Showing posts with label 2011 Presidential Election. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2011 Presidential Election. Show all posts

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Nigeria: Post election violence suspects escape from Jail


Photo Credit: Press S TV, 2011.


Nigeria: Post election violence suspects escape from Jail

The AFP reported Saturday that 12 of the suspects detained over the post-election violence have escaped after riot broke out in an overcrowded jail in northern Nigeria.

The controller of prisons in Adamawa state, Andrew Barka said 18 of the 600 arrested this week escaped but six were later captured.

"There was heavy congestion. The living conditions have worsened since the suspects were brought in," Barka told AFP.
"Therefore yesterday they went on riot, burning a section of our (training) workshop and injuring two wardens. Some of them tried to escape by scaling over the fence," Barka added.


Arrested suspects of the post election violence in Nigeria in April, 2007


The following is the rest of the report.

Rights groups estimate that more than 1,000 people have been arrested since the riots broke out after last weekend's election won by incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian.

Riots in several states in mainly Muslim northern Nigeria after the election claimed nearly 250 lives, according to a rights group, and displaced 74,000 people.
Military patrols and curfews have largely restored calm in the affected states.
Barka said the situation in Yola had been brought under control, dismissing local media speculation that the jailbreak may have been organized by suspected members of a radical sect based in the north.

An Islamist sect, Boko Haram, last year freed more than 700 prisoners during an attack in nearby Bauchi state.


Easter 2011

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Friday, April 22, 2011

The Causes and Consequences of the 2011 Post Election Violence in Nigeria


The causes and consequences of the recent post election violence in Nigeria

The incessant ethnic, religious and political attacks on lives and properties in many states in Nigeria are caused by the appalling intellectual and political ignorance among majority of Nigerians.

If the terrorists unleashing their grievances on both their perceived enemies and innocent people have been educated and informed on the sanctity of human life, the values and virtues of peace and stability for mutual benefit of all the citizens, they would not have committed the terrifying and horrifying atrocities in their own regions and other places they have attacked.
The ruling political class is guilty of exploiting the ignorance of the poor majority in their power struggle and once they have secured their own families and properties, they no longer care about the fate of the victims of their political battles.

• They have misappropriated the public funds for health care and abandoned the broken down public health centres, clinics and hospitals for the poor masses and fly overseas to the developed nations for foreign Medicare and they have spent billions of naira of tax payers money and misappropriated funds on paying foreign medical bills.

• They have misappropriated the public funds allocated for education and neglected public schools and universities with obsolete laboratories and libraries and outdated curricula, broken down campuses with nightmarish facilities and utilities, because they can send their own beloved children to the expensive private schools and universities in Nigeria or in the US and the UK where they pay astronomical school fees from their misappropriated public funds.

• They have misappropriated the public funds allocated for industrial development and preferred to spend their ill-gotten wealth from looting the treasury on imported goods and services.

The list of the corrupt practices of the Nigerian kleptomaniacs in government is very long.

Corruption causes the leakages of power, undermines security and weakens leadership at all levels of human administration.
As corruption increases insecurity will become worse.

The Maitasine riots were the worst political and religious uprisings in Nigeria between 1980 and 1983, during the corrupt administration of President Alhaji Shehu Shagari, a Hausa Muslim from northern Nigeria who served as the President of Nigeria's Second Republic (1979–1983) from the corrupt National Party of Nigeria (NPN). He was a weak leader and could not stop the Maitasine riots and over 4, 000 people were killed. The corrupt civilian government was overthrown in a military coup. And when the military ruled Nigeria there was relative peace in the country until the June 12 Crisis. So, whether the President is from the South or North does not matter to these terrorists who would attack their targets for political, religious or tribal agitations from the Niger Delta to Maiduguri.

The fact is, petty political reasons have been the criteria for many political appointments favouring loyalists of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and they compromised the rules of engagement in their responsibilities.

President Goodluck Jonathan desperately sent his ministers and PDP governors to campaign for him and ensure that they win their states in the presidential election. So the PDP flush with slush funds went to work to win by all means and at all costs by using political bribery and power of incumbency to manipulate the electoral process and rig the elections and many cases of PDP using National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members and others to rig the elections were reported online and offline and with over 75 million users of GSM phones in Nigeria the reports from BlackBerry pings were circulated fast.

Two female NYSC members working for Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were caught thumb printing in Enugu and the video of massive thumb printing by identified members of the PDP in Rivers State was circulated widely on YouTube.
The public proof of PDP rigging elections provoked millions of the supporters of the Opposition. So, when the results showed that the PDP was leading and winning, they went on rampage.

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
~ John F. Kennedy,
35th president of US 1961-1963 (1917 - 1963) in a speech at the White House, 1962.


Anti-government rebels on rampage in Northern Nigeria after the disputed presidential election of April 16, 2011.

The PDP is responsible for the corruption and insecurity destroying lives and properties in Nigeria since 1999 to date. So, President Goodluck Jonathan knows the bitter truth and is only pretending.
The genesis of the crisis is the maladministration of the corrupt ruling party.

Every armed robber and other criminals in the Niger Delta are now claiming to be militants and enjoying Amnesty, but the same PDP government refused to dialogue with the Boko Haram militant in the northern region and has not extended Amnesty to them, because there is no OIL at stake in the North.

The Amnesty Programme is political bribery to woo and win the support of the so called militants. Then President Goodluck Jonathan also dangled the huge bait of $200 million fund to greedy and hungry artistes to win their support.
If Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd) had the power and offered them $300 million, they would have painted the town red to act, dance, rap and sing the praises of Buhari too. He who pays the piper dictates the tune. Who is fooling whom?
President Goodluck Jonathan and his ruling party are guilty of the insecurity destroying Nigeria.
Medicine after death cannot raise the dead.

The government was duly informed and warned of the dangerous states by the State Security Service (SSS), but President Goodluck Jonathan failed to address the emergency and spent billions of naira on his presidential campaign than the amount of money spent on security for INEC staff and other citizens who have lost lives and properties in the post election catastrophe.

Anyone blaming Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd) is wrong. Buhari did not send those murderers on rampage to murder innocent citizens.

If the army and police already assigned in those states came out to stop the murderers, no innocent life would have been lost and no vehicle, house or church would have been burnt.

Where were the police and army when those mad boys went on rampage?

I worked for the Alhaji Bamanga Turkur Presidential Campaign in 1990 and I once carried a rifle for his Director of Publicity for use in self defence.

I have gone to the Niger Delta to address the militancy and spoke to the militant leader Asari Dokubo to bury the hatchet and he agreed, but before I knew it, the Federal Government arrested him for just openly expressing his political belief and detained him without trial and that was what provoked the emergence of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and I simply left the government to face their Frankenstein monster.

To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

The fact is we have an incompetent government that failed woefully to provide security, because of corruption.

The government keeps on telling lies upon lies to hoodwink the ignorant masses.

They boast that they have provided regular supply of fuel, but there is scarcity of kerosene, the fuel of the masses.

There is no regular supply of petrol in remote places in Northern Nigeria, the most underdeveloped region in Nigeria.

The majority of voters are in the rural areas and kerosene means more to them than petrol.
Regular water supply means more to them than petrol.

Any dummy government can provide regular supply of petrol.
Where is the petrol coming from?

Is the regular petrol from our refineries or imported with millions of dollars from foreign countries?

Ask the oil marketers why we now have regular supply of petrol.

Why is the world's eighth largest producer of crude oil importing fuel from overseas?

What happened to the refineries?

Is it not corruption that has made the government to turn to an importer of fuel?

The Nigeria extractive industries transparency initiative (NEITI) has indicted the government agencies supplying petrol of corrupt practices.

Many members of Nairaland, the largest Nigerian online forum display appalling ignorance that you cannot see on any forum in civilized nations. I am a well known member of the Huffington Post and participated in the online presidential campaigns of the 2008 US Presidential Election and our discussions were based on intelligent analyses of the realities in the US and not on hearsay by people who have never been on field trips to rural areas and who do not even read reports on the realities in the rural areas, but only shuttling on the streets of their urban comfort zones of ghettos posting from their PCs or smart phones and made themselves armchair pundits. But they are among the most silly supporters of the corrupt and incompetent government of President Goodluck Jonathan and his corrupt ruling party that was seen rigging on video posted on YouTube for the whole world to see and millions of northerners who are politically informed hooked on free cable TV and BBC News in Hausa were provoked to go on rampage against the PDP, INEC and innocent citizens caught in the mayhem.

You can fool them sometimes, but you cannot fool them all the time. They are rebelling against the corrupt government of the ruling party.


~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima



Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Amnesty cautions Nigerian military over post election violence

The Nigerian military must not use excessive force to quell riots and demonstrations taking place around the imminent announcement of presidential election results, Amnesty International said today.

“We are extremely concerned about the escalation of violence in northern and central Nigeria by protestors and urge the Nigerian authorities to ensure that excessive force is not used against protesters,” said Tawanda Hondora, Amnesty International’s deputy director for Africa.

“Political leaders on all sides must act responsibly and tell their supporters to stop all acts of violence and human rights abuses.”

Rioting and violent attacks have been reported in the north and centre of the country, including Kaduna, Kano, Gombe, Adamawa, Bauchi and Plateau states and the Federal Capital Territory.

“The security forces' response to this unrest must not lead to further human rights violations. The police and military must respect human life and use proportionate means to police demonstrations,” said Tawanda Hondora.

Presidential poll results show incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan is set to win.

Amnesty International recently issued a report highlighting how hundreds of people have been killed in politically-motivated, communal and sectarian violence across Nigeria ahead of presidential and parliamentary polls.

Releases displayed in Africa/Lagos time
19 Apr 2011
16:56 Restraint urged amid Nigeria election unrest
14 Apr 2011
16:15 Swaziland authorities must end their violent crackdown
16:12 Côte d'Ivoire / L'ONU doit protéger les dizaines de milliers de civils déplacés dans l'ouest du pays
16:02 UN protection needed for tens of thousands of displaced civilians in Côte d'Ivoire
6 Apr 2011
19:20 Zimbabwe / Mass grave bodies must be exhumed by forensic experts
1 Apr 2011
14:08 Côte d'Ivoire / Warning of ‘human rights catastrophe' as forces reach Abidjan
28 Mar 2011
17:28 Amnesty International Deeply Disappointed by Supreme Court's Decision Rejecting Troy Davis Appeal
01:00 Five Countries Defy Sea Change in Global Execution Practices, According to New Amnesty International Report
10 Mar 2011
14:45 Kenya must comply with ICC summons on post-election violence
14:27 Sudan / Crackdown on peaceful protest continues
9 Mar 2011
18:53 Amnesty International National Security Expert to Observe Chairman King's Hearing re: the American Muslim Community




Between the ill wind and the whirlwind in Nigeria

In all contests, there will be winners and losers, no matter whose ox is gored.

What makes any leader great is not only the feat of a victory, but the courage to overcome the agony of defeat.

Those who ignore an ill wind should be ready for the whirlwind.
I said the issues of these elections are corruption, security and energy, but the political aspirants thought their ego was all that matters.
Where is the joy of victory in the house of anarchy?

I said these primitive natives are not ready for democracy.
How can you practice Democracy, when you violate her virtues?

Goodbye to all that, but I know that without President Goodluck Jonathan and his kith and kin across the Niger, the People's Democratic Party(PDP) would have lost woefully. And after him, who is next?

There cannot be trust where there is no truth and there cannot be peace where there is no justice.
Those who do not want peace will end up in pieces.

When all have been said and done, we would be gone, but the echoes of our voices and the totems of our deeds will testify for us or against us.
Why not use our common sense and say Goodbye to all the Nigerian nonsense of the power brokers who have done us more harm than good.

~ By Orikinla Osinachi


Releases displayed in Africa/Lagos time
18 Apr 2011
20:16 Statement by the High Representative, Catherine Ashton, on the presidential election in Nigeria
19:19 Nigeria / L'élection présidentielle se tient dans un climat délétère pour la presse
19:14 Nigeria / Presidential election being held as attacks on media increase
19:12 Nigeria Elections Credible and Creditable - Commonwealth Observers
18:16 ECOWAS observer mission to the presidential elections of 16 April 2011 in the Federal Republic of Nigeria
18:06 Mission d'observation de la CEDEAO de l'élection présidentielle du 16 avril 2011 en République fédérale du Nigeria




Congratulations President Goodluck Jonathan, but tackle National Security Fast


President Goodluck Jonathan

Mr. President, Congratulation for Winning the Presidency, but we must now win the National Security Battle and here is how to do it in Nigeria.

Mr. President, let Security Revolution becomes a top agenda for the new Presidency and here is how to we can aggressively execute it in Nigeria. Sir, we must do this with full boldness or chutzpah and we must leave no stone unturned irrespective of sentiments. Sir, remember time is short as there is so much to do. Just ask your friend, President Obama he will tell you the term runs fast!

The Nigerian society will soon see the promises of the new Presidency. The new president and the in-coming administration should aggressively pursue strategies and methodologies that could put a real control to problems of national security and anti-democracy as they relate to assassinations, armed robberies, bombing, arson, corruption, unemployment, poor infrastructure, financial waste, institutional slothfulness, and ethnic/religious divide.

If this type of executive route is taken the road to a security revolution would have begun! The new President should aggressively bring in new perspectives and ideas through non-old hands which should include proven business/entrepreneurial/professional Nigerians both in the country and from the diaspora.

Nigeria remains heavily depended on governmental democracy and public styled management systems with the heavy weight of continuously using the same used-up ideas known throughout the nation’s ministries and para-public agencies.
Surely, this is not the way or mode of growing economic democracy.

By the nature, spirit and tradition of our nation, Nigeria is a pro-ecological, entrepreneurial and industrial nation; as such achieving our economic potential will only occur when the people are free to uncover their capabilities under a much more improved secured environment.

National security also involves labor stability. The Nigerian working atmosphere is much more damaged as many private and public workers only put in a quality time of 3 to 4 hours daily into their works due to electricity shortage and fear of darkness which continues to looms in everyone’s mind.

A good security revolution also involves the national leader and his administration providing an environment where a few cannot continue to personalize the elements and processes of governance. This quandary or problem could be worked on by seeing that family ties, friendship links and personal loyalties does not represent the mount piece through which appointments, policies and agendas are made.

Nigeria is an executive democracy where the nation’s President should be able to give maximum attention to issues in the mode of strategic growth in all areas of public and private economies.

Nigeria’s problem is not mainly about godfatherism /godmotherism or political manipulators as all societies are ingrained with this type of emotional sponsorships.

What we ought to be preoccupied with is seeking out workable ideas and proven concepts from any one irrespective of its source as long as such probable solutions are very realistic to our nation’s growth and prosperity.

To better bring in a secured economic and political environment the right people with successful outcomes across various areas of business or occupation should overwhelm the next administration. These people will be the ones to help the country work out solutions to security problems like unemployment among youths as well as finding ways to provide temporal monetary help to give them seek applied training and jobs.

National security could quickly be ensured with the erection of privatized educational, vocational and professional systems, and State-based universities (public and private). These entities should be made to come under regional accreditation or non-governmental agencies that are basically professional associations that could grant recognition to a higher institution for its demonstrated capacity to meet predetermined criteria for recognized standards. This type of private or non-governmental agency should also be put in place to give accreditation to Hospitals and every other Health care organization. This idea is highly essential for the sole purpose of ensuring a more timely supervision and efficient monitoring of these vital systems.

The new president should have in place contracted procurement specialists working on behalf of the federal government for the purpose of supervising grants and providing contracts as they relate to federal tasks(e.g. super-road works, health care system,water/electric supply).

National security will come in a more healthy way by putting systems in place to move our disabled or physically/mentally challenged populations into work training, job counseling as well as assisting them with temporary disability insurance. These acts could give them pride to contribute to the national development as we just saw with the participation of many of them in polling places casting their vote on election days.

In a society where police personnel, prison workers and court officials are not well paid and given adequate living remuneration, insecurity tends to climb up and as a result local businesses and international investments suffer.Also, the national interest in the area of law and order could be served much better with the establishment of State police systems as different state governments are more likely to abundantly take interest in protecting its people and properties.

It is time to develop a new curriculum at all levels of schooling;exclusively designed to place fresh emphasis on the ethical aspect of the institutional health of the nation as it could help build anti-corruption attitude and mindset at an earlier stage of life.

With less Federal/State owned organizations running services there could be is less room for national security insults like wastage, corruption, neglect, greed, violence, pain, apprehension and suffering.A new and newer Nigeria is possible and let us hope it comes sooner with this new-fangled presidency!

~ By Dr. John Oshodi

John EgbeazienOshodi, Ph.D., DABPS; FACFE; is a Licensed Clinical/Forensic Psychologist; Diplomate of American Board of Psychological Specialties; Fellow of American College of Forensic Examiners (For Psy); Former Interim Associate Dean and an Assistant Professor of Psychology, Broward College - North Campus, Coconut Creek, Florida. joshodi@broward.edu



Friday, April 15, 2011

President Goodluck Jonathan's Campaign Group Bribing Nigerian Voters


President Goodluck Jonathan and his running mate Vice President Namadi Sambo

A campaign group canvassing for voters to support President Goodluck Jonathan offered bribe via text message to the Publisher/Editor of Nigerians Report to vote for their presidential candidate and ask others to vote for him. But he rejected their bribe.

Many people are being offered different forms of bribe in cash and kind to vote for Mr. Goodluck Jonathan in the presidential election on Saturday April 16, 2011.

Some were offered recharge cards of N500 to N1, 500 to vote for him.

The corrupt and desperate ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) is using political bribery to compel Nigerian voters to vote for their presidential candidate.

The corrupt PDP has billions of dollars to use to bribe millions of voters to vote for President Goodluck Jonathan and political bribery is a criminal offense and an electoral malpractice that is another form of rigging an election.

The Sahara Reporters exposed the political bribes given to Nigerian journalists by the office of President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja.

We am against all forms of corrupt practices and since President Goodluck Jonathan and his ruling party are corrupt, we will never support him and will do our best to fight against corruption at all levels and save our beloved nation Nigeria from corrupt leaders who have been destroying our nation.

DO NOT VOTE FOR ANY CORRUPT POLITICIAN OR ANY CORRUPT PARTY!


Thursday, April 14, 2011

My Case is against the corrupt ruling party in Nigeria




Three great things make a great leader. DIGNITY. INTEGRITY and PROBITY. And Mr. Goodluck E.A. Jonathan, the incumbent President of Nigeria has been found wanting in these three great things.


In a civilized nation, GEAJ and other corrupt leaders of the ruling party would have been prosecuted for electoral malpractices as the courts have indicted them for such crimes as rigging the elections in 2003 and 2007. But in an uncivilized banana republic like the present Nigeria, they are the heroes of the people and they are front runners for the highest public office. This is the tragedy of most underdeveloped nations where corrupt rulers can hoodwink the people and manipulate the electorate to win election by all means and at all costs with impunity. And they soon turn the masses at their mercy into their political zombies. This is your tragedy and not mine. You are just pathetic characters in the drama of life and interesting subjects for my books.

Majority of Nigerians are intellectual illiterates and even prefer to remain morally bankrupt and ARE AFRAID OF CHANGE.

Just be prepared to face the grave consequences of your erroneous choices. And do not come back here to whine about corruption and unfulfilled promises of your political rulers, because you chose them and sold your conscience to them. We reap what we sow?

How many of their children are in public schools?

How many of them depend on public health services?

How many of them use their privileged children as their political thugs?

How many of them live on less than $5 a day?

LOGICAL INTUITION is even enough for any human with brains to know what is GOOD and what is BAD, except he or she is a DUMB backside.


He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

~ Martin Luther King, Jr.



I rest my case.


Saturday, March 26, 2011

President Goodluck Jonathan and Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau woo Entertainers for votes


President Goodluck Jonathan

Dozens of political hypocrites and prostitutes posing and posturing as artistes have endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan for the 2011 April presidential election after he fed them at a presidential dinner last Monday March 21, 2011 at the prestigious Eko Hotel and Suites on Victoria Island, Lagos. And many of the Nollywood stars scrambled for cartons of Jonathan’s branded biscuits and T-Shirts like street kids jostling for handouts. It was a show of shame.

This is not the first time they have done so. Seeing popular Nigerian singer Onyeka Owenu performing her campaign songs completes the nostalgia, because she did the same for the late military tyrant General Sani Abacha at the ill-fated pro-Sani Abacha ‘Two Million Man March’ in the company of many popular musicians and other entertainers from March 2-3, 1998. But when the despotic military tyrant suddenly died, they were all disgraced. Now they have returned.

President Jonathan said he was not meeting them to canvass for their endorsement, but I wonder if anyone believed him since the presidential election is just two weeks away. Why did he wait to meet with them until he started his presidential campaign and using all means available to woo the electorate to win their mandate?


Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau

The other presidential candidate who has also met with top Nollywood stars is Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). He had dinner with them on Tuesday, March 15, 2011, at Planet One, Maryland in Lagos. But most those he met with are from the Yoruba clique of Nollywood.

Trust politicians to leave no stone unturned in their political campaigns and the popularity of Nollywood starts among the majority of Nigerians cannot be ignored.
The status quo of the corrupt ruling class has not changed and they are desperate to use all means possible to retain power at all costs.

What we need in Nigeria is not a quasi-democratic election, but a political revolution for the total eradication of corruption at all levels of governance, and for a holistic reformation and transformation of the nation.

Only a transformational revolutionary leader can liberate our beloved Nigeria from these kleptomaniacs and their dogs.


~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima




Saturday, February 5, 2011

Dear Nigerians, Pastor Tunde Bakare is a Brave Man


Pastor Tunde Bakare

Dear Nigerians,
I have seen that many of you are really confused over the controversial decision of the popular radical Pastor Tunde Bakare to be the running mate of retired General Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate for the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).



Muhammad Buhari

The man has taken a decision and he has the constitutional and fundamental human right to do so.Accept it or take a walk and go round the bend if you like.

The man is brave to take such a plunge.He is better than the noise makers who prefer to throw stones from the sidelines without taking the bulls by the horns.

The problem with the majority of those attacking him is THEY DO NOT READ OR THEY HAVE BEEN READING THE WRONG BOOKS. So, they have either misunderstood the teachings of the Holy Bible by misquoting and misinterpreting it or they have low intelligence to understand the astute and resolute Pastor Tunde Bakare whose pragmatic personality is not in doubt.

To separate the goats from the sheep, I repeat that there is absolute nothing wrong with Pastor Tunde Bakare’s decision.

“1″, In Nigeria the worst of us are leading the best of us!,

2, Umaru yar’adua our first Nigerian graduate/lecturer president is a round peg in a square hole, he is totally unfit to lead this nation!,

3, Yar’adua could not careless whether Nigeria is sick or healthy as he is battling with his own health, an honest man would have thought that he owes his nation the duty to say that he does not have the mental capacity or the energy to continue to lead,

4, I am still watching and waiting to see where, this tree of ibori will fall, until those daylight robbers who have stolen this nation blind are dealt with don’t listen to anyone who says there’s a campaign against corruption,

5, The PDP will be derailed one of these days, ” ~ Pastor Tunde Bakare, Nairaland, 22 Nov 2009.

Pastor Tunde Bakare is a patriotic Nigerian of candour, honour and valour.

Every one who registers to vote is already involved, including the other ministers of God who are hiding behind the pulpit and afraid to declare where they stand.

~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima



Sunday, August 1, 2010

President Jonathan Show Your Resiliency to Self-Confidence with a Yes or No to the 2011 Presidency

President Goodluck Jonathan

President Jonathan Show Your Resiliency to Self-Confidence with a Yes or No to the 2011 Presidency

President Jonathan recently expressed that should he declare his candidacy now either in the positive or negative towards the 2011 Presidential election, his statements could ignite instant political readiness in others including the Governors.

The President noted that some of them could quickly take their respective stand with regard to their candidacy for the next round of elections. What is wrong with such move, Sir?

That is the way it should be in any right thinking democratic society. What has your active or inactive declaration got to do with a State government and a Ministerial agency in terms of governmental functioning on behalf of the people?

Why a ministerial or any other governmental work should, becomes suddenly inactive because the political season is on?

Sir, this concern of yours, while it could correctly validate the sentimental nature of Nigeria’s political mindset and state, it also shows the picture of a society with lack of political commonsense and directions.

Sir, the fact that you expressed grave concern about the possibility of the shortage of functional output in government work during election activities, sends an awful message to any person who believes he or she is capable of simultaneously and efficiently handling any line of multiple tasks including running for office and serving the people.

Sir, don’t say Oh, that is “Oyibo” or the White peoples’ way, no it is the commonsense human way! Since, the affairs to a nation must go on irrespective of the political and electoral climate at the time.

Sir, if this type of thinking is part of your defense games or mechanisms, you need a better line of operative, seductive and influencing defenses that will cause convincing reactions from the people.

Mr. President, heating up the political pot of any democratic election is diametrically even with the impulse of presidential debate and energy.

Sir, admits your rationalizations, it is time to unload on the people, a yes or no answer as to your candidacy in the 2011 Presidency.

It will show you have nothing to hide, and further that you certainly have confidence in the Nigerian polity in terms of its maturity to leave the cycle of governmental functioning intact.

Sir, declare now as there is bound to be some degree of distraction any time to fully focusing on office work by incumbent Governors or other officials running in during an election cycle.

Your declaration today or tomorrow will in fact reduce the level of distractions towards the spirit of active governance which you tend to be attributing to other public officials and offices.

Sir, a more aggressive body of advisers will tell you that with the time highly limited and against you with regard the 2011 presidential election, the apparent waiting game of yours could on a personal level allow you to assess the people’s relationship to possible opponents of yours. But at the same time, this tactics could backfire.

Sir, there is very, very minimum time for the Chairman of Elections, Attahiru Jega to fully carry out voters registration, direct the political parties and constituencies’ with political education and position the necessary infrastructure in regards to the workability of the voting machines as well as maintaining full security.

Sir, with the political and electoral atmospheres lacking adequate time to adjust to an already fierce, bamboozled and misunderstood social surroundings, political turbulence could set in which may attract the need for security by and means possible.

Sir, in your own words, the world is watching the continued state of ambivalence on your part, no matter the strategy you may be employing in this election cycle.

Sir, what is clear here, is the question about your state of self confidence, possibly in the collective mind of all Nigerians and in the view of the global world.

Sir, if the assumption by some that your current silence is a sign that you may be equally waiting for an opening from a native doctor, a prophet or a divine path from God, pray for the message to come real fast. The time is now.


~ By John Oshodi

John Egbeazien Oshodi, Ph.D , DABPS, FACFE, is a Forensic/Clinical Psychologist and the Interim Associate Dean of Academic Affairs--Behavioral Science, North Campus, Broward College, Coconut Creek, Florida. joshodi@broward.edu

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