USA Africa Dialogue Series - On the Matter of the Call for Support for President Goodluck Jonathan {Re:Shut up everyone!Re:Bolaji_Adejuwon | What IfDokpesi Is Being Framed ?

 

 

Idowubobo:

 

You ask for support for GEJ at this critical juncture.

 

Please come with me......

 

Goodluck Jonathan first was Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State (while Governor Alamieyeseigha was robbing that state blind from 29 May 1999 – 9 December 2005), and then became its Governor for a while [9 December 2005 to 29 May 2007] after the EFCC caught and jailed his Principal who apparently had chosen him because of his political passivity.  In another sane country, it would be a wonder that a Deputy could claim to have ABSOLUTELY no knowledge of the larceny going on by his boss. At that time, GEJ did not claim that he was completing the vision of Alams - the theiving vision - but what vision or achievement did he himself for Bayelsa State have before being picked as Vice-Presiedential candidate? 

 

Please tell me what magic that he did during those two service periods of a total of eight years that his Bayelsa State citizens remember him for. 

 

If it is not the strange country that we are in, would that not be the CENTRAL question that should have been asked, not only of Jonathan but his senior partner Umar Musa Yar'Adua (who was governor of Katsina State for eight years from 29 May 1999 – 29 May 2007) BEFORE their PDP and outgoing Obasanjo IMPOSED them on our country?  Not only was UMYA a dying man from Day One as president, but had been dying slowly even as Governor and as Candidate - and yet NOBODY in the country either knew or would or could ask: will your health hold you up in this new position?

 

They both became President and Vice-President in May 2007 in what is agreed even by them as the worst elections in Nigeria's history, even BELOW the low standard that Nigeria was used to - but by November 23, 2009, UMYA's presidency was effectively over due to ill-health that took him away to Saudi Arabia, and on May 5, 2010, he was dead after beiing hurriedly and ill-advisedly being brought back nocturnally to Nigerian soil in February.  In Jonathan's three service periods - as Vice-President, Acting President and now President, what has he achieved - or what promise has he shown for the rest of the period?

 

I was one of those who gave him an early benefit of the doubt, hoping that since Fate had made him, a Southern Minority fellow, an Ijaw (of my mother's people) for that matter, President of the country, if he wished to continue in office under the electoral blessing of Nigerians - and not just luck or fate - he should delay the announcement of his intentions for candidacy for quite a while, during which period he should concentrate on a few deliverables - eg electricity, roads, security, CREDIBLE ELECTIONS  - and deliver. 

 

But deliver he has not (outside of choosing the credible Prof. Attahiru Jega as INEC Chair), but rather he seems to have CONCENTRATED on using merely the INCUMBENCY argument as well as his IJAW-NESS (not even South-Southern-ness) to attempt to force, almost blackmail,  his candidacy within the troublesome PDP despite that party's dubious zoning arrangements.  To claim the right to run as candidate due to incumbency is one thing;  the South-Southerness no longer matters because he is already President and that is in the history books already; but to disown the zoning arrangement within the party is quite disingenuous, even dishonest, because the whole fabric of the PDP (and his own political existence) is due to zoning.  To further compound the problem by claiming that he would be completing UMYA's 8-year term - which was never promised to UMYA in the first instance - is to beg the question as to whether it would therefore be the Southern turn or the Northern turn after him!

 

It is that disingenuity and dishonesty, that blackmail that may have led to the current political impasse within the PDP - and by extension the country - and encouraged PDP heavyweights like Atiku, IBB and Gusau to believe that it is only they that can take him on in the party and whip him back into party line. 

 

That  may  all have also culminated in the October 1 bombings.    GEJ's statements about MEND-or-no-MEND involvement have not helped matters a wee-bit, and called to question his abilities in the face of dire circumstances.  [His impulsive post-World Cup reaction against our hapless  national team that incurred a FIFA warning is another; even now, FIFA has given us a hammer for what appears to be reckless legal victimization of NFA officials.] Raking Dokpesi through investigative coals over a mere text-message reference smacks of political witchhunting because of his role as IBB's campaign manager.   I cannot also, for example, understand Jonathan's choice of fellow Bayelsan Gen. Owoye Andrew Azazi as National Security Adviser within the past few days, an Azazi that was  Chief of Army Staff (COAS) between June 2006 and 2007, and Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) from 2007 – August 2008 when UMYA retired him.  This was during the period when MEND was running the most riot in the Niger-Delta! Azazi's choice heightens the sense of Ijaw insularity around Goodluck Jonathan - quarter-backed by Chief Edwin Clark, with MEND (Old,  New and Phantom factions) as its armed wing - and that is most unfortunate and dangerous to his political health.

 

The reckless and arrogant by some Northern elements - ostensibly being led by Ciroma and the IBB-Atiku-Gusau-Saraki quartet and quarter-backed by Ciroma - also do not help matters, and are a dangerous action-and-reaction duet that we must  watch closely. The nation must make it clear that ONLY democratic means must be used to bring political leadership change in the country - and that this must include free, fair and credible elections in 2011.  All calls for resignation and/or impeachment of Jonathan are immature and premature, and only a defeat in the PDP primaries or at the 2011 polls (if he is PDP candidate) should prevent Jonathan from being president then.

 

In all of this, the South-East is now split into the Enugu Group - led by Governors that were allowed to meet  declare support for Jonathan - and the Owerri Group - led by politicians (like Ekwueme, Nnamani, etc.) that were locked out and could only meet in open field, and suspected not to be enthused by Jonathan's candidature in 2011 due to what it does to South-Eastern ambitions to the presidency as early as 2015.  In the South-West, virtually all the PDP governors are under political siege in their domains, and are reluctantly under thumb of their principal Obasanjo, whose political support for Jonathan is as changeable as the English weather.

 

Under the circumstances, it is difficult to see how to support Goodluck Jonathan if one is not an extreme partisan.

 

All in all, this is all a PDP problem, a posturing between primaries' candidates - except that unfortunately one of the candidates is the incumbent President once more testing his hackeneyed good luck - no pun intended.  One would therefore have hoped that he was not in the running at all, claiming that while he had a right to run, he was playing the statesman and concentrating on running a free, fair and credible election as a departing incumbent.  One would have hoped, if he still chose to run,  not to run within his party due to its zoning arrangement, and choose another party - but that would have been a long shot.

 

As it is, Jonathan is in the running, but his candidacy as presidential flag bearer for the PDP is by no means assured.  However, one can only hope that an alternative party or consortium of political parties, insisting on free, fair and credible elections starting with credible voter registration,  can get their act together and rid our country of the scourge that the PDP has been for the past eleven years.

 

And there you have it - from this partisan.

 

 

 

Bolaji Aluko

On Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 2:11 PM, idowu <idowubobo@yahoo.com> wrote:

 

Please guys:

The president needs our support for the future of Nigeria. He loses this fight that is the end of any leadership in Nigeria that is not beholding to these people. I am just coming to understand Obasanjo's strategy and tactical manouver.

 

It is time for us to come togethe and fight these people with Jonathan.
 

Idowu
"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." --Thomas Jefferson

"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." -- Elie Wiesel

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From: "bolajipundit011@yahoo.com" <bolajipundit011@yahoo.com>
To: NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wed, October 6, 2010 1:04:24 PM
Subject: Re: [NaijaObserver] Shut up everyone!Re: | What IfDokpesi Is Being Framed ?

 

Adejuwon,

Your intervention aligns with my earlier post today. The independence bombing have become a huge fiasco with complicity from unexpected quarters. Unfortunately still, the State establishment bungled it with all manner of somersaults and infantile comments.

We await the end of these whole hubris.

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN

---

From: Adebayo Adejuwon <adeadejuwon@yahoo.com>

Sender: NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com

Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2010 09:52:19 -0700 (PDT)

To: <NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com>; <NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com>; Adeniran Adeboye<aadeboye@mac.com>; <NigerianID@yahoogroups.com>

ReplyTo: NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com

Cc: <NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com>; Mobolaji ALUKO<alukome@gmail.com>; idowu<idowubobo@yahoo.com>; NaijaPolitics e-Group<NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>; <asa-usa@yahoogroups.com>; IGBO WORLD FORUM IGBO WORLD FORUM<igboworldforum@yahoogroups.com>

Subject: Re: [NaijaObserver] Shut up everyone!Re: | What IfDokpesi Is Being Framed ?

 

ErG:

 

I hope you can read well. What is the problem with what the duo of Dipo Famakinwa and Alagba Odumakin has posted below that is making your adrenalin rise?

 

 Is it the analogy of the Ijaw guy called GEJ  who suddenly found himself in power to lead a fractured country and who, rather than be discretionary and circumspect and act as a true patriot and leader of all  but chose to dance to his Ijaw sub ethnic music with the likes  Edwin Clarke who ought to know better but appears to be over drunk with Aso Rock power vodka or the desperate and confused Adamu Ciroma, who after being in power all his adult life and who should know that Nigeria is not North and that he and his cohorts cannot intimidate the presidency?

 

 Which one is difficult for you to understand?

 

With the way GEJ is going he may just be playing into the hands of these desperate political North. And he ought not to.

 

 And what exactly do you mean Aziza will infiltrate the Nigerian Army with the dregs called militia from the Niger Delta? You must be day dreaming.

 

If indeed the North, through Adamu Ciroma and his cohorts in IBB, Atiku, Saraki, and Gusau are all threatening and intimidating Jonathan, they are wrong. But for people like you, Clarke and GEJ you are also wrong in behaving like what Yoruba will call OMO A I JE OBE RI TI N JA EPO SAYA (a long denied infant who suddenly found himself in opulence who lost control of his morals and decorum)

 

This is a word of advice especially for GEJ and his Ijaw kindred. GEJ is already giving the impression that apart from his Ijaw ethnic group, all other ethnic groups in the Niger Delta know longer matter. Not only that, he is also sending a wrong signal that whatever the Hausa Fulani has done in the last fifty years in ostracizing other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria from power, he,GEJ as a true son of Ijaw from Bayelsa will do more if allowed to get to power in 2011.

 

This may just be a good reason why Nigerians may have to look outside of PDP and GEJ in deciding who occupies Aso Rock in 2011

 

Nigeria is not an Ijaw enclave neither is it the private property of the Hausa Fulani.

 

Nigeria belongs to Nigerians.

 

---

From: eRG <edoregeneration@yahoo.co.uk>
To: NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com; Adeniran Adeboye <aadeboye@mac.com>; NigerianID@yahoogroups.com; NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com
Cc: NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com; Mobolaji ALUKO <alukome@gmail.com>; idowu <idowubobo@yahoo.com>; NaijaPolitics e-Group <NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>; asa-usa@yahoogroups.com; IGBO WORLD FORUM IGBO WORLD FORUM <igboworldforum@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wed, October 6, 2010 6:25:00 AM
Subject: [NaijaObserver] Shut up everyone!Re: | What IfDokpesi Is Being Framed ?

 

Yinka Odumakin and Dipo Famakinwa:

Make un go sit down somewhere if una no know wetin to talk for this matter. 

Listen up! No body will get away intimidating the president of this country like this group of bigots led by Adamu Chiroma.

Read my lips. By this time next month, all the ex-militant orientation camps in Obubra will be emptied out and all of them absolved into the standing Nigerian army in Abuja, Gen Azazi will definitely see to that. If you people want war, you will get war.

Ijaw oil is good enough to fuel this country, but an Ijawman is not good enough to be president. Nonsense talk from all of una!

We shall see...
 

eRG

"God gives, Man hoards and Satan steals" - eRG's Father

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From: Oladipo Famakinwa <dipofam@yahoo.com>
To: NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com; Adeniran Adeboye <aadeboye@mac.com>; NigerianID@yahoogroups.com; NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com
Cc: NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com; Mobolaji ALUKO <alukome@gmail.com>; idowu <idowubobo@yahoo.com>; NaijaPolitics e-Group <NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>; asa-usa@yahoogroups.com; IGBO WORLD FORUM IGBO WORLD FORUM <igboworldforum@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wed, 6 October, 2010 11:58:58
Subject: Re: [NaijaObserver] Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] Re: NigerianID | What IfDokpesi Is Being Framed ?

 

"And except God intervenes in our national irresponsibility (we've overworked him all these years) Nigeria is dancing on the floor of EXTINCTION" - Yinka.

Yinka,

What is playing out is a case of two extremes tugging viciously at the core of our unresolved national question: At one end is a section who has never held power, but has now fortuitously got into the realpolitik of the power configuration for the first time, and is therefore fiddling within that space for an appropriate engagement or containment strategy. At the other end is one who has always held power, is used to its spoils and its advantages, but is not used to being out of that space, especially given that power is its only claim to the commanding height, and is therefore fighting tooth and nail to retrieve what is considered a precious asset.  

When the president of a nation is busy talking like the spokesman of MEND, denying and affirming positions like an insider, holding meetings with over a hundred Niger Delta militants, and constantly reminding the nation of his Ijaw origin and the oil wealth that is located there. 

When an Ijaw elder statesman quickly jumps into the fray and talks like the new landlord, with the key to the villa in his pocket, and when another with a distinguished University of Ibadan education, one who had served the nation among others as a CBN Governor, a Minister, a frontline 'one nation, one destiny, politician, and should otherwise be found within the ranks of true statesmen, is now issuing threats on behalf of his own narrow section, the situation is indeed pointing in very ominous directions. 

What happened to that long-cherished political marriage between the North and the South-South? Has it always been a game of deceit, or the quest for power is tearing the marriage apart? 

Meanwhile, standing in the middle is a country that has always pretended to be walking together in one destiny, but is now being pushed very recklessly and vociferously to the precipice. The country has come under the grips of strong and in some cases, misguided personal ambitions, ethnic protectionism, and a vicious political zero-sum game, all combining to further push the country down the hill.

It has merely taken issues surrounding an up-coming election and an independence day bomb blast to expose the underbelly of that phantom creation called Nigeria. How can a country continue to take these constant assaults and yet remain adamant about resolving the critical issues of nationhood? Things are unravelling right before our very eyes and it's like we are all being reminded, once again, that everyone should really 'carry his mother's breasts' (ki olomu d'omu iya e gbe).

Where lie the redeeming forces?

Diipo Famakinwa

From: yinka odumakin <yod2011@hotmail.com>
To: Adeniran Adeboye <aadeboye@mac.com>; NigerianID@yahoogroups.com; NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com
Cc: NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com; Mobolaji ALUKO <alukome@gmail.com>; idowu <idowubobo@yahoo.com>; NaijaPolitics e-Group <NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>; asa-usa@yahoogroups.com; IGBO WORLD FORUM IGBO WORLD FORUM <igboworldforum@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wed, October 6, 2010 12:44:44 AM
Subject: Re: [NaijaObserver] Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] Re: NigerianID | What IfDokpesi Is Being Framed ?

 

Prof Adeboye:
I think it is not all about gathering data but processing it as well.
When you are up against veteran evils like GEJ is facing you can't be so pedestrian.
Have you noticed that the major security forces are just temporising because a serious security issue has been turned into politics.
What message is the president sending holding meetings with militants in the villa at this period?Where is discretion?What happened to sensibility?A thinking Presidency should have encouraged the guys to meet in Yenogoa and issue their communique.
About 60 bus loads of militants took over the roads in Abuja the other day and newspapers took photographs of GMGs being loaded into their bosses.
The Ciroma statement and that of the four president aspirants of PDP border on irresponsibility and sheer arrogance.
But GEJ is playing into their hands!
And except God intervenes in our national irresponsibility(we've overworked him all these years)Nigeria is dancing on the floor of EXTINCTION.
Yinka.

"After going around and around and around the same old mountain,may be it's time to finish the job.May be it's time to claim the promise.I dont know about you,but im tired of going around and around and around the mountain"-Rapheal Warnock"-

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From: Adeniran Adeboye <aadeboye@mac.com>

Sender: NigerianID@yahoogroups.com

Date: Tue, 05 Oct 2010 23:49:23 -0400

To: <NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com>

Cc: <NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com>; Mobolaji ALUKO<alukome@gmail.com>; idowu<idowubobo@yahoo.com>; nigerianid@yahoogroups.com<nigerianid@yahoogroups.com>; NaijaPolitics e-Group<NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>; <asa-usa@yahoogroups.com>; IGBO WORLD FORUM IGBO WORLD FORUM<igboworldforum@yahoogroups.com>

Subject: Re: [NaijaObserver] Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] Re: NigerianID | What If Dokpesi Is Being Framed ?

 

Ogbuefi Dominic,

I do not think that the president has to be a member of MEND before he knows differently. As president, he has access to a lot of data collected both locally and globally. Whereas I do not claim that knowing differently implies knowing better, I also do not ignore the possibility that the culprit have propagated some disinformation in order to distract.  I keep my mind really open on this matter because I have no real basis for ascribing much credibility to either party in this conflict.

Adeniran Adeboye

On Oct 5, 2010, at 11:10 PM, Dominic Ogbonna wrote:

Chief Adeniran:

No sir, I don't know anything for sure. The president himself appears to be a member of MEND, so he might know better. But everything I have heard, both publicly and privately, suggests that MEND did the job. I shall revise my priors if the evidence changes, but for now, I have no reason to believe otherwise.

Dominic

On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 11:06 PM, Adeniran Adeboye <aadeboye@mac.com> wrote:

 

Dominic,

Do we know for sure that it was really MEND that claimed responsibility, apologized, pointed out that it had issued a number of  pre-emptive warnings? Could another group have made the claims in MEND's name in order to distract law enforcement agencies? In case the government already knows that this MEND'S STORY is really not MEND's story, should it not do something to protect the innocent?

Regards,

Adeniran Adeboye

On Oct 5, 2010, at 10:23 AM, Dominic Ogbonna wrote:

Joe Attueyi: I myself have never ever heard anything to suggest that professor Aluko is a secret supporter of IBB, and this is without prejudice to whether he is a janus face elsewhere or not. It is simply not credible that professor Aluko would remotely endorse IBB.

Professor Aluko: I myself have never ever heard anything to suggest that Joe Attueyi is a secret cheer-leader for IBB, and this is without prejudice to whether he and IBB are business partners or not. Joe Attueyi has said, quite very clearly, that an IBB leadership is toxic, and that even the contemptible leadership of GEJ would be preferable to an IBB presidency. 

So you can both rubbish each other as to who is the bigger IBB fan, but it is  really a waste of effort, because neither of you remotely come across as credible IBB fans. Neither of you endorse GEJ; neither of you endorse IBB. Let us not form a pointless firing circle among ourselves ...


Moving on to the substantial issue ....

Joe Attueyi, you are forgetting an important item: CONTEXT is everything! Come with me:


1. Bomb goes off on October 1
2. MEND claims responsibility not once, not twice, but at least THRICE!
3. MEND even apologizes to the victims!
4. MEND points out that it did issue a pre-emptive warning  to the Federal Government a full 5 days ahead of time! This had  now been confirmed.
5. MEND points out that it also issued another warning, some one hour before the blast goes off. This too has been confirmed by the security agencies.

MEND's story with regards to this bombing is clearly credible. So was MEND responsible for the bombing? If it looks like a duck,  walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, should we conclude that it is an elephant without assembling overwhelming evidence?  It is possible that MEND is not the WHOLE story, but :

(a.) The president started out by making shockingly partisan statements that fly in the face of all the evidence available to the public. I concede he might know more than the rest of us, or not, but by acting as MEND's spokesperson, he has essentially ordered the security agencies to FABRICATE the evidence if necessary! As Alagba Yinka has already pointed out, what is the SSS is not going to say  that the president is wrong, and that MEND and the president's 'people' are the murderers!!! By publicly jumping to a bewildering conclusion, the president is the one who has INTERFERED with the investigation!

(b.) The SSS is now playing along with the Aso Rock Emperor. Otherwise, why are they conducting the investigation on Elombah.com? 

It is one thing to invite Dokpesi as a 'person of interest', but it is another thing to start the whispering campaign, right after the president exculpated MEND and his 'people'. Anyhow you look at it, the message is clear: MEND is not responsible. IBB Headquarters is, and we are going to prove it not by serious investigation and evidence, but in the public of public propaganda, using internet gossip and insinuation! 

This is why all right-thinking people must reserve judgment and doubt, and not jump on the GEJ bandwagon, even if we are dying to bring IBB to book.

Me, if IBB did it, I might finally consider going to church to offer thanksgiving! Finally, we can nail him with something BIG and make it stick! We can make him pay for all the other crimes that he committed. 

But that's if he did it. 

So far, the evidence showing that he did looks very artificial and fabricated. As professor Aluko points out, it totally looks like a complete witchhunt.  Reminds me of all the phantom coups and bombings during Abacha's reign. 

Really, I sincerely hope that  we are wrong, because if Jonathan and his people have started on this part, then the near-future can not be too good for this nation.


Dominic

 

 

 

 

 

 

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