Condemnation has continued to trail Monday\u2019s declaration by President Muhammadu Buhari to contest the 2019 presidential election.
\nIn a chat with The Tide, yesterday, a member of the National Assembly representing Degema\/ Bonny Federal Constituency, Hon Randolph Brown said Buhari\u2019s performance so far was abysmal, and as such, he should shelve his ambition.
\n\u201cNobody can deny him the right to contest, but his performance is below average,\u201d Brown said, adding, \u201csecurity is getting worse, rule of law is nothing to write home about\u201d.
\nBrown said he was sure Nigerians would definitely not vote Buhari again, since he has not added value to their lives in the past three years.
\nThe House of Representatives member called on the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to re-strategise on how to take over power at the centre in 2019, reasoning that the party has bright chances if it puts its house in order.
\nOn his part, Head of Department of Political Science in the state-owned Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Prof. Alafuro Epelle opined that Buhari\u2019s chances in 2019 elections were slim, considering his performance so far.
\n\u201cIf you ask me my objective view, he has scored very low in terms of performance,\u201d Epelle stated, stressing \u201che has not added value to our lives\u201d.
\nThe professor of Political Science further said, \u201cIf you ask me to advise him, I would say he should not contest.\u201d
\nEpelle also pointed out that contrary to public opinion, Buhari may not enjoy the huge support he had in 2015, noting that \u201cthere is likely to be a division among the Hausa-Fulani in the upcoming elections\u201d.
\nHe advised the PDP to exploit the shortcomings at the federal level by fielding a candidate that has the pedigree and popularity to balkanise the North and defeat APC in 2019.
\nMeanwhile, barely 24 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari made his intention to seek re-election in 2019 known, a constitutional lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, has said that President Buhari has failed Nigeria having performed abysmally and disastrously between 2015 and 2018.
\nOzekhome, also a human rights activist, thus asked Nigerians to reject him at the polls, saying Buhari had failed to deliver his electoral promises to restore economy, fight corruption and ensure security.
\nHe made the call yesterday in a statement he issued in response to Buhari\u2019s declaration to seek re-election in 2019, noting that the speculation that the ruling APC \u201cis banking on massive rigging of the 2019 election to win is merely illusory\u201d.
\nAccording to him, \u201cThe plan to rig cannot work. Nigerians are more enlightened today than ever before. They will use their PVCs to vote wisely, notwithstanding any acts of intimidation or coercion. 2019 is just 10 months away. I will keep my fingers crossed to see how it all plays out.\u201d
\nOzekhome lamented that the economy \u201cis in an all time low,\u201d noting that from an over $500 billion rebased economy he inherited, Buhari led Nigeria into recession and now claimed to have taken it out.
\nSadly enough, Ozekhome wondered that the president could call for celebration \u201cto take Nigeria back from recession. But the figures do not tally, nor does the story jell. Nigerians are hungrier today than they were three years ago. They have been rendered destitute and impecunious\u201d.
\nCiting the impact of the economic recession, Ozekhome said many resorted \u201cto going to Libya and attempting to cross the seas to European countries to escape from hunger and squalor, thereby dying in the process. More Nigerians have taken to prostitution across European nations more than ever before\u201d.
\nIn their quest for greener pasture in Europe, the constitutional lawyer lamented that many of them \u201care gang-raped, sodomised, enslaved and bestialised. The youths have taken up arms, committing more heinous crimes, such as robberies and kidnap, more than ever in the history of this country\u201d.
\nHe pointed out that Buhari promised three million new jobs per annum. However, according to him, Buhari and the APC have caused Nigerians to, paradoxically, lose about 3.5 million jobs annually, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
\nHe said the price of fuel alternates between N145 per litre and N400, whenever available, whereas the APC-led federal government met it at N87 per litre.
\nOzekhome explained that a bag of rice \u201cnow sells for between N15,000 and N20,000. He met it at N7,500. Prices of goods and consumables have gone out of the reach of the common man, with Nigerians literally feeding from dust bins. So, on the economic front, one of his tripodal promises, he has failed Nigeria and Nigerians. Is this why they will vote for him again? I want to see\u201d.
\nUnder Buhari, Ozekhome said Boko Haram \u201cis stronger today, more potent and more deadly than it ever was. We are regaled daily (check online, print and electronic media), with tales of Boko Haram\u2019s blood-letting exploits, maiming, killing and burning houses across the North-east.
\n\u201cWith apparent government collusion, the military in Dapchi were hurriedly posted out. Chibok was re-enacted in Dapchi, where over 110 secondary school girls were viciously abducted. They were later released in a Hollywood style, in broad daylight, by the same Boko Haram after mind bungling sums were said to have been paid to them as ransom\u201d.
\nOzekhome said: \u201cIf Boko Haram regarded as one of the four leading terrorist groups in the world were considered deadly enough, the rampaging herdsmen has become more murderous.
\n\u201cDay-in-day-out, they kill innocent Nigerians in their homes, their farms, burn others, lay siege to whole communities, rape their wives and daughters, and kidnap their males. Never has Nigeria witnessed more insecurity than it is today.\u201d
\nHe said although Boko Haram was limited to the North-east, Fulani herdsmen menace \u201cspread across all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria. Federal government does not even pretend to want to curb the insurgency. Not a single herdsman has been arrested or prosecuted by the government.
\n\u201cKidnappings, murders, suicides and rape cases have since increased geometrically, rather than arithmetically. Consequently on the insecurity front, Buhari has scored below average. Is this why Nigerians will vote for him?\u201d
\nHe noted that Buhari\u2019s greatest failing \u201cis perhaps in this anti-corruption context. He had promised to fight corruption. Three years down the line, he has not secured a single conviction of any high profile, politically exposed person. Rather, Nigerians have been treated to ludicrous media trial\u201d.
\nIn desperation, the constitutional lawyer added that the government \u201chas now released names of opposition members whom they have charged to court, but cannot prove their cases against as \u2018looters\u2019, without any court conviction or judicial pronouncement to that effect\u201d.
\n\u201cThis is in sync with the government\u2019s now infamous disregard for due process, rule of law, independence of the judiciary and disobedience to court orders. Impunity reigns supreme. In appointments, cronyism, nepotism, tribalism, clannishness and favouritism triumph over merit and competence.
\n\u201cTransparency International, in its recent corruption perception index, has rated Nigeria as one of the most corrupt countries in Africa, beaten to the second position in West African by only one country. Nigeria placed 148th globally, out of 180 countries freedom of speech, press freedom, NGO\u2019s freedom, and sundry liberties are seriously curbed, leading to a reign of fear and terror,\u201d he said.
\nAccording to him, \u201cWhere the government fights \u2018corruption\u2019 amongst opposition and critics with pesticides, herbicides and insecticides, it caresses and deodorises its own corrupt officials, ministers, serving military generals and kitchen cabinet members with sweet smelling sasarabia cologne.
\n\u201cCorruption reeks everywhere in the government, with many Pandora boxes of oozing gates: Mainagate, Babachirgate, health sectorgate and NNPC gate. The Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, revealed to a shocked nation how $23 billion contracts, were irregularly awarded and signed by Buhari on his sick bed abroad, at a time Osibanjo was already the acting president.\u201d
\nHe, therefore, noted that the $2.1 billion Dasukigate, which the federal government \u201chas pegged its anti\u2013corruption fight is less than 10 per cent of the NNPCgate. Corruption now struts around and about proudly, unrestrained, walking on its fours, head and even buttocks\u201d.
\nAlso reacting, Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has dismissed President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s chances of securing a second term in 2019, insisting that the President\u2019s re-election bid was dead on arrival.
\nFayose said this in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital in reaction to the declaration by the President earlier, last Monday that he would run for re-election.
\nThe President had declared his intention during the All Progressives Congress National Executive Council meeting in Abuja before departing the country for London, where he is also expected to meet UK Prime Minister, Theresa May.
\nWhile several members of the APC and the President\u2019s close allies have welcomed the news, Fayose told journalists that Nigeria would not need him as President in 2019.
\nThe governor said not only would President Buhari be too old to lead the country then, he had failed to utilise the opportunity given to him in 2015.
\n\u201cThat ambition is dead on arrival. We don\u2019t need grandpa as President anymore; Nigeria does not deserve a Buhari as President in 2019. Buhari is too old and tired. When people don\u2019t know when to take their leave and say bye, Nigerians will show them the exit door,\u201d the governor was quoted as saying in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi.
\nThe governor further accused the President of failing \u201con all fronts\u201d including the fight against corruption.
\nHe added, \u201cHe has failed in the economic front and he has not done well in terms of security.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Condemnation has continued to trail Monday\u2019s declaration by President Muhammadu Buhari to contest the 2019 presidential election. In a chat with The Tide, yesterday, a member of the National Assembly representing Degema\/ Bonny Federal Constituency, Hon Randolph Brown said Buhari\u2019s performance so far was abysmal, and as such, he should shelve his ambition. \u201cNobody can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":173798,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-173794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-front-pix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=173794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/173798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=173794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=173794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=173794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}