The Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, has noted
the response of Dr Goodluck Jonathan, as President of
Nigeria, to the altruistic statement credited to our
National Leader, General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB)
wherein he had stated inter-alia dire consequences for
the perpetual riggers of our electoral process in 2015.
In the statement signed by Dr. Reuben Abati, Special
Adviser to the President on Media, GMB was
grotesquely characterized as a sectional leader.
First, GMB has been out of office as Head of
Government for about 28 years, yet his relevance to the
Nigerian nation is something firmly acknowledged by a
broad spectrum of Nigerians, including his adversaries.
As Head of State, his Oil Minister was Professor Tam
David-West, a Kalabari man in Rivers state. As a
Leader, he created the ambience for his ministers to
work unobtrusively and devoid of executive
meddlesomeness. But what do we find with Dr
Goodluck Jonathan? All the appointees as Oil ministers
in his two-year reign thus far as President of Nigeria
have been Nigerians of Ijaw extraction, like himself!
Second, in October 1, 2010, there was a bomb blast
during the year’s independence anniversary
celebrations, with attendant deaths of many Nigerians.
Without waiting for any preliminary report from the
Security Agencies, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, as President,
told a traumatized Nation, “it is not MEND!” Meanwhile,
MEND is the name for the militant group from Dr Good-
luck Jonathan’s ethnic extraction that had in the
immediate past waged relentless and potent
insurgency against the Nigerian state but had been
placated with more slice of the Nation’s resources
ceded to the region. Indeed, MEND impugned the
President’s statement and admitted responsibility.
Third, so far as President of Nigeria, Dr Good-luck
Jonathan has shown very generous affinity for Nigerians
of Ijaw stock in terms of appointments and promotions
in the Federal Public sector. There is a marked
lopsidedness that smacks of clannishness and
ethnocentrism by the President!
On Corruption and sleazy tendency, the Jonathan
administration transcends all others before it! Nigerians
are still befuddled by the impeachable show of
arbitrariness by the regime in expending N2.67Trillion
on fuel subsidy instead of the appropriated N240Billion
in the 2011 appropriation act. As expected, the regime
has attempted all manner of subterfuge to give
Executive cover for the indicted people in the scam,
who were the bank-rollers of the President’s
electioneering campaign. Could it be that the missing
money was funneled deliberately to the Jonathan
Presidential Campaigns, with the acquiescence of the
President?
GMB was quoted as saying that the Jonathan-led
Federal Government is the greatest Boko-Haram.
Understandably, this elicited awful response from the
President. In a jejune, puerile, and very pedestrian
communication, the presidential spokesman defined
Boko-Haram as “Western education is sin” and went on
to posit the administration’s investment in Education.
How awkwardly inane could that be?!
It is common knowledge that Boko-Haram has become
the euphemism for subtlety in devious schemes that
cause mass killings of the innocents! As GMB aptly
stated, Boko Haram has three variants, with varying
degrees of severity and murderous content: the original
Boko-haram that seeks to avenge the extra-judicial
killing of its Leader by the Nigeria Police; the Boko
Haram that pursues criminality for monetary gains and
of course, the Political Boko-haram that is bent on
setting the stage for ethno-religious pogrom in the
Nigerian nation. It is the Political Boko Haram, with its
extremely lethal content, that the Jonathan-led Federal
Government represents!
·
In January 2012, Dr Good-luck Jonathan told a
bewildered nation, still smarting from murderous
Bombings, that his government has been infiltrated by
Boko Haram.
·
In February 2012, a serving PDP senator from Borno
South (Mohammed Ali Ndume) was arrested for being a
member of Boko Haram.
·
In March 2012, Ndume deposed to an affidavit before a
Federal High Court wherein he stated that Vice-
President Namadi Sambo was aware of his activities
with Boko Haram.
·
In April 2012, General Andrew Owoeye Azazi , the
National Security Adviser, averred that there was
indisputable proof that Boko Haram is PDP. As things
stand, President Good-luck Jonathan is the national
leader of PDP.
· In April 2012, Henry Okah (while standing trial on
Terrorism charges) deposed to an affidavit before a
South African court that President Good-luck Jonathan
was the sponsor of the October 1, 2010 bombing at
Eagle square. It is on record that as governor of a Niger-
delta state, Dr Good-luck Jonathan (together with his
brother governors) had used the MEND to command
the attention of the Nigerian state.
· As a Party, we are aware of the role played by
Jonathan’s PDP in the way the People’s post-electoral
angst (at the subversion of their electoral will) was
turned into murderous ethno-religious mayhem.
· We are also aware about how the Jonathan
administration has consistently used the Christian
Association of Nigeria (CAN) under the leadership of his
fellow Niger-delta Nigerian, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, to
demonize GMB in the despicable attempt to veil the
murderous intent of the administration.
Meanwhile, with the hullaballoo that Dr Jonathan and
his PDP elements have unwittingly caused within the
Polity, should it be interpreted that there is a real effort
towards ensuring that the 2015 election is also rigged
as before in giving vim to the PDP Leaders’ claim of
ruling Nigeria for 60 years? As a Nation, we are
witnesses to the manner in which rigged elections have
foisted on the Nation cluelessness in governance and
rapacious impudence; it is indeed a dreary road to
tread.
We insist that it is never ignoble to lose elections
because President Abraham Lincoln, before being
reputed to be the best American President that ever
existed, was known to have lost elections several times.
GMB, though lost Presidential elections three times to
the rigging collusion of the Nigerian presidency and the
electoral umpire, took the loss each time (like Abraham
Lincoln) with equanimity!
In the meantime, we shall continue to trumpet the
sterling qualities of the Buhari brand which is still a
rarity among the Political players in our nation’s season
of anomie. We stand unwaveringly by the statement
credited to GMB!
God bless Nigeria.
Rotimi Fashakin (Engr.)
National Publicity Secretary, CPC
(Wednesday, 16th May, 2012).http:///3pxKTwNR