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20 Reasons Why You Must Reconsider Your Stand On GEJ

April 1, 2011

First, he claims that he is “destined”, “called” and “God sent” to “rule”, and then you wish to ask…

First, he claims that he is “destined”, “called” and “God sent” to “rule”, and then you wish to ask…

1. Destined, called and God-sent to rule? Now, how is that different from the much talked about, much criticized “born-to-rule” slogan and mindset for which most politicians and military apologists of Northern Nigerian decent have been most vilified, maligned, dreaded, hated and resisted. How does it make it right juxtaposing or replacing one “born-to-rule” mindset with another “destined-to- rule” mindset; how does it make it less offensive, or less dreadful, or hateful? How does it make it less arrogant or conceited? How does a born-to-rule or destined-to-rule mentality beyond mere, empty, copy-cat sloganeering about “servant-leadership”, actually translate into a call to real service to the Nigerian people and God; how does it translate to true, selfless and exemplary leadership? That is the million dollar question that remains unanswered by either Jonathan or his ilk.

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2. Destined, called and God-sent to outlast, to outlive, to succeed, to take over from etc.? Also how does that translate into being destined and called to ‘out-perform’? Because except you are bringing some added remarkable value to bear on an existing state and situation of things, you are called, and you outlast and you outlive and you take over in vain. This goes as well for IBB, Abacha, OBJ and Yar’adua, just as well Hitler, Mubarak, Gadaffi, Gbagbo…all who were “destined”, “called” and “God-sent” in their individual rights, to not only outlast, outlive and take over from their predecessors and proceed to rule at various times in the history of their people- but to what intrinsically lasting, memorable, positive value? Who could ever argue that Lucifer was not called by God or that Judas was not personally chosen by Jesus Christ up to being entrusted with the office of the treasury?

In particular, how could we have so suddenly forgotten that the exact same things were also said about a thoroughly disappointing and shameless Obasanjo, who happened to be the “luckiest”, most “destined” Nigerian ruler, dead and alive, at returning again and again to the highest seat of power in our chequered history. For instance, in 1999, with the sudden death of Abacha and then Abiola in quick succession and the process of returning Nigeria once more to civil rule in top gear, without lifting a finger or knowing when or where the PDP was formed, coupled with even working against the people’s mandate of June 12, OBJ was thrown up by “happenstance” as the next Nigerian President. In prison, sick of diabetes and high blood pressure, slowly dying and refusing medications from Abacha’s doctors lest they administered to him Shehu Musa Yaradua’s kind of treatment, suddenly and mysteriously his jailer, Abacha, died, followed by Abiola, equally under mysterious circumstances and at once the coast was clear for OBJ to be catapulted to the highest seat of power, just as also happened in 1976 with the sudden assassination of his boss, General Murtala Mohammed following Dimka’s coup. The story of his kind of messianic “calling” even got a little bit sexed up and dragged through a couple of pulpits and social fora, unlike that of Jonathan, about (i) how he was Nigeria’s answer to Joseph of the bible and Nelson Mandela of South Africa, both of who proceeded from the prison to rule their people, and (ii) how he even got converted in Abacha’s gulag and he became a born again “Christian”, and was able to speak in other tongues, see visions and dream dreams. And we all foolishly believed the cork and bull story, thinking there was something in his visions and dreams for us, not knowing that it was all about Olusegun, Aremu, Okikiola, Matthew and Obasanjo, in the final analysis- precisely, his vision and dream of achieving for himself and family the following, namely:

i) Building the OBJ business brand (agro and allied, oil & gas, exotic hotel chain, aviation and banking) into the biggest and wealthiest conglomerate in the class to the point of owing a big chunk of the country itself.

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ii) Building the OBJ political machinery into the most powerful, ruthless and influential brand in the class, with power of making and unmaking presidents, governors, MPs, ministers etc.; manipulating, twisting around his finger or deciding when party constitution, for instance, on zoning, applies or does not apply, deciding who stays or gets kicked out of the PDP party etc.

iii) Becoming or seeing himself being referred to as the “father of modern Nigeria” and not the tormentor and troubler of Nigeria that he actually is.

iv) One day going to bed with his daughter-in law as well as seeing her mistress become Speaker of House of Representatives, leveraging on his enormous powers and influence as President and General Overseer of the PDP.

vi) One day seeing one of his scions becoming President of Nigeria just like himself, with the Senate and Ogun state government house as test grounds.

vii) Becoming the indisputable life patron and BOT Chairman of the strongest, most corrupt political party with only access to the “NATIONAL CAKE”, the PDP, with the ultimate hope of turning Nigeria possibly into a ONE-party state where opposition is completely eliminated.
viii) Owning a presidential library comparable to the best in the world, by hook and by crook

ix) Becoming or being perceived as Nigeria’s (if not Africa’s) greatest statesman and moral authority comparable to Nelson Mandela.

Now, that was OBJ and suddenly, like a people under the amnesia curse, we have switched gears to GEJ, again foolishly believing the same old and useless stories, with not even one out of the 7-Points-Agenda so vigorously promised us achieved, 3 years of Yaradua/Jonathan and 10 months of  Jonathan/Sambo’s Presidency running, yet with our foreign reserve and excess crude account so mindlessly depleted. So you see, it takes much more than being destined, called, God-sent, and ‘good luck’ to refrain from evil and do the right thing, to do good, to move from corruptibility to incorruptibility, to move from low life to high life, to rise above ingrained primordial instincts. So you wonder, why then are we carried away as though without a sense of history or the scriptures. Why have we then suddenly chosen to build up an altar of worship around personalities so gross, so materialistic, so mundane, so desperately wicked and selfish in their daily observable actions and utterances you can hardly see, sense, feel or touch God in them?

3. Destined, called and God-sent to rule without ever standing in any elections or being voted for yet going on to become a Governor and a President of the federal republic of Nigeria? That, too, in essence is a huge part of the sham and our dilemma as a people- the fact that we pretend to be in an electoral, representative democracy yet always having people since 1999 to date, ordinarily who are not electable, not voted for, or qualified to be voted for, or stood in any real election, or ever won in an atmosphere of free, fair and credible election, yet who have imposed themselves or are foisted on us as our ‘rulers’ and to rub it in, they insult us to our faces by claiming that they were God sent. But is God deceived? NO WAY! God will ever remain a fair and just dispenser of justice, who will never pander to a viewpoint just because it is popular. So, as bitter as it may be, it will ever be on record that Nigeria has never had any real elections, let alone a free, fair and credible one since 1999 to elect the 99.9% of the charlatans currently parading themselves as the people’s representatives and leaders.

Therefore, what is there to be celebrated about ACCIDENTAL MPs, Governors, Presidents and Rulers in general, as we have been saddled with so far? What is there also to be celebrated about half-baked, half-groomed and unprepared AMATEURS arrogating to themselves the enormous task and responsibility of ruling the rest of us? What difference does it make whether a certain Goodluck Jonathan or anybody else has stood or not stood, voted or not voted for in any election before? OBJ, Tony Anenih, Ahmadu Ali, James Ibori (Yaradua/Jonathan financier), Barnabas Gemade, Nwodo, Haliru Bello, E. K. Clark, PDP Board of Trustees and Governors’ Forum- these fixers, schemers and scammers, plotters, manipulators and ‘arrangers’ do not each look anything like God- PDP gods and demigods, maybe- neither is any one of them likely to be a representative of a just and good God. Therefore, God cannot- should not- and must never be used to rubber-stamp the FRAUD and ORGANIZED CRIME that elections and leadership selection process so far have come to represent in Nigeria, especially as epitomized by the PDP-led government.

And if he is truly “destined”, “called” and “God-sent”… then you ask….
4. Why not as a leading light in the class of scholars like Soyinka, Achebe, Kole Omotosho, Eskor Toyo, Tam-David West, Gani Fawehinmi, Bolaji Akinyemi, Bath Nnaji etc.- supposedly fellow ivory tower personages like our ‘erudite’ Doctor President, who through their GOD GIVEN cerebral abilities, fertile minds, intellectual prowess, and knowledge power, exemplified in their powerful books, articles, seminal works and other invaluable contributions to scholarship have been able to not only RULE, touch, affect and transform their world far beyond the confines of our continent but are today some of Nigeria’s, nay Africa’s, most viable, most prestigious, and most positively contagious brands. Not only in the area of academics, some of them are also reputed, by dint of their hard work and humanity, mixed with destiny, yes DESTINY, as some of Africa’s most distinguished, outstanding and exemplary moral authorities in the class of the Mandiba. Or is Jonathan an intellectual nonentity?

5. Why not as a change agent who could have saved or contributed to the salvaging of the OMPADEC, where he once worked as the Environment Director, from avoidable collapse, brought about by collective, massive and widespread, free-for-all looting at the expense of the age-long suffering, oppressed and down-trodden people of the Niger Delta.

6. Why not as a breath of fresh air so badly needed under the locust years of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and even after he got butted out, succeeded by Mr. President as Governor, the culture of impunity continued unabated, with the people of Bayelsa State inheriting at the exit of Jonathan as Governor an unenviable legacy of N28 billion with absolutely nothing to show for it.
7. Why not as the first PDP President to rise above the inherent contradictions of his ‘calling’, ‘appointment’ or ‘selection’ by his God fathers and benefactors. Or the first PDP President to blaze a new and uncommon trail by refusing to follow the path of least resistance, by going against the evil and less than noble dictates and expectations of his ‘calling’, as it were. For instance, with his mind made up, plans firmed up and strategies perfected before hand on looting the resources of the people as soon as become the governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha apparently didn’t- and couldn’t have needed as his deputy a man of strong virtues, or a stickler to probity and accountability, who was likely to get troublesome and rock the boat for him. So what does he do? He goes in search of a weak, malleable, cowardly, conniving and acquiescent character; he goes not for someone in the mold of a Buhari or Tam David-West but for a Jonathan Goodluck. That was why while the massive and unprecedented looting went on in Bayelsa, GEJ as Deputy Governor presumably heard nothing, saw nothing and did nothing, and so couldn’t even have contemplated resignation. On account of this deficit in character, integrity and honor, he was adjudged by the PDP not complicit, or a collaborator or conniver or partner in progress, all of which actually he was, but instead ‘loyal’, ‘unassuming’, and ‘un-ambitious’, ironically. Yet, in his stead as Alamieyeseigha’s successor and substantive Governor, the culture of impunity continued unabated. In the end, Alamieyeseigha’s judgment of Jonathan was never proven wrong.

Soon afterwards it was time to choose the next President of Nigeria, an opportunity Obasanjo completely hijacked, by way of playing God over the fates and aspirations of a 150 million population. The outcome? We ended up being imposed with a duo single-handedly chosen and anointed by Obasanjo, perhaps in furtherance of his ill-fated 3rd term agenda, with the emergent President (Yaradua) ill-prepared, incompetent, terminally sick and more preoccupied with his health than leading a sick nation, and the Vice President (Goodluck), terminally weak in character, incompetent, clueless and more preoccupied with pleasing his paymasters than leading a patient nation. Again, what was OBJ’s consideration for Jonathan as deputy over and above the rest of the park: Peter Odili, Donald Duke, Attah etc., not necessarily implying any of these PDP characters may be any more morally upright?

i. Again, it was the need for someone of a weak, malleable, pusillanimous, conniving, acquiescent and an easily manipulable character.

ii. Someone not likely to be as ‘disloyal’, ‘assuming’, ‘overbearing’ and ‘ambitious’ as Atiku Abubarka, the estranged immediate Vice President to President Obasanjo.

iii. Someone neither capable of a righteous indignation nor a sense of revulsion for corruption nor evil generally, in whatever ways and fashion they be manifested.

iv. Someone who, as was also the case with Alamieyeseigha, will never dare look into the dirty, smelling cupboard of the predecessor- OBJ or any of his boys and girls.

v. Someone not able to go against the ‘ulterior’ motive behind his ‘calling’.

vi. Someone who will ever be eternally, slavishly grateful to the powers that be, most of all OBJ.

vii. Someone who must never outshine OBJ or his administration.

viii. Someone with whom OBJ in comparison must look good, if not better, and in time perhaps we may even become nostalgic of the OBJ era in retrospection.

ix. Someone who will never rock the boat.

x. Someone who will ever protect the interest and honor of the Cosa Nostra gang- the bourgeoisie elite- the less than 5% most corrupt and wealthiest God fathers, cronies, fronts, “friends”, associates and patronage-seeking foot soldiers of the President at the expense of the rest of us.

Now, since the day that the two upstarts (Yaradua & Goodluck) got anointed and foisted on us and for so long they have been a total disappointment and let-down to us, have they been known to disappointed their benefactors and paymasters? Maybe slightly by Yaradua, in the reversal of Obasanjos’s last minute heinous deals and subsequent sacking of Obasanjo’s hirelings, but by Jonathan, NEVER! Little wonder why Jonathan maintains the same set of ‘friends’ as all past Presidents of PDP, is sponsored by the same set of people, is surrounded in and outside government by the same set of people, wines and dines with the same set of people, consults and obtains advise from the same set of people, has his patronage to the same set of people etc.:

i. And still you wonder why Jonathan should be officially represented in the thanksgiving ceremony to mark the return of the ex-convict, Bode Gorge, OBJ’s henchman.

ii. Still you wonder why Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, OBJ’s mistress, and Farida Waziri each should be deemed qualified for a national honors award in Saint Jonathan’s GOOD conscience.

iii. Still you wonder why Bode Gorge should be replaced with Tony Anenih as NPA Chairman, after the latter’s most dismal performance as Works & Housing Minister, with the wife as Minister for Women affairs. Families specially ‘destined’ and ‘called’ to ‘serve’ the Nigerian people, abi?

iv. Still you wonder why right in our presence Alamieyeseigha the ex-convict has been granted a national pardon and elevated to the rank of a PDP ‘statesman’.

v. Still you wonder why even before he has won the election, out of desperation for power, he already has negotiated and promised our remaining patrimony away: oil blocks, juicy ministerial appointments, and other mouth watering contracts.

vi. Still you wonder why nothing is working or is ever going to work in the land, for as long as this culture of patronage and impunity continues, and mediocrity and depravity are celebrated as virtues.

Says Edmund Burke, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men to do nothing.” Question: is Jonathan a good man? Is he capable of being a good man? If he was, we should have been able to start seeing that from his deliberate and conscious choice of his friends, associates and actions. It is said that you need just to show your friends to be told who you are. Also it is said that he who believes in nothing falls for anything. Question: what does Jonathan believe in, and so much, that he is ready to lay aside a little bit of his personal comfort and cozy relationship with his friends and benefactors just for the sake of the rest of us? You can never be in doubt or confused about that as the President of the most populous black nation in the world.

Perhaps, it is safe and logical to conclude from the forgoing, that the only thing that is probably legendary or phenomenal about Goodluck Jonathan is his silence, his muteness, his diffidence, his timidity, his equivocation and by extension, his complicity, collaboration and connivance, often erroneously mistaken for "loyalty", “unassuming and “un-ambitious” disposition, in the face of monumental corruption, ineptitude and mis-governance like we have seen perpetrated wherever he has had the rare ‘good luck’ of serving: under Horsfall’s OMPADEC, Alamaesigha, Yaradua and still going on in present Jonathan’s government.

VERDICT: While he has continued to give us the middle finger and treat us with contempt, not for once has he been found to disappoint or prove his paymasters WRONG, on whatsoever are the ulterior motives each time for appointing and anointing him to any office. Why, because he simply hasn’t got it in his nature or character to be anything but a STOOGE, because deeply, deeply compromised, gutless, spineless and a quintessential wimp.

8. Why not as the first PDP President, beyond pretended piety and hollow spiritualese, to usher in a truly God fearing, honest and sincere, people-oriented, people-loving and people-respecting administration devoid of culture of immorality, soullessness and sheer mindless disregard to the plight of the people to the point of mindless abuse of their rights and the bleeding and looting of the resources as has been the albatross of almost all past rulers to date. PDP’s kind of morality is about swearing each other to a special kind of unholy communion known as oath of secrecy (Yaradua, Gbenga Daniel, Chris Uba and Ngige) and rewarding barefaced criminals (Bukola Saraki, Ibori, Dariye), drug barons and addicts (Muarice Ibekwe, Timipre Sylva, Lucky Igbinedion), 419ers (Ohakim), cultists (Orji Uzor Kalu, Theodore Orji), murderers (Mbadinuju), touts (Akpabio), thugs (Adedibu), and vagabonds with stolen mandates and enthroning a few others as elders (Anenih, IBB, Ciroma) and thieftains (Alams, Bode Goerge). And meanwhile these are some of the atheists, or at best infidels, that have been variously referred to as “Christians” and “Muslims” on the basis of which the Nigerian people have been unnecessarily religiously polarized, and power negotiated and zoned; people whose hearts are so far, far away from God they must be pulsating or palpitating with a devilish kind of energy

9. Why not as the first PDP President to distance and dissociate himself, openly and secretly, from some of the most corrupt and very-same plunderers of our common patrimony, known to have attached themselves like a leech to any and every government in power. Instead, this President would have no qualms surrounding himself and feeling most comfortable with certified bandits and treasury looters and being bankrolled by same. He would also have no qualms appointing dead woods as Attorney General and Head of ICPC (a septuagenarian) respectively, in addition to the extremely corrupt Hafiz Ringim as Inspector General of Police. He would also have no qualms negotiating under the table for Ibori’s return or partaking openly in the celebration of the return of ex-convict Bode Gorge. He would also have no qualms negotiating, out of desperation, with just about anybody- the good, the bad and the ugly- perceived to hold the slightest key to his victory, with promises untold.

Yet, he comes along with a big, fat integrity question mark dangling over him and his wife pertaining to money laundry charges that won’t go away, running into billions of naira, plus billions of naira left in Bayelsa coffers after Alam’s impeachment which got spirited away inexplicably under Jonathan’s watch, added to billions of dollars left in the excess crude account and foreign reserve by Yaradua also virtually wiped out by Jonathan with nothing to show for it. Jonathan also has an unenviable record of having God-fathers, bosses, mentors, friends and associates who are mostly corrupt and jaded: God-fathers: OBJ, Tony Anenih, E.K. Clark, T.Y. Gemade, Danjuma et.; bosses: Albert Horsfall, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, Umaru Musa Yaradua, Olusegun Obasanjo; Mentors: OBJ, Tony Anenih, Bode Gorge, Jerry (AGIP) Gana et.; associates: the Governor’s forum, Mike Oghadiome; friends: Dangote, Otedola and other captains of the biggest, most monopolistic industries and cartels in the land. Given the above scenario can you help asking: where is the quality mentoring and influence, where is the competence, where is the character and integrity required of Jonathan to succeed as a President?

10. Why not as the first PDP President to maintain a lean, frugal, efficient, prudent and accountable government free from culture of patronage, wastage and impunity, whereby more tax payers’ money and resources are expended on capital projects and less money on running a large, useless and unsustainable government because drastically scaled down in size. Instead, this President will have a world record as the first president to fritter away within 9 months about $10 billion in foreign reserves at a time of unprecedented export boom, with oil price approaching a $100 per barrel. Also Jonathan would have a world record as the President with the fastest rate of debt accumulation in Nigeria’s history, even at a time of oil boom and presenting a 2011 budget where not a kobo of oil revenue is spent on infrastructure, power, etc. but 114% of revenue spent on consumption. He would also be the first President to be warned by his own Presidential Advisory Committee (PAC) on the consequences of not drastically cutting down on his size of government, which he would choose to ignore and continue to maintain to date.

11. Why not as the first President in a long, long time to keep his wife under reasonable checks, so we are able to tell between the President and the wife…

i) who actually calls the shots,

ii) who is more obsessed with and desperate for power,

iii) who is the worse spender (waster) of our tax payers resources,

iv) who has more aides and hangers-on,

v) who has more official and unofficial engagements.

Just like the immediate past semi-illiterate and very ambitious first lady of Nigeria, we needed also to know between Jonathan and his wife…
vi) who is better at paralyzing activities across the state capitals of the federation due to large scale entourage leading to blockade of airspace, major roads and highways associated with frequent, useless Presidential movements,

vii) whose face is more apt to be seen on the PDP-government controlled NTA,

viii) who is more flippant, uncouth and un-presidential in behavior and utterances,

ix) whose UMBLERRAH is more nauseating than the other, and

x) who is better at castigating and abusing elected Governors and officials of the various states, from Kaura-na-moda to Kokomaiko and from Rivers State to the South West etc.

12. Why not as the first Nigerian President and perhaps second African President after Nelson Mandela to willingly and honorably relinquish power without a fight. Can you imagine what Jonathan’s national and international rating and political profile would have become had he as much as exhibited a little bit of restraint, honor, integrity and character by staying away.

13 Why not as the first President to bequeath Nigerians with the best elections we have ever had as a people, in which he role-plays as a neutral, non-partisan umpire as was also advised by his own Presidential Advisory Council (PAC). June 12 only was possible because IBB, though reluctant like Jonathan to relinquish power, was not joined in that election as a contestant.

14. Why not as a President to be remembered for an enduring, lasting, positive, people-oriented legacy- some kind of tangible, verifiable, added value touching on as many lives as possible, and which are easily and readily recalled to mind. Not the shit about “Nigerians know what we have done” that he keeps poking into our faces.

For instance, whereas Dora Akunyili and Nuhu Ribadu can both be remembered for their giant strides at NAFDAC and the EFCC respectively, Oby Okwesili as the Due-Process lady, Okonjo Iweala for championing the repayment of our foreign debts, El Rufia for the restoration of Abuja master plan, Soludo for the Banking sector consolidation and reforms, Donald Duke for TINAPA and its tourist potentials, Fashola for his re-invention of Lagos, Buhari for his war against indiscipline & corruption- WAI, Tunde Bakare for the Save Nigeria Group- SNG; What can we ever remember Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan for? What is he bringing on to the table as his bargaining chip for our votes, so he can remain in power beyond May 29th, 2010? ABSOLUTLY NOTHING!

If Goodluck Jonathan were not vacuous and clueless about the actual demands of leadership like all his other PDP co-travelers, he should have been putting forward some of his past and present outstanding accomplishments, if any, for which he should be judged qualified for continued stay in office. I am sure if there were such a thing, they would have long unearthed it, repackaged it, rebranded it, remolded it, and added a few spices here and there with a view to serving them fresh to us as his selling points. But because there is simply no such track record anywhere and they couldn’t possibly manufacture any, they continue to beat about the bush over qualities that do not exist. At best Jonathan has continued to promise us in the future tense: WE WILL, WE SHALL, WE ARE GOING TO, WE PROMISE TO etc.

15. Why not as the first PDP President to think, speak and do things differently on the Niger Delta matter beyond a continuing, all too familiar and predictable culture of impunity even to his own very people. And you ask, why, like the larger Nigerian nation, is the Niger Delta blessed with mostly reprobates, scoundrels, scalawags, wastrels, opportunists, unscrupulous elements, rogues and renegades as “leaders”? Leaders, who are motivated more by greed, lure for lucre and an undisguised lust for raw power than by any noble ideal. Leaders, who are totally out of touch with the innermost yearnings, desires and aspirations of their warm hearted, accommodating and peace loving people; Leaders who still do not know that leadership is about the welfare and wellbeing of the people. Again, you ask, why are these dishonest and misguided leaders, so-called, always inexorably bent on providing the people those things they never asked for or wanted in the first instance?

i) For instance, they claim to have granted us amnesty while we insist that we are no criminals, or committed any crime against the state for asking (agitating) to be treated a little better than animals, and so are deserving of nobody’s f---king pardon.

ii) They claim they have restored peace (of the graveyard) in our region while we insist we were never at war (except the one brought upon us by the Niger Delta PDP Governors and politicians, including Jonathan) or needed or asked for peace but justice and equity.

iii) They claim they have provided us about 10,000 jobs, probably which only exist in their diseased imagination or maybe they are referring to the innumerable advisers and assistants (about 150) hired between Jonathan and his wife alone- aides whose wages cost (bleed) the nation about N780million per annum.

iv) They talk about skills acquisition program for the boys, no doubt referring to the boys shipped off abroad as conduit for siphoning our scarce recourses as usual.

v) They talk about stabilizing the supply of fuel- another consumer product in a predominantly consumer economy, which is as idiotic as celebrating the steady supply of pounded yam or toot-pick. And what nobody tells us is at what cost to the Nigerian people, in terms of i) the scarce foreign exchange frittered away in the process, ii) the billions and trillions of naira expended as subsidies and import waivers, iii) jobs badly needed here but which are insanely outsourced to other people, and iv) the loss of the humongous opportunity for wealth optimization arising from a grossly underdeveloped downstream sector. Nobody also tells us to whose benefit- who are no other than the overnight billionaire friends, cronies and associates of the President and a few other PDP registered and card carrying members, with the singular privilege of always being the ones to operate an oil lifting and distribution license in the land as well as the only ones with the financial muscles for donating as much as N100 or N200 or N500 million in support of the PDP President’s campaign or any other obscene pet project by the first family.

vi) They claim he always delivers on his promises yet this would be his first time ever of canvassing for anybody’s votes anywhere, so how could he have been keeping promises that were never made, except perhaps feeding us with yet another tissue of their pack of lies.

In spite of President Jonathan’s promise of commitment to the development of the Niger Delta, and after 10 months in the saddle of leadership, what is the TRUE state of affairs in the Niger Delta, 12 years ago and NOW?

a) There are still no new industries being built anywhere or efforts made to support or resuscitate existing ones in the region, as a result of which many businesses have closed shop owing to the unfriendly business climate brought about by insecurity, unavailability of power supply and the attendant prohibitive cost of doing business. Some of the companies that easily come to mind include: Michelin, Panalpina, Wilbros etc.

b) Whilst with ease Jonathan can expend N18 billion for an additional jet to his presidential fleet and yet another whooping N500 million for the refurbishment of the Vice President’s kitchen, there are still no jobs created anywhere in the region as a result of which poverty, criminality, militancy, kidnapping and unrest- all brought about by frustration is the order of the day.

c) Whilst with ease N600 million can be budgeted for mere change of carpet in Jonathan’s Aso Rock, Oloibiri, where oil was first stuck, remains a ghost town.

d) Gbaramaturu, Anyakoromo and other Ijaw villages (as Odi before now) are routinely bombarded by the JTF on the orders of President Jonathan.

e) Environmental pollution (gas flaring and oil spillages) goes on unmitigated, un-remediated.

f) The coastal towns and villages of the region remain in grave danger of being washed away with more land territories and settlements being daily reclaimed from coastal encroachment.

g) Whilst with ease a 4km Abuja runway to nowhere contract can be awarded for N64 billion under Jonathan’s watch, the East-West road, one of the most important and highly politicized road networks in the history of this country, remains a death trap.

h) The amnesty program remains not only an ungazetted sham, ill-conceived, a distraction and unsustainable but dead on arrival.

i) The duplicitous and fraud infested duo of the Niger Delta Ministry & NDDC, best identified and described as by-words for corruption, reminiscent of the OMPADEC, continue to pussyfoot.
And now………………

16 Why must he be “destined”, “called” and “God-sent” ONLY to succeed himself, typical of every self seeking, parochial, change repelling, class protectionist, and corrupt incumbent African President.
Unfortunately, this is the only POSSIBILITY all the troublers and enemies of the people of Nigeria happen to be obsessed and fixated with; referring to the TRUE change antagonists, the class protectionists, the lying prophets of doom, the bribery & corruption community, cash & carry journalists, the two-dozen-for-a-penny stand-up comedians and clowns, pretender celebrity artistes without conscience, the less than 5% most corrupt and wealthiest God fathers, cronies, fronts, “friends”, associates and patronage-seeking foot soldiers of the President etc. This is the only possibility they are ready to encourage, support, promote, invest in, pray and perform rituals for, maim and shed blood for, beat the gong for and bankroll, using every trick in the book: falsehood, data manipulation, kangaroo polls, revisionism, religion, ethnicity, fear, intimidation, bribery, blackmail, extravagant political campaigns and advertisements, praise singing and sycophancy, rented crowds as evidence of popularity and large followership, support, endorsement and sponsorship obtained at the point of coercion, targeted deployment of the new media (facebook, twitter & campaign websites) and total hijack of state-owned and state-controlled media apparatus- electronic and print, most of all, the world’s most boring station, the NTA.

While mouthing platitudes about ensuring a free, fair and credible election, he goes on to participate in the same election which he had earlier on admitted to the Americans he wasn’t going to be part of, and also which has him as both the INEC Chairman appointer and paymaster, contrary to the letter and spirit of the Uwais Panel recommendation. On the one hand he talks about leaving a legacy of a free and fair election, yet which, ironically and contradictorily has him as a vested, biased, partisan, partial and pathologically desperate interest party, as a result of which the polity is today unnecessarily heated up and threatening to tear apart. Now, rather than keeping faith with the constitutional charter of his party on rotation of office of the President, which equally means respecting his own signature as his bond- also rather than staying out for now and concentrating on earning and consolidating on the goodwill of the people through service, as would also be advised by his own PAC, he greedily allows himself to be pressurized into running just like his predecessor. Not just running, he does so with an unrivaled sense of desperation for power never before known in the annals of our history, scoring him first in many instances, namely as:

i)the first President to ascend and knock down the ladder with which he climbed to the top,

ii) the first President to go campaigning with the ghost of a dead man,

iii) the first President to dollarize the bribe money usually doled out by aspirants to the delegates to the PDP Presidential convention,
iv) the first non-Igbo aspirant to assume Igbo names (Ebele & Azikiwe) in a desperate quest for Igbo votes,

v) the first President to claim he was destined to outlast and rule in his predecessor’s stead,

vi) the first President to claim that a man (the Ikemba, Ojukwu) so sick he could neither speak or write has given him blessings to “carry go”,

vii) the first President to agree to a political debate and later on turns around and runs away and in his flight, runs into the hands of a fame and publicity hungry kokolette turned both a quack and miserable “journalist” and a fake and self-imposed representative of the Nigerian youth,

viii) the first President to claim he has been endorsed by Okada Riders and Area Boys associations only for the later to openly deny him as being sold a dummy,

ix) the first President to turn a political campaign into a combination of a razzmatazz, jamboree, an extravagant carnival and showbiz, bleeding the nation a whooping N100 million on daily basis.

x) the first President to require that PDP’s habitual rigging at the polling booths be not recorded on mobile phones, hiding under the cover of his buddy, the Inspector General of Police

17. Why must it be under a jinxed platform like the PDP party?
i. Under the PDP and after 12 years of earning over $500 billion from oil sales alone, running into trillions of naira, what have we got to show for it: nothing but hardship and suffering, leadership failure at all levels of government, the worst forms of electoral fraud in black Africa, widespread treasury looting, policy somersaults, insecurity, a parlous state of the economy, poor electricity generation with over $20 billion so far expended, unemployment, a collapsed Medicare and education system with 98% failure rate in WAEC, massive infrastructural decay, do-or-die politics, the most expansive and expensive government ever maintained anywhere in the world, sectarian violence, militancy, kidnapping, Jos crises, Boko Haram, Abdul Mutalab, James Ibori, Aondoaka, MEND, Umblerrah, Okija, Osisikankwu, import & export waiver abuse for Dangote and his ilk, Iraqi-styled bombings, National Honors for crooks and vagabonds, “friends” of the President, oil lifting and prospecting license racketeering, N7 billion OBJ Presidential Library fund raising, N10 billion Turai Yaradua’s Cancer Center fund raising, N5 billion Jonathan Otueke-University fund raising, restoration of Dieprieye Alameiaghsia as ‘thieftain’, celebration of Bode Gorge as a hero etc.

ii. Declared by Ms. Piascik, the United State official ala the Wikileaks, “The PDP remains an agglomeration of interest groups formed around persons of prominence and power which are loosely tied together by a desire to remain in office and maintain access to the “national cake” or resources of the state”.

iii. PDP as a political platform and as a union of strange bedfellows- a “nest of killers”, looters, confusionists, cultists, schemers, fraudsters, dishonest and unscrupulous elements, opportunists and anti-democrats, has never been part of the solution to Nigeria’s problems right since 1999 to date, but instead our single most, greatest problem by itself and we must therefore never be deceived otherwise. Between OBJ and Atiku, Yaradua and Jonathan, Jonathan and Sambo there is no difference, just as there is no difference between Ibori and Dariye, Kalu and Igbinedion, Uduaghan and Ohakim, Daniel and Sylva, Akpabio and Aliyu Babangida, Bankole and David Mark. There is equally no iota of difference between Turai Yaradua and Dame Patience Jonathan- two illiterate, dangerous, overzealous and desperate power mongering PDP (former and current) first ladies bound by one outsized and unwieldy, leaky and useless UBLERRAH.

iv. Therefore, to continue to expect and believe that the PDP will someday deliver to us what they obviously and apparently haven’t got in their nature and character, is not just foolhardy but plain stupid of all of us, who must someday have to render account, one by one, to our children and children’s children for doing NOTHING while the rape by the PDP-led government lasted. Simply put: change is impossible with the PDP together with the clueless and rapacious characters that currently make up the party including moat of those they are presently parading as their aspirants, most of all Jonathan. In fact, the PDP, which is no more than a reincarnation of the defunct NPN by another name, in another time, is to Nigeria what Ben Ali of Tunisia, Mubarak of Egypt, Ghaddafi of Libya etc. each is to his people. And with agents of retrogression like these, nothing but riddance through a people’s revolution will suit, but in our own instance, a kind of electoral revolution. Therefore, without the PDP our problems are half solved.

18. Or maybe, for once, he was right in a sense- the sense that he may be actually God sent to precipitate the end to the 12 years hegemonic rule of the PDP and by so doing save us from the ordeal of the remaining 48 years to complete 60 years (more than the average life expectancy in Nigeria) of their projected demonic rule, by their warped prediction. In this particular instance, maybe he was right in an ironical sense.

19. In other words, Jonathan may after all be God sent as the last President of the largest, most undemocratic, most clueless & soulless, most murderous, most destructive, most anti-people/anti-development, most cliquish, most factious, fractious and divisive, most discriminatory, most demonic, most wasteful, most greedy, most self-centered, most opportunistic and most thieving party in Africa, the PDP, before its final disintegration like a broken calabash and consignment to the garbage heap of history. Just maybe!

20. And in the meantime, suffice it to say that Jonathan is just having the biggest carnival of his life, together with his wife, in what appears on the surface as, yes, the most extravagant and flamboyant campaign rallies in Nigeria’s history at N100 million/day bill to the Nigerian taxpayers, but which actually is, Jonathan’s “farewell sightseeing and farewell party”, farewell plundering and hemorrhaging of the Nigerian economy, all rolled into one, before a new glorious dawn.
 

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