Buhari Would Have Breached ECOWAS Protocol Signing Electoral Bill...Sen Omo-Agege

Senator Ovie Omo-Agege (Delta Central) said the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance forbids President Muhammadu Buhari from signing the Electoral Bill.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker gave this insight in a phone interview with newsmen in Abuja on Friday night.

Article 2 of the protocol forbids member countries from making “substantial modification” to their electoral laws less than six months to elections “except with the consent of a majority of political actors”.

Omo-Agege, who is a staunch supporter of the President, noted that with the elections less than three months away, signing the bill would violate the ECOWAS instrument.


NAN reports that the presidential and National Assembly elections are slated for Feb. 16, 2019, while those of governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections will hold on March 2.

Omo-Agege said, “I have yet to see the president’s letter to the Senate, but this bill means so much to Mr President. On a good day he would want to sign it.

“However, without even seeing the reasons he has advanced so far, I am aware of the challenges posed by the ECOWAS protocol.

“I don’t know if that is part of the reasons he has advanced, but with the bill coming two months or thereabout before the election, assenting to it will breach the protocol.”

Newsmen report that Buhari did not mention the ECOWAS instrument as part of his reasons for declining assent to the bill for the fourth time.

The president’s latest decision came in a letter dated Dec. 6, 2018 and addressed to both chambers of the National Assembly.

He said signing the amendment bill with elections close by could “create some uncertainty about the legislation to govern the process”.

“Any real or apparent change to the rules this close to the elections may provide an opportunity for disruption and confusion in respect of which law governs the electoral process,” he stated.

Buhari, therefore, asked the National Assembly to specifically state in the bill that the amended Electoral Act would come into effect after the 2019 general elections.

Reacting to the development, Sen. Peter Nwaoboshi, who represents Delta North on the platform of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said the reasons given by the president were “untenable”.

“It is not a good reason for him not to sign the bill because the Senate worked with INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) in preparing that bill.

“If INEC felt otherwise, they would have advised us when we were working on it.

“You are aware of the controversy that this issue of amendment of the act has generated, with people accusing the Senate of not wanting to amend the act.

“We amended it, but he declined assent the first, second and third time; he made certain observations, which we agreed with.

“We sent it again, and the reason he is giving now is that it will disrupt the election. It is really unfortunate,” he said.

An Abuja-based lawyer and civil rights campaigner, Mr Frank Tietie, said the credibility of the 2019 elections was at stake without the compulsory use of card readers as proposed in the bill.

Although, INEC has been using the card reader for elections since 2015, there is no provision for the technology in the extant electoral law, making its use optional.

Tietie said, “Without the card reader and electronic transmission of results, our elections have been subjected to might, brute force and the power of money.

“Card readers and electronic transmission of results have totally eliminated that, and there is need for a legal force to that.

“This is what the amendment seeks. Buhari’s refusal to allow the card reader and electronic transmission of results will only lead to electoral compromise,” he said.

In September, Sen. Ita Enang, Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant (SSA), said the president had no problem with the use of the card reader contrary to allegations by the opposition.

Why PMB didn't sign Electoral Bill...

“Pursuant to section 58 (4) of constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), I hereby convey to the House of Representatives, my decision on 6th December 2018 to decline Presidential Accent to the Electoral (Amendment) Bill , 2018 recently passed by the National Assembly,” he wrote.

“I am declining assent to the Bill principally because I am concerned that passing a new electoral bill this far into the electoral process for the 2019 general election which commenced under the 2015 Electoral Act, could create some uncertainty about the applicable legislation to govern the process.

“Any real or apparent change to the rules this close to the election may provide an opportunity for disruption and confusion in respect of which law governs the electoral process.

“This leads me to believe that it is in the best interest of the country and our democracy for the national assembly to specifically state in the Bill, that the Electoral Act will come into effect and be applicable to elections commencing after the 2019 General Election...

“It is also important for the following drafting amendments to be made to the Bill: section 5 of the Bill, amending section 18 of the Principal Act should indicate the subsection to which the substitution of the figure “30” for the figure “60” is to be affected.

“Section 11 of the Bill, amending Section 36 should indicate the subsection in which the proviso is to be introduced.

“Section 24 of the Bill which amends Section 85 (1) should be redrafted in full as the introduction of the “electing” to the sentence may be interpreted to mean that political parties may give 21 days notice of the intention to merge, as opposed to the 90 days provided in Section 84 (2) of the Electoral Act which provides the provision for merge of political parties.

“The definition of the term “Ward Collection officer” should be revised to reflect a more descriptive definition than the capitalized and undefined term “Registration Area Collation Officer.”

Muhammadu Buhari

A woman spotted the snake

Simon Kolawole
Three years ago, Oronto Douglas, then adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, lost his brave battle with cancer. He fought to the very last minute. For once, cancer met a stubborn victim who refused to go down without a fight, even when the odds were hopelessly stacked against him. His death on April 9, 2015 – four months to his 49th birthday — is one of the most heartbreaking experiences I have had in my life. I wept like a newborn. We were good friends for nearly 20 years, although we also frequently argued fiercely, mostly on issues of governance and development. Since his exit, I often replay, in my mind, our discussions and debates about democracy and nation-building in Nigeria.

One of such is the anti-graft war. I often argued with him that Jonathan was not doing enough to contain corruption, especially as he was apparently reluctant to get rid of certain elements perceived to be extremely corrupt in his government. Oronto never uttered one bad word about Jonathan to me, which I understood very much. He kept telling me the president was doing his best within the circumstances and peculiarities of governing a politically and economically complex country like Nigeria. His view, which I found very consistent, was that to fight corruption effectively in a country like ours, you need to deploy different approaches beyond “public lynching”.

Indulge me to paraphrase him: “There are institutions that have to be strengthened if you want to fight corruption in a sustainable way. You need the police, EFCC and ICPC to be led by competent and independent people and to function properly. I will call that the institutional approach. You need the prosecution to be robust and the judiciary to be alive to its responsibility. I call that the legal or enforcement approach. You also need public bureaucratic processes to be well established and enforced. That is the administrative approach. Finally, you need a re-orientation of the populace as well, and that is the most difficult aspect of the war.”

We both agreed that it is a combination of these approaches that will lead to a robust anti-graft war, but we failed to agree that Jonathan needed to make a scapegoat of some top government officials as part of the overall strategy. He told me plainly: “Public lynching is one thing President Jonathan does not like. There will be temporary applause but that will not address the problem beyond the media trial. He will allow EFCC and ICPC to do their job without interference.” In truth, it was not as if we disagreed fundamentally, but I kept telling him that for the optics, Jonathan needed to fire some ministers and take some tough actions before he could be perceived as fighting corruption.

Oronto often said something that did not make much sense to me then but which, on hindsight, was important. Jonathan’s preferred approach, he said, was to prevent corruption from the root and reduce the more difficult task of enforcement with all the complications that come with legal battles. He also said the measures being adopted by Jonathan would outlive his government. How true. Although, there are now startling revelations about the corruption under Jonathan’s government, it is ironic that some of the instruments being used by the Buhari administration to expose the rot were actually started by his predecessors. And this brings me to the focus of our discourse today.

First, much of what Oronto said about administrative strategy is yielding fruits. The idea of a treasury single account (TSA) started with Obasanjo in 2004 before it was abandoned. Jonathan dusted it up and partially implemented it. Buhari has fully implemented it. TSA has helped to eradicate a certain type of corruption in ministries, departments and agencies. From time immemorial, MDAs would place funds with banks at a low rate and leverage on the same funds to borrow money from the same banks at a high rate. The bankers and the civil servants were sharing the spoils across the fence. The full implementation hurt the economy and I wanted it reversed at a point, but you really cannot make omelette without breaking an egg. All government revenues can now be monitored real time.

Another administrative approach introduced by Jonathan is the integrated payroll and personnel information system (IPPIS) which uses the biometric system to verify civil servants and eliminate ghost workers from the payroll. Nigeria was losing hundreds of billions of naira to evil servants in the past, but through IPPIS today, ghost workers have relocated to hell. It was recently reported that 80,000 police “officers” were actually ghosts. They have been eliminated by IPPIS. Also, the biometric verification number (BVN) is a major tool in the hands of EFCC in its anti-graft war. Nobody who has a bank account is “safe” anymore. A simple administrative approach is fighting corruption without firing a bullet.

Recently, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, the spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), started the #BuhariChallenge on Twitter with a satire: “Anyone on this street that can name one infrastructural development project initiated and completed by @MBuhari since he assumed office will get a 50k prize from me.” Mr. Tolu Ogunlesi, President Buhari’s social media aide, replied: “The PDP Admin left behind HUNDREDS of abandoned projects, that the Buhari Administration has been painstakingly completing, one by one. Only an IRRESPONSIBLE Govt would set aside important ABANDONED projects to instead be chasing the cheap glory of ‘We started our own!’” And that’s how the fight started…

It took only a couple of minutes for Twitter to catch fire, which was not surprising by the way. Nevertheless, the pattern of responses reinforced my distaste for partisan politics. The comments kept coming in – from the mundane to the ridiculous – and if you enjoy humour, you would laugh yourself to the point of no return. I love humour, yes, but I was so disheartened by some of the things that were being said. There is this mindset that refuses to see government as a continuum, that can’t see the state as an institution rather than a person. I understand that people must play politics, but at what stage does Nigeria become our primary constituency?

One common trend in Nigeria is that people go into government with a mindset of dissociating themselves from their predecessors, thereby discontinuing inherited projects in order not to be taunted as not having new ideas. God only knows how many court cases Nigeria is fighting at the international level because one government comes and breaks the contract entered into by another. We are paying millions of dollars in litigation and settlements. At the state level, it is so common for new governors to discard the programmes and policies of predecessors simply to make a point that they have their own ideas. Good policies and projects are sacrificed. Nigeria cannot make progress that way.

We need a new mentality, a new mindset that says “Paul planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase”. Or, to put it in local parlance, “woman see snake, man kill am, case closed”. As long as a snake bite has been averted, the argument over who spotted it and who killed it is purely academic. I will always say that politicians must play politics. I cannot argue over that. But the pattern of comments by ordinary Nigerians appeared to suggest that most of us have been sucked in by the war of attrition between PDP and APC. We cannot use this war to define Nigeria. Jonathan started a project, Buhari completed it – Nigeria and Nigerians are the beneficiaries. That should settle it.

Infrastructural projects, by the way, take time. We conceived a mega power project in Mambilla, Taraba state, over 40 years ago. Governments have come and gone but the project, which can generate up to 3,500 megawatts, had no life. Buhari has shown more seriousness in finally getting it off the ground. If it is completed and we begin to enjoy better power supply, who cares whether it is APC or PDP that did it? Obasanjo conceived Abuja-Kaduna rail, Jonathan did most of the work and Buhari put the finishing touches, and so what? We are moving to self-sufficiency in rice but the journey started under Obasanjo was continued by Yar’Adua and Jonathan, and has been revved up by Buhari. All we need is rice!

I can understand the anger of the PDP that no credit is being given to them, that they are only being portrayed as looters by the APC government. I sympathise with them. But that is at the level of politicking and I would leave the matter to the partisans to fight themselves to the finish. We, the ordinary Nigerians, should see the bigger picture: previous administrations started important projects in infrastructure and agriculture and Buhari did not abandon them. Instead, he is pursuing the completion with determination and passion. As a Nigerian, I am truly, truly excited by this. Everything cannot be politics. Politics cannot be everything. Let’s try to focus on the progress of Nigeria once in a while.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Park Geun-hye, the former South Korean president, has been sentenced to 24 years in jail with a fine of $17 million. Her offence was “minor” compared to what we witness daily in Nigeria: she colluded with her friend, Choi Soon-sil, to receive funds from conglomerates, such as Samsung and Lotte, to help Choi’s family and fund non-profit foundations owned by her. Meanwhile, Lula da Silva, former president Brazil, is due to start a 12-year jail term for corruption and money laundering while in office from 2003 to 2011. In Nigeria, even former commissioners don’t go to jail, much less lawmakers, ministers or presidents. The jails are meant for pickpockets and bloggers. Travesty.

STATUS QUO

When news broke that Mr. Ali Janga, the Kogi state commissioner of police, had been removed because of the escape of suspects from detention, something told me this is impossible in Nigeria. I thought the world was about to come to an end. In Nigeria, government officials never get sacked for dereliction of duty — neither do they take responsibility for failure under their watch. You only get fired if you don’t have a godfather. After the announcement, the drama started. Mr. Esa Sunday Ogbu, his replacement, failed to assume duty, allegedly because he was warned not to by Alhaji Yayaha Bello, the state governor. Then Bello visited Abuja. And before you could blink, Janga was re-instated. Nigeria!!!

ROBBING PETER

Remember when government officials wondered why students were protesting over fuel price hike when they were not car owners? It’s getting better. Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, says the train fares between Kaduna and Abuja were increased because the majority of those using the service are rich. Hear him: “Some of you have been asking why we increased the fare between Kaduna and Abuja. For each locomotive, we spend N56 million, when we were charging you N600, we were getting N16 million so all you rich men, we were dashing you N40 million per month. Actually, very few poor men use those trains.” Now, I can confidently say I have seen it all. Ridiculous.

AND FINALLY…

“He died that we might live,” we Christians usually say about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Well, what about this? Two months ago, Scott Westgarth, a British boxer, tragically died a few hours after winning a fight. However, the 31-year-old had signed up for organ donation. His mum, Rebecca, has now revealed that his late son’s organs saved SEVEN lives. Millions of people die every year waiting for organ transplants without getting donors, but this can change if we are willing, like Westgarth, to donate our organs when we die. It is something health campaigners should focus us in Nigeria. Imagine the death of ONE man saving SEVEN lives! Invaluable.

Tinubu spoke angrily:

" Atiku Campaign Organisation and the PDP are trying to blackmail the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Police with the accusation of plots to rig the 2019 elections because they know that they will not win”.
"Senate President Bukola Saraki is using the mandate of the APC to negotiate and give a lifeline to the opposition. He left the PDP, joined us, got elected, got our mandate, our majority and sold it for a pot of pottage. God is honest, Saraki is not”.
"The rigging machinery of the PDP almost denied me re-election in 2003 when INEC published “fake results” on its website, the then Resident Electoral Commissioner insisted that what was published was not the real results.
"It was a shame for the opposition party to be celebrating an American visa for its presidential candidate who has so many party membership cards enough to build a house. That is why they are confused”.
“Come February, we will re-elect Buhari. It is not easy to put together a National Committee, but we are in the same family. As free-minded people, you are all free to be doing other things this morning, but you are here because you have the vision and the determination that Nigeria must continue the foundation and the progress of the future.
“Working together to re-elect Buhari is a task that must be achieved. Why are they complaining? Buhari is too busy to exchange words with them because he building a foundation of a prosperous Nigeria that will magnify the economy and provide employment for everyone regardless of the status in the society.
“A fervent man like him will not have time for the nonsense being thrown at him. I give you one message for them and there will be many such messages. Their candidate who is supposed to beat Buhari, has been in our party and many other parties. He has more party membership cards to build a house.
“All you have to do is to go out there and tell him that a house built on cards will be collapsed with a single stroke of broom. He said they are reformed, but reformed what? Reformed PDP. No. Tell them as you go out that we accept the admission of guilt that they were vagabonds before and now being reformed.
“But they have not served enough probation. You can only be reformed if you are an ex-convict, a drug addict or a political prostitute. It is because Buhari has no temperament and no tolerance for corruption, he is vigorously ridding the nation of blemish and looting, bad reputation.
“I can see them celebrating the visa. What a shame? Yet you want to lead this country with the most vibrant economy in Africa? Why should we allow them?
“They ran this country from 1999 till 2015. They were planning for 60 years of doing nothing, lack of direction and concern for the citizens.
“Are we still in this nation where visionary leadership is required? If yes, then they are not competent and not qualified to be leading Nigeria again and say they want to come back to government. If they left our schools in such dilapidated condition, left out hospitals without medicare, they don’t deserve to come back.
“They say we should not talk about their past anymore because they are ashamed of it, but we cannot go forward without talking about it because a nation has no history if there are no references. If you give me an application for employment which is the application of Atiku Abubakar, I must look at what you have done before, your experience.
“We have to look at Halliburton and why they left Nigeria. Go and ask those questions. They spent $16 billion of NEPA money and what they gave us is darkness and when they knew that we were kicking them out, they shared the company through irregularities called privatisation, which I call personalisation of the wealth of Nigeria.
“We won’t allow that to happen again and I will recommend that we campaign on that. We should find a way to technically dissolve those companies they shared among themselves. There is no way you can industrialise a nation without providing electricity.
“So many industries in Kaduna, Ikeja and other parts of the country. What were they doing for 16 years? That is why we believe that President Buhari is the best person to lead us and got him elected in 2015.
“They said he will die, but he did not die and is back hale and hearty and when they saw seriousness on his part, they now said he was cloned. That is because they know so much about forgery. I am glad he told them he is real. They exist to lie.”
"Olusegun Obasanjo is the PDP’s “new found Jehovah Witness”. After they disgraced the office of the President, fighting in public and abusing each other, telling us how they stole money and dancing naked in the market square, Obasanjo said he has spoken to God never to allow Atiku to become President, which God is he now talking to, to say Atiku should be President? I believe he is not telling the truth and not to the God we know. He is just talking to himself.”
“We have sacrificed too much under the PDP and we cannot go back.
“People must ask you why you belong to this support group. Tell them that you are members of a very committed rescue mission that started in 2015. I remember how things were. So, remind them of what happened because they can’t shut us up.
“They had the best opportunity for prosperity, but they are now complaining. They were there for 16 years and never added one barrel capacity to the refineries in Nigeria. They didn’t even pay counterpart funding for our rail, electricity and we cannot industrialise a nation without the power source.
“I stand before you as a very proud individual. When I introduced Independent power generation to fire the industries at Ikeja Industrial Estate, they killed it because there was bribe under the table.
“Imagine what Buhari is doing today in rail and in feeding our children which creates opportunity for the farmers; it creates small scale business for those cooking the food and a lot of people involved are doing better and we are battling poverty with the best weapon, which is education.
“They are busy changing parties and that is why they are confused. Atiku is now PDP Aladdin. He is going to create 14 million jobs and I say how? They will turn Atlantic into fuel to crash the prices without the refineries working and the population is expanding and people must move around. He just talk of crashing the prices of fuel. They are lying again because a leopard cannot change its skin.
“They had 16 billion of unprecedented resources and yet, they didn’t bring power to Nigeria. They invested that money in their personal industries. They bought turbines from General Electric and did not add one pipeline to bring gas to the plant.
“They can say anything now about Buhari. I agree with Okonjo-Iweala that it is difficult to fight corruption. The agents of destruction are there fighting us, but We will win with strong determination.
“Don’t let them weep things under the carpet – that when we came in as a government, before then they had too much resources in their hands, but Buhari funded states to pay salaries. In that period, 27 states were unable to pay salaries as at May 2015. The states and local economy would have collapsed long time ago.
“If PDP members truly love this country, they should humbly step aside and allow Buhari continue with the work of addressing the ills of our nation. However, since they seems to obstruct and remain focused as applicants, we say no job for them.
“No matter what they say, don’t listen to them, don’t kind them. What they want is to continue to distract with the talk of rigging because they know that they are losing. They want to blackmail INEC and the police. I remember my own election for my second term.
“On the website of INEC, they announced a funny result, but a woman of great character who was the State Resident Electoral Commissioner said, ‘no’, the result she got from the field are the valid results and not the fake ones published and upheld our election. They know they cannot win.
“That is why all the noise from either Saraki, a man who used our mandate to negotiate and give lifeline to the opposition. Leadership is about character. How can he now ask us to vote for PDP? He left the PDP, joined us, got elected, got our mandate, our majority and sold it for a pot of pottage. God is honest; Saraki is not.
“They talk about farmers and herders clashes. If they are honest, they should know that it also happened during their time, but they have … no capacity to convert tragedy into economic prosperity. We have the capacity in this country to do irrigation and utilize our water resources, to create pastures and ranches so that we can convert that misery, that tragedy to opportunity for our people. Livestock is economy.
“It is not about intellectual talent alone. There are so many unrewarded talents across the world. It is about character, determination, the love of a country and our commitment to nation building. That is what PDP is opposed to and APC is determined to continue as a progressive entity and the man to lead the nation on that path is President Buhari. Tell Nigerians that after Moses crossed the Red Sea, he is not going to return to Egypt”.
THE NATION 05 12 2018
APC stalwart who spoke at a National Consultative Forum organised by the National Committee of Buhari Support Groups in Abuja ON 04 12 2018

2019 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: BUHARI COASTING TO A LANDSLIDE VICTORY

By

Ayantunji Benjamin Gbenro (PhD)

2019 election is barely two months away, the umpire has declared the campaigns open and the gladiators are already on the field across the country. There are currently over 20 candidates jostling for the highest job in the land. These candidates can be categorized into contenders, pretenders and “I also run”. The contest is seeing by majority as a direct fight between the incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari of the ruling APC and Alhaji Abubakar Atiku of the major opposition party, PDP. The pretenders are Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, Mr. Donald Duke and Prof. Kingsley Moghalu. Despite the effort by the pretenders, the fact that the candidates’ names are more popular than their platforms speak volume. The lack of financial resources and political structure across the country is a serious impediment to the genuine and laudable aspiration of these patriots to chat a different political course for the country. These candidates could have probably been better if they aspire to go to the National Assembly on the platform of any of the two major political parties and commence the gradual ideological change the country so much needs from inside. The other candidates are the “I also run”, in my opinion. It’s difficult to understand the motivation for most of these candidates to run for Presidents when their names hardly heard even in their wards.

I will try to justify the above prediction on the outcome of 2019 presidential election by considering the chances of the incumbent president with his major challenger, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. The prediction will be done by examining factors such as: the strength and cohesion of APC and PDP, the character and political reach of each candidate, the performance of the incumbent and the electoral value of the running mate to each candidate.

Both APC and PDP experienced crisis after the primary elections. The APC experienced mass exodus before the presidential primary when it was obvious that Buhari was propped to be the only candidate. However, the presidential primary itself didn’t lead to any issue and the affirmation of Buhari as APC’s candidate was a smooth sail. APC also experienced crisis during the legislative and governorship primaries in many states, with Imo, Ogun and Zamfara been the most affected States because the sitting governors couldn’t have their ways in installing their preferred candidates. These states have experienced mass exodus from APC by the supporters of the sitting governors. One thing that is instructive however is that, even in States where aggrieved APC members moved out of the party, the decamping didn’t translate to either withdrawal of support for Buhari or support for Atiku by hitherto. They have largely remained committed to working for the success of Buhari in the presidential election. Contrary to APC’s experience, PDP’s Presidential primary was a battle royale. Among the contenders at the PDP presidential primaries, only Senator Bukola Saraki can today be said to be totally committed to Atiku’s campaign. Other contestants have gone under the radar. Even when some of them appear in the public once in a while, the body language cannot be said to be encouraging. Also, the commitment of the likes of governor Wike of Rivers State, whose State financial and electoral strength appears non-comital. The fact that new decampees into PDP appear to be calling the shot is not sitting well with Majority that stayed to build the party after 2015 defeat. The SE PDP governors and legislators also appear to have developed cold feet on Atiku’s candidacy as a fall out of the choice of running mate. If the structures that Atiku’s campaign will rely on are non-comital to his candidacy two months to the election then there is cause for alarm. The PDP may want to garnish its outing at the recent NW (seven States) zonal campaign, which was the commencement of it campaign but when measured by the turnout of both supporters and party leaders, the outing was a monumental failure and probably a pointer to what to come. Judging from the perspective of party’s cohesion and commitment to candidacy, Buhari appears to be miles ahead of Atiku. PDP can still put its house in order but time is running out.

President Mohammadu Buhari is a man of impeccable character and integrity, even his fiercest detractors will agree with this summation in their closets. He has over the year proved his integrity and this has given him a cult like following among the masses, especially in the north. The person of Buhari alone guarantees, at least, 12 million votes without any campaign in a free and fair election. This cannot be said of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Either real or imaginary, he has been projected as a symbol of everything wrong with our society over the years. This has caused a lot of loathing for him among the masses especially from the north, even in his Adamawa State. Atiku as a candidate cannot withstand Buhari in any northern State even if PDP controls the States’ instruments of coercion talk less of a situation where the State apparatuses are out of their hands. PDP has also done little or nothing to reduce Buhari’s political influence in the past three and half years it has been out of power. If anything, the age, religion and ethnicity that PDP employed over the past three and half years to de-market Buhari in some part of NC, SE and SS has further enhanced his standing in his traditional support base and alienated Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. The story of Jibrin from Sudan, which is obviously been promoted by PDP and Atiku’s camp has further dent their claim that Buhari has no strength to withstand the rigor of office while the inability of Atiku to visit USA despite recent desperate efforts further confirm the assertion made about his person by many but majorly amplified by his former boss, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. While PDP has not been able to make any significant inroad into Buhari’s support base, APC and Buhari have made significant inroad into SE and SS where they are hitherto considered an anathema.

On performance, though opinions may differ depending on the yardstick employed on whether Buhari has done excellently well or not, one thing that cannot be disputed is that he has done more when compared to PDP’s performance in 16yrs vis a vis the available resources. The various infrastructural developments across the nation will be a testimonial Buhari will flaunt to the electorates in seeking for re-election. I don’t know how PDP and Atiku will want to deny such verifiable evidences knowing fully well what was done by them in 16yrs. The security across the country has greatly improved under Buhari when compared to PDP’s era. Boko Haram have been pushed to the brinks of lake Chad compare to when it threatens to overrun the whole of Northern Nigeria and Abuja. The herdsmen crisis and kidnapping which a section of the media tried to amplified beyond reasoning has been largely curtailed in recent time. The economy appears to be on the rise compare to the free fall state Buhari inherited. Pensioners owed over years are been paid. This and many more are things Buhari will point to and it will be compared with the 16yrs of PDP. The Buhari’s anticorruption crusade is yielding results when high profile convictions, forfeitures and fear to engage in corrupt practices under the current administration is compared with 16yrs of PDP when corruption became synonymous to Nigeria.

Another area the Buhari Administration will score big is its Social Intervention Programs. This has been thoughted as the most ambitious Social Intervention program, ever, in Africa. The over three hundred engaged in Npower with thirty thousand monthly stipends have relatives and PVC and will make a statement at the right time. I am sure that they will speak for Buhari at the poll comes 16th of February 2019. The three hundred thousand captured in the conditional cash transfer also posses PVC and relative. They will speak at the right time for Buhari. The over nine million children enjoying the school feeding and almost ninety thousand food vendors also have PVC and relatives. The two million that would have benefitted from Trader money also have PVCs and relatives. Market money, Anchor borrowers etc beneficiaries will also speak when it is time. These people are the neglected of the society by the successive government who are prioritized by Buhari’s administration. They will all make their opinion known at the poll.

The choice of running mate is usually to compliment the candidate in any election. The choice of Osibajo in 2014 was to balance the religious card and to bring the Southern voters on board. The choice worked perfectly well. The choice of Peter Obi is doing the opposite to Atiku’s candidacy. First, the choice has caused a lot of disaffection among the political elites in the SE. If SE, which is considered the major support base of PDP and Atiku singing a discordant tune, then, an obvious threat to his success is brewing. In addition to this, some actions of Obi as Anambra State governor which was viewed as anti-Muslim and anti-north is now been brought back to remembrance. This will further alienate Atiku from northern voters. Osibajo on the other hand has gone beyond just a compliment to Buhari, to what many analysts refer to as Political “Star Boy”. His connection to the ordinary man on the street has extended the cult like followership of Buhari among the masses beyond the north to other regions of the country. His loyalty during Buhari’s sickness has proven his Christianity beyond rhetoric and endears him to people of other religion. His competency has been applauded by all and the synergy between him and his principal is what the nation has never witnessed at that level of governance. The more PDP try to throw mud at him the more they make him popular a leader without stain. When compare to each other, Buhari’s running mate is million of light years ahead of Atiku’s in terms of what he brings to the political table.

When the factors discussed in this article are married with other factors such as voting population by States and the standing of each candidate in each State vis a vis the standing of his party in the States, I will make bold prediction that Buhari will not only win the 2019 presidential election but he will do so with a margin that exceeds that winning margin of 2015 presidential election. Except something catastrophic happens, Buhari is coasting to a landslide victory in the 2019 presidential election.

ATIKU AS A MULTIPLE BENEFICIARY OF BRIBES.

Copied.

Indicted!! Yes, but Atiku was cut in the report as being a multiple beneficiary of bribe payments but being out side the jurisdiction he was not indicted

...Whilst all of these was going on, the FBI put in an official request requesting support on their investigation which went to the President at the Times desk and which is well reported in his book "My Watch" and also reported in Ribadu's book about his service which if you ask me corroborates OBJ's story... His wife who was a conduit for some of these illicit funds was quickly ferried out of the US to Dubai where she took residence and still wisely ceased to visit the US from that time till this very moment and subsequently sold his house in US since his wife who inhabited it had been relocated to Dubai and he wouldn't take the rest of visiting the US having been informed from diplomatic sources that should he venture that way he would be indicted and prosecuted which leads us to now.

... Pressure has resulted in his being given a visa but because of the nature of the society, the US is one that no one can by any stroke of imagination approach. The FBI who indicted and got the conviction of Jefferson not to indict Atiku if he ventures within their jurisdiction... That was why he had to return to Nigeria because the lobby he engaged together with Obasanjo were not given the assurances they sought that he would not be arrested upon arrival in the US...

 Atiku is trying to become our president! Can you imagine that? For those waiting for him to be indicted first it shows a sad descent into poor moral values... For offices such as this, it should be enough that the candidate not only have high moral rectitude, but must be seen to be above board especially criminally.

..For those who don't know the oath of office the president and his vice (as well as the governors and their deputies) who swear to specifically and unequivocally state that they must NOT allow their personal interests affect the decisions they make in office particularly to THEIR  assocuates or families' benefit.
. .. In 2006, ATIKU, as our vice president, concessions the Onne Port (Nigeria's largest port built with Federal Government money)  to Intels, a company he at the time had a minor interest... He also concessioned the Warri and Calabar ports to this same company as well as two terminals in the Apapa port in Lagos all for 25 years!!!... All other similar concessions done at the time were for a period of 10 years!!! ... To make matters worse it was decreed literarily that all oil and gas cargoes entering Nigeria must berth at the Onne Port creating a monopoly of sorts to himself and for his own benefit ...This created and incredible stream of revenue which accounts for Atiku's tremendous wealth till this date.

Osanobua.. All that talk about business ventures is crap as he has no known successful high monetary generating  company/factory  outside of this port concessions... May I add that somehow Intels also got the Nigerian government to reimburse them the sum of $5.2billion dollars for the equipment Nigerian government put to make the port functional. So, now you had a scenario where the port was built by Nigeria and they now ostensibly owned the equipment with which it functions but they had  concessioned in which the concessionaire was charging $5 per kilo of cargo and believe it or not the Nigerian Ports Authority was being paid only a paltry $1 per kilo! Monies which was not even being paid until this government  came into power...Obasanjo never knew about this because as Vice President, privatisation was the exclusive preserve of Atiku as BPE reported directly to him as they still do to Osinbajo (who appointed the current DG Alex Okoh - his trusted  junior pastor at RCCG Banana ISLAND, Ikoyi) as we speak.

..These general concessions of these four ports to Intels allowed Atiku to take a major stake in the company and he is now the second largest shareholder in the company after Volpi it's Italian major owner...Now as vice president if you had the panacea to the workings of our ports is concessioning them to yourself so you can benefit what the Nigerian government ought to have benefitted???... Consider that at the peak of that port it was making $8million a day!!!... Obasanjo suspended Intels concession as a result of his finding this out for a period of 3 months!!!  Yar"Adua, in spite of his family's holdings in Intels (they used to be the original second largest shareholders and it was Abacha's desire to own the company that led to Yar'Adua's incarceration and ultimate death as Abacha took over the company forcefully when he got to know what the company was milking from Nigeria. It was only returned upon Abacha's death) taking firm decisions against the company's unweildly monopoly!!!

...Anyone who doesn't have a problem with allowing a man such as this around our national  treasury needs his value system examined... You don't have to like Buhari but Atiku would in my estimation not have a moral platform from which he can sustain a presidential bid due to this massive pillage of our country's resources and I so maintain!!!...I rest my case!!!...

Everything I have written can be verified and is true...

This man will sell everything we own to himself and his PDP friends under the pretext that government has no business in doing business which was their catchphrase for the then privatisation exercise!!!

... Small wonder that Nigeria Shipping Line with 10 ships was sold and Nigeria Airways with 33 planes was sold to themselves...for coins.

It will also interest you to know that all those planes and ships sold are still air and seaworthy!!!...
Now which indictment can be bigger than these ???

... The right to the office is constitutional as well as a moral one and in any sane country for the above reasons his candidacy would not go beyond the realm of conjecture as he would be made to answer these questions 1st if he dared venture out and no sane political platform in a decent country would field a tainted man like this!!!

...If it is by just one vote he will lose!!!God will have mercy on Nigeria and ensure this in Jesus' holy and mighty name... Elections are not run on the pages of social media or the electronic or print media nor by the elites who have lost their intrinsic values but by structures controlled by parties through their state governments... He has no chance for this reason... They have the propaganda machinery on payroll but APC keeps winning elections, period!!! That is the best sample size that  can be used to project the results of next year's elections...So, it shall become..... Tufiakwa, Atiku, God forbid!!!

President Muhammadu Buhari’s opinion on religion is out this morning on Church Times,

UK’s largest Anglican newspaper. Link: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2018/30-november/comment/opinion/don-t-politicise-religion-in-nigeria

Don’t politicise religion in Nigeria

Muslims and Christians can flourish together, says President Muhammadu Buhari

IN 1844, the Revd Samuel Ajayi Crowther returned home to Yoruba land (now part of modern-day Nigeria). Twenty years earlier, he had been kidnapped and sold to European slave traders who were bound for the Americas. He was freed by an abolitionist naval patrol, and received by the Church Missionary Society. There, he found his calling.

Crowther made his voyage home to establish the first Anglican mission in Yoruba land. He came with the first Bibles translated into Yoruba and Hausa languages. He opened dialogue and discussion with those of other faiths. And his mission was a success: Crowther later became the first African Anglican bishop in Africa.

Today, Nigeria has the largest Christian population on the continent. The messages and teachings of Christianity are part of the fabric of each person’s life.

ALONG with the millions of Christians in Nigeria today, I believe in peace, tolerance, and reconciliation; in the institution of the family, the sanctity of marriage, and the honour of fidelity; in hope, compassion, and divine revelation.

Like Bishop Crowther, I am a descendant of Abraham; unlike him, I am a Muslim. I believe our two great religions can not only peacefully coexist but also flourish together. But Muslims and Christians must first turn to one another in compassion. For, as it says in Amos 3.3: “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?”

As they are People of the Book, I believe that there is far more that unites Muslims and Christians than divides them. In fact, I believe that the messages of the Bible are universal: available for anyone to exercise, and instructive to all.

We must resist the temptation to retreat into our communities, because, if we do, we can only look inwards. It is only when we mix that we can reach new and greater possibilities.

Whichever religion or religious denomination they choose to follow, Nigerians are devout. Anything that Nigerians believe will place impositions on their practice, and belief is therefore sure to cause widespread alarm.

And, unfortunately, there are those who seek to divide Nigerians — and our two great religions — and to do so for their own advantage.

I stand accused — paradoxically — of trying to Islamise Nigeria while also being accused by Boko Haram terrorists of being against Islam. My Vice-President is a devout man, a Christian pastor. He, too, is accused of selling out his religion, because of his support for me.

This is not the first time that I — nor, indeed, my Christian-Muslim evenly split cabinet — have been the subject of such nonsense. Fortunately, the facts speak differently from the words of those who seek to divide us from one another.

Since my administration has been in power, Boko Haram has been significantly and fatally degraded; I have befriended church leaders and church groups both within and outside our country; my Vice-President has addressed and opened dialogue with Muslims up and down our land.

In all things, we seek that which all well-meaning Christians and well-meaning Muslims must seek: to unite, respect, and never to divide. Does it not say “There is no compulsion in religion” (Qur’an 2.256)? Does it not say “Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us” (Luke 9.50)? This, surely, is the path that followers of both our two great religions must walk.

UNFORTUNATELY, those who wish us all to walk apart have recently found another focus for their efforts: the tragic clashes between nomadic herdsmen and settled farmers in the central regions of Nigeria.

For generations, herders have driven their cattle from the north to the centre of our country; they tend to be predominantly Muslim, although not exclusively. The farmers, in certain areas of central Nigeria, are predominantly Christian.

The causes of this conflict are not religious or theological, but temporal. At the heart of this discord is access to rural land, exacerbated both by climate change and population growth.

Sadly, there are some who seek to play fast and loose and so make others believe that these are not the facts. When religion is claimed as the cause — and by those who know that it is not — it only makes finding a resolution more difficult.

The government has taken action to mediate, to bring the two groups together in peace and unity. But we also need all parties to follow the teachings of the scriptures, and encourage reconciliation rather than cause division. As it is said: “Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?” (Mark 8.18).

As our constitution codifies, politicising religion has no place in Nigeria; for it makes us turn away from one another; it makes us retreat into our communities and walk different paths.

I believe that there is a better way. To those who seek to divide, I still hold my hand out in brotherhood and forgiveness. I ask only that they stop, and instead encourage us to turn towards one another in love and compassion. Nigeria belongs to all of us. This is what I believe.

Muhammadu Buhari is President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.