An editorial by the Sunday Trust headlined,
“President, Call Your Men to Order,” caught my
attention as one more in a long line of similar
editorials written recently by a couple of newspapers
such as The Guardian, Peoples Daily, ThisDay and The
Sun, all of them saying “Mr. Jonathan, you are wrong
on Rivers.” I could not but come away worrying about
the future of the honeymoon between this
government and the press.
Has the President lost touch with public opinion?
Hear the Sunday Trust: “Many eminent Nigerians
have condemned the events in Rivers State and
President Jonathan’s complicity in them. Nobel
Laureate Wole Soyinka, former Vice President Atiku
Abubakar, constitutional lawyer, Professor Ben
Nwabueze, former Bar Association President, Olisa
Agbakoba, SAN, and prominent lawyer Femi Falana,
SAN all joined in the condemnations,”
If the climate of opinion against the President in the
mainstream media is bad, it is worse in the new media
where Dr. Jonathan has effectively been chased out
of the social media. He hardly tweets these days.
Another leader would have paused to ask questions
about why things are going wrongly for him. A local
proverb says that “the one who wants to come out of
the hole must first of all stop digging himself
deeper”.
The President’s response to his abysmal showing in
the battle for public opinion, a new report just said,
is to have his strategists throw money into this
problem. This report says a good section of Minister
Sama’ila Sambawa’s hotel, the Sigma Apartments on
Aminu Kano Crescent – Wuse, Abuja is now housing
tens or hundreds of Internet-savvy young men who
are being housed and fed there for the purpose of
using the Internet to manufacture public opinion in
favour of the President. A primary target of this
Internet war is Governor Amaechi of Rivers, who
must be made to look bad. A lady who said she sighted
the document behind the scheme to simulate or forge
the on-line public opinion said a hundred of such young
men will be hired and housed in hotels for the same
purpose, in all the 36 state capitals of the
federation.
The problem with the strategy is that telling a lie
one hundred times doesn’t make it the truth. To
convince Nigerians that they are safe, they must
themselves feel safe at home and on the streets.
Nobody will believe you when you say you improved
electricity when the bulbs don’t light up. How can you make sense talking about job creation when we have our sons and daughters, cousins and near relations coming to ask for bus and taxi fares roaming city streets looking for work to do? Government can make outrageous claims on these as a measure of the lack of accountability in our system but as the Yoruba say in one of their rich proverbs, “if the one being told the story does not know that he is being told a lie, the one telling the story knows that it is a lie”. The Nigerian mass media, both old and new, must be held in a justifiable esteem for their critical stance against the current engagement of the First Family against the democratically elected government of Rivers State.

This is not the way to change a government in a democracy. The action of the police, backed by the Presidency in Rivers State is capable of truncating the Fourth Republic if allowed to fester. Terrorists planning more attacks on our country need no more than watch the video aired by Channels TV in the evening that the five emboldened members attempted to take control of a parliament of 32 elected members. Terrorists have reasons to feel emboldened after seeing that ugly spectacle on TV. Terrorists strike when there is intelligence failure or as in the case of Port- Harcourt, the government which controls the police shows the way.


I note that since the incident, the spectacular media
showing of the Rivers State government has remained
unmatched by the federal government. Dr. Doyin
Okupe whose turf it is to respond to these matters
could only muster words that are abusive. He had my
admiration when he served creditably as spokesman
for President Obasanjo. At the time of his
appointment, the media community felt much insulted
that a medical doctor, not a professional journalist
had been appointed to such key government position.
But Doyin steeped himself in the job, ignoring all
criticism and in the end did a better job of it than
most of those so-called professionals who held the
job. But on the dispute with Rivers, it is Ibim
Semenitari, the information commissioner 1, Doyin
Okupe 0.
Doyin doesn’t need to orchestrate hypocrisy theories
to explain media attacks against the President.
Hausas say “if you eat mangoes, flies will follow:
throw away the mango if you don’t want the flies”. No
matter what the President says, the media will
always offer criticism because that is their job.
They will even twist his words and put meanings which
were not intended.
The media will always blow up matters. The President
is the President and this goes with territory. If
citizen Babagana, Baba Karami or Baba Kekere speaks,
the media will not even find it worthwhile to analyze.
If Dr. Okupe doesn’t have anything to say; no defence
to offer, he should just remain silent.
Another sad role in the whole of this crisis is that of
Minister Nyesom Wike. Wike was the Chief of Staff
to Governor Amaechi before he was appointed as
Minister. Now an Abuja man, Wike has realized that
his seat could decisively tilt the balance in 2015 not
only in Rivers but in the country as a whole. When he
came to Abuja, it was very much in his capacity as
Amaechi’s trusted lieutenant. Turn-coats don’t
impress Nigerians.
As for the continuing criticism of Abuja by the
entire gamut of the media and public opinion, there is
no better way to cleanse the country of criminal
malcontents who, because they have money and
muscle, think that they can throw out democratically
elected state governments without going through an
election.

Jonathan is a green snake under green grass. He pretends and acts like he knows nothing about River State crisis. Why hasn't he said a word if he has no hand in the problem?

Nigerians deserve what they get.

You took the words out from my mouth. Thank God his wife have actually confessed her involvement in the crisis. This people have really made a rubbish of nigeria's presidency.

The President’s response to his abysmal showing in
the battle for public opinion, a new report just said,
is to have his strategists throw money into this
problem. This report says a good section of Minister
Sama’ila Sambawa’s hotel, the Sigma Apartments on
Aminu Kano Crescent – Wuse, Abuja is now housing
tens or hundreds of Internet-savvy young men who
are being housed and fed there for the purpose of
using the Internet to manufacture public opinion in
favour of the President. A primary target of this
Internet war is Governor Amaechi of Rivers, who
must be made to look bad. A lady who said she sighted
the document behind the scheme to simulate or forge
the on-line public opinion said a hundred of such young
men will be hired and housed in hotels for the same
purpose, in all the 36 state capitals of the
federation.[quote]The President’s response to his abysmal showing in
the battle for public opinion, a new report just said,
is to have his strategists throw money into this
problem. This report says a good section of Minister
Sama’ila Sambawa’s hotel, the Sigma Apartments on
Aminu Kano Crescent – Wuse, Abuja is now housing
tens or hundreds of Internet-savvy young men who
are being housed and fed there for the purpose of
using the Internet to manufacture public opinion in
favour of the President. A primary target of this
Internet war is Governor Amaechi of Rivers, who
must be made to look bad. A lady who said she sighted
the document behind the scheme to simulate or forge
the on-line public opinion said a hundred of such young
men will be hired and housed in hotels for the same
purpose, in all the 36 state capitals of the
federation.

Insincere9gerian, billionaire, beaf and the rest have actually been busted.

The APC governors have shown to be always 2 steps ahead. All they wanted to show was that Retardeen and his Hippo pet were the ones responsible for the Rivers Problem and the moment Hippo admitted to it, No need to pursue it any further.

If the Hippo had any sense she wouldn't have admitted such to visiting Reverend fathers. Now breeze don blow we don see foul nyansh

All now towards 2015 where everyones case would e treated in the ballot box

dayokanu: The APC governors have shown to be always 2 steps ahead. All they wanted to show was that Retardeen and his Hippo pet were the ones responsible for the Rivers Problem and the moment Hippo admitted to it, No need to pursue it any further.

If the Hippo had any sense she wouldn't have admitted such to visiting Reverend fathers. Now breeze don blow we don see foul nyansh

All now towards 2015 where everyones case would e treated in the ballot box

@Hippo, LMAO

There are many of them on nairaland .
Internet savvy ,they are not.
Intelligence, not that bright.
Exposure , suffering from the nigerian special form of mental/physical retardation.
Public relations skills,they are making for enemies than friends for the president.
SUMMARY
They are a waste of precious resources (money and time).