Presidential Declaration: My Take Away by Babatunde Raji Fashola

They had advertised this flag-off with a promise to show what they had done in Lagos. I anticipated this visit because I hoped it would provide an opportunity to discuss issues important to the people.

When they left, they left nothing tangible behind except violence, attacks and robberies on citizens who had been trapped in the traffic they created.

The APC National Convention had held in the same city of Lagos a few weeks ago without violence and robberies.

But that is not my take away. My take away was the presidential speech.

Having ridden to office on the back of civil society (a.k.a Doctrine of necessity), and having been elected by an impassioned campaign of emotion and sympathy (a.k.a ‘I had no shoes’), I expected that a president seeking re-election will understand that his record of service and not sympathy would be the vote catching message.

Even though I was in Benin to attend the APC vice presidential candidate’s town hall meeting, I took the time to listen to the presidential flag-off speech.

Mr. President had my attention when he said his message that day, and for the rest of the 35 States and FCT, was going to be focused on young people.

And just as I thought he was going to raise hope, he did what no leader should ever do. He dashed hope. He told young Nigerians that his generation had failed. Yet he seeks their votes to lead them.

This compounded the problem. If the President admits personal failure, he was uncharitable in seeking to paint everybody in his own service record. What then is his “Transformation Agenda” about? Failure?

My take away: Leaders don’t dash hope, they inspire it.

To be fair, he quite rightly set out the agenda and burning issues on the minds of the Nigerian people when he opened by stating that he was going to address 3 (three) issues of corruption, insecurity and the economy.

I expected to hear about a security plan to restore Nigeria’s territory that was lost to terrorists and how to bring back the girls abducted in Chibok, the president sadly said nothing.

Instead, Mr. President went for the sympathy message again, that there was an assassination attempt on his life 4 years ago.

My take away: Mr President, this is a good try but it took four years and on the eve of election campaign for you to disclose such grave national security information.

Any attempt on your life as our leader is an attack on all of us as a people and a nation.

Twenty four hours before this Lagos Presidential flag-off, there was an attack of terror in Paris in which 12 people were killed. By midnight, arrests had been made; the Government of France had swung into action with 80, 000 combined security forces in a manhunt for the terrorists.

They pursued the terrorists into a forest, evoking memories of Sambisa Forest.

As I conclude this piece, three terrorists had been killed and one was on the run.

After six years, there was no message or plan in this Presidential re-election bid speech on how to solve our security problem.

Mr. President spent a lot of time accusing his predecessors of not buying arms.

Those young people whom Mr. President sought to impress must remember than in the last 20 or so years, our armed forces have been involved in wars/peace-keeping missions in Somalia, Sierra-Leone and Liberia, and their performance was globally adjudged to be outstanding. They used arms.

If Mr. President’s predecessors did not buy arms, which arms did these soldiers use for those operations?

It seems to me very simple to accept that armoury management is a matter of inventory management; use and replace.

I think young people must see these accusations against predecessors as being without basis.

Assuming there is a basis, General Buhari left office in 1985; the technology of arms has improved rapidly and it cannot be his fault that a President in 2015 is seeking to use 1985 arms.

Mr. President still owes Nigerians an explanation about the $9 million cash seized in a plane in South Africa, in an amateurish attempt to buy arms through the back door.

As far as corruption was concerned, the president’s silence on the forensic audit report about $10 billion & $12 billion or $20 billion, (depending on whose version between the ministry of finance or central bank), showed an unwillingness to defend his record.

I think it would have helped Mr. President’s re-election bid if he spoke about losses to the economy as a result of pipeline vandalism and huge economic losses to the country in terms of stolen crude oil.

Answers to allegations of mismanagement of SURE-P funds being used for political objectives and the unresolved kerosene import scandals would perhaps have been helpful.

Instead, Mr. President chose to attack the records of predecessors, many of whom are not seeking re-election.

My take away: Mr. President seems to have forgotten that he is the one seeking re-election and it is his record in the last 4-6 years (not his record as Governor of Bayelsa) that would be helpful to the people in decision making.

In case Mr. President has forgotten, he should ask his aides to provide tapes of the Obama campaign for him.

President Obama rode into office on a massive emotional campaign anchored on change (and that is where the comparison ends) but in the second term bid, the Republicans were most scathing, unrelenting and uncompromising in the public scrutiny of his first term record.

That is what happens in every democracy. It is not about emotion and last minute allegations of assassinations.

Even after Obama had taken out Bin Laden, who claimed responsibility for a terror attack on America, it took a most passionate presidential convention speech by his Democratic predecessor, President Bill Clinton to defend his record of service and ‘save’ the Obama re-election bid.

Which one of President Jonathan’s predecessors will stand up for his record of service?

As far as the economy was concerned, the president pitched on the size of the Nigerian economy as the largest in Africa.

He was silent on why the citizens of the largest economy in Africa still live in darkness. He was silent on why the football team of the largest economy in Africa will not be at the Nation’s cup, when Cape Verde, the smallest country will be there.

Mr. President, who was addressing young people, would have helped his own case if he had explained to them why Bolaji Abdullahi, a young Sports Minister, under whose tenure we won the Nations Cup, was removed for political expediency.

I think Mr. President needs to be reminded that as recently as December 2014, citizens of the largest economy in Africa were looking for petrol in jerry cans across Nigerian cities including Abuja.

Instead of revealing the plan for the next four years on the issues which Mr. President chose by himself to address, he sounded angry, and appeared irritated by the demands of his citizens for a better life.

I expect that Mr. President will seek to do better as he promised across the next 35 states and FCT.

My take away: A re-election bid is like a job appraisal or interview; the applicant who seeks to serve cannot get angry – Anger is not a strategy.

We the citizens must continue to ask questions.

Mr. President made promises to us in Lagos such as the construction of the road leading to the Murtala Muhammed Airport. He promised stable electricity. He promised to keep us safe. He promised jobs although Nigerian youths died under his watch while seeking to serve in the immigration service.

Mr. President must show us that these promises have been fulfilled, or he must explain why they were not fulfilled. This is the essence of the social contract in a democracy.

He must show us that he will not lose more parts of Nigeria and that he has a clear plan to reclaim the lost ones and rescue the Chibok girls who fall into the generation of young people he chose to address.

This is the presidential speech I waited for. I am still waiting. Mr. President has 35 more states and the FCT to convince us not to vote for the CHANGE that beckons.

P.S:

If you watched the speech given by the APC Vice presidential in Benin City on the same day. Please note that he became candidate only on the 11th of December, 2014? 25 days ago (not 6 years ago) yet he was able in half an hour without a prepared speech to discuss a plan for security, power, jobs, healthcare and social security.



– Fashola is the Lagos State governor.

President Jonathan: A Litany Of Failed Promises by Babatunde Fashola

I welcome you to a change that is for the better.

I welcome you to change that will liberate Nigeria from inefficient national management.

I welcome you all delegates from across Nigeria, to Lagos, where the first building blocks of the country now known as Nigeria were laid.

I welcome you back to the epicenter of nationalism and the home of change, where our pre-eminent nationalists forced a change from colonial government to a Nigerian government.

I welcome you all back to where the promise of Nigeria was hatched, as a land of endless opportunities.

Unfortunately, the bridge between us and our opportunities have been shattered by a series of broken promises by a party, Government and President for whom promises mean nothing.

I have made it my task to record as many of the promises made by President Jonathan and his party. The lists of promises are as long as the list of disappointments.

All over Nigeria, he made promises to us and as far as Lagos is concerned, I can tell you that those promises remain unfulfilled without explanation.

I do not know what all experiences from your various states are, but I will repeat here, some of the promises that I recorded that he made across Nigeria and ask you to tell us whether they have been fulfilled.

To complete the second River Niger bridge before the expiration of the tenure
To make the Minister of Works to immediately start repairs of the road  leading to Murtala Mohammed International Airport
To transform all major routes in Damaturu to federal roads
To assist in resuscitating all the collapsed industries in Kano state
To set up a committee to review Federal government landed properties in Lagos, hand over those that should and retain those that should be in possession of the Federal Government.
To give Sokoto-Kotangora road unfettered attention
To  deliver stable, constant supply of electricity
To ensure that Nigerians do not use generators more than two times in a week
To explore the coal deposits in Benue and Kogi states for improved power supply
To reduce the importation of generators at least 90 percent in four years.
To address the issues of unemployment through diversification of the nation’s economy to that of sustainable agricultural development across the 36 states of federation
To create 1.5 million jobs in 2 years
To transform the economy within four years
To construct 2 world scale petrochemical plants, 2 fertilizer plants and 2 fertilizer blending plants.
To establish petrochemical plant around Koko Free Trade Zone in Delta State
To make Nigeria go beyond producing and exporting crude oil to exporting refined petroleum products because Nigeria has no reason to keep importing kerosene
To make anyone caught breaching the public peace to face the full wrath of the law.
To make sure that no part of the country is allowed to be a sanctuary for criminals anymore be they armed robbers or kidnappers
To make a complete transformation of national security architecture
To ensure there is no sacred cow in the fight against corruption; all crimes will be investigated as security is key.
 To strengthen EFCC and ICPC to fight crime
To embark on irrigation project to boost production; to start two projects in Kwara State
To boost farming activities by providing power and water
To re-build Ilesa water scheme
To  complete Ife/Ijesa dam
To provide sufficient water to the people of Taraba;
To revamp mining activities in Jos, Plateau State
To make solid mineral key revenue source in Nigeria
To fight corruption regardless of the position of the person involved
To play politics without bitterness.
To lead by example; strengthen the anti-graft agencies, not interfere and give free hand on all matters of investigation against any government official.
To ensure that the National Boundary Development  Agencies are funded to tackle the challenges that arose out of the ceding of Bakassi to Cameroun

Today, we must rebuild the bridge that will bring change to Nigeria and more Nigerians closer to the promise of Nigeria.

Today you will have the opportunity to change broken promises to fulfilled promises and rescue Nigeria from mismanagement and bad governance.

Our party has carefully developed a Manifesto through which the broken and unfulfilled promises made to the people of Nigeria can be actualized.

The Manifesto is anchored on changing insecurity to security.

That Manifesto will change a dysfunctional government to an efficient Government.

That Manifesto will change underdevelopment to rapid and accelerated development.

That Manifesto will change our poor circumstances to a prosperous dawn.

That Manifesto will change Nigeria’s global reputation from its current dismal status to one of international respect and global admiration.

One man will bear the responsibility and enormous burden for implementing that Manifesto and the change that it brings.

All of you, our delegates are the men and women to whom history has been so kind to bring to this day, to this State, to this venue and to this moment, to choose that man with your votes.

Let me be clear. What you are gathered to do is epical.

What you are gathered to do is not easy. Change is not easy.

What you are gathered to do is important to the whole world.

Let me remind you that we gather to vote to make a choice that will alter the way Nigeria develops and in that way, Africa develops.

You are gathered to elect the potential leader of Africa’s most populous nation.

You are gathered to elect the Ambassador of Change.

Please do so wisely, decorously and with a sense of duty.

God bless you all as you cast the votes to change Nigerians for the better. Long live the All Progressives Congress.

Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Thank you.


Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN By Babatunde Raji Fashola

My duty today is simple; yet it is one that excites me very deeply because as I welcome you all to Lagos and to the first Presidential Convention of the All Progressives Congress, I am confident that I am welcoming you to change. I welcome you to a change that is for the better. I welcome you to change that will liberate Nigeria from inefficient national management.

s simple; yet it is one that excites me very deeply because as I welcome you all to Lagos and to the first Presidential Convention of the All Progressives Congress, I am confident that I am welcoming you to change.

I welcome you to a change that is for the better.

I welcome you to change that will liberate Nigeria from inefficient national management.

I welcome you all delegates from across Nigeria, to Lagos, where the first building blocks of the country now known as Nigeria were laid.

I welcome you back to the epicenter of nationalism and the home of change, where our pre-eminent nationalists forced a change from colonial government to a Nigerian government.

I welcome you all back to where the promise of Nigeria was hatched, as a land of endless opportunities.

Unfortunately, the bridge between us and our opportunities have been shattered by a series of broken promises by a party, Government and President for whom promises mean nothing.

I have made it my task to record as many of the promises made by President Jonathan and his party. The lists of promises are as long as the list of disappointments.

All over Nigeria, he made promises to us and as far as Lagos is concerned, I can tell you that those promises remain unfulfilled without explanation.

I do not know what all experiences from your various states are, but I will repeat here, some of the promises that I recorded that he made across Nigeria and ask you to tell us whether they have been fulfilled.

To complete the second River Niger bridge before the expiration of the tenure
To make the Minister of Works to immediately start repairs of the road  leading to Murtala Mohammed International Airport
To transform all major routes in Damaturu to federal roads
To assist in resuscitating all the collapsed industries in Kano state
To set up a committee to review Federal government landed properties in Lagos, hand over those that should and retain those that should be in possession of the Federal Government.
To give Sokoto-Kotangora road unfettered attention
To  deliver stable, constant supply of electricity
To ensure that Nigerians do not use generators more than two times in a week
To explore the coal deposits in Benue and Kogi states for improved power supply
To reduce the importation of generators at least 90 percent in four years.
To address the issues of unemployment through diversification of the nation’s economy to that of sustainable agricultural development across the 36 states of federation
To create 1.5 million jobs in 2 years
To transform the economy within four years
To construct 2 world scale petrochemical plants, 2 fertilizer plants and 2 fertilizer blending plants.
To establish petrochemical plant around Koko Free Trade Zone in Delta State
To make Nigeria go beyond producing and exporting crude oil to exporting refined petroleum products because Nigeria has no reason to keep importing kerosene
To make anyone caught breaching the public peace to face the full wrath of the law.
To make sure that no part of the country is allowed to be a sanctuary for criminals anymore be they armed robbers or kidnappers
To make a complete transformation of national security architecture
To ensure there is no sacred cow in the fight against corruption; all crimes will be investigated as security is key.
 To strengthen EFCC and ICPC to fight crime
To embark on irrigation project to boost production; to start two projects in Kwara State
To boost farming activities by providing power and water
To re-build Ilesa water scheme
To  complete Ife/Ijesa dam
To provide sufficient water to the people of Taraba;
To revamp mining activities in Jos, Plateau State
To make solid mineral key revenue source in Nigeria
To fight corruption regardless of the position of the person involved
To play politics without bitterness.
To lead by example; strengthen the anti-graft agencies, not interfere and give free hand on all matters of investigation against any government official.
To ensure that the National Boundary Development  Agencies are funded to tackle the challenges that arose out of the ceding of Bakassi to Cameroun

Today, we must rebuild the bridge that will bring change to Nigeria and more Nigerians closer to the promise of Nigeria.

Today you will have the opportunity to change broken promises to fulfilled promises and rescue Nigeria from mismanagement and bad governance.

Our party has carefully developed a Manifesto through which the broken and unfulfilled promises made to the people of Nigeria can be actualized.

The Manifesto is anchored on changing insecurity to security.

That Manifesto will change a dysfunctional government to an efficient Government.

That Manifesto will change underdevelopment to rapid and accelerated development.

That Manifesto will change our poor circumstances to a prosperous dawn.

That Manifesto will change Nigeria’s global reputation from its current dismal status to one of international respect and global admiration.

One man will bear the responsibility and enormous burden for implementing that Manifesto and the change that it brings.

All of you, our delegates are the men and women to whom history has been so kind to bring to this day, to this State, to this venue and to this moment, to choose that man with your votes.

Let me be clear. What you are gathered to do is epical.

What you are gathered to do is not easy. Change is not easy.

What you are gathered to do is important to the whole world.

Let me remind you that we gather to vote to make a choice that will alter the way Nigeria develops and in that way, Africa develops.

You are gathered to elect the potential leader of Africa’s most populous nation.

You are gathered to elect the Ambassador of Change.

Please do so wisely, decorously and with a sense of duty.

God bless you all as you cast the votes to change Nigerians for the better. Long live the All Progressives Congress.

Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Thank you.


Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN

Nigeria: A People, An Economy And Its Prospects

 For years Nigerians and their leaders took it for granted that oil revenue would last forever. The fact that it was a finite resource, requiring deft management so that maximum advantage could be derived from its limited years of exploitation, was sacrificed on the altar of politics, incompetence and greed.

Since 1956 when crude oil was first discovered in commercial quantity at Oloibiri in the present day Bayelsa State, the nation has obsessed over the commodity; its ownership, its sharing formular, its price in the international market and our share of that pie, which section of the country seemed to own more oil wells, foreign dominance of the production and other processes of oil exploration, the effects of oil spills, the need to diversify from a mono economy, its influence on corruption, ad infinitum .

There is indeed no aspect of the oil matter that we have not x-rayed in this country and there is no doubt that it had more than a salutary influence on the decision to fight a horrific 30-month civil war or why we are determined to stick together as one nation after one hundred years of contentious existence.

The influence of oil on the core nature of our nation’s character and history, and our place in the comity of nations today can hardly be over emphasised. As the 7th leading producer of oil and Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria’s share in the economy of the region is substantial. There are nations in West Africa which practically exist the way they do now because of Nigeria. So any downward trend in the fortune of our country has consequences beyond our shores, beyond even our continent.

The recent fall in our share of oil revenue as the market witnessed its lowest profits in half a decade and as Nigeria’s number one customer, the United States of America, refused to buy any of our oil, has sent ripples all over and this is a grave cause for concern. Although there has been warnings over the progress of biofuel and the repercussion this could have on oil revenue, this recent shortfall yet caught our government floundering.

As oil prices hit a five year low, the Goodluck Jonathan administration took a couple of drastic measures in response to the crises. It was obvious from the sudden policy shifts that we have not made any kind of preparation for such a contingency despite all the warning signals.

Announcing a series of austerity measures, the government devalued the naira by some 8 percent and the currency immediately hit a low of 187.55 to the dollar.

Efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria to peg trading within the usual brand of between 160 – 176 naira to the dollar failed and the premium bank also failed to meet its dollar demand at its bi-weekly auction.

In a typical week, the CBN used to trade between 200 million and 300 million dollars but as a result of this shortfall, it could only manage a high of 168 million dollars. The consequences of devaluing the national currency in a non productive economy with a moribund manufacturing sector is of course unpalatable.

To be fair, the government explained that it had to devalue the naira to halt the decline in foreign reserves which is now as low as 36. 8 billion dollars from an acceptable figure of 44.6 billion dollars a year ago, but with Brent oil trading at a middling 72 dollars a barrel, there was no way the government could keep doing business as usual.

Perhaps, therefore, an austerity measure is in some ways necessary. The 4.6 trillion naira budget for 2014 tagged “Budget for Jobs and Inclusive Growth” did not seem to have made any dent in the unemployment market. The envisaged growth of more than 7% per annum is also no longer feasible in the light of current realities. In fact, the money to be shared among the three tiers of government from the federation account has now been drastically reduced and a budget review is inevitable.

The finance minister had initially envisaged government revenue to be in the region of 3.73 trillion naira ($23.3 billion), a deficit of 1.9 percent of GDP, obviously forecast that is now an unrealistic figure.

Despite protestations, Nigerians at least know that some sort of cut-backs are necessary. The real danger to me is if we are unable to redirect the austerity measures towards wealth creation via the informal economic sector as a major strategy, the consequences of this challenges will be far more catastrophic. It is not a hidden fact that the economy of Nigeria is largely propelled by the informal sector. Therefore, it is necessary to point out that the people outside government who work hard to make a living should not be made to carry the brunt.

What the situation calls for is a drastic change in priorities. We need to ensure that most of the cuts are in the over-bloated recurrent expenditure of high end public servants from the presidency to the 36 state governments and the federal ministries and parastatals. Let the austerity measure target the monies earmarked for running government and public office holders; the money for foreign trips, for courses at home and abroad, for feeding and entertainment, for stationaries and renovation of offices and residencies, for laundering public image and ‘settlements’, and the ubiquitous conduit called Security Vote.

The state governments, particularly in the northern parts, should immediately commence the crucial job of increasing their internally generated revenue and massive wealth creation because, clearly, the days of relying on allocations from the federation account to prosecute all their programmes are over. The glorious days of bonny light (Nigeria’s highly sought after crude oil) is sadly behind us.

According to reports, “only 4.5 million barrels of Nigerian oil arrived at U.S. ports, down from a record high of 40 million barrels seven years earlier and by July, the spigot was shut off completely. Over the next six weeks, not a single drop of Nigerian light, sweet crude arrived in the U.S. – all of it replaced at Gulf Coast refineries by fracked oil from fields like the Bakken formation in North Dakota and Eagle Ford in Texas.”

As a consequence, “Nigeria became the first formerly flush oil producer to essentially lose its entire share of the U.S. market, leaving it scrambling for new customers, less able to fund its internal war on terror and less important to the U.S.”

Perhaps it is good that the crisis is coming to a head right now as Nigerians prepare for national elections. Faced with the reality that there is no longer a national cake that is simply there for the sharing, the people must see to it that they elect people into office who have proven track records of competency, honesty and ability to generate and manage wealth.

There is no ready money to be spent anymore. The federal government must now truly invest money, time and world class expertise in the accelerated development of the agricultural, manufacturing and productive sectors of the economy.

Reflections On The Primaries

If the two main political parties could, they would have presented candidates for elections without primaries. For weeks, if not months, the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress kept kicking the can down the road.

They were doing this for both strategic reasons and out of fear of the unknown. Given that next year’s election could be the most hotly contested since 1999, each party wanted to take advantage of the other’s misery. At the same time, each one was also aware that any internal injury could be worse than a predatory attack.

In her book, Hard Choices, Hillary Clinton narrated, in present tense, how the bitter rivalry during the primaries still got in the way between her and President Barack Obama’s White House staff. The former rivals just couldn’t get past the beef.

Wounds inflicted at primaries may be suppressed; they don’t heal. But parties, except North Korea’s politburo, have to deal with the sore.

The governorship and National Assembly primaries produced very interesting results. In Delta, my home state, the action was in the PDP. As gentlemen go, the state governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, is a poster boy. He might not have delivered the moon on a stick, but after eight years in office, not a few think the LEADERSHIP Governor of the Year 2013 is leaving the state better than he met it.

His final wishes didn’t appear to be much – a Senate seat and the leeway to choose his successor. Aren’t these what most of the departing PDP governors agreed with President Goodluck Jonathan?

Shockingly, none of Uduaghan’s wishes came true. He would not be at the Senate and his preferred successor lost the primaries.

The official line is that he chose to work for the re-election of Jonathan, but, honestly, I don’t see how any of his two wishes would have prevented him from doing so. The unofficial word is that Uduaghan lost out in his power struggle against Tompolo and Edwin Clark.

They blocked the governor’s Senate ambition and thwarted his wish to install Anthony Obuh, while Jonathan looked the other way.

Life goes on. And no one knows that better than one of the five contestants for the PDP governorship ticket in Lagos – Musiliu Obanikoro. Forget his threat that it’s either his way or the highway. Losing politicians often make such threats to increase their afterlife value.

And in the case of Obanikoro losing the second time – this time to Jimi Agbaje – he really had to be dramatic for any hope of a third resurrection. Obanikoro should, however, be comforted that with Bode George as Agbaje’s new godfather, it won’t be long before they all get together again as one big losing family.

And did you notice how many bodies Dame Patience Jonathan had to trample over to install Nyesom Wike as the PDP candidate in Rivers State? I honestly don’t know what nice guys like Odein Ajumogobia and Tonye Princewill were looking for in the race. It’s a proxy war between Dame Jonathan and Governor Rotimi Amaechi and the battle axes have to be the most ruthless you can find. The Ogonis justifiably feel hard done by, but the battle has just begun.

Much the same can be said for Bayelsa. After weeks of denying any rift with Aso Rock, the parallel National Assembly primaries held in the state confirm that Governor Seriake Dickson is just steps away from a showdown with the Jonathans. Just in case he still has any illusions about how steamroller politics plays out, he could ask former governor Timipre Silva.

And did you notice that no zone had more parallel primaries than the south east? Three out of the five states in the zone had parallel primaries. It appears as if the primaries were business ventures. Depending on the size of one’s pocket, each aspirant simply arranged his own thing. In the end, almost all the aspirants emerged as candidates; there were no losers. Nice.

I must, however, commend the former minister of aviation Stella Oduah, who has shown that her political death was slightly exaggerated. She emerged, unquestionably, as the PDP’s candidate for Anambra North senatorial district. The princess who was preyed upon during most of her tenure for everything – from bullet proof cars to bullet proof skirts and oriental mascara – is just inches away from her comeuppance. She has my best wishes in the final race.

Even though Governor Godswill Akpabio paid for live coverage to show the world just how transparent the state’s governorship primary was, 23 aspirants boycotted the exercise, claiming the delegates list was rigged.

My advice to aspirants who find themselves in such situations in future is not only to publish the “authentic” list online, but also to record and stream their exit as it is happening, if they cannot afford the cost of TV coverage. That way, voters can choose which primaries to watch.

As for APC aspirant John Akpanudoedehe who complained that his rival Umana Umana hijacked the process and posted the result even before the process was completed, he should get over his misery fast.

If after serving as chairman of Akpabio’s election committee seven years ago, he still does not know that politics follows the money, then he does not know anything.



Still In A Fix Over The Barrel

At $65 per barrel, oil prices were at their lowest in years this week. After being held over the barrel for years, the US has finally earned its freedom from OPEC’s tyranny, by harvesting its own energy sources and turning the tables. Russia and Iran are in trouble already and both countries are trying to find ways to survive. Saudi Arabia’s deep pocket will keep it going for a while. Venezuela, Angola and Nigeria have been thrown to the wolves. With states in Nigeria already going bankrupt even at this early stage, if oil prices remain at current levels, I shiver to contemplate what would happen in two years’ time if we continue the way we have been doing things up there.

18 Critical Things Former President Obasanjo Said About President Jonathan In His New Book

"In the area of corruption, we have been going back steadily from the inception of Yar’Adua’s administration when the ‘hunter’ became the ‘hunted’," Obasanjo states. "Under Jonathan we seem to have gone from frying pan to fire. If in the past corruption was in the corridors of power, it would seem now to be in the sitting room, dining room and bedroom of power."




In his scathing new autobiography, My Watch, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo made a series of critical assertions against current President Goodluck Jonathan.

Due to the nature of the content, an ally of President Jonathan attempted to use a court order to block the publication of the book. President Jonathan also personally contacted the former president to appeal that the book not be published until next year, after the 2015 presidential election. Despite this My Watch launched yesterday, Dec. 9, in Lagos, in the presence of prominent political figures and officials.

Review of the three-volume text by SaharaReporters noted that the elder statesman holds nothing back, characterizing Mr. Jonathan as weak, callous and incapable of managing Nigeria.

He also criticizes the handling of the Boko Haram insurgency crisis, the PDP, and the Governors Forum, among other things. Excerpts from some of the most significant critiques are below.

On President Jonathan's character:

Jonathan is lacking in broad vision, knowledge, confidence, understanding, concentration, capacity, sense of security, courage, moral and ethical principles, character and passion to move the nation forward on a fast trajectory. Although he might wish to do well, he does not know how nor does he have the capacity to. To compound his problem he has not surrounded himself with aides sufficiently imbued with the qualities and abilities to help him out. Most of them are greedy hangers-on or hungry lacklustre characters interested only in their mouths and their pockets

President Jonathan can still make amends to save himself, many of his associates in government, his government, and the nation. If, in the end, he fails he will have no one but himself to blame. He has great opportunities, many of which only come once in a lifetime; and if he misses them it will only be due to his inadequacy, myopia, personal interest and self-aggrandisement, lack of sagacity, wisdom. I hope he can and will avoid having any cause for regret.

The longest period that I have met one-on-one with the president was for one hour and ten minutes. That whole time, the president talked about nothing that was in the interest of Nigeria; instead he kept pointing out his supposed enemies and various matters that would not serve his interests. I could not stop myself from blurting out: “Mr. President, no Nigerian should be your enemy. You have to rule over all of them whether or not they like you. Please, you have to be like rain falling on good and bad people alike.”

An elder statesman who formed a close relationship with President Jonathan very early in his presidency came to the conclusion, after six months, that the president has not got what it takes to lead. It was the same elder statesman who reportedly tried to jolt the president into action by telling him that there were five presidents in Nigeria, and these were his wife the first lady, Deziani, Oduah, Ngozi and the president himself, and that he was the weakest of the five.

On corruption:

In the area of corruption, we have been going back steadily from the inception of Yar’Adua’s administration when the ‘hunter’ became the ‘hunted’. But under Jonathan we seem to have gone from frying pan to fire. If in the past corruption was in the corridors of power, it would seem now to be in the sitting room, dining room and bedroom of power.

If what is called ‘corruption’ is stealing, under the watch of Goodluck Jonathan, then government has become legalised and protected robbery.

The presidency had instructed EFCC to remove a vital document in Gbenga Daniel’s file in their custody, to assist getting Gbenga Daniel off the hook. All these cases were reported to the president and were known to him; but because they involve the president’s interests, directly or indirectly, no action has been taken.

With the 2011 elections, heavy financial prices were paid to Lagos and Ondo State opposition political leaders to secure the vote for the president, against the interest of PDP at the state level...The situation where the president surreptitiously invited Bola Tinubu, lifting him at night by presidential aircraft from Lagos to Abuja to hatch a plan for Bola to support one PDP presidential candidate at the expense of all other PDP candidates for any office in Lagos, can only be described as obscene, unethical, corruption-ridden and a show of bad leadership...Whatever amount of money was given to Bola Tinubu to procure votes for the 2011 presidential election in Lagos was, to say the least, unnecessary. What made this phenomenon particularly bad was that government had raised the money from government transactions which fuel corruption.

I got a warning that this administration was attempting to induce two of my daughters, including Iyabo, to do a dirty job. I warned them both against it, but because of her character, the influence of her mother and her attitude, Iyabo succumbed; the other daughter did not.

On the Boko Haram insurgency, the insecurity crisis, and #BringBackOurGirls:

I was in Sierra Leone on the day Boko Haram [bombed] the UN building in Abuja. As soon as I returned to Nigeria I called the inspector-general of police to hear his views on the issue. I was not impressed with his explanation. I also talked to the then national security adviser and his explanation was substantially blank. I went to Jonathan, the president, on the same issue. His reaction, and his view that Boko Haram were ‘a bunch of riffraffs’ left me even colder.

The one incident that overtly and graphically exposed the ineptitude, ineffectiveness, inefficiency, carelessness, cluelessness, callousness, insensitivity and selfishness of Goodluck Jonathan was the abduction of about 276 school girls from Chibok in Borno State by Boko Haram. The reaction and attitude of our president and his household was non-belief, to the extent that 18 days passed before he grudgingly concede to accept the reality of the abduction. If serious action had been taken within 48 hours, the story could have been different.

I was not surprised that the president went dancing twenty-four hours after the Nyanya explosion that took seventy-five lives. I also found believable the statement allegedly credited to the president after both the Nyanya explosion and the Chibok school girls abduction to the effect that since some people in the North had said that they would make Nigerian ungovernable, they could keep on killing and abducting each other.

If these girls are not released, it will be a big dent on the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan, and a dark blot on Nigeria’s reputation and history; and, for years and indeed decades, Nigeria will continue to live with the agony and memory of the action and inaction of leadership regarding the Chibok school girls. But what is more, a bad precedent would have been created; Boko Haram has tasted blood and will always want more… Who knows, another group of terrorists might have learned from Boko Haram. This time it is Chibok; next time it could be Ibogun or Otueke.

Vice-President Biden had categorically told Jonathan during the African Summit in Washington in August 2014 that with the state of his governance and the level of the destruction of the military, they would not be able to help Nigeria.

On PDP and party politics:

A political party, and its leadership, that condones corruption and engages discredited people to abuse and insult genuine, authentic and objective critics is a political party on the path of ruin and destruction. The PDP must be rescued from that path, otherwise it will soon fade into history. Criticism, particularly objective criticism, is an indispensable element of democracy and a democratic dispensation.

PDP would need to be brought back to being a well-led, disciplined and respected, harmonious party that can easily win elections, rule and govern, and not one sacrificing the party’s interest for personal gain, setting governors of the party against each other, supporting candidates of other parties against candidates of the party as it happened in Lagos, Edo and Ondo States, and harassing credible leaders of the party and seeking to replace them with criminals and dubious characters in order to further presidential interests.

On the Nigerian Governors Forum election crisis:

Two governors from the [PDP] - Liyel Imoke of Cross River and Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta States - and Godswill Akpabio from Akwa Ibom State by himself, came to me in Abuja, appealing to me to intervene in the situation of the Governors’ Forum, particularly in the disagreement within the PDP governors. Akpabio said starkly in his frank and outspoken manner: “We have messed up and don’t leave us alone. For me, I don’t want to go to jail and my children are too young. I will report our meeting to the President.” Nobody, including President Jonathan, would like to go to jail, and he knew he could, depending on how things turned out or failed to shape from then on.

I have always seen the Governors’ Forum as a type of trade union as they behave that way most of the time. [Jonathan] told the story of how Obong Atta was relieved of his position as chairman and Lucky Igbinedion was enthroned by less than fifty percent of the governors, and of how Bukola Saraki manoeuvred the Forum to serve his presidential ambition.