By Tony Nwankwo

Dr. Goodnews Goodman Agbi teaches civil engineering structures at the Delta State University, Oleh Campus. The Isoko-born civil engineer was a former Delta State governorship aspirant on the platform of the Grassroots Democratic Party, GDM, and also an aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. He speaks on the state of the nation. Excerpts:

There are people who say plots exist to stop President Goodluck Jonathan from re-election. How true is this?

There are culpable conspiracies against President Goodluck Jonathan. And they are no longer hidden from the public glare. These plots started several months ago, even before INEC fixed the election time table. Foremost amongst the plotters are: General Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd); former Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi; The Northern Elders Forum; Boko Haram and now Chukwuma Soludo. There are even others, but these people or group of persons have never hidden their hatred for Mr. President.

Individually or collectively, they have their parochial reasons for participating in the plot. Obasanjo began the execution of the plan by his infamous ‘Letter to the President’ where he accused GEJ government amongst other things, of training snipers to assassinate over 1,000 prominent Nigerians, and an unsubstantiated missing money. He followed those letters with several attacks on GEJ. On these occasions, including his recent infantile public display of tearing his PDP membership card, the primary purpose had been to embarrass President Jonathan.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi continued from where OBJ letter writing left off, accusing NNPC of having not remitted over $49.8billion. The amount he later scaled down to $10.8billion and then upgraded to $20billion. Forensic Audits by world class audit firm, Price Water House Coopers, has shown that no such money was missing or un-remitted. Boko Haram has always struck when GEJ has something to celebrate. Even when Jonathan was to declare for the presidency, Boko Haram bombed a school in North-east Nigeria, killing over 50 students.

This was to prevent GEJ from declaring. APC latched on to that, to condemn Jonathan for going ahead to declare for President when students had just been killed. Recently when Jonathan   displayed rare courage to visit Mubi, Baga, etc., to cheer ours gallant soldiers, Boko Haram struck again in Jos and Biu, all to take the shine off Jonathan’s visit.   Nigerians and indeed the world should note that in all Buhari’s endeavours and political manouverings including all APC activities and campaigns, Boko Haram has never disrupted their franchises.

Now Soludo has come up with another voodoo N30trillions missing. D-G of Buhari campaign organization, Governor Rotimi Amaechi, recently, falsely accused pastors of collecting N6billion from the government as bribe. The clandestine activities of the Northern Elders Forum are well known to Nigerians. These plots are all about stopping President Jonathan from re-election.

The vitriolic pursuits of ‘stop Jonathan at all costs’ using the instrumentality of corruption and Boko Haram is to cast aspersions on the integrity and dent the image of Jonathan and   Nigeria. Nigeria is being demonized before the world as a corrupt country, with corrupt and incapable military, using false allegations.

But there are indications that the President has done exceedingly well inspite the odds: insurrection, northern quest to return to power at all costs and other intrigues. How do you react?

These plotters are bent on tarnishing the image of the President that they are completely jaundiced to the gains of his administration. Their goal is to delude Nigerians and the international community into believing that the government of Jonathan is not only corrupt, but weak, clueless and don’t have the nerve to tackle Boko Haram. This is inspite of the numerous achievements in the rehabilitation of the railways, power supply, roads, etc. Unfortunately, many Nigerian and foreign countries including their media are buying into these diabolic plots.

The North, especially, Northern Elders Forum through Junaid Mohammed, Ango Abdulahi and their fading co-travellers believe power should perpetually reside in the North and are therefore committed to this grand conspiracy against Jonathan. I think either Jonathan and his men are deliberately ignoring these shenanigans or they are oblivious of the fact that these people are after his re election bid, and their plot has reached an advanced stage. Whichever way you look at it, they almost succeeded had the election not been postponed.

Can we say the INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega was prepared for the election of Febuary 14, since people still troop to Polling Centres to collect their PVCs which in many cases are still not available. Do you really think the INEC has an agenda as  people  allege?

INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega knew he was not prepared for the election. I think this was deliberate so as to rig the election in favour of Buhari and the APC.  INEC Chairman was not among the original plotters but has been recruited into the plot to stop Jonathan or how can you explain Prof Jega declaring publicly that he was ready to conduct an election when over 25 million eligible voters are without PVCs?

How can anybody who loves Nigeria agree with Jega that the North-east states which are almost empty of people because of Boko Haram activities has collected over 80% PVCs? Who did he give the PVCs to? Goats or cows? Even Boko Haram insurgents have made away with the goats and cows! Again Jega should tell us who collected the cards.   Jega is their joker. They are using Jega for their plot. That is why the APC and their presidential candidate were insisting that the election should hold inspite of Southern Nigeria being short-changed with PVC distribution,

What do you think should be done by the President, the PDP and his numerous supporters as election draws near?

Part of the grand design of the opposition is to weaken the credibility of the administration. PDP, however, has been slow to react coherently to all the falsehood that APC and their sympathizers have been churning out. They and the Presidency have been too gentlemanly. Olisa Metu, the Publicity Secretary of PDP has not matched the loquaciousness of Lai Mohamed, his APC counterpart. Lai Mohammed is a tough malevolent alarmist. The same for the APC National Chairman, John Oyegun.

These people raise alarm on any thing from the ridiculous to the profane. Chairman of PDP, Alhaji Muazu rarely grants press interviews. PDP Publicity Secretary is more like a pastor admonishing the elders and deacons of his church when addressing the Press. They hardly spit  fire like their APC counterparts. Even the APC governors are not different. Adams Oshiomhole is full of showmanship. Another noisy governor is Amaechi. His theory of APC forming a parallel government if they lose is on the same template with Buhari’s ‘dog and baboon will be soaked in blood’ statements. If the PDP and Jonathan want to survive these well aimed plots to frustrate their victory at the polls, they should reduce the smiles on their faces and add some frowns.