Addo Expresses Confidence Over Jonathan's Re-Election

Addo, who is also a chieftain of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) went ahead to say that, all attempt by the North to mar Jonathan-led administration has already failed and would in turn enable the President win with ease. 

The party chieftain while commenting on the state of affairs of the country said: "As things stand today in Nigeria, especially with insurgency, there is no doubt that things are bad. We have big challenges on our hands. It is not just about Bring back our girls or Boko Haram because we have kidnapping in the South-East, we have piracy in the South-South, armed robbery and religious crises in the North and so on. We don’t have respect for one another and the problem continues. But my take is that we cannot in any way treat things in isolation. We have to take time to diagnose the problems and take a holistic approach to fix the problems inherent in the system".

Addo, however. expresses worries that Nigerians always want quick fixes to their problems, adding that to some people think that when the girls are brought back and Boko Haram menace cutailed, our problems are over. 

"But I say no, it is not. For me, there is no quick fix for the insurgency. It is also a wake-up call to fix our police, fix our civil service, fix our army, fix our immigration, customs and all the apparatus of government to enable the country run effectively as a nation" he said.

While refuting the claims that government has been too slow in responding to the challenges facing the country said: "No, I don’t think so. I have heard people describe President Jonathan as clueless, incompetent and so on. I don’t believe a PhD holder, who has been deputy governor, governor, Vice President and President is clueless. The problem we have in Nigeria is that most people want quick fixes. I have read about insurgency in Pakistan, Columbia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Thailand, to name but a few and none was resolved overnight. Like the civil war that Nigeria fought, by the time Obasanjo and Col Effiong signed the ceasefire agreement, we had the last shot fired and peace returned to the country. Today, the war that is being unleashed on the country by Boko Haram is such that nobody knows who the members of Boko Haram are, their sponsors and what they really want. It is not possible to catch all members of the sect and their known and unknown sympathizers. Until you do that you cannot say that the war has been won".

He alleged that the north aimed at using insurgency to stop Jonathan's a second term ambition, because of the statements credited to Lawal Kaita in 2011 that the North was going to make the country ungovernable if Jonathan won the election.

"I have not heard him deny that statement till date. Unfortunately, it is a statement that is going to really hurt the North because the perception now is that the Boko Haram insurgency is targeted at the government of President Jonathan and the pattern of attacks has been made very clear: it comes any time the President is trying to carry out some political engagements. You would remember that it was during his visit to Kano that the first Nyanya blast was unleashed. He was going to Ekiti when the Jos bomb blast occurred and when he was about to go to Yola for a political event, the second Nyanya blast went off and so on.  So, everything in life is about perception and we cannot run away from it. Truly, what is happening is targeted at Jonathan’s administration and the perception is very clear. Now the danger is that even if Jonathan is defeated, we are going to have a big problem in the Niger Delta and unfortunately for us, whether we like it or not, it means that Nigeria is not going to sell even a litre of oil not to talk of a barrel".

Addo said that it is going to be difficult for Jonathan not to contest in 2015, noting that even if the president is fairly or unfairly defeated, people would still think it is because some persons from the North had sworn to make the country ungovernable and hence won on such ground.

"Perhaps, he did not plan to run but given the way things are going, it is going to be very difficult for him not to run in 2015 because most Nigerians have become very emotional about his re-election in 2015 because they believe that he has been targeted by insurgency to stand down. I am very certain he will contest and win. Even an opposition governor once told me that Jonathan would sweep the poll in 2015. But I don’t see Jonathan accepting defeat if he loses the election fairly. But there is no way he can lose the election because the people are with him" he said.

According to him, there is too much self interest in the north, pointing out that the development has, however, become the bane of the region's politicians.

"And now, for the North itself, it is a problem for them. Assuming that anyone in the North is able to come out and contest the Presidency, it is going to be difficult for the North to support such a person for him to win. Why is it that the North is in crisis today? For us, it is not good because enlightened self interest tells me that the North needs help. But the north should help itself first by accepting other minorities of the North and we must help them to achieve that" Addo said.

The Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati Wal-Jihad popularly known as Boko Haram, is an Hausa language which means "Western education is sin”. The terrorist group has its strong hold in the northeastern part of the country, Cameroon and Niger. It has launched several deadly attacks and bombings which have claimed thousands of innocent lives in its quest to Islamise the country and put an end to what they described as westernisation.

The sect is responsible for the abduction of over 234 school girls from GGSS, Chibok, Borno State. Their menace has attracted international communities like France, U.S, China, Israel, Britain among others, whom have volunteered to help the Nigerian Government in wiping them out as well as rescue the kidnapped Chibok girls.

Source: Legit.ng