NewsRescue
By Usama Dandare
As we all know, nothing, i mean no action or inaction can happen without cause; nothing happens that cannot happen, and when what was capable of happening has happened, it cannot be interpreted as a miracle, for there must to be a catalyst energizing the occurrence and re-occurrence of such activity or inactivity that happened. And on this basis i dare to opine that:
The historic failure of President Jonathan to win re-election is undoubtedly attributed to the hate campaign initiated by his Campaign Council, headed by the presidential campaign spokesman Femi Fani-Kayode, Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose, Presidential Media Aide Dr. Doyin Okupe and First Lady Patience Jonathan. Albeit, corruption, incompetence, abuse of office and insensitivity that characterized the Jonathan’s administration were no doubt some of the genesis leading to his defeat in the March 28 presidential elections, but the primary reason why Jonathan failed to secure another term was the campaign of calumny and hatred embarked upon by his campaign team. The President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, All Progressives Congress’s National Leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and other opposition party members were the main targets of the assault and hate documentaries most of which were aired by the African Independent Television (AIT) and the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) under the supervision of the presidency.
Astonishingly, these hate-mongers played a very vital role in humiliating the President and did lots of harmful damages to his re-election bid. In fact, they helped in simplifying the work of the opposition by portraying Jonathan as irresponsible and unfocused, while the stage managed exhibition of rascalities by first-lady Patience Jonathan during the electioneering season buttressed the accession that President Jonathan isn’t only incapable of controlling the affairs of Nigeria but also that of his home. If in doubt, come with me as i chronicle the individual contribution of President Jonathan’s trustees in the historic and all-time embarrassment of March 28:
DAME PATIENCE JONATHAN
Like it or not, the name “Dame Patience Jonathan” and the huge negative role she played during the presidential campaign cannot be overemphasized whenever the story of Goodluck Jonathan’s defeat is mention, she devoted her time, energy, resources and worked extra-hard to ensure that her husband (President Jonathan) lost the March 28 presidential elections. ‘Mama Peace’ – as she pleaded to be called – went misbehaving during campaign rallies, displaying openly her hatred toward northerners and their religion by raining all sorts of abuses on them, their values, tradition and culture while forgotten that the North presided over the highest chunk of eligible voters and produced higher number of votes than the South-South and South-East all combined, which in turns backfired on the ruling party, its presidential and most of its governorship candidates in the northern region.
Mama Peace, in her continuous show of hatred went to an extent of directing party faithfuls to stone opposition supporters (northerners specifically) with her insensitive and grammatical erroneous English, ‘Mama Peace’ went round chanting war against the north and it inhabitants all in an attempt to market her unmarketable commodity.
Below are few quotes from Dame Jonathan’s very worst sayings in her masculine voice:
“Stone anyone who says ‘Change’.”
“Buhari is brain-dead.”
“We here are not like those others (Northerners) who give birth to children they can’t count or take care of, and throw them on the streets to become Almajiris (child beggars).”
Almost as a reprisal for Mama Peace’s consistent attack on the north, the Northerners chose to reply her in the polls instead of engaging in a verbal war. As expected, they voted massively for the opposition just to show Mrs. Jonathan the importance of those children that were born and thrown away uncounted.
The way and manner in which the so-called ceremonial first-lady went misbehaving around testified the fact that her husband (Goodluck Jonathan) isn’t in control of his own home. This impression about her husband’s incapability to have control over her and his home also influenced the decision of Nigerian voters to vote him out, going by what the holy Bible said in the book of Timothy 3:5 that: “a man who cannot control his house/family should not head a church” much more of a difficult-to-govern country like Nigeria. Indeed, Dame Patience Jonathan was a monumental disgrace to her husband’s political ambition and a mockery to entire womanhood. With her as a wife, surely, Jonathan needs no external enemy.
FEMI FANI-KAYODE
The decision of the Presidential Campaign Organisation to adopt and execute a hate campaign strategy against the then presidential candidate of the APC, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari which led to the failure of PDP and President Jonathan was championed by the spokesman of the Presidential Campaign Organization Femi Fani-Kayode, the repentant critic of President Jonathan who until January 2015 was a leading opposition and critic of the present regime but all of a sudden, after a closed-door meeting with the president, FFK – as widely called – denounced his membership to the opposition party and announced his allegiance to the president whom he once referred to as “a president without balls (testicles)” in one of his article in 2014.
First and foremost, the appointment of Femi Fani-Kayode in the president’s campaign team was a major setback to Jonathan’s re-election bid as many PDP members, officials and supporters were disenchanted with his appointment as a media director in the Presidential Campaign Organization and as such, several party officials who were not comfortable with Fani-Kayode’s emergence decided to sideline themselves from all the presidential campaign activities.
As soon as he took over his appointment, FFK commenced what he knows best (cheap blackmail) with his dubious tactics by alleging that “General Muhammadu Buhari has no secondary school certificate” or any record of education, this baseless issue alone played a very vital role in diverting the attention of the presidency and PDP from focusing on important issues that will help rise their support base and at the end, the whole brouhaha turns out to be a moral boasting for Gen. Buhari and the opposition.
The Jonathan’s campaign team through it spokesman sunk huge sums of money into hate adverts and documentaries that ridiculed Buhari’s age, health, memory, family life, religion and military career while forgotten to showcase their paymaster’s achievements in office and how he tends to achieve more if given a 2nd-chance, but FFK and his co-travelers diverted all their attention toward castigating the general and promoted ethnic/religious sentiments between the citizenry, thus making more enemies for President Jonathan than friends.
FFK’s rascalities didn’t only dimmed President Jonathan’s popularity and support in the North but also in the international communities, Fani-Kayode and Gov Fayose’s staged manage display of irresponsibility and stupidity in the UK when they hired jobless criminals to protest against General Buhari (just to make Buhari appear to the world as being hated by Nigerians) at the Chatham house where the general was invited to speak on issues affecting Nigeria. This event also did a lot of damages to Jonathan’s reputation in the global arena.
The continuous cheap blackmail and hate campaign against the credibility of the people’s general however backfired to the hate-mongers by infuriating numerous voters, i personally had the opportunity of interacting with several Christians and Southerners who told me they were tired of Jonathan’s hate campaign against a man that’s globally accepted to be honest and credible, saying they would vote Buhari just for Fani-Kayode’s beer palour blackmails against the masses friendly general.
GOVERNOR AYO FAYOSE
Via his greedy, myopic, self-centred and alcoholic thinking, the record breaking Governor of Ekiti State – who broke the record of being the first lunatic to be elected a state governor in Nigeria’s political history – was one of the key players in discrediting the uncharismatic President of Nigeria all in an attempt to retain his stolen mandate. Ayo Fayose exhibited his sheer lack of morality and respect for humanity by pumping huge sums of money into media houses to air death wishes and false allegations against General Buhari, he sponsored several other hate documentaries to tarnish the general’s globally accepted integrity.
Fayose further upgraded his stupidity a little bit higher when he compared the people’s general with his 70 year-old mum – whom he claimed to be going on diapers due to her old age – as an example to convince voters that Buhari at 72 is too old for leadership and cannot produce any meaningful improvement. Fayose also manufactured several baseless accusations that can only be told to the marines while ignoring his own criminal records of “murder, rigging, abuse of power and stealing.” In fact, Fayose left his official duties and went after Buhari’s movements wherever the general goes, he began running mad with counter-productive evidences against Buhari’s activities both at home and abroad and spent all Ekiti state savings just to destroy the Buhari’s credibility and popularity.
Let’s not forget to remember that Fayose played a vital role in organizing the all-time embarrassing display of foolishness and barbarity at the chatham house of London.
All these and more, made President Jonathan looked irresponsible for failing to call his lunatic boys to order and as such, thousands of voters developed sympathy and love for General Buhari, and decided to cast him their ballots. Indeed, with an friend like Ayo Fayose, President Jonathan surely needs no further introduction as to who the real Jonathan is.
DOCTOR DOYIN OKUPE
Next in the series of Jonathan’s inner enemies that contributed immensely to his defeat is his Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs Dr. Doyin Okupe, whose online stupidity and irresponsibility helped galvanized an anti-Jonathan movement that spilled over to the streets of Nigeria and other countries as a whole. There is no way anybody would honestly discuss Jonathan’s defeat without mentioning the role played by Doyin Okupe.
The self-acclaimed ‘bastard’ – as he asked to be called if APC survived more than a year from it inception – was busy cursing critics and recruiting enemies for the president on social media platforms, while the opposition utilized the same social media to engage influential young Nigerians towards their cause.
Presidential spokesman Doyin Okupe once tweeted, that “the present regime of President Jonathan will not hand over power to Buhari and for such to happen, they rather invite the military to takeover than to give power to General Buhari,” a statement that generated lots of criticism against the Jonathan administration and prompted the suspicion that President Goodluck Jonathan was perhaps planning to invite the military in a bid to scuttle Nigeria’s premature democracy.
I personally met several online friends and social media activists both at home and abroad who volunteered their time, energy, resources and sacrificed their all to campaign and garner support for Buhari’s candidature because they were fed up and tired of Doyin Okupe’s sheer display of immorality and irresponsibility against the people’s general on social/electronic media platforms.
He made several unguarded statements both online and offline that in turns led to the anger of the masses, among was this popular Facebook post of his shortly after General Buhari tremendously won an online poll conducted by the presidency itself, Okupe stated that “the entire mass of anti-Jonathan elements on social media was not significant enough to influence the real elections” which also motivated social media users to make sure they proved him wrong and that’s exactly what happened on March 28.
I strongly believe the unrepentant bastard has learnt his lessons for serving individual rather than country, ignore the plea of social media users and pay the price at the polls.
In a nutshell, President Jonathan should have no other person to blame for his humiliating defeat but his woeful leadership failures and those enemies around him that he thought were his friends and love ones. Politician seeking elective position at all levels, especially those already in the corridors of power should employ credible and patriotic aides with best of reputation and self-respect to attract more supporters and admirers among the electorates. Unlike the case of President Jonathan where all his aides and close associates happens to be greedy people with little or no credibility and less reputation, thus creating more enemies for the president than friends.
President Jonathan single handily architectured and laid down a solid foundation for his own failure by sticking to some of the most satanic and uncherished individuals in Nigerian to market his political ambition, he contaminated his midst with people of acerbic tongues, whose only interest is self enrichment and immunity to cover up their criminal activities. At the end, those he trusted and stands for against all decorum were the same people that put in their very best to ensure he (Jonathan) was hated by all his supporters and created enough room for his hatters to even hate him more before and during electioneering period.
In the meantime, I believe the President and all those who wants to learn have learnt lots of lessons from the way and manner in which Jonathan’s cluelessness and vested interest persuaded him to accommodate self-centered, irresponsible and unproductive political prostitutes. I also sincerely hope that the incoming president and others to come after him will take a clue from President Jonathan’s poor outing and try as much as they can to elude a possible re-occurrence of Jonathan’s experience in the near future.