₦airaland Forum

tola9ja:
Jonathan plots 2-year extension – Senator

Category: Lead stories Published on Wednesday, 11 February 2015
05:02 Written by Dele Ogunyemi (Ibadan), Turaki A. Hassan & Isiaka Wakili (Abuja)

A senator alleged yesterday that President Goodluck Jonathan had been secretly plotting to avoid election and extend his tenure by two years on the grounds that Nigeria is at war.
Senator Babafemi Ojudu (APC, Ekiti Central) told members of the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) that President Jonathan had been making spirited moves to court National Assembly members into approving his agenda for the two-year tenure elongation.
Ojudu made the revelation while addressing the ARG gathering inside the Trenchard Hall of the University of Ibadan with the theme
“The change Yoruba will vote for.”
Also, a top political source yesterday in Abuja corroborated Senator Ojudu’s allegation, saying President Jonathan may shortly declare Nigeria to be in a state of war and seek extension of tenures of current elected public officials for another six months.
However, the Presidency did not respond to request by Daily Trust for comment on the allegation.
Jonathan’s spokesman Reuben Abati, Public Affairs aide Doyin Okupe and Political Adviser Rufai Alkali neither answered several phone calls made to them nor replied text messages.
Senator Ojudu, in his submission, said: “If anybody thinks there is going to be elections on March 28, the person is deceiving himself. All the people that are close to me, especially my friends, I told them a year ago that there would not be election and that they are just deceiving us.
“Some of us who are perceptive have seen this in the body language of our colleagues; the body language of the Senate President himself, David Mark. When we came back from the summer recess last year, he said that for him, it’s not time for election. We should not be thinking of elections now, rather we should be thinking of fighting Boko Haram. The moment we took him up on that, he reversed himself.
“There are conscious attempts at lobbying some of us to work against having elections. Therefore, where they have got to now is the preliminary stage.
“We will resume next week Tuesday. I can assure you, they may likely bring a motion asking us to adjourn or postpone the elections for six months because there is an ongoing war.
“The constitution allows this. The constitution states that where and when there is a war in any corner of the country, the President can bring a motion to the National Assembly to postpone the elections for six months in the first instance and this can be passed by just a simple majority.
“If you think at this time they may not get simple majority, you may be wrong. This is because 80 per cent of the senators and House of Representatives members are not returning, not out of choice. Perhaps, I am the only person who is not returning out of choice in the entire National Assembly. All others attempted but they did not make it.
“This may surprise you, we are all broke. If they say we want to give you two more years as it is being quietly requested by Jonathan, virtually everybody will vote for that.”
He said Jonathan had been pleading that the National Assembly should allow him to continue for two more years because he feared that if the election holds and a northern Muslim wins, there may be problems in the Niger Delta.
He added that Jonathan also argued that if he wins there would be problem in the north.
“Therefore, the solution is for him to do two more years and at the end ... you can have northern-northern and Muslim-Muslim candidates.
“That is their logic and that is what they are working towards. Left to us, they know it shall not pass. We must have to start crying out now and be strategic in our planning,” he said.
“We are about entering into a very long night in Nigeria. It is a very sad thing that whenever we thought we have made a progress, we take ten steps backward. This is what is happening now.”
Daily Trust heard that plans had been concluded to present the request to the National Assembly ahead of members’ resumption next Tuesday.
“We have been told that the president will forward the request to us in the National Assembly in which he will declare that Nigeria is now in a state of war as foreign troops under the multinational joint forces of the African Union are now in Nigeria,” the source said.
“The presence of the foreign troops must be backed by appropriate legal instrument and that is why the relevant constitutional provisions must be invoked,” the source said.
The president, sources said, will request the National Assembly to approve the six months tenure extension in accordance with the provisions of the constitution which allow for elongation of tenure of political office holders if the nation is in a state of war.
A source in the legislature told Daily Trust that already, “monies have been made available to induce lawmakers into approving the request. Again, they know that 65 percent of the National Assembly members do not have return tickets and many of us may be willing to approve the extension,” the source who is ranking lawmaker said.
Daily Trust gathered that the initial six months extension would be used as a smokescreen for subsequent extensions as the president will request for three more extensions to make it two years.
When contacted, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business Senator Ita Enang declined to comment saying “I am not aware of it and I won’t talk about what is not before us.”
However, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume (APC, Borno) said any such request must be approved by 2/3rd majority of each chamber of the National Assembly and “as far as I am concerned, it won’t scale through. We will defeat it. APC has majority in the House and they (PDP) do not have 2/3rd majority in the senate,” he added.

Interim government as plan B

Another source said if the tenure extension plot fails the Presidency would resort to “Plan B”.
He said this entails setting up an interim government to be headed by a former Nigerian leader or an ex security chief.
Sources said the idea of handing over to an interim government is the last card to be played by the presidency as hopes for the president’s re-election keeps dwindling.
Daily Trust gathered that the postponement of the polls to March 28 and April 11 was meant to stretch the time to the minimum 30 days to May 29th as stipulated by the constitution so that any further delay would make it difficult if not impossible to hold elections.
Daily Trust also gathered that the security forces may not be able to contain the Boko Haram insurgents within the next six weeks as they requested but that the crisis may take a different and more dangerous dimension thereby creating chaos or even anarchy in the north.
This scenario, according to those familiar with the plot, would be orchestrated to make it impossible for the election to take place within the constitutionally stipulated period of time.

Source: Daily Trust.

kay1one2:
If he likes let him collect choir robe... nothing dey happen! Gej till whenever!

myhoodlink:
Violence does no good. Attacking each others both online and offline could be one of the fears that led to the postponement of the election due to too much apprehension in the air. Democracy is all about freedom of choice. We should learn to see everyone is vital to the Nigerian dream.

God bless President GEJ.

samuelson06:
PDP and the Presidency have already made up their minds to rig the forthcoming elections that's why they are frustrating every move for us to get it right. First, they started with election postponement and now this. The cloud is becoming darker and darker for Nigeria at each passing day because of PDP. My advice to everyone is that we must start savings as much as we can because another civil war is possible. Nobody should allow his/herself to be carried unawares. President Jonathan is dragging us to war.

For goodness sake, why is GEJ allowing power to corrupt him absolutely? It is crystal clear that GMB/PYO would make a better pair for Nigeria than GEJ/Sambo, why can't GEJ just give up? Research have also shown that more than 50% of the people that supported GEJ in 2011 are now supporting GMB, why can't GEJ understand this and bow out peacefully? Why do GEJ and his team still want to continue for another 4 years when they know very well that they are a total failure to Nigerians? What does GEJ really want in Aso Rock beyond 2015?

SeverusSnape:
There's no change in APC
They are just bunch of aggrieved politicians trying to wrestle power by all means possible; desperadoes.
At least, Obama's victory was real change, he was younger than Bush, had great ideas and from a different political party(Democrats). APC is Aggrieved Pdp Congress.

meshacha1:
P D P - power
P D P - power
P. ..D. ..P. .. - power!!!

Abeg, if you are for GEJ till 2019 pls hit like
Let us make them jealous
Let's make it obvious GEJ stands pls
Just hit like for GEJ

kodded:
once he became a politician i stop seeing him as a pastor



don't mind the political pastor, instead of him to pray for our army to finally defeat boko haram in this few weeks left he is busy ranting rubbish

am still wondering what was his sermon for today ?

XYZ123:
ANOTHER U.N.B.E.L.I.E.V.A.B.L.E AGAIN!
March 1= M
March 2= U
March 3= H
March 4= A
March 5= M
March 6= M
March 7= A
March 8= D
March 9= U
March10= B
March11= U
March12= H
March13= A
March15= R
March16= I
March 17= Y
March 18= E
March 19= M
March 20= I
March 21= O
March 22= S
March 23= I
March 24= N
March 25= B
March 26= A
March 27= J
March 28= O
Whether they like it or yes, Change is Imminent &
inevitable! ‪#‎GeneralMarch4Buhari‬ If u beleave in dis shout SAY BUHARI!

PEREP:
All those things said in the documentary, did they happen?

If yes, how is it wrong

For many, it was a moment to know exactly the man GMB

3kay945:
They didn't and can't see it coming cos it not a common sense.
Who could have expected the president to be this disgraceful

PEREP:
Now we know why the Media houses highlight BH activities more than the Nigerian Army and also refuse to cover any stride of Govt.

Now I know why only CCTV have been giving updates of improvements and projects in the rail, airports and other areas of the country while our own journalists simply look away.

Every Nigerian have a right to his opinion and journalists are meant to be neutral for balanced reportage.

At the height of Obama woes with Economy, no journalist shouted Republican and all that.

At some point, Americans were asking Obama to provide his birth certificate and a lot of derogatory campaign followed, yet no journalist did this

raumdeuter:
The President media led by Doyin Okupe held a press conference to discredit Buhari and he got the unexpected

Doyin Okupe : General Buhari is not electable and would not be elected by the grace of God, And why I am saying that is this, Nigeria would not have a president that has not gone to school, This is not going to happen, In Nigeria it will not happen, In Nigeria it would not happen

CROWD: [size=15pt]APC!! APC!! APC!! APC!! APC!! APC!! APC!! APC!! APC!! APC!! APC!! APC!! APC!! APC!! APC!! APC!! APC!! APC!!!! APC!! APC!! APC!! APC!! APC!! APC!![/size]

Doyin walks out in shame

Video in the link below

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=826185417462028

Juliaann:
No matter how bad your father is can you call him a useless man?

enzony:
March! Nigeria Marching Forward.

No backward change and no febuhari.

GEJ till 2019.

Juliaann:
Can you address your father that way?

IbnSultaan:
Twenty one Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs, of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, have rejected a proposal to postpone Nigeria’s general elections billed for February 14 and 28.

In a vote conducted Saturday by the INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega, after he met with political parties and the civil society, 21 RECs said the elections should continue as planned while 16 others voted in support of a reschedule.

Nigeria has 37 RECs, each for a state and the Federal Capital, Abuja.

The outcome of the vote came as Nigerians await INEC’s decision on whether the elections are moved or not.

Civil Society leaders said Mr. Jega had told them at their meeting that the commission was under pressure to postpone the polls after all security agencies, including the military and the police, warned that they will only support polls held at least six weeks after the current dates.

Jibrin Ibrahim, a senior fellow at the Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, in Abuja, who was at the meeting, said Mr. Jega told the meeting that security operatives told INEC that they were commencing a six weeks special operations against Boko Haram insurgents in the north eastern corridors of the country and would rather not be distracted by the elections.

Mr. Jega announced that the security forces also said the operations are due to commence on February 14, the date INEC had planned for the presidential and federal legislative elections.
Earlier, 17 political parties out of the total 28 voted in support of an extension.

The opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, has rejected any plan to postpone the election saying such calls are sponsored by President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling party to stave their imminent defeat at the polls.

It is not clear what the commission’s eventual decision would be with the latest voting pattern by the RECs.

Mr. Jega is expected to brief the media any moment from now.


http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/176432-breaking-21-inec-resident-commissioners-reject-postponement-elections.html

donphilopus:
I'm ashamed of these PDP Supporters. I thought they were very sure Buhari can never win any Election in Nigeria here. Why all the fear? When they initially announced that it had been postponed, I bet 99% of the people celebrating on those threads are PDP Supporters. I want them to tell us why they are afraid of Election. I thought they were so sure Jonathan would massively defeat Buhari. I weep for the youths supporting Jonathan blindly. If you are so sure of winning, let's meet at the polls come next Saturday.

With their (PDP) recent display of fear, cowardice, mumurism, stupidity and foolishness, I'm now very certain that it's now audible to the deaf among them, visible to the blind among them and vocal to the dumb among them that Jonathan is leaving Aso Rock come May 29th. I expect most of them to commit suicide 'when' INEC finally announces that Election would still hold as earlier scheduled!

Promhize:
Look at them, eggheads. Tomorrow they will demand issue based campaign.

gists:
Rechecking my PVC........
.........OK its intact.
Nine days to vote GMB into ASO Rock

The occupants of Aso Rock should be busy tackling serious issues affecting us as a nation.
Aso Rock is not meant for people busy listening to Rock Music

scribble:
I dey fear Jonathan not Buhari


It's no wonder he treated Umaru Dikko so, the file on this man for human rights abuses and economic malfeasance is thick in washigton DC.

No wonder he canceled his trip.

I'm sure the Americans will not know why Nigerians are a seemingly suicidal people or perhaps their most learned psychologists have already classified this slave love for master type mentality.

How can I see educated people clamouring for a Buhari presidency because of a buzz word "change" coined by An American PR expert.
Nigerians like most black people including myself can be ignorant, sentimental and non analytical.

Nigerians justice must prevail. The NIGER DELTA must feel like they are a part of the Nigerian project by US rising up on Valentine or whenever not to scuttle the ambition of this man who is trying compared to some other losers us or our ancestors have witnessed before.

Pls be wise, be reasonable.

NnamdiN:
Elections are not won online. I clicked like for buhari but I'm 101% team GEJ.

Ngige won online, came last in reality. So yall should stop deceiving yourselves, that old nigger ain't going nowhere.

Rikidony:
THE MILITARY ARE HITTING THEM HARD ON GROUND WHILE TWITTER IS PUNCHING THEM HARDER ON SOCIAL MEDIA. LETS SEE WHICH SOCIAL MEDIA APC WILL BE TAKING THEIR MILITARY WING TO.

ikennaoma:
So GEJ is d most educated person in d country.

ShowYourCertificate:
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/certificate-forgery-presidency-urges-buhari-to-clear-his-name/200597/

temitemi1:
Lagosians are tired of tinubu's rule in lagos state... We will keep stoning u pple until we see u no more! GEJ till 2019!!!