The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party has said that its presidential candidate in the forthcoming election, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, will be contesting against a semi-literate candidate.
Ostensibly referring to the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), the party also said the election would be between Jonathan and “a military jackboot.”
Buhari, a former head of state, is the only presidential candidate who has a military background .
Section 131(d) of the 1999 Constitution allows anyone with school certificate qualification to contest any elective office in the country.
The PDP, through its National Secretary, Dr. Wale Oladipo, said when some leaders of the PDP in the Diaspora visited its national secretariat in Abuja on Monday that there was no way the President would not win the election.
It said, “The next election is going to be between darkness and light. It is going to be between a cosmopolitan highly-focused Ph.D holder and a semi-literate jackboot.
“Our candidate is a man who believes in integrating the economy of Nigeria into the world economic order. He is a man who believes that the power sector should continue to be reformed so that we will attain the level of power generation and distribution that is commensurate with our aspiration in terms of industrial development. Nigeria cannot afford to go back. We will continue to move forward.”
The party said having won three presidential elections in which Buhari ran on the platforms of different political parties, there was no way it would not floor the APC which had decided to field the former military leader as its presidential candidate.
Describing the APC as a party not ready to offer alternatives, the party advised Nigerians to remain with it.
It said, “Even though we are not a perfect party, our mission is perfect.
“We do not belong to any religious organisation and we don’t belong to any ethnic group. In preparing for the next election, which is not going to be like previous ones because for the first time, the opposition has coupled together a contraption that is called the APC.
“They have passed through the motion and endorsed their perennial candidate. We have beaten him three times, we are going to beat him once again.
“The APC is not a political party that is ready to offer an alternative to the teeming masses of this country. The only agenda they seem to have is to see our back.”
The PDP said that God had decided that Nigeria would not only continue to wax stronger, he had also “decided that this country will not go back to 1983 when we had to start doing trade-by-barter with Brazil; when we went back 500 years to start practising what our ancestors practised when there was no currency in this country.”
“God has decried it that we will continue to pilot the affairs of this country and continue to implement the transformation agenda,” the PDP added.
But the Director of Publicity of the Buhari 2015 Support Group Centre, Dr. Chidia Maduekwe, expressed shock about the PDP comments, saying they showed the depth of their understanding of Buhari.
He said, “How can the PDP refer to a man who had his initial military training in Nigeria and the best officer cadet training institutions in the world as semi-literate. They are so lazy that they can not check Gen. Buhari’s profile in this internet age.The general went to the Military Training College in Kaduna; the Mons Officer Cadet School in the United Kingdom; the Defence Services College in India and the Army War College in the United States. The certificates given by these institutions are equivalent to university degrees.
“If they want a copy of the general’s CV(Curriculum Vitae), they are welcome to have one.”
The BSGC boss advised that it would better serve public interest if the record of performance of Buhari was put side-by-side that of Jonathan.
According to him, it was pedestrian for the PDP to reduce the issues at stake to educational qualification.
Maduekwe said, “Buhari had the opportunity to govern this nation in the past and his records are there for all to see.
“He managed our economy very well and paid up our debts and built up our foreign reserves. This was a man who was in charge when our refineries were built; this was a man who was in charge of the PTF(Petroleum Trust Fund) and left an enviable record.
“Contrast him with our Ph.D holder (Jonathan) who has run our economy aground and our foreign reserves depleted and we are today raking up debts.
“Under this Ph.D holder, Nigeria has come last among nations in the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals with a 2015 deadline. Nigeria came last because; we have a PDP government which is visionless. Nigerians certainly do not want a continuity of this suffering.”

www.punchng.com/news/jonathan-to-contest-against-semi-literate-candidate-pdp/

It was highly wwrong And reckless to say the least the remark made against GMB by PDP. There campaign should be about their achievement And not personal attacks.
I will rather vote for a semi illiterate that possess leadership skills than a dumb PhD holder running us aground. So much for issue base campaign. Vote GMB!

An illiterate that doesn't understand the mechanism of OPEC, GMB belives he will stabilise the price of crude oil.

buhari is perpetually unelectable

9ja shld nt even think abt it, at 80 he shld just go and play wt his great grand kids.

APC misfired when it chose buhari

it will be easy sailing for gej

no amount of lies and propaganda can stop me from voting for GMB in 2015, may God bless the people's general• teamBUHARI!

who cares even if he's a stark illiterate as long as he's going to stabilise our economy, fight corruption to a stand still and secure the lives of the general populace.No amount of propaganda and blackmail can brainwash me to make another grave mistake i made in 2011..God bless the people's General

ramdris:
It was highly wwrong And reckless to say the least the remark made against GMB by PDP. There campaign should be about their achievement And not personal attacks.
I will rather vote for a semi illiterate that possess leadership skills than a dumb PhD holder running us aground. So much for issue base campaign. Vote GMB!

God Bless U

A Rejoinder To 'Semi-Illiterate' PDP Secretary Prof. Wale Oladipo By Dr. M.K. Hassan

Since the goons in Wadata Plaza have started the literacy debate, it is very appropriate to ask them that they produce Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s Ph.D thesis and publications in renowned journals. Goodluck’s speeches, attitude, and interviews with international media don’t portray him as a Ph.D holder. Nigerians are eager to read his thesis and publications.

I was shocked to read a press statement from Wadata Plaza issued by a so called Professor Wale Oladipo, secretary of the PDP, saying that General Muhammadu Buhari is a semi illiterate jackboot. It is no wonder that our education system has fallen so low, else how can one explain a professor making such a statement? How did Wale Oladipo become a professor to start with? It is quite astonishing that he can say this. The professor doesn’t seem to understand the basic rudiments of learning and what it means for one to be literate or not.

Buhari attended the best military schools in the world. In case the professor doesn’t know, Buhari graduated as a military officer (Lieutenant) in Royal Military Academy, Aldeshot UK. He attended the Defense College India.  Col Buhari attended the US Army War College Carlisle in Pennsylvania from 1979 -1980 and earned his command as a Brigadier General. The respected General Collin Powel attended the same school in 1976 to become Brigadier General. Some of Buhari’s classmates include General Beltson, General Thomas P Carney, General Bill Matz, General David E.K. Cooper etc. all of them are alive and can be reached and they will give glowing tributes of the man, Buhari, they know as their classmate.

Anyone interested in verifying Buhari’s academic credentials can write the school instead of reading jargon from a deranged Wadata Plaza Professor of Politics of Destruction Party (PDP). I have checked Google Scholar hoping that Prof. Wale Oladipo’s name and publications will show up and nothing is showing up, that says a lot about him as a Professor than Buhari as a retired decorated General who served his country so well and has not claimed any scholarship.

The curriculum at the U.S. Army War College earns one a Masters Degree in Strategic Studies and that is what Buhari has. For somebody to claim that a graduate of such a prestigious school is semi-illiterate, means something is very wrong with that person’s brain. By all academic and military standards, Buhari’s   education is superb and the best any general can get in the world. Therefore, for Wale Oladipo to claim Buhari is semi-illiterate speaks volumes about his understanding of what education is even all about. The unlearned professor thinks education is about earning paper degrees only, and even if it was the case, Buhari has them from the most respected military institutions in the world.

General Muhammadu Buhari has the kind of military strategic education and experience to deal a decisive blow on Boko Haram and end the insecurity challenges facing Nigeria. Buhari is the only army officer with the opportunity to command 3 out of 4 Nigeria’s army divisions as a GOC.

In 1983, when rebels from Chad took over our land, seizing more than 19 villages (much like what the Boko Haram is doing now), Major General Buhari led a successful operation as the GOC to push back the Chadian rebels and reclaim our territory.

In 1984, when the Maitatsine sect decided to declare war on Nigeria like what Boko Haram is doing now, Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari wasted no time in crushing them. Boko Haram is a descendant of the Maitatsine sect with the same extremist ideology and anti-western education philosophy. It is surely President Buhari that will be able to handle them: eliminating these terrorists when he comes to power like he did before. Muhammadu Buhari as a captain fought in the Congo Civil War and won the Congo Medal. He was there during our civil war to bring peace and keep Nigeria one. That is true patriot: a man that gave his life to another country not only his fatherland.

Since the goons in Wadata Plaza have started the literacy debate, it is very appropriate to ask them that they produce Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s Ph.D thesis and publications in renowned journals. Goodluck’s speeches, attitude, and interviews with international media don’t portray him as a Ph.D holder. His past interview with Christiane Amanpour was quite embarrassing; he couldn’t even make eye contact with her. Nigerians are eager to read his thesis and publications.

In conclusion, it is obvious to all Nigerians that the PDP government and its illiterate professor are only interested in playing dirty politics with the  lives and properties of Nigerians. Nigerians now need Buhari, a man with international military education and experience, a seasoned administrator with zero tolerance for corruption to end this insecurity, bring prosperity, and place Nigeria at the seat it deserves in the comity of nations.

Dr. MK Hassan writes in from Washington D.C.