every sane human in Nigeria, knows that there was no way Buhari would have won the election. Then why the killings and destructions?

Fact - Everything was in place for such cycle to repeat itself but for the actions of GEJ.

Fact - GEJ did what Buhari couldn't do to save his country when emotions were high.

The reasons why GEJ is being praised is very clear. We know those who don't want to see them.


,These are the facts. You don't need to be too intelligent to know these things except you are so prejudiced and blinded by hate.

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