President Goodluck Jonathan today personally reacted in anger to a United States-based university administrator, Dr. Baba Adam, after Dr. Adam praised the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Adamu Muazu, for opting to resign rather than abuse General Muhammadu Buhari publicly.
Dr. Adam regularly sends emails to high-level Nigerian officials on a private listserv he created.
In his short note to Muazu, Dr. Baba drew attention to the prediction of a foreign think tank, Eurasia Group, which a few days ago predicted that Buhari would win the presidential election by at least 60%. The think tank had previously predicted a Jonathan victory.
Dr. Baba’s note got Jonathan revved up, causing him to fire an email to Dr. Adam from his personal gmail address, Goodluck Jonathan, “[email protected]”, in which he told Dr. Baba to “stop quoting write-ups that have already been discredited” as they are “not credible.”
“You may wish General Buhari win as you (sic) deem, but God's will shall be carried out on that day,” President Jonathan wrote. “Those people you keep quoting are not in Nigeria, and do not have any link to the grassroots in Nigeria, and do not even know what is happening here.”
He went on: “Also, the Think tank you quoted is a paid think Tank. So their polls are not credible.”
President Jonathan subsequently received his own earful from another outraged US-based Nigerian, Toyin Dawodu, who blasted him for using a Gmail account to respond to Dr. Adam.
“Isn't it shameful that a whole President of Nigeria cannot even operate its own email server to protect President Jonathan's communication?” he questioned. “Despite all the money voted for the Ministry of Communications and Technology, no single governmental agency in Nigeria has its own email server, to my knowledge.”
He pointed out that it costs less than $500.00 per month to own and operate an email server costs.
“Yet the so-called leaders of Nigeria and its lackluster government see it fit to squander money on getting re-elected just to continue digging holes of misfortune for 170 million Nigerians.”
The Eurasia Group had previously forecast a 75% victory margin for Mr. Jonathan, a prediction that Nigeria’s leader had not challenged despite apparently knowing they “do not know what is happening here.”
Revising its prediction, Eurasia Group attributed a Buhari win to several factors, including the intensity of support for his candidature, lacklustre grassroots campaigning by the PDP and the anti-rigging measures being put in place by the electoral commission.