( PRESS RELEASE) Jonathan regime and the politicization of Nigeria’s security- CPC

The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) is aware that the pre-eminent desire of Nigerians under this Nation-space is Security, which under this PDP-led regime, has been an elusive phenomenon. This is sadly so because the Jonathan regime prefers Political profiting from the menace of insecurity to obliterating the scourge from the Nation’s landscape.

After the Monday the 15th April, 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, the American President, Mr Barack Obama reassuringly told a traumatized Nation: “We do not know who did this. We will find them, and we will bring them to Justice.” In less than five days, the two suspected bombers have been decapitated. On 1st October, 2010, there were bomb blasts near the Eagle square, Abuja. The Nigerian President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, being more preoccupied with gaining some electoral credit through guiding public opinion to a decided outcome, declared to the Nation: “it is not MEND!” It did not matter anymore that formal investigation and subsequent litigious procedure had confirmed the culpability of MEND in the bombing. In essence, the Nigerian President, not only showed insularity unbecoming of National leaders, but was only pre-eminently concerned about winning his Party’s nomination while the Nation burned!

The post-election violence in April 2011 that disrupted the peace in some parts of Northern Nigeria was seen as a spontaneous reaction of the people to the subversion of their electoral rights. Pastor Ayodele Oritsejafor, the President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and President Jonathan’s side-kick, called a Press conference and bizarrely demanded the arrest of General Muhammadu Buhari. It did not matter that the fashionable Cleric did not possess verifiable evidence to support his claim. This was seen as President Jonathan’s attempt at polarizing the Polity along religious lines in an iniquitous divide-and-rule scheme. As a fitting reward for that execrable service and many others, Pastor Oritsejafor was rewarded on 10th November, 2012 with the gift of a Bombardier Private jet at a ceremony in which the President was physically present! We were later told the Cleric’s congregation made the donation.

After the initial Presidential reticence in agreeing to amnesty for the Boko-Haram insurgents, and when confronted with reasoned argument, President Jonathan decided on commencement of talks ostensibly leading to amnesty. Yet again, Pastor Oritsejafor continued to obdurately urge the government not to yield to the dialogue option. As the President’s confidante, was he projecting the President’s unexpressed desire? This double-faced posturing by the Federal government is, undoubtedly, a show of its insincerity, which has quite rightly alienated some of the members of the proposed amnesty committee. Is it not a matter of concern that the more money voted to combat insecurity brings more insecurity, thereby giving justification for more Security allocation?

In the last two years, the Nigerian government has been patronizing ex-militant lords with hefty security contracts in a manner that showed abandonment of the constitutional function of the Nigeria Police. This government’s action, perceived as deleterious to the Socio-Political harmony of the land, is being intensified in other regions of the Country, ahead of the regime’s preparation for another election in 2015.

The regime’s Propagandist machine has caused the Boko Haram phenomenon to defy reasonable logic. In February 2013, a French family of seven persons was held hostage by Terrorists in Cameroon. Boko Haram was reported to be responsible. They were allegedly brought to Nigeria by Boko- haram. The hostages were freed last week in Cameroon and released to the French government. Was it the ‘ghostly’ Boko haram that negotiated the hostages’ release with the French? Was any insurgent (in captivity in Nigeria) released in exchange for the hostages? How did Boko Haram cross (at will) Nigeria’s borders, with all the hostages, without the knowledge of Nigeria large security apparatus? Shall we assume that Boko Haram has spread its operational base to Cameroon? Undoubtedly, this leaves many more questions than answers!

As a Party, we are not unaware of the desperation of the Jonathan regime ahead of the 2015 general election. The regime, in a despicable manner that is unprecedented, played up the fragile fault lines of ethnicity and religion for its own aggrandizement in delusive electoral victory in 2011. A regime that is unwilling and incapacitated in implementing none of the fundamental objectives (entrenched in the Nation’s statute book) now seeks to use unconscionable schemes to delude, confuse and over-awe the citizenry, ahead of the next general election in 2015. We stand shoulder to shoulder with the Nigerian people in ensuring the noble ideals of the rule of law reign in our land. We shall continue to campaign against the vestiges of impunity and all forms of corruption and corruptive tendencies that are prevalent in this PDP-led administration.

God bless Nigeria.



Rotimi Fashakin (Engr.)
National Publicity Secretary, CPC
(Sunday, April 21, 2013).