₦airaland Forum

The boy/man does not deserve any pity for his detention. He is a terrorist in the making. Gove Sule Lamido has the right to complain when somebody rains curses on him. The law should have its full course.

cap28:
People like you use religion as a form of escape - i know your type, always pretending to be holier than thou, but if i could see into your heart it would be full of evil.

70% of nigeria's population live on the equivalent of $1 a day and you're bragging to me that you are not one of them - so?

Goodluck Jonathan was not elected to that position - it was placed in his lap by his fellow partner in crime Obasanjo - so stop lying to yourself and bringing God into this, these people are very far away from God in their actions and thoughts.

Sycophants, beggars and religious fanatics like you will one day have to account for all the atrocities you have committed against the people of nigeria. Look at Tunisia and Egypt - the people got sick and tired of being ruled over by a bunch of satanic criminals and they rose up - very soon the revolution will spread to nigeria, so keep deceiving yourself, your day of reckoning is at hand.

Oh! It was placed in his lap!! I can see how good your own written english is. Why don't you go and learn good written english before you condemned others.

Back to the topic, I work for every penny that I spend. I am not a politician nor a frustrated being like you who blame people over every of his misfortune. Why don't you start the revolution from your father's house? Or is your father a saint?

cap28:
You and your ilk are the reason nigeria is a laughing stock before the entire world, your failure to hold your public officials to account has condemned you to being ruled by these bunch of illiterate kleptocrats.

Do you not understand that as first lady her duty is to project a positive image of nigerians abroad, does it make sense for a woman who can not read or speak her country's official language properly to keep appearing in public making a fool of herself and her nation in the name of public speaking ?

I can see you are one of those brainwashed religious fanatics who can't think straight without mentioning God in every sentence, if you had any common sense you would ask yourself whether God ordained that you should be living under one of the most oppressive and brutal kleptocratic regimes in the world. Did God say you should also be living on $1 a day?
Give me a break.

Hmm
I will continue to mention God because I know there is a God. For your information, He has been very good to me. Hence, I will always appreciate His doings in the life of people. No apology at all. I have more than common sense. I am not living on a $ per day. What I want you to understand is that God has decided to chose Mrs Jonathan over your mother who can speak queen's english as Nigerian's first lady. There is nothing you and your generation now and yet unborn who can never smell Aso rock will do about it. You can chose to jump into the ocean if you are tired of listening to her or you relocate to Niger or Benin republic.

manny4life:
Who gives a hoot abt being first lady or not because we know she is one and the deference has been given to her, and no one is fighting over that position with here unless GEJ has other wives if not she will remain No. 1. What we are saying is, she needs to be up to par with her speech delivery because it's plain awful. It's your kind of mentality that has held Nigeria backward, Nigeria's official language is ENGLISH, and until that has changed, you need to learn English. She doesn't have to be educated with a Ph.D like her husband, and that's one wrong mentality we often have as Nigerians; we need to be educated with high degrees to speak well. That is plain BS; I have said this before, English is an Art and you have to learn an art, practice on it before you master it. The only way you learn is if you "actively engage" in that process.

How has your own kind of mentality that does not have respect for its leaders move you forward? You should know that speaking english eloquently is not a criterion for becoming the president of the FRN or the first lady. If it were to be so, maybe Prof Wole Soyinka or your mother who speaks english better than the queen will be the president and first lady respectively of Nigeria.

@ Poster:
Whether you like it or not She is Nigerian's first lady and not that she is going to be. There is nothing anybody in this forum can do about it. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our sight. Out of the millions of Nigerian women who can speak English even better than the queen of England, God in His infinite wisdom decided to make her our first lady. I thank God for her life. She is like a mother to Nigerians. That she cannot read, write or speak good English does not make a her less a person to occupy that post. Let us always remember that

Ribadu just won the ACN presidential ticket. Now the battle begins between ACN and PDP.

GEJ's Speech:

I am here with Arc. Nnamadi Sambo, the Vice_President of this country. Certain things changed the equation. I came into Abuja to work with late President Yar`Adua (but) along the line Allah…you know the best. Please join me to observe one minute of silence because today, I would have followed him….May his soul rest in peace.
Well, we were given five minutes but it is always difficult to limit a political speech to five minutes but the new PDP is a disciplined party so I will try as much as I can to limit myself to the five minutes given to me.
Let me greet all of you, the delegates for coming today for this great convention to elect a person suitable to be the presidential flag bearer of our great party. You would agree with me that our nation is on the threshold of history and only 1st October last year, we celebrated the golden jubilee of our nation. This 2010 is the first step towards marching the 100 years when we will celebrate the centenary and everybody all over the world is looking towards Nigeria to make significant changes, to change the country, to transform the country and that can only be done by a good leadership.
And everybody even in other political parties believe that PDP is the party to set the agenda for the transformation of this country, for the development of this country and that is why they get involved in our primaries that ordinarily is supposed to be the exclusive preserve of the PDP. So, the PDP delegates tonight must vote one person that can bring up that transformation of our country. As we traverse this country from Bayelsa to Borno, from Cross River State to Katsina, you will see a lot of people that are poor that have no food to eat, you will see a lot of young men and women that need education, you see the challenges of technology and to develop a strong economy that will handle this, you need somebody as an agent of transformation. I Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan is that agent that can bring the transformation that we need, that will start the first rung of the ladder that will lead Nigeria to greatness. I will not bore you because of the time limit. I have been here as a substantive President working with a very competent Vice_President for just eight months and within these eight months, we have set an agenda, that you all can testify. Let me hint at just few.
Take the energy sector. Before Before this time Nigerians sleep at the filling stations to buy fuel. (applause) before this time, if you go to Borno, you buy fuel at different price, you go to Lagos you buy at different price, you go to Aba different price, now nobody sleeps in any filling station. The price of fuel is uniform across the country. You go to the power sector, it is a major challenge and we are handling it. And those of you who listened to our power sector road map that we want to involve the private sector. This is a reform that was on ground before we took over, we did not initiate it but we now said we must implement it and we promised Nigerians that we will implement it to the letter and even now there are significant improvements.
On education, you are all aware of the presidential special meeting that I initiated. We resolved a number of issues, we discussed a number of issues, a special technical committee was inaugurated and they are working on the details. We have also strengthened the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education.
There is a plan and programme of government that every state must get a federal university. I did not initiate it, but so far it has not been implemented. We realize that so many States especially from the northern parts of this country are yet to get and I felt that is injustice. And that is why this administration decided to establish nine new universities to make sure that we reduce the number of States yet to get universities and by God’s grace in the next two years every state must get a small model federal university. We must make sure that we bring development to everybody. In some states there are two degree awarding institutions while some States don’t even have one. It is injustice and we are set to correct every wrong thing that have been going wrong. We have worked out the resources, it is not from the line budget and the universities will take off.
The health sector, we are working on setting up six zonal center of excellence (hospitals) working with the private sector. It is not going to be funded by the Federal Government. The Federal Government is only going to facilitate it, we are going to work with the diaspora people and already we are dialoging. Nigerians have a lot of expertise in medicine, be it medical doctors, pharmacists, technologists, working in Europe, America and the rest of the world and every day we lose so much money in capital flight going to other countries to treat ailments that we can easily treat, that we have the competence to treat, but just because most of our experts are outside the country or the required equipment are not available and that must stop.
Within the past eight months that we have been on board, we have set giant strides that will tell Nigerians that in 24 months the results will be very obvious.
The rail sector, we are looking at it, the aviation sector you know that we have worked hard and now at every airport in Nigeria is covered by the radar system. In 2008 or so an aircraft disappeared around Calabar in Cross River State and there were so many rumours. We couldn’t know what happened to that aircraft. That thing is now a thing of the past, it will no longer happen in this country.
We don’t pray for aviation accident, but wehre it happens the record should be clear because every part of this country has been covered by the radar system. And we have earned the American Civil Aviation Authority Category One and that means that Nigerian airports are safe for operation.
On Niger Delta, a number of issues were raised by some other contributors, members of this party, those who want to be the President just as I want you to vote for me, but I will not join issues (applause). I will not join issues becaue I believe that Nigerians and especially all the delegates know all of us. They know our history, they know our competences, and they will select whosoever they like. But one thing that you can also appreciate that even the challenges in the Niger Delta, if we had not addressed them, the oil price and the production would not have reached the maximum.
Everybody knows, so what are we telling Nigerians? The production dropped to less than one third, but now we can produce more than the OPEC quota. What caused it, and you are saying that there is no security in the Niger Delta? (Applause)
Let me assure Nigerian jobs that we are going to create jobs, we are going to create employment, there are funds made available for the industries to take off, we must revolutionise agriculture to ensure that employment generation is a major event that we must take on.
I will give this country a strong, strong leadership to transform us, to be a great nation in the nearest future. Dear delegates, I thank all of you for your patience, I thank all of you for listening to me and assure you that Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and Arc. Nnamadi Sambo will never, never, let you down. Thank you all.

SPEECH TO PDP DELEGATES AT THE PDP DELEGATE CONVENTION, ABUJA, JANUARY 13, 2011

Atiku's speech:

I welcome all of you to this historic gathering of our party’s delegates to elect a candidate to contest the Presidential election in April. At great risks to yourselves you have come from far and near. You have come because of an idea, an idea so powerful that it breaks down walls and frightens those who like to impose their will on others.
You have come because you believe in democracy, in freedom and in the rule of law. I also believe that you have come because you believe in the truth, integrity, fairness and equity, and that the unity, stability and development of this country are paramount.


You have been called upon to make a critical decision that would save the country and hasten its progress. Our great party, the PDP, has an opportunity to once more produce the President of this county in April. But, more importantly, it has an opportunity to provide real, visionary, focused and people-oriented leadership to this country. How you vote at this convention will determine not only whether we will win that general election but also whether we give Nigerians a leader who understands the challenges they face and has a plan to address them, or someone who simply thinks that being president is an end in itself. Your votes will determine whether the world will continue to ignore and ridicule this country or begin to take us seriously in global affairs. I believe that you have come because you believe that agreements among individuals and groups must be kept if order and peace are to reign and in order to avoid chaos and lawlessness, and the might-is-right syndrome.


I would like you to vote for me to be the candidate of this great party in the upcoming presidential election. At the risk of sounding immodest, I declare that I am more trustworthy, experienced, and prepared for the onerous task of leadership than my opponents. I am a party builder. I have made great sacrifices for our party and for our nation. I have demonstrated my love for my country many times. And if you believe that the constitution of our party is supreme and that we must obey our rules and regulations, then there is no better person than me to fly our party’s flag in the April election. Vote for me because it is the right thing to do.


I am the candidate that you can trust. Anyone who cannot be trusted to stand by his word should not be entrusted with the leadership of this country. Membership in any association or organization is a privilege and it usually requires members to abide by the rules and regulations of that organization. If rules can be thrown away by just anyone who feels that he is powerful enough to do so, then it is an invitation to lawlessness and anarchy. Nobody wants that. The founders of this party, in their wisdom, devised rules for the rotation of power between North and South in response to cries of marginalization and domination. We wanted peace and justice to reign. And we put it in our Constitution (Section 7.2.c), and we all know what a Constitution means. That provision has not been altered. In 2002, an expanded caucus of our great party met and reaffirmed that policy. Here are the minutes of that meeting. My main opponent was at that meeting and voted in favour of that resolution. He signed as no. 35 on the list. Today he pretends that that meeting never took place and that the resolution never happened. Yet he would not summon a meeting of our party to discuss that issue and if deemed appropriate jettison it. In fact on October 27, 2010, he publicly declared that zoning does not exist in our party. Talk about throwing away the ladder that got you up there! That is not the kind of person you would entrust the fate of this country. Our word must be our bond. But my main opponent believes in doing things simply because it is convenient. He does not seem to care if the country is thrown into chaos and anarchy as long as he remains in power. This is dangerous.


The vehicles for democratic governance are political parties. They must be built and nurtured in order to provide the anchor and direction for democratic governance to flourish. In terms of party building, there is really no basis for comparing me with my opponents. Rather than help build and strengthen our party, my main opponent is destroying the great party we all struggled to build. At the risk of sounding immodest I can say that there are not many people alive today who have contributed more than me to building the PDP in terms of mobilizing resources for it, setting up its structures in various parts of the country, expanding the party’s reach and helping members to resolve disputes. But under the watch of my main opponent our party has actually been shrinking. Under President Obasanjo many party members, including me, were driven out of the party; and now many members have been leaving voluntarily to join other parties, including members a Minister. We must arrest this ugly trend if we do not want electoral defeat in April. And I am the one who can lead this party to victory.


One of the qualities that I want you to consider today is experience. I want to remind you that experience counts. I have run successful businesses, employing thousands of Nigerians. I was Vice President in an activist government in which I played a number of critical roles. I largely assembled the economic team, pursued the privatization programme of the government and gave direction to the National Economic Council. I vigorously pursued reforms within the limits of the responsibilities assigned to me as Vice President. I played an important role in the establishment of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and, in particular, sourced funds within government to enable it to commence operations. And it was my recommendation, after a trip to Brazil, which led to the enactment of the Public Procurement Act, another initiative to reduce the pervasive corruption in our public life. While we made some mistakes as a government, there is no doubt that we made progress, including macro-economic stability, the reduction of our external debt burden, the reduction of the government’s overbearing influence in the economy as well as the restoration of some confidence and credibility to the country.


But after eight months in office, the current leadership cannot point to one concrete achievement or even one key problem that he has made any appreciable effort in solving. Rather our country is more divided than it was when he came to office; our excess crude account has been virtually wiped out – from about $20 billion to a mere $3million; our external debt has been rising dangerously at a time that world oil prices have remained very high; our physical infrastructure have collapsed; insecurity across the country has worsened. Even the Niger Delta amnesty programme which he inherited from the late President Yar’Adua, has been hopelessly mismanaged, with the militants going back to the creeks to wage war on the nation. We cannot afford to continue to tolerate this level of incompetence and indifference. In critical situations there seems to be no one in charge. This leadership appears clueless on virtually every critical issue that should call for decisive action. My dear delegates, please ask him what exactly he stands for. What is his vision for the country? Please ask him. I would be surprised if you get a coherent response.


My dear delegates, what Nigeria needs now is someone who is prepared to lead. I have demonstrated over the last few years that I am ready and prepared to govern this country from day one. Leadership is a serious responsibility, which is why I have a clear programme of what to do and how to do it. That programme, the Atiku Policy Document, was put together by a team of experts drawn from various sectors of our society under my leadership. My Policy Document has five key priorities as detailed in the document. The key areas are:


i. Employment Generation and Wealth Creation


ii. Power Generation and Infrastructural Development


iii. Security, Good Governance and War Against Corruption


iv. Education, Health and Social Services, and


v. The Niger Delta


The details are outlined in the Policy Document.


The Presidency of this great country should be occupied by someone who is exposed, have wide contacts here and abroad, someone who is not provincial in thought and action. I have always put Nigeria first before my personal interests and ambitions. I am and able to easily assemble the best and brightest minds in the country to tackle any challenge, be it in private business or in public life.


My dear friends, in the pursuit of national unity, peace and stability I made enormous sacrifices for the sustenance of our democracy. At the SDP convention in 1993, I stepped down to enable Chief Moshood Abiola to emerge as the party’s presidential candidate. In 2003, I resisted the urge to contest the PDP presidential primary even though I could easily have won it. And when President Obasanjo wanted to subvert our country’s Constitution and the PDP’s zoning policy and run for a third term in office, we put everything on the line to lead the struggle against it. The success of that struggle is what made it possible for us to assemble here today to elect a candidate for our party in this year’s Presidential election. Without that struggle which I was privileged to lead, there would not be elections in this country this year or next. My opponent heavily supported third term. I fought against it; the Nigerian people fought against it, and the Nigerian people won. Who would you rather vote for: someone who supported the third term project or someone who put his life on the line so that our country can be free from tyranny and arbitrariness?


I have often been asked by concerned individuals why I have not given up on Nigeria after all the trials and tribulations that I have gone through. My answer is and has always been that Nigeria is worth all the trouble. I have a stake in this country. My family is here; my businesses are here; my employees – thousands of them and their families - are here; and Nigerians are here. Also Africa and the world need Nigeria to get it right. This country has been very good to me considering how far I have come in spite of my humble beginnings. It is time to give back. It is time to make good things happen.


Dear delegates, these are dangerous times; these are challenging times. We are indeed in a time of crises, a time of national emergencies. We need solid hands, firm and tested hands; we need hands that have managed things successfully. This country must be put in secure hands, not uncertain hands, not shaky and inexperienced hands. You cannot entrust the fate of 150 million Nigerians in the hands of someone who has demonstrated that he cannot get any problem right – the economy, our unity, terrorism, even the Niger Delta. You cannot entrust the security of the Niger Delta and indeed the entire Gulf of Guinea, so vital to our economy and the world economy, to a man who has demonstrated utter lack of capacity to focus on even the simplest of our problems. You cannot entrust the fate of millions of Nigerians in the hands of someone who fumbles at every opportunity. Obviously you can become a President by accident or good fortune. But you do not govern a country by accident or luck. Governing a country requires a plan and its courageous execution. It requires the capacity and willingness to assembly the best and brightest people to help you get things done. The last eight months have clearly demonstrated that he does not have what it takes to lead this country. It is time for us to move beyond this luck thing. It is time for serious people to take over the affairs of this country. The world is changing and we must change with it.

My dear delegates, your votes will make that happen. When you vote, forget all the threats and intimidation. Vote your conscience. Vote for progress. Vote for development. Vote for the peace, unity and stability of this country. Vote for me and together we shall make good things happen for our people and our country.


Thank you and God bless Nigeria.

SPEECH BY ATIKU ABUBAKAR, GCON, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AND PRESIDENTIAL ASPIRANT, AT THE SPECIAL CONVENTION OF THE PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY (PDP) AT THE EAGLE SQUARE, ABUJA
THURSDAY, 13 JANUARY, 2011

blacksta:
The SSS are after me after i yab GEJ on his FB page - Please if you dont hear from mw again - just know that GEJ don send me go kirikri or Alagbon.

Long live Nigeria , Long Live Lootocracy and Kleptocracy.

You will rotten in any of those centres you mentioned for yabing your president and you are calling it constructive criticism. How often do you yab your father like that in the name of constructive criticism? Ewu!

My President

Big B1, you are a slowpoke to think that because GEJ is quite, he is weak and dumb. Sit your head down and think of all GEJ has done since he became president, you will know that he is not weak and dumb.

hmmmmmmmmm. God have mercy on us (Amen)

No comment for now