Lagos Island stood still as President Goodluck Jonathan
flagged off his re-election campaign in the nation’s
former federal capital. Supporters of the party’s governorship candidates in
the South-West, who were bussed in for the function,
also seized the opportunity to show off their principals
on poster boards. The only exception was Minister of State for the Federal
Capital Territory, FCT, Ms Jumoke Akinjide, whose
posters, with the inscription, “Jumoke for Jonathan”,
were conspicuously carried by many women in the
arena. On ground to add colour to the flag-off were
Nollywood actors and actresses led by the President of
the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Ibinabo Fibersima. Other celebrities, who made brief solidarity speeches,
include Mr Segun Arinze, Joseph Benjamin, Kate
Henshaw, Monalisa Chinda and Onyeka Onwenu. Gospel artiste Sammy Okposo, Double Wahala crooner
Oritsefemi and popular Fuji musician, Obesere, thrilled
the crowd at the flag-off ground. Super Eagles skipper, Joseph Yobo, also canvassed
votes for the president. One of the highlights of the flag-off ceremony was the
presentation of the PDP governorship flag bearers in
the South-West with the party’s flag, which was
carried out by the party National Chairman, Alhaji
Adamu Mu‘azu. Jonathan a true democrat—Mimiko Ondo State governor and South-West Chairman of the
Goodluck/Sambo Presidential Campaign Organisation, Dr
Olusegun Mimiko, was first to fire the salvo. He hit at the presidential candidate of the All
Progressives Congress (APC), General Mohammadu
Buhari (rtd), on his academic qualification, which has
stirred controversy in the polity. Mimiko recently rejoined the PDP after leaving the
Labour Party. He said: “I stand on firm ground to state categorically
that hardly is there any home in Lagos and indeed the
Southwest that cannot boast of tenth generation
school certificate holders. This is why, among others,
we will not settle for a President with less than a
university degree.” Reeling out the achievements of the Jonathan
administration, Mimiko said: “You have allowed the
private sector to thrive, yet you have not abandoned
the under-privileged of the society. While the private
sector is encouraged to invest massively in agriculture,
power, aviation and other strategic sectors of the economy, you are also building Almajiri schools and
unprecedentedly expanding access to tertiary
education. You are proactively investing in Micro, Small
and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and providing
productive engagement for our young ones in
Agriculture, ICT and the creative industry. Continuing, he said, “Benin-Ore-Shagamu expressway
is witnessing massive rehabilitation, the Lagos-Kano rail
lines, moribund for over 15years have been re-
activated, agriculture has regained its pride of place and
you have strengthened our democratic institutions
through free, fair and credible elections. I am convinced that the hands of Goodluck Jonathan that started these
good works will surely complete them.” Solidarity speeches were delivered by the Director
General of the Jonathan/Sambo PCO, Senator Ahmadu
Ali, Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, Chief
Olabode George, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti
State and Senate President, Senator David Mark. They were unanimous in their remarks on why
Jonathan should be re-elected. Following speeches by PDP Governors Forum Chairman,
Governor Godswill Akpabio, and the PDP National
Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, the President delivered
his speech which, he said, would be mainly directed at
the youths on the claim that his generation was a
failure. Vice-President Namadi Sambo, in his remarks, urged the
people to reject the message of the opposition in Lagos. Jonathan hits at the opposition In his speech, Jonathan did not hide his feelings as he
hit back at his opponents, who have consistently
thrown mud at his administration. While addressing youths at the campaign ground, the
President told them to work for the future of Nigeria,
through hard work and dedication, adding that the
youths are the ones to take the country to the moon. He also said that voting for the opposition APC was like
returning Nigerians to prison. The President, who had all serving governors of the
PDP and some principal officials of the National
Assembly in attendance, repeatedly flayed the
campaign agenda and endorsements received by his
main challenger, General Buhari. He, however, did not mention Buhari by name in his
nearly 30 minutes speech. Jonathan, for the first time, also disclosed that the
October 1, 2010 attack by the Movement for the
Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, on the Eagle
Square, Abuja was an assassination attempt directed at
him. ‘Our generation has failed’ Saying his generation has failed, he stated, “I believe
that the young Nigerians are the future, we are
finished. We believe that the youths will be the ones
that will take us to the moon, my generation has failed
because we could not take Nigeria to the moon.” He continued: “I don’t want to address old people
like me because we (his generation) are spent already. I
am going to dwell on three things because those who
said they are going to take over from the PDP have
been telling a lot of lies. They have hired people all
over the world and are feeding people with lies on the social media. They are painting all sorts of colours and
giving you all sorts of claims that they cannot
defend.” He listed the three points as his administration’s
attitude towards corruption; alleged weakness of his
government and the perception of lack of planning. Noting the challenge from Buhari on the
administration’s alleged failure to address the
insecurity in the land, the President said: “They talked
about insecurity. They said they will fight insecurity.
And I ask, are our armed forces weak? If we have
problems, what is the cause? Equipment. Somebody who told young people that he is going to fight
insecurity, ask him if he bought one rifle for Nigerian
soldiers when he was the Head of State. These people
did not buy anything for the Nigerian soldiers. They
refused to equip them. Ask them what they did with
their defense budget. “They said my government is corrupt and that we
are not fighting corruption. Only yesterday, I
addressed anti-corruption agencies and told them that
people are deceiving young Nigerians. I said that they
must tell Nigerians what they are doing. “We have arrested more people and done more
convictions. Let me apologise to some Nigerian federal
civil servants who did not receive their December
salaries early enough and I will tell you what
happened. I apologise to those families that suffered
because we believe and I believe that for you to fight corruption, we must take measures. If they had
succeeded in fighting corruption, corruption would not
have been with us today. If they had set up structures
especially with the days of modern science and
technology using ICT, to manage resources, we would
not have been talking about corruption today. Fight against corruption “What happened in December was because of a
software that is used for processing salary packages.
Sometimes, people steal through salaries and some
Federal Government agencies, including some ministries,
try to divert funds to try and pay for some allowances
and the system is scientific. It is not a human being. Once money meant to pay salaries is diverted, it shuts
you down and those departments of government were
shut down. This is the only way you can prevent
corruption.” Jonathan also noted the administration’s success in
combating corruption in the agriculture sector
especially through fertiliser distribution. The President explained his administration’s success
in effective distribution of petroleum products affirming
that Nigerians do not have to sleep in petrol stations to
buy fuel. Arms procurement Alluding to issues that haunted the administration
arising from the procurement of arms, he said: “We
talked about corruption and they say that the military
is corrupt. When this crisis of insecurity came up, we
had nothing; so to get military hardware quickly, we
had to use vendors to procure them; but now, what we are doing is government to government
transaction. Any new procurement we are doing,
whether for the Air Force, Navy or Army, is
government to government. There is nothing like
corruption any more even if we had some issues. Is
that not the way to fight corruption? “You must prevent people from touching your
money and this is what government is doing and
succeeding in a number of areas especially in the
procurement area. If you look at it, we are reducing
corruption.” Umaru Dikko’s abduction Referring to the aborted kidnap of Alhaji Umaru Dikko
from Britain by the Buhari administration in 1984,
Jonathan said: “They say we are weak but we know
that there were some people who, while they were
abroad, some people drugged them and put them in
crates and attempted to fly them to Nigeria but they were intercepted by superior powers. That blocked
Nigerians from even going to Britain; the whole world
isolated Nigeria. They say that is the best way to fight
corruption. Is that the way to stop corruption? Not to
follow due process? So, immediately I suspect your
uncle, I just go and crate him and put him in Kirikiri (Kirikiri Prison). Is that the way to stop corruption?” Noting that Buhari’s anti-corruption stance was a
posture to deal with enemies, he said: “They want
power at all costs, all they want to use power for is to
lock up and imprison their enemies. I have no enemies
to fight. I won’t stop corruption by arresting people
and putting them in jail. You cannot stop corruption that way.” In a throw back to the military era, he referred to the
Buhari regime which he said had no single woman in his
cabinet. In a shocker before he concluded, the
President, who had earlier in 2010 defended MEND of
allegations of orchestrating the 2010 Independence Day
bomb attack at the Eagle Square, Abuja, reversed himself, saying the attack was an assassination attempt
on him. He said: “Let me say one thing and conclude. I read in
a paper recently where it said ‘MEND dumps
Jonathan’. I am from the Niger Delta, the leader of
MEND is one Okar. Okar is in a South African prison
because on October 1, 2010, when we were to celebrate
our 50th Independence anniversary, Okar was hired by some Nigerians to assassinate me. “Okar bombed Abuja and the attempt was to
assassinate me but intelligence report from South Africa
hinted me on the plan to assassinate me. He is now in
jail in South Africa and they said MEND dumped
Jonathan. Okar that wanted to assassinate Jonathan,
will he support Jonathan?’’

SOURCE:

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/01/why-i-should-be-re-elected-jonathan/

*Laughing in chinese.*

What is this??

Hahaha @ "Lagos Island stood still for Jonathan"

TANists are clowns

all this long story GEJ, u no sabi summary beta still, bulletin/list
no time to read this long easy, election na next month FeBuhari 14, 2015

barcanista:
Hahaha @ "Lagos Island stood still for Jonathan"

TANists are clowns

Lol.

Valid points,continuity is urgently advised

Hmm...we still didn't pick any point sir. Address the nation's challenges and what your administration will do about them.