Jonathan 2011 campaign now hottest biz in Abuja
As at 1.00pm on Thursday this week, there were not less than 100 cars ranging from jeeps to the latest posh cars of various brands parked. As you enter, youths, especially from the Niger-Delta, and some from the North welcome you with their Jonathan-emblazoned T-shirts and face caps. The edifice is wearing a new look […]
As at 1.00pm on Thursday this week, there were not less than 100 cars ranging from jeeps to the latest posh cars of various brands parked. As you enter, youths, especially from the Niger-Delta, and some from the North welcome you with their Jonathan-emblazoned T-shirts and face caps. The edifice is wearing a new look with state-of-the-art furnishings. The youth seem to be the more visible faces there with some sprinkling of old politicians, hangers-on and the unemployed looking for some opportunity to come their way. It seems that the GSG office is the place to catch up with top government officials as youths with brown envelopes holding their credentials hang around, joining in the waiting game.
In the premises, computer-savvy youths are trying hard to sell their web design ideas to the media team of the campaign. The office of the national coordinator was chock-full with people queuing up and waiting to see Alhaji Ahmed Ali Gulak, the national co-ordinator of GSG.
The whole affair is reminiscent of what transpired in 1998 when dozens of groups, political parties and other voices were jostling to be heard convincing former military ruler, Gen. Sani Abacha to transform himself from a military man to a civilian by running for the presidency of the country. Today, history seems to be repeating itself as an estimated over 1,027 groups coordinated by the Goodluck Support Group (GSG) are ‘calling and begging’ President Goodluck Jonathan to run for the 2011 election. The Jonathan group runs a newspaper called ‘Goodluck News’. The maiden edition of the paper had one of it headlines captioned, ‘God will not forgive Jonathan if he does not contest’.
The Jonathan group now claims to coordinate over a thousand other groups after their advertisement in the papers showing some 729 groups across the country. But a call put to Dr. Cairo Ojuogo of one of such groups, Friends of Democracy, based on the number supplied in the newspaper advertisement they took out had a receiver who said his name is Cambodia and he is resident in Michika, Adamawa State, adding some truth to speculations that some of the advertised groups claimed by the GSG could be fake.
Even though the group deny that their source of finance is from the government, evidence points to the contrary. For one, the edifice housing GSG according to estate agents formerly belongs to the Security and Exchange Commisson (SEC) and was rented out to the wife of an army officer at the pricey sum of N5 million per annum in 2007. Right now that building should not be rented at less than N10 million per annum, estate agents familiar with the location of the property said.
Barrister Sulaiman Aliyu Jatau, the coordinator of the Northwest Youth Alliance for Jonathan, the pro-Jonathan group that became prominent at the height of the zoning controversy said their support for President Jonathan was based on “belief that he has a lot to offer this contrary compared to the Northern politicians that are opposing him.”
When Weekly Trust asked Jatau of the Jonathan campaign group who their financier is, he said, “It is a pity that some people, particularly the Northern establishment are accusing any group campaigning for Jonathan as cash-and-carry. The truth is that, as you can see, we are not bankrolled by anybody. We have been doing this advocacy in the last three months to four months. It is not about money. If you say we are given money, then where is it?”
He said they are groups of professionals. “You can see that I am a legal practitioner. We have journalists, architects, academics, businessmen, engineers, among others in our midst,” he said. “We are interested in having a better deal under a Southern president. The South-West is the most developed geo-political region in the country despite the fact it didn’t hold power for too long. The North can still develop without the Presidency like the South-West did. The Northerners are only selfish.”
The Journalists Group for Jonathan-Sambo is a Kaduna-based pro-Jonathan campaign organisation floated by some media practitioners to campaign for President Jonathan and Vice President Sambo in 2011. The coordinator of the group, Ehis Edobor Agbor said that the group is made-up of “journalists interested in entrenchment of constitutional democracy in Nigeria. We want to use Jonathan-Sambo to promote our position.”
The group, like many other Jonathan campaign groupS, have registered a Facebook account with over 60 members – all of them journalists, mostly based in Kaduna. One of the status updates posted in the group’s Facebook page said that “Jonathan should contest in 2011. Nigeria is bigger than PDP. What we need now is a leader who can take Nigeria to the Promised Land. And Jonathan is that man.”
A credible source who spoke to Weekly Trust on condition of anonymity said Jonathan has released the sum of $80 million dollar as take-off grant for campaign activities. “We have it on good authority that Jonathan has released $80 (about N2.7 billion) as take-off grant to cover adverts, bill boards, documentaries, jingles and rallies. We also gathered that what angered the electricity workers to go on strike was the fact that they got wind of the largesse and felt scandalised that their entitlement must be paid to them.”
Senator Abba Aji, Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters and head of Friends of Democracy, another pro-Jonathan group, told Weekly Trust he was not aware of any $80 million released to fund Jonathan’s campaign. Mrs Uche, Special Assistant to the Minister of Works, Sanusi Daggash denied knowledge of the ministry’s sponsorhip of Mrs Jonathan’s rallies.
Alhaji Ahmed Ali Gulak, National coordinator of GSG, said the over 1,027 groups campaigning for Jonathan are self-sustaining. “It is not correct to say that Jonathan 2011 is the biggest business in town,” he said. “The 1,027 groups campaigning for Jonathan are self-sustaining. Nobody is giving us a kobo. We felt on our own that Jonathan has performed wonderfully well and therefore should continue in office beyond 2011.”
He said it is members who pay the rent of the buildings used by them and take out contributions among themselves to run the activities of the group. He said: “People who believe in Jonathan are making sacrifices to run the organisation and the campaign should not just be anywhere. No money has been released to us. People are putting their resources down. We are a very pessimistic people in Nigeria. When you gather to do something you must be a rented crowd or paid by government. What about those campaigning that Jonathan should not run? Where are they getting their own money from? Go to the West Coast of Africa and see how people volunteer to run organisations. This is a free country, for God’s sake.”
Alhaji Saidu Samaila Sambawa, a former minister in the Obasanjo administration and now the National Publicity Secretary of GSG, in a telephone chat told Weekly Trust that he cannot be paid to do anything. “What is it that we are doing that others are not doing? I challenge anybody with any evidence that I collected money to come forward and prove it.”
Alhaji Sule Hamma, Chieftain of Congress for Progressive Change and Director General of The Buhari Organisation (TBO), told Weekly Trust that “campaigning for Jonathan is the biggest industry in the country today. I believe that certain elements in the Federal Government led by Goodluck Jonathan are leading the process and giving it impetus in terms of resources. Secondly, it appears too easy to belong to the group because they are the dominant group in government. Thirdly, the country is so impoverished that 75 per cent of Nigerians are now living below poverty line. I believe that PDP impoverished and eliminated the middle class since 1999 as an instrument of control and all those forming groups to campaign for Jonathan are only responding to their economic condition. How else can one explain the mad rush to glorify Jonathan, a man that is barely six months in power and clearly had no political credentials to have warranted this type of popularity?”
Osita Okechukwu, a chieftain of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) said it is obvious that these groups are being sponsored. He said: “How do you explain some unknown faces who are not household names, neither in business circles, now renting properties worth N7 million per annum all in the name of Jonathan? How do you explain these adverts all over the papers, jingles, and bill boards all over the place? I have counted over 200 advertorials in two or three papers. And a page costs over N300, 000. Remember that hiring political offices is more expensive because landlords are always afraid that the property might be destroyed or damaged in case of intra-party clashes or fighting between political parties.”
As the economy bites harder, more groups seeking to benefit from the largesse that will fall from Jonathan and other presidential aspirants are still going to spring up because their season is just beginning. “And we’ll be here to pick up the crumbs when they fall off the table,” Saleh, a Goodluck T-shirt-wearing youth beamed.