₦airaland Forum

A few weeks ago, a friend asked if I thought the 2015 elections would bring General Muhammadu Buhari to the highest office in the land for the second time. I should know, this friend said, as I was for Buhari in 2011 when it was not fashionable to support him. I told him that Buhari has everything going for him this time around but winning was dependent on the way he runs his campaign. Buhari must step away from being Buhari to win.


He must hire professionals to manage him and his campaign. Unfortunately, Nigerian political class does not know that there is a science to running a campaign. This makes the problem not Buhari’s alone, but the problem has a greater consequence now more than ever as people are saying that we have a good chance to stop Nigeria from tipping over and falling over the precipice.


Nigerian Political class in general would pay for thugs, find musicians to sing their praises as political jingles and do a dance on stages in the market squares in a dozen capital cities and return to await good results. When some of them fail and the party in power wins, they blame rigging and incumbency factors as the reason for their failures rather than incompetence in managing their campaigns. This is not to say that there are no riggings during elections, but rigging takes place mostly where an opposition candidate is unpopular.

The best antidote against rigging is to run a good campaign to make you popular among the electorate. Let us look at the political scene. Good luck Jonathan of the PDP has been campaigning for this election in the last four years. He even had a group going round the country ostensibly to pressure him to run again.


At every stop, they told Nigerians that Jonathan has been the best thing to come to Nigeria. The President and the cabinet have been using every opportunity to tell the people of how this current administration has been performing wonders. From Okonjo-Iweala to Maku, there has been no shortage of Federal government functionaries to sing the President’s praises. This is aside from the usual hatchet jobs performed by the duos of Doyin Okupe and Reuben Abati on the opposition.


Okupe and Abati seem to have forgotten that they are spokesmen for the President of Nigeria and not for PDP. In all these, the oppositions were statute barred from campaigning. INEC must declare the coast free for electioneering campaigns at least 90 days before the election. It means that the President has had a monopoly of sending messages to the people.

Muhammadu Buhari on the other hand, is loved by his followers because of his integrity. Even that took Buhari three Presidential runs and an alliance with three other regional parties before his integrity become known to people outside his political influence.


Few people including the candidate of APC understand modern method of campaigning. There is no organized campaign team that wakes up to think about the campaign. Rather a potpourri of failed aspirants and favored party operatives are handpicked to be in a campaign team. These new campaign staffers are at best strangers to the candidates and are more interested in competing for positions after the election has been won. The Candidate is therefore left to rely on familiar former associates who are mostly errand boys who are happy to be close to him. There are no critical thought given to their actions.


They do what has to be done. They obtain forms and fill them out using information perfunctorily supplied by their principals. Such is the situation surrounding the current certificate question that is threating the Buhari campaign. If there is any one behind the wheels of the Buhari campaign, can anyone explain the purpose of the affidavit that Buhari swore to that says: “I am the above-named person and deponent to this affidavit therein. “All my academic qualifications, documents as filled in my presidential form, President APC/001/2015, are currently with the Secretary, Military Board as of the time of presenting this affidavit.


The affidavit is made in good faith and for record purpose,” My take on this is that Buhari cannot locate his original certificate and he is saying the Secretary of the Army would have a copy. If I were running Buhari campaign, I would have dispatch a letter to the army Secretary asking for a copy. The affidavit to the INEC would have stated the fact that my secondary school certificate has been lost and that effort was being made to obtain a copy from my former employer. The worst offence of the Buhari campaign is that it allows this non-issue to continue for a long time thereby eclipsing all other efforts to launch any new ideas it may have. Lai Mohammed who normally speaks for the party ruefully intoned to a pressman that the PDP was being disingenuous by denigrating a former Head of State. Would anyone think Muhammad Buhari did not have a school certificate before he became a general in the army? He asked.


Those are not the issue. The issue is that the law says you need a proof of school attendance up to school certicate or equivalent and you have to show proof. The campaign has been silent prompting the Jonathan crowd to wax eloquent. One man on social media needed Buhari to answer if in fact he attended a Quoranic school before joining the army. The undertone of the argument of those pressing for answers is clear as anything. Yes, Buhari was a former Head of State after a military coup. Nobody ever came up during those heady days of the army to say General Buhari’s certificate has been checked.


His colleagues merely said he has been made the Head of State. Three times in the past he has run for the same office but during those three times, his prospect has never been brighter, so we need to check his certificate now. The Southwest which is seen as providing the swing vote to a victorious candidate in this election have the majority of its voters as youths under the age of 35 years.


Those age groups are more swayed by educational attainment and in fact are apt to equate educational attainment to competence. In response, a supporter of Buhari has robed President Jonathan in an ill-fitting academic gown with a label – Igbo made Ph.D. – a euphemism for an inferior, counterfeit and worthess product. The silence from the Buhari camp is now being interpreted as the usual Buhari contempt for constituted authority and the law of the land.


To buttress this point, the Jonathan camp are saying that both Babangida and Buhari spurned several attempts to testify at the Oputa panel set up by the Obasanjo administration. While it is true that Buhari , Babangida and Abubarkar did not attend the Oputa Panel, they relied on the decision of the Irekefe Panel set up on the missing $2.8 million fund by the Shagari administration. Obasanjo had refused to personally show up at the panel to answer questions.

He successfully defended his action through his lawyer Chief Rotimi Williams. Chief Williams argued and the Panel headed by Mr. Justice Irekefe agreed that Obasanjo because he was a former Head of State, had become an institution and therefore could not be questioned regarding the decisions he took while in office.


It is clear that by not showing up at the Oputa panel, Buhari, Babangida and Abubarkar were merely availing themselves of the protection of the court granted them through Obasanjo. Shall we now say Buhari has willfully contravened the law as the Jonathan people are quietly circulating? I must admit that Buhari is not being prosecuted in the court of law but in the court of public opinion. The only way to answer them is through his campaign team. As it turns out, Buhari has to wait for his party propaganda machine to work for him. That may fail him.

The Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly, Dr. Adewale Omirin narrowly escaped assassination in Ado-Ekiti on Monday night.

According to reports reaching DAILY POST, there was a distress call in the neighbourhood where Omirin was visiting that some suspected thugs were laying siege to storm the house in a veiled robbery incident that would claim the life of the Speaker.

The distress caller, a source said, hinted that the house was the only apartment in the area with a generator supplying light and two dogs let loose. The caller further said the plan was to start robbing two houses away from the house and then storm the house to take Omirin’s life.

The caller was said to have claimed that he overheard the planners when they were about to carry out their operation.

“When we received the distress call giving these details, a call was placed to Dr. Omirin who confirmed that two dogs were let loose within the compound he was staying with a generator running.

“We called the Assistant Commissioner of Police who assured of immediate deployment to the place,” the source said.

However, there seem to be a twist in the story as another source from the state government claimed that the embattled Speaker has denied any attempt on his life in a meeting with the Ekiti State police command.

On the contrary however, Omirin, through his media aide, Wole Ogunjobi, has denied the report that he told reporters that there was no attack on him on Monday night in Ado-Ekiti.

He stated this while reacting to enquiries over the twist in the story that there was no attempt on his life.

Omirin, through Ogunjobi, said he never spoke with any reporter denying the report.

Corrupt politicians will end up in Kirikiri when I become President – Buhari

“I never spoke with any reporter that there was no attempt to attack me. What happened yesterday (Monday) was a clear case of assassination attempt,” he said.

Wot do you xpect ma brodas ........ she go praise God

The guys at 5Star Music appear to be a bunch of hungry men this Wednesday.

The entire music crew headed out straight for the bananas and it looks like they had loads of it with Kcee, Harry Song, Sosoberekon and new signing Skiibii in attendance.

Kcee shared the photo of their banana rampage on Instagram.

How does that affect Boko Haram

Hmmmm .... Am smelling business here

true talk

We won’t postpone 2015 polls – INEC

on January 06, 2015 / in News 7:43 pm / Comments

election-cartoon

*Says security situation ‘ll determine whether to involve Adamawa, Borno, Yobe states

By Joseph Erunke

ABUJA – IN what appeared like a direct response to Sunday last week’s call by Pastor Tunde Bakare, founder of Later Rain Assembly that the 2015 general elections be put on hold for six months due to current security situation in the country, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Tuesday, said it would not postpone the elections.

This was even as the Inspector General of Police, Sulieman Abba, warned politicians in the country against heating up the polity through their negative utterances, saying the police under his leadership would not hesitate to deal with political actors who flout the electoral rules as stipulated in the Electoral Act. He said nobody was above the law.

Both INEC and the police through the Inspector General, spoke in Abuja, at a workshop for the training of security agencies ahead of the general elections.

INEC, which gave the assurance of going ahead with the elections, also said funding was not a problem in conducting the polls.

Dr Ishmaeal Igbani, Chairman, INEC Electoral Training Institute, who spoke on behalf of the commission, said INEC was fully ready to conduct the 2015 elections, just as he said the commission was comfortable with the fund it has at its disposal at the moment.
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‎”Anytime there is election in Nigeria, there is always some form of tension. I have been around for a while, I don’t think it is something new. I don’t think people should be afraid. But it is also essential that we get ready just in case.

“It is also very important that we have peaceful elections, it is also important that voters come out to vote without fear. It is also important that the personnel who will work for us and the environment itself is peaceful and for it to be peaceful, it is important for the security agencies to be alert and ensure that they do what they are supposed to do,” he said.

I wonder Who it is this time around...Who do You Think it is?

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Make ma post enta FrontPage at-least once

You no even care say na sacrifice dem use am do abi ? O boy ... You dey vex ooo

Sharp Naija BOi you be .....

dunkem21:
Oh boy, na to comot all those red things, chop the kola, and thank the Lord for the gift of manna.

The wealth of the Gentiles is for the Righteous.

Bleszin:
I can perceive roasted BEEF

Beef wey you dey chop everyday abi ?

Mehn! Does this really exist
One look at this pic and the question on it makes the equation seems to be a difficult one.

Wot will you do if you see dis money made as a sacrifice for your area ??

Smellin body wey he dey show ..... instead make him go strip for Agege Bread

Flavour behaving like a kid since 1980 ......

Eleyi Le gi di gan ni oooo ...... Sometin wey God don giv you wey he gud

You con use hand spoil am ....... becos you wan luk beautiful ...... damage body

#DiarisGod ooooooo

Nawa ooooooooooo

Wetin we no go see 4 dis world ...... Na only Baba God go save us

The man don high ni ??

May she rest in perfect peace and not pieces

hmmm

Hmmm

hMMMM

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