Day Jonathan’s campaign electrified Lagos

Lagos residents and political watchers cannot forget in a
hurry, Thursday, January 8. It was the day President Goodluck
Jonathan stormed the country’s commercial nerve with his
campaign train to showcase his achievement in office and to
solicit votes for a second term in office.
Altough the event was slated for 11a.m. that sunny Thursday,
the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), venue of the campaign
started receiving party faithful, supporters and well wishers as
early as 6a.m. And before 10a.m., the venue was almost filled
to the brim.
And when the dignitaries started thronging the venue, it would
be an understatement to say it was a full house. The Director-
General of the National Campaign Committee, Dr. Amodu Ali,
his South-West counterpart, Governor Olusegun Mimiko as
well as the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP), Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu were also on ground to
receive another party wigs that included President Goodluck
Jonathan, who is the party’s presidential flagbearer for the
February 14 election as well as his running mate, Vice
President Namadi Sambo.
Others in attendance were all PDP Governors, both sitting and
former, all the governorship candidates on the party’s tickets,
serving ministers, National Assembly members, party’s Board
of Trustee members and party, student groups, Nollywood
actors and actresses and various political associations among
others.
While welcoming the guests to the occasion, Also, the South
West coordinator of the Jonathan campaign and Ondo State
governor Olusegun Mimiko said the South West was an
educated region. He noted that, “This is why, among others,
we will not settle for a President with less than a University
degree.” Mimiko described President Jonathan as a cool
headed leader who in spite of all the insults hurled at him has
remained calm. “We thank you Mr. President that, in spite of
being the most abused and negatively-profiled President in the
history of this country, you have refused to roll out any
obnoxious law of the semblance of Decree 2 of 1984,” Mimiko
concluded.
In his own goodwill message, the Chairman of the PDP
governor and Akwa Ibom state governor, Godswill Akpabio
said contrary to the allegation by the opposition that $55 bil­
lion was missing from the federation account, no money is
missing. He explained that the money was shared among the
three tiers of government. He noted that there was sense
keeping the money when a lot of people are suffering, hence
the governors advised that the money should be shared to
enable them ameliorate the suffering of the people. Akpabio
said governors elected on the PDP platform, who were not at
the campaign were those who wanted Jonathan’s seat and
when they could not get it, they left for the Aggrieved Peoples
Congress (APC). “Nigeria cannot afford to hand over
leadership to aggrieved people. People who are embittered.
They are set to send people to prison again. Are you ready to
go to prison? Some of your fathers were given 310 years for
crime they did not commit. Can a leopard change its skin?
They are threatening that if we win, they will form a parallel
government. Get ready to defend your votes. “The people
following Jonathan are more than those opposing him. To hell
with their parallel government,” Akpabio declared. The Niger
State governor, Dr Babangida Aliyu said the PDP abhors
violence. He said some people were already planning to
forment trouble in next month’s election and admonished the
party members not to succumb. Aliyu also advised PDP
members not to succumb to the propaganda of the
opposition, as there is a difference between sentiment and
reality.
In his goodwill speech, the Senate President, Senator David
Mark also said the choice between Jonathan and the
opposition candidate was simple, saying, “it is just between
Day and night.”
He expressed confidence that people would vote for the man,
whose four years transformation agenda has impacted
positively on the people.
Former National Deputy Chairman (South), of the party, Chief
Bode George said “today would be remembered as the
beginning of the journey that would see the APC pack its bag
and baggage out of Alausa Government House.”
According to him, the people of Lagos has not enjoyed good
governance in the last 16 years in the state, saying, “though
there is no perfect organization anywhere in the world, the
PDP however handles governance well and that makes the
party and its government formidable.”
Speaking on behalf of the South-West PDP governors,
Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State said the south-west
people were eager for change asserting that, PDP is that
change they were waiting for.
He then urged the zone’s people to vote President Jonathan
again for the continuity of his good work.
Director General of the Campaign Organization, Dr. Amadu Ali
in his own comment said PDP has shown that there is no
alternative to democracy pointing out that, since 1999, the
party has moved the country forward.
He expressed delight that the party has succeded in deepening
democracy in the country reminding that, “under our adminis­
tration, Nigeria has transited for times without disturbance.”
He therefore urged Nigerians to keep on supporting the party
by voting President Jonathan again.
Federal Capital Territory Minister of State, Oloye Junmoke
Akinjide drew a line between Jonathan and Buhari pointing out
that while Jonathan is a democrat, Buhari is a dictator, while
Jonathan was elected through the ballot boxes, Buhari came
to power through the barrel of the gun.
She also added that while Buhari chased people out of the
country and jailed some for more than 300 years, Jonathan
has not hurled a single person to prison inspite of undeserved
insults being hurled at him.
Joseph Yobo, an international Soccer Ambassador also spoke
on behalf of the youth.
President Goodluck Jonathan, who was ushered to the podium
amid ovation however stunned his audience when he declared
that the members of the Movement for Emancipation of Niger
Delta (MEND), hatched a plan to kill him.
According to him, when he read in some national dailies that,
“MEND dumped Jonathan,” he reminded the party chieftains
and supporters that thronged the venue in their thousands
that, the leader of the group, Henry Okar, who is currently
serving a jail term in South Africa planned to assassinate him.
Against this backdrop, Jonathan reasoned that, the group’s
acclaimed withdraw of support for him was never expected to
come as a surprise to anybody who has been following events
in the country. On the claim by the opposition All Progressive
Congress (APC), presidential candidate, General Muhammadu
Buhari (retd), that the President cannot fight the insurgents,
President Jonathan fired a hot salvo at him, saying the latter
did not buy a single rifle for any soldier when he was Head of
State.
His words: They say they will fight insecurity. Then ask him,
when he was the head of Nigeria government, did he buy a
single riffle for the Nigerian government? He did not buy
anything. They refused to equip the armed forces. Ask them,
what they did with their Defense Budget. No government
throughout the world equips the military overnight because
their equipment is too expensive. Armed forces are equipped
over years. Even if you send ten billion dollars today, you
cannot equip the Airforce, equip the Navy and equip the Army.
They refused to build the armed forces capacity. And now they
are telling us they will fight insecurity.” He said if Buhari and
all those who had ruled the country before now had equipped
the military properly things would have been different today.
Jonathan noted that the 2015 general election is about young
people, stating that his message was targeted at young
Nigerians, especially those who will be voting for the first time
in the February polls.
“I will address only a segment of Nigeria populace. I want to
address those people who are voting for the first time. Those
of you who have attained 18 years. That means I am
addressing those of you who are 20 years down. I don’t want
to address old people like me because we are stained already.
Those of you and those at home, listen to what I will say.
When you get home, tell your brother, your uncle and fathers
who are about 60 years old to confirm what the presidential
candidate and vice presidential candidate of the PDP
mentioned. The coming election is about the young people. Do
you vote for the youth to be relevant in the history of Nigeria
of to remain irrelevant? Those of you who will vote for the first
the first time, would you vote for hope for the Nigerian youth
to be relevant or to be treated as nonsense persons? And I
believe all of you want to be relevant. We have just introduced
our governorship candidate and you have seen how many of
them are your age bracket. No other party will give the youth
that opportunity. And they said they want to take power from
us. They tell lies and also hire people from all over the world
to tell lies against us.” The president seized the opportunity of
the occasion to debunk the insinuation that his government is
weak, asserting that his administration has made giant strides
in the fight against corruption, insecurity and in planning for
the future of the country.
On the anti-corruption war, Jonathan explained that fighting
corruption was not about arresting people, parading them on
television and dumping them in prison without due process.
“They want to get into power to jail their enemies, somebody
wakes up and thinks he can jail all his enemies if he gets to
power, today I can tell you we have arrested more people,
prosecuted and convicted more people since I came into
power. “For you to fight corruption you must take measures, if
they have succeeded in fighting corruption during their tenure
you won’t be talking about corruption today. “They said we
are weak, but we know some people who crated people
abroad and put them on the plane before they were inter­
cepted by superior powers. Any country that does not obey
rule of law is a jungle nation,” he added. Jonathan while
stating that his administration has built twelve new federal
universities to increase access to tertiary education and
almajiri schools in the north to empower the youths there
challenged the opposition to tell the nation their plans for the
youths. “They said we have no plans for the youths, they
should come and tell you what plan they have for the youth.
Ask them, when they were in power did they build nusery
school for anybody. They built prisons and I built universities
for you. “They said we have no plans, but we introduced the
Soverign Wealth Fund. “They want power by all means. All
what they want to do with power is to lock up their enemies. I
have no enemies to fight,” he declared.