Many have cause to ask: “Is APC really
working towards winning the 2015 Presidential Poll or just grandstanding?”
Events in the last couple of days have shown that indeed the APC has come to
the sordid conclusion that the odds against it in coming presidential poll,
pitted against the PDP fielding incumbent President Jonathan, is far too great
and there was no way they could win in a free contest. What is more sordid is
that the Party is not
giving up and has concluded plans to disrupt civil rule in Nigeria by
inspiring a military
takeover than allow President Jonathan to continue in office beyond 2015.
Investigations
have shown that the shenanigans of Speaker Aminu Tambuwal (who one understands
is a resurgent Britain’s project to replace the turgid , flagging northern
leadership), to storm the National Assembly with thugs dressed like honourable
members was part of the said grand plan in the series of provocative actions,
programmed to ultimately culminate in a military coup. This decision was
reached at a strategy meeting the night before the APC’s self-styled Salvation
Rally at Abuja, held at the Rivers State Governor’s lodge and attended by top
notches of the Party, including its National Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun,
Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, host Chibuike Amaechi, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari,
Senator Bukola Saraki who was represented by the Kwara State Governor, Gov.
Rabiu Kwankwaso, Lai Mohammed and a certain serving general with well
established link with Boko Haram, among others. At that meeting the Party
firmly resolved to pursue power through alternative means than through the
ballot box, through instigation and provocation of mass actions and protests
against the Government of President Jonathan and that way, either force him out
of power or force a negotiated settlement, which would mean a sort of shared
power deal as has happened in places like Kenya, Zimbabwe and so forth.
Part of the grand
plan was to discredit INEC and convince Nigerians that the Commission has been
bought over by the Presidency and the ruling PDP. Thus Oyegun disparaged INEC and rejected
its commitment to hold a free and fair election: “The truth of the matter is
that the ICT unit of INEC, which is working hands in gloves with the
Presidential villa, deliberately corrupted the system in order to
disenfranchise voters in APC controlled states”. This position was long echoed by
the Party chieftains long before the Walk Rally, which APC said it called to
commence the process of instigating civil disobedience and attract foreign attention
reminiscent of Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG Group) which the Party inspired and
publicly acknowledged that its members actually now lead.
The first kite
flown in this direction was by Nasir el Rafai earlier in the year when he
hinted at the predisposition of the APC to embrace anarchy, saying it did
appear to be the only plausible option left to force President Jonathan from
power. When questioned by the Directorate of State Service, el Rafai had said that his comment was in line with his
freedom of speech as enshrined in the amended 1999 Constitution,
insisting that “the
statement I made was based on historical fact because it happened in 1964,
1983, 2003, 2007 and 2011”. It is quite instructive that el Rufai and his Party
believe they are historically justified for choosing to pursue power through
violence and coup d’état.
One important
observation should be made here: all military coups, which disrupted democratic
rules in Nigeria, had followed this sort of mindless agitations and direct
invitation to the military to intervene as is increasingly being heard today
and which is the final decision reached at the said APC strategy meeting. The
presence of the military general with links to Boko Haram at the said meeting
is connected to that desire of the APC to instigate a military takeover than
allow President Jonathan return in 2015. A Radio Station in Sokoto was also
reported to have been calling for military intervention as a panacea to the
country’s security challenges.
The fact that APC
is not working towards winning the 2015 Presidential election is no longer in
the realm of speculation. Apart from the meeting where a series of
destabilizing actions were hatched, Chibuike Amaechi and Odigie-Oyegun were
clear and frank in bringing to the discerning public the real intension of the
APC. Amaechi had said on the side of the so-called “Salvation Rally” as part of
the grand plan to torpedo civil rule in Nigeria: “If the PDP rig the election
in 2015 we will not go to court and we will make the country ungovernable. We
will form a parallel government and there will be anarchy”. The idea of civil disobedience is to
drum up mass discontent against President Jonathan and his government and
justify military intervention by making it appear a popular demand.
Again, Odigie-
Oyegun was far more detailed and minced no words in telling the world at the
rally that his Party was out to fire a warning shot and set the stage for the
torpedo to come. It will be
recalled at that APC Rally, Odigie-Oyegun had said: “We are here today as a
practical demonstration of our lack of confidence in the ability or
willingness of President Goodluck Jonathan to organize a free and fair
election come February 2015.” Oyegun had accused President Goodluck Jonathan of
desperation to win re-election and that that has led the President and the
security forces to turn a blind eye to the Boko Haram Insurgency so
that the insurgents can occupy as much territory as possible and
make elections impossible in these APC strongholds.
To prod the
memory, Oyegun had blatantly claimed: “Without doubt, the war against Boko
Haram has become a tool for self enrichment and a tool to disenfranchise
Nigerians who are perceived not likely to vote for President Jonathan's
re-election. Everything points to the fact that President Jonathan's
handling of the Boko Haram insurgency is aimed at one thing and one
thing only: disenfranchisement of persons who are perceived not to be in
support of his re-election, especially in the North-Eastern part of
the country”.
At the Rally, APC
made very vague demands on the Jonathan Government
and warned: “If we do not see any discernible change of attitude on the part of
the government, then we will move to the next stage on the list of
actions that our party intends to take to stop the rot being perpetuated
by the PDP-led Federal Government”.
It is very evident that the APC has
rejected the results of the 2015 Polls in advance. As they concluded at the
nocturnal meeting, they believe that insurgency has depleted votes in the APC strongholds
and INEC has not made the matter easier, with
the permanent voters cards where biometrics have led to the detection of
millions of phantom voters in virtually all the States and depleted the number
of actual voters. The APC is therefore of the view that the election was
already fate accompli in favour of Jonathan, hence their treasonable plans to
torpedo civil rule.
Justifying both Amaechi and Odigie
-Oyegun, the APC through its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, said: “Let us remind the presidency,
in case it has forgotten, that election fraud triggered a civil war in Algeria
in the early 1990s, led to the killing of over 1,000 people in post-election
riots in Kenya in 2007/2008 and fired a near revolution in Iran in 2009/2010.
For us, the gloves are off.”
All well meaning Nigerians should know
that if it is true that millions of genuine voters are deliberately left out,
the APC could have made a public show of them and get the courts to compel INEC
to do the needful. But much of what the Party claims to be deliberate
disenfranchisement of its members is more of double and multiple registrations,
an illegality and criminality, which INEC is trying to eliminate.
It is also sad to note that Chibuike
Amaechi who became governor courtesy of the Supreme Court ruling in his favour,
is now using the same position offered to him by Judiciary and Rivers State
money to fund insurrections round the country, as he has promised at the said
meeting to provide all the funds that may be needed to execute the
Jonathan-must-go-at all-cost project. The three major components of the APC
have personal reasons why they are rooting for insurrection and anarchy: the
northern clique wants power back to the north no matter how; the West sees this
as a leeway to the Oduduwa republic, while the Governors believe it would
provide a safe haven to escape the EFCC. In all this, the interest of the
Nigerian masses is not represented at all.
Nigerians should therefore consider the
justifiability of the nefarious plans of the APC. President Goodluck Jonathan
is fighting insurgency by equipping the Nigeria military. In 2012 alone,
Jonathan budgeted nearly a trillion naira for security. His Government has even
gone to the extent of purchasing arms in the black market, just so that the
military does not lack. APC Governors and politicians started and funded and
still fund Boko Haram. The sect was on the payrolls of many states in the north
and served as their Islamic Police aat least in Kano and Bauchi States, and
receives huge sums of money from politicians in Northern Nigeria in the guise
of Sallah gifts and for providing them protection. Northern are known to use
the Boko Haram extensively during elections and that is why commonplace to see
politicians listing Boko Haram as one of the important Muslim groups to
mobilize for election. This gives the sect political cover and these
politicians have equally infiltrated the military and cajole the Muslims among
them not fight their ‘Muslim brothers’. This has led to very cowardly acts,
desertions and court marshals. These are not Jonathan’s making. Nigerians
should rise up against the APC; they are it again, the same way they used the
military to annul June 12.
Abubakar Mohammed wrote in from Kaduna.
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