Anxiety in Nigeria, as INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega is to speak on elections 5pm today

There is anxiety in the country as Nigerians wait for the Independent National Electoral Commission to speak on whether it will go ahead with its earlier timetable or pick new dates for the elections. The earlier dates indicated that the Presidential and National Assembly elections are to be held on February 14 while the governorship and State House of Assembly elections are to follow two weeks later. But according to the Associated Press Nigeria's electoral commission will postpone Feb. 14 presidential and legislative elections for six weeks to give a new multinational force time to secure northeastern areas under the sway of Boko Haram. Although NigerianEye is still waiting for official confirmation as the chairman of the commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, is to address a press conference at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja today by 5pm. The press conference will come up after he must have met with chairmen and secretaries of all registered political parties. He would also have met with the Resident Electoral Commissioners of all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Some observers believe that the commission is being blackmailed to shift the scheduled dates in order to provide ample time for those who have initiated court cases against the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari(retd.), to conclude their cases seeking to stop the ex-head of state from contesting the poll. The cases include those questioning his qualification to the contest the presidential election, and those demanding Buhari’s prosecution on the ground that he allegedly lied under oath as well as forgery.

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Nigerian Elections postponed - AP

There is no official confirmation or announcement yet, but according to the Associated Press(AP). Nigeria's electoral commission will postpone Feb. 14 presidential and legislative elections for six weeks to give a new multinational force time to secure northeastern areas under the sway of Boko Haram, an official close to the commission told The Associated Press on Saturday. Millions could be disenfranchised if the voting went ahead while the Islamic extremists hold a large swath of the northeast and commit mayhem that has driven 1.5 million people from their homes. A major offensive with warplanes and ground troops from Chad and Nigeria already has forced the insurgents from a dozen towns and villages in the past 10 days. Even greater military strikes by more countries are planned. The official who is knowledgeable of the discussions said the Independent National Electoral Commission will announce the postponement at a news conference later Saturday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Officials in President Goodluck Jonathan's administration had been calling for a postponement, which is opposed by an opposition coalition fielding his chief rival, former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari. Supporters of both sides are threatening violence if their candidate does not win. Some 800 people were killed in riots in the mainly Muslim north after Buhari, a Muslim, lost 2011 elections to Jonathan, a Christian from the south. A postponement also will give electoral officials more time to deliver some 30 million voter cards. The commission had said the non-delivery of cards to nearly half of the 68.8 million registered voters was not a good reason to delay the vote. More details Later

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PDP Governors Are Ashamed To Campaign For GEJ

Kano State Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has lambasted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) elected governors for not campaigning for President Goodluck Jonathan. According to ThisDay, Kwankwaso said that PDP-elected governors were concentrating on their campaigns and leaving out President Jonathan over fear that campaigning for the president in their state could harm them politically. The kano state governor who was represented by chairman of Doguwa Local Government Area Ali Abdul Doguwa, spoke in Abuja at a fund-raising dinner for the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Plateau State, Hon. Simon Lalomg. Hon. Simon Lalomg,accused PDP governors of avoiding to publicly campaign for its presidential candidate because of Jonathan’s alleged poor performance. "We in APC are proud of all our candidates from the bottom to the top. Anywhere we go, we ask people to vote for our candidates and for Buhari. We don’t hide Buhari. We advertise him for all to see because we are very proud of him. We are not like PDP where the candidates build a house and stop when the get to the intel level. The PDP governors ask people to vote for their candidates in the states but cannot tell people to vote for Jonathan because they know Jonathan has not performed,” he said. Speaking also at the campaign rally ,Al-Makura, who was represented by his running mate, Mr. Silas Agara, revealed how the thought of being the only governor elected on the platform of the now defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) had made him feel like an orphan. “As a political orphan, we survived nine impeachment attempts. We had only four out of 20 PDP members in the atate assembly. From CPC to APC, we have come a long way and now hope to have brothers in Benue, Plateau and Niger States,” he said, promising that he will personally lead one of Lalong’s campaign in Plateau State.

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Jonathan’s supporters demand Jega’s resignation, poll shift

Supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan have called for the resignation and arrest of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega. The supporters, under the aegis of the Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly, led by a one-time information minister, Chief Edwin Clark, made the demand at a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday. Among those at the briefing were a former Minister of Information, Walter Ofonagoro; a former Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chuwuemeka Ezeife; a former Commissioner in Bayelsa State, Chief Whisky Ayakeme; Dr. Cairo Ojugboh and Senator Femi Okunronmu. The Jonathan supporters also demanded the postponement of the February elections. They accused Jega of conniving with northern leaders to rig Jonathan out of the election. For example, they alleged that Jega had been hobnobbing with members of the Northern Elders’ Forum. Specifically, the group said that Jega sent a representative to NEF meeting under the leadership of a former vice chancellor of a federal university (name withheld) on August 20, 2014. They alleged that rigging methods were discussed at the NEF meeting. Clark and the others said another meeting of the NEF held at Arewa House, Kaduna, under the leadership of a retired ambassador, where the Clark’s group alleged that it was agreed that “all avenues must be explored towards entrenching a president of northern extraction in the forthcoming 2015 elections.” The Clark-led group added that a committee was put in place to liaise with the INEC chairman and some Resident Electoral Commissioners in the states to favour the North in the creation of additional polling units. Okurounmu, who read the prepared speech by the President’s supporters, said that NEF distributed 150 units of laptop computers to INEC for each of the northern states. He said the laptops were used by the commission’s ad hoc staff in collaboration with northern youth activists during the Continuous Voter Registration. Okurounmu said Jega allegedly directed the release of “Permanent Voter Cards in their catchment states to emirs, district heads and top politicians and not necessarily to the voters themselves.” He said this was responsible for the near 100 per cent collection of PVCs in the northern part of the country. He said, “This is the reason why Lagos State with a sophisticated voter population of over 5.2million has not distributed more than 2.5million PVCs; even the war ravaged states in the North-East have collected more PVCs than most southern states. “Is this kind of selective treatment borne out of sheer nepotism and primordial bias deserving of a supposed impartial electoral umpire?” He added that investigations by his group had revealed that funds were being made available for the northern operation of INEC by governors of the All Progressives Congress in the region, saying each of the governors contributed N100m and that “few Hausa-Fulani irredentist PDP governors also contributed N167m to perfect this invidious electoral fraud.” Okurounmu said that Jega must tell Nigerians where the the decision to award the contract for the procurement of PVCs was taken and when the contract was awarded. He said, “Jega should and must resign his appointment immediately as the chairman of INEC because he has lost the requisite moral rectitude to organise a credible election devoid of shenanigans of the northern elders forum and their cohorts. “There should be immediate postponement of the February 14, 2015 presidential elections to allow for the reconstruction, repositioning and reprocessing of INEC to discharge its responsibility of conducting an impartial election. “We call for the immediate arrest of Jega for criminals masterminding the procurement of PVCs for under-aged pupils in contravention of the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.” He said the group would “employ and mobilise with all ounce of energy at our disposal to ensure that there is no election in any part of sout

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The Economist endorses Buhari

Influential United Kingdom-based magazine, The Economist, says the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), is more competent than President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party. The highly respected magazine in its editorial published in its current edition and titled, ‘Former dictator is a better choice than a failed president,’ said Nigeria was unfortunate to have both Buhari and Jonathan vying for the Presidency. It, however, said that out of the two, Buhari was a better candidate. This, the magazine argued, was because Jonathan was a huge failure and his party had mismanaged the economy of the country since it took over in 1999. It said Nigeria was Africa’s largest economy not because it had good leadership but due to the will of the people. It said Jonathan was highly incompetent as he had failed to address the insecurity ravaging the country. The magazine recalled that when over 1,000 people were killed during an attack, rather than condole with his people, Jonathan preferred to condole with the people of France over the Charlie Hedbo attack during which terrorists killed 12 journalists last month. It said, “Start with Mr. Jonathan, whose party has run the country since 1999 and who stumbled into the Presidency on the death of his predecessor in 2010, the PDP’s reign has been a sorry one. Mr. Jonathan has shown little willingness to tackle endemic corruption. When the governor of the central bank reported that $20bn had been stolen, his reward was to be sacked. “He has shown little enthusiasm for tackling insecurity, and even less competence. Quick to offer condolences to France after the attack on Charlie Hedbo, Mr. Jonathan waited almost two weeks before speaking up about a Boko Haram attack that killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of his compatriots. “The single bright spot of his rule has been Nigeria’s economy, one of the world’s fastest-growing. Yet that is largely despite the government rather than because of it, and falling oil prices will temper the boom. The prosperity has not been broadly shared: under Mr. Jonathan poverty has increased. Nigerians typically die eight years younger than their poorer neighbours in nearby Ghana.” The magazine described Buhari as an incorruptible and honest leader but maintained that the former military head of state had “blood on his hands.” It recalled that Buhari was guilty of human rights abuse and did not manage the economy properly when he ruled Nigeria between December 1983 and August 1985. It, however, said the fact that Buhari had been participating in elections since 2003 was evidence that he had now embraced democracy. It said Buhari would be able to revive the demoralised military and address insecurity. It added, “Buhari is a sandal-wearing ascetic with a record of fighting corruption. Few nowadays question his commitment to democracy or expect him to turn autocratic: he has repeatedly stood for election and accepted the outcome when he lost. He would probably do a better job of running the country, and in particular of tackling Boko Haram. As a northerner and Muslim, he will have greater legitimacy among villagers whose help he will need to isolate the insurgents. As a military man, he is more likely to win the respect of a demoralised army. “We are relieved not to have a vote in this election. But were we offered one we would-with a heavy heart-choose Buhari. Jonathan risks presiding over Nigeria’s bloody fragmentation. If Buhari can save Nigeria, history might even be kind to him.”

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Jonathan doesn’t deserve re-election –Soyinka

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, says President Goodluck Jonathan does not deserve a second term. He told a gathering of youths at a programme titled ‘Vision of the Child’ in Lagos on Thursday, that he had 60 reasons why Jonathan should not be returned to office on February 14 when the presidential election would hold in the country. Although Soyinka did not list the 60 reasons, he was specific on one: The April 14 abduction of over 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram insurgents from their hostel in Chibok, Borno State. “I will not vote and I will not encourage anyone to vote for the continuation of this government, simply because your colleagues numbering over 200 were kidnapped,” he said. The playwright, who last December described the Jonathan administration as being worse than Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, stated the President’s inability to locate and free the abducted girls represented leadership failure. He noted that shortly after the girls were kidnapped, Jonathan failed to address the situation and went about as if nothing had happened. Soyinka said it was, therefore, outrageous for anyone to say he was supporting the re-election of Jonathan. He added,“It took the Jonathan government 10 days to even accept that the Chibok girls were missing. After that dereliction of duty; after that failure of leadership, after that betrayal of our future, for anyone to think or to put words in my mouth suggesting that I will vote or encourage anyone to vote for this regime is a travesty of intelligence.” Speaking on the theme, “The Road to Sambisa”, the literary icon stressed Jonathan had not only betrayed children, he had failed as a leader. “There has been a failure of leadership. Our children whom you represent today have been betrayed,” he said. Soyinka warned members of the public not to believe every story written about him on the social media on his purported death. Soyinka had also in September last year accused Jonathan of shielding sponsors of terrorism. He urged the President not to take likely, allegations by Australian hostage negotiator, Stephen Davis, that there was a group within the Central Bank of Nigeria sponsoring Boko Haram. The Nobel laureate noted that he personally knew Davis because they both worked together during the Niger Delta militancy crisis. Soyinka also alleged that information about a suspected financier of the terror group within the CBN was passed to Jonathan but he allegedly sat on it. Also at the event , the Secretary and Programme Manager for the Vision of the Child programme, Ms. Foluke George, said about 250 students from 60 primary and secondary schools in Lagos would participate in a competition aimed at promoting creative skills. According to her, the competition will focus on reading, writing, and painting for student aged between eight and 12 years.

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Elections Will Not Be Postponed, According to Council of State

The Council of State of Nigeria just announced that it has denied the proposal by President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to postpone elections. The elections will be held on the dates originally planned by the Independent National Election Commission (INEC), on February 14th for presidential and national races and February 28th for state and local races.

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Nigeria, Chad, others launch joint operation against B’Haram

A total of 3,600 foreign soldiers from Nigeria’s francophone neigbours have been deployed to work alongside the Nigerian component of the Multi National Joint Task Force to fight the members of the Boko Haram Islamic sect.

Investigation conducted by our correspondent revealed that Chad with 2, 500 soldiers contributed the largest number of troops to the new offensive against the sect.

The other countries, Niger and Cameroon are contributing 700 and 400 troops respectively to the joint campaigns against the insurgents.

It was also learnt that the MNJTF had started massive air strikes and ground offensives against the insurgents. Though it was reported that nine Chadian soldiers were killed in the battle to root out the Boko Haram fighters from Gamboru Ngala on Tuesday, the sect also lost about 200 soldiers.

Reports on Chadian state television confirmed that the soldiers killed 200 Boko Haram fighters and lost nine troops in the encounters in the two border communities north of Maiduguri.

The Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, declined to comment on the casualties suffered by the Chadian forces in the reported offensive against the insurgents at Gamboru Ngala.

Olukolade also declined comments on the number of troops contributed by other countries in the joint operation.

However, Olukolade confirmed that a total of 2,500 Chadian soldiers were deployed for the joint operation.

He said that the 2,500 soldiers comprised those that would watch over the Chadian end of the border and those that would be involved in the missions.

He said, “I cannot speak on the casualties being claimed. However, as to the figure, 2,500 represents the total number the Chadian Forces are expected to deploy.

“These include those who will keep watch at their own country’s side of the border as well as those who will be involved in the joint patrols and operations and campaigns,” he said in a text message to our correspondent.

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Jordan launches new air strikes against ISIL

Jordan has launched new air strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria, a day after King Abdullah II vowed to avenge the death of Jordanian military pilot Moaz al-Kassasbeh. Jordan’s army did not disclose what country was targeted during the operation on Thursday but Al Jazeera has learned that Abdullah told Kassasbeh’s father Safi al-Kassasbeh that the warplanes flying over their town have just returned from al-Raqqa, the ISIL stronghold in Syria. “Planes from the Jordanian Royal Forces have just arrived from al-Raqqa now after bombarding and pounding them,” al-Kassasbeh said after he was told by visiting Jordanian king. “God willing we will end their existence in Syria. We ask God to help us annihilate them.” Al Jazeera has also learned from sources in the Iraqi border police of Anbar province, in western Iraq, that Jordanian troops have moved closer towards the Iraqi border, near the Rowaished area opposite the Iraqi city of Trebil. The sources added that the movement of a large number of troops were not unusual in the past, and that those forces have set up a camp there in the past. Jordan is part of a US-led military coalition which has bombed ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq, but until now Jordanian warplanes are only known to have carried out raids in Syria. ISIL controls a territory covering areas between Syria and Iraq.

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