[size=14pt]Call for violence: Jonathan warns Buhari, others [/size]
Written by Idowu Samuel, Abuja Wednesday, 23 March 2011

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, on Tuesday, warned his co-presidential candidates to desist from calling for violence during the coming April polls, averring that candidature of a party never confers on anyone of them the right to make such calls.

Jonathan said he wanted his co-candidates to take his warning as a timely caution ahead of the elections, just as he said the desire of some presidential candidates to campaign on the basis of ethnicism and religion was a sign that those involved were frustrated.

Jonathan said he decided to build his presidential ambition on the plank of love after realising that the state of stagnation of the country and its attendant scant progress was caused by the absence of love, thus calling on all presidential candidates to direct their campaigns in a manner that will promote love, togetherness and understanding among Nigerians.

“Love has been missing for long in Nigeria and that is the reason the country had attained little progress. It is sad the more when some presidential candidates decide to base their campaigns on religion, ethnicism and violence. It is frustration that has been making such candidates to call for violence,”he said.

The president spoke during a meeting of the Igbo from the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory with representatives of Neighbour to Neighbour Campaign Group for President Jonathan in Abuja.

Chief Godsday Orubebe, who delivered President Jonathan’s address during the event, said presidential race should not be anchored on a do or die spirit as he called on political actors to note that “every destiny has always been in the hands of God.”

The president’s spokesperson told the representatives of the Igbo that he, Jonathan, symbolised peace and the spirit of one Nigeria, given his humble background and willingness to further weld Nigeria together, just as he called on the Igbo nation to vote overwhelmingly for Jonathan during the presidential election.

He recalled that Jonathan who has only spent nine months in office had recorded laudable achievements, including ensuring peace and progress of the country, resolution of the Niger Delta crises, promotion of unity by basing government appointments on merit and fair representation.

http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/news/19320-call-for-violence-jonathan-warns-buhari-others

Buhari and his fellow mallam-ribadu are making all this empty threats because they still have this 'born to rule mentality'

Buhari is nothing but an ethnic and a religious bigot. Thesame fool who imprisoned Ekueme while sending the 'captain' of the ship (Shagari) back to his home town in Sokoto, is now talking about ruling nigeria by 'any means necessary'.

I wonder what will happen if these northern clowns are locked-out of aso rock for a 'mere' 20yrs?

everything is all about luck and goodluck for mumuchukwu,odechukwu, chukwumumuje, adebolo, odelabi, afokunmeko, retardeen, mumuski, odoyochukwu, slackerlomo, turaihouseboy, mumusiplenty, mumungida, azikiwe, Ifamumu, Ademumu, Ebele, Jonastupid, Jonathan-Babangide Jnr Nee Obasanjo jr

Nigerians warn Jonathan,we want free and fair election

Lucky Joe has nothing to fear if he has no plan to rig, but in case he is thinking this election will be rigged as usual, then he should be very afraid.

If he wins fairly, I will be among the 1st to congratulate him and am sure BB will congratulate him too, but no amount of warnings/policemen/sss/army will stop Nigeria from burning if he rigs himself in.

It is not a call for violence, it is a call for fairness.

How will you differentiate a win that was fair from that which was rigged?

If you have any grievance about the election results then take your case to the courts.

In response to his unrelenting propensity to instigate and sponsor disruptive electoral violence, existing statutes in Nigerian lawbooks contain adequate grounds on which to ARREST and DETAIN Ayatollah Buggari for his own protection, and that of the innocent voters whom this Islamic terrorist evidently considers expendable.

Johnny B. Goodluck PLEASE lock this mad muffuguh up NOW, to clear the field so that civilized, peaceful presidential elections to transpire in Nigeria.

Empty threats. Odechukwu will have his hands full if he tries anything funny with his main opponents. If he rigs and thinks that Nigeria will be governable for him, then he is being completely disillusioned.

Anyway, he's tried several times to intimidate Buhari with state's police and we all know what has been the outcome each time.
Or wasn't Buhari not warned not to campaign in Ibadan and Jos? The man rightly ignored him and nothing happen. So we've been there before.

If he rigs and there are evidences, he will have no choice than to have another Yemen + Bahrain in his hands.

Mumucious indeed.

Jakumo:

In response to his unrelenting propensity to instigate and sponsor disruptive electoral violence, existing statutes in Nigerian lawbooks contain adequate grounds on which to ARREST and DETAIN Ayatollah Buggari for his own protection, and that of the innocent voters whom this Islamic terrorist evidently considers expendable.

Johnny B. Goodluck PLEASE lock this mad muffuguh up NOW, to clear the field so that civilized, peaceful presidential elections to transpire in Nigeria.

Boy you are very fuunnny

Arrest Buhari? Who born am - no long story go ahead with the arrest. My advise to Jonathan is to provide Buhari with every security he needs - Nigerians will not accept any excuses if anything suspicious happens to him

egift:

Boy you are very fuunnny

Arrest Buhari? Who born am - no long story go ahead with the arrest. My advise to Jonathan is to provide Buhari with every security he needs - Nigerians will not accept any excuses if anything suspicious happens to him

Sorry, but some of you talk very stvpidly.
If there is a need to lock Buhari up, he'll be locked up. The article makes it quite plain that he is only walking freely, because he is contesting the presidential elections and GEJ does not want to lock up an opponent; but if he pushes it, he will be locked up and empty noisemakers like you will sit down and watch.

Beaf:

Sorry, but some of you talk very stvpidly.
If there is a need to lock Buhari up, he'll be locked up. The article makes it quite plain that he is only walking freely, because he is contesting the presidential elections and GEJ does not want to lock up an opponent; but if he pushes it, he will be locked up and empty noisemakers like you will sit down and watch.

Agreed. Go ahead and arrest him. I guess if there are arrest Jonathan, he will be locked up.

Beaf don't worry I will keep the key of your cell come June. I intend to throw it into my sucker pit where the key will have real fresh air.

On a serious note, Nigerians lets support Buhari and halt corruption and build a nation that will make us proud.

He recalled that Jonathan who has only spent nine months in office had recorded laudable achievements, including ensuring peace and progress of the country, resolution of the Niger Delta crises, promotion of unity by basing government appointments on merit and fair representation.

This is the most morally bankrupt statement to have been made. When glorified idiots like Jonathief Odechukwu Mumudedan Goatluck E-were Jonafish Goatluck are praised to annoy the senses of reasonable Nigerians.

What government appointments are based on merits? The ambassador that could not recite the National anthem is based on merit? The recent political termination of the ICPC chairman is based on merit and fair representation? The persistent Jos killings is a laudable achievement? Failure to mention any provision of basic amenity to Nigerians was missing in the quote above, is that also not a laudable achievement? What peace and progress? Ogun state is lawless today - is that peace and progress? PDP police men opened fire on innocent CPC members in Jos, killing 6 people, is that peace and progress? IN Nassarawa state, PDP governor locked out the venue to CPC campaign, is that outright peace and progress? Emirs and chieftains were ordered to vacate and shut down their palaces upon CPC arrivals and this doofus is here praising peace and progress. PDP governors across Nigeria become lawless and above the law, is that peace and progress?

For how long must this mad man suffer us with this malady of a government? Nigerians have a right to protest and surely, let that mumurideen of a president know that enough is enough!

Buhari’s handshake and handcuff
By Ebele Chukwu

Obasanjo never hid his disgust for General Sani Abacha who had jailed him for a “phantom coup”. Released from jail and still wallowing in a fit of new found spirituality, he wrote a book and called it “The Animal Called Man”. And he elected to wage a battle on this “Animal Called Man”.

While taking his oath of office at the Eagle Square on 27th May, 1999, he had pledged to wrestle corruption out of our national psyche. In a fit of mediaeval triumphalism, he chanted: “there will be no sacred cows!”

But his first attack was a disaster. No sooner had he made that declaration than he dispatched Mallam Haroun Adamu to the headquarters of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), an intervention agency run by General Muhammadu Buhari, to start the war on corruption. Haroun Adamu’s public brief was to wind down PTF but the hidden one was to disgrace General Buhari by exposing the “shady deals” in PTF.

Contractors working for PTF were used to picking their cheques across the counter without much ado. Under the new inquisitor, contractors discovered they now had to oil their cheques out, something alien to the PTF they knew. They cried foul. And there were several other fouls after the first foul. To say that Obasanjo was thoroughly embarrassed by his minions would be an understatement, so much so that till date he does not discuss PTF in public.
As a General, it would appear that Obasanjo read Sun Tzu’ s “The Art of War” upside down. Sun Tzu had counselled: “Know thyself; know thy enemy. You will fight a thousand battles without defeat.” The blitzkrieg he deployed only showed he did not know PTF. He might not have needed to fire a shot to win or wean PTF. To date, most Nigerians knew how PTF started, what it did but not how it ended. Not known as one who forgives, was it not surprising that General Buhari walked the streets with his head high throughout Obasanjo’s imperial majesty when the fear of EFCC was the beginning of political wisdom?

In October 1994, General Sani Abacha increased the pump price of petrol from N3.25k to N11.00 per litre. Nigerians assailed him with criticisms for this unpopular move and to assuage their feelings, he quickly established the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund to use a portion of the proceeds of the increase to intervene in critical sectors of the economy. Nigerians never took Abacha seriously on this project until Gen Muhammadu Buhari was announced and inaugurated the chairman of the PTF in March 1995.

That PTF awarded contracts worth billions of naira is not news. The news the PTF made within the four years it existed was and still is that contracts awarded were executed to their logical conclusion and for those not executed, the PTF got every kobo back. Before PTF, contractors were used to abandoning contracts and bolting away with their advance payments. It never happened in PTF. When Buhari visited the Onitsha end of the Enugu-Onitsha express way awarded to a local contractor and discovered the job was abandoned, he simply called on the bank that guaranteed the contractor to pay back. There and then, the contract was terminated and later awarded to another contractor. From that moment, banks and insurance companies that provided bonds to contractors learnt that the old order had changed and had to monitor projects it guaranteed.

For the years it existed, PTF published its annual reports and always addressed press conferences to respond to issues arising from the reports. And each time it did, it challenged anybody who could deliver on any of its projects at a price cheaper than what it cost the PTF to submit his proposal. Nobody ever did.

In one of the presentations of its annual report, the Executive Secretary of the Board of the PTF, Chief Tayo Akpata, maintained that the roads constructed by the PTF not only cost less than World Bank funded roads but were also better qualitatively. He challenged anyone to prove the contrary. Until the PTF was scrapped, nobody did.
While the PTF existed, contractors never needed to lobby and grease palms to get LPO’s. You only needed to belong to the appropriate group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and other professional groups to qualify. Not a few contractors received requests to supply the PTF in the comfort of their offices. It was so unbelievably true that some had to travel to Abuja to reconfirm if the LPO’s they received were genuine. And genuine they were.

To be paid for a completed contract, all the contractor needed was to present a certificate of completion issued by the ubiquitous consultants engaged by the PTF and his cheque would be prepared. And with a proper letter of introduction, a contractor could send a third party to pick his check across a counter in the Finance Department without any ceremony. Picking a cheque then was just like walking into a bank to withdraw cash across the counter. As staff of Set and Sell Communications Ltd and later Media Trust Ltd, I personally picked several cheques on behalf of these firms. The challenge the finance department of the PTF faced then was getting contractors to come and pick their cheques which would pile up for months as a good number never knew it was so simple.

One cannot also forget in a hurry the PTF drug revolving scheme. Under this, the PTF set up offices in hospitals across the country and supplied them with drugs. The financial consultants employed by the Fund ensured that receipts from the sales of the drugs were used to replenish the stocks in an unending cycle that banished out-of-stock anthem the Nigerian public were forced to listen to before then. And it was not easy to divert PTF drugs to the parallel market. The smallest tablet supplied had PTF logo engraved on it. Somebody attempted diverting the drugs and was caught. General Buhari took up the case personally and ensured the culprit went to jail. After that, nobody heard of diversions again.

The strategy of the PTF in procuring these drugs is worth reviewing. Over 60% of the drugs supplied to the PTF were locally produced. In fact, the PTF only imported drugs that could not be produced by the local pharmaceutical firms. The pressure on the existing pharmaceutical companies was so much that almost all these firms had to increase their capacity by expanding and employing more hands. Neimeth Pharmaceuticals, Emzor Pharmaceuticals among others can be contacted to affirm or disprove this. This policy was deliberately made to ensure that more jobs were created within the economy.

Builders who built for PTF would also tell you that they were not allowed to import paints. There was a list of all the paint manufacturers in the country maintained at the PTF from which builders bought paints. Within the same period, the capacity utilisation in these companies soared as they expanded and created more jobs. A look at the records kept by IPWA plc and other existing paint makers within the period under review is worth attempting to digest the profundity of the PTF intervention in the building sector; and other sectors it intervened in as its model was so overarching that critics labelled it “the alternative government”.

This column is not enough to put in a proper perspective the job General Buhari undertook and did while in PTF but it suffices through this glimpse to understand the mindset and the strategy of this maelstrom which the ruling elite hate for his forthrightness - a quality in short supply in governance today.

One can cite the number of roads and hospitals rehabilitated by the PTF. One can also quote the billions it spent. The essence of the PTF, however, lies more in the multiplier effect its intervention had on the economy as a whole than in the number of what it did, which on its own was equally impressive. This distinction is what differentiates growth from development. While the former is quantitative, the latter is qualitative. As a political economist, I know that the economic development of any third world country lies in qualitative transformation.

Before the coming of PTF, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida had introduced the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) which he had claimed had no alternative. The revered economist, Professor Sam Aluko, had also reminded him that economics was a science of alternatives; that even death had an alternative which was life and that SAP was a kiss of death. IBB was to acknowledge the failure of SAP when out of frustration around 1991, he exclaimed that “the Nigerian economy had defied all known economic theories and was surprised that the economy had not collapsed”.

The economy did not collapse. The PTF intervention ensured it did not. This was the lesson OBJ failed to grasp when he dissolved the Fund with executive fiat in 1999. As at 1997, funds available to the PTF was about N115 billion and Nigerians could point at projects the fund was expended on. A decade after PTF, the governments from OBJ’s to date had spent much more than that in the power sector alone and have not been able to generate even a megawatt more of electricity.

Managing public funds is serious business. General Muhammadu Buhari was fond of telling contractors on visit to sites: “If you perform well, you get a handshake. If you perform badly, you get a handcuff”. This is the mantra we need at this historical juncture. The man that incarnates this mantra out of the available presidential candidates is General Muhammadu Buhari.

There is also a lesson to be learnt from the day Buhari left PTF. Obasanjo, on assumption of office, announced the setting up of the interim management committee led by Mallam Haroun Adamu to wind down PTF. The following day, Buhari addressed a press conference and invited the new management to immediately take over. He told Nigerians that everything the new management needed were in the records to which they would have unhindered access. He bid his staff farewell, descended the stairs, literally jumped into his four wheel drive that took him home to Daura. He never stepped into that premises again to this day. And he never fled the country to escape the EFCC.


The likes of Obasanjo should go back to the military academy to understand “The Art of War” before going on another offensive.

Ebele Chukwu writes from Eziora, Ozubulu (ababio38@gmail.com, 08186482246 sms only

How silly can our president Jonathan be?
No just that he's clueless and dumb, he also
surrounds himself with empty headed aides and advisers. Was it not this same guy that called Okah to withdraw
his statements and implicate others after the Oct 1 blast?,

Right

“if I’m voted into power within the next four years, the issue of power will become a thing of the past. 4 years is enough for anyone in power to make significant improvement and if I can’t improve on power within this period, it then means I
cannot do anything even if I am there for the next 4 years.” Jonathan said this while interacting with diplomats of the UN Economic Commission for Africa

Look at that mini or indirect warlord(gej) who has ignited war on many fronts against innocent citizens pointing accusing fingers.
Gej, sharrap!

fstranger3:
everything is all about luck and goodluck for mumuchukwu,odechukwu, chukwumumuje, adebolo, odelabi, afokunmeko, retardeen, mumuski, odoyochukwu, slackerlomo, turaihouseboy, mumusiplenty, mumungida, azikiwe, Ifamumu, Ademumu, Ebele, Jonastupid, Jonathan-Babangide Jnr Nee Obasanjo jr

Eyaaaah.... Pls check your BP abeg, heart attack is real oh... Ezi.

OAM4J:
Lucky Joe has nothing to fear if he has no plan to rig, but in case he is thinking this election will be rigged as usual, then he should be very afraid.

If he wins fairly, I will be among the 1st to congratulate him and am sure BB will congratulate him too, but no amount of warnings/policemen/sss/army will stop Nigeria from burning if he rigs himself in.

It is not a call for violence, it is a call for fairness.

So u mean Violence is the only way to solve "rigged election"?

Whatever happen to court?

Smh

No worry bros J, by the time u win election come 2015.
The worse the northerners can do is to kill theirselves.

Them no born their papa well to carry the killings come east or west or evn south.

Let them continue killing theirself, ko kan aiye.

Save for the few corpers that might fall victim of these animalistic act.