Although President Goodluck Jonathan has yet to officially declare his intention to run in the 2015 presidential election, campaigns for his second term in office has started taking shape.
Tens of groups under different banners have launched an aggressive campaign to recruit youths as volunteers to ensure the President’s re-election.
Checks online by iPUNCH on Wednesday showed that since the Independent National Electoral Commission has yet to lift the ban on politicking, the groups have taken over major social networking and online sites to sing the praises of the President.
Prominent among them are GEJites, Goodluck Initiative for Transformation 2015 and Protectors of Nigerian Posterity.
GIFT 2015, for instance, stated on Facebook that it was looking for youths who have the qualities and capacity to deliver their communities for the President.
It added that it was also scouting for “capable men and women” who believe in the candidacy of Jonathan and will serve as coordinators in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The group being led by Chinedu Okpalanma, stated that the online recruitment for both volunteers and coordinators will close on June 30.
It wrote, “Do you believe in the government of President Goodluck Jonathan? Are you passionate? Do you have the capacity as a volunteer and leader to actualise our aims and objectives?”
Another group recruiting foot soldiers to prosecute the President’s second term campaign is GEJites.
The group argued on its website that the “philosophy and idea” behind its formation is mirrored after the “Obama Volunteers and Chavistas,” the campaign groups of United States President Barack Obama and the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez respectively.
It wrote on its website that Nigerians who believed that Jonathan will transform Nigeria should sign up for membership via the portal and be “Gejites.”
The Protectors of Nigerian Posterity group has been idolising the President online in two major videos posted on YouTube and on its website, protectorsofnigerianposterity.org.
In one of them, the President was described as a visionary icon only comparable with world leaders in the mould of the late African-American Civil Rights campaigner, Martin Luther King (jnr); the late South African anti-apartheid and revolutionary President, Nelson Mandela, and the founding father of modern Singapore and ex-Prime Minister, Lee Kwan Hew.
Meanwhile, some Nigerians have berated the subtle campaigns for the President’s re-election bid taking over major online platforms.
An engineer, Micheal Damilare, who said he had been monitoring the online campaigns, lamented that he is disappointed with the development.
“If only you could be a family of one of those bomb blast victims you would know how painful it is seeing or hearing that Goodluck Jonathan is seeking a second term in office.
“I lost my cousin in the Jos bomb blast and you can imagine the pains and anguish we feel. South Korean Prime Minister (Chung Hong-Won) honourably resigned over the ferry disaster that rocked the nation.
“But here in Nigeria, in spite of the thousands of lives that have been lost, campaigns for our President’s re-election has kicked off,” Damilare wrote in a Facebook post.
For Imraan Abdulkadir, no matter the intensity of the subtle online campaigns, he would not “support incompetency, corruption, mismanagement and sentiments.”
A Minna, Niger State resident, Lawrence Balogun said it was not surprising that the “hawks” embarking on a professional praise singing of the President are back in full force.
According to him, the assertion in videos circulating online that President Jonathan can only be comparable with world statesmen like Martin Luther King Jr., Lee Kwan Yew and Nelson Mandela is “mischievous.”
“How does our President rank with such high-prized men except in the frail boot-licking minds of these deceitful campaigners? Silence in the face of barefaced mutilation of truth is the worst crime against the great works of men such as King Jr., Yew and Mandela.
“Here is a line-up of what we have got from the Federal Government in this administration: corruption, insecurity, indecisiveness, policy somersaults and the fleecing of hapless, helpless and traumatised job seekers,” Balogun wrote on Facebook.
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