The Movement for the Emancipation of
the Niger Delta, MEND, on Tuesday threw its weight behind the presidential
candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Muhammadu Buhari, at the same
time, launching a scorching attack on President Goodluck Jonathan.
PREMIUM TIMES reports in a three-page statement signed by
a spokesperson, Jomo Gbomo, MEND said it endorsed and fully support Mr. Buhari,
after careful consideration of the state of the nation. The group said the decision to
support the APC presidential candidate stems from the pathetic level the Jonathan
administration has brought the country.
The group said the president does
not deserve to be given a second at the Aso Villa immediately his tenure
expires because of his continuous and blatant disregard for the people who
voted him into office.
“This is a president that told
Nigerians to their faces that he does not ‘give a damn’ when asked to declare
his assets. A requirement that is constitutional on assuming the office of the
President,” wrote Mr. Gbomo.
“President Jonathan, since assuming
office, has setup countless committees but none of the reports has ever been
implemented. From the Nuhu Ribadu report to the KPMG and Fuel Subsidy reports,
just to mention a few.
“How can Nigerians expect a highly
corrupt person like Goodluck Jonathan to fight corruption when he believes that
stealing is not corruption, as he shamelessly told the Nation?
“He has proven beyond all reasonable
doubt, his inability to tackle corruption or prosecute a single government
official in his six (6) years in office.”
According to him, MEND finds Mr.
Jonathan’s recent plan to fight corruption “laughable”, saying it not only
smacked of ignorance but also shows how stupid the president thinks Nigerians
are.
“A president that had six years to
tackle corruption but choose to shield corrupt government officials and also
partake in looting the nation’s resources, MEND argued, lacks the temerity to
say his has a plan to fight corruption,” the group said.
“We re-state our disregard and lack
of confidence in President Goodluck Jonathan. Rather than address the perennial
issues in the country responsible for his administrations failures, he is
concentrating government funds in a campaign of misinformation intended to
hoodwink Nigerians who, unfortunately for him, are now wiser and smarter than
he is.
“Goodluck Jonathan’s actions,
utterances and arrogance prove that he is totally disconnected with the
situation facing the ordinary Nigerian and completely out of touch with
reality,” MEND indicated.
MEND, with roots in the oil-rich
Niger Delta, stood as the face of a militant struggle against the Nigerian
government for years, launching attacks on oil installations, and confronting
government forces.
The violence largely ended after the
government offered amnesty to fighters in the region who said they were pushing
for greater share of oil and gas resources in the region, although the
government said the claim was a mere cover for criminality.
To date, MEND has not formally
accepted the amnesty offer.
The group blames Mr. Jonathan for
the arrest, prosecution and imprisonment of its leader, Henry Okar, by the
South African government. Mr. Okar is serving a 24-year term in South Africa.
The militant group commended Mr.
Buhari for planning to scrap the office of the First Lady if elected president,
saying that apart from serving as the conduit for plunder, the office is
irrelevant, fraudulent and unconstitutional.
Mr. Gbomo noted how Mrs. Jonathan
narrowly escaped being charged to court for attempting to launder stolen money
to the United Kingdom, barely a few months after the husband was sworn in as
president.
He said a former Governor of Delta
State, James Ibori, failed to escape the long hands of the law and was
arrested, prosecuted and jailed in the UK for the same offence Mrs. Jonathan
got a reprieve.
Mr. Gbomo lampooned Mrs. Jonathan
for her initial criticism of the BringBackOurGirls campaigners and accused both
the president and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for continuously
exploiting national tragedies for political gains.
He said the party and the government
twisted the Boko Haram insurgency for political gains while also exploiting
regional and religious sentiments as strategy to cover up their failure to rein
in the bloody group.
MEND said the Niger Delta region has
experienced excruciating poverty since Mr. Jonathan, an indigene of the area,
became Nigeria’s president.
While multinational oil firms have
continuously exposed the region to worst levels of pollution and environmental
degradation, MEND said the president has failed to openly condemn such criminal
acts or sanction irresponsible oil firms.
It accused corrupt government
officials and those it described as “pot-bellied generals” as well as the
military Joint Task Force and the Nigerian Navy for aiding the multi-billion
dollar oil theft in the Niger Delta region.
The group said the once respected
Nigerian Army has been reduced to a ragtag army by the Boko Haram insurgents,
stating “It can only take a bold and courageous man like General Muhammadu
Buhari to tackle the insecurity and oil theft plaguing the nation.”
“The Niger Delta region has the
Ministry of the Niger Delta, the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, the
Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP and the largest percentage in oil revenue
allocation, yet the region has nothing to show for all these due to a very
corrupt government and systems in place.
“We are confident that a General Mohammadu
Buhari presidency would probe these agencies and divert all stolen revenue back
to the development of the region and Nigeria as a whole,” Mr. Gbomo stated.
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