₦airaland Forum

mrmetoo1:
I thought PDP said no one is going to vote Buhari again because they postponed election. Well I guess APC has gone to pay Bloomberg too

I only pray GEJ permits the elections to hold. I don't think the PDP realizes how tired people are of their misrule. This current fuel scarcity and the decimation of the naira only further encapsulates why the masses are yearning for CHANGE.

Enough of the scam falsely called 'Transformation'.

Even without the billions to match the FG/GEJ stolen loot, the General is still the man to beat. So much so that the ruling party's in panic mode.

Front page

Buhari Gains From Tough-Guy Image as Boko Haram Hits Nigeria

by Paul Wallace, Emele Onuand Michael Olukayode

11:00 PM CET

March 1, 2015

(Bloomberg) -- A party atmosphere descended on the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri as thousands lined the roads to welcome opposition presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari with chants of “Only Buhari” in the Hausa language.

Buhari’s campaign visit on Feb. 16 to the birthplace of the Islamist group Boko Haram before the March 28 presidential vote sparked an outpouring of enthusiasm for the 72-year-old former military ruler who many in the crowd believed is strong enough to end the militants’ six-year-old insurrection.

“This election is to me a life-and-death issue,” said Falmata Modu, a 45-year-old mother of four who fled fighting in the town of Bama and now lives in a camp for displaced people in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital. “I believe to quickly go back home, I need someone who can have this nuisance sent packing from our towns.”

Buhari, a three-time loser in presidential races, has gained popularity against President Goodluck Jonathan, 57, as Africa’s most populous nation reels from Boko Haram’s war and a collapse in crude prices hammers the economy. With many Nigerians blaming the ruling People’s Democratic Party, it may be the first time the opposition has a chance to win the presidency since the country restored democracy 16 years ago.

“This will be the most closely contested election since 1999 and there’s a good chance there will be a change in government,” Joseph Rohm, who helps manage $1.7 billion of equities for Investec Asset Management, including Nigerian stocks, said by phone from Cape Town on Feb. 17.

Investor Concern

Investors have fled Nigeria as Brent crude prices have fallen by more than 40 percent since the middle of last year. Outflows from the equity market in November were the highest since at least 2012. The naira has fallen 19 percent against the dollar in the past six months, the most among 24 African currencies tracked by Bloomberg. In January the International Monetary Fund cut its 2015 growth forecast for Nigeria to 4.8 percent from 7.3 percent.

While cities like Maiduguri may be home turf for Buhari as a northern Muslim, he’s also attracted crowds in the predominantly Christian south.

In the far southwest of the country, 25,000 people packed the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos, the commercial capital, in late January. When the man vying to be the next leader of Africa’s biggest economy and oil producer emerged, they too chanted “Sai Buhari,” or “Only Buhari.”

Buhari, a retired major general who lost to Jonathan in the 2011 election, has led Nigeria before, when he overthrew a democratically elected government on Dec. 31, 1983. His 20-month rule ended when he was ousted by another military coup. His government is remembered for a clampdown on corruption and human rights abuses, with hundreds of politicians, businessmen and journalists jailed.

Buhari’s Legacy

This could count against him, particularly outside his northern heartland, according to consultancy Teneo Intelligence. Ethnicity and religion play a key role in politics, with the country of more than 170 million people almost evenly split between a Christian south and Muslim north.

“It’s a legacy issue that Buhari will have to deal with,” Manji Cheto, a London-based analyst at Teneo, said by phone on Feb. 18. “There’s the suspicion in southern parts that there’s a northern push to dominate leadership in the country.”

Buhari’s supporters are adamant that his past record will bode well for Nigeria’s future.

“Buhari is a retired soldier, so we are not likely to see him allow his government to be messed around by corrupt people,” Jonathan Agbai, the chief executive of Jome Trading Co. Ltd., which sells Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. laptops shipped from China, said in an interview in Lagos. “When he was a military head of state we saw how he dealt with people.”

Political Tensions

Political tensions have risen since the electoral commission postponed the vote by six weeks until March 28 after the army said it needed more time to secure the northeast against attacks by Boko Haram. Buhari’s All Progressives Congress said the PDP coerced officials into the decision because it feared losing, an allegation the ruling party denies.

The APC, formed in 2013 with the merger of Nigeria’s biggest opposition groups, has focused its campaign on insecurity, the economic slowdown and corruption, which it says have worsened under Jonathan. Nigeria ranked 136th out of 175 countries in Transparency International’s 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index, in joint place with Russia and Iran.

“The corrupt will not be appointed into my administration,” Buhari said at a Feb. 26 appearance at the Chatham House research center in London. Nigeria has become “one economy for a few who have so much on their tiny islands of prosperity, and another for the many who have so little in their vast ocean of misery.”

Public Anger

Buhari’s campaign has benefited from public anger with Jonathan for failing to defeat Boko Haram. The militants now control swathes of the northeast and killed 1,600 people in January alone, according to U.K. risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.

“Buhari’s hoping that difficult times lead to greater support for him,” Mark Schroeder, an Africa analyst at Stratfor, a geopolitical advisory company, said by phone from Austin, Texas on Feb. 17. “The poor handling of the insurgency has raised criticism of the Jonathan government and shifted support to the opposition.”

Businesses say violence and a weaker currency make it harder for them to operate in northern states and pay for imports. Agbai, the computer salesman, said the opposition can make a change.

“I voted for Jonathan in 2011,” he said. “I made up my mind last year to vote for anybody that the APC brings as their candidate. I want to sell my goods all over the country but that’s not possible with the killings in some states.”

Job Creation

The APC will aim for economic growth of 10 percent, according to its manifesto. It also says it will create 1 million jobs annually and the same number of new home owners within a year.

Beyond saying he will boost property ownership by bringing down lending rates to single-digits, below the central bank’s main borrowing rate of 13 percent, Buhari has offered few details on how he will achieve these aims, according to Lagos-based Primera Africa Securities Ltd.

“Buhari has an economic policy,” Lanre Buluro, head of research at Primera Africa, said by phone on Feb. 17. “It’s just not a strong point for him to articulate it. He’s working on his strengths of being the anti-corruption guy who’s the ex-general, strong with regards to the military and a disciplined individual.”

There’s a need to damp public expectations about how quickly he can affect change, Buhari said at Chatham House.

Emotional Campaign

“Those who are following the trail of the campaign and see how people were turning out; some becoming emotional and crying, I’m really getting scared,” he said. “If I get there they will expect miracle moves in the next weeks or months.”

Buhari, who joined the military after secondary school and attended the U.S. Army War College, will be hard pressed to fulfill his economic promises, according to David Cowan, an Africa economist at Citigroup Inc.

“With the halving of oil prices, whoever wins is facing a completely different set of policy choices to what anyone’s seen in the last five years,” he said by phone from London.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-01/buhari-gains-from-tough-guy-image-as-boko-haram-wounds-nigeria

I wish Buhari would oblige him coz I know Buhari will floor him, notwithstanding his thick Fulani accent. Buhari sounds way more eloquent, confident and Presidential (as evidenced at his q&a session at Chatham), plus he has way more charisma than GEJ any day! Not to mention his killer delivery. He would so embarrass Jonathan, it would be a massacre. Confirm!

I wish Buhari would oblige him coz I know Buhari will floor him, notwithstanding his thick Fulani accent. Buhari sounds way more eloquent, confident and Presidential (as evidenced at his q&a session at Chatham), plus he has way more charisma than GEJ any day! Not to mention his killer delivery. He would so embarrass Jonathan, it would be a massacre. Confirm!

He's no longer his father, now he's his brother. PDP are running out of ideas and are beginning to sound very very foolish and stupid. Smh.

Jimmy is Just Kidding.

We have been hearing these same promises since Donkey years. Sir, I'd advice you take a break from making promises you can't can't keep, that way we adjust our expectations accordingly. Thank you sir.

Sai Buhari.

Truckpusher:
After the elections you'll go back to your shipping business .

LOL!!! Now that's funny, coming from a "Truckpusher". Nairaland will not kill pesin.

atlwireles:
Just read their comments on this thread, bitterness and anger on wholesale display.

Siddon there dey open teeth instead of you to caution your boss to get a competent speech coach that will vet his public statements before he utters them, that way he will stop embarrassing himself and the entire nation publicly.

If so then FFK, Doyin Okupe, and Fayose must be closet APC members. What a dumb statement.

Sodams:
Come, let us reason together.

If Tinubu has milked Lagos dry, how come its still the best state and role model to other states all over Nigeria.?

Come, you are wasting your time trying to reason with these fellas. They are ethnic supremacists from a particular ethnic group, with the exception of barcanista. They are cyber thugs who have been pre-programmed to irrationally hate anything Yoruba, APC, Buhari, Osinbajo, Asiwaju, Fashola, etc.

You simply can't reason with them so don't hold your breath bro.

March 4 Buhari, May 4 Jonathan. I like the sound of that.

OREMUSSANCTUS:
ya father is a pig

Yo, why are you stalking me on every thread.?.? Are you a Fa.g.got? Stay away from me coz I have a wife and luv pu.s..sy. I don't do ni.g.gaz.

Wonders shall never end. All of a sudden Fayose loves and cares about Buhari. I guess no more death wishes from him. Mofo.

OREMUSSANCTUS:
woe to dat bastard dat gave birth to ya

Yo' momma

I hope he's telling them why I had to queue for fuel yesterday, and why investors are fleeing our economy, and why electricity is an essential commodity that is being rationed and why Naira is taking serious pounding. No tales by moonlight please.

I hope he's telling them why I had to queue for fuel yesterday, and why investors are fleeing our economy, and why electricity is an essential commodity that is being rationed and why Naira is taking serious pounding. No tales by moonlight please.

These are the real issues we ought to be discussing. As we speak I am running on inverters coz I got no electricity. Had to wait hours yesterday in queue before purchasing fuel. The economy is in shambles. Investors are fleeing,Naira is taking a pounding.

Those are the real issues at stake here, issues that affect every Nigerian.

Wonders shall never end. All of a sudden Fayose loves and cares about Buhari I guess no more death wishes from him. Mofo.

OREMUSSANCTUS:
He's saying d truth, d north re only being played by tinubu. He wants to use buhari to get his goal, which is federal powers

When did you start caring about the Northerners? You hypocrite.

Icon4s:
This poll is nt a true reflection of the mind of Nigerians. Dnt be deceived by the outcome.

Because your hero is taking a beating you say it is not a true reflection of Nigerians abi? I guess the voters are Chinese or Ghanaians and not Nigerians. Mumu like you.

Matthewbriggs:
What did fashola do in lagos state. Aside clearing the ageboro boys and creating lag bus. please tell me.

I bet you would feel differently if Fashola was in the PDP today and kissing Jonathan's feet. We know your type wella

And let's assume Tinubu truly is guilty as accused, what then is stopping GEJ and the EFCC from prosecuting him? I mean you can't tell me he's above the law now can you? How does that make this gov't look, if it claims to have compelling evidence that a man is corrupt, and yet allows him to walk free.

If you ask me, I'd say it's a big indictment on this administration's failure to tackle corruption head-on.

P.S: we didn't hear none of this when GEJ cut a deal with the same Tinubu on 2011 to deliver the SW votes now did we. Get the Ef outta here.

Matthewbriggs:
Dude I am not talking about whether AIT is lying or saying the truth. I am responding to the naive and hypocritical comment of atibu1983. He displayed a common trait members of your party share.

You don fail. If the "messenger" lacks credibility then how do we the know their message isn't fabricated or cooked-up? Come on now, we're not toddlers here.

I just got a bright idea y'all. I think it's about time I too cash-in on this season of phantom endorsements.

I'm gonna setup a Youth Organization and call it, Yoruba Sons of the Soil Vanguard , and subsequently make a public pronouncement that my group and I have endorsed Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for re-election. I go chop im dollar and still vote for Buhari.

Hell yeah!

You call what is currently happening a momentum for PDP? Two weeks from today we shall know who really has momentum. APC are master strategists. You PDP folks are being deliberately set-up big time. Relax and enjoy the show.

barcanista:
If say the group endorse APC by now we for no hear word. Even the Arewa for SW don endorse Jonathan.

Nigerians are Marching On
Jonathan is Marching on>>>

And what will you say were (God forbid) Jonathan to drop dead today or tomorrow? Who is to say or predict whether Buhari won't outlive Jonathan?

Barcanista, you are not God ooo -- in PEJ's voice

When will AIT package and air a documentary on FFK? I'll like know more about that fella Like.. did he really gbensh Bianca? And did the great Ojukwu know about it? Now that would be a program worth watching, for a change.

Movesz:
Lol...

All hail biafra...

Buh if GEJ be the 1st president of RRB/USB and last nigerian president..

Wha system of government will they practise

Dictatorship

Another easy question to answer. Their preferred system of government will be a constitutional monarchy, thereby making GEJ the Authentic Eze Gburu gburu 1 of Ndigbo.

He'll double as their king (a literal walking diety) and President.

Movesz:
Lol.....who will be the biafran 1st president

That is a piece of cake question to answer. The first President of the Resurrected Republic of Biafra will be Dr. Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan