By Ibiba Don Pedro
The
unsolicited interests and highly antagonistic actions by certain foreign
interests in the 2015 elections in Nigeria and specifically towards the person
of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, can be
easily discerned by keen observers in the unfolding events related to the
Nigeria 2015 elections. Any patriotic Nigerian, concerned about the wellbeing
and sovereignty of the country must think and ask questions now.
Nigeria by
any standard, is the leading light on the African continent by virtue of her
huge size, highly educated, highly mobile population, landmass, and extensive
natural endowments including huge deposits of oil, gas and solid minerals.
Based on all these, the interests of the international community in the
country, especially in an election year, is understandable. The concern raised
by countries and international development agencies about the possibility of
violence and instability, is reasonable in view of the likely impact of an
unstable Nigeria on the stability of countries around her and possible
implications for global peace and resources.
However, the
tone of the concerns raised, the calibre of persons, countries, and organisations
involved, expose an unnecessary underlying bias against President Goodluck
Jonathan and the present administration. First, in the build up to the
subsequently rescheduled February 14, 2015 elections, US Secretary of State,
Senator John Kerry, flew into Nigeria in a huff, to meet the main presidential
candidates, warning that the elections must hold on the said date, not minding
that even at that point Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was
not fully prepared for the polls and over a third of registered voters, about
23million persons, who had not accessed their permanent Voters Cards (PVC),
stood to be disenfranchised if the elections had held. INEC also at that point
had neither tested the newly introduced Card Readers to be deployed for use
during the elections, nor had the body conducted training for its over 600,000
ad-hoc staff to be used during the elections.
Curious
indeed that the Chief Policeman of democracy, the US, did not see any ill in
these processes that threatened the growth of democratic practice in Africa’s
largest country. Discerning and thoughtful Nigerians are puzzled that the above
evidence of INEC’s unreadiness and its documented plans to rig the elections
for the APC are of no interest to Senator John Kerry and his US policemen of
democracy.
Only the
undiscerning could not see the pointers to the hardening anger of the West,
especially the US, in the reports that followed soon that General Muhammadu
Buhari, a former military dictator and a man with a long list of serious
violations including murder by military decree, was suddenly the darling of the
so-called democratic US and the West and their favoured candidate in the coming
elections. Buhari was shortly reportedly billed to visit the US soon after
Kerry’s visit.
When we saw
Buhari masquerading at Chatham House in London as a born-again democrat, we
could only laugh. We know that he sponsored post-election violence by his
followers after he lost to President Jonathan in 2011. Later he threatened that
"the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood"—i.e. more
post-election violence--should he not be declared the winner in the 2015
elections. After that threat, how can any unbiased person believe that Buhari
is a genuine convert to democracy, let alone a poster boy of democracy? In this
regard, we note the ignoble role of two former British Prime Ministers- Messrs
Tony Blair and Gordon Brown- whose recent secret meetings with General Buhari
exposed their sinister plot to interfere in Nigeria’s democratic process. If
the US and her allies chose to pretend that they believe Buhari’s false claims
at Chartham House, they must have their selfish reasons. But the Nigerian
voters, are not fooled. We know Buhari very well. He is an incurable Caliphate
supremacist, and dictator.
The
hostility of the West, grounded in the destabilizing antics of its Nigerian and
US-based allies, is easily seen in the obviously jaundiced reports about
Nigeria, such as the February 16, 2015 editorial in the New York Times
captioned "Nigerian’s Miserable Choices" in which President Jonathan
was rudely and unnecessarily insulted.
President
Jonathan’s administration has recorded high performance and he is determined to
restructure and reposition the country away from corruptive centralism to accountable
and just federalism. By doing so, President Jonathan has placed the interest of
Nigerians over and above those of foreign exploiters and their domestic
collaborators. President Jonathan’s patriotic effort frightens the west as
captured in the 2010 report by Trevor Johnson that notes: "Western policy
on Nigeria is driven by the super-profits generated from the extraction of oil
and its processing. While publicly the US and its allies proclaim the need for
democracy and openness, this is window dressing. Anything that impedes their
drive for profits, whether from local opposition or from a rival nation, will
be dealt with ruthlessly when required. The latest moves by China will have
caused consternation in the boardrooms of the big oil companies, and
countermeasures are all but inevitable".
http://www.globalresearch.ca/china-signs-23-billion-oil-deal-with-nigeria/19390
By Trevor
Johnson, Global
Research, May 28, 2010.
Why is the
United States, the global promoter of democracy, lining up with the anti-democracy
Caliphate that annulled June 12 1993 Presidential election? Why are the western
powers colluding with the Caliphate politicians who allegedly sponsored the
Boko Haram anti-democracy terrorists, organisation which the US herself has
offically declared a terrorist organisation? Shouldn’t we conclude that the
pro-democracy image of the US is just "window dressing" as Trevor
Johnson said in his 2010 article quoted above?
No country
or foreign interest has a right to meddle in Nigeria’s internal affairs the way
the US and her allies are doing. The US, in all its economic,diplomatic
choices, places its and the wellbeing of its citizens above all else. For
Nigeria, perhaps for the first time, since the return to civilian governance in
1999, President Jonathan who did not rise to power through the scheming of the
US and her allies as well as Nigeria’s ex-military cabal, has adequately taken
charge of Nigerian affairs. He has courageously moved in the noble direction of
doing what is right by his country and her people by choosing wisely to do
business with the East, including China, to build refineries and stop the
massive decades’ long capital flight in the petroleum and gas sectors. The
President has also implemented policies and programmes to engender transparency
in the petroleum sector through reforms in the sector and the Petroleum
Industry Bill (PIB). Nigerians must support such a man by any means necessary.
It is often
said that a man can weather the storms of life no matter how hard they blow if
he has internal strength and integrity. The same is true of countries.
Nigerians must open their eyes and minds to see their true friends and note
down their enemies both local and foreign, whose eyes are red, maddened by
greed and anger over their growing loss of control over Nigeria’s destiny.
(Don Pedro is the Nigerian journalist who in
2003, won the CNN African journalist of the year award)
Well done, Don Pedro. Well done. It pains me that a Black-American President is presiding over this injustice to my country, the most populous black nation on earth. I pray again that the God I worship will not let Buhari rig himself or be rigged into the Presidency of Nigeria by these cabals.
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