2015 Elections: Going Dirty

Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja Nigeria’s ruling Peoples Democratic Party splatters Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the opposition All Progressives Congress with mud in a desperate bid to stop the growing popularity of the former Head of State ahead of the 14 February presidential elections With the emergence of a new pan Nigeria opposition platform, the All Progressives Congress, APC, the campaigns for 2015 general elections, as was anticipated, is turning out to be extremely keen as the ruling Peoples Democratic Party struggle tooth and nail to maintain the position it has occupied as the dominant player in the country’s political space since 1999. Few weeks to the first in the series of the polls, which is the presidential election, huge crowds have been welcoming Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) the APC presidential candidate even in places considered to be the strongholds of the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. As this magazine gathered last week, jitters in the camp of PDP has reached an all time high. Though many of their leaders will not openly admit it, there is a general fear among party members that the PDP may not be able to retain the presidency for the first time since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, but the party may morph into the opposition at the end of the 2015 elections. The PDP is unarguably in a desperate position and is literarily fighting the battle of its life in the 2015 elections even as the popularity of the opposition APC and its presidential candidate seems to be on the ascent by the day. And the PDP is obviously not ready to take the risk of just relying on its 16 years or the incumbent President’s six years record in office to convince Nigerians to entrust it again with their destinies for the next four years. As it has demonstrated even before the official kick off of the campaign period by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC the ruling party is ready to throw anything in, including mudslinging and abandoning all forms of decency in its bid to retain power. [caption id="attachment_19070" align="aligncenter" width="300"] •Jonathan: PDP presidential candidate[/caption] The rambunctious Ayo Fayose and his death wish advert caught many unawares, as it was not expected that the rascally Governor of Ekiti State would emerge as a poster boy of PDP efforts to mudsling the opposition and its presidential candidate. For one, Fayose who is barely four months in office will not be due for re-election until 2018 and thus, should be free of the jitter of being part the probable mass rejection of PDP at the polls. His state, Ekiti is certainly not one of those states with much free money to throw around, especially with the continuous dwindling allocation from the federal purse. The fact however is that Fayose who now fancies himself as one of the leaders of South west Nigeria has consistently affirmed his readiness to do everything possible to ensure that President Jonathan is returned to power in 2015 elections. Totally lacking in scruples, Fayose has demonstrated over time, just like in the case of his ‘death wish’ controversial wrap around advertorials last Monday that there is no depth too low to descend to achieve anything he sets his mind on. The advertorial in which the Ekiti State Governor insinuated that Buhari may die in office was actually a culmination of what seemed his determination to throw the health status of the retired General into the mix of factors PDP has unrelentingly tried to sell to Nigerians as reasons to reject the former Head of State’s bid for the presidency. Fayose had in a statement issued on Thursday 15 January, warned Nigerians that the presidential candidate of APC has health problems and that his election may return Nigeria to the situation the country found itself under late President Umaru Yar’Adau. Like an amateur filmmaker, the Ekiti State Governor had in the two advertorials build up a scenario of events that will follow Buhari’s death in office, farming out the major role to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former Lagos State governor and national leader of APC. Obviously relying on nothing else but his imagination, Fayose had asserted that Tinubu’s plan for supporting the emergence of Yemi Osinbajo, his loyalist as Buhari’s VP was part of the plot designed by the former Governor to become Nigeria’s President by stealth in case of the death of the presidential candidate: “God forbid, if APC wins, Tinubu’s agenda is to first get the APC presidential candidate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, to resign within six months for him (Tinubu) to take over as vice-president, hoping that the task of governing the country will overwhelm Buhari and aggravate his sickness, thereby paving way for Tinubu to take over as president.” The APC Presidential Campaign Organisation had also linked a report purportedly from Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, ABUTH in which Buhari was allegedly diagnosed of cancer to aides of Fayose. The sponsors of the report which was well circulated on the internet at the weekend had claimed that the APC presidential candidate will be travelling to the United States of America for treatment on the basis of the diagnosis. It has since emerged that Buhari is travelling to the United States on the invitation of Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, CSIS. In a letter signed by Jennifer Cooke, its Director of African Programme, CSIS indicated that it is inviting Buhari to the organisation’s headquarters in Washington DC “to give a major public address on Nigeria’s future as it stands on the edge of a pivotal national election.” [caption id="attachment_19068" align="aligncenter" width="300"] •Buhari: Target of attacks.[/caption] Fayose’s death wish for Buhari provoked outrage. If the Governor was however expecting a pat on the back from the presidency and the PDP over the advertorials, he did not get it, at least publicly. Indeed, as resentments built up against the advertorials, Nigerians had called on President Jonathan to disown it. “What I can tell you on our part is that it does not represent the opinion of the Presidential Campaign Organisation or indeed the President. It is his (Fayose’s) opinion, which he is entitled to and he is somebody that we have immense respect for,” Femi Fani Kayode, Director of Media and Publicity of PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation told journalists in Abuja last Tuesday. “It is important that we recognise the fact that age is not an indication of how long somebody will live. We believe strongly that we must continue to show immense respect to the person of General Buhari,” he added. The APC which regarded the adverts as part of the sinister scheme of the ruling party against its presidential candidate is however not convinced. APC said PDP cannot dissociate itself from the death threat to Buhari made by one of its sitting governor of the PDP who is also a high ranking member of the PDP Presidential Campaign Committee. While calling on the security agencies to investigate the motives behind the adverts, the opposition party further dismissed the denial by the PDP as “merely a case of a master dissociating himself from the errand boy after the message had backfired.” The adverts have provoked outrage across the country beyond party lines. Abubakar Baraje, a former acting national chairman of PDP, now a member of Buhari/Osinbajo Campaign Organisation, described the advert as “high sense of irresponsibility and an insensible act.” According to him, the advertisement was “not only reckless, uncalled for, but a type that can cause anarchy and crisis in the country.” But the Ekiti State Governor seemed unfazed by the torrent of criticisms. Indeed, Fayose speaking through Idowu Adelusi, his media aide said last Wednesday that he has no regret over the advertorial as it contained truths, affirming that the APC presidential candidate is too old and sick to be president of Nigeria. “I wish to draw attention to the lead story in the Sunday Tribune of January 18, 2015, entitled, ‘Buhari’s Planned Visit to US Causes Furore.’ The story revealed that arrangement had been concluded to fly Buhari to US for a medical checkup. That Buhari has been stressed from effects of the rigours of presidential campaigns across the country and he is definitely in need of medical attention, adding that age was a factor as rigours of the campaign was getting at him,” the Ekiti State Governor asserted while neglecting the fact that the newspaper story had already been discredited. Fayose and PDP: Bounded by Desperation This magazine gathered last week that it would be difficult to persuade Fayose to abandon his campaign against Buhari. And this is not just because of his position as one of the leaders of President’s Jonathan and PDP campaign in the South west. This magazine gathered that Fayose feared that Buhari’s presidency may signal the end of his stay in office given his series of various misdeeds not just in his short tenure, but also the various corruption cases against him during his first tenure of office. During a meeting with London Metropolitan Police last week, Ibrahim Lamorde, Chairman Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC lamented that Fayose contested and won the Ekiti governorship polls, despite the cases of corruption hanging on his neck. A man that seems to abhor every form of orderliness and rule of law, Fayose, just before he was sworn in last October, hired thugs who beat up a judge on the premises of Ekiti State High Court during the hearing of a case instituted against him by E-11, a pressure group in the state contesting his eligibility to contest the 21 June gubernatorial polls. [caption id="attachment_19069" align="aligncenter" width="252"] •Fayose: No pat on the back over advertorials[/caption] The pandemonium which followed the action led to closure of all courts in Ekiti State for several weeks. He has since ratcheted up his love for impunity since he assumed office, unleashing thugs and embarking on campaigns of hate against those he perceived as obstacles to his desire to govern Ekiti as his fiefdom. For example, Fayose with the support of the Police backed seven out of the 26 members of Ekiti state House of Assembly to remove Adewale Omirin, the Speaker who was not ready to be his lapdog. This was after intimidating Omirin by sealing his office, cutting off water supply to his residence grounding his official vehicles and arresting a couple of his aides. He has since been working with the seven members who cleared Commissioners for Works and that of the Justice ministry and also sat and approved the 2015 Budget of the state even though they are in clear minority. Meanwhile, other members of the House of Assembly and members of the opposition have virtually been living in hiding as a result of his regime of terror unleashed on the state since Fayose became governor for the second time. Fayose’s hose first tenure was cut short by impudence and allegations of corruption had told the world that he was a ‘changed man’ just before his election. This, going by emerging scenario of regime of impunity in Ekiti State, has turned out to be a lie used by Fayose to hoodwink voters. This magazine gathered that Fayose realized that a President ready to enforce rule of law can stop his ongoing shenanigans by simply asking the Police and other security agencies to act in a more professional manner by refusing to back his series of roguish behavior. Hence, Fayose had recently told leaders of PDP that the party should do everything possible to retain the presidency and in corollary, control over the security agencies. He was even reported to have asked President Jonathan to be prepared to use the army and the police to win the presidential election if he cannot do so by fair means at a recent meeting of South west caucus of PDP held in Ondo State. Still, analysts contended last week that the rambunctious Ekiti State Governor was only queuing behind the Presidency in the smear campaign against Buhari. Okupe’s Attack Worried by the momentum of support the APC presidential candidate seemed to be attracting since his emergence as the flag bearer of the mega opposition party, the PDP had unleashed various attacks on him both in the online and mainstream media. Doyin Okupe, Senior Special Assistant to President Jonathan on Public Affairs had embarked on tour of media houses, granting interviews on why Nigerians should give no consideration to the former military head of state when they go to the polls to elect their next president on 14 February. Okupe had during a visit to a media house in Lagos described the choice of the former Head of State as presidential candidate as a fatal error by the opposition: “Their decision to elect Buhari as their standard bearer is a fatal error. I have been in this game for nearly 30 years or more. I understand this game of politics very well.” He added that the fourth attempt of the former Head of State at the presidency will end up as his previous efforts. In contrast to Okupe’s assertions, the candidacy of Buhari appears to be gaining traction by the day due principally to what many Nigerians considered as the failures of the Jonathan administration. Many Nigerians have come to accept that the President has failed to rise up to the occasion in terms of tackling the problems of terrorism, especially with the over 200 girls kidnapped from Chibok, Borno State in April yet to be rescued. [caption id="attachment_19071" align="aligncenter" width="300"] •Okupe: Buhari’s choice an error[/caption] In the same vein, despite recent successes by the military, the insurgents were sacking villages and communities turning thousands of Nigerians to refugees daily in their own country. Many Nigerians believe that Buhari has the capacity to totally liberate the country from the yoke of terrorism and associated security challenges. This supposition is also based on the track record of the of the APC presidential candidate. Supporters of the retired General had touted how, under President Shehu Shagari administration in the early eighties, Buhari successfully fought the Maitasine Islamic fundamentalist group, leading his troops in pursuit of the insurgents into Chad as a military commander. Also, many Nigerians also believed that the President has performed poorly in the area of curbing corruption as reflected in different allegations of corruption that have been raised in the oil sector like the multibillion naira petroleum import and kerosene subsidy scam, the alleged $12 billion unremitted revenue campaign issues, leakages in the oil industry among others. In contrast, many Nigerians perceive Buhari as a frugal, strong, disciplined and incorruptible and that he is capable of providing the country with strong leadership and putting an end to the endemic corruption that has eaten deep into the national fabric. To back up this characterisation of the retired General, his supporters have cited how as a military Head of State, Buhari ensured that politicians identified as corrupt were arraigned in court, tried and jailed following the overthrow of the Shehu Shagari administration in the second republic. They also pointed out how the APC presidential candidate tried to institute orderliness and eradicate indiscipline in all aspects of national life with his War Against Indiscipline. And despite having served as minister for petroleum, the chief executive of Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) and a head of state, the former Head of State, his supporters claimed, refused to corruptly enrich himself unlike other occupiers of similar offices. Buhari’s record as an unrelenting graft fighter has turned out to be one of the major attractions for the candidacy of the retired General as the country moves towards 2015. “At a time when sleaze is now six for a penny and when the country cries for moral leadership, this plays to Buhari’s strength,” said Adio. Also, analysts said the decline in the economy as a result of the continuous fall in oil prices ahead of the election may work against President Jonathan in the 2015 elections, especially if the process was not well managed. What’s more, the tremendous goodwill enjoined by Jonathan with his promise of “fresh air” which made many Nigerians even across party to vote for him in the 2011 elections has fizzled out over time. Thus, the President will have no choice now but to convince Nigerians that he has done enough in his first term of office and deserves to be re-elected. But PDP and the supporters of the President have a contrary narrative with which they have ceaselessly pummeled the candidacy of Buhari. On Dictatorship For them, the focus is on the strong-arm tactics which characterised the Buhari regime, leading to the jailing of the critics of the military government, including the Afro-beat legend Fela Kuti, selective prosecution of politicians, execution of drug traffickers and crackdown on independent newspapers. President Jonathan himself said during his declaration that the next presidential election was “a choice between going forward or going backwards, between the new ways and the old ways, between freedom and repression,” a sly reference to the military regime headed by the former Head of State, described by human right groups and activists, including Professor Wole Soyinka as brutal dictatorship. Buhari has always defended himself against the allegations insisting that he acted under the confines of the laws guiding his administration then. “Apart from changing to a dinner suit, General Buhari has not changed the tired ideas and provocative utterances that Nigerians rejected in previous elections,” PDP spokesman Olisa Metuh said. Religious Sentiment The ruling party and its supporters had also tried to dissuade Nigerians, especially Christians from supporting Buhari with allegations that the retired General religious bigot, drawing attention to some of the statements he had allegedly made in the past on the issue of Sharia, the Islamic legal system among others. The PDP and supporters of the party had severally alleged that the mission of APC and its presidential candidate is to Islamise Nigeria like the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt. But Waziri Adio, a columnist with ThisDay newspapers noted last month that “the stigmatization of Buhari as a religious fundamentalist and sympathiser of Boko Haram is losing its sheen. Unlike in the past, there have been conscious efforts to market Buhari beyond his fanatical base and challenge the way he was negatively framed by reverse bigots. Based on this outreach, a groundswell of support, fuelled by nostalgia and the burning desire for a new Nigeria, is building up for Buhari where none previously existed.” [caption id="attachment_19072" align="aligncenter" width="300"] •Osinbajo: His choice knocked the accusation that Buhari is a religious bigot.[/caption] The selection of Professor Yemi Osinbajo, a pastor and former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State as Buhari’s running mate has further dented the PDP claims on the islamisation agenda. Nevertheless, pro Jonathan groups who seemed to be mushrooming by the minute have set up accounts with the clear objective of punching holes in the APC presidential candidate’s record of public service, which is his main appeal to Nigerians. The President had promised to run issues based campaign when he inaugurated his campaign organisation early this month. But analysts had pointed out that his appointment of Fani-Kayode who has been very trenchant in leveling accusations of Islamisation plot against the APC and its presidential candidate as his campaign organisation belies Jonathan’s promise. Unlike his boss, the former Minister of Aviation was more truthful at his maiden press conference held a day after the inauguration, asserting that the Jonathan Campaign Organisation intends to focus on the person of the presidential candidate of APC as a key part of the campaign. Thus, it is not a surprise that the ruling party has been raising issues intended not just to impugn the integrity of Buhari, but to distract the APC presidential campaign. Accusation on PTF The Jonathan campaign organization had raised questions about Buhari’s stewardship in Petroleum Trust Fund, an agency set up by the late General Sanni Abacha to manage and invest funds saved from subsides on petroleum products on infrastructural and social services. Contrary to Buhari’s claims of probity, the Jonathan campaign organisation had alleged that PTF, under the former Head of State, was mired in cesspool of corruption and mismanagement. In making the allegations, the Campaign Organisation pointed to the report of Dr Haroun Adamu-led Interim Management Committee set up to probe the activities of PTF under Buhari at the inception of democracy in 1999 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. They noted that the Committee had, in its final report, concluded that N25.8 billion could not be accounted for by the PTF under Buhari. The Campaign Organisation then published what it claimed was the report of the Haroun Adamu Committee which was not previously released to the public in several newspapers and magazines. Just when the Campaign Organisation thought it has got the final ammunition to nail Buhari, former President Obasanjo stepped in to clear the former Head of State of any form of corrupt enrichment while heading the PTF during a campaign stop by the APC in Ogun State. The Jonathan campaign organization, in a statement by Fani Kayode, wasted no time in questioning the clean bill of health given to Buhari by Obasanjo, affirming that the final report of the PTF probe “exposed nothing but monumental sleaze and the most pervasive and insidious type of corruption in PTF while General Buhari held sway there.” The report concluded its findings by recommending that the PTF, under General Buhari and his entire team, be asked to explain the circumstances in which N25. 8 billion disappeared and could not be accounted for. As the chief executive officer of PTF at the time, Buhari, and no one else, must be held responsible for this.” But the APC and Buhari had insisted that the clearance given to the presidential candidate by the former President is enough to absolve him of any culpability in mismanagement of PTF. Sources in the opposition party told this magazine last week that the fact that the recommendation of the Haroun Adamu Committee report was never acted upon or officially released by Obasanjo makes the allegations of PDP a non issue. “Through dark innuendo, Dr. Jonathan’s publicists seek to parlay this recommendation into iron clad evidence that Buhari was somehow culpable and does not deserve the reputation he enjoys,” Professor Olatunji Dare said in his weekly column with THE NATION newspaper. It is nothing of the sort. “The report indicts Buhari to the extent that he was chair of PTF. He held that post in a non executive capacity. The executive secretary and in effect, the accounting officer, was Chief Tayo Akpata who is unfortunately no longer with us. Were he alive, he would have with his accustomed thoroughness answered point by point the charges the Jonathan camp has dredged up,” he added while dismissing claims of Fani-Kayode. Certificate Palaver Unarguably, the biggest issue the Jonathan Campaign Organisation had hoped to use to nail Buhari until the APC presidential candidate was forced to forcefully respond to it last Wednesday was the retired General’s educational qualifications. The APC presidential candidate had averred in an affidavit he deposed before an Abuja High Court that all his certificates were with the Secretary, Military Board, while submitting his presidential nomination form to INEC. But the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation had asked INEC to disqualify Buhari over his failure to attach his certificates to his nomination form as stated in the Electoral Act. The Electoral Commission had retorted that it has no power to disqualify any candidate as only the courts are empowered to do so by the Electoral Act. In his response, the APC presidential candidate had argued that he had also not attached copies of his certificates to the nomination forms he submitted to INEC in his previous contests for the presidency. But the position of PDP that Buhari risks disqualification was supported by Olisa Agbakoba, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association who told Channels Television that the nomination form used for the 2015 elections is different from the one used for previous elections. However, Brig.-Gen. Olaleye, Director, Army Public Relations told some newspapers that the Army has copies of certificates of its serving and retired men while the officers are also expected to have the original copies of their credentials. The PDP had relied on the assertion by the lawyer to renew its demand for disqualification of Buhari by INEC even as it embarked on campaign on the mainstream and social media to force the APC presidential candidate to come clean on his educational qualifications, especially the WASC certificate listed as minimum qualifications for contesting the presidency. This magazine gathered that the APC presidential candidates had actually requested for copies of the last weekend in his attempt to douse the controversies. But before he could even look at what was sent to him, Brigadier-General Olaleye, had curiously called another press conference where he asserted: “The Nigerian Army does not have the original copy of his (Buhari) West African Examinations Council, WAEC result or a certified true copy.” Some sources told this magazine last week that the Army might have been put under pressure to address the press conference as a way of further muddling up the PDP precipitated certificate controversy. Buhari himself said he was surprised by the claim of the Army. The release of the retired General’s result by his Government College, Katsina, the secondary school which he attended was expected to put an end to the controversies. The School confirmed Buhari’s claim that he undertook the 1961 University of Cambridge West African School Certificate Examinations and obtained five credits in English Language, Geography, Hausa Language, History and Health Science. The Cambridge print- out also shows the result of 17 other candidates at the centre, including the late Gen. Yar’Adua, a one-time Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters. Before the release of the result by the school, Buhari had at a press conference in Kano told journalists that fixation on his educational qualifications was orchestrated by the PDP to take away attention from the issues of the campaign which he identifies as “the scandalous level of unemployment of millions of our people, the state of the insecurity, the pervasive official corruption which has improverished our people and the lack of concern of the government to do anything other than deification of power at all costs.” Even then, the PDP is not ready to give up as it wasted no time in accusing Buhari of perjury over his initial claims that his certificate was with the Military Board. Sources told this magazine last week that PDP’s mudslinging of Buhari will continue as long as the APC presidential candidate’s popularity and acceptance continue to soar.