Jonathan Kicks-off Re-election Bid In Lagos Says Buhari Did Not Buy A Single Rifle For Military As Head of State

President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday formally began his campaign for re-election, taking the fight to a key opposition stronghold with a mass rally in Lagos.

He said the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Major General Muhammadu Buhari, did not pay attention to the development of the military while he was military Head of State, hence he cannot promise to fight insurgency.

Jonathan said Buhari did not buy a single rifle for the military while he was in government, adding that talking about fighting insurgency now would only end up as lip service.

The President, who spoke in Lagos at the flag-off of the presidential campaign of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, for the February general election, said if Buhari and those who had ruled the country before now had properly equipped the military, the fight against insurgency would have been won long ago.

The President asked: “What did they do with the defence budget?”

Jonathan said even if the government had $10 billion today, it was not possible for it to build the country’s defence immediately.

Jonathan said what the opposition was doing now is to promise to quell the crisis it instigated.

Jonathan also tackled those who accused him of not fighting corruption.

He said there is no government that has put in place structures to tackle corruption like his has done.

He said fighting corruption was not just about arresting people, parading them on television and dumping them in prison.

Referring to Buhari, Jonathan said his government will never engage in the illegality of arresting people without just cause.

He said the move by Buhari’s regime to illegally bring a Nigerian (Umaru Dikko) back to Nigeria by putting him in a crate from Britain back fired as Nigeria became a pariah nation owing to the development.

He said his government has put institutions in place to fight corruption.

He said this was one of the reasons some federal civil servants did not get their salaries for December.

The meeting in Lagos comes as Jonathan’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) mounts increasingly personal attacks on his main challenger as well as lingering doubts about whether the vote will even hold.

Nigerians are due to elect a new president on February 14 but there are fears that polling could be ruled out in swathes of the country’s northeast because of sustained Boko Haram violence.

The electoral body in Africa’s leading economy and most populous nation maintains, however, that there were no plans to postpone the vote.

Sirens from convoys of politicians and dignitaries blared in and around the rally venue on Lagos Island from early morning in Lagos and commuter traffic backed up as delegates began arriving.

FRONTIERSNES