The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP presidential campaign kicked off yesterday in Lagos with the President Goodluck Jonathan declaring that his generation has failed Nigerians while also disclosing for the first time that Henry Okah’s faction of the Niger Delta militant group, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND was paid to kill him.
Addressing youths at the campaign ground, Jonathan appealed to them to work for the future of Nigeria, through hard work and dedication, saying youths are the ones expected to take Nigeria to the moon.
Speaking on the crusade against corruption and insecurity, for which his administration has received so much lashing lately, President Jonathan said he will not resort to crude tactics to combat the major challenges of corruption and insecurity the way some of his predecessors had done in the past.
The presidential Campaign flag off that held at the popular Tafawa Balewa Square on Lagos Island had all serving PDP governors, other leaders of the party and some principal leaders of the National Assembly in attendance.
The president, though repeatedly flayed the campaign agenda and endorsements received by his All Progressives Congress, APC, challenger, General Muhammadu Buhari, he however did not mention his name for almost 30 minutes of his speech.
National and regional leaders of the party also addressed the crowd of party supporters before the president’s speech. These included Governor Olusegun Mimiko, the Ondo State governor, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, the National Chairman of the PDP and Vice President, Namadi Sambo as well as Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Godswill Akpabio.
Gov. Mimiko, as the party leader in the Southwest, welcomed President Jonathan to region, extolling his virtues as a true democrat unlike those he referred to as born again democrats. He also praised the president for the ongoing rehabilitation work on the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way and the revival of railways. In a veiled reference to Buhari’s military regime, Mimiko said: “We can remember the anti-human decision to terminate the Lagos metro line project by some other government. That project into which the Jakande-led administration had committed a whopping sum of N70 million (about $75 million at that time) was meant to put an end to the traffic nightmare in Lagos metropolis through the installation of a circuit of rail lines that would have stretched from Agege to Marina, Ikorodu in the north and Badagry in the east, ferrying nearly a million people a day, 31-years ago. While some chose to destroy, you have chosen to build,” Mimiko had said.
Speaking at the campaign rally, President Jonathan said: “I believe that the young Nigerians are the future, we are finished. We believe that the youths will be the ones that will take us to the moon, my generation has failed because we could not take Nigeria to the moon.”
“I don’t want to address old people like me because we (his generation) are spent already. I am going to dwell on three things because those, who said they are going to take over from the PDP have been telling a lot of lies. They have hired people all over the world and are feeding people with lies on the social media. They are painting all sorts of colours and giving you all sorts of claims that they cannot defend.”
On accusations by the opposition that he has failed to addressed the issue of insecurity in the country, the president said: “They talked about insecurity. They said they will fight insecurity. And I ask, are our armed forces weak? If we have problems, what is the cause? Equipment. Somebody who told young people that he is going to fight insecurity, ask him if he bought one riffle for Nigerian soldiers when he was the Head of State. These people did not buy anything for the Nigerian soldiers. They refused to equip them. Ask them what they did with their defense budget.
“They said my government is corrupt and that we are not fighting corruption. Only yesterday, I addressed anti-corruption agencies and told them that people are deceiving young Nigerians. I said that they must tell Nigerians what they are doing.
“We have arrested more people and done more convictions. Let me apologize to some Nigerian federal civil servants who did not receive their December salaries early enough and I will tell you what happened. I apologize to those families that suffered because we believe and I believe that for you to fight corruption, we must take measures. If they had succeeded in fighting corruption, corruption would not have been with us today. If they had set up structures especially with the days of modern science and technology using ICT, to manage resources, we would not have been talking about corruption today.
“What happened in December was because of a software that is used for processing salary packages. Sometimes, people steal through salaries and some federal government agencies, including some ministries try to divert funds to try and pay for some allowances and the system is scientific. It is not a human being. Once money meant to pay salaries is diverted, it shuts you down and those departments of government were shut down. This is the only way you can prevent corruption.”
“If somebody tells you that the best way to fight corruption is to come and arrest your uncle and father and show him on television and jail him, it won’t stop corruption. It even encourages corruption. Armed robbery is still with us, we are shooting armed robbers, is that stopping armed robbery?
“So, arresting people and showing them on television will not stop it; we must set up institutions and strengthen them to prevent people from touching the money and that is what we are working on and we are succeeding.”
On procurement of military hardware, the president said: “We talked about corruption and they say that the military is corrupt. When this crisis of insecurity came up, we had nothing, so to get these equipment quickly, we had to use vendors to procure them; but now, what we are doing is government to government transaction. Any new procurement we are doing, whether for the Air Force, Navy or Army, is government to government. There is nothing like corruption any more even if we had some issues. Is that not the way to fight corruption?
“You must prevent people from touching your money and this is what government is doing and succeeding in a number of areas especially in the procurement area. If you look at it, we are reducing corruption.”
The president also took a swipe at the military regime of his opponent in the 2015 presidential election, Gen. Mohammadu Buhari for the crating of Alhaji Umaru Dikko in 1984.
“They say we are weak but we know that there were some people who, while they were abroad, some people drugged them and put them in crates and attempted to fly them to Nigeria but they were intercepted by superior powers. That blocked Nigerians from even going to Britain; the whole world isolated Nigeria. They say that is the best way to fight corruption. Is that the way to stop corruption? Not to follow due process? So, immediately I suspect your uncle, I just go and crate him and put him in Kirikiri (Kirikiri Prison). Is that the way to stop corruption? “They want power at all cost, all they want to use power for is to lock up and imprison their enemies. I have no enemies to fight. I won’t stop corruption by arresting people and putting them in jail. You cannot stop corruption that way.”
Speaking on the youth empowerment activities of his administration, the president disclosed that his administration decided to motivate the younger generation with sharp ideas.
“Government feels that Nigerians are very dynamic people, creative and industrious people and, as you know, we are over 200 million people but we cannot touch everybody the same day. “We came up with the concept of YOUWIN to give grants and not loans to young Nigerians that have ideas. We have done that and some of them are already manufacturing things. In the next five years or so, some of them will be exporting things out of the country. Can you do that without planning? And they say we have no plans for the youths, let them come and tell us the plans they have for the youths. Look at what India is doing, look at what countries that we were at par with at independence are doing. Do you want to go back to those days where they had no plans for the youths?”
On the October 1st 2010 bomb blast at the Eagles Square, Abuja, the president for the first time declared that the incident was actually an assassination attempt on him, claiming Henry Okah was paid by some Nigerians to kill him.
“Let me say one thing and conclude. I read in a paper recently where it said ‘MEND dumps Jonathan’. I am from the Niger Delta, the leader of MEND is one Okah. Okah is in a South African prison because on October 1, 2010, when we were to celebrate our 50th Independence anniversary, Okah was hired by some Nigerians to assassinate me. “Okah bombed Abuja and the attempt was to assassinate me but intelligence report from South Africa hinted me on the plan to assassinate me. He is now in jail in South Africa and they said MEND dumped Jonathan. Okah that wanted to assassinate Jonathan, will he support Jonathan? I am told that Okah is supporting some people.”
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