TUNDE-BAKARE

As the nation nears the zero hour to  the Presidential elections,  the Save Nigeria Group (SNG), which Pastor Tunde Bakare, the Vice Presidential Candidate for Congress for Progressive Change, co-founded, has distanced itself from his presidential bid.

Acting National Coordinator of the group, Benedict Ezeagu disclosed to newsmen in Abuja that Pastor Bakare did not inform the pressure group of his foray into politics even when confronted severally after his moves as the leader of the group became suspicious.

However, the Publicity Director of the Buhari/Bakare Campaign Organization, Yinka Odumakin could not be reached  for comments but the National Publicity Secretary of the CPC, Rotimi Fashakin dismissed the claims of the group saying their support is not solicited. condemnation for meeting with politicians before he was finally chosen as Vice-Presidential candidate.

Briefing newsmen after a meeting of the group on the on-going general election, Thursday, acting National Coordinator of the SNG, Benedict Ezeagu said the body had no support for Pastor Bakare’s ambition because it was not in the picture when he was making the moves despite persistent enquiry on some of his action before he picked up the presidential slot.

He said the smooth conduct of the National Assembly election despite some noticeable lapses was commendable pointing out that Professor Attahiru Jega deserved applause for the conduct which has offered a ray of hope that Nigerians can conduct credible, free and fair elections, which for some time have been elusive.

The meeting therefore congratulates Nigerian electorates for coming out en masse to exercise their franchise and for conducting themselves peacefully and orderly”, Ezeagu said.

He congratulated President Goodluck Jonathan for living up to his promise of giving Nigerians credible elections, which he showed through his disposition, attitude, and non-interference with the operations of the Jega led INEC that made success of the NASS election possible.

“The meeting therefore warns that Save Nigeria Group will no longer allow anti-democratic forces, those who prefer the sanctity of bullet/violence to the sanctity of ballot to exploit the current environment of freedom in the country to try to truncate the on-going democratic efforts.

“Finally, the meeting calls on all national stakeholders and the Nigerian masses to use all legitimate means to guard this democratic process and ensure that the remaining elections in the country are held as planned in a free, fair, peaceful and credible atmosphere”, he stated.

Source: ThisDay

Chief Bisi Akande, ACN National Chairman

The final fate of the alliance talks between the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) was sealed Wednesday as the two parties announced a no-deal after failing to make in-roads in the discussions as reported by THISDAY on Wednesday.

But ACN is putting the blame on the doorstep of CPC’s presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, whom it accused of not showing good faith in the proposed accord.

His running mate, Pastor Tunde Bakare, was also accused of refusing to stand down for an ACN member to be named vice-president in the event of the alliance winning the presidential election.

A statement by ACN National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, Wednesday announced that “there is no alliance between the party and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) ahead of Saturday’s presidential election”.

He explained that, “while it is true that representatives of both parties have engaged in talks aimed at forging an alliance that could dislodge the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the clueless party that has frittered away the huge opportunities that could have transformed our great country in the past 12 years, we regret to announce that such talks have not led to any alliance.”

The ACN said it had decided that “it is better for each of the parties to go into the presidential election on its own platform”.

The party however gave a ray of hope with an added caveat that “if at the end of the election on Saturday there is no clear winner we will make a decision on which way to go, in the overriding”.

But even as the alliance deal fell through, fresh facts have emerged shedding more light on the behind-the-scene maneuvers that frustrated the talks, with the failure blamed on Buhari’s alleged 11th-hour U-turn.

Tracing the history of the talks, Akande said the idea was first mooted in the run-up to the 2007 general election.

He said a meeting was then summoned between him, representing the Action Congress (AC) as it was then known, and Buhari’s party then, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), to forge a formidable alliance that would strategically position and confront the PDP at the polls.

Akande recalled that Buhari abandoned the discussions midway, jumped ship and eventually ran on the ticket of ANPP.

Notwithstanding the setback in 2007, the party again resumed discussion with Buhari early October 2010 with the talks looking towards the present elections, after the retired general visited Akande at his Ogudu, Lagos home on the need to work together.

The outcome of the exploratory talks prompted the ACN leadership to set up a three-man committee comprising Osun State Governor, Alhaji Rauf Aregbesola, Dr. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State and former governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Niyi Adebayo, to meet and iron out areas of possible agreement and disagreement with Buhari’s team.

The parties were to fuse and take on a new name, Action Congress for Progressive Change (ACPC).

THISDAY learnt that the committee completed its work and submitted its report on October 25, only to discover that the Buhari team had on October 12 signed an agreement with the International Centre for Reconstruction and Development (ICRD), otherwise known as the Save Nigeria Group (SNG).

In the deal, Buhari and ICRD resolved that the CPC would produce the presidential candidate while SNG would produce the running mate in an agreement that was signed by Dr. Almajiri Geidam and Aminu Bello Masari for CPC and Dr. Gbolahan B. Bakare and Yinka Odumakin for SNG.

But in his reaction, Odumakin denied that a document of that nature ever existed. According to him, “there was no such document ever signed by anybody on behalf of the Save Nigeria Group (SNG). SNG never entered into any agreement with anybody. There was no such document. And if anybody has such document, let them bring it out. Yes ICRC entered into negotiations with CPC, but it was not about producing the vice-president. It was about a gamut of many things. It was about giving the country a new direction.”

But documents available to THISDAY showed that Akande, apparently worried by the silence from the Buhari camp, wrote a letter dated December 14 to the chairman of CPC expressing his frustrations.

In the letter, Akande noted that, “for the last two months now we have not heard from you. Recently we have read so much on this important issue on the pages of newspapers only. This is, to say the least, intriguing, particularly now that General Muhammadu Buhari has declared his presidential bid under the CPC.”

He also wrote: “Considering that there is hardly anytime left, given the INEC timetable and the statutory requirements for any form of fusion of the parties, Nigerians cannot continue to wait forever.”

To underscore the party’s readiness to reach an agreement with the ACN, he issued an ultimatum stressing that “if by the 31st of December, 2010 we do not hear further from you, it will be safe for us to conclude that you are no longer interested in pursuing these talks to logical conclusion.”

Akande, while addressing journalists in Abuja yesterday, blamed Buhari and said: “While we wanted to reach an alliance with the CPC, there was no response from them.

“CPC has not been reaching out to us and we don’t want to appear as if we are not confident of ourselves. We have been in Abuja since Monday to have the alliance. We want the alliance without condition but we don’t know what happened. We were unable to see Buhari and when we waited till 1 this morning (yesterday) and nothing happened, I decided to come here.”

Akande however admitted that President Jonathan had reached out to them to give him support for the presidential election but said: “We found it difficult to accept the reachout from him because he (Jonathan) belongs to the PDP.

“We cannot accept to support him. We are attracted to the ideology of the CPC and have respect for the leadership of the party but CPC has not been sincere and has not been reaching out to us. We are anxious to concede anything to CPC to make the alliance work.”

Meanwhile, the alleged refusal by Bakare to stand down in favour of another candidate has been blamed for the failure of the accord.

Making this known in an interview with the BBC Hausa Service yesterday evening, National Secretary of ACN, Senator Lawal Shuaibu, said both parties had agreed in principle for ACN presidential candidate, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, to stand down in favour of CPC’s Buhari, while Bakare would stand down for another candidate to be named by the ACN.

“By Monday evening, we agreed in principle, but we insisted that all parties should put the agreement in writing. We waited deep into the night for the CPC candidate to come over with their agreement but unfortunately they did not show up. We insisted on written agreement because we have to formalise everything.

“When we waited for Bakare and CPC to come forward with their agreement and they didn’t, we announced to the world that we are backing out,” he said.

Shuaibu said ACN had made enough sacrifice to ensure the survival of the alliance, but the inability of the CPC to meet the demands forced the end in the talks.

“We have made enough sacrifice. In these talks, we are the senior partner considering the number of seats we have won in the last election. But we agreed that our candidate will step down for Buhari, but the CPC did not reciprocate,” he said.

Source: Sahara Reporters

Goodluck Jonathan

With some 72 hours to Saturday’s crucial presidential elections in Nigeria, presidential Goodluck Jonathan is deploying state resources far and wide in an unprecedented effort to buy every inch of support.  A Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) official told SaharaReporters today that in the extraordinary spending spree, the Goodluck Jonathan team had mopped up some N107 billion in funds from the Nigerian economy.

Much of the monies is going to the northern parts of Nigeria where the campaign has handed over N2 billion to each key state governors and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) officials to capture the north for Jonathan.

A CNN report today validates what SaharaReporters has repeatedly revealed about Jonathan’s lackluster campaigns in terms of the sparse audiences in his rallies despite millions of Naira consistently spent to bus supporters from state to state.  Sometimes the same supporters are moved to other stops.
In “The Battle For Nigeria’s Presidency, CNN’s Christian Purefoy reported from Sokoto State, “widely regarded as the base of northern power and the region with the highest number of registered voters.”
Showing a scanty crowd during a widely advertised campaign visit of Goodluck the report focuses on Jonathan’s near-absent support. “Pressed up against the fence here, it looks like a lot of people have turned out for the President Goodluck’s visit, but if you come forward to the space where he will be speaking, it is pretty much empty.  And if you just come to the back just across two or three people deep, the crowd thins out dramatically, and the seats at the back of the stadium, even here behind me, they are empty too.”
In contrast, the report shows the campaign visit of General Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress for Political Change (CPC) to the same Sokoto location one week after Jonathan’s visit, where he is welcomed by a vast and raucous crowd.  “The crowd is much larger and much louder,” the reporter observes.  “Buhari ran for the presidency in the last two elections but claims the voting was rigged.  This time he hopes these people will help him also try something never before done in Nigeria: beat the incumbent President.”
Referring to the significance of the huge crowds at Buhari’s speaking stops, the spokesman to the CPC candidate, Yinka Odumakin, cautioned against anyone trying to subvert the will of the people in Saturday’s presidential election through rigging, warning that it would amount to “Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen combined.”

A source within the Jonathan campaign boasted that although Jonathan may be short on substance or ideas, it is blessed with mountains of cash looted by his cronies who are desperate for his victory in order for him to protect them.  Last week, the Lagos-based 234NEXT newspaper exposed how the Minister of Petroleum Resources, and Jonathan’s long-time mistress, Dieziani Allison-Mudeuke, was engaged in skimming off kickbacks from importers of gasoline to support the campaign. To avoid a public uproar, Diezani quietly left Nigeria about a week ago on a celebrated medical surgery abroad.  While her medical trip abroad was being announced as a critical matter, it turned out that she had only gone to have an appendix removed. 

The Jonathan campaign has also raised tremendous money from issuing import waivers to importers. Since he came to power, Jonathan has issued over N100 billion worth of import duties to the notorious Vaswani Brothers.  In one instance last year, the import waivers, which were first granted through one Chief Omokaro, was sold to the Stallion group for $19 million.  Two days later, the money was paid to President Jonathan through Omokaro. The Vaswani Brothers have been expelled twice from Nigeria for engaging in import scams.

Our CBN source said that state governors are Jonathan’s best source of slush campaign cash.  In return, they are granted excess crude cash allocations sometime several days in advance.

Jonathan, With An Eye on Saturday’s Crunch Vote, Meets Secretly with Jega
 SaharaReporters sources said the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, has also met secretly with President Goodluck Jonathan at a private house in Abuja .  The meeting was conducted under a heavy veil of secrecy and was known only to very few officials. 
In the past few days, and bolstered by last Saturday’s largely successful legislative elections, President Jonathan has told top party officials and hawks in his government that Jega is “no longer a problem” and does not need to be removed from his post.

Partly because of the threat to his exalted job following the aborted election of April 2, analysts say Jega himself seems to be acting with greater deference to candidate Jonathan.  That view of him may have been strengthened by the curious secret meeting with candidate Jonathan only days to the crunch political contest.
 
But a spokesperson to the INEC chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, denied the secret meeting was ever held.  He told SaharaReporters that the only meetings Jega attended with Jonathan related to “election matters” at the National Security Council. He said Jega attended several of those meetings including one following the stormy outing where Jega’s job seemed to be threatened.

Source: Vanguard

Presidential aspirant of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Mallam Nuhu Ahmed Ribadu Thursday sent a clear signal to all aspirants that he is still a contender in Saturday’s presidential race.

At a press briefing, Ribadu in a speech titled: ‘Farewell to nostalgia’ said “I am still running as Presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and my running mate is Fola Adeola. Please ignore any attempt to manipulate the outcome of this election by whatever means especially through viral text messaging disinformation campaign.”

Also, he explained that he offered to step down during the alliance talks but the other main opposition party, Congress for Progressive Change, CPC refused to bulge.

This is however history as the ACN had immediately gone back to the drawing board to re-strategise as to how to humble the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP from Aso Villa come April 16.

He however said” in the next 48 hours, the destiny of our country will change. We would be electing the next president of our beloved country, and with that act, we would be announcing our preparedness to march into a new future.”

“My message to all my fellow compatriots today is that we vote wisely, that we act smartly, in the effort to save our democracy and our country, and set the path to a new beginning of greatness, achievement, and prosperity”.

“We, as a nation, are today in the mid section of our country’s century, but fifty years of independence has not been the cheering news of achievement and fulfillment everyone here would have hoped for. In the midst of opulence and unspeakable wealth, our story and our journey of failure, of squalor and despair, remain one of the most ironic narratives in the history of nation building.”

“But this is not a session for nostalgia or for indulging on the pains of the past, but a moment for decision. A decision that will usher in a new Nigerian in which people want to live in peace, and harmony with one another with good healthcare, good education for our children, job opportunities, security of life and property, and above all a humble, responsive, and accountable government.  It is that simple.”

“I want to start therefore with a deep statement of gratitude and appreciation for the opportunity of a lifetime to be the missioner of the message of change and hope that our people are so badly yearning for. A transparent and accountable government is critical to attaining these simple goals but fundamentally, a transparent electoral administration is the foundation for all of it.

“The history of elections in Nigeria reveals that electoral malpractices are the most formidable hurdle that always stood against electing a truly representative and responsible government.

In last week’s National Assembly election, the same challenge started raring its ugly head again and the main perpetrators are the same gifted captains in the art of election rigging and manipulation. They are roaming the streets about now, getting set for action, and if they did it last week, we would all be naïve to imagine that they would yield on this criminal and unpatriotic acts and go on vacation this coming Saturday”.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, it is for this reason that I want to sound a strong note of caution against tampering with the votes in the coming presidential election, as indeed of the remaining elections.”

My message here and particularly to our young brothers and sisters is to vote wisely. Don’t sell your conscience, don’t sell your  votes, and don’t sell your future.

The future we are stepping into is longer that the past we are coming from, and I understand that not all the variables are in the hands of the electorates. I also want to take this opportunity to urge electoral officials and law enforcement agents to fear God, especially at this time, and put the interest of the nation above all considerations.

“Fellow compatriots we have to use this opportunity to make the future address the past of our nation. Opposition politicians understood this challenge and tried hard to forge an alliance to address the problem.  Sadly, however, the ego and self-centered world of politicians have made it impossible to forge that type of massive force against the administration of the ruling PDP.”

“The broom revolution of the A.C.N seeks to redress this rot, and I urge you all to stand with me all you Nigerians who believe that a new Nigeria is possible. Vote wisely, vote for A.C.N.  Thank you all, the story of our dear country can still be written in gold.”

It would be recalled that attempts made by the AC N to have a merger met a brickwall on Tuesday as the issue of who to run with veteran presidential aspirant Gen. Mohammadu Buhari the presidential flag bearer as his running mate Pastor Tunde Bakare refused to endorse the agreement.

Source: The Punch

Fears over religious politics heightened in Kaduna on Wednesday with the circulation of inciting text messages urging Muslims in the state not to cast their votes for Christian candidates in the remaining elections.

One of such messages, allegedly sponsored by a group, Nigerian Muslim League, accused Governor Patrick Yakowa of implementing a Christian agenda, calling on Muslims to vote the governor out of office.

The text messages being circulated through the Desert Herald alert reads, “Instead of soliciting for our support, Yakowa people have distributed countless leaflets, sending SMS to their members, abusing our religion and exposing his agenda against us and our religion if elected.

“Muslims are not divided. Christians have unit (sic) us more. What (sic) our majority votes, we can change the conspiracy of only 700,000 southern Kaduna votes. We urge Muslims to be peaceful. We will not split our votes. Muslims should mind such SMS and vote wisely in both elections.Vote Yakowa out.”

In a reaction to the NML text message, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Christian Matters, Rev. Joseph Hayab, urged the people of the state to disregard such SMS.

Hayab stated that the members of the NML were faceless persons whose major aim was to use the medium to settle scores, adding that such SMS should therefore be regarded as propaganda and lies.

He restated the commitment of the governor to rule the state in the interest of all the citizens of the state, regardless of their religious affiliations.

Source: Sahara Reporters

Presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari today said that the time has come for Nigerians to stand up and support his bid to uproot the ruling Peoples Democratic Party which he described as a ‘republic of thieves’ from power.

Buhari who was addressing a world press conference to mark the grand finale of his Presidential campaign broke into tears as he lamented the ‘havoc which the government had done to Nigerians and their reputation’.

He said, “Ladies and gentlemen, in the life of any nation there comes a time when some people have to stand up and point out when things are moving off track, explain why they are going wrongly, demonstrate how they can be set aright, and work towards making a difference.

“For Nigeria, that time has come and it is now; and the people to stand up are you and me! Second, let me state categorically that I am not in this race to advance or protect any vested interest or group.

 “We are seeking to replace a government that has done so much havoc to its people and their reputation; and we are determined, with your help, to uproot them completely. By the grace of God, Nigeria is going through its last few weeks of arbitrary non-accountable, corrupt governance—the type that has turned it into a republic of thieves.”

Buhari said that in all the time he had the privilege of managing national resources in various capacities in the country, he ‘never touched a kobo of public funds’.

  “I have fought drift and purposelessness in this nation. I have fought corruption and indiscipline. I have fought indolence and the betrayal of trusts. I have fought the Nigerian civil war and struggled for the unity of this country in many other ways.

“I have had the fortune and privilege of managing national resources in various capacities—as a military commander, as a state governor, as a minister, as head of the Petroleum Trust Fund, and as the head of state of this great country. And in all that I have been and done, I have never touched a kobo of public funds.

 “I say this without pride and with all sense of responsibility and humility; but I challenge anyone in the race for the leadership of this country then or now to dare make the same claim.

 “As I said, I joined the race out of personal conviction and love for my country and concern for the welfare of its people. I therefore ask for the support of everybody and every interest group interested in advancing the cause of the nation.” He said.

However , he called on the Government, INEC and security agencies to remain fair to all Parties to ensure the survival of the country’s democracy.

  “I call upon the governments in power at all levels, the Independent National Electoral Commission, and the security agencies at all levels to be fair and just to all parties and candidates in all elections for all offices.

 “This is the only way to ensure that our democracy survives and partisan politics retains the confidence and support of our people into the future.” Buhari said.