President Goodluck Jonathan is set to hit the North-East with his campaign train to seek the people’s support for his re-election bid.
It’s been 266 days after the President shunned the troubled region following the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls by terrorists in Chibok, Borno State.
The Peoples Democratic Party National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo, who spoke with Saturday PUNCH during the week in Abuja, said that the President would visit all parts of the country, including the North-East, to seek the people’s support.
The President had cancelled his supposed trip to Chibok on May 16, 2014 to sympathise with the parents of the abducted schoolgirls, who have been missing for the past 257 days.
Though his aides, in a statement, later said the President was not meant to visit Chibok that day, the President’s advanced team, according to reports, had visited Chibok in preparation for Jonathan’s visit.
But Oladipo told one of our correspondents that no part of the country would be left out by the PDP and Jonathan to campaign for support.
He said, “We will visit all parts of the country to campaign. There is no state in Nigeria that the PDP and the President will not visit, including the North-East.
“We believe in the sovereignty of the country and that is why we are taking every part of the nation seriously.”
Asked if this would not be seen as daring and contemptuous of the people of the North-East, who the President refused to visit even when their towns and cities were being bombed almost every day, he said, “The President does one thing or the other on daily basis. He could be busy attending to issues, some of them if not all, could have positive effect on the lives of the people of the region.”
Also the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, reinforced Oladipo’s comment, saying notwithstanding the security challenges confronting Nigeria, Jonathan would visit all the states affected by the Boko Haram violence to campaign ahead of the 2015 general elections.
Abati said, “I have no doubt that the President is going to campaign to all Nigerians. A campaign timetable will be issued and the President will visit all parts of the country because he knows that we are facing another election.
“He is not taking any Nigerian for granted because he has served Nigerians faithfully and he is coming to them again in humility to ask for their supports and votes.
“We have no doubt that Nigerians will stand solidly behind him.”
Abati, however, flayed claim that Jonathan had not visited the North-East, saying he did so many times before now.
He said as Nigeria’s President, Jonathan was not afraid to visit any part of the country.
Abati said, “This is the period of politics and the President’s message and campaign will be for all Nigerians.
“It is not true that the President had not visited the North-East. Go and check his itinerary in the last one year, he had gone there for programmes.
“The Presidential Initiative for the North-East was launched in one of the states in the region. He has visited many parts of the North-East.
“He is the President of Nigeria. He can travel to any part of the country. So, those who are asking whether he will campaign in the North-East should just check his itinerary.
“He has visited many of the states in the North, not once, not twice. I don’t see why there should be any anxiety.
“In any case, the Independent National Electoral Commission, security agencies and other relevant stakeholders have made it clear that they remain committed to ensure that no Nigerian, for any reason whatsoever, is denied the right to vote.”
But some northern groups have described the planned campaign trip to the North-East as belated, ill-timed and insensitive.
They said for the President to go and campaign to a people who were traumatised by his lack of concern for their plight was, to say the least, “ immoral, irresponsible and callous.”
The spokesperson for the Northern Elders Forum, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, expressed shock at the reported plan by the President to embark on a campaign trip to the troubled region. He said it was left for the people of the area to let their guest know how they feel.
According to him, it beats the imagination that the President, who gives every excuse under the sun to stay away from the North-East, has suddenly developed courage because of his re-election bid.
Abdullahi said, “It will be immoral for the President to go to the North-East in the name of campaign when he has been unable to visit the people for the three years they have suffered from the wanton destruction of their lives and property by the Boko Haram sect.
“It is left for the people of the North-East to show him how they feel. If you recall, Jonathan was quoted as asking where Bama is.
“We have a President who does not know the geography of the country. Maybe his friend, former Governor of Borno State, Ali Sherriff, will show him the way.”
Second Republic federal lawmaker and a Kano State delegate to the just-concluded National Conference, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, said he had nothing but contempt for the President and his handlers, especially when it had to do with the issue of national security.
He said, “I never thought that we could have a President who is this insensitive, who is this irresponsible, who is this irredeemably shameless.
“It is now clear to me that politics and this political gamesmanship is the primary purpose of this guy’s life.
“Human life does not mean anything to him, since the advent of the Boko Haram insurgency, the massive killings and abductions of young Nigerians, he has not even genuinely commiserated with these people.
“What is available to him today in terms of security was available to him three years ago when the insurgency began to spiral out of control.”
Mohammed appealed to all men of goodwill, including foreign powers interested in the development of Nigeria to tell the President that the lives of Nigerians are worth much more than his political ambition.
The spokesperson for the All Progressives Congress, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, said that whether it is morally right or not for Jonathan to seek the support of the traumatised Chibok parents many months after he had failed to rescue their children from the terrorists’ den should be left for Nigerians to judge.
“We cannot always be the judge; we are going to allow Nigerians to be the judge in this case. Let Nigerians judge the issue,” he said.
The Secretary of the Borno Elders’ Forum, Bulama Gubio, doubted that the residents would warmly welcome Jonathan because the President had not visited the traumatised parents of Chibok girls since their children were abducted on April 14, 2014.
Gubio, however, said the President was welcome in the North-East because he is a Nigerian and not necessarily because he is the leader of the country.
He said, “Let him come, he is a Nigerian; he is welcome. If all he wants to do here is to come and campaign, let him come and do so, at least he is a Nigerian and he has the right.
“Those who will receive him, if there are, will receive him because he is the President. But really, we don’t see ourselves as Nigerians again. If there are people here who feel they are still Nigerians, they will receive him.”
On the security crisis in Borno State, Gubio said many youths were losing their lives daily to the Boko Haram insurgency as they were confronting the terrorists.
He said, “We are doing our best; we are praying to God. We don’t think of any President now because there is none who is doing anything for us now. Our youths are helping some of the military personnel here to fight the insurgents.
“Many of us have children in the military and in the vigilante group and they are ready to lay down their lives for us; they are doing the best that they can. We are losing many of them, we are not happy, but we have to keep fighting.”
As the 2015 general elections are moving closer, however, sources said Jonathan’s campaign posters were conspicuously missing in strategic locations in the North-East.
The sources said that the posters were only visible within the premises of the residents of the PDP chieftains in the region.
They said the PDP chieftains were afraid to paste Jonathan’s campaign posters at the strategic locations for fear of being assaulted by the people, especially those who felt aggrieved that the President had yet to stop the persistent terrorist attack on their communities.
The Chairman of the displaced persons in the Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Philemon Emmanuel, said Jonathan would be welcome in the North-East, but would only campaign to Boko Haram members who he said had taken over most of the local government areas in the region.
Emmanuel, who fled to Abuja from Gwoza, Borno State, after the town was attacked by terrorists, said all the residents had fled to Cameroon, which he said is about 15 kilometres to Gwoza, to avoid being killed.
According to him, there are no voters to woo in the North-East because Boko Haram terrorists have taken over the area and that many residents are hiding on the mountain to avoid being killed by the terrorists.
Emmanuel, who recalled that the residents had peaceful celebration of Christmas last year, however, called for adequate deployment of security agents in the troubled region.
He said, “Boko Haram members came to Gwoza in November, 2013, they went to Gwoche and burnt churches and killed many people, but when soldiers came, they ran away. We celebrated Christmas successfully because soldiers were on the ground but the moment they were redeployed, Boko Haram took over the place and we all ran to Cameroon.
“We want the Federal Government to deploy more soldiers in the North-East. If troops were deployed in all the places taken over by the terrorists, they would not have succeeded.
“This is what Cameroon has been doing and the soldiers there have been killing hundreds of Boko Haram members. Last week, the Boko Haram insurgents kidnapped many people at Gwoche and kept them in one house but they were rescued by Cameroonian gendarmes. Gwoche is just 10km to Cameroon.”
The Chairman, Kibaku Development Association, Dr. Bitrus Pogu, said Jonathan would be welcome to campaign in the North-East.
Pogu, an elder statesman from Chibok, said the President had visited Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, but did not visit Chibok, where the schoolgirls were abducted, for security reasons.
He said, “I think it is a moral issue for the President if he did not visit Chibok to condole with the people and for him to go there and campaign now, but I support him because it is not wise for him to visit that area due to the activities of the insurgents to avoid a problem.
“The President is free to campaign in every part of the country and he would be welcome in the North-East.”
With the fear that the Boko Haram insurgent group could strike during the festive period, some residents in the North-East and North-Central Nigeria have fled the zones.
A resident of Jos, Plateau State, Mrs. Bimbola Ayanwale, who is currently in Lagos, told Saturday PUNCHthat she had fled the city with her three children because she was scared that the insurgents could strike during the festive period.
She said, “I am afraid; everyone is afraid. We want to celebrate this season with peace of mind. Many of the people who have relatives in the peaceful regions have fled the city.
“There is still insecurity in the region and no one knows what could happen. The Boko Haram insurgents could just decide to go to parks and other entertainment centres to strike; God forbid, though.”
Likewise, a resident of Yola, Adamawa State, simply identified as Mr. Yakubu, said he had left the state to stay with his brother in Kaduna, a relatively more peaceful city.
“No one prays that evil should occur, but we have to be on our toes. It is just a precautionary step,” he said.
And Miss Samuel, who was once residing in Mubi, Adamawa State, also said that her family had left the region to celebrate the festive period.
Meanwhile, following a meeting with the heads of law enforcement agencies, the Governor of Yobe State, Alhaji Ibrahim Gaidam, had during the week approved the placement of special restriction on movement across the state.
In a statement from the office of the Special Adviser on Media, Alhaji Abdullahi Bego, which was made available to journalists in Damaturu, Yobe State, Gaidam said that the restriction of vehicular movement starts from 6pm on Wednesday, December 24, 2014 to 7am Sunday, December 28, 2014.
The statement read, “No vehicle coming into or leaving the state will be allowed within this period.
“However, people in respective towns across the state can move with their vehicles freely within their own towns, except during the curfew hours that were imposed and announced earlier.”
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Jonathan to take campaign train to Boko Haram zone
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