Jonathan, military alliance, threat to democracy – APC

The All Progressives Congress has
described the “unholy” alliance
between the President Goodluck
Jonathan-led Peoples Democratic
Party administration, and the
Nigerian military hierarchy as the
greatest threat to the nation’s
democracy.
The National Chairman of the APC,
Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, said this
at a press briefing in Abuja on
Monday.
He explained that recent events
which preceded the shift of the
date of the general elections from
February 14 and 28 by six weeks
was a pointer to this fact.
According to him, the hierarchy of
the military had been
compromised to serve the interest
or the personal agenda of
President Jonathan.
The APC chairman said it was
unheard of anywhere in the world
that the military hierarchy would
write a joint letter to an
independent electoral body in a
democracy; to state that it was
incapable of providing security for
an election.
Odigie-Oyegun said, “The greatest
threat to our democracy today is
the way the ruling party has
compromised the leadership of the
Nigerian military to serve the
personal agenda of President
Jonathan. This is a dangerous game.
“A recent court judgment in Sokoto
clearly ruled that the military had
no role in the electoral process.
What happened with this
postponement is that service chiefs
simply vetoed a democratic process
on the directive of President
Jonathan. We know what
politicisation is doing to our once
proud military institution.
“We are aware that the Presidency
has forwarded a secret memo to all
commanders of divisions and
battalions of the Nigerian Army for
a three-day strategy meeting in
Kaduna from today (Monday) on
how to use the military to
intimidate voters in the APC states
to rig election in favour of
President Jonathan.”
The opposition party also
explained that the recent
revelations about the role of the
military in the Ekiti State elections
was a demonstrable proof of how
far Jonathan government would go
to compromise the military as an
institution.
Odigie-Oyegun wondered if it
could be that when the service
chiefs said they would not have
enough personnel to provide
security for the elections, “what
they are actually saying is that they
would not have enough soldiers to
intimidate voters in favour of the
ruling party if the elections had
proceeded as scheduled?”
The party’s national chairman
noted that it was the party’s
preliminary reaction to the
postponement of the 2015 general
elections, it noted that the decision
taken by the Independent National
Electoral Commission had thrown
up so many questions which he
said would be reviewed by the
organs of the party.
He recalled that on the January 22,
the National Security Adviser, Col.
Sambo Dasuki (retd.), at Chatham
House, London had declared that
INEC was not ready for the elections
and went ahead to advise the
electoral body to postpone the
election.
Odigie-Oyegun pointed out that
the reason Dasuki gave for his
unsolicited advice was that
substantial number of registered
voters had not collected their
Permanent Voter Cards.
He also observed that Dasuki did
not say anything about security
concern even though Boko Haram
was an issue then as it was even
now.
“So, at what point did concern over
election shift from PVC to security
concern?” Odigie-Oyegun asked.
The APC also recalled that when the
United States Secretary of State,
John Kerry, visited on January 25, he
wanted a categorical commitment
from President Jonathan that the
elections would hold as scheduled.
The President, he noted, assured
the American envoy that the
elections would hold.
“Was it that his security chiefs had
not briefed him on the security
situation in the country and how
this would affect the election
timetable at the time he was
making this promise?” Odigie-
Oyegun wondered.
Odigie-Oyegun equally drew the
attention of Nigerians as well as
the international community to the
fact that on February 2 at the
National Peace Committee meeting
in Abuja with the representatives of
different political parties, the
service chiefs gave assurances of
their readiness for the elections.
At the occasion, the APC chief said
the Chief of Defence Staff, Air
Marshall Alex Badeh, gave
assurances of the Armed Forces
preparedness for the elections.
Odigie-Oyegun quoted Badeh as
saying “even though we are busy in
the North-East, we also have
capabilities across the nation.”
He added that Badeh also admitted
that the role of the military was
merely to support the police in
providing security during elections.
The APC chief added, “At the same
event, the Chief of Army Staff, Gen.
Kenneth Minimah said, ‘We are
aware of the need for security,
before, during and after the
elections. We will deploy across the
states of the Federation in areas we
discover that have capacity for
violence. We are prepared to
ensure we have peaceful elections.
“Also speaking at the event, the
Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall
Adesola Amosun, said, ‘We have
commenced the air lift of the
materials needed for the elections,
starting from Abuja. We will
continue with the elections.’”
Oyegun argued that, “The sum total
of all these is that only 12 days
before the elections and despite
the state of insecurity in the North-
East, the entire military high
command assured the nation of
their readiness to provide security
for the elections.
“However, only three days later on
Friday, February 6, these same
service chiefs wrote to INEC a letter,
which by all practical purposes
could be described as a blackmail,
saying that they would no longer
be able to provide security for the
elections? What happened in those
72 hours that brought about this
complete volte face?”
The party accused President
Jonathan and the Director of the
National Information Centre, Mr.
Mike Omeri, of deliberately
engaging in scare-mongering to
cow Nigerians into submission by
their conducts and utterances over
the state of the nation’s security.
Odigie-Oyegun said the APC as a
political party, “wishes to assure
Nigerians and friends of Nigeria all
over the world that the power of
the people is greater than the
people in power adding that “these
too shall pass and we shall
overcome.”