Download my transition hours pdf by jonathan

It is a virtual reality device which they altered and upgraded, depending on the trend and their "enlightened" personal interest. As I said before, very few political intrigues are hidden from the president. Those who appeared to be upstanding faced enormous pressure from their various constituencies. This was followed by major and minor betrayals and treachery. Many key party members fell under the compulsion to cross over to the opposition party. I would attend to this in Chapter Three in greater detail.

The pressure was sustained and even increased right into the campaign. By the time of elections proper, it was practically impossible for my supporters in the north to come out and vote. If you knew a thing about Nigerian elections, you just knew that violence plays a massive role in determining who comes out victorious and who loses.

It was a very sad commentary on the political setting which passed the baton to us. There were too many deaths. Too many profanities thrown into the political space by otherwise eminent personality. There were extremely reckless phrases like "do or die, garrison commander etc. They all militarized the political space to the extent that peace was in full flight. It took our tenure in the presidency to rid the polity and politicians of that mindset.

This fact easily bends the argument one way or the other over the deployment of armed forces during elections. They would not want soldiers to spoil the party.

What the soldiers do was to give voters the courage to come out and vote. These are voters who would have stayed home as warned by their neighborhood thugs. All they needed to do was a slight display of weapons and psychological intimidation. The North is a totally different ball game. There has always been an order of violence which became useful at several moments of decision. This violence is usually wrapped in religion and ethnic robes. For a long time, it was dignified in a shield of military camouflage.

One of the most traumatizing moments of my presidency was the cold blooded murders of youth corpers in the north following our victory in I thought long and hard over the waste. It just did not make any sense. How does a parent lose everything like this? How does a nation kill its future in this manner? I still recall the spread of their names in the papers.

The promise of a very close tomorrow. They were graduates already. Almost all of them from the South, and one from North Central That was a sure threat which told some voters to stay away from the polling booth. It was one potent threat everyone knew would be carried out if it caught their fancy. It raised tension before the elections and emboldened wanton destruction and waste of lives afterwards.

The corpers were the highlight, but many more people died than was reported. For lovers of peace and country, we never could win. It was a catch 22 situation. If this was explicable in some evil way, what about the statement issued by the ACF in the middle of the campaigns?

One Engineer Abubakar Umar warned Igbos, Yorubas and South- southerners in the north to be careful of their handling of northerners in the East. He warned that northerners should be treated like kings and queens, or else Now, this part of his submission is not the tragic definition of Nigeria. It was not even the brazen seizure of the law by the deputy scribe of ACF. It was the recount of an earlier carnage.

Abubakar goes on to remind everyone of the wanton waste of the post election. Yorubas suffered billion Naira loss in investments destroyed. Igbo lost billion and the South-south billion We have these statistics, so we expect the Igbos to treat our kinsmen as kings and queens".

This is the kind of threat we speak about. You do not hear these things and look forward to voting. Indeed, another threat was coming on the palace terrace of the revered Kano stool. Some young boys were issuing marching orders to southerners with a proclaimed ultimatum. There were the Jumat rages which happened like flash-floods. There were the moments of amputation in Zamfara. There was the gory Akaluka stake. A lot strings all the way back to Maitatsine.

Many of these would appear far from elections, but they never strayed so far from power pursuits and supremacy struggles. As cattle herders spread all over the country with death and destruction over resource, so did some leadership in history align to this by acts. I mean, how many murders did the choking Delta waters witness with their oily shimmering eyes? How many of the children these waters succored returned to their bosoms with their bloods drawing painful crimson maps on their oily surfaces.

The fish could not witness. A forlorn, altered marine. The tension I saw in the presidency was about religion and the North-South divide. Muslim youths were mobilized to frighten PDP members and the ones who stood firm were simply disenfranchised. These ceaseless conflicts at the time involving power sharing and power shifting accounted for the turbulence which would follow and remain sustained during my tenure. My Transition Hours is a combination of stories and facts accurately stated in my words.

In this book, I shall focus in depth on the political platform in Nigeria and the elections, with a day by day account of my decisions, personal feelings and international responses. Our nation and citizens faced a cascade of challenges over the past four years The worst was the vastly increased menace of Boko Haram with their mindless terror, insane mass killings, utter savagery, kidnappings of innocent children and other despicable acts of brutality.

On a Monday night, as students slept in their dormitories, gunmen stormed the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok. The school had earlier closed because of the danger posed by Boko Haram terrorists.

They were supposed to take their physics paper the following day. My wife and I were devastated on receiving the intelligence report. The country was numb with shock.

Why did this happen? How did it happen? The girls were only a bunch of innocent teenagers. A lame question laid heavy on my mind Before now, the terrorists had struck in schools in Borno and criminally murdered kids, but two hundred! It was devastating, to say the least. This North-East which was the headquarters of the terrorists was where we also had military men on ground. This is why the revolting development was very disturbing.

I began to question why these girls were abducted in the night and taken away in open trucks. My curiosity was further roused by the information that the girls left in a very orderly fashion and there were no reports of gunshots. Was that possible? My mind was ravaged by a torrent of questions: Why was there not a teacher or the principal around?

The girls were left all on their own? Who leaves such young girls alone like that? Where is it done? Someone must have given the girls some assurance that they were going to a safe place? What was the significance of transporting the girls through the forest and not a tarred road?

Why did the girls not jump and run for it at the times that truck must have slowed down? Most importantly, what prevented any shootings?

It was a very complicated story. Reports indicated that there was a broil between the police and terrorists that night, some distance from the school. Was that a decoy? In my secondary school days, everyone ran on catching wind of any crisis. Not one of the security agencies sighted the truck in the dead of the night carrying two hundred little girls? Not the military, police or secret service? As if on cue, protests broke out broke out within hours.

They were tightly choreographed and nicely distributed around the country. They were popping up like poxes on a body prime for it.

It was too fast and too good to be true. Whoever knows the nature of protests would see through these. Yes, many joined of their own freewill and many in the bliss of ignorance, just doing good. The heart of it bore the machination. We should not get this wrong. I am not saying anything yet.

It could be that the swiftness of the protests and its organization was just a matter of politicians seizing a rare opportunity. Could it be just that? Not many knew I had deployed an experimental group but had to leave the group in secrecy for security reasons. I summoned the State Commissioner for education, the school principal and State commissioner of police.

I desperately needed to find to find out what happened. It was important for the election, but more importantly for the girls, their families and the country. None of them could give me anything clarity could credit. I set up a team headed by a retired Army General and several security officers and volunteers. I sent them to Borno state to investigate and brief me.

They could not deliver the goods either. They had no concise information. This is where the folly of those who questioned our pace situates. Of course, it was no folly. It was a gambit. A move to place the administration in the direct path of national and global odium.

To an extent, it worked. Especially with those who would applaud anything. While we travailed to find a path, any trail to rescue the girls, the opposition worked up groups and interests in a festival of protests. They maximized the mileage offered by the situation. Everybody from page boy to mother of the day, wanted in on the ride. It was not long before it popped up on the White House lawn, with Mrs.

Obama waving a version. Well, FBI sites put the number of missing Americans, yearly in excess of hundreds of thousands.

Missing Americans somehow was not worthy of a White House protest. Several mint-fresh activists came into manufacture. They, currently appear to have lost steam, which is not bad after such rigor.

None, not a single protester thought about the kidnappers. The killers. Such is the awesome power of psychological programming. The electorate was programmed to see my administration as the perpetrators. We were placed to block the clear view-path to Boko Haram. It was a roaring success.

Only it did not work without a very expansive conspiracy network which is actually too expensive in costs of life and limb. So, who or what is Boko Haram? Boko Haram - Western Education is a sin.

It is by now very evident that Boko Haram is actually a group of terrorists who hide under the influence of Islam to achieve their own personal and group goals which are apparently heinous and dastardly. They are apparently well funded, in view of the sophistication and magnitude of their operations. There is evidence that they also get funding from some wealthy children and men who fall into the fluid category bordered by the terrorized and the convert.

That in my view just opened extremely dangerous possibilities. In the meantime, the disappearance of these girls raises more questions as time went on and we had more thoughts: Why would the governor of the State a member of the opposition party opt to stage a cross-continent roadshow in Europe and America, addressing foreign media when the issue was burning at home and the attention of the world was locked on Nigeria?

What was he doing overseas? Why were all the leaders of bringbackourgirls movement only leaders of the opposition, apart from habitual agitators and emergency activists, who had a view to a future reward? The people of Chibok were not even part of the initial wave of protests. That was of some import. The West led by the American State Department was pouring vitriol on our administration. They made it a point that it was an in and out treatment.

If the Jonathan administration goes and the Buhari administration comes, Nigeria was healed. Of course, it was a deliberate attempt to erase history and build faulty premises to worsen Nigeria's future.

The tactical attacks by the Americans were many. They reserved real military backing. They jested on our military. They raised the Leahy Act. They concluded on human rights abuses. Everything was thrown at us except the kitchen sink. They even came to sit betwixt an incumbent president and one of the candidates among many others.

I could have chosen not to honor the meeting but that was precisely me, sitting there and taking the diplomatic infra dig. I would gladly have taken more in the interest of peace. You could prostrate to a dwarf in greeting, but when you rose up, you would always be taller.

There is a place in all our minds where reality truly lives. A place where short people are giants and tall men are really dwarfs. The hash-taggers and crucify campaigners did not stop to ask the governor why he asked the girls to return to that dangerous zone.

They did not ask why he pointedly promised WAEC and the girls security, which he did not have to give. Or was the governor part of a bigger scheme? There was a tie between him and WAEC, which he won.

WAEC wanted the kids to sit in a more secure environment than Chibok, but the governor overruled them and insisted on Chibok. Why would a state governor be that interested in the SSCE exam of a single school? Really, if it were the Commissioner of Police promising security, the story would probably have been different.

The police commissioner had troops. The Nigerian governor is only a chief security officer in name only. It is one of the ironies of a country being worked to fail, as power gets more consideration than success.

Military governors in their day had complete control over security. Civilian governors in a democracy must then be inferior to them and so could not manage their police. No one was interested in knowing why the girls were left alone in Borno state of that time. How does a Borno state governor of a time like that miss that kind of call? Nobody ever really bothered to look at all these? The object was not the truth about what happened.

The object was what happened as a tool in the hands of the opposition and a lot of individuals and groups were playing various roles from different perspectives. Everything else but in the girls' interest. At a point, the entire campaign of the opposition was riding on the girls.

I thought these people actually kneel to pray the girls stayed wherever they were until they were through with their scheme. I found it interesting that some leaders of the bringbackourgirls movement were rewarded with promotions shortly after the inauguration. Among the promoted was the principal of the Chibok school who became the State Commissioner for Education. For those who remember, this sits with the character- in-context of the State governor, who housed the girls said to have escaped from the terrorists in Government House.

They were shielded from the local and international media in government house for weeks and sent home with bulging pockets. The media did not find this odd. The criticism over slow response was one of those funny injections into the discourse, but when it comes from eminent persons who were not supposed to be jesters, it looks less funny to observers. The response was in fact not slow, but a president, even an Ex-president must know how it works, but in a bitter political environment where things would degenerate to party ID card tearing media shows, everything should be expected and i did expect everything.

Before the presidency was alerted by intel, the military were already on the situation. It was their job and they were not slacking. The Air force was already using surveillance aircraft to search the area. How could all this create the impression of slow response? Perhaps they would have done better in the jungle circumstance than a totally democratic-minded president.

It has just been amazing that the girls had not been found the day after the inauguration and Boko Haram is still killing people in dozens. My sincere prayers though, that this menace would be erased from our land. It does not matter to me which administration pulls it.

It should be the current president though, because he is in time for it. When the Oke Afa deaths occurred in Lagos, in the wee hours of our return to democracy, , the president said it was not his business to visit the site of that tragedy. People were shocked and it got some media lashes. It was not dangerous to visit the place.

I do not want to dwell on this because the president then apologized, and his apologies did not come easy. Apologies should end discords and make way for peace. I could not recall any other apology from the same quarters and I would not want to state where that lonely apology came from.

It was just a very empty accusation. Again, we were accused of not visiting the place immediately. A lot of ignorant assumptions were issued. What was not countenanced was the fact that a president moved with security advice from experts because he was not in ownership of himself the moment he wears the powers of state.

The other ignorance exhibited was the overrated capacity of Boko Haram in the face of an organized force like the Nigerian Army, even woken from bed.

They could not have been able to hit a Nigerian president meters from them, because their modus operandi was founded on surprise and not conventional combat. Not going there early was not out of cowardice as was touted, but I went there at the best time as advised. Sometime, along the giddy moment, you got the impression that we were being goaded to appear there in the great expectation of something untoward happening to us. As if people wanted power by some very mean and foul default.

No one could prove this but it hung out there. We did everything to locate the children. I reached out to China and our neighboring countries for help. They have not been found till now, I must say that the mystery is confounding and I still have doubts about the veracity of the whole story.

I could be misconstrued as usual, but what I am saying is NOT that there was no story at all. What I am saying is that a part of this great story is suspect. We must not quit without adding that about girls had been rescued from Boko Haram by our Air Force, before I handed over.

Not one of them was a Chibok school student. We should ask why they were singled out by Boko Haram for a different treatment.

A different hiding. Not long ago, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo said anyone who says he knew the whereabouts of the Chibok schoolgirls was lying. Where we falter,we must not fall. In most cases, the more populous ethnic groups dominate and control the entire political settings. It sparks and sustains tension between the majority groups who want to retain their dominance and the minorities who want to have their perceived fair share and resist domination. In many instances, they want outright freedom.

That word. Nigeria sits squarely within that scope and it does so even more dangerously by the average. This is because of its unique plurality and relatively huge population, Its history, resource and placement in global consciousness and considerations. This is why it must not happen. There are three major tribes in Nigeria, with three distinct tongues, cultures and traditions. Historical reality could even safely assign them positions in order of access to rulership, wealth and power.

Political correctness would probably assail such an assertion, but the truth is always difficult to ambush for long intervals. Apart from these three dominant ethnic groups, there are at least more, with distinctly different languages and cultures too.

If there was ever a single recipe for discord, none could possibly rival the ingenuity of Nigeria's chef. Yet, it has been managed since the country survived the civil war. Now, the issues are much wiser. The world had traveled much farther. We seem to realize the huge advantage of the continued existence of this union and the scary demerits of going into any kind of splinters.

Nonetheless, there is the need for a fresh injection of political fidelity into the union. A reworking of the federation such that 'disadvantaged' groups would not feel imprisoned. The power structure and political struggles of Nigeria dates back all the way to Before that date, the Northern and Southern parts of Nigeria were administered as two separate and independent protectorates under the British colonial rule.

The protectorates were amalgamated in to form a modern Nigeria. Since then there had always been tensions between the North and the South over who controls political power. I want to give you an insight into a background that has been violently ingrained into the minds of Africans since time began. Great Britain granted Nigeria her independence in He played important roles in the country's formative indigenous rule and became a leader in the formation of Organization of African Unity OAU , now defunct.

In , he was overthrown and killed in a military coup. The coup and his death threw the North into an outrage and turmoil. There were violent riots. Yakubu Gowon, a Christian Northerner, who ruled for about nine years and presided over the civil war. He was overthrown. Murtala Mohammed,a Northern muslim, was assassinated in a coup. Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian Southerner of Yoruba stock restored civil rule in and handed over to civilians.

Shehu Shagari, a Northern muslim, became first civilian president. He was overthrown three months into his second term. Muhammadu Buhari, a Northern muslim was overthrown barely months into his headship.

Ibrahim Babangida, a Northern muslim, was forced out after about eight years of military dictatorship. Sani Abacha, a Northern muslim died in office after about six years of dictatorship. Abdulsalami Abubakar, a Northern muslim handed over power to civilians in , months after he succeeded Abacha.

Umoru Musa Yar'Adua, a Northern muslim succeeded Obasanjo and died a little over two years as civil head. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, a Christian Southerner, succeeded Yar 'Adua and was in office as president for about six years.

Muhammadu Buhari returns as civil head. Let us now pick the list from Alhaji Shehu Shagari who became president after the restoration of civil rule in and try to fill up some gaps with information which a simple list like the one above could not fill.

After four years and three months, military actors overthrew Shehu Shagari, alleging corruption as the major reason. General Muhammadu Buhari, who emerged as the chief beneficiary of the putsch immediately suspended the country's Constitution, trimmed the powers of judiciary and raised the order of decrees.

This was not unusual in Nigeria's military rules. It was to make it abundantly clear that the military became reason itself and all else became unreasonable by the sheer virtue of being military.

If we moan over impunity today, this was its birth bed. The trend of justice in that military administration is eminently documented. Of course, there was no such thing as a liberal military dictatorship. He dug into rulership, while promising a return to civil rule. His regime recorded many deaths and was also alleged to be a very corrupt government. He was forced out by civil society protests in , after he annulled MKO Abiola's election which was adjudged free and fair.

This was against the norm of leaving office with the entire cabinet and military hierarchy. It was believed that he left Abacha and other very ambitious soldiers in office to take over from Shonekan who was weak and completely defenseless against the soldiers. General Abacha died in after years of holding the country down by force, imprisonment of voices of dissent, terror and a ceaseless spate of killings.

General abdulsalami, who took over from Abacha somehow delayed in releasing Chief MKO Abiola until he died in mysterious circumstances. Abdulsalami returned power to his former boss after the elections. The Fourth Republic was born. See my assumption above. It would also allow you to easily follow my narrative with a clearer understanding when i begin to talk elections, conflicts and how unending protests and demonstrations have become a way of life in Nigeria.

My leadership was besieged and marred by these contending primordial forces, with the logos of violence and intrigues. Lining the crevices of these primordial forces are formidable modern players who are weakening the bases of their stock's primordial position for extremely selfish gains. It is very suspect as a political strategy in the Nigerian melee, but it strangely, was being touted by the media as the new and best deal.

Of course, the media never asks where the humongous funds which erected that new deal came from. The media never asks where any money came from, unless, may be it was payed to ask.

The new deal is currently looking like no deal. I have a feeling it fell through. For clarity, i am saying these primordial blocs usually bargain better with united fronts at the Nigerian table until the new kids on the block forced a change in the rules of engagement. It was called tribalism and painted in uninspiring colors, but it appeared the only time genuine growth registered in the Nigerian fledgling state, even if by the regions. However, the Arewa Consultative Forum thrives because it did not suffer that fate.

We will see how events unfold from here. If you begin to piece these items together as it plays out among the three major tribes, you see how difficult it has been for them to get along despite their prominent seats at the table. Now begin to imagine an upstart from one of the 'minor' tribes who they could hardly tolerate. Let me add here that i have never believed the Ijaw population qualifies to be called minor. Statistical data is not a given in Nigeria. Who conducts diligent census in creeks, canals and waterways anyway?

Yet, those are the habitations of Ijaws around southern Nigeria. I do not push population here, but very important decisions and calls which should have been made with at least, near accurate data are forever made on conjectures and assumptions. Sometimes on deliberately subjective basis. Most of the intractable problems which bedevil governance in Nigeria prove endemic and enduring, not simply because they could not be easily solved or that capacity is in that extreme a condition it is bad enough but because those problems are actually instituted and defended for primordial sentiments which address power points preferences.

Why is it hard to break down a big problem and solve it in bits? It is because it serves some interests to retain the failed system. Do not forget how people would need state security where they thought they were strong and would not need to help themselves and how they cry foul over the same state security where they thought they were weak and would need to pull some stunts. That sounds twisted?

Yes, the equation could be turned around in a variety of ways. It all depends on the use you want to put them to and where you were coming from. It mattered crucially that i strayed into power from a non-royal ethnic group. A minority. It was worse in their consideration because i was also not individually blue-blooded.

Perhaps it would have been less insulting to them if i had come from a wealthy background. I doubt this very much, considering what the likes of MKO Abiola went through despite his great wealth. Many of his military enemies were actually doing more than feeding off him. He made many of them rich. It was not enough. Emeka Odimegwu Ojukwu was frustrated despite his "blue blood".

His father was probably the richest Nigerian of his time. It did not help. Those were old and new monies worsted in the power game.

They got shuffled like cards on a highly revered and important throne. You must also know that the gun was always a major reason until i assumed office.

There is a place in the memories of Nigerians which says only the military could run the country. That i found scary. It does not prove anything yet, but we are on our way with the second ex-military ruler as democratic president.

They are from the first two major ethnic groups. Is it realistic? That the ping-pong would remain between them in perpetuity, even when the others had "dropped" money and were on the queue to play? We could either improve on this structure now and set everyone at ease, return to the regions and our old winning ways or prepare ourselves for the inevitable. It is just that the hard way would be very unfortunate simply because it would not have been the only way.

We must rebuild Nigeria, and it would take more than individual integrity. I know. I have come to preach love not hate. Presidential Election Campaign The purpose of my campaign was to promote democracy and social equality which encompasses love, peace and togetherness. I did not preach hate. Other political parties had other ideas and it was pretty clear as soon as our campaign train entered the North.

Young people were recruited to attack the presidential convoy of Nigeria by stoning. That never happened in my part of the country. It does not matter how you treated or twisted it, you came back to see the radical difference play out again and again. The freedom afforded by enlightenment.

It is the difference between Boko Haram and those who fight against it, whether in the truth of a man's spirit or in the falsehood of it. It was alarming that some older, highly placed people would put innocent children in such cannon fodder situation.

Mere expendables. This is the value they place on the lives of these children and it does not change, even in the face of rapidly changing times and the strides of civilization. They push these innocent children further and further into mental and material poverty just so they could be summoned as human explosives when the Northern elites need them.

They deserve our sympathy, not hate. On the day those kids were programmed to stone my convoy, the instigators were out for two things, the least of which was to embarrass their president. It was considered a huge mileage for their campaign. Humiliating the president of their country was fair game.

At that point, they were not thinking Nigeria. The fury of their power thirst did not allow them to think about the global village. They did not even think about the power they wanted and the consequences of diminishing that baton before it gets to them. It was a single minded recklessness. We could not but stare that history in the face: the North had never relinquished power in history without being absolutely unable to hold it any further!

It was a very tense situation. The Boko Haram menace was at its ugliest. The presidential security could easily have fired at the source of the missiles, thinking it was the insurgents.

These things happen. But we reacted differently. I have always said it and meant it The people i swore to serve. I know of leaders who would certainly have reacted differently. Muhammadu Buhari was in my part of the country and nothing of that sort happened. He was not the president and it would have been easy to return the compliments. There was no shortage of courageous young men to carry out such a mission.

We could also have simply denied complicity as they did, but it was not my way. Besides not being so base by my nature, i would have reduced an office i held in trust to ridicule. I would have embarrassed my colleagues in my professional field. I would have seriously disappointed people in my part of town who hold one to certain standards and values. I encouraged my people not to dwell on the issue. The opposition was steeped in negative rhetoric and slurs of all manner.

We were not swayed. We campaigned consistently on what we did, what we were doing and what we could still do. My concern was for new ideas and new positive ways of doing things. It was important to delete that do or die theme from our minds. It would take some time but i knew i was making a headway in that direction. It showed by the huge drop in politically motivated assassinations. It simply vanished, because the leader was not interested in killing for winning.

They raised a chorus on Jonathan must go. They crafted a pseudo- activist image. They loaded the campaign space with a lot of corruption allegations they had no proof of. Everything which the mind could think, the mouth was spewing. The corruption exhibited by the opposition was infinitely worse than any one they could imagine and they imagined plenty.

The point was to mislead the ordinary folks against the government. It was even taken to the ridiculous extent of claiming that i was behind Boko Haram. They said i planned it in order to reduce the votes in the North. Of course, it was laughable. In fact, in one of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo's famous letters some say infamous, but i hardly agree he stated that i had trained a thousand snipers for assassination purposes.

Well, everybody had a good laugh. Look at the number of victims during Baba's tenure. I hardly fit into that crowd and they know it. Now, we would have to give old people their honor and refrain from accusing them of lying. We are also almost old now. Yet, if it becomes a full blown habit, what would it be called?

Baba added a lot of drama to the process, but none cast in the mould of heritage. Generations ahead deserve a little better. The assassination story was a hoax as all others. As funny as that was, it was also quite instructive. It was a point the people should have realized they were being taken for a ride and I think some actually did. The problem is in the religious and ethnic dyes in our politics.

The use of violence was also a handicap. People who were not fooled by the trash would rather stay home. We truly have to heave a sigh on this because it is ongoing even in an advanced democracy like the United States.

The language of this Republican campaign has been shockingly rude, crude and abusive. It has not shown anything close to values identified with the primaries run. It got hot in the past but not low. It is no excuse for Africans to misbehave, but at least it could be of some consolation that we are not the only ones in that mire. I would not be caught in that situation though. The elections were scheduled for February 14, We looked at everything and the areas of strength were evident.

In the areas we appeared weak, we intensified efforts to address issues and bring our numbers up. We were confident that victory was heading towards us as we were also moving in its direction. We were sure of the states we would certainly have a clear lead. The political power sharing i spoke of earlier is extremely dangerous to Nigerian politics. The government must be linked to the area of origin, one's political ideology and policy program.

When an election appears to be tanking, members of political parties often changed sides to join the party perceived to be winning. It would serve the larger interest of our constituents and deepen democratic practice to find suitable legislation against this embarrassing phenomenon. There is a slight justification for this no doubt, because a few politicians have been treated with so much injustice in the past to warrant their departure, but it is simply not enough.

The people we strive to serve are receiving much more injustice everyday and would not opt out of their citizenship and become Ghanaians. Think about that. There is a tremendous measure of religious pressure on members of the PDP from the North.

For as long as people could be persuaded or harassed into falling in line by deploying religion as an instrument of politics, our goals for electing democracy stand unattainable. I know that some would be eager to point out the American Evangelicals as a perfect example in an advanced democracy, but this would not validate our version of this concept. In the first instance, i do not believe that everything American is good to cite. Even at that, the American Evangelicals role in that democracy is different from our Islamic role.

No one forces the Evangelicals. There is no intimidation or threats of not making heaven if you did not vote this way or that, or even making hell of earth for you if you failed to flow with the mainstream. When elections are pre-determined by faith or religion, we no longer practice democracy. What we then have is some form of adulterated theocracy.

Those religious sentiments stand in the way of performance, simply because you knew it only took your adherence to be approved. You therefore worked towards your approval ratings in the mosque. During the campaigns, some voters felt Buhari was their best option. His followership in the North was boosted by campaign promises i found quite interesting.

He promised them jobs in a new government, without addressing capacity building. Those who could not get jobs would be paid Naira monthly. These youths turned out to be the most disruptive during elections because they saw any contrary position to the source of those promises as one blocking their paradise on earth. How could they disbelieve a man of "proven integrity?

They were in no position to know because they lacked the capacity to know. That absence of capacity has been the problem of the Northern youth for a long time. It has also been the reason for Nigeria's backwardness. If we deliberately stunt the academic growth of millions of youth so we could have a ready army of easily misdirected youth, we kill this country. When you add religion to illiteracy plus politics, you just created a worse weapon than hydrogen bomb at a much cheaper cost.

We have to fight for the education of the Northern youth. We tried in our time, but it must continue. The leadership of the North must embrace attitudinal change. Not a rhetorical change. Well, as the man said, "dreams die first".

How does an economy like this one share out Naira to millions of people monthly? How do you identify those who should receive the money? We have borders that are more religious than national all over the North.

Where would the money come from? Would you borrow to share? But most importantly, how does anyone believe that kind of talk? That kind of campaign?

You would either be lying to people you should be telling the whole truth or you lacked the capacity to figure out the status of your country's economy ahead of the possibility of your leadership.

I received information that some PDP leaders were alluding at this critical juncture, to a breach of one spurious agreement to rotate power between the North and the South. I was supposed to have entered into the agreement before the elections. In Nigeria's political field, you could be in an agreement without knowing and there usually was no need for documents validating such.

When we received word relating to this, we had an interrogative session with some governors to find out the source of that allegation. Afterwards, some governors opted out of the PDP. That was the beginning of the downward spiral. The enduring negative controversy over North and South had taken on yet another life and significantly affected our poll numbers. We assessed the situation, re-strategized and adjusted our campaign.

Within the PDP, some members from the North worked for the opposition not necessarily because of convictions or principles. The dissension had the effect of a rapid spread. Inside the PDP! It should be tough to trust these brood of politicians going forward, but we must not allow such thoughts to rubbish highly stable and trustworthy Northerners.

It is the political structure i believe must change in order to cure ourselves of this distrust. Saturday February 14, Hours The elections across the country postponed i distinctly remember calls which i received suggesting a postponement of the elections. There were several objections raised in the public space concerning attempts to influence the electoral process.

While this went on, the National Security Adviser, stated that the military could not guarantee security in parts of the North-East, especially in Borno, Yobe, Gombe and Adamawa. The media was awash with governors leading protests in their states. That is the paradox of this politics. They were also among the frontliners in the protest against postponement. Not even assurances of the sanctity of May 29 could calm them down. They were sleeping with both eyes open.

If only we could keep such vigil in service of democracy and our people. But we are only that agitated in pursuit of power. A short while back, Boko Haram militants had taken hold of a wide cache of military grade weaponry, including Armored Personnel Carriers from retreating Nigerian troops. I requested an update from officials, who confirmed my fears. The group had almost five thousand fighters behind its growing effort to carve out and control territory in the North-East of Nigeria, around Cameroon, Chad, Niger.

Tension was further inflamed. Many Nigerian opposition figures at home and some Nigerians in the diaspora pressed for the elections to go on as planned. They had a different but ineffectual reality. Theirs was about an exclusive focus on elections, but you had to have a country after elections, i think.

It was my duty to present the country intact after my service and i was not going to let a tiny patch of Nigeria go under my watch. It would be reckless and irresponsible to cede portions of one's country through any form of loss. Indeed there was no cogent basis for the sightings of these constant apparitions, because my government was one pointedly devoid of trickery. However, i suppose the elections were more important than the lives we could have lost in the North- East if we had not taken charge and made the correct decision, which was why we were in office anyhow.

This can bring a degrade to the seemingly perfect book as people value the onomastic of human existence. The activities of the insurgents have nothing to do with religion as they attack churches and mosques. We brought you this updates to know this book my transition hours as we gave you updates on Secret of the Millionaires Mind for you to still read and get updated. Furthermore, the statement made by the author concerning the former United States President Barack Obama and Borno State Government on the account of undermining his efforts to rescue the Chibok girls in is too metaphoric.

I commend the effort of the author. The author claims in page 31 that the major reason for insurgency experienced in his administration was that Boko Haram needed an Islamic president. The author through his book has given an insight on the turbulent times of his administration and the much pressure faced during his transition hours.

The author Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has been presented as the hero of democracy and has extolled to others who a true Democrats is. I commend the effort of the author to put up this piece, but it is the hope of the reviewer that the lapses and the innuendoes of the book will be corrected. Former president, Dr. We congratulate Jonathan on his birthday. The former president deserves encomium for the hallmark which he has achieved in the publication which he gives an account of his actions while in Government.

Nigeria has had lots of presidents and head of states whom after vacating office turns author of different books. In a case like this, it is rare to find any of them account for the good, the bad and the ugly period of them in office even as the leader of the people. The Governor through his spokesperson draws the attention of people to the Chibok School Girls abduction and how the former president choose to analyze the matter.

The presidential Special Adviser in charge of Publicity Mallam Garba Shehu also describe the book as an hallow boast and effort to blame everyone without mentioning any achievements achieved by the last administration. There is a possibility that this Book My Transition Hours might be among the Jamb Recommended text for reading This post was made on my transition hours to buttress the transition period of the former presidents Good luck Jonathan.

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