| Temple Chima Ubochi |
 | ubochit@hotmail.de Bonn, Germany  |
History is the chronicle of divorces between creed and deed (Louis Fischer)The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of myself (Jane Addams)
Many a man's reputation would not know his character if they met on the street (Elbert Hubbard)
Saying is one thing, doing another. We must consider the sermon and the preacher distinctly and apart (Michel de Montaigne)
Almost all of us long for peace and freedom; but very few of us have much enthusiasm for the thoughts, feelings, and actions that make for peace and freedom (Aldous Huxley)
PC is a contemptuous party, in that it takes Nigerians for a ride. How come that the party members have started sharing political posts amongst themselves, even when the election is yet to hold? The Tribune informs Nigerians that APC leaders are already sharing power. According to The Paper, "For instance, a source said that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was offered three ministerial slots, FCT, Interior and Defence. It was also gathered that the position of Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) was zoned to the South-South with the like of Governor Rotimi Amaechi and the APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, said to have been penciled in for the job. It was also learnt that the spokesman of APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has been penciled in as Minister of Information, while Honourable Abike Dabiri has been penciled in as Special Adviser to The President on Media and Publicity". APC has started "counting its chickens even before they are hatched", and, the Party is putting the "cart before the horse". Nigerians will teach it a lesson at the polls soon.Fighting Corruption:
Buhari and his Party, The APC, claim that corruption would disappear, if Buhari wins. But how? Buhari has lost steam and is now ready to dine with the corrupt ones, as long as that guarantees him a win. The Rivers State Governor and Chairman of Buhari's campaign organization, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, said on Wednesday Feb. 2, 2015, that corruption would disappear from Nigeria if the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), emerged the winner of the presidential election. But he didn't tell us how, and why some of the PDP states are better governed than the APC ones? Peter Obi wrote that "one of the ironical features of general elections in Nigeria is the tendency to encapsulate the fate of the nation in the post of President. In this election year, a talking point is about the People's Democratic Party [PDP] being in control of the centre since the return to civil rule in mid-1999 - with the attendant realistic and unrealistic expectations. Perhaps, understandably so; but it will bear repetition to draw attention to the real fact that the administration of the states of the federation largely determines the lot of the people. No Nigerian is a federal indigene, but each of us has a state of origin. And yet, the unwary voters will quietly cast their ballots for good and poor performers alike - while looking up to the central government to literally solve all their problems. So, what have the state governors been doing? Interestingly, Nigerian states are run mostly by two political parties - the PDP and APC. The varied performances of the state govern-ments are revealing that the PDP-controlled states have been adjudged to be the best performers. Read more below.
If APC members are "saints", why are the APC controlled states having problems? Just an example: Osun State is owing its workers for five months. Rauf Aregbesola, the state governor, is an APC member. A security expert in the state, Mr. Lekan Jackson-Ojo, has said that workers' salaries should be given priority by any responsible government, saying failure to pay workers will set them against the government. He raised the alarm that owing workers for five months could trigger insecurity and other forms of crimes in the state. He said that it was criminal to leave workers' salaries unpaid while the governor was funding campaigns of his party's candidates.The security expert said that there was no excuse good enough to justify the refusal of the government to pay the workers after working every day.
Apart from that fact that Transpancy International said that Buhari's regime was more corrupt than President Jonathan's current administration, the APC and its presidential candidate are still disturbing Nigerians with their fake promise to "butcher" corruption. Who will bring the knife to do that, and from where should they start? Law Mefor wrote that "the fight against corruption has been facing a systemic problem. Unknown to many Nigerians, there is no way any President will succeed in the fight against corruption in Nigeria without a proper legal framework being in place. Apart from the fact that most of the laws against corrupt practices in Nigeria are obsolete, especially the provisions found in the Penal Code(North) and Criminal Code(South), the Procedural Act allows pretrial matters (and these include all manner of injunctions) to travel to and fro Supreme Court through the Court of Appeal, from the courts of first instance". Chinweizu wrote that Anybody who thinks that, under Nigeria's 1999 Constitution, any government, party or president can eradicate corruption is like a man who expects a worm to give birth to a lion, or who wants to go to heaven but doesn't want to die. If Nigerians are at all serious in their endless noise against corruption, they must, as a first step, get rid of their 1999 Constitution. Anybody who is claiming he can end corruption but who isn't campaigning to get rid of the 1999 Constitution is a fraud. But Nigerians are not serious. First of all, they love what they call corruption; they became addicted to it right from the 1950s. They want to loot and squander, that's why they don't really want corruption tackled. Which coup maker in the past 50 years hasn't claimed he has come to get rid of corruption only to get even more corrupt than those he threw out? Which presidential candidate hasn't claimed the same intention and ability only to fail when he got into office? Why has that been so? There are three main reasons why that has been so since 1999. Read more below.
We have heard Buhari repeating, over and over again, that he will fight corruption, but, one can't do that by packing all the corrupt ones off to Kirikiri. In a democratic setting, rule of law must be obeyed, institutions must be allowed to work. What Nigeria needs is strong institutions rather than strongmen, because institutions can last for eternality, but, men or persons don't. President Jonathan recognizes this fact, and that's why he's building strong institutions that will outlast personality, as that measure will do more in the fight against corruption. Law Mefor wrote that: "Jonathan's approach, in tackling corruption, is much better; In his unique way of fighting corruption by checkmating it and handing over the case files to the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Jonathan has targeted the sources the mean cabals manipulate in the system to steal Government funds in large lumps and plugged them off. One huge outlet of massive corruption, which Jonathan plugged, is ending fuel subsidy scam. The same applies to fertilizer distribution bootlegging and scams by removing the rogue middlemen and introducing electronic wallets for all the over 10 million farmers nationwide, each of who was given a mobile phone free. The next is the unbundling and selling off of NEPA, which has ended yet another source of massive looting of the economy and fleecing of the masses by some cabals. Then his removal of over 63 thousand ghost workers from federal civil service yet another move that saved over 208 billion naira annually. Jonathan also handed over the Nigerian Ports Authority verification to a third party and eliminated port frauds. 15 thousand ghost pensioners have also just been discovered and that saved billions of naira too. This also put some cabals out of business. In all this, one can easily also see the rather less dramatic but more effective way and manner President Jonathan has fought and reduced corruption in Nigeria. Fact is: Jonathan has secured more convictions of corrupt persons than the Obasanjo and Buhari regimes put together. No wonder Transparency International rates both Buhari and Obasanjo's regimes as more corrupt than that of Jonathan, the country moving from 2nd most corrupt country in the world in 2004 under Obasanjo, to over 30 places in 2014 under Jonathan. These are hard facts being whittled down or denied by the propagandists".
Let's look at those who are promising to fight or eradicate corruption. It was the same fake crusade against corruption that Buhari gave as the major reason for overthrowing Shagari in1983. Rather than do as he promised, Nigerians only witnessed 20 months of heavy-handed, corrupt and ineffective rule. According to Wikileaks, Buhari jailed hundreds of political opponents and muzzled a once aggressive press. Buhari's loyality to the military also came into question as he dismissed 30,000 soldiers as a cost-cutting measure. Buhari also soured Nigeria's relations with Britian, when he was accused of masterminding a clumsy and unsucessful attempt in July 1984 to kidnap President Shagari's brother-in-inlaw, former Transport Minister, Umaru Dikko. Moreover, Buhari undermined traditional rulers throughout Nigeria, slashing their benefits and questioning their authority.
Buhari's Running Mate, Prof Osibanjo, was accused of receiving bribe money from President Yar'Adua. 247ureports.com wrote that "It is recalled that Prof Osibanjo had served as the lead legal counsel to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in his petition against the election of President Jonathan's former boss, late President Umar Yar'Adua. Available information indicates that Prof. Osibanjo betrayed the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. According to available information, Prof Osibanjo allegedly connived with Wole Olanipekun, who was the lead legal counsel to the then President Yar'Adua, to subvert the legal process and to derail Atiku Abubakar's chances of possible victory at the Supreme Court. Interestingly, Osibanjo was seconded as Yar'Adua's Chief Legal Consultant on the advice of Bola Ahmed Tinubu".
Aisha Buhari, Buhari's daughter, was implicated in a fraudulent case. What Buhari did thereafter was to deny that she was not his daughter. According to thewhistleng.com, "a public documents available through the United States Justice Department regarding the criminal case 1:07CR209, United States of America Vs William J. Jefferson, filed in the Eastern District Court on 11/06/2009. The Courts Public Record with the subject "Government's Sentencing Memorandum" revealed that Aisha Buhari, who claims her father is General Buhari, was used as conduit and engaged in fraudulent wire transfers, from her Nigerian Account in favour of Congressman Jefferson via the ANJ Group LLC. According to the US District Court Memo" Read more below.
Doing anything to get elected:
Buhari is a fraud; it's election time, he goes about everywhere promising heaven on earth if elected. In office, he will behave differently. Buhari was in Aba to campaign and even accepted a chieftaincy title from a wrong traditional ruler there, as the Abia council of traditional rulers had distanced themselves from Eze Ikonne for giving Gen. Buhari the title of Ogbuagu 1. It would be recalled that Buhari rejected the same traditional title, he accepted now, when it was offered to him as the then chairman of PTF. What changed between now and then? Lust for power is the answer! In a statement by the Chairman of Abia Council of Traditional Rulers, speaking on behalf of other Ezes, Eze Eberechi Dick said that Chieftaincy titles are given to deserving people who contributed to the growth and wellbeing of the Igbo nation and not to those who only remember the Igbos during electioneering periods. They argued that in 1996, Aba Chamber of Commerce Industry Mines and Agriculture (ACCIMA), under Dr Chukwuemeka Okolo, invited Gen. Buhari in his capacity as the chairman of petroleum trust fund (PTF) to come and save Aba from the terrible state it was, but, he refused to come or even send a representative. He also declined the honour of an award ceremony which was added to the event to make him come to the rescue of Aba using his office as PTF chairman, and this was happening at a period when Aba was in a disaster state and Ama Ikonne and the entire Faulks road was rendered impassable as a result of heavy flooding in front of the palace of Eze Ikonne. As at the time this was happening, it was extremely difficult to access Ariaria Market from Faulks Road. The Ezes, led by the Chairman of Abia traditional rulers' council, said they wonder why such a man who had shown little or no regard to the Igbo nation should be given a chieftaincy title in Igbo land. They also said the chieftaincy title given to Buhari has nothing to do with Abia council of traditional rulers, and that very soon the council of traditional rulers will pronounce adequate sanction for Eze Ikonne for going against the wish of the Abia council of traditional rulers and Ndi Igbo in general. According to them, Buhari had always stood against the wish and interest of the Igbo man and had always segregated against the Igbo nation and as such does not deserve to be honored in Igbo land.
The difference between Jonathan and Buhari:
President Jonathan is neither vengeful nor baleful, as he has good intentions for Nigerians no matter from which part of Nigeria they are from. During the Federal Executive Council on Wednesday Feb. 25, 2015, the federal government approved President Goodluck Jonathan's anticipatory approval of different foreign loans totaling about $403million for Lagos, Rivers, Ogun and Osun States among others. As the Minister of State, Finance, Ambassador Bashir Yuguda, put it "the fact that most of the loans guaranteed by the government were for states being governed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) further confirmed Jonathan's position that he is the President of all Nigerians. Yuguda said that the President had identified the distinction between governance and politics and would not tribalise his office for any reason. According to the minister, the council approved the President's anticipatory approval to obtain $100 million credit from the French Development Agency in support of Lagos Integrated Urban Development Project (Eko-UP). In his words: "The facility is meant to improve living conditions of the most vulnerable urban population of metropolitan Lagos, improve management and treatment of solid waste, strengthen the capacity of Lagos state and implement urban development projects in Lagos State".
By this action, President Jonathan has shown that he is better than Obasanjo, who withheld Lagos State's allocations from the federation account because of his differences with the then state governor, Bola Tinubu. If President Jonathan is a wicked man, he would have cancelled the loan meant for Rivers State because of the political differences and the altercation between him and that state's governor, Chibike Amaechi. But, President Jonathan has shown that he puts the well being of Nigerians above party politics and above personal relationship.
By this action for Lagos State, President Jonathan has shown that he is better than Buhari, who cancelled Lagos State's Metro Project for no just reason when he was the head of state, despite the fact that millions of dollars had already been sunk into the project. The first civilian governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, on Tuesday, March 17, 2015, said that the cancellation of the Lagos metroline project in 1985 was a major mistake and disservice to many Nigerians. Jakande said this in Lagos, during the launch of a book which chronicled his life in politics and journalism. The book, entitled, 'Jakande: Leadership in Action'. Someone also wrote: Let's informed Buhari that Lateef Jakande's $60 million metro rail project for Lagos, which he cancelled immediately after he over-threw the Second Republic, has now accumulated a debt profile of over $3 billion for Lagos State, making the state the most indebted state to Paris Club in the federation. Let's also remind Buhari that Gbolahan Mudashiru, his Military Administrator for Lagos State then, alerted him on the clause in the contract agreement that would yoke the state to this debt, if the contract was cancelled unilaterally, and that he replied to Mudashiru, that he didn't care a damn. Though the fund for the execution of that project, which would have given the people of Lagos an intra-city light train transport system, would not have come from Buhari's Supreme Military Council, General Buhari, as Military Head of State, cancelled this wonderful project of the state government, with ethnicity on his mind".
From his actions, right from the time he joined the military; during the civil war; when he overthrew Shagari and became the head of state; as the chairman of PTF; and until now, Buhari believes that wrongs aren't wrong if it's done by people like him. For that, Nigerians might not elect him, as he will continue punishing others for the same crimes he, his families and cronies do commit at ease.
To be continued!
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