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Still On Jonathan, Opposition And 2015

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By Chido Onumah

I would be deluding myself if I imagined that my article last week, “2015: Who will defeat Jonathan?” would not elicit the kind of “violent” outbursts that have trailed it. After all, this is Nigeria where you can’t take a position without being accused of “looking for something”. It is understandable. Some journalists and columnists have written their way to plum government jobs.

That piece was meant as a wake-up call for the opposition and an attempt to redirect the jaded public discuss on the future of Nigeria. In a way, the diatribes notwithstanding, I am happy we are gradually shifting gear and are inclining toward a proper debate about 2015.

This is helpful considering that the only debate on that subject so far has been name-calling and threats by ethnic warlords and religious bigots. If it is not Ohaneze N’Igbo shouting from every rooftop, “It is the turn of Ndigbo” or Dokubo-Asari threatening that the country will go up in flames with the aid of oil from the Niger Delta or Kingsley Kuku promising us that militants will return to the creeks if Jonathan is not reelected in 2015, then it is Prof. Ango Abdullahi or Farouk Adamu-Aliyu assuring us that the North (which North?) will break away and form its own republic.

In his rejoinder to my piece, Joe Igbokwe took umbrage at my assertion that, “If free and fair elections were held today (even though the PDP would never permit free and fair elections), chances are that President Jonathan will emerge victorious”. According to Igbokwe, “I do not know what led Chido Onumah to believe that PDP led by anybody in Nigeria today can win a presidential election in a free and fair process.

“Now the question is this: On what basis is PDP going to win this election? Is it based on performance? What is the basis? How good have we fared in the past 14 years to warrant Chido to make this egregious forecast? Are we getting better? If you still give PDP 50 years can it do anything better than what we have seen?”

Need we remind Joe Igbokwe that even with the knowledge and experience of the wreckage and wanton pillage since 1999, the PDP led by Goodluck Jonathan won in the South-west during the presidential election just two years ago? In the same South-west, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) won convincingly in the gubernatorial and National Assembly elections.

I did not infer that Nigerians do not have the capacity to bring about change by voting against PDP, but it will take more than saying President Jonathan is clueless to achieve that. For the avoidance of doubt and contrary to Joe Igbokwe’s assertion, I did not gloss over “the critical importance of performance in winning elections or the issue of party unity”.  The point being made here which was the gist of my article is that Nigerian voters are not as “sophisticated” as Igbokwe assumes, notwithstanding the grinding poverty, President Jonathan’s lack of performance and the unmitigated disaster that has been the hallmark of the PDP since 1999.

I have watched Goodluck Jonathan closely since I first met him in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, in 2006 during a continental environmental conference that looked at the impacts and implications of renewed mining boom on communities in Africa, and it is difficult to put performance and Goodluck Jonathan in the same sentence, yet he won a presidential election “convincingly” in the South-west, even with the level of education and exposure of voters in that geo-political zone. We need to know what made that victory possible in an opposition stronghold. Obviously, Nigerians notice the imperative of performance in winning election as Joe Igbokwe rightly noted, but whether this imperative is overriding every time is another matter.

I did not tie the future of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to one man – Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd) as Igbokwe erroneously implied. I was clear in my assertion. As an aside, the former head of state will be 73 in 2015. I personally do not support gerontocracy in an era in which the world is electing young and visionary presidents in their 40s.

Talking about the presidency in 2015, the APC, undoubtedly, is a party of immense potentials. But it remains just that, a party of great potentials. We would need to translate that potential to reality and time is of the essence. I stand by my assertion that, “If elections were held today, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd) is perhaps the only person with the pedigree, name recognition and national appeal who can give President Jonathan and the PDP a run for their money”.

“Is Chido saying that if anything happens to Buhari today, APC will not fill a presidential candidate in 2015?” Don’t we have more than 50 presidential candidates who can do better than Buhari if we search for them? Joe Igbokwe queried. The answer, my dear Joe Igbokwe, is that the issue goes beyond fielding a presidential candidate. You want to field one with the pedigree, integrity, national appeal and acceptability that stands a chance. Now is the time to make that decision no matter how difficult it is; not tomorrow, not next year. As a card-carrying member of ACN, and now by extension a member of APC, I would love to have the debate about the 50 potential presidential candidates in the party.

I appreciate what Joe Igbokwe refers to as “mines and bombs PDP mercenaries have been sowing on APC’s highway to reclaim Nigeria”. We must add to this the fact that APC is contesting against an incumbent president (whom some have described as the most powerful in the world) who has made corruption the directive principle of state policy.

I hope this resonates with Joe Igbokwe. Let’s assume elections are in April 2015. There are 36 states and 774 local governments in the country. If a candidate (but not just a candidate) emerged today, that means he or she has 22 months (or about 675 days) to make an impression. This is not an attempt to pull down the APC, but in all seriousness to show the urgency of the task at hand.

I agree with Joe Igbokwe that it is not “easy for ACN, ANPP, CPC and APGA to come together in today’s Nigeria to challenge PDP”. In my appraisal of the APC a few months ago, I noted, “If the APC succeeds, and I hope and pray it does, it will be “a marginal improvement over where we are coming from”. I ended the appraisal by quoting Edwin Madunagu who noted in his piece “Reflections on Party Combinations”, The Guardian, March 7 & 14, 2013, “Someone has referred to the newly-formed APC as the ‘new’ SDP. Yes, there are a couple of elements in common. But there is at least one more requirement for the APC: It has to show that not only is the status-quo totally bankrupt (which is the case), but also that the APC is a historically progressive way forward at this moment, and that it is the only one”.

“Now, if the question is, ‘Is the opposition ready to compete in 2015?’ please take notice that the answer is yes and this is final”, Igbokwe concluded. Quite reassuring! I am currently teaching a summer course for young journalists from around the world on media and information literacy at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. There are many students and academics from Egypt – some of them active participants in the “Egyptian Uprising”.

Very often our debates veer toward the situation in Egypt which bears an uncanny resemblance to what we have in Nigeria. After one year in office, Egyptians are tired and angry with Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood/Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and they are eager to end their reign. Egypt is known as a nation where people, no matter their religion or culture, leave together in peace. But that is no longer the case under Morsi who, late last year, granted himself unlimited powers to “protect the nation and to legislate without judicial oversight”. My students say he is destroying Egypt, undermining its constitution and using religion to divide the country.

“If elections were held in Egypt today what would happen to Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood?” I asked a group of students. They were unanimous in saying Morsi would “win”. I then asked why. The response was that the opposition had not been able to unite around a nationally acceptable candidate that could articulate the feelings of Egyptians. But beyond that, one perceptive student noted, “a lot of Egyptians are illiterate; they are easily swayed by religious arguments – which the Muslim Brotherhood is manipulating. The Muslim Brotherhood is well funded, getting support from some of the very rich countries in the Middle East. During election they will buy people with bags of rice, cloth and oil”.

Does this sound familiar?

•Onumah wrote from Lagos. e-mail: [email protected]

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Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.

Source: PM News

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Kano Transfers Over 1,000 Almajiris To Different States Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

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The Kano State Government on Saturday said it has transferred 1,098 ‘almajiris’ to different states of the country.

The commissioner for local government, Murtala Garo, disclosed this while presenting a report before the state’s task force on COVID-19 at the government house, Kano.

Almajiris are children who are supposed to be learning Islamic studies while living with their Islamic teachers. Majority of them, however, end up begging on the streets of Northern Nigeria. They constitute a large number of Nigeria’s over 10 million out-of-school children.

Mr Garo said the Kano government transported 419 almajiris to Katsina, 524 to Jigawa and 155 to Kaduna. He said all of them tested negative for coronavirus before leaving the Kano State.

Despite the coronavirus test done in Kano for the almajiris, the Jigawa government earlier said it would quarantine for two weeks all the almajiris that recently arrived from Kano.

Mr Garo said another 100 almajiris scheduled to be taken to Bauchi State also tested negative to COVID-19.

In a remark, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said the COVID-19 situation in Kano was getting worse. He appealed for a collaborative effort to curtail the spread of the virus in the state.

Mr Ganduje, who commended residents for complying with the lockdown imposed in the state, said the decision was taken to halt the spread of the virus.

Kano State, as of Saturday night, has 77 coronavirus cases, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

The decision to transfer the Kano almajiris is part of the agreement reached between Northern governors that almajiris in each state be transferred to their states of origin.

However, even before the latest agreement by the governors, the Kano government had been transferring almajiris to other states and neighbouring countries after it banned street begging in the state, most populous in Northern Nigeria.

Despite the transfers, however, no concrete step has been taken to ensure such children do not return to Kano streets as there is freedom of movement across Nigeria although interstate travel was recently banned to check the spread of the coronavirus.

 

Sourced From: Premium Times Nigeria

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COVID-19: ‘Bakassi Boys’ Foil Attempt To Smuggle 24 Women Into Abia In Container

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By Ugochukwu Alaribe

Operatives of the Abia State Vigilante Service, AVS, popularly known as ‘Bakassi Boys’ have arrested 24 market women hidden in a container truck, at Ekwereazu Ngwa, the boundary community between Abia and Akwa Ibom states.

The market women, said to be  from Akwa Ibom State, were on their way to Aba, when they were arrested with the truck driver and two of his conductors for violating the lockdown order by the state government.

Driver of the truck, Moses Asuquo, claimed he was going to Aba to purchase stock fish, but decided to assist the market women, because they were stranded.

A vigilante source told Sunday Vanguard that the vehicle was impounded while the market women were sent back to Akwa Ibom State.

Commissioner for Home Land Security, Prince Dan Okoli, who confirmed the incident, said that  smuggling of people into the state poses great threat to the state government’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID- 19.

 

Sourced From: Vanguard News

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Nigeria News

Woman Kills Her Maid Over Salary Request

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Operatives of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Yaba of the Lagos State police command have arrested one Mrs Nene Steve for allegedly killing her maid, Joy Adole

The maid was allegedly beaten to death by Nene for requesting for her salary at their residence located at 18, Ogundola Street, Bariga area in Lagos.

Narrating the incident, Philips Ejeh, an elder brother to the deceased said that he was sad when they informed him that his sister was beaten to death.

He explained that the deceased was an indigene of Benue State brought to Lagos through an agent and started working with her as a maid  in January 2020.

‘’She reported that her boss refused to pay her and anytime she asked for her salary she will start beating her.

She was making an attempt to leave the place but due to the total lockdown she remained there until Sunday when her boss said she caught her stealing noodles and this led to her serious beating and death,’’ Ejeh said.

He called on Lagos State Government and well- meaning people in the country to help them in getting justice for the victim.

The police spokesman, Bala Elkana, stated that the woman and her husband came to Bariga Police  Station to a report that their house girl had committed suicide.

Detectives were said to have visited the house and suspected foul play with the position of the rope and bruises all over the body which confirmed that the girl had been tortured to death and the boss decided to hang up the girl to make it look like suicide.

He said: “The police moved on with their investigation and found a lot of sign of violence on her body that she has been tortured before a rope was put on her neck.’’

He added that the police removed the corpse and deposited it in the mortuary for autopsy to further ascertain the cause of the death.

Elkana said the matter has been transferred from Bariga police station to Panti for further investigation while the couple have been arrested and will be charged to court.

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Boko Haram Attacks: Buhari Summons Urgent Meeting Of Service Chiefs

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President Buhari and the Service Chiefs in a meeting. (File photo)

Ostensibly alarmed by the latest killings of dozens of soldiers by Boko Haram insurgents, President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned an urgent meeting of Service Chiefs to find ways to stop the trend. 

He has also dispatched the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, to the neighbouring Republic of Chad for an urgent meeting with President Idris Deby and his defence counterpart. 

Knowledgeable sources said in Abuja on Friday that the president is worried by on the deterioration of security situation on the Nigeria – Chad Border that has led to the recently increased Boko Haram terrorism in the area.

The sources which did not want to be named in Abuja said: “Nigeria has a Chad  problem in the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) put together to secure the Lake Chad basin areas and repeal the Boko Haram terrorist attacks against all the countries neighbouring the Lake.”

The sources noted that Chad is believed to be having their own internal security challenges and this has reportedly led to their pulling away their own troops manning their own border around Lake Chad,  saying: “That lacuna is being exploited by the Boko Haram terrorists, who go in and out of Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to launch terrorist acts.  This is a clear illustration of the fact that terrorism is beyond national borders.”

When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed that the Defence Minister is going to Chad but said he is unaware of the purpose. 

Meanwhile, the military authorities are said to be in the process of identifying the families of the latest victims with a view to making contact with them. 

Credible sources revealed that it is the reason the president is yet to make any pronouncement on the matter. 

“The President has called an urgent meeting with the Service Chiefs, as well as the fact that families of the latest victims of the Boko Haram are being identified and contacts made before a government pronouncement on the tragic attacks. This, it is understood, is the reason for the silence of the government over the incident,” the source said. 

 

Sourced From: Tribune

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