In this piece, ENIOLA AKINKUOTU
examines President Goodluck
Jonathan’s 33-minute speech at the
inauguration of his re-election
campaign in Lagos
Since he assumed power in 2009,
President Goodluck Jonathan has
been described as weak, overly
gentle and clueless in addressing
critical issues. In fact, on several
occasions, especially when visiting
scenes of bomb explosions or
victims of terrorism, Jonathan is
often seen speaking gently even
when making threats to terrorists.
However, on Thursday, January 8,
2014, the citizens of the world’s
largest black nation saw a Jonathan
that came out smoking for the first
time in the last six years. In his 33-
minute speech, which many
describe as a tirade, Jonathan took
on his biggest critics, the All
Progressives Congress, bashing the
party left, right and centre.
Four days earlier, his major
contender and presidential
candidate of the APC, Maj.Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had
kicked off his presidential
campaign in the South-South,
where he told thousands of
supporters in various states that
Jonathan was running a corrupt
government which is incapable of
fighting insecurity. Although the
speech of the President had since
generated different reactions, it
appeared that the country’s No 1
citizen could not wait to throw
brickbats at the opposition, which
had brought the PDP-led Federal
Government under public scrutiny
by highlighting the challenges
confronting Nigeria. Buhari’s
running mate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo
(SAN), had weeks earlier traversed
the entire South-West soliciting for
votes. In Lagos, he hopped from
one public bus to the other,
campaigning for his party and
connecting with people of the
grass roots. He told passengers how
rudderless the Jonathan
administration had been over the
years.
However, Jonathan’s bottled up
emotions boiled over as he took on
the leadership of the APC,
castigating the party’s presidential
candidate in a very harsh tone. For
the first time, Jonathan personally
dug into Buhari’s past, blaming him
for some of the woes facing the
country such as insecurity, high rate
of illiteracy and corruption.
The campaign kicked off around
12pm at the Tafawa Balewa Square,
Onikan.
In attendance were Vice President
Namadi Sambo; Akwa Ibom State
Governor, Godswill Akpabio; his
Ondo State counterpart, Olusegun
Mimiko; Governor Ayodele Fayose
of Ekiti State, Governor Idris Wada
of Kogi State, Governor Liyel Imoke
of Cross River State and Niger State
Governor, Babangida Aliyu.
Others were Plateau State
Governor, Jonah Jang; Kaduna State
Governor, Mukhtar Yero; Senate
President, David Mark, 29
governorship candidates of the
party and hundreds of party
leaders.
Jonathan’s decision to start his
campaign in Lagos was strategic
due to several allegations that he
had neglected the state and by
extension, the South-West. With a
voting population of about six
million (the largest in Nigeria), the
President knew that it would be
wise to put Lagos first. The two PDP
governors in the South-West,
Mimiko and Fayose, who spoke at
the campaign, assured the
President that the South-West
would vote for him on February 14.
Mimiko maintained that the
Yoruba’s love education would
sway the presidential election in
favour of the PDP because Jonathan
is a PhD holder. Fayose, on his own
part, told the President that he
would get 100 per cent of the votes
in Ekiti.
Mimiko said, “Welcome to Lagos,
President Goodluck Jonathan, PhD. I
stand firmly to say without
equivocation that hardly is there
any home in Lagos or anywhere in
the South-West that we do not
have at least 10 school cert holders.
So, we cannot settle for a President
that does not have, at least, a
school cert. You are a leader who is
completely tolerant; who despite
the challenges remains cool and
calm. Those who mistake your
gentle mien for weakness will
continue to be disappointed.
“Despite being one of the most
insulted Presidents in the history of
Nigeria, you have refused to roll
out a semblance of Decree 2. You
are definitely a democrat, not a
born again democrat and the whole
of Nigeria is feeling your impact.
We salute you on behalf of the
people of the South-West. You have
started Lagos-Ibadan Expressway
and the railway. Our memory is not
short to remember the termination
of the Lagos metro line.”
Fayose, who won the governorship
election last June by defeating
former Governor Kayode Fayemi of
the APC in all 16 local government
areas, said, “I am only here to
announce that the imminent return
of President Jonathan is inevitable.
“We want a President elected by
Nigeria for Nigerians; that is
independent in mind; that is not
controlled by anybody. The Yoruba
people will return Goodluck, good
tidings. Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Ondo
will vote for Jonathan. In Ekiti it has
always been 16-0 and it will be the
same again.”
For the Akwa Ibom State governor,
Akpabio, who is also the Chairman
of the PDP Governors’ Forum,
Jonathan’s victory this time around,
will be greater than the victory of
2011.
Akpabio accused the APC of being a
party that thrives on media
propaganda. Responding to the
allegations that billions were
missing from the national treasury,
Akpabio said the money had been
shared by all the three tiers of
government.
He said, “We (governors) were the
ones that told Mr. President that we
should share the N55bn. We said
we could not be saving while our
people are hungry. Will you be
saving when your child is in the
hospital?
“If your child dies, wouldn’t you be
a fool? The money was shared by
the three tiers of government, so,
no money is missing.”
The National Chairman of the PDP,
Adamu Mu’azu, subsequently
presented the party’s flag to the
President as well as the 29
governorship candidates of the
party, including Mallam Nuhu
Ribadu, the anti-corruption
crusader, who was the presidential
candidate of the Action Congress of
Nigeria (now part of the APC), in the
2011 elections.
As thousands of party supporters
began trooping out, thinking that
the event was over, Jonathan
picked up the microphone and
spoke for 33 minutes. He admitted
that his generation had failed the
country but said he was the last
hope of the youths at having a
great future. He told the crowd that
Buhari cannot fight insecurity.
He said, “They talk about insecurity
and that they will fight insecurity.
And you will ask, are our Armed
Forces weak? Are the Nigerians in
the Armed Forces weak? If we have
problems, what is the cause — lack
of platforms (equipment). And
somebody who wakes up and tells
young people of 23 years old that
he wants to fight insecurity, ask
him when he was the head of
government, did he buy one rifle
for Nigerian soldiers. These people
did not buy anything for Nigerian
soldiers. They refused to equip
them. No attack helicopter,
nothing. Ask them what they did
with the defence budget for the
whole time they were in office.”
Buhari’s anti-corruption stance as
exemplified by his military
administration’s War against
Indiscipline campaign between
1983 and 1985, also came under
attack. According to Jonathan, the
best way to fight corruption is not
by making arrests but by
structuring the Nigerian system
such that public office holders will
no longer have access to funds.
He said his administration had been
able to achieve this in the
agricultural sector as well as the
federal civil service.
He said Buhari’s anti-corruption
strategy had no place in today’s
democracy. He also mocked the
botched plot by the Buhari
administration to smuggle a former
Minister of Transport, the late
Umaru Dikko, from the United
Kingdom to Nigeria in 1984. The
President bragged that under his
watch, anti-graft agencies had
made more arrests and convictions
than ever before.
He said, “I apologise to those
families that suffered because I
believe that for you to fight
corruption, you must take some
measures such as establishing
institutions. You don’t just wake up,
enter the streets and start arresting
people and showing them on
television, saying you are fighting
corruption.
“If they had succeeded in fighting
corruption, corruption would not
have been with us today. If they
had set up structures to manage
resources, in this ICT era, we would
not have been talking about
corruption today.
“What happened on the issue of
civil servants is something known
as IPPIS which is a software for
protecting salaries. Sometimes,
people steal salaries in some
Federal Government agencies and
ministries. They tried to divert
funds meant for some allowances
but since the system is scientific, it
shuts down. This is the only way
that you can prevent corruption.
“If somebody tells you that the best
way to fight corruption is to come
and arrest your mother and father
and show them on television, will
that stop corruption? In fact, it will
even encourage corruption. We are
shooting armed robbers but is that
stopping them? So, arresting
people and showing them on
television will do nothing. We must
set up institutions and strengthen
them in order to prevent people
from stealing public money. That is
what we are working on and we are
succeeding.”
However, no sooner had Jonathan
left the TBS than reactions began to
trickle in from several quarters.
The Lagos State Governor,
Babatunde Fashola (SAN), said that
the image put across by Jonathan
was that of an angry man who
seemed frustrated with his job.
Fashola, who spoke during the
mobilisation visit of the APC
presidential campaign held at
Imaguero College in Benin, Edo
State, said it was unfortunate that
Jonathan could blame everyone
except himself for the problems of
the country. He reminded the
President that he (Jonathan) had
been in charge for about six years
and wondered why only past
administrations should be blamed
for the nation’s woes.
He also berated the President for
not suggesting solutions to
insecurity. He said, “I spent about
an hour this afternoon listening to
the President in my state and, for
almost the same period, I saw a
very angry President. I saw a
president who was recriminating
people criticising his job
performance and was blaming all
those who ruled before him,
forgetting that he had been on this
job for six years.
“And he kept saying that, ‘They say
we don’t have a plan.’ But for 25
minutes, he did not reveal a plan
on power; he did not reveal a plan
on security; he did not reveal a plan
on corruption.
“Now, after six years, without being
able to articulate what he is doing
and what he will do, he keeps
blaming everybody, forgetting that
he is the Commander-in-Chief. If
the kitchen is too hot, as it is
becoming of late, you must get out
of the kitchen.”
The governor also assured
Nigerians that, drawing from the
developmental success recorded
by APC states, Nigeria could be
better if the right kind of people
managed the nation’s resources.
Also responding, the APC National
Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, said it was
disappointing that Jonathan could
tell such lies and evade critical
issues such as the abduction of over
200 Chibok girls and the
immigration job scandal in which
thousands of youths were extorted
while 20 graduates were killed.
As the campaigns continued,
however, it seems the President is
not through with his salvoes. Last
Friday, Jonathan said during
another rally in Enugu that Buhari
was too old to be President and he
could not be trusted with the
economy as he could not even
remember his own phone number.
The President wondered how
Buhari would develop the country’s
economy, a feat he could not
achieve while he was in office as
Head of State between 1983 and
1985.
“Is it now that Buhari cannot even
remember his own phone number
that he can change the economy of
the country,” Jonathan asked.
It, therefore, remains unclear if this
year’s campaigns will be issue-
based or just another avenue for
the two ruling parties to hurl
insults at one another.
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
