Ikengawo:
anyone has the freedom to say things sadly, it's actions that are punishable by law so all we can do is wait and watch. Arresting one or two of them will make on difference, but standing strong in the face of intimidation and terror and not bending to their will is going to break them because it takes away the last weapon they have left and forces them to play the game the lawful and just way like the rest of us

ShakurM:
V

Ikengawo:
with the volume of threats that Buhari supporters are sending to people and openly preaching in the street, it will be FAR worst.

I made this thread because I have realized the north doesn't have the resources, numbers or popularity to actually win a fair and free election. So they have to resort to scaring people into giving them power by force. In the past they can just do coup after coup and I don't doubt that coups have been attempted in GEJ's administration (remember the upheaval in Abuja by troops this summer?).

This is all they have left. Telling people that if you down concede to them you will die. If you come out to vote you will die. If you don't enforce Sharia, you will die. Everything is a death threat. The blood of the dogs and the baboons, killing and butchering. This is all they have left and it's the mark of a desperate people.

All they have done is make voting in the north for christian and muslims a suicidal exercise.

Acidosis:
Buhari should be locked up

philips70:


Ikengawo, give it up! Time's up for all of these shenanigans. Up to the extent you attached proven pictures of mayhem that happened in another country. Your masters the PDP are the architect of electoral violence and election manipulation in Nigeria. Tell them to conduct a free and fair elections just like in 1993 and see how peaceful Nigerians will conduct themselves. There can't be effects without cause. They say he who make peaceful change impossible makes violent change inevitable. If there will be violence in next elections we all should be looking towards the PDP. Their failed and highly manipulated primaries from the Presidency to councillorship are a much pointer to what we are expecting come February next year. The leopard they say hardly changes its spots!

philips70:


[s]Ikengawo, give it up! Time's up for all of these shenanigans. Up to the extent you attached proven pictures of mayhem that happened in another country. Your masters the PDP are the architect of electoral violence and election manipulation in Nigeria. Tell them to conduct a free and fair elections just like in 1993 and see how peaceful Nigerians will conduct themselves. There can't be effects without cause. They say he who make peaceful change impossible makes violent change inevitable. If there will be violence in next elections we all should be looking towards the PDP. Their failed and highly manipulated primaries from the Presidency to councillorship are a much pointer to what we are expecting come February next year. The leopard they say hardly changes its spots![/s]

Dereformer:
GEJ will win next year's election clean and clear. If Buhari or Obasanjo tries anything, we will them arrested and locked up.

Funjosh:
UW

edegbemario:
History might probably just repeat it's self this time around

Ikengawo:


The 1993 that ending in bloody riots in the SW and the government collapsing?
Try again

Ikengawo:


all criticism are valid, what I like about Jonathan's supporters is they can speak about him realistically. He never tries to make him appear perfect or like a 'messiah', just a man that became president and is trying his best as we can see from the results.

I don't think he tolerates corruption at all. Obasanjo and others made us believe fighting corruption was a matter of arresting each and every person 'that steals', though in reality they were just lynching their enemies.

Jonathan's approach is figuring out what is causing them to steal and nipping it at the bud. This is a more pragmatic and effective approach. For example people were stealing because there was no accountability in government. Jonathan
1. Passed a freedom of information bill that left all accounts open for the public to example
2. Passed a cashless economy policy so the era of sneaking money through Ghana must Go's with no paper trail is over
3. Eliminated the fuel subsidy that was used to loot that nation
4. Eliminated over 60,000 ghost workers who's names were used to loot as well
5.]The e-wallet in the Agric sector dealt with corruption once and for all




This is how you stop 1 million thieves before they steal instead of catching 10 after they steal which was the primative Obasanjo approach (in theory, in reality he was just extorting foes)

ShakurM:
vuck you!

PassingShot:


I will assume that you're not a Jonathanian and therefore attempt to debate with you. However, you'll do well to be sincere in your submissions.

For you to say you don't think Jonathan supports corruption says a lot about what you know of the administration or perhaps you're trying to gloss over it. I even prefer Obasanjo's effort in fighting corruption even though we all know he used the war against more enemies than those in his camp. But at the end of the day, those enemies were actually found corrupt! You cannot compare that with a government that has failed to prosecute a single known corruption case successfully in its six years of existence. That story cannot sell anywhere in Nigeria.

And for all the paper efforts you've listed here, what have they achieved? What has happened to the oil subsidy? Where are the promised palliatives? What of Farouk Lawan's case? And that of Etteh and Stella Odua? What happens with the corruption charges against Muhammed Abacha? Please don't insult our sensibility here with your pretence!

On Buhari, we his supporters agree that he is not the most competent Nigeria that could possibly lead this country but given the situation we find ourselves and coupled with the fact that Jonathan is hopelessly incompetent to even pretend to fight corruption and put an end to the insurgency in the North, we have pitched our tent with him. The fact remains that if that insurgency is not stopped now, it will have spread to many other parts of Nigeria within the next one year.

Funjosh:
Sorry bro just try updates space booked early

Ikengawo:
Sorry the following post will be graphic but I feel it's necessary due to our horrible national memory and inability to take action against real evil when we see it.

corektchic:
Ur so caled insurgency spread may end at d south west because all those who are using it against the government have investments in the south south. So until oil becomes irrelevant insurgents will not get to the south. When oil becomes irrelevant, politics in Nigeria becomes so unlucrative as well and every one will rest.

philips70:


How old were you in 1993 or you became interested in politics only when your benefactors came into governance? What sparked protests and any violence in 1993 if not for that these same forces who incidentally are in this same government and the PDP truncated a peaceful process? The 1993 elections were the freest and the fairest elections ever to be conducted in history of the whole world if I may borrow the words of one of your masters Doyin Okugbe. Advise your masters to conduct a simple free and fair elections and stop these propagandas. Seems they already perfected the usual so they are preparing Nigerians mind to the usual fall guy, Buhari. Just that Nigerians are wiser now.

ANYONE who has received a Nigerian scam e-mail—offering to share vast wealth in exchange for just a teensy bit of advance capital—will instantly grasp how rife corruption is in Africa's most populous and entrepreneurial country. This is true of politics as well as commerce. Cheating has become so brazen that few Nigerians expect fair elections. Politicians have for years larded voter lists with the names of foreign musicians, including deceased ones like Marvin Gaye, and have stuffed ballot boxes with abandon.

At parliamentary elections on April 9th, allegations of rigging were once again in the air. Violence also flared up. And the late delivery of ballot papers, which were securely printed abroad, delayed the voting by a week. Nonetheless, the poll marked the first credible election in Nigeria since the end of military rule 12 years ago (see article).

What made it different is that officials fought back hard for the first time. They introduced a new voting system that severely limits fraud, using a clever mix of high-tech and low-tech. All 73.5m voters were fingerprinted and screened to stop duplication. Most polling booths opened for only an hour to prevent multiple voting. Electoral officials tallied the results in front of the voters. Independent monitors collected the numbers instantaneously using mobile phones in an exercise called “crowd tabulation”.

The process has been expensive: the government has set a record for public spending on elections of $580m. Western donors argued at first that the system was too complex for a developing country to handle. They were wrong.

The credit goes mostly to two men. The first is President Goodluck Jonathan, who is himself standing for re-election on April 16th. He may thus benefit personally from the reforms, but he acted against the interests of his party, which had perfected the dark art of rigging. The second is Attahiru Jega, head of the official election commission, who designed a voting system that angered many powerful lobbies. Together they have given new hope to the many Nigerians who are embarrassed that their vibrant country, often ranked as the most optimistic in the world, has become a byword for swindling and fraud.

More has to change before Nigeria's political leaders can claim full legitimacy. The elections may be more transparent, but governing still takes place largely behind closed doors. The legislature remains too weak. The Official Secrets Act, which makes it illegal to publish government data independently, needs reform. So do the courts, which are suspected of bias and corruption. Legal challenges after previous elections have failed to produce a single conviction for electoral fraud.

Fit for export

Better elections should in the end help resolve Nigeria's existential question—whether this wildly diverse country of 150m people from 250 ethnic groups created by British colonial masters can work. But ambitious talk of taking over regional leadership is premature. Nigeria should first try to close the democratic gap with South Africa, the continent's top dog, as well as improve its scam-ridden economy.

The best way for Nigeria to show leadership is to help its neighbours to stop rigging their polls. Not all have the right staff or can afford high-tech answers. But as countries from Côte d'Ivoire to Kenya have found, bad or contested elections can be the costliest mistakes of all.