₦airaland Forum

Craving for political appointment has never crossed my mind, because the vocation of teaching philosophy at the University of Lagos gives me incomparably sublime job satisfaction.

Considering certain facts known to me, I preferred Jonathan to Buhari in the last presidential election – and I still do, despite my criticisms of the former over the years. Therefore, if I were paid millions for that, it would have been a win-win situation for me since it means being paid for expressing my genuine preference in the election.

Certainly, no amount of money would have compelled me to support Jonathan if I were convinced he did not deserve to be re-elected, or Buhari because, as already stated, I really wanted his main rival to have a second term of office. Buharimaniacs are fond of hyperbolising the good qualities of President Buhari while unduly neglecting the disagreeable ones. In their jaundiced reckoning, the weaknesses of Buhari should either be ignored or explained away as inconsequential excesses of a military dictator committed to positive attitudinal change by Nigerians.

Anyone that expresses a contrary view or draws attention to his intellectual and temperamental deficiencies is jeered at as an “enemy” of Nigeria. Clearly, superlative descriptions of Buhari and his capability to rebuild Nigeria cannot withstand the harsh searchlight of ratiocinative scrutiny. For, granted that the President has cognate experience as a former military head of state, that experience is severely limited in duration and was garnered during a dictatorship powered by command-and-obey mentality, not by the slow laborious processes of democratic deliberation.

In addition, like every human being, the praiseworthy qualities of Buhari are alloyed by certain personal inadequacies that might jeopardise his ability to make the right decisions while in office. Of course, the President himself, the world in general and Nigeria in particular have changed dramatically since August 27, 1985, when Gen. Ibrahim Babangida unceremoniously overthrew his regime. Thus, those uncritically parading Buhari’s experience from his dictatorial days as if it is an unblemished magic totem for national reconstruction have not learnt any useful lesson from the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007.


[size=14pt]In my opinion, the greatest enemies of President Buhari are not his critics; rather, they are those praising him to high heavens, uttering sugary insipidities to gain favours from him. Also included are the shylocks who recommend revenge against groups that did not vote for him and narrow-minded Northerners gloating simply because the presidency has returned to their region. [/size]

Going by what one reads in the newspapers and hears on radio and television, Buharimaniacs believe strongly that the President, Alhaji Muhammadu Buhari, can solve singlehandedly the problems confronting Nigeria at this time, whereas President Goodluck Jonathan and his subordinates are relentlessly excoriated for running the most incompetent and corrupt government the country has witnessed since independence.


According to triumphalist Buharimaniacs, the new President would soon destroy Boko Haram, jail everyone convicted of corruption, reengineer the economy, reduce unemployment to the barest minimum ever, reform the electoral process, probe Jonathan’s administration, rejuvenate the dwindling manufacturing sector, ensure steady electricity and build world class infrastructure, and so on.

[size=14pt]
On the other hand, those of us that supported Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election effort are still being subjected to vicious obloquy and malicious accusations of taking bribes or seeking for political appointments. Let me make some points clear now. I wish I had been paid handsomely for supporting the former President. [/size]


Unlike pretentious Pharisees who commit atrocities behind closed doors but talk and behave holier-than-thou in public, I believe there is nothing wrong in being rewarded for declaring publicly an opinion one is genuinely convinced about, which is analogous to a model who truly enjoys lemonade and gets paid for advertising it. We can deceive others and ourselves some of the time; but we cannot successfully do so all the time.

Senate

While the party’s leaders were expecting the senators-elect, those supporting Saraki were attending a retreat at the Jabi area of Abuja.

The pro-Saraki group, The Like Minds Senators, ended the retreat on Saturday with a pledge to further strengthen the ability of their members to pursue a people-oriented Eighth Senate.

The group, in a statement signed by a senator-elect, Dino Melaye, explained that the essence of the exercise was to position its members to hit the ground running upon the inauguration of the Senate on Tuesday.

Meeting with Senators

Attempts by the leadership of the All Progressives Congress to forge a common front ahead of Tuesday’s election of Senate President failed on Saturday.

Supporters of Senator Bukola Saraki declined all entrities to attend a meeting organised by the National Working Committee of the party to select a consensus candidate.

Saraki’s supporters under the aegis of Like Mind Senators boycotted the primaries citing irreconcilable differences with the NWC over the method of voting.

His supporters had requested that the secret ballot system be adopted for the election, a request they said the NWC turned down.

The party’s NWC however said the open ballot system would be adopted for the process, a situation which was not agreeable to the Like Minds Senators.

Saraki, who later spoke to journalists, said, “As result of the inability of the APC leadership to guarantee the Senators of like minds the rights of secret ballot system, we are not participating at the election and this we made clear to the national chairman of our party.

“Whatever they do in the name of consensus, for the senate presidency election, we are not part of it.

“Members of my group are still meeting to come out with further action. But for now, we are not part of the consensus arrangement.”

Members of the Like Minds were still holding a meeting as at the time of going to press at 12 midnight.

However, supporters of Senator Ahmed Lawan who converged at the International Conference Centre, venue of the elections with the active support of the NWC went ahead with the process.

When the National Secretary of the Party, Mala Buni, who was the presiding officer called for nominations, Senator Barnabas Gemade nominated Senator Ahmed Lawan his nomination was seconded by Senator Oluremi Tinubu.


http://africanspotlight.com/2015/06/06/photos-apc-leaders-conduct-mock-election-for-senate-president/

House election

The APC has 213 out of the 360 members of the House of Representatives. The meeting of its leadership with the members-elect started at 10am.

Those who signed the attendance register at the meeting were 183, while the total number of votes cast was 161.

Gbajabiamila emerged victorious by polling 154 votes to defeat his opponent, Yakubu Dogara, who got three votes.

Four votes were declared invalid by the returning officer, the APC National Vice -Chairman, North-East, Babachir Lawan .

But signs that the exercise would not be peaceful emerged when Dogara and 18 of his supporters walked out of the venue when it became apparent that the party was going ahead with the election despite their protest against it.

Dogara’s supporters had before the commencement of the day’s business distributed slips quoting the comments of President Muhammadu Buhari in which he promised to work with whoever emerged because he had no preferred candidate.

As they stepped into the hall and settled down for business, the party’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, explained the need for the party to approach Tuesday’s election of the National Assembly leaders as a united house.

His explanation, which was designed to educate members about the party’s reason for getting involved, did not go down well with Dogara’s supporters who shouted, “no”, “no” intermittently.

The party’s national chairman, in consultation with members of the party’s National Working Committee present, asked all the contenders to sign an undertaking that they would abide by the decision reached after the meeting.

It was at this point that Dogara and his group walked out of the hall.

http://www.punchng.com/news/nassembly-leadership-apc-peace-moves-flop/

Cc: Lalasticlala, Ishilove

The All Progressives Congress on Saturday failed to resolve the crisis in the party over the election of the eighth National Assembly leadership.

Some APC lawmakers-elect, at a meeting with the leaders of the party on Saturday, opposed the election of the House Minority Leader, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, as the party’s sole candidate for the speakership of the lower chamber.

For the Senate, it was expected that the APC’s senate presidential candidate would also emerge through an election, but as of 6pm on Saturday, two hours after the poll was scheduled to take place, no explanation came from the party’s leadership.

SUNDAY PUNCH learnt that the election was scheduled to hold at 4pm at the International Conference Centre, but it was rescheduled when supporters of Senator Bukola Saraki, one of the aspirants, requested that it should be shifted to 6pm.

However, at 6pm, the same group requested that the poll be moved to 8pm, a move which was said to have angered Senator Ahmed Lawan’s supporters, who were eager for the election.

But, eventually when the meeting started at about 10pm, the pro-Saraki Senator-elect boycotted it.

The APC leadership had initially scheduled separate meetings with senators-elect and their counterparts for the House for Thursday.

The meetings were, however, shifted to Saturday (yesterday) because of the Senate valedictory session which was held on Thursday.

The PUNCH had reported on Thursday that the meetings were aimed at picking candidates for the senate presidency and the speakership of the House as part of efforts to resolve the crisis over the party’s candidates for the positions.

The eighth National Assembly will convene on Tuesday

cramjones:
Even though I never supported GEJ when he came into power on his "I had no shoes" mantra, I never ever insulted him. I hoped that he would have success in governing Nigeria, even though I did not really see much leadership qualities when he served as an acting president. Nevertheless, I knew that Nigeria is bigger than party affiliations, so i supported and even prayed for his success.

Nigerians that voted for him where overwhelmingly happy that a man who came from the lowest ranks in the society will rise to be the number citizen of the country. I was happy too. However, when GEJ started saying this that did not make sense to we that thought rantionally and logically, we thought that it was just part of the no-one-is-perfect tag, however, after prolonged observance and monitoring, we realized that we were indeed dealing with someone who had no clue on what to do. Someone who played politics with the lives of Nigerians and someone who allowed his friends and cronies to loot the treasure dry. Wlhen someone has not clue he is clueless, when someone tells you that stealing is not corruption, the person is unintelligent or half schooled to know that the two terms are synonymous, when someone goes on to dance behind a womans booty, after boys were slaughtered, shows a fundamental problem.

The so called insults people have accused me of, are all statement of facts, and not insults. Even the international community echoed same. On the other hand I maintain that it is wrong to start calling a new president a dullard when you have not even allowed up to 100 days for him to prove himself. No one insulted GEJ in his first 300 days, because everyone was giving him a benefit of the doubt.

Please let us not undermine a man of goodwill. It is scarce to see a man like PMB in Nigeria. Let us give him all the necessary support and crucify him if he is taking Nigeria on a failure part after 100 days.

I rest my case!

-CramJones

In your own word...

Cram-jokes, you see your life ?

Hypocrite!

cramjones:
I apologize to all that were offended by the "quikie s*ex" joke. It is wrong and improper for me to have said that. I apologize to XPGEJ and his family if they are reading this. However, I stand by all my other statements. For they were statements of fact!

-CramJones

In your own words, read below...

Kai Bubu!

PedroJP:
U'll know u and ur Buhari are brainless and mumu when u two don't make naira equal dollar. U'll be confered chief in command of fools and dullards then

Buhari the brainless dullard.

Clerverly:
If you had 65 Senators as Claimed why not wait till Tuesday to test your popularity

Why the emergency Press conference on Monday?

Interesting moment.

As a patriotic Nigerian, I reserve my comment.

I pity the Baba One chance for the next four years...


Life na turn by turn. So, insult too na turn by turn.

Buhary, welcome to the world of Alhaji Lie Mohamed and his many online children.

@ SUBWAY101

Firefire:

AMIN! AMIN!! AMIN!!! LORUKO JESU..............


Now, edit all your insults.

handsomeclouds:
When will you guys learn? You had better faced the reality and stop living in d shadows of d ex-president! I won't advice you to dissipate your energy unwisely, baba shall be our president for at least four year if not eight (that's for baba alone not for APC).Deal with it!

yes, he will...

SUBWAY101:
[s][/s]

Jobless nonentity keep making noise about future. My present state is your prayer request, my future is certain and cool but your miserable life is messed up cos of curses from the innocent masses. Say amen to my prayers and stop skiping it. Eni to ba gba kobo lowo olo shelu ri larin emi ati iwo, aisan ati inira lo ma ba ku. Sha min

AMIN! AMIN!! AMIN!!! LORUKO JESU..............


Now, edit all your insults.

[size=18pt]You see those pathetic liars called APC [/size]

Dr. Goodluck Jonathan was accused for seeking support and visiting Chad.


Fellow Nigerians,

Please be the judge.


Why is Alhaji Lie Mohammed always biased since 1994 ?

SUBWAY101:
[s][/s]

[s] It is clear, anyone that collect kobo from these politicians ma fi owo yen wo aisan ni. Epe yen wa fun eni to be gba kobo lowo oshelu. Shey amin si adura yi ti okan e ba mo pe ogba kobo ri lowo oloshelu. Abo ro wipe mi o mo e ni? Ojo esin e ti shu, oma to ro. Wa rin ran wo, iwo ati elebi to nti kiri.[/s]

Look into your future young man and stop baseless accusation.

I have given you enough audience.

Goodnight!

[size=18pt]APC, you better fulfill all your 301 kangaroo promises or else...[/size]

najoke:
I piss on you

www.nairaland.com/attachments/2488597_fire_jpegf0e71c901d38d12f

I will cut that instrument u are using with blade

SUBWAY101:
[s][/s]

[s]You should try and change your pathetic life first, the money those politicians pay you cant be useful for your life. You are a f.ucking hypocrite and defender of looters, you surely have a share in the curse they receive as well, thats why your life is miserable. I have no pity for you. [/s]

Funny boy!

Gbogbo epe ti ose ko pada si ori, adabi ti nba gba owo lowo enikeni. Ma gbagbe ooo, "ADABI" Awa o je labe gesi Kankan. Ko ni ye gbogbo awon to gba owo lowo awon olo-selu.

You guys believe if you are expressing your view you must have been compromised ? I pity you.

If you call my present life miserable, I pity your future. - SMH

kay1one2:
Comments always predictable, lacking substance, irrational and biased!

Absolutely!

ROSSIKE:
[size=18pt]
Never knew Osinbajo had a house in Abuja[/size].

Great revelation....


How did Prof. Osubande made his wealth to acquire properties in Abuja? Time to investigate.

Clerverly:
Stop quoting me! You are not a patriotic Nigerian and you always talk out of point!

Please teach me, how do I become a patriotic Nigerian ?

I am ready to learn.

BlackTechnology:
Ask Lie Mohammed

Lie Mohammed, what do you have to say ?

Listen to the hypocrite ...


Blame-shifting can’t erase the fact that Jonathan has failed Nigerians – Lai Mohammed


Can we say the same of Buhari now ?

Clerverly:

Post wisely...

APC is FRAUD.

najoke:
[s]

Joke...

barcanista:
What stops him from sending the same details he gave to CCB to the press? Is it not his asset? Is CCB his accountant or property valuers? Isn't it clear that Buhari is hiding something? Didn't his Spokesman say (and I quote)

“President Muhammadu Buhari has declared his assets to the Code of Conduct Bureau as required by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. If anyone is interested in knowing details of his asset worth, such a person can avail himself or herself of the use of Freedom of Information Act to seek the information from the bureau.”

Buhari never intended to declare his asset again after winning the election.

The outcry from Nigerians made him to CHANGE his mind, too bad for kwroption fighter.


Can you imagine the Garba of a fool trying to play on Nigerians intelligence ?

It's a pity.

If e fall now, ee go dey shout attack from home or Nigerian witches etc.