The Presidential Campaign Flag off of the All
Progressives Congress, APC, in Port Harcourt on
Tuesday, January 7, 2015 is instructive in
many respects. Despite the several failings of
this event, one issue stood out clearly. The fact
that the APC Presidential candidate, Major
General Muhammadu Buhari had no message
for Nigerians.
It was the same old story. Buhari in a very
brief speech said: “I will ensure that there is
no room for corruption and insurgency in the
country. The level of insecurity in the nation is
deplorable. We will assemble a team of
professionals to ensure job creation, wealth and
security for the betterment of the country.”
The entire brief APC Presidential Campaign
Flag Off in Port Harcourt only proved to be
another opportunity for the extremely vocal
supporters of the party to engage in their
habitual social media photograph uploads. Indeed,
that was the only positive outcome for the
party from that event.
For an event that consumed hundreds of millions
of naira in terms of media coverage, adverts,
mobilization, transport for the invited crowd,
hotel bills, it was disheartening that the
Presidential Candidate only spoke for about
6minutes. Just talking about basic issues without
elaborating on how these two goals will be
achieved. After expending close to over
N40million on live television broadcast, the event
ended abruptly because the crowd was trooping
out enmasse even before the Presidential
Candidate spoke. The APC had to take solace
in the ensuing social media postings, sponsored
columnists articles and placed independent
photographs in majority of opposition controlled
print media.
Like Senate President David Mark said during
the inauguration of the PDP Presidential
Campaign Council, the APC has no product to
market hence they are hell bent on throwing
all manner of negative stuff at President
Goodluck Jonathan. A political party that had no
message at its Presidential Campaign flag off,
will have no message at any time.
This is a political party that cries change at
every turn, but her Presidential candidate has
no firm understanding of the demands of
modern democratic governance and expectations
of the populace from their would be leader.
Gaining mileage on social media will never
compensate for the huge deficiencies of the
APC Presidential candidate. Manipulating the
mainstream media and major columnists
resident in Lagos can never change the minds of
the people who have benefitted from the
Jonathan administration. Hundred disgruntled
preachers singing discordant songs cannot distract
majority of Nigerians from the progress being
made.
We are not going to be deceived by the
opposition insecurity mantra wherein several of
these politicians are complicit in the unfortunate
situation. We are aware that very
fundamental steps have been taken to address
the security challenges in the North East.
Insurgency is not a tea party. If it was,
United States of America would have resolved
the security challenges in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Pakistan has been dealing with the Talibans for
years without complete success. If Major
General Muhammadu Buhari is such a security
expert, why was he unable to protect his
undemocratic administration from fellow coupist,
General Ibrahim Babangida?
We are in a knowledge driven era. In this
era, blackmail and falsehood from an opposition
without a recognisable message, except the
slogan ‘change’, will not suffice. A political party
interested in forming government must present
quality programmes that are better than those
being executed by government in power. If the
opposition thinks that throwing insults at
Jonathan will bring them electoral victory, then
they under-estimate the intelligence of
Nigerians.
In agriculture, what programmes are the APC
bringing to the table that will surpass the
globally recognised Growth Enhancement Scheme
of the present administration that has thrown
up several self sufficient farmers. For the first
time in decades, our agricultural sector is now
playing key roles in the economy with the
creation of the necessary value chain in the
area of key commercial crops such as rice,
cocoa, oil palm, sorghum, wheat and cassava.
The successes in this sector have attracted
Dangote to invest $2.3billion in agriculture, while
Olam Nigeria Limited has built a $120million rice
mill in Nigeria, the biggest in Africa. Our
dependence on imported food has been
drastically reduced, with a changing labour
composition for the agricultural sector. Several
professionals are now involved in agriculture in
all the states of the Federation.
In education, the success story has been
unprecedented. President Jonathan through the
N1.3trillion set aside for public universities is
building would class universities across the
country. This has never happened. The same
facility is being worked out for polytechnics and
colleges of education. Through the TETFUND High
Impact funds, critical infrastructure in public
universities, polytechnics and colleges of education
have been revived. We cannot forget the
Almajiri schools, girl child schools and on-going
construction of special vocational schools in the
basic education sector. The 12 new Federal
Universities and four new Federal Polytechnics.
There is also the distribution of over 60million
free textbooks, construction of electronic libraries
in Federal Unity Colleges, training of teachers
among other key projects in this sector. This has
been the best time for education in decades.
The rehabilitation and reconstruction of roads
has been another key area of Jonathan’s
administration which needs to be consolidated.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo who now
acts as the APC navigator spent eights years,
but was unable to achieve much in this regard.
Major roads and bridges in the country are
being fixed for the economic development of the
nation. The Abuja-Lokoja expressway, the
Enugu-Port Harcourt road, the East-West Road,
the Lagos-Ibadan road, the Benin-Ore
Expressway, the Third Mainland Bridge, the
Apapa Expressway and several other key
projects have received or are receiving
attention.
In the health sector, the Jonathan
administration working with other key
stakeholders fought and defeated Ebola. The
administration has revived tertiary health
facilities across the country. In the coming
weeks, the country will be declared polio-free
as a result of major work that has been done.
The power sector has been unbundled and total
privatization achieved, the railway is now
working, youth empowerment through Sure-P
and You-Win have taken centre stage, women
empowerment has been elevated to global
standards, there has been a silent industrial
revolution occasioned by world class policies, the
aviation sector has been improved upon and
several other world class projects scattered
across the country.
Seeking power for the sake of it or to settle a
score will not be beneficial to the country. Little
wonder, members of the opposition APC are
merely involved in provocative statements,
market-place insults and never saying what
they would do with power should they be
privileged to get power. Thank God, majority of
Nigerians know these persons. They have been
around since 2003, yet they have no positive
programme 12 years down the road.
The Port Harcourt APC Presidential failed
campaign flag off sends a clear message to
Nigerians. We cannot entrust the destiny of this
nation to the hands of unprepared politicians just
eager to take over power for personal reasons.
This country has gone beyond that pedestrian
level. Jonathan has opened the eyes of Nigerians
on the benefits of having a capable President
and the people can no longer afford to look the
way of a candidate whose only claim to
leadership is ‘it is our turn’.
sources: scan news

Rubbish post.
Go and do your homework well. Your lies will not move anyone again.