₦airaland Forum

Why Buhari will not agree to a debate
with Jonathan
on march 10, 2015 at 5:18 am in femi aribisala
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BUHARI IN OGUN—Former Head of State,Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari, addressing party supporters
at the Presidential Lodge during his courtesy visit
to Abeokuta, Ogun State, yesterday. Photo: NAN.
By Femi Aribisala
IN all my years of studying elections, I have never
seen a campaign as bogus as that of
Muhammadu Buhari. It is amazing that, for a
man who is running for election as president for a
marathon fourth time, Buhari is so bereft of ideas
as to how he would do anything if he were to
become president. Campaigning in 35 states,
Buhari has spoken for a total of less than 60
minutes in all. Surely, he wants to be president;
but he clearly has no presidential agenda.
Buhari’s blueprint for the presidency is similar to
his Cambridge/WASC certificate; it is yet to be
discovered. It is an article of faith of things hoped
for by his admirers, the evidence of things neither
seen nor articulated. No man becomes president
of Nigeria on the basis of vain platitudes. No man
becomes president as a result of social media
blogs and soundbites. No man becomes president
by giving two-minute speeches in craftily-
packaged rallies, one minute of which is spent
introducing his entourage.
Empty promises
What would Buhari do differently to fight Boko
Haram? He would study the situation and restore
morale to the military. What would he do to
restore the economy? He would increase the
international price of oil single-hahnded. What
would he do to create jobs? He would build
interstate highways in the middle of a drastic
slump in Nigeria’s income in order to energise
motor-mechanics and bukaterias.
Buhari says: “I will revive and reactivate our
minimally performing refineries to optimum
capacity.” How does he propose to do this? “I will
provide one meal a day for children in public
primary schools.” Where is the money to do this?
“I will generate, transmit and distribute electricity
on a 24/7 basis whilst simultaneously ensuring
the development of sustainable/renewable energy
by 2019.” Is he now going to nationalise the
GENCOS and the DISCOS?
“I will make direct cash transfer of 5,000 naira to
the 25 million poorest and most vulnerable
citizens, if they immunize children and enrol them
in school.” My o my! Did Buhari do the maths
before coming out with this pie in the sky? This
amounts to a 125 billion naira handout; nearly
equal to the entire annual income of Edo State.
Style without substance
Goodluck Jonathan’s APC opponents like to
denigrate him as “clueless.” But what shall we
say of Muhammadu Buhari, a general who did not
know the name of his running-mate; calling him
Yemi Osunbade instead of Yemi Osinbajo. Buhari
referred to Imo State as Ibo State. In an interview
on CNN, he called INEC the Independent Nigerian
Electoral Commission. He also called his party
the All Progressives Confidence. No wonder
President Jonathan observed that Buhari cannot
remember his own phone-number.
Let’s face it: General Buhari has become an
embarrassment to the APC. He should not be
allowed to become a Nigerian embarrassment. An
absent-minded old man is not the kind of person
we need as president. Electing Buhari amounts to
jumping from the frying-pan into the fire.
Buhari’s campaign elevates make-believe over
reality. It asserts the primacy of propaganda over
commonsense. It proclaims the superiority of
fiction over facts. Buhari and the APC need to be
told some home-truths. You don’t build roads by
attacking Goodluck Jonathan. You don’t create
jobs by attacking the PDP. You don’t destroy the
Boko Haram by undermining the authority of the
commander-in-chief of the armed forces. You
don’t proclaim a mantra of anti-corruption
slogans, while being surrounded and funded by
corrupt politicians.
Shouting change changes nothing. Change is
championed by the young, and not by a 72 year-
old retired soldier receiving cheers from a coterie
of dyed-in-the-wool political dinosaurs. How can
Buhari represent change from the PDP, when a
large chunk of his change-sloganising APC
members are poached PDP turncoats? How does
Buhari’s endorsement by Obasanjo, a former PDP
president, commend him as an agent of change
from the PDP?
Counterfeit change
Instead of change, Buhari’s agenda is the “same
old same old” of the mundane and the sub-
standard. I challenge APC supporters to point out
one; just one, single original idea that has
emanated from him. The truth is that it does not
exist. Buhari is the master of the fluff and the
bluster. He will fight corruption, but he cannot
say how. He will revive the economy, but cannot
say how. He will end the Boko Haram insurgency
in no time at all, but he cannot say how.
In effect, Buhari is asking Nigerians to elect him
on the basis of some voodoo that he will only
concoct after the election. Nigerians should not
fall for this ploy. Buhari is an old has-been:
banking on the forgetfulness of Nigerians and on
our disregard for history. The APC has spent far
more time strategizing on how to manipulate
public opinion than on policy-formulation. Its
manifesto is shallow and phony; a very poor
cousin to Goodluck Jonathan’s well-articulated
and unfolding transformation agenda.
On the basis of his performance in office,
President Jonathan has done much better than
any of his predecessors. His legacy is there for all
to see in agriculture, aviation, road construction,
education, health (especially Guinea Worm, Polio
and Ebola eradication), railways, electricity and
political reform through the National Conference.
Those who are insisting he should not be given a
second-term need to come up with cogent
reasons why we need to change the stewardship
of an economy recording one of the highest
growth-rates in the world.
No wonder therefore that Buhari is running away
from a presidential debate. His reticence confirms
the view that he has nothing concrete to offer.
Every excuse he and his handlers come up with
only further exposes their vacuity. One thing is for
sure; Buhari cannot agree to a debate because
his campaign is all smoke and mirrors.
Chartham house
Indeed, nothing exemplifies the bankruptcy of the
APC presidential campaign more than the
decision of Buhari to deliver a vapid speech in
London, rather than engage Jonathan in a
presidential debate in Nigeria. I am still looking
for someone to explain to me the relevance of
Buhari’s London junket to a Nigerian presidential
election. Britons don’t vote in Nigerian elections.
Even Nigerians living abroad don’t vote. So what
was the point of that charade?
Instead of giving a speech at the Nigerian
Institute of International Affairs in Lagos, Buhari
chose the Royal Institute of International Affairs,
in far-away London. Nevertheless, nobody would
mistake Buhari for a scholar. The APC presidential
candidate has never written a book. He does not
even have an article in a journal or newspaper to
his name. We have yet to sort out the nagging
issue of his missing school-leaving certificate.
Indeed, his trip might have made more sense if it
had involved a dash to Cambridge to secure a
bona fide copy of his fictitious 1961 WASC
results.
Buhari’s Chartham House speech was
intellectually empty. It was full of bells and
whistles signifying absolutely nothing. There was
nothing newsworthy in it. It only made the news
abroad because there was protest against him in
the streets. From beginning to end, his speech
was a flimsy rationalization of his dubious
transition from dictator to democrat; and from
coup-plotter against democracy, to presidential
candidate in a democratic election.
Buhari is certainly not a Maitama Sule or a
Barack Obama. By no stretch of the imagination
can he be called an orator. His delivery was poor
and laboured. His heavily-accented diction
mutilated the English language, as usual. It did
not help that he read his prepared text word-for-
word; scarsely looking up at his audience. It is
too late now to advise his handlers that he
should have been hidden behind tele-prompters.
Questions begging for answers
There were elephants in the room at Chartham
House; nagging questions begging for answers.
How would Buhari react as president if a military
coup were to be undertaken against his
government? Would he accept this in good faith,
since he was also guilty of the same offence? The
truth of the matter is that, as a former coup-
plotter, Buhari does not have the moral right to
seek election as president under a democratic
dispensation.
How can he justify jailing Odumegwu Ojukwu in
1984, even though Ojukwu did not hold any
political office? How can he justify jailing
septuagenarian Pa Michael Ajasin, an honest and
upright governor of Ondo State that did not steal
any public funds? How can he justify seizing Chief
Obafemi Awolowo’s passport, thereby preventing
the old man from seeking medical attention
abroad; while he sent his own wife and children
for medical treatment in the United States?
How can he justify killing Nigerians for
committing a crime that did not attract the death
penalty when they committed it? How can he
justify the jailing of journalists, even for writing
truthful reports? Buhari is determined to avoid
addressing such probing questions. But such
questions are precisely what a political campaign
is designed to answer. Frankly, Buhari’s past
record is malicious and indefensible. He can keep
running away from it, but he cannot hide from it.
Questionable health
One question was answered fulsomely at
Chartham House: Buhari does not have the good
health or stamina required for the job of
president. After campaigning for barely one
month, he needed a long rest in London. He
literally disappeared for two weeks to recharge
his batteries, bang in the middle of an election
campaign. This is nothing short of bizarre. A man
who cannot withstand the rigours of a one-month
presidential campaign is not fit to be president of
Nigeria.
Ekiti governor, Ayo Fayose, put it succinctly: “A
man who campaigned for four weeks, speaking for
less than one hour in all the rallies put together
and needed to rest for 15 days should just stay at
home and be playing with his grandchildren rather
than struggling to take up a job that he does not
have the required mental and physical strength to
do.”
When Buhari finally returned back home, APC was
foolish enough to organise a so-called One Million
Man March (attended by barely one hundred
thousand people) in Lagos; when it knew its
presidential candidate was too old to march.
Buhari was glaringly absent from the event. To
use the local expression, “he was nowhere to be
found.” www.vanguardngr.com/2015/03/why-buhari-will-not-agree-to-a-debate-with-jonathan/

Dreams are cheap, so dream on mr apc.

Pedy:
Why Buhari will not agree to a debate
with Jonathan
on march 10, 2015 at 5:18 am in femi aribisala
Facebook Share Twitter Share
BUHARI IN OGUN—Former Head of State,Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari, addressing party supporters
at the Presidential Lodge during his courtesy visit
to Abeokuta, Ogun State, yesterday. Photo: NAN.
By Femi Aribisala
IN all my years of studying elections, I have never
seen a campaign as bogus as that of
Muhammadu Buhari. It is amazing that, for a
man who is running for election as president for a
marathon fourth time, Buhari is so bereft of ideas
as to how he would do anything if he were to
become president. Campaigning in 35 states,
Buhari has spoken for a total of less than 60
minutes in all. Surely, he wants to be president;
but he clearly has no presidential agenda.
Buhari’s blueprint for the presidency is similar to
his Cambridge/WASC certificate; it is yet to be
discovered. It is an article of faith of things hoped
for by his admirers, the evidence of things neither
seen nor articulated. No man becomes president
of Nigeria on the basis of vain platitudes. No man
becomes president as a result of social media
blogs and soundbites. No man becomes president
by giving two-minute speeches in craftily-
packaged rallies, one minute of which is spent
introducing his entourage.
Empty promises
What would Buhari do differently to fight Boko
Haram? He would study the situation and restore
morale to the military. What would he do to
restore the economy? He would increase the
international price of oil single-hahnded. What
would he do to create jobs? He would build
interstate highways in the middle of a drastic
slump in Nigeria’s income in order to energise
motor-mechanics and bukaterias.
Buhari says: “I will revive and reactivate our
minimally performing refineries to optimum
capacity.” How does he propose to do this? “I will
provide one meal a day for children in public
primary schools.” Where is the money to do this?
“I will generate, transmit and distribute electricity
on a 24/7 basis whilst simultaneously ensuring
the development of sustainable/renewable energy
by 2019.” Is he now going to nationalise the
GENCOS and the DISCOS?
“I will make direct cash transfer of 5,000 naira to
the 25 million poorest and most vulnerable
citizens, if they immunize children and enrol them
in school.” My o my! Did Buhari do the maths
before coming out with this pie in the sky? This
amounts to a 125 billion naira handout; nearly
equal to the entire annual income of Edo State.
Style without substance
Goodluck Jonathan’s APC opponents like to
denigrate him as “clueless.” But what shall we
say of Muhammadu Buhari, a general who did not
know the name of his running-mate; calling him
Yemi Osunbade instead of Yemi Osinbajo. Buhari
referred to Imo State as Ibo State. In an interview
on CNN, he called INEC the Independent Nigerian
Electoral Commission. He also called his party
the All Progressives Confidence. No wonder
President Jonathan observed that Buhari cannot
remember his own phone-number.
Let’s face it: General Buhari has become an
embarrassment to the APC. He should not be
allowed to become a Nigerian embarrassment. An
absent-minded old man is not the kind of person
we need as president. Electing Buhari amounts to
jumping from the frying-pan into the fire.
Buhari’s campaign elevates make-believe over
reality. It asserts the primacy of propaganda over
commonsense. It proclaims the superiority of
fiction over facts. Buhari and the APC need to be
told some home-truths. You don’t build roads by
attacking Goodluck Jonathan. You don’t create
jobs by attacking the PDP. You don’t destroy the
Boko Haram by undermining the authority of the
commander-in-chief of the armed forces. You
don’t proclaim a mantra of anti-corruption
slogans, while being surrounded and funded by
corrupt politicians.
Shouting change changes nothing. Change is
championed by the young, and not by a 72 year-
old retired soldier receiving cheers from a coterie
of dyed-in-the-wool political dinosaurs. How can
Buhari represent change from the PDP, when a
large chunk of his change-sloganising APC
members are poached PDP turncoats? How does
Buhari’s endorsement by Obasanjo, a former PDP
president, commend him as an agent of change
from the PDP?
Counterfeit change
Instead of change, Buhari’s agenda is the “same
old same old” of the mundane and the sub-
standard. I challenge APC supporters to point out
one; just one, single original idea that has
emanated from him. The truth is that it does not
exist. Buhari is the master of the fluff and the
bluster. He will fight corruption, but he cannot
say how. He will revive the economy, but cannot
say how. He will end the Boko Haram insurgency
in no time at all, but he cannot say how.
In effect, Buhari is asking Nigerians to elect him
on the basis of some voodoo that he will only
concoct after the election. Nigerians should not
fall for this ploy. Buhari is an old has-been:
banking on the forgetfulness of Nigerians and on
our disregard for history. The APC has spent far
more time strategizing on how to manipulate
public opinion than on policy-formulation. Its
manifesto is shallow and phony; a very poor
cousin to Goodluck Jonathan’s well-articulated
and unfolding transformation agenda.
On the basis of his performance in office,
President Jonathan has done much better than
any of his predecessors. His legacy is there for all
to see in agriculture, aviation, road construction,
education, health (especially Guinea Worm, Polio
and Ebola eradication), railways, electricity and
political reform through the National Conference.
Those who are insisting he should not be given a
second-term need to come up with cogent
reasons why we need to change the stewardship
of an economy recording one of the highest
growth-rates in the world.
No wonder therefore that Buhari is running away
from a presidential debate. His reticence confirms
the view that he has nothing concrete to offer.
Every excuse he and his handlers come up with
only further exposes their vacuity. One thing is for
sure; Buhari cannot agree to a debate because
his campaign is all smoke and mirrors.
Chartham house
Indeed, nothing exemplifies the bankruptcy of the
APC presidential campaign more than the
decision of Buhari to deliver a vapid speech in
London, rather than engage Jonathan in a
presidential debate in Nigeria. I am still looking
for someone to explain to me the relevance of
Buhari’s London junket to a Nigerian presidential
election. Britons don’t vote in Nigerian elections.
Even Nigerians living abroad don’t vote. So what
was the point of that charade?
Instead of giving a speech at the Nigerian
Institute of International Affairs in Lagos, Buhari
chose the Royal Institute of International Affairs,
in far-away London. Nevertheless, nobody would
mistake Buhari for a scholar. The APC presidential
candidate has never written a book. He does not
even have an article in a journal or newspaper to
his name. We have yet to sort out the nagging
issue of his missing school-leaving certificate.
Indeed, his trip might have made more sense if it
had involved a dash to Cambridge to secure a
bona fide copy of his fictitious 1961 WASC
results.
Buhari’s Chartham House speech was
intellectually empty. It was full of bells and
whistles signifying absolutely nothing. There was
nothing newsworthy in it. It only made the news
abroad because there was protest against him in
the streets. From beginning to end, his speech
was a flimsy rationalization of his dubious
transition from dictator to democrat; and from
coup-plotter against democracy, to presidential
candidate in a democratic election.
Buhari is certainly not a Maitama Sule or a
Barack Obama. By no stretch of the imagination
can he be called an orator. His delivery was poor
and laboured. His heavily-accented diction
mutilated the English language, as usual. It did
not help that he read his prepared text word-for-
word; scarsely looking up at his audience. It is
too late now to advise his handlers that he
should have been hidden behind tele-prompters.
Questions begging for answers
There were elephants in the room at Chartham
House; nagging questions begging for answers.
How would Buhari react as president if a military
coup were to be undertaken against his
government? Would he accept this in good faith,
since he was also guilty of the same offence? The
truth of the matter is that, as a former coup-
plotter, Buhari does not have the moral right to
seek election as president under a democratic
dispensation.
How can he justify jailing Odumegwu Ojukwu in
1984, even though Ojukwu did not hold any
political office? How can he justify jailing
septuagenarian Pa Michael Ajasin, an honest and
upright governor of Ondo State that did not steal
any public funds? How can he justify seizing Chief
Obafemi Awolowo’s passport, thereby preventing
the old man from seeking medical attention
abroad; while he sent his own wife and children
for medical treatment in the United States?
How can he justify killing Nigerians for
committing a crime that did not attract the death
penalty when they committed it? How can he
justify the jailing of journalists, even for writing
truthful reports? Buhari is determined to avoid
addressing such probing questions. But such
questions are precisely what a political campaign
is designed to answer. Frankly, Buhari’s past
record is malicious and indefensible. He can keep
running away from it, but he cannot hide from it.
Questionable health
One question was answered fulsomely at
Chartham House: Buhari does not have the good
health or stamina required for the job of
president. After campaigning for barely one
month, he needed a long rest in London. He
literally disappeared for two weeks to recharge
his batteries, bang in the middle of an election
campaign. This is nothing short of bizarre. A man
who cannot withstand the rigours of a one-month
presidential campaign is not fit to be president of
Nigeria.
Ekiti governor, Ayo Fayose, put it succinctly: “A
man who campaigned for four weeks, speaking for
less than one hour in all the rallies put together
and needed to rest for 15 days should just stay at
home and be playing with his grandchildren rather
than struggling to take up a job that he does not
have the required mental and physical strength to
do.”
When Buhari finally returned back home, APC was
foolish enough to organise a so-called One Million
Man March (attended by barely one hundred
thousand people) in Lagos; when it knew its
presidential candidate was too old to march.
Buhari was glaringly absent from the event. To
use the local expression, “he was nowhere to be
found.” www.vanguardngr.com/2015/03/why-buhari-will-not-agree-to-a-debate-with-jonathan/

k

Nice write up. In all honesty alot of valid points were raised and these need to be addressed by the opposition.
As usual femi is always worth hearing

@OP This is your personal Opinion influenced by the after effect of Cocaine.. When we warn you guys to stop takin' Hard substance, ya'll go on ignorantly..
Trash... Mstcheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwww

If I was Buhari I won't debate GEJ too, it would be an absurdity if he agrees. How would he be able to explain the litany of mistakes that is his own personal life?