If Jonathan loses, Nigeria will be in trouble - Jimi Agbaje

Mr. Jimi Agbaje, governorship candidate of the Peoples Demcratic Party in Lagos State, has insinuated that a loss in the February 2015 election for President Goodluck Jonathan, will very likely spell doom for Nigeria's economy.

Agbaje in a video clip on DiasporaPr.com, during which he was speaking with some Nigerians in the Diaspora, expressed the view that if Jonathan should lose the election, the South-South could shut down the oil sector, which incidentally is the mainstream of income for the country.

It would be noted that President Jonathan is from the South-South region.

He said, “I was active in the politics of the South-West in 1999. The Afenifere of which I was a very active member, did not support Olusegun Obasanjo as President but in 2003, it was difficult for the Afenifere as an organisation to go out and tell people that they should not vote a Yoruba man into office and so what did they do? They said they would not present a candidate because they had their own son (Obasanjo) who was running for office. That is the politics of that country.

“Now, in 2015, we are saying that the South-South has presented a candidate and we are talking about equity and some are saying that he should not be given a second term. This is a very difficult thing.

“In argument, some have said ‘what will happen?’ Well, people will be upset and they have shown that they have the power to shut down the system. I am not saying it is justified but the reality is there. If the system is shut down, where are we as a country?

“They say if the others don’t get it, they too could shut down the system. Yes they can shut down the system but ask yourself which of the two do you think we can survive with? And these are the realities that we have to face.

“These are the realities that we have to allow. First, we have to sell the achievements of our person but we have to understand the politics of our country that we are still doing turn by turn and it must run in a way that is equitable.”

Agbaje insisted that Jonathan has so far done well for the country, and expressed the view that Maj Gen Muhammadu Buhari (retd) candidiate of the APC was too old to rule, and merely a puppet in the hands of some people with selfish ambition.