₦airaland Forum

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Chuks Okocha and Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja 

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Organisation has dismissed the claim by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that its presidential candidate, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, had shied away from the presidential debate, preparatory to the elections in less than two weeks.

Despite the denial, the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation continued to badger Buhari on Sunday into taking up the challenge, stating with confidence that a presidential debate would afford its candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, a platform to showcase his achievements in office.

The controversy over the presidential debate stemmed from APC’s refusal to participate in the debate organised by the Nigerian Elections Debate Group (NEDG) in conjunction with the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), with the opposition party accusing the organisers of bias and a hidden agenda.

However, two days after APC pulled out of the NEDG/BON-organised presidential debate, the party’s campaign organisation accepted in principle to participate in a debate organised by the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), ARISE Television and Channels Television.

PDP also formally accepted in writing to participate in the NPAN/Arise/Channels TV presidential debate, which is scheduled to take place at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja tomorrow.

In a statement on Sunday by the APC campaign spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, the party said its candidate would not shy away from explaining his policy plank on how to rebuild Nigeria, assuring the public that Buhari will make himself available for a debate and scrutiny like he had done in previous elections.

It added that Buhari would not hesitate to explore any opportunity to explain how he plans to rescue Nigeria from the abyss of insecurity, comatose economy, decaying infrastructure, massive unemployment and the poor public health situation into which the corrupt regime of the incumbent president has thrown it.

“What is the hullabaloo about Buhari not attending a debate organised by elements that have shown an unhidden bias towards his person, family, career and political interest?” Shehu queried.

“It is on record that the man (Buhari) had participated in previous presidential debates in 2007 and 2011, which PDP candidates did not attend.

“The APC and General Buhari have received several media invitations from different organisations and the party is still vetting the ones to attend due to time constraint and the motive of the organisers,” he said.

Taking a jab at Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, the spokesman of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Shehu dismissed the impression created by him that the boycott by Buhari of the BON-organised debate amounted to “shielding Buhari from an intellectual discourse” as the ranting of a man with deficit communications acumen and mastery of simple logic.

“The interpretation by the spokesman of the PDP campaign is a huge lie. Nigerians know Buhari as a man of high integrity and one that would not shy away from public scrutiny.

“He is the type that would declare his assets publicly, a no-go area for the sitting president who once said, ‘I don’t give a damn’ when challenged to do so in the past.

“Buhari has been to almost 32 states to explain his plans for the revival and resuscitation of our nation, and his endearing utterances have been aired to Nigerians who now support his cause en masse, unlike those who are losing party loyalists by the second,” Shehu stressed.

Despite APC’s statement, the PDP campaign team continued to challenge Buhari to a debate, stressing that it would go a long way in influencing undecided voters based on the arguments of candidates at the debate.

Fani-Kayode, who made the statement when he was confronted by journalists in Abuja yesterday, expressed confidence that while Jonathan would be speaking on his stewardship and the programmes he would unfold with a renewed mandate, Buhari, should he have a change of heart, would only be making empty promises.

He pointed out that a majority of Nigerians had already made up their minds to vote for Jonathan because “they have seen the efforts of this government and what has been going on for the last four years”.

According to him, “But for those that are yet to decide and perhaps for those who are leaning towards Buhari, if we have a live debate and everybody is allowed to speak his or her mind freely and fairly, I assure you that by the end of that exercise, General Buhari will be exposed for what he is and President Jonathan will be able to give the Nigerian people a glimpse of what he has to offer and also a good account of his record for the last four years.

“That is why the other side is running away. So I think at the end of the exercise, after such a debate, whether APC-organised or whether organised by anybody else, President Jonathan will come out in flying colours while General Buhari will come out a very unhappy man.”

He reiterated his offer from the day before, calling on the APC to “organise the debate, fill the panel with friends, set the questions, give copies of the questions to their candidate before the debate and even prepare answers for him.
“They can do all that and not only will we still attend but we will also floor them. We will make any concession in order to have the opportunity to debate with Buhari and show the Nigerian people how empty and shallow he (Buhari) really is.”
He continued: “We have stated our position loud and clear that our candidate is prepared to participate in any debate organised by anybody at anytime and anywhere in this country provided it is live and provided we have the opportunity to speak our mind in a free and fair manner.

“It is the other side that is running away from this challenge. One wonders why. We have absolute confidence in the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), and indeed, in anybody else to organise the debate.

“As a matter of fact, let me take this opportunity to throw the challenge to the APC and General Buhari: if it will make him feel more comfortable, let them organise the debate; let it be an APC-organised debate; let them have an APC panel; let them have questions that they will show their candidate even before we get there; we do not need to see the questions; let them give their candidate a preview of the questions; they can even have a prepared answer for their candidate to read if he finds it difficult to articulate his views and positions. We are prepared for all that.

“Let them have all those advantages and tell us about what they are going to do. As long as it is a live debate, we will be prepared to go even to that debate; and even at that point, under those circumstances, we would floor General Buhari and the president will do an admirable job by letting the Nigerian people know precisely what he stands for and he will also expose General Buhari for what he is.

“So whatever the circumstances, we are rearing to go. The challenge has been put to them and we are waiting for them to respond. Anywhere, anytime in this country, we are prepared to participate. It is the other side that is running away.”










http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/buhari-not-dodging-says-campaign-team-as-pdp-insists-on-debate/200758/

Kenai:
Oh, so Buhari is taking after the Jonathan of 2011, yet he still screams "Change!"
Exactly what 'Change' does he hope to effect when he's now copying the same man he says is Clueless.

Na so una dull reach?

pdp trolls................na so una dey talk

National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, said on Sunday that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party had become scared of the outcome of the February 14 presidential election.

“I am shocked at the kind of crowd I see in our various campaign grounds. For now, we have secured over 20 million votes. In Bayelsa and Kaduna states, we will defeat Jonathan and Sambo,” he said.

Oyegun said that the APC would defeat both President Goodluck Jonathan and his running mate, Vice President Namadi Sambo in their own states.

Jonathan’s home state is Bayelsa while Sambo is from Kaduna State.

Oyegun spoke at a luncheon organised for APC leaders in the Edo South senatorial district, in Benin, the Edo State capital.

He explained that the leadership of the PDP had been using all means and “unknown persons” to “scuttle” the poll because it was clear that they would lose the election.

He said, “President Goodluck Jonathan and PDP are running scare of the February 14 presidential election.

“It is obvious to them that they will definitely lose this election.

“They are using all means, through unknown people, to scuttle the elections. But I can assure you that elections will hold and we will defeat them.”

He said that the 16 years of PDP presidency had brought hardship to Nigerians and threatened the unity of the country.

He said that the emergence of the APC as the biggest opposition party in Nigeria was divine and ordained to bring the needed change the country desired.

Oyegun, however, urged Nigerians to take their destiny in their hands by voting for the APC.

Also, a national leader of the APC, Chief Tony Momoh, said that the ruling party had lost “all the good hands to the APC.”










http://www.punchng.com/news/apcll-defeat-jonathan-sambo-in-their-hometowns-oyegun/

did jonathaan attend 2011 debate.

abeg why the sudden debate cry.............................desperadoes

Renowned economist and a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, on Sunday alleged that over N30tn had been stolen under the watch of the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Soludo, in a 10-page response to Okonjo-Iweala’s rebuttal of his earlier criticism of the management of the Nigerian economy under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, said the nation was in for a very turbulent time this year because the economy had been grossly mismanaged.

The Federal Government had last Wednesday described the five-year tenure of Soludo as the governor of the CBN between 2004 and 2009 as a disaster to the banking sector.

The comment came on the heels of an earlier article by Soludo last Monday in which he claimed that the Nigerian economy under Jonathan had performed woefully.

Okonjo-Iweala had in a statement on Wednesday described Soludo’s as an “embittered loser in the Nigerian political space.”

But Soludo, in his new article, which was made available on Sunday, said if the prices of crude oil in the international market failed to rebound, Nigeria would face an unprecedented level of economic crisis with horrible attendant hardships for the citizenry.

“Our public finance is haemorrhaging to the point that estimated over N30tn is missing, or stolen, or unaccounted for, or simply mismanaged,” the former CBN governor stressed.

In the piece entitled, ‘Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the missing trillions’, Soludo said the sharp decline in the naira-dollar exchange rate from 158 a few months ago to 215 currently showed that trouble was already at the doorstep.

He added that “unless oil price recovers, this is just the beginning,” adding, “For the sake of Nigeria, I won’t keep quiet anymore!”

The former CBN boss said his earlier article was written out of concern that the 2015 election campaigns were being conducted in a manner that did not show that the economy was in a crisis.

“Part of my frustration is that five years after, everything I warned about has come to happen and we are conducting our campaigns as if we are not in a crisis. As a concerned Nigerian, I have a duty to speak out again,” he said.

Soludo, who gave the details of the N30tn allegedly stolen under Okonjo-Iweala’s watch, said, “Under you as the Minister of Finance and coordinator of the economy, the basket of our national treasury is leaking profusely from all sides. Just a few illustrations! First, you admit that ‘oil theft’ has reduced oil output from the average 2.3 – 2.4 million barrels per day to 1.95 mpd (meaning that at least 350,000 to 450,000 barrels per day are being ‘stolen’). On the average of 400,000 per day and the oil prices over the past four years, it comes to about $60bn ‘stolen’ in just four years.

“In today’s exchange rate, that is about N12.6tn. This is at a time of cessation of crisis in the Niger Delta and the amnesty programme. Can you tell Nigerians how much the amnesty programme costs, and also the annual cost for ‘protecting’ the pipelines and security of oil wells? And the ‘thieves’ are spirits?

“Second, my earlier article stated that the minimum forex reserves should have been at least $90bn by now and you did not challenge it. Rather, it is about $30bn, meaning that gross mismanagement has denied the country some $60bn or another N12.6tn. Now, add the ‘missing’ $20bn from the NNPC. You promised a forensic audit report ‘soon’, and more than a year later, the report itself is still ‘missing’. This is over N4tn, and we don’t know how much more has ‘missed’ since Sanusi cried out.

“How many trillions of naira were paid for oil subsidy (unappropriated?). How many trillions (in actual fact) have been ‘lost’ through customs duty waivers over the last four years? As coordinator of the economy, can you tell Nigerians why the price of Automotive Gas Oil, popularly called diesel, has still not come down despite the crash in global crude oil prices, and how much is being appropriated by friends in the process?

“Be honest: Do you really know (as coordinator and minister of finance) how many trillions of naira self- financing government agencies earn and spend? I have a long list but let me wait for now. I do not want to talk about other ‘black pots’ that impinge on national security.”

Soludo added, “My estimate, Madam, is that probably more than N30tn has either been stolen, or lost, or unaccounted for, or simply mismanaged under your watchful eyes in the past four years. Since you claimed to be in charge, Nigerians are right to ask you to account. Think about what this amount could mean for the 112 million poor Nigerians, or for our schools, hospitals, roads, etc.

“Soon, you will start asking the citizens to pay this or that tax, while some faceless ‘thieves’ are pocketing over $40m per day from oil alone.”

The former CBN governor also maintained that the banking sector consolidation exercise that he supervised was a huge success contrary to Okonjo-Iweala’s assertion that it failed woefully.

He described it as both “a revolution and a war, and most people thought it was impossible, but thank God we succeeded. “

Soludo said, “For the first time in Nigeria’s history, a policy of that magnitude was announced and the deadline kept with precision. We were courageous to revoke the licences of 14 banks, including those of my friends, in one day. The FT-Banker concluded that the scale, precision and cost of the transformation were unprecedented in the world. Before then, Malaysia had the least cost of banking consolidation at five per cent of the Malaysian GDP.

“It did not cost Nigerian taxpayers one penny. Twenty-five new and stronger banks emerged, but the powerful idea behind the consolidation ignited something even more powerful – the race to the top. Banks raised more capital, and even banks like First Bank, Zenith, GTB, etc. that did not merge with others went on capital raising several times. The consequence was higher levels of capitalisation and within two years, 14 Nigerian banks were in the top 1,000 banks in the world and two in the top 300 (no Nigerian bank was in the top 1,000 before I came).

“Even after I left office, still nine banks were in the top 1,000. Our vision was to have a Nigerian bank in the top 100 banks within 10 years. As I see the new Access Bank, Zenith, GTB, Fidelity, Diamond, UBA, FBN, FCMB, Skye, Stanbic IBTC, Union, Ecobank, etc., I cannot but feel that we have taken giant steps forward.

“Deposits and credit soared (from barely N1.2tn to over N7tn); new technologies (ATM and e-banking) boomed, and banks had 57,000 new jobs; mega businesses emerged (ask any major operator in the Nigerian economy their experience with banking and credit before and after Soludo; – the Dangotes, Arik, MM2, oil and gas operators etc.); capital market boomed and dominated by the banking sector.

“It was a new dawn for the Nigerian private sector. I have heard Dangote twice say that he would not be near as big as he is today without the banking consolidation. Many other stakeholders still say it today. FDI and portfolio inflows flooded into Nigeria. The world celebrated, and one single transformative idea has changed the face of the private sector and the economy forever. Banks became Nigeria’s first transnational corporations, with about 37 branches outside of Nigeria.”

He also said he would write about the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria later as a separate topic











http://www.punchng.com/news/over-n30tn-stolen-under-okonjo-iweala-soludo/

stale and unnecessary propaganda

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lies lies lies.............who will buy your lies.
pdp paid agents on the prowl.

fp.......................

imagine GMB agreeing to a debate with them,they will switch off the microphone intermittently to make him appear incoherent.liars.

what about ait/nta oooo

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engrtee:
Is bbc hausa present to translate the question to hausa language so our general can flow better

was hausa the language used at the US war college,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,pdp agents

@demeiza, your observation is really right.

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on the news at 10 on channels television

The Campaigns of President Goodluck Jonathan and General Muhammad Buhari have agreed to a Presidential Debate on Feb.3, 2015.
the debate is organized by Channels Television, Arise Television and Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria.



Source:

Channels News at 10

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lies lies,even though the pictures are not true.dont bother comparing apc with cpc.cpc rarely campaigned outside the north and had little structures.

another pdp paid agent on the prowl.
can you see buhari in anyone of those pictures.

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half empty stadium with only one side filled in sambo home town...........that is a really poor one.

pls front page....

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[quote
author=Teedoe25 post=30303314]Mctheew. Despite being an APc state, The
crowd were not even up to those that welcome Jonathan on Monday. Kwara
people are angry with bukola saraki.[/quote]lies lies lies,who will buy your lies.
even pdp knows this isn't true.

imaginary talk........their actions screams desperation.

February 22nd 2014 tori is what you bring on a thread almost a year later.
Pdp paid agents,una don dey really desperate O.