President Goodluck Jonathan is set to hit the
North-East with his campaign train to seek the
people’s support for his re-election bid.
It’s been 266 days after the President shunned
the troubled region following the abduction of
over 200 schoolgirls by terrorists in Chibok,
Borno State.
The Peoples Democratic Party National
Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo, who spoke with
Saturday PUNCH during the week in Abuja, said
that the President would visit all parts of the
country, including the North-East, to seek the
people’s support.
The President had cancelled his supposed trip to
Chibok on May 16, 2014 to sympathise with the
parents of the abducted schoolgirls, who have
been missing for the past 257 days.
Though his aides, in a statement, later said the
President was not meant to visit Chibok that
day, the President’s advanced team, according to
reports, had visited Chibok in preparation for
Jonathan’s visit.
But Oladipo told one of our correspondents that
no part of the country would be left out by the
PDP and Jonathan to campaign for support.
He said, “We will visit all parts of the country to
campaign. There is no state in Nigeria that the
PDP and the President will not visit, including the
North-East.
“We believe in the sovereignty of the country and
that is why we are taking every part of the
nation seriously.”
Asked if this would not be seen as daring and
contemptuous of the people of the North-East,
who the President refused to visit even when
their towns and cities were being bombed almost
every day, he said, “The President does one thing
or the other on daily basis. He could be busy
attending to issues, some of them if not all,
could have positive effect on the lives of the
people of the region.”
Also the Special Adviser to the President on
Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, reinforced
Oladipo’s comment, saying notwithstanding the
security challenges confronting Nigeria, Jonathan
would visit all the states affected by the Boko
Haram violence to campaign ahead of the 2015
general elections.
Abati said, “I have no doubt that the President is
going to campaign to all Nigerians. A campaign
timetable will be issued and the President will
visit all parts of the country because he knows
that we are facing another election.
“He is not taking any Nigerian for granted
because he has served Nigerians faithfully and
he is coming to them again in humility to ask for
their supports and votes.
“We have no doubt that Nigerians will stand
solidly behind him.”
Abati, however, flayed claim that Jonathan had
not visited the North-East, saying he did so
many times before now.
He said as Nigeria’s President, Jonathan was
not afraid to visit any part of the country.
Abati said, “This is the period of politics and the
President’s message and campaign will be for all
Nigerians.
“It is not true that the President had not visited
the North-East. Go and check his itinerary in the
last one year, he had gone there for
programmes.
“The Presidential Initiative for the North-East
was launched in one of the states in the region.
He has visited many parts of the North-East.
“He is the President of Nigeria. He can travel to
any part of the country. So, those who are
asking whether he will campaign in the North-
East should just check his itinerary.
“He has visited many of the states in the North,
not once, not twice. I don’t see why there should
be any anxiety.
“In any case, the Independent National Electoral
Commission, security agencies and other relevant
stakeholders have made it clear that they remain
committed to ensure that no Nigerian, for any
reason whatsoever, is denied the right to vote.”
But some northern groups have described the
planned campaign trip to the North-East as
belated, ill-timed and insensitive.
They said for the President to go and campaign
to a people who were traumatised by his lack of
concern for their plight was, to say the least, “
immoral, irresponsible and callous.”
The spokesperson for the Northern Elders Forum,
Prof. Ango Abdullahi, expressed shock at the
reported plan by the President to embark on a
campaign trip to the troubled region. He said it
was left for the people of the area to let their
guest know how they feel.
According to him, it beats the imagination that
the President, who gives every excuse under the
sun to stay away from the North-East, has
suddenly developed courage because of his re-
election bid.
Abdullahi said, “It will be immoral for the
President to go to the North-East in the name of
campaign when he has been unable to visit the
people for the three years they have suffered
from the wanton destruction of their lives and
property by the Boko Haram sect.
“It is left for the people of the North-East to
show him how they feel. If you recall, Jonathan
was quoted as asking where Bama is.
“We have a President who does not know the
geography of the country. Maybe his friend,
former Governor of Borno State, Ali Sherriff, will
show him the way.”
Second Republic federal lawmaker and a Kano
State delegate to the just-concluded National
Conference, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, said he had
nothing but contempt for the President and his
handlers, especially when it had to do with the
issue of national security.
He said, “I never thought that we could have a
President who is this insensitive, who is this
irresponsible, who is this irredeemably
shameless.
“It is now clear to me that politics and this
political gamesmanship is the primary purpose
of this guy’s life.
“Human life does not mean anything to him,
since the advent of the Boko Haram insurgency,
the massive killings and abductions of young
Nigerians, he has not even genuinely
commiserated with these people.
“What is available to him today in terms of
security was available to him three years ago
when the insurgency began to spiral out of
control.”
Mohammed appealed to all men of goodwill,
including foreign powers interested in the
development of Nigeria to tell the President that
the lives of Nigerians are worth much more than
his political ambition.
The spokesperson for the All Progressives
Congress, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, said that
whether it is morally right or not for Jonathan to
seek the support of the traumatised Chibok
parents many months after he had failed to
rescue their children from the terrorists’ den
should be left for Nigerians to judge.
“We cannot always be the judge; we are going to
allow Nigerians to be the judge in this case. Let
Nigerians judge the issue,” he said.
The Secretary of the Borno Elders’ Forum,
Bulama Gubio, doubted that the residents would
warmly welcome Jonathan because the President
had not visited the traumatised parents of
Chibok girls since their children were abducted
on April 14, 2014.
Gubio, however, said the President was welcome
in the North-East because he is a Nigerian and
not necessarily because he is the leader of the
country.
He said, “Let him come, he is a Nigerian; he is
welcome. If all he wants to do here is to come
and campaign, let him come and do so, at least
he is a Nigerian and he has the right.
“Those who will receive him, if there are, will
receive him because he is the President. But
really, we don’t see ourselves as Nigerians again.
If there are people here who feel they are still
Nigerians, they will receive him.”
On the security crisis in Borno State, Gubio said
many youths were losing their lives daily to the
Boko Haram insurgency as they were confronting
the terrorists.
He said, “We are doing our best; we are praying
to God. We don’t think of any President now
because there is none who is doing anything for
us now. Our youths are helping some of the
military personnel here to fight the insurgents.
“Many of us have children in the military and in
the vigilante group and they are ready to lay
down their lives for us; they are doing the best
that they can. We are losing many of them, we
are not happy, but we have to keep fighting.”
As the 2015 general elections are moving closer,
however, sources said Jonathan’s campaign
posters were conspicuously missing in strategic
locations in the North-East.
The sources said that the posters were only
visible within the premises of the residents of the
PDP chieftains in the region.
They said the PDP chieftains were afraid to
paste Jonathan’s campaign posters at the
strategic locations for fear of being assaulted by
the people, especially those who felt aggrieved
that the President had yet to stop the persistent
terrorist attack on their communities.
The Chairman of the displaced persons in the
Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Philemon
Emmanuel, said Jonathan would be welcome in
the North-East, but would only campaign to
Boko Haram members who he said had taken
over most of the local government areas in the
region.
Emmanuel, who fled to Abuja from Gwoza,
Borno State, after the town was attacked by
terrorists, said all the residents had fled to
Cameroon, which he said is about 15 kilometres
to Gwoza, to avoid being killed.
According to him, there are no voters to woo in
the North-East because Boko Haram terrorists
have taken over the area and that many
residents are hiding on the mountain to avoid
being killed by the terrorists.
Emmanuel, who recalled that the residents had
peaceful celebration of Christmas last year,
however, called for adequate deployment of
security agents in the troubled region.
He said, “Boko Haram members came to Gwoza
in November, 2013, they went to Gwoche and
burnt churches and killed many people, but when
soldiers came, they ran away. We celebrated
Christmas successfully because soldiers were on
the ground but the moment they were
redeployed, Boko Haram took over the place and
we all ran to Cameroon.
“We want the Federal Government to deploy
more soldiers in the North-East. If troops were
deployed in all the places taken over by the
terrorists, they would not have succeeded.
“This is what Cameroon has been doing and the
soldiers there have been killing hundreds of Boko
Haram members. Last week, the Boko Haram
insurgents kidnapped many people at Gwoche
and kept them in one house but they were
rescued by Cameroonian gendarmes. Gwoche is
just 10km to Cameroon.”
The Chairman, Kibaku Development Association,
Dr. Bitrus Pogu, said Jonathan would be
welcome to campaign in the North-East.
Pogu, an elder statesman from Chibok, said the
President had visited Maiduguri, the Borno State
capital, but did not visit Chibok, where the
schoolgirls were abducted, for security reasons.
He said, “I think it is a moral issue for the
President if he did not visit Chibok to condole
with the people and for him to go there and
campaign now, but I support him because it is
not wise for him to visit that area due to the
activities of the insurgents to avoid a problem.
“The President is free to campaign in every part
of the country and he would be welcome in the
North-East.”
With the fear that the Boko Haram insurgent
group could strike during the festive period, some
residents in the North-East and North-Central
Nigeria have fled the zones.
A resident of Jos, Plateau State, Mrs. Bimbola
Ayanwale, who is currently in Lagos, told
Saturday PUNCH that she had fled the city with
her three children because she was scared that
the insurgents could strike during the festive
period.
She said, “I am afraid; everyone is afraid. We
want to celebrate this season with peace of
mind. Many of the people who have relatives in
the peaceful regions have fled the city.
“There is still insecurity in the region and no one
knows what could happen. The Boko Haram
insurgents could just decide to go to parks and
other entertainment centres to strike; God forbid,
though.”
Likewise, a resident of Yola, Adamawa State,
simply identified as Mr. Yakubu, said he had left
the state to stay with his brother in Kaduna, a
relatively more peaceful city.
“No one prays that evil should occur, but we
have to be on our toes. It is just a precautionary
step,” he said.
And Miss Samuel, who was once residing in
Mubi, Adamawa State, also said that her family
had left the region to celebrate the festive
period.
Meanwhile, following a meeting with the heads
of law enforcement agencies, the Governor of
Yobe State, Alhaji Ibrahim Gaidam, had during
the week approved the placement of special
restriction on movement across the state.
In a statement from the office of the Special
Adviser on Media, Alhaji Abdullahi Bego, which
was made available to journalists in Damaturu,
Yobe State, Gaidam said that the restriction of
vehicular movement starts from 6pm on
Wednesday, December 24, 2014 to 7am Sunday,
December 28, 2014.
The statement read, “No vehicle coming into or
leaving the state will be allowed within this
period.
“However, people in respective towns across the
state can move with their vehicles freely within
their own towns, except during the curfew hours
that were imposed and announced earlier.”

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sources

This is an all rounnd action packed president

Its a big shame if he didn't.

But is he going ask for their Votes because he fulfilled his promise to them or because he failed them?

Abati should tell us which particular part of the North East the president has visited in the last two years?
He should help provide us with the the dates the president visited Maiduguri, Yola and Maiduguri.?

Like what GEJ did to the Chibok parents, I had thought he would invite residents of the North East to Aso Rock in order to campaign to them.

Only an insensitive president forgets his citizens when they need help but remembers them when he needs their help

He did not go there to secure the people but only remember them when he want their votes. How about all the degrading names his supporters have been calling these folks.

Jonathan will be voted Out for incompetence.

Our president is useless, Chibok gals were kidnapped 8months ago, the clueless no go there o, many students of Government college were killed in Yola, d following day d mumu was busy dancing skelewu, now that he want to run again for presidential seat he now want to go there...... CLUELEES at it's peak