The THIRD FORCE Sorry, but I m not talking about the snipers that General Obasanjo mentioned in hi s letter.

There was no mention of snipers in this document. Thank God! But there is a plan to establish a THIRD FORCE After carefully assessing the various challenges and hurdles that President Jona than s team may confront in selling him to Nigerians in 2015, the authors of the 20 13-2015: Political power and governance road map urgently recommended for the est ablishment of what they called the THIRD FORCE. According to them, the mandate of t he THIRD FORCE will be to possess the national political and social center; to p ropagate Mr. President s vision of nationalist and patriotic values with uncommon commitment and passion; to defend Mr. President s National Transformation policies and Programmes in an authentic and credible manner; to rally the non-partisans to the support of Mr. President and his party; and to deconstruct and de-legitim ize the challenges posed by the APC with high moral authority, ethical standing and patriotic credentials. The idea of the THIRD FORCE, it was argued, becomes necessary because it is hard t o convince Nigerians through career politicians and people working for the gover nment. Nigerians will not trust them. So, the government needs a neutral group o f respected Nigerians to sell President Jonathan to Nigerians. For this strategy to work, however, distance must be established between ernment and the THIRD FORCE. It must be seen as an independent entity to CREDIBLE and AUTHENTIC. The THIRD force would be answerable to what they the FACILITATOR, appointed by the president as an intermediary between ORCE and the Government. the gov remain called the THIRD F

One of the key responsibilities of the THIRD FROCE is to discredit APC by spread ing the following message and information about the party. I. The APC is nothing short of a potentially destabilizing political conspiracy between extremist political forces in the North West and South West geo-politica l corridors with clients planted in other 4 geo-political zones II. The APC is driven by vaunting, raw ambition by leadership that is powered by arrogance, hubris and a holier-than-thou, know-it-all mentality III. The APC is ideologically and morally bankrupt and is not a national politic al alternative to the PDP given the sordid and corrupt track record of its princ ipal FINACIER and a number of its ranking functionaries IV. The APC s record on internal party democracy is awful, distasteful and cultic in nature V. The APC wants to rely on sheer propaganda, lies, half-truths and vicious atta cks on Mr. President as its main weapons of political war VI. The APC is quite prepared to overheat the system and plunge Nigeria into cri sis and corporate instability unless it achieves its main objective of taking ov er the country, by all means, and at all cost. Who exactly are the members of this THIRD FROCE? The document was very clear who the government plans to use and how. The THIRD FO RCE must be composed of credible individuals who have high moral standing, who h ave impeccable patriotic credentials, who have distinguished themselves over the years in their chosen fields of endeavor, who have not held any visible positio n in the current government and who may even had to contend with or criticized t

he government at various time. The more independent-minded they have been in the past and the more distance they may have created between themselves and the gov ernment the more authentic and credible they will appear and the more ready the non-partisans will be willing to buy into their pronouncements and other concret e activities. How does the government plan to deploy the THRID FORCE to accomplish their polit ical goal? This is also clear. The work plan of the THIRD FROCE will include, bu t is not limited to: i. Multi-level mes, newspaper tements, press and platforms, media intervention (radio and TV talk-shows and interview program adverts, opinion articles, back page comments, press releases/sta conferences/press briefings, exploitation of social media spaces etc

ii. Strategy meetings, workshops, seminars, etc, for different public (political players, key civil society organs, media executives, labor leaders, youth and w omen organizations, operators in the security and intelligence community, interfaith groupings, socio-cultural and socio-political unions). iii. Occasional publications in the form of widely distributed monographs, pamph lets, flyers, proceedings of seminars, etc on TRANSFORMATION AGENDA, inculcation of patriotic values, peace and national security issues, negation of the politi cs of bitterness, discord and animosity being presently foisted on the nation by the APC iv. Interface with foreign media at home and abroad, engagement with diplomatic missions and international development, peace building and governance organizati ons. Who is going to be responsible for managing the THIRD FORCE? The FACILITATOR will be appointed by the President and The THIRD FORCE should be driven by not more than 6 individuals with deep knowledge of, and extensive and strategic penetration of labour, civil society, media, youth, women and ethnic n ationalities spheres and platforms. Using the tactics and strategy of proactive propaganda and rapid response the group will be highly mobile and capable of cre ating and sustaining the work of various front organizations and pre-existing on es on short notice in the implementation of its over-all patriotic agenda. I like the idea of the THIRD FORCE more than the idea of the Snipers mentioned b y President Obasanjo in his letter. I apologize for my delay in responding to your messages. As I mentioned early, I have limited access to Facebook and internet. Good morning!