SAYS NO ELECTION IN 2015 UNLESS GIRLS ARE RELEASED, NIGERIA RESTRUCTURED
You must stand up for your right, you must be liberated. But there is something about this man President Jonathan which I want you to think about. That man deserves pity not attack. I repeat, that man deserves pity not attack and he is a listening man. The man who convoked national conference, never mind, what might come out of the national conference, good has to come out. But if good does not come out of the national conference and the girls do not come out we are not going to allow election in 2015.
Braithwaite who spoke at a rally at the Event Garden in Lagos as part of activities to mark 100 days of captivity of the girls said he is advocating that elections will not hold unless something good comes from the constitutional conference to restructure Nigeria, stressing that President Jonathan deserves pity and not attack the way it is presently being done.
He called on Nigerians to encourage the President to rescue the girls and fight corruption, stressing that corruption was at the very root of the abduction.
He said that if the girls are to be rescued Nigeria must first be rescued.
“This is not an occasion for joy or for sighing, but I believe that there are many here today that will have a positive and salutary effects on the condition of rescuing those girls, I sincerely believe this, that is why I am here. But before I go on, I want you, I want Nigerians to know that the power of the people, something that is called sovereignty, the collective power of the people, Nigerians have not yet been exposed to that power, the tremendous power you have.
“Every soul here present today has a role to play in the rescue of these girls as well as rescuing Nigeria itself. If we are going to rescue the girls, we must rescue Nigeria. As I said, today is not an ordinary day. Even President Jonathan himself, being the president at this point in time on the occasion of 100 years of amalgamation.
“Nigeria is not 100 years, no, no, no. Nigeria as a nation is only about 53 years, a failed nation for that matter, but the people of this country must use this occasion of the 100 days of abduction of our daughters to do something, I am not interested in rallying. I am interested in action. I am an old man but I am still fighting. And I will fight till the end of my days because if you don’t fight you will be crushed. I want this generation to decide, it got nothing do with Jonathan. I want Nigerians to decide, are we going to conduct 2015 election while these girls are still in captivity? Answer. Noooo. Let them begin to hear that now that all the preparation for 2015 election will come to nothing unless we bring the girls back, unless we stop corruption in this nation.
“ I fight them in the court, we fight them everywhere. You must fight them, they are corrupt, they are all over the place, that is why these girls have been abducted with impunity. You must stand up for your right, you must be liberated. But there is something about this man President Jonathan which I want you to think about. That man deserves pity not attack. I repeat, that man deserves pity not attack and he is a listening man. The man who convoked national conference, never mind, what might come out of the national conference, good has to come out. But if good does not come out of the national conference and the girls do not come out we are not going to allow election in 2015.
“If good does not come out from the national conference that will reconstruct, I choose my words carefully, that will reconstruct this nation, that will reinvent this nation, and we do not bring these girls back we will not allow elections in this country because it is all based on corruption, so let us encourage Jonathan to deal with corruption, let us encourage Jonathan to bring these girls back and we all have a part to play that is what I have to tell you. Thank you very much”, he said
Rallies are today holding across Nigeria to mark 100 days since more than 200 girls were abducted from state owned Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.
In Lagos, the rally was put together by the Dr. Joe Odumakin-led Women Arise with the single message to rescue the girls; just a day after the President Goodluck Jonathan met with parents of the abducted girls and those that escaped from the hands of the terrorists in Abuja.
Edited by Emmanuel Thomas
