I just couldn't help but post this interesting read by Charles Ogbu, a popular facebook commentator. Please take take to read up everything and not just the headline or first paragraph alone.
IN
DEFENCE OF PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN
"First,
let me make one thing very clear here. I did not support GEJ during the last
election, not because he was not better than the other bad news from daura but
because despite his very good record as a democrat and a gentleman president
plus his excellent economic achievements, I still considered him too weak and
not competent enough to deserve my vote especially after the insensitive manner
he treated the immigration job tragedy. I was at the national stadium. I saw my
friend die in the stampede. When Jonathan refused to sack anybody for the job
scam and the avoidable deaths that followed, I immediately knew the gods and the
spirit of my dead friend would not forgive me if I gave this man my vote as
insignificant as it was. I never made any post nor comment in support of GEJ
during the electioneering campaign. But in all these, I never lost sight of the
fact that mentioning the name GEJ and Buhari in the same sentence with a view
to comparing them remained a moral tragedy.
This
article is borne out of a sincere desire not to sit back and watch morally
bankrupt men twist history and destroy an innocent man with devilish lies. Having
said these, let me come to the reason why I'm here.
Undiluted,
unadulterated, crude hate for Jonathan as a person and the desire to ensure his
name is never associated with anything good is one thing every APC member and
Buhari supporter have in common.
This
common characteristic is so strong...too strong, even! Matter of fact, it is
stronger than the feeling of kinship that bind marijuana smokers together. If
you are 'a ganja man', you will understand my drift here.
Whether
they belong to the Saraki faction, Tinubu faction, Buhari faction or even the
latter day wailer-wanna-be faction, this common trait is the power house of all
their activities the exact way the mitochondrion is the powerhouse of the cell.
When
you hear the APC tell you that the 16 years of PDP government is the cause of
all our woes today, it is not the PDP they want you to blame, it is not even
Obasanjo who ruled for 8 solid years and is now the APC navigator-in-chief, it
is Jonathan who was in power just for 5 years they want to incite you against.
If
you don't believe me, ask yourself how come over 70% of all those holding
public offices under APC today are ex-members of the PDP? Check all the
ministers, governors, NASS members etc, over 70% of them left the PDP and were
welcomed into the APC with an open arm and a baptism which washed away their
sins and turned them to saints.
If
the APC strongly believe the PDP destroyed Nigeria, why welcome the same people
into their party? Does this make any sense? Or is it just the acronym "PDP"
that is the problem? Their target is GEJ.
If
not hate, why would anyone claim that Jonathan ran the most corrupt government
in Nigeria history?? Do these guys think we all have amnesia?? So if we keep
quiet so as not to be accused of being paid by Jonathan or the PDP, these
children of 'Liar Muhammed' will just alter history before our very eyes? So we
have suddenly forgotten Abacha so soon?? Have we forgotten that all the monies
Dasuki is accused of sharing is not up to half of the very first set of stolen
money recovered as Abacha loot, the same Abacha-thieving-government their mini
god; Buhari not only served under but vehemently defended and even swore by the
seven gods that he didn't steal a dime. This is even as billions of dollars
(not naira) of the loot has continued to be returned to Nigeria.
Have
we suddenly forgotten the OBJs, the IBBs, the Abdulsalamis, the Buharis, the
Gowons etc who ran under the military system of govt where there is no form of
transparency? Or, they just selected only Jonathan's government for probe and
concluded it was the most corrupt? Which one did they compare it with or has it
not occurred to them that for a thing to be adjudged the worst, it must have
been compared with other things??
These
other men including the late Sani Abacha ruled the country with decree and
looted as they wanted but it is Jonathan who was in power for just 5 years that
is the biggest thief in Nigeria history??? Chai! Little wonder, these lying
liars were able to twist history and sell the calamity called Buhari to
Nigerians.
First,
they lied that Jonathan bought no single weapon for the military to prosecute
the war on terror. When this lie could no longer stick, they amended it and
claimed he actually bought some weapon but that they were substandard and were
all backfiring and killing soldiers who were supposed to use them to fight boko
haram. When Nigerians queried which weapon the APC government used to achieve
'technical victory' over boko haram since the ones acquired by Jonathan were all
fake, the lying minister of information; Lai Muhammed contradicted himself
again by admitting the Jonathan govt bought some good military hardware but
that the prices were hugely exaggerated. Na one government dey churn out all
those wicked puerile lies ooo.
Meanwhile,
we all saw the newly acquired military hardwares the GEJ administration secured
from Russian after the U.S and her allies refused selling us weapon as a result
of petition written to them in which El-rufai, Murtala Nyako (ex-Adamawa state
governor) and some Northern/APC leaders accused GEJ of using the military to
reduce the population of the North under the guise of fighting Boko haram. And
we all witnessed as our soldiers used those weapons to liberate all our
territories held by boko haram and sent the terrorists disguising as females to
escape their superior firepower. Nigerians were all hash-tagging #NeverAgain as the military were combing the
Sambisa forest in search of the boko haram boys.
All
these happened a little over a year ago. We could't have forgotten, could we?
We
have also not forgotten that the boko boys were able to regroup immediately
Buhari came to power because he (Buhari) dismantled all military roadblocks set
up purposely to checkmate their activities. We are not unaware of the fact that
the same people hellbent on blaming Jonathan even for the 1914 almagamation
hailed that ill-adviced move.
Another
lie they've come up with is that GEJ caused our current economic woes by
allowing those who served under him loot the treasury.
This
is a very big lie and here is why: Corruption alone don't kill an economy.
Else, our economy would have died a long time ago because they've always been
corruption in the system right from the very first post-independence govt of
Nnamdi Azikiwe and Tafawa Balewa. Leaders of every military coup have always
cited corruption as the reason for their intervention. There was systemic
corruption during GEJ's era just as there has always been systemic corruption
but the big question is:
How
come the only two times Nigeria has gone into recession was in1984 when
Muhammadu Buhari was in power and 2016 when the same Muhammadu Buhari is in
power again?? Despite all the looting in Abacha govt, Nigeria didn't go into
recession. Despite all the looting by all the other military rulers, we didn't
go into recession. The only two times was 3 decades ago and now.....all under
thesame Buhari. Haba! Even if you are incapable of any sort of intelligent
reasoning, you should be able to figure this one out at least
Let's
even look at the two reasons advanced by IMF as the reasons for the recession:
1)
Plunging oil revenue as a result of the crises in the Niger Delta which is the
location of the oil the economy is heavily depended on
2)
Weakened investors confidence in the country/economy.
It
is on record that barely two weeks after being sworn in as president, Buhari
resurrected the Niger Delta crises by bombing the region, cutting the amnesty
budget drastically and terminating the oil pipeline given to the ex-militants.
The rush with which those actions were taken tend to suggest that public
interest was the last thing on the president's mind. In addition, Buhari went
to America and made it clear he would discriminate against those who didn't
give him 97% of their vote.
Whatever
lies we chose to believe, we must not forget that these reckless ill-conceived
actions of president Buhari were hugely responsible for the current crises in
the Niger Delta which has led to plunging oil revenue blamed as one of the
reasons for the recession.
Weakened
investors confidence: When Buhari took over from GEJ, rather than hit the
ground running, he abandoned not just the economy but the entire country. He
left the whole country on autopilot. No government in place, no minister, no
economic direction. No nothing! For over 6 months. Six whole months! Now tell
me, if you were an investor looking for where to invest your money, would you
invest in such an economy?? Would you??
After
every election, investors always wait for the new government to reel out her
economic policy to enable them consider their chances of getting favourable
return should they invest in such an economy. These guys are businessmen, not
some bunch of "money miss road". Buhari single handedly weakened
their confidence by leaving the entire country and the economy on autopilot for
over six months.
Is
this even debatable??
How
exactly did Jonathan cause our current economic woes??
Even
if we must lie to ourselves, how can we believe our own lies??
He
(Buhari) complained he met a treasury that was almost empty which is a lie
because a man who met a virtually empty treasury would not start building a
helipad in his hometown in daura. Such a man would not start traveling all over
the world in company of governors from his APC party.
Jonathan
had one of the best economic team. What Buhari have in place of economic team
is a bunch of sycophants who are mostly lawyers like the V.P, the national
planning minister, the president's chief of staff who are all lawyers by
profession and the trade and investment minister who is a medical doctor. The
economists in the so called economic advisory team are not up to 4. Please
don't take my word for it. Do your own research.
The
over six months Buhari wasted before forming his govt, the fact that he doesn't
have a competent economic team and his reckless action in bombing the Niger
Delta, the reckless manner he terminated the oil pipeline contract which was
part of the amnesty deal with the militants and slashing the amnesty budget
were the main reasons why our economy went south. Jonathan didn't cause all
these, did he?
Now,
let us even assume that Jonathan looted everything, did he loot Buhari's brain
and his economic management abilities?? Did he??
Isn't
it 15 months already? Is 15 months not long enough for citizens to start
feeling the impact of a government headed by a man who spent 12 solid years
begging for the job and promising that he had studied all our problems and was
already to solve them all if only we would elect him president???
Jonathan
is human. He is no saint. He has his faults but he was a democrat. As
president, he was a perfect gentleman. When he was stoned in Bauchi, he ran and
was whisked away by his security details. None of those Bauchi-stone throwing
boys were even arrested but under Buhari, an ordinary army chief killed
hundreds of people for blocking his convoy.
Jonathan
conceded defeat to Buhari in the 2015 election but in 2011 when he ran under a
little known newly formed CPC, Buhari rejected the election result and incited
his followers into killing hundreds of innocent Nigeria including youth
corpers.
Jonathan
had plans. He was slow but he did have plans, some of which we are already
seeing.
The
worst enemy Jonathan had was his media team. They were completely useless.
These hopelessly incompetent bunch failed to bring most of GEJ achievements in
the open. But those achievements are still there. Person Wey Dey Cry Still Dey
See Road.
Let
me just end this with this free piece of advice to my APC brethren:
The
best way to defend a govt that is 15 months old in office is by reeling out its
achievements, not by blaming the government before it. Buhari was not voted in
as president just so he could spend the whole tenure telling us who and who
caused our problem. We already know those who caused our problems and Buhari is
one of them. He was voted in because he promised he had the solutions.
Enough
of the blame game and Jonathan bashing. Even if you must blame Jonathan, you
don't have to lie against him. It is morally reprehensible.
Less
I forget, Jonathan paid me 2billion dollars to write this, so don't bother
accusing me of being paid.
~
Written by Charles Ogbu
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