₦airaland Forum

From most of d comments, obviously we are proud of Saheela's achievement. Not minding that she's a Muslim, covering up her hair/head and probably hail from d northern Nigeria.

We see this achievement as Nigeria's own. But what happens if she has done otherwise. Her religion would have maligned, probably labeled northern fulani, etc.

Lessons to learn..... Nigeria's diversity is a blessing in its disguise. We should be proud of those that make our country great and condemn those that done otherwise without resulting to their religion Faith, tribe nor ethnicity.

God Bless Nigeria.

kodded:
[s][/s]
#neverAgain will you use somebody slogan against him
Go and use ur yeye change
Okay ?

Dude....u forgot so soon that PDP has dumped "Transformation" slogan for "Change".

Taylor86:
buhari where are you? ur boys are going down, d clueless has woken up


















buhari sorry heard u are in coma in london...anyway wish u slow recovery

Hatred has blind folded u beyond reasonings.
Obviously, it could be repaired.....Psychiatric Hospital is next place before it's too late.

Whenever a suicide bomb goes up in Nigeria, d non Muslims, especially d southerners blame Islam for it.

Meanwhile, d most affected people are Muslims because they are d dominant of region where d incident happened.

Is it possible to be killing themselves in an attempt to islamize Nigeria? This question begs for objective answers.

opiaoku:
Apc is bokoharam

PDP is d founding father of boko haram

opiaoku:
Buhari is a terrorist

Jonathan is d sponsorer of d terrorist

cytellProperty:
You are mis-yarning. How can Buhari motivate them, when he is the chief sponsor of Boko Haram.
GEJ till 2019

Enough of these daylight lies......Go to court and prosecute him. Then truth will come to light.

PDP stop deceiving Nigerians.

To all our patriotic soldiers, war against BH is must to win.

With ur presence in d Sambisa Forest, we pray for ur safety & winning that victory that's long overdue.

The blood of ur colleagues sacrificed by those corrupted officers in NA shall m.ke victory for u.

You shall conquer d enemy and come back home alive.

RIP to d fallen heroes

God bless NA
God bless Nigeria

I dont believe d story

tommykiwi:
Buhari talk to ur boyz,I tot as U went there today to visit was thinking U as ur boyz to come down since they have postponed the Election...Please call them to ORDER!

Illogical comment.......FYI...there's different between Militancy and Insurgency.

Pls talk to bh on his behalf

My heart bleeds whenever I hear/read of IED explosion.

RIP to the dead including our fallen heroes, especially the victims of BH insurgency.

I fond it difficult to comprehend let alone believe that Buhari neither is behind d BH nor the northern people all in getting sympathy for a northern presidential candidate or as a religious tool.

Will a socie or tribe will be so daft by killing themselves,cw in mass in order to Winn sympathy from other region for a presidential candidate from its region.??



T

mkpakanaodogwu:
All na wash,must every little issue against muslim result to killing and destroying of life and properties,cant they tolerate,and we are asking where Boko Haram came from

Most Stupi.d comment so read in d century. You lack comprehension skill and as such couldn't understand d publication.

Tolerate what? Pseudo activity? I guess u r insane.

kay29000:
Please someone should give me a link where I can download it. When I tried the link put by the OP on my phone, I saw a blank page. When I tried it on my laptop, it was just playing, and I didn't see anywhere to download it. I need to download it and play for my parents and all my friends.

Firstly, On your Laptop, google "save from net".....download the driver and install it.

Secondly, open up the save from net after installation, copy the downloading link and paste it in save from net window.....click "download"
and there yo go.....

Just listened to it..........37mins of arguing election rigging "strategy"

engrtee:
NO BODY IS CRITICIZING THE NEWSPAPERS FOR SUCH CAMPAIGN.

BUT WHEN PDP DID THEIRS,WE STARTED STONING PUNCH AND AIT

Yes, nobody would because the statements quoted are undeniable from Mr. President.

Or you want to compare it with Death Wish Advertorial by PDP? Or Unsubstantiated documentary aired on AIT by PDP?

woodcook:
Is Amaechi no longer the governor of Rivers State? Left the job he was elected for and being paid for, only to show up in every APC rally.

Is GEJ no more the President?....Left his job he was elected for and being paid for only to be campaigning!

customized13:
Let him come and tell us what he has to offer, this particular election is too critical for any aspirant to avoid any form of debate.

Follow his campaign trail......your inquiry would be answered

slap1:
Lol
This man should just do us all a favour and step down. If you can't debate with the so-called 'clueless' GEJ, how do you intend to tackle the intellectually-tasking and complex demands of running a democratic country?

If he suspects any form of connivance, he should suggest that a more trusted body handle the debates. APC and co have been asking the PDP to forget the certificate issue and face real matters. Now the time to face real matters is upon us and they're looking for an escape route.

An escape route from GEJ trap?

tdayof:
Another allegation will soon come up meanwhile....

Lol.....laugh. PDP creating comedy since PEJ became president

OREMUSSANCTUS:
Why did muhammad hated Jewish so much , enslaved , killed them and raped their women ? He hated Jewish people so much that he made it part islam to hate Jewish. Muhammad said in his famous authentic hadith that the day of judgment will not come untill all the Jews are killed by muslims.
Recently, a Pakistani religious leader, Pirzada Muhammad Raza Saqib Mustafai, said: "When the Jews are wiped out ... the sun of peace [will] begin to rise on the entire world." The same preaching is routinely done not only by clerics, but by politicians -- in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and elsewhere. This is not just Ahmedinijad; it is at the heart of Islamic theology that world peace will be established only when all the Jews are wiped from the earth. But few people in Western media are alarmed by this kind of rhetoric or care to expose this dreadful dark side of Islam's obsession with Jew-hatred.
I do not believe that one has to be an authority on human behavior or group thinking to find out the obvious pathology in Islamic Jew-hatred. It is time for all of us to uncover and expose this atrocity against the Jewish people. We owe that to humanity and the truth.
No true Muslim can see that such hatred is unbecoming and unholy for a world religion to focus on and that the credibility of Islam is tarnished by such hatred. No Muslim is allowed to go far enough to self-analyze or ask why such hatred. Muslims defend Jew-hatred by claiming that Jews betrayed Muhammad and thus deserve of this kind of treatment. Even when I was a Muslim, I believed that the one-sided story against Jews by Islam was enough to justify all the killing, terror, lies, and propaganda by Islamic leaders against Jews. To the average Muslim, routinely cursing Jews in mosques feels normal and even holy!
After a lot of thinking, analysis, research, and writing, I discovered that Jew -atred in Islam is an essential foundation to the Islamic belief system that Muslims cannot seem to be able to rid themselves of. Jew-hatred masks an existential problem in Islam. Islam is terrified of the Jews, and the number-one enemy of Islam is the truth, which must be constantly covered at any cost. It does not matter how many Muslim men, women, and children die in the process of saving Islam's reputation. The number-one duty of Muslims is to protect the reputation of Islam and Mohammad. But why would a religion burden its followers like that? This is why:
When Mohammed embarked on his mission to spread Islam, his objective was to create a uniquely Arabian religion, one created by an Arab prophet, which reflected the Arabian values and culture. Yet to obtain legitimacy, he had to link it to the two previous Abrahamic religions, Judaism and Christianity. He expected the Jewish tribes who lived in Arabia to declare him their Messiah and thereby bring him more legitimacy with Arabs, especially with his own tribe in Mecca, the Quraish. Because his own tribe had rejected and ridiculed him, Mohammed needed the approval of the Jews, whom he called the people of the book. But the conversion of Jews to Islam was part of the scenario that Mohammed had to accomplish in order to prove to Meccans that they had made a mistake by rejecting him.
That was one of the reasons Mohammed chose to migrate to Medina, a town that had predominantly been settled by Jewish tribes and a few impoverished Arabs who lived around the Jews. The Jews allowed Mohammed to move in. At the beginning, the Koran of Mecca was full of appeals to the Jews, who were then described as "guidance and light" (5:44) and a "righteous" people (6:153-154), who "excelled the nations" (45:16). But when the Jews rejected the appeasement and refused to convert to Islam, Mohammed simply and completely flipped. The Quran changed from love to threats and then pure hatred, cursing, and commandments to kill Jews. Rejection by the Jews became an intolerable obsession with Mohammed.
Not only did the Jews reject him, but their prosperity made Mohammed extremely envious. The Jewish Arabian tribes earned their living from legitimate and successful business, but Mohammed earned his living and wealth through warfare -- by attacking Arab tribes, some of whom were from his own tribe -- and trade caravans, seizing their wealth and property. That did not look good for a man who claimed to be a prophet of God. The mere existence of the Jews made Mohammed look bad, which led Mohammed to unspeakable slaughter, beheading of 600 to 900 Jewish men of one tribe, and taking their women and children as slaves. Mohammed had the first pick of the prettiest woman as his sex slave. All of this senseless slaughter of the Jews was elaborately documented in Islamic books on the life of Mohammed -- not as something to be ashamed of, but as justified behavior against evil people
One does not have to be psychiatrist to see the obvious: that Mohammad was a tormented man after the massacre he orchestrated and forced his fighters to undertake to empower and to enrich himself and his religion. To reduce his torment, he needed everyone around him, as well as future generations, to participate in the genocide against the Jews, the only people whom he could not control. An enormous number of verses in the Koran encouraged Mohammed's fighters to fight, kill, and curse Muslim fighters who wanted to escape fighting and killing Jews. The Quran is full of promises of all kinds of pleasure in heaven to those who followed Mohammed's killing spree and curses and condemnation to those who chose to escape from fighting. Muslims were encouraged to feel no hesitation or guilt for the genocide because it was not they who did it, but rather "Allah's hand."
Mohammed never got over his anger, humiliation, and rejection by "the people of the book" and went to his grave tormented and obsessed that some Jews were still alive. On his deathbed, Mohammed entrusted Muslims to kill Jews wherever they found them, which made this a "holy commandment" that no Muslim can reject. Muslims who wrote sharia understood how Mohammed was extremely sensitive to criticism, and that is why criticizing Mohammed became the highest crime in Islam that will never be forgiven even if the offender repents. Mohammed's message on his deathbed was not for his followers to strive for holiness, peace, goodness, and to treat their neighbors as themselves, but rather a commandment for Muslims to continue the killing and the genocide against the Jews. Killing thus became a holy act of obedience to Mohammed and Allah himself.
Mohammed portrayed himself as a victim of Jews, and Muslims must avenge him until judgment day. With all Arab power, money, and influence around the world today, they still thrive at portraying themselves as victims. Sharia also codified into law the duty of every Muslim to defend Mohammed's honor and Islam with his own blood, and allowed the violation of many commandments if it is for the benefit of defending Islam and Mohammed. Thus, Muslims are carrying a huge burden, a holy burden, to defend Mohammed with their blood, and in doing so they are allowed to kill, lie, cheat, slander, and mislead

Obviously from your write up, you weren't a Muslim and you will never be one.
All your quotes here are full of lies including d Hadits.

You can't tarnish the image of Islam. Because those before you have tried it but didn't work.

Islam forbids killings irrespective of whom that may be. The history of Prophet Muhammad here is full of your own conjecture without an iota of truth.

Good job by our police.

However, we dont want to hear say hyu shot the guy in an attempt to escape from your custody. Or even escaped

Police be warned

Thumbs up to you.

Okupe should rather list 10 achievements of his principal.

I don't give a dam

Good.....it's a welcome development

Is he coming up for a political post soon?

I guess so because this is one of our usual way to introduce a new breed into politics.

blemon44:
this is all buhari's plans

Oh! Buhari forced Yuguda to clarify this as well.

PDP......stop blaming opposition on everything that happened to your party.


Very soon, FFK will complain that Buhari didn't allow him to spend lots of time with his family.

Nollywood artist?

GDP rebase.......

Welcome development.....


I think Maku's candidacy in Nasarawa might not be strong enough to contest against APC candidate in d state. So, PDP might have sort for a candidate that is viable than Maku.

Hence, politics is taking to credibility level gradually.
Kudos to APC for this challenge to the ruling PDP.

whyteone:
Just stumbled upon this on facebook.Could this be true?"By 1960, shortly after Nigeria's independence, the Prime Minister, Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, had directed the Principal of King's College, Lagos, Mr. P.H. Davies, to provide places, annually, for at least 15 boys from the North, whether or not they passed the requisite regular entrance examination."
--- Col. Ben Gbulie (rtd) in "Nigeria's Fivei Majors" p. 36, published first in 1981.
"In an attempt to catch up militarily with the South, the Northern politicians had thrown out all discretion. They had lowered standards of admission drastically, settling for the minimum. For as I recalled, all the Northerners in my intake had been trained at the Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot. And they had become officers after barely six months of military training, whereas those of us who had been sent to Sandhurst had had to do two long years to earn the Queen's Commission. The implications were quite clear - and most disturbing. Not only had these Northerners become commissioned officers before we were half-way through our first year at Sandhurst, they had all risen to the enviable rank of Captain before we could even appear at the sovereign's parade which served essentially as a prerequisite for our passing out as Second Lieutenants."
--- Col. Ben Gbulie (rtd) in "Nigeria's Five Majors, pages 12 - 13, Published 1981.
"By 1964 a group of young Nigerian officer-cadets, mostly Northerners, had been declared academically unfit and hence repatriated by the Canadian military authorities. These cadets were however pronounced commissioned by the Nigerian Federal Government no sooner than they had arrived at the Ikeja Airport. Consequently they had had to be absorbed into the Nigerian Army as commissioned officers, even though they had received no requisite military training."
----- Col Ben Gbulie (rtd) in "Nigeria's Five Majors" page 13, published 1981.
"Zak (Maimalari) had held the rank of Captain in 1960. But before my return from the United Kingdom in 1963, he had soared to the top rank of Brigadier. In other words, he had risen from Captain to Temporary/Major, to Substatntive/Major, to Temporary/Lieutenant-Colonel, to Substantive/Colonel and then to Brigadier, all within that short span of time. It was just scandalous"
----- Col. Ben Gbulie (rtd) in "Nigeria's Five Majors" page 13, published 1981

Very scandalous if found to be truth.

Meanwhile what did southern army boys do then?
Folded their arms and watching impunity going on against their future?

Here we are today.....at a cross road. If truely southerners dominated Nigerian Army then, hw come northerners over took them (scandalous) without raising flag

KwoiZabo:
I have spotted this the nation newspaper, It's an APC newspaper.

So also Punch for PDP

Blackchampion:
They re not popular faces shaa
.
1 man, 1 vote
.
#GEJ Nigerians know till 2019......

They are popular than you by far

Wisdomkosi:
We don't want people like them

Lol... But people like Alams, Fayotug, Ominirascal, Korooo are the "saints" in d PDP

jiggalo:
90% of Buhari supporters are illiterate moslems,
jihadis, sharia supporters/ reporters and retirement
over due mafia politicians. I can swear with my
oxford forged certificate that no well educated
man/woman from the northern part of this country
will ever support Buhari' s candidacy. in a party
that has closed to 50m members across the
country and 80% of then being youths wish am one
of them untill we were denied the opportune to
match the great Jonathan with youthful force.
Kwankwaso of kano state has all it takes to lead
these youthful match to Aso Rock, not to mention
Okorocha,El rufai or Ameachi. But selfish political
interest and Islamic agendas will not allow us think
straight and today some people want to blame
some Igbos for not joining the cues like fullani
cows, known fully well that we're a nation bigger
than a country with well civilized men and women.
I know many will like to disagree with me on this
or even choose not to believe me if I tell them now
that am one of the thousands Igbo APC supporters
who throw free drinks to neighbours because of
APC with the hope of a modern change under the
new age only for us to be surprised with the kind
of change in package without any considerations
for the youths, even Fashola or Ameachi was left
out for another old man as the vice candidate.
Believe me or not... JONATHAN is the only
presidential option for this 2015.

Another stupiidity from Jonathan's camp

damogul:
[b]The epitaph that will be left for the Presidential years of Goodluck Jonathan is this: HERE IS A PRESIDENT WHO DESTROYED PDP AND ALMOST DESTROYED NIGERIA.
by Festus Keyamo Jan 18, 2015
7.7K 595 1.8K

GMB Vs. GEJMuhammadu Buhari and President Goodluck Jonathan This is a season of hire-wired deceits, misinformation, campaign of calumny and spewing of outright falsehood and lies – all to hoodwink and deceive ordinary and gullible Nigerians for their votes.


Unfortunately, many of our elites do not want to speak up now because they do not want to be caught on the wrong side of any government in the next four years; they prefer to play safe, not wanting to be tarred with the brush of partisanship. But, I ask: what is wrong with partisanship in a country where you and your children have a huge stake? What is wrong in speaking up and standing up for what your conscience tells you is the right thing to do? What is wrong in being caught on the wrong side of the government in the next four years, if only you would be caught on the right side of posterity?

Except for a few class of persons like INEC officials, security agencies and those on the Bench, every other Nigerian has a duty - yes, a duty - to speak up now for our country, and to come down from that fence on which they are sitting regarding the 2015 general elections. Those elites who do not speak up now for fear of being branded partisan and losing face upon defeat are enemies of the people who are looking up to them for guidance.
Do not forget that I am from the Niger-Delta region and all my close friends and associates are the main supporters and aides of Mr. President. Two or three Governors who are either my former classmates or colleagues are the main backers of Mr. President. It is so easy, so convenient and so seemingly logical for me to get into that political mix and forget about the good of my country for personal gains. The disgusting message we hear all over the streets of that region every day at this time - promoted by the hirelings of the President – is that Goodluck Jonathan is “our son”, so we have no choice but to support him. In fact, I see some of my “brothers” from the Niger Delta region these days strutting all over the place, denigrating people from other regions. It is typical of what the Yorubas call “omo oju ori ola ri” (a person whose eyes have not seen wealth before).

But the question I ask those who tell me such nonsense and behave in such a manner is that, after the next four years, what is next for us? Is our entire future and that of our children dependent on a South-South President for the next four years?

Kindly note that in getting down from the fence and speaking up at this critical time, I do not mind if you speak up for Goodluck Jonathan. Yes, you have a right to do so as a Nigerian. But, as an elite, your stand must be known so that when the massacres continue because of cluelessness, when the unrestrained stealing of our public resources continue, when darkness continues to befall the nation because of lack of power, it is important we all remember those who betrayed their conscience and the people because of ethnicity and self-aggrandisement and for posterity to record it as such.

We have a President who has no single appetite to fight corruption – yes, none. Imagine a campaign that is dominated by the theme of corruption, yet the President has decided to appoint a person facing trial for money-laundering as his Director of Media and Publicity. If nobody would say it, I will say it because I am the one prosecuting the fellow in court and the case has been adjourned to February 23 and 24 for trial. Part of the lies told is that the fellow has been freed whereas some of the counts in the Charge were just struck out and the court held that he has a case to answer on some other counts. Yet nobody is asking the President these hard questions.

The President only mouths anti-corruption. The other day (December 23rd, 2014, I think) the President said he would like to erect a Hall of Shame for Nigerians who engage in corrupt and unwholesome activities that bring the country to disrepute. But he was the same person who brought a convicted criminal, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, out of the Hall of Shame to the Hall of Fame by misusing his power of Prerogative of Mercy when he granted pardon to this self-confessed ex-convict. Imagine the pain, the efforts and resources that go into securing a single conviction for corruption in this our clime. Yet, the President decided to spoil the party for anti-corruption campaigners. On top of that, he displayed corruption within corruption by selective pardon when the likes of Tarfa Balogun, Lucky Igbinedion and others who were convicted about the same period did not enjoy his Presidential pardon.

Yet nobody is asking these hard questions on the campaign trail. The funny thing is that, nearly six years into his tenure as President, Goodluck Jonathan said the other day that he is just coming up with a plan to tackle corruption!! Haba, Jona !

To add insult to injury, President Goodluck Jonathan decided to tackle the corruption of stealing of our resources in the high seas by empowering small-time crooks and criminals to police our waterways. This is because he has no idea as to how to revamp, re-organise and re-invigorate the Nigeria Navy to perform its constitutional duty. These days, it is an eyesore to see our military chiefs and officers kowtow to these empowered small-time crooks and criminals for appointment and promotions and other privileges. The disaster about this initiative of empowerment of crooks and criminals is that crude oil theft has never been so high, so rampant in the annals of this country than it is now. Why? Because the President has put a rat as a watchman over a morsel of fish. It is sad to say, but the President, by his actions, has shown no spine, no appetite, no nerve to fight corruption. He just continues to sink into an abyss of moral debauchery.

The other tragedy of this President is that, even as he is on the campaign trail, in the last one month, the omnipresent insurgents have attacked towns like Baga, Damaturu, Biu, Askira-Uba, Konduga, Marte and Gombe. Even as we speak, the Boko Haram insurgents are in total control of the whole of Borno State except Maiduguri, Monguno, Dikwa, Konduga and Biu. The insurgents are in total control of towns like Baga, Bama, Gwoza and Banki.

Before Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, Boko Haram was nothing but a rag-tag group of extremists living in enclaves like Sambisa, while our proud military boys patrolled the towns. Now, under Jonathan, the reverse is the case. Our military boys are now in enclaves while Boko Haram patrol our towns. Is it not shocking that insurgents have a free reign to enter cities, abduct young girls like in Chibok, burn houses like in Baga, slaughter people for hours like in Konduga, Gwoza etc, yet our military men are nowhere to be found and they do not even give hot pursuit to the retreating insurgents? What is really going on?

One obvious flaw is that our President has lost control of the military and the top hierarchy of the military is merely feeding fat on this unfortunate situation and the President seems to be totally helpless in the face of this.

The only response the President and his handlers can proffer is to hide this glaring and crass incompetence under political gymnastics; they blame the opposition on the one hand and in the same breath, they say it is a world-wide trend and Nigeria is just having its fair share of a global malaise. Is this true? As President, you are the Commander-In-Chief. If you have evidence against the opposition, just come out with it and arrest the ring-leaders. Do not cry like a baby as Commander-in-Chief. Deal with the situation. That is why you occupy that seat. Till date, no single evidence has been produced against any of the opposition leaders linking them with the insurgency. Rather, what we see is a President who is supposedly bent on fighting insurgency but who is wining and dining with someone who has been directly linked with sponsoring the insurgents and even traveling with such a person to Chad at a time when the State Security Services officially invited that person to answer questions relating to the insurgency.

Another calamity and embarrassment is that our President, his Service Chiefs and security advisers were all led into wasting public funds by entering into a phantom cease-fire deal with fake Boko Haram leaders that left them with bloodied noses. Not to also mention the short-lived public celebration of the supposed killing of the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, by the President and his security team, only for the outlaw to appear in subsequent videos posted online, taunting the Nigerian government. Any four more years of a Jonathan Presidency can only lead to more carnage by the insurgents. He just does not have the requisite capacity to tackle this problem of insecurity. The truth must be told.

Yet you hear the President say that the nation will appreciate him better after he has left office. I am sorry, but we have seen enough bloodshed and incompetence in the last six years to know there is nothing more to expect the next four years and we have seen enough to do an assessment right now and not in the future.

In all his campaign tours, the President is already sounding like a broken record. He says he has made the rails to function again. He mentioned this so much that you imagine that he was primarily elected to revive a few train lines. It sounds very funny when you hear such things, whereas the primary duty of government is the protection of lives and properties. If that primary duty fails, then the government has failed. It is like an undergraduate hoping to be promoted to the next level by barely scraping through the ‘electives’ and failing the core courses. It will never happen. So, is the President providing train coaches to be transporting the dead bodies from the North to the South? Are the trains to be occupied by living human beings or dead human beings?

Make no mistake about it, like the President always says, it is true that we have a rise of terrorism around the world. But, we have all seen how governments around the world respond quickly and decisively to any attempt for terror to rear its ugly head within their society and how they quickly crush it. We saw it happen in the United States after 9/11; we saw it happen in Britain after the July 7, 2005 bus bombing; in the last few days, we have seen it happen in France and in Belgium. In all these cases, all attempts were nipped in the bud. Even, here in Nigeria, previous governments have nipped insurgency in the bud. The ONLY government that has allowed it to fester, germinate and grow into a full-blown war leading to a successful secession of some parts of the country is that of President Goodluck Jonathan. It is so bad that hardly a day passes by without reports of one insurgent activity or the other leading to loss of lives and limbs.

The President is also quick to mention that his administration has made the Nigerian economy the number one in Africa. He forgot to mention two things, though; one, that some of the major sectors of the Nigerian economy, that is, the telecom sector, financial services and the Nollywood industry that were taken into account to re-base the economy were sectors not created or grown by his government. Secondly, he forgot to mention that the so-called re-basing has no impact at all on the ordinary Nigerian as the 2014 World Bank Survey still shows that Nigeria is ranked third among world top five poorest countries with sixty-one percent (61%) of its citizens living below $1.25 dollar per day. No government can boast of any economic growth or theory that does not have a direct impact on the lives of its ordinary citizens. It is like a father coming home to announce and jubilate about a pay rise and promotion at workplace, yet the wife and children cannot eat or live better many months later.

The Nigerian people have tolerated too much and taken too much battering from the PDP-led Federal Government since 1999. Under the Jonathan Government, the situation in the country has sunk to an all-time low, except for the few benefitting directly from the government. They are blind to criticism and blind to healthy opposition. They hurl abuses at anyone who dares to point out these acts of maladministration. In saner societies, the President will not be allowed to campaign in many parts of the country. The people will rise against him and chase his convoy away.

The clear alternative to this monumental mess is the person of General Muhammadu Buhari. Let us be clear that Buhari does not present the total package Nigerians want at this time. He is human, he is not perfect. But at this point in our history, at this time, at this moment, he presents the only viable option and avenue for the people to vent their frustrations and anger against an inept and clueless Federal Government. He represents the rallying point for the frustrated and teeming masses of our people. He reminds me of MKO Abiola (with some of his imperfections) who became the rallying point in the struggle against military rule.

That is the change we are talking about. It is not a change from imperfection to perfection. It is a change from hopelessness and cluelessness to some hope and to some expectations.

All the personal attacks on the person of Buhari in the last few weeks have only convinced me that he is the best available option at this time. Anyone on the weaker side in any argument always resorts to personal abuses and attacks. Have you noticed that on corruption, the only accusation against Buhari is that, he was too high-handed in fighting corruption in the past? In other words, nobody can/has accused him of lacking the courage, zeal and will to fight corruption. On the other hand, the President eats, sleeps and wakes up with corruption. In one of his famous interviews, he did not even see stealing as corruption. That is why he does not see the point why he should not appoint a person standing trial for corruption as his Director of Media and Publicity. He just does not care.

So, Nigerians, we must decide what we want. When Buhari fought corruption and was supposedly high-handed, he was ruling with Decrees. Now, he has the Constitution, the National Assembly, and the Judiciary without ouster clauses to guide him. It is therefore only an that will believe the propaganda that he would throw everyone suspected of corruption into jail. I feel so sorry at times for the gullible masses of this country who fall for such cheap propaganda. But it is his type of appetite and revulsion against corruption that we so dearly need at this time.

You may say whatever you like about Buhari, but in terms of the character, the steel, the competence to lead the nation out of this period of insurgency, nobody can compare a Goodluck Jonathan to a General Buhari. Just imagine the Service Chiefs (who were probably in secondary school when Buhari and others fought the Civil War) sitting in front of Buhari to brief him about the situation in the North East, and attempting to mislead him about movements of artillery, brigades or troops and, the strategy against the enemy!

The attack on Buhari’s certificate is most unfortunate. Only fools can be deceived that a sworn affidavit in place of a certificate that you cannot readily produce is not sufficient for certain purposes. What is important is that the school(s) and dates are mentioned in such affidavits which can be subject to verification. But unfortunately the President’s team has carried on as if leadership is a function of academic degrees and qualifications. This is so sad. Leadership is a divine quality, almost always bestowed at infancy so much so that even in primary schools, we see traits of leadership amongst pupils. If it were not so, then there would be no need for elections. We should just look for the most qualified professor in our Ivory Towers and make him President because that would be the best material for President.

Besides, what moral right has Jonathan got to discuss Buhari’s certificate when I have since informed him that his Comptroller-General of Customs, Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko forged all his certificates, yet the President has not even ordered a simple investigation into the matter. He has turned a willful blind eye to the issue.

The orchestration of the age of Buhari is just another mischief, symptomatic of the weaker side the President’s team find themselves in the argument. Agility and strength and good health is not exactly a function of age. Yar’Adua did not die in power because he was an old man. Abacha did not die in power because he was an old man. Obasanjo ruled until he was seventy (70) years and it is the same set of PDP big wigs that are now criticizing the age of Buhari that were promoting and supporting the third-term bid of Obasanjo that would have taken him to, perhaps, seventy-eight (78) years as President. Today, Obasanjo still jumps about at nearly eighty (80) years or perhaps more. Professor Wole Soyinka, at over eighty (80) years, still travels everywhere, delivering lectures.

The relevant question here is that, is the age more important than the character or the character more important than the age? For those who are Christians, remember that the Bible says in Proverbs 16:31 that grey-headedness is a crown of beauty if found in the ways of righteousness. It is idiotic to deride an elderly person who is still agile and upright in character, instead of us praying that we live up to that age and we are blessed with such strength at such an age. During the Second Republic, the South-West and South-East massively voted for Awolowo and Azikiwe respectively who were both over seventy (70) years old, yet nobody raised an eyebrow.

Finally, this is not the time to adopt the herd mentality by joining the so-called “winning train” because the ruling party is always expected to rig elections in its favour. What we are witnessing with the large followership of Buhari is a revolution, a mass movement, a display of anger by the people against Jonathan and his government. This is a time fos, the elites to rise up and speak truth to power, regardose ox is gored. We can halt the slide to Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, etc by our simple votes. We must vote out incompetence, cluelessness and corruption.

The epitaph that will be left for the Presidential years of Goodluck Jonathan is this: HERE IS A PRESIDENT WHO DESTROYED PDP AND ALMOST DESTROYED NIGERIA.

I have purged my conscience. Now, I can sleep.

FESTUS KEYAMO, ESQ.[/b]

Another Gani Faweinmi....

May God bless you for being objective.

U make my day