By Femi Aribisala
Between 1983 and 1985, Peter Onu
of Nigeria was Acting Secretary-
General of the OAU. At the 1985
Summit in Addis Ababa, statesmen
like Julius Nyerere, President of
Tanzania, lobbied for his election as
substantive Secretary-General.
However, there was a major
stumbling block to Peter Onu’s
candidature: his Head of State,
Muhammadu Buhari, was
campaigning against him.
Jonathan-Buhari
Buhari claimed: “This generation of
Nigerians and indeed future
generations have no other country
than Nigeria.” But when the crunch
came, his allegiance to Nigeria
disappeared. In the election of the
OAU Secretary-General in 1985,
Buhari voted against Nigeria and for
Niger instead. He secured the
election of Ide Oumarou, a Fulani
man from Niger; as opposed to an
Igbo man from Nigeria. By so doing,
Buhari became the first and only
Head of State in the history of
modern international relations to
vote against his country in favour of
his tribe.
Years later, General Buhari marched
all the way from Daura to Ibadan to
demand of Oyo State Governor, Lam
Adeshina: “Why are your people
killing my people?” Again, he was
not referring to Nigerians as his
people. Instead, he was an advocate
for the rights of murderous Fulani
herdsmen who killed Yoruba farmers
that objected to their cattle grazing
on their land and damaging their
crops. This same Buhari who voted
against Nigeria in 1985, and said in
2003: “Muslims should only vote
those who will promote Islam,” is
now shopping for votes nationwide.
He should be rejected outright.
Ignorance running riot
If APC had wanted to be taken
seriously, it would have come up
with a better presidential material
than Buhari. There is something
anomalous about a party whose
mantra is change, recycling a 73
year old man as its candidate for the
president of modern Nigeria. Buhari
has little or no understanding of
public policy. That is why APC will
always come up with some excuse or
the other not to have him
participate in a debate with
Jonathan. Buhari fought corruption
by imposing ridiculous 300-year
sentences on offenders. He fought
exam malpractices by imposing 24-
year prison sentences on school
children.
He dealt with indiscipline by
flogging people to queue at bus-
stops. He dealt with food shortages
by sending soldiers to break into
private warehouses and shops. He
fought trade imbalances by taking
Nigeria back to the stone age of
trade by barter (counter-trade). He
sought to extradite a Nigerian from
Britain by drugging and crating him.
There is so much about Buhari
ending the Boko Haram insurgency
as he did the Maitatsine insurgency
in the 1980s. But the General needs
to be advised that Boko Haram is
not Maitatsine. Maitatsine was in
two towns: Boko Haram is in three
states with spillover effects into
others. Maitatsine fought with bows
and arrows: Boko Haram fights with
sophisticated weapons. Maitatsine
was a local insurgency, Boko Haram
is an international phenomenon.
Anti-corruption hypocrisy: Buhari
does not know what corruption
means and how to fight it. He
became Nigeria’s Head of State
through the corruption of a coup
d’état and he then tried to fight
corruption with corruption. Imposing
retroactive decrees and killing
Nigerians under them is corruption.
Putting an Igbo vice-president in
Kirikiri, while placing the Fulani
president under palatial house
arrest, is corruption.
Detaining people like Michael Ajasin
in jail, even after they were
discharged and acquitted by
kangaroo courts, is corruption.
Jailing journalists for telling the
truth is corruption. Putting pressure
on a judge in order to jail Fela
Anikulapo-Kuti is corruption.
Shepherding 53 suitcases of
contraband unchecked through
Customs during a currency change
exercise is corruption. Swearing an
affidavit that your school-leaving
certificate is with the military when
it is not, is corruption.
Transforming Nigeria: Buhari’s
shameful past is dwarfed by the
achievements of Goodluck Jonathan.
Under Jonathan, Nigeria has
emerged as by far the largest
economy in Africa with a GDP of $
503 billion; nearly double the
previous estimates. South Africa now
comes a distant second with $350
billion. With the unbundling of
PHCN after 52 years of gridlock, and
with now the realizable target of
20,000 megawatts of electricity by
2020, Nigeria’s GDP will soon double
that of South Africa.
CNN Money projects that the fastest
growing economy in the world in
2015 will be China (7.3% growth
rate); followed by Qatar (7.1%); and
then followed by Nigeria (7%). This
belies all the misinformation about
the Nigerian economy dished out by
the APC and attests to the astute
management of the economy by the
Jonathan administration. The
seemingly ambitious Vision 20 2020,
proclaimed under the Abacha regime
to make Nigeria one of the 20 largest
economies in the world by 2020 is
now well in sight. Today, Nigeria is
already the 23rd largest economy in
the world. Kudos to Jonathan, we
have overtaken such European
countries as Austria and Belgium.
Life expectancy
In 2010, when Jonathan became
acting president, life expectancy in
Nigeria was 47 years. Today, it is 54
years; an improvement of seven
years. Adroit application of SURE-P
funds has reduced the maternal
mortality ratio in Nigeria by 26%.
Under Jonathan, Nigeria has become
Guinea Worm-free; a disease
previously affecting 800,000
Nigerians yearly. In the last six
months, there has been no new case
of polio in Nigeria. If this goes on
for another two and a half years,
Nigeria will be declared polio-free.
Bill Gates, the richest man in the
world, hailed Nigeria’s fight against
polio as one of the great world
achievements of 2014. He said: “The
infrastructure Nigeria has built to
fight polio actually made it easier for
them to swiftly contain Ebola. The
fact that Nigeria is now Ebola-free is
a great example of how doing the
work to fight things like fighting
polio also leaves countries better
prepared to deal with outbreaks of
other diseases.”
Investors’ haven: In the last three
years, the United Nations Conference
on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
has ranked Nigeria as the number
one country for foreign investments
in Africa. We also receive more
home-remittances than any other
African country; a vote of confidence
in our economy by Nigerians living
abroad. They remitted $23 billion in
2013, a figure far more than the $18
billion received by Egypt; the
country with the second highest
home remittance in Africa. It is a
testament to Goodluck Jonathan’s
adroit management of the Nigerian
economy that the richest African is
now a Nigerian.
In 2010, when Jonathan came to
power, Aliko Dangote was the 463rd
richest man in the world, with a
total fortune of $2.1 billion. Today,
he is the 23rd richest man in the
world, with a total fortune of $25
billion. Dangote’s billions are “made
in Nigeria.” Indeed, under Jonathan,
Nigeria now has the fourth highest
rate of returns on investments in the
world, according to UNCTAD.
Crisis of unemployment
The big challenge has to do with
jobs. Every year, another 1.8 million
people are offloaded into the job
market. However, while the APC says
Buhari will create 720,000 jobs a
year if elected, Jonathan created 1.6
million jobs in 2013. He has
established such innovative
programmes as Nagropreneurs and
YOUWIN that support young farmers
and entrepreneurs with grants,
training and mentorship. He has
also instituted internship schemes
to enhance the capacity of university
graduates to secure gainful
employment.
The unemployment problem is
compounded by the more than
doubling of the education budget
under Jonathan. Every Nigerian child
now has the opportunity to go to
school. Indeed, there has been a 10
million increase in school enrolment
in Nigeria under this government.
There has also been a 75% increase
in O’ Level credit pass in Maths and
English. Jonathan established 125
Almajiri schools in 13 northern
states. He also established 14 new
federal universities. There is now a
federal university in every state.
Indeed, the kidnapping of the
Chibok schoolgirls derives from the
disenchantment of the Boko Haram
that many Northern girls are now
going to school.
Dealing with corruption: According
to Transparency International,
Nigeria has not become more
corrupt under Goodluck Jonathan.
Out of 178 countries ranked in 2010,
Nigeria was the 134th most corrupt
country. In 2014, Nigeria was ranked
136th. Unlike Buhari, Jonathan
understands that corruption has to
be attacked institutionally, from the
roots. Therefore, he proposed the
abrogation of the petroleum subsidy;
one of the biggest avenues for
corruption in government. However,
Nigerians refused. Jonathan has
sanitized the corruption in fertilizer
distribution. The Minister of
Agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina,
lamented that between 1980 and
2010, Nigeria lost 776 billion naira
to corrupt fertilizer racketeering.
Fertiliser racketeering
That effectively came to an end
under Jonathan. Through the
innovative e-wallet system, farmers
are given cell-phones through which
they now have direct and easy access
to government-provided fertilizer,
chemicals and seedlings. Jonathan
has also sanitised the banking
system by removing dinosaur
managing directors, recovering
indigent loans and using AMCON to
mop up bad loans. By instituting e-
payment systems, he sanitized the
civil service by removing 50,000
ghost-workers in one fell swoop. He
has equally got rid of ghost voters
from the electoral register; over 1
million ghost voters were removed
from the Zamfara INEC register
alone. Under Jonathan, we have had
free and fair elections one after the
other; in Edo, Anambra, Ondo, Ekiti
and Osun.
Agriculture has been transformed
under this administration. Thanks to
Jonathan, agriculture now accounts
for 22% of Nigeria’s GDP, more than
oil and gas which only account for
15.9%. Under Jonathan, Nigeria has
recorded a more than 50% reduction
in food imports. Prior to his
presidency, we had a food import
bill of 1.4 trillion naira. But now, it
is less than N700 billion. With the
innovation of dry season rice-
farming, Nigeria has reached 60%
self-sufficiency in rice production.
According to the Food and
Agricultural Organisation of the
United Nations (FAO), Nigeria is now
the largest producer of cassava in
the world. The Jonathan government
built six strategically-located
perishable cargo airports in Ilorin,
Jalingo, Jos, Lagos, Makurdi andYola;
in close proximity to Nigeria’s food
baskets.
It is remarkable that Northern
farmers were able to donate five
million tubers of yam in order to
raise 5 billion naira for Buhari’s
presidential election campaign. If
Jonathan’s transformation agenda in
agriculture was not working as
planned, they would not have been
able to do this.
www.vanguardngr.com/2015/02/jonathan-superior-presidential-material-buhari/

Really Ok , let the elections hold na, why the plan to prospone it? Bunch of losers!

@ Op, yes i know na!

Abeg who fit read dah long tin finish make e help me summarize am

Ah no go school like Buhari

Jonathan is truly working
But the cabals in the north won't accept anything.
I pray if jonathan should win his fg project should be allocated to ss/se and mb

Gej till 2019

Without mincing words,he is.

We have heard. Let him just get the elections done with and not attempt to postpone it, if he is so sure of himself.

MyMouth:
Really Ok , let the elections hold na, why the plan to prospone it? Bunch of losers!

Am suspecting u, u were looking at my mind when you wrote this.

I was reading BBC Focus On Africa magazine the other day on leadership issues in Cameroon and a certain lady is saying something like this: 'If Cameroon has a dearth of leadership, it's God's will.'
|
The Cameroonian has so much been divided along religious and regional lines that some are satisfied with only the president being of their religion or from their region - that's their only benefit.
May God not make us like Cameroon.

Everybody knows that GEJ is a better stuff than Mr no certificate..even himself (Buhari) and his parties knows it

You are on point. We can't compare the two

GEJ is the man

Its funny, Buhari says he will not continue in Jonathan steps or elected, lol. But he says he will ban importation of rice and tomato after GEJ has already reduced importation by over 50%.

The Old man is really good at comedy




GEJ till 2019