The Bombshell from the Supreme Court indicating that the All Progressives Congress, APC, did not hold valid primaries and that all votes cast in favor of the Party are wasted has brought to the fore the precarious position of the Governorship elections in the state.
The Supreme Court has upheld the Appeal Court ruling that the APC did not legally participate in all elections in the state, directing that the party that came second in the elections where the APC won should be declared winner. The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, happens to be the party that came second in the elections and has Dr Bello Muhammad Mutawalle as their Governorship Candidate.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has summoned an emergency meeting to discuss the issue, and how to tackle head on the fallout. While other electoral positions may be an easy ride for PDP, the governorship is likely not so. That is because, even though the PDP candidate won the majority of the votes cast after the APC, he failed to score 25% of the votes scored in the local governments in the state. Therefore his scores fell short of his being declared winner. These are part of the issues the INEC is expected to resolve during their deliberations.
What is clear ids that Governor Abdulazeez Yari Abubakar has lost the election.
One of the options open to INEC in the issue is to organize a rerun for the position. But if a rerun is to be done, with the exit of Yari, somebody has to step in as the governor. Legally, it is the speaker of the state house of Assembly that should be sworn in in the interim. Ironically, the speaker’s tenure expires with that of the governor.
It remains to see how INEC will resolve the legal logjam.
Outgoing Governor of Lagos State, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, says he has served humanity to his best, and posterity will judge him.
Ambode spoke to newsmen shortly after inaugurating the 400-seater Lagos theatre on Friday night in Epe area of the state.
The governor, while reviewing his tenure which will end on Tuesday, expressed gratitude to God for giving him the grace to serve humanity and govern Lagos.
“This is more of a fulfilling day for me. If there is anything for me to say, it’s that I am fulfilled that a day like this can come in the history of this town. Four days to go in four years, we have turned things around.
“God has given us the grace that I can come back here and actually spend my last weekend of those four years with my people. We are very delighted that among the ttheatres that we have established, we have the opportunity to come and commission the one in Epe.
“I am very grateful to God. You never planned what you met on the way. Having had that opportunity to be elected as governor and for four years, one is able to do it in good health and mind. To God be the glory”.
“The main purpose of governance is giving back to humanity and serving selflessly. All that put together, I am happy I was able to do that and God gave me the grace. The fact that I am also leaving in good health, is a sort of fulfillment for me,” he said.
Ambode said governance is a continuum and expressed the hope that his successor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, would continue where he stopped.
According to the governor, the new edifice will help to promote tourism and hospitality both at Epe and in Lagos in general.
He added like other parts of Lagos such as Igando, Oregun and Badagry, where such theatre had been inaugurated by his administration, the new theatre at Epe would boost the economy of the community.
“This is of course is in line with our promise to make tourism, hospitality, entertainment and the arts together with sports, the centre piece of our development agenda for the youth in our state.
“The Lagos State initiative to bring theatre experience closer to the people across the state has been generating positive excitement among creative minds across the project locations,” he said. (NAN)
Five days to the May 29 swearing in of President Muhammadu Buhari and newly elected governors across the country, the governor elect and candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC in the last governorship election in Zamfara state, has been hit with a misfortune: Mukhtar Idris will not be sworn-in as governor of the state.
The APC candidate is the preferred successor of out-going Governor Abdulaziz Yari.
Idris is not the only politician in the ruling APC that has been hit with this tsunami of election losses, the election of Governor Yari, two senators elect and all elected members of the house of representatives have now been cancelled by the Supreme court.
Also, the lawmakers elected on the party’s platform to the state’s house of assembly are affected by this ruling.
The apex court few minutes ago, declared their election void over what it described as invalid conduct of the primaries from which all the candidates emerged last year.
With the ruling, the politicians have joined their counterparts in Rivers state who were also barred by the highest court in the land over controversial primaries.
Rivers’ APC was barred by the court from fielding candidates for the general election held in March.
The supreme court in its judgment on Friday ruled that the APC failed to conduct valid primaries in the build up to the 2019 general elections in the state.
The panel was headed by the Acting Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Tanko Mohammed while the judgment was read by Justice Paul Galinge, who in the ruling berated the APC for conducting a shoddy primaries.
The judgment validated the earlier one by the court of appeal, Sokoto Division, which ruled that no valid primaries were conducted by the ruling party in Zamfara state.
The election tribunal had also invalidated the elections of the APC candidates in the last general election.
According to the unanimous judgment handed down by a five member panel, the apex court said APC had no valid candidate for the election, therefore its governorship candidate could not have emerged winner.
What this means, the court ruled, is that the candidate of the PDP in the election, Bello Matawallen-Maradun, a former member of the House of Representatives won the election and has been returned as governor.
“Candidate other than the first appellant with the highest vote stands elected. A cost of N10 million is awarded against the appellant,” the five man panel ruled.
The PDP candidate came second in the election and as it’s, he will be the one to be sworn in on May 29 as successor of outgoing Governor Yari, who had earlier on Wednesday, stepped down as the chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF.
Recall that the APC candidate had been declared winner and returned by the electoral umpire, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Idris was declared winner by INEC after polling 534,541 votes despite controversies trailing his emergence as the APC governorship candidate for that election.
Social media influencers and lobbyists are on the prowl at the behest of out-going Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha. He has allegedly engaged their services to help clean and burnish his image and public perception which have seriously received unmitigated bashing in the last six years of his eight year reign.
Worried by the negative perception and unsettling commentaries about him trending in the media, the embattled governor is said to have decided to do everything within his powers to change the narratives before yielding power to governor-elect, Rt. Honourable Emeka Ihedioha on May 29, 2019.
“His Excellency wants to correct those negative impressions about him, he wants to change the sordid narratives he has been tarred with by aggressively highlighting his achievements; he believes he is unsung and his opponents deliberately engaged in misinformation in order to lower his estimation in the eyes of Imo people”, says a source close to him.
“The social media platforms are veritable and effective instruments for image recast.From now till May 29, you will be seeing more of His Excellency’s salutary achievements and correct commentaries about him on the social media platforms”, our source further said.
The social media influencers and lobbyists appear to be living up to billing. In the last three days they have been frantically trying to project the out going governor as a champion of education with focus at changing the sore narratives surrounding the controversial Eastern Palm University, Ogbako, Ideato South local government area of imo state.
Ogbako is Okorocha’s home town and the University is build next to his country home.
With pictures of exotic structures of the University splashed on hundreds of Facebook walls, Facebook groups, blog sites and WhatsApp groups accompanied by brief but enchanting piece about Okorocha, another source hints that the idea is to pass off the Eastern Palm University, which is owned by the governor as one of the “landmark achievements” he is bequeathing to the state so as to warm himself into the hearts of Imo people, even as he quits office.
One of the social media influencers, Ikerionwu Arthur Nnaemeka, writing on a popular Facebook group with over million membership,”Igboist” , speaks elegantly of the university and Okorocha thus: ” I am happy that the narrative about him has changed in these few days.. he finished well. There are a lot to remember him with …when the history of Imo state will be written”
Another social media influencer who goes by the name, Caring Eberechi Heavenly, saturating her Facebook wall with pictures of the controversial university, exclaimed: “My Igbo people get taste!” She then went on to eulogise Okorocha and the school: “Eastern Palm University in Imo state is a world class standard university, comfortable and well equipped, built by Rocha Okoroacha”
Okorocha has been evasive as to whether the Eastern Palm University is actually owned by Imo state.When he muted idea of the university, the out going governor had branded it state owned but insiders say the state of the art ivory tower is actually owned by him under his Rochas Foundation.
RipplesNigeria, an online portal reports: ”
While governor Okorocha claims that the university is the outcome of a joint venture between Rochas Foundation and Imo state, stakeholders of the state insist that the university, clandestinely built with Imo state funds, belongs fully to the state.
Okorocha had told some journalists that Imo State government’s holding in the university is “infinitesimal” while, according to him, the land upon which the university was built, was property of Rochas Foundation where he actually intended to build his own private university.
He has however refused to disclose how much of Imo state funds went into the construction and funding of the university”
According to findings, Eastern Palm University was registered at the NUC as the 42nd state-owned university and the 143rd university in Nigeria. However, it was listed by JAMB as a private university.
The presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, appears to have won the first round in his quest to wrestle power from President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Chairman of the Court of Appeal has agreed to step down from the case.
Counsel to Abubakar, Livy Uzoukwu, SAN had objected to the President of the court of Appeal, Zainab Bulkachawa, heading the Tribunal.
Uzoukwu alleged that Bulkachawa is not qualified to be part of the tribunal based on clash of interest. Her husband, he opined, is a Senator-elect under the All Progressives Congress platform. Besides, her son, he insisted, campaigned for President Buhari. Buhari, however, reportedly denied any knowledge of the Judge’s son campaigning for him.
The drama started when four of the judges ruled that Bulkachawa should not recuse herself because of the allegations.
This was after a marathon sitting, Justice Olabisi Ige read the lead judgement, noting that the fact that her husband, a Senator-elect, under APC, and her son, a governorship aspirant under APC too, were not enough reasons for her to recuse herself from the case.
But Hon Justice Bulkachawal decided to do the honourable thing.She recused herself on personal grounds.
A new Chairman will be appointed to continue with the case.
State governors from the 36 states of the federation have been arriving Abuja, the nation’s capital since yesterday in preparation for the election of the new Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF.
The current chairman, Governor Abdul’aziz Yari succeeded former governor of Rivers state and current Minister of Transport Rotimi Amaechi in 2015.
The magazine has however learned from competent sources among the governors that Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti may eventually trounce his other opponents who are also aspiring for the position.
Those that have earlier been suggested to be in the race are Governors Nasir El Rufai and Mohammed Badru Abubakar of Jigawa state.
Governor Bello of Kogi state was also mentioned among those interested in the position.
But, it was learned last night that most governors across party lines have agreed to support Governor Fayemi all the way.
‘Therefore other brother governors have been prevailed upon to step down for the governor of Ekiti state who enjoys more popularity across both PDP and APC,” one governor from the North told the magazine yesterday.
According to the PDP governor, they all agree to support Dr Fayemi in order to prevent what happened four year ago when Amaechi was the chairman.
“This time around, we all agreed among ourselves to shun acrimony and support one candidate, even though others have shown interest,” he said.
When asked the reason? The source said “we all want to form a common front as governors, so that we can speak with one voice on matters affecting the states.”
The magazine also learned that the governors decided to support Fayemi following revelation that a former Governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has a plan to support another candidate.
The National Leader of the APC believes that his 2013 presidential ambition could be scuttled with Fayemi as NGF chairman sources in Fayemi camp told the magazine.
The Ekiti helmsman has not indicated interest in the NGF position but his major backer, Governor El Rufai has been rumoured to indicate interest in succeeding President Muhamadu Buhari in 2023.
Therefore, the Kaduna helmsman is said to have mobilized his other colleagues, particularly from the north to support Fayemi.
“What we are going to do in Abuja today, one governor told the magazine, is to rubber stamp the governor of Ekiti state.
Nigerians have not slept following the comments by former President Olusegun Aremu Okoikiola Obasanjo on the insurgent Boko Haram and the actions of government to curb its activities and agenda which he described as a threat not only to the West African sub region, but Africa as a whole.
Why this sleeplessness? Why is government on the offensive over the comment? Why are the two main religions at each others’ throat because of the comment? Is there truth in the matter, or is it because of where and the way he said it? If so, should the baby be thrown away with the dirty bath water?
Speaking at the second session of the Seventh Synod of the Anglican Communion, Oleh Diocese, in the Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta State, Obasanjo had criticised the kid-gloved methods by both Nigeria and West African governments in checking terrorism in the region, and called for greater collaborating among several African governments in tackling the monster.
“Intelligence was poor and governments embarked on games of denials while paying ransoms which strengthened the insurgents and yet governments denied payment of ransoms.
“Today, the security issue has gone beyond the wit and capacity of Nigerian government or even West African governments,” he stated.
Obasanjo wants the issue of insecurity be taken more seriously without fear, favouritism and cuddling, regretting that the acts of violence by herdsmen Boko Haram were not treated as they should at the beginning, hence their seemingly getting running wild.
“They have both incubated and developed beyond what Nigeria can handle alone. They are now combined and internationalised with ISIS in control.
“It is no longer an issue of lack of education and lack of employment for our youth in Nigeria which it began as, it is now West African fulanisation, African islamisation and global organised crimes of human trafficking, money laundering, drug trafficking, gun trafficking, illegal mining and regime change,” Obasanjo said.
The former President while noting that intelligence was poor and governments embarked on games of denials, condemned governments payments for ransoms which strengthened the insurgents. “..Yet governments denied payment of ransoms,” he said.
He however wants the Federal Government to see to the right welfare packages for troops fighting the Boko Haram terrorists. He lamented: “Soldiers were poorly trained for the unusual mission, poorly equipped, poorly motivated, poorly led and made to engage in propaganda rather than achieving results.”
But government would have none of that. It described Obasanjo’s comments as not only indiscreet and far below his status as an Elder Statesman as it imputed ethno-religious motive to Boko Haram and ISWAP as deeply offensive and patently divisive.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, the Minister of Information
and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said it was particularly tragic that a man who fought to keep Nigeria one is the same one seeking to exploit the country’s fault lines to divide it in the twilight of his life. He said Boko Haram and ISWAP are terrorist organizations pure and simple, adding that they care little about ethnicity or religion when perpetrating their senseless killings and destruction.
”Since the Boko Haram crisis, which has been simmering under the watch of Obasanjo, boiled over in 2009, the terrorist organization has killed more Muslims than adherents of any other religion, blown up more mosques than any other houses of worship and is not known to have spared any victim on the basis of their ethnicity. It is therefore absurd to say that Boko Haram and its ISWAP variant have as their goal the ‘Fulanisation and Islamisation’ of Nigeria, West Africa or Africa,” Alhaji Mohammed said.
The Minister said President Buhari put to rest the mis-characterisation of Boko Haram as an Islamic organisation when he said, in his inaugural speech in 2015, that ”Boko Haram is a mindless, godless group who are as far away from Islam as one can think of”.
Angered by the extent he said Obasanjo could go to discredit perceived political enemies, he said Obasanjo’s comments are therefore as insensitive and mischievous as they are as offensive and divisive in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country like Nigeria.
Is Obasanjo’s statement new or strange, or is a call for urgency to stem a dangerous tide? In a chat with Johnson Ojo, a political analyst, he said that there is nothing new with what the former President said, while it is not strange the reaction of government to the comments.
“ The boldness these terrorist groups are daily increasing and operating in the country is frightening and elicits grave concern. Sometimes, we need an Obasanjo who may be described by some as tactless to make things happen.
“ Nigerians have been calling on the Federal Government to expedite action and check the inhuman activities of these groups who have continued to move inwards, terrorizing, kidnapping, robbing and raping most parts of the country, and it seems that government is handicapped,” he said.
Ojo rather advised the Federal Government to read in-between the lines what Obasanjo pointed at instead of the unwanted defense. He wanted an emergency declared as the bandits or terrorists are not even sparing Katsina state, President Buhari’s home state.
Today, alleged bandits killed over 20 people in an attack in Katsina state. Nobody knows where or who they will attack tomorrow.
In her opinion, “ Nigeria is bigger than those using religion and politics to divide the country by attaching religious ethnic and political meaning to every issue. What is bad is bad, and good information should be used for the country’s good. These terrorists must be stopped. Their actions make us live in fear day and night. I wish government should urgently employ measures to check them,” Jane Adetunji said.
Days after the Niger Delta Militants threatened to declare Niger Delta Republic on June !st, President Muhammadu Buhari signs an executive order to remove, revoke, banish all firearm or shotgun certificate or license in Nigeria.
The order takes effect from June 1st, the day the Niger Delta Militants are threatening to declare their Republic.
With this, no body in Nigeria is allowed to carry prohibited or licensed weapon in the country.
Though it is not clear whether the order was targeted at the Militants, it appears that the order is a blanket one, which will automatically make their activities difficult. Only the Military and the police, this Magazine gathered, are expected to carry firearms. Even the Civil Defense are not allowed to carry arms.
But reactions on Social media over the executive order was rather anger and condemnation.
“Is Buhari Evil Or Ignorant?”, says Chidi Calli, a well Known Social Commentator and Itinerant Buhari critic. “Why Disarm Nigerians and Allowing Herdsmen, Militias, Boko Haram to Keep Their Weapons?
Is There plans to Destroy M/Belt & The South?”
It will be recalled that the security situation in the country has worsened in recent times with bandits and Boko Haram trying to outdo themselves in killings and abductions. They reportedly brandish the latest weaponry, including the notorious AK 47 assault rifles. Only recently, the Police paraded some kidnappers with sophisticated weapons in Zamfara state.
Nnanna Ehiribe, in his own reaction, said that Buhari is disarming the south and Middle belt for the bandits and Boko Haram to have a field day.
“Executive order; ‘all firearms licences revoked’. Disarm the (Middle) belt and South for Boko Haram, Fulani Herdsmen & ISIS to finish”, he wrote.
There has been allegations of Islamic State has infiltrated Boko Haram, and using them for their expansion in the West African sub region.
The apex Igbo Socio/Cultural body, Ohaneze Nd’Igbo, is very angry with the Minister for Transport, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi. Forget that the Minister is from Rivers state, he is Igbo. His part of Rivers State is Igbo. He speaks Igbo. So, nobody can deny him the membership of Ohanaeze. But the group’s anger with him has boiled over.
So, what is the Minister’s problem with his people?
Rotimi Amaechi
It stemmed from an interview he granted the Saturday Sun of May 18. Entitled “Igbo Have Nothing To Bargain For 2023 Presidency”, it was a hope dampener.
Having watched every zone in the country produce the President, the zone was really hoping to belong in 2023. But here is an inner caucus member of the ruling political party, and one of their own, telling them to forget it. Why?
Amaechi says the zone did not vote for President Muhammadu Buhari during the 2019 presidential election. For that, the zone does not deserve it.
Amaechi: “I don’t know what they (Igbo) will do now for voting against the APC. They cannot come to the table to demand the Presidency slot. For people like us in the APC, if the Igbo had come and voted Buhari, they would boldly tell Mr. President and, the National Chairman of the party that Presidency should go to the South-east since the South-south, South-west and North-west have produced Presidents. What argument would the South-east come up with now to convince anybody that they deserve the slot for 2023?”
Since Amaechi’s comments, reactions have been coming like claps of thunder.
Chief Nnia Nwodo, the President General of Ohanaeze Nd’Igbo, thundered: “I think the issue of Igbo presidency is bigger than him. This is not a matter of careless talk.” Meaning: Amaechi is just one careless “talker.”
Chief Chekwas Okorie, the National Chairman of the United Progressive Party, UPP, he, an unapologetic supporter of President Buhari during the 2019 presidential election, dismissed Amaechi as ignorant of the talks going on already around 2023.
Chekwas: “It is sad Rotimi Amaechi is making such a statement. It is a statement he ought not to make. It is a statement that will do him a lot of damage, if not now, in the future. Who Will benefit the presidency in 2023 if not the Nd’Igbo? There is a serious political engagement in the South-east as I speak, and Amaechi is not privy to it” True? You wish!
Dr Sylva Ebigwei, a former President General of Aka Ikenga, an Igbo intellectual group, bellowed: “Amaechi should know that Nd’Igbo do not need the presidency to fly. Rather, what they need is restructuring.” But the Minister has a supporter in the suspended Ohanaeze scribe, Uche Okwukwu. Amaechi is right, he says, Ohanaeze misled the Igbo.
Perhaps, because Amaechi is Igbo, those condemning him must be doing so with a feeling of betrayal. Otherwise, he said nothing new. A number of people had either said so before now, or hinted so. Amaechi’s problem stemmed from his bluntness, the raw manner he put it. And, the reason he gave for why the Igbo would not be considered for the presidency in 2023, under the APC.
The truth is: The Igbo were never on the cards. The party, using especially, the Minister for Labour, Dr Chris Ngige, and the Director General of the Voice of Nigeria, VON, Osita Okechukwu, repeatedly made that false promise to the Igbo.
While both men made it a campaign issue, asking South-easterners to vote Buhari, as the APC would zone the office to them in2023, both Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and the Minister for Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, put a lie to their claims. Both told their people of the South-west, to vote APC, as the zone has since been promised the Presidency. I believe them. But, I can be naive.
A couple of months ago, two Northern high profile politicians had asked the South-east to perish the thought of getting the presidency in 2023. First to speak was former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Babachir Lawal. He was quickly followed by the fire-eating former House of Representatives member, Dr Junaid Mohammed. Lawal even went further to say that the presidency would be domiciled in the North for many more years. He could be right. When it comes to that, the North is together, something that will never happen in the South.
The three zones in the South will never come together. They will fight one another to a standstill. And if it is restricted to the South-east, forget it. The Igbo will so fight one another, that the bloody Iran – Iraq war will be a child’s play.
When the PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, picked his running mate from the South-east, almost all the who-is-who, politically, in the zone wanted to be picked. And when they did not get it, they sabotaged its success.
Which is why Amaechi’s reasoning on why the South-east is not qualified for the Presidential slot, under the APC, in 2023 is faulty.
Let me start from his own contribution.
The South-east is Igbo. And, Amaechi is Igbo. From when the Minister decamped to the APC, in my own calculation, no other governor contributed more than him, in cash and/or kind to the President’s victory. Amaechi was the Director General of the Buhari Presidential campaign in 2015. Meaning that he was in the war front for Buhari. He was the General who led him to victory.
It is difficult for him to admit, but one of the reasons he was picked was mainly because of the financial backing he was ecpected to give the project. True or false, the Rivers state government, strongly accuse him of squandering the state’s resources on the 2015 Buhari project.
In 2019, he may not have contributed, financially, as much as he did in 2015, but he remained the DG, whose ministry also boasts of very rich parastatals. I submit that for his contributions alone, the Igbo, whose son he is, deserves the Presidential slot in 2023.
In addition, because of his activities, the PDP presidential candidate was not able to garner upto one million votes in the 2019 election, the first time that was happening.
Everything considered, Amaechi does prominent South-east sons in the APC, and some of them in other political parties, including the PDP, a great injustice by his assertion. They worked for the election victory of the President.
For the first time, Buhari scored 25 per cent, and more, in, at least, three South -east States. Some prominent PDP members, including a couple of governors, worked for Buhari’s victory. Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra state not only worked against his own party’s presidential candidate, General Gbor, he worked, very hard, against the Atiku/Obi ticket. Imo State’s Rochas Okorocha, and Senator Hope Uzodinma, one of the heroes of the freedom Imo state is celebrating today, worked for Buhari, and so did Senator Ifeanyi Araraume. As stated earlier, almost, all PDP governors in the South-east, and a number of PDP South-east sons, worked for Buhari.
Their grouse: Atiku did not choose all of them, at the same time, as his running mate in place of Peter Obi. Chekwas Okorie openly endorsed, and worked for President Buhari’s victory. And so did a couple of Igbo billionaire businessmen. These people worked for Buhari for two reasons.
Some did because they had been brain-washed into believing that the APC would zone the Presidency to the S.E. after Buhari. Now, it has exploded on their faces. Others did because they were envious of Obi. If Atiku had won, they would have preferred suicide to standing up, in reverence, as Protocol demands, each time Obi entered a function where they were already seated. Indeed, one of them asked that the slot be given to the South-west, instead of Obi, because he, himself, had been ruled out. Another promised to give the Atiku campaign a whooping five billion Naira, if he would drop Obi for his preferred candidate. Mr Minister, these are stakeholders in the Buhari victory. Their contributions should count.
There are two things I don’t believe in. One of them is federal character. It has been scandalously abused. It has ruined everything we need to move our country forward. Merit has been murdered on its alter, be it in education, Civil/Public service, Military, Police, or the Paramilitary. Even in sports. I don’t care where the best comes from, as long as we are saved the nightmare that has become our lives.
I don’t also believe that a zone needs to vote for the political party at the centre to have a stake in the country. To think so is primitive. Nigeria is neither a one party state, nor a Banana Republic.
If it were so, how did President Olusegun Obasanjo win a second term in office when his zone refused to vote for him during his term in office? Why did the other zones not throw him out based on that?
It is such a shame that even before the take-off of the President’s second term, politicians are already fighting over 2023. These guys are annoyingly upfront. Those of them in the South-east, whom I discussed earlier, sabotaged the Atiku/Obi ticket over 2023. After Atiku’s promised one term, if he won, they reasoned, Obi could become the President. Impossible, over their dead bodies, they swore. Give it to the Igbo in 2023, they will sabotage it. They will never agree on a candidate.
But back to the Amaechi controversy. He is free to express himself. However, I don’t agree with his reasoning. Many prominent Igbo contributed to Buhari’s victory. And, even if they did not, they did no wrong. Their zone should not be stigmatized over that. They are stakeholders in this country. They need not vote for a particular candidate, or party, just so their zone would produce the President. That’s a no brainer.
And, in any case, 2023 is still far. Once there is life, a saying admonishes, there is hope. One never can say now, which party, or zone, would produce the President. It is no zone’s, or political party’s, father’s farmland.
Presidency has kept mum over the threat by a Niger Delta group to secede by July 1 due to what they see as the marginalization of the region even though they are the proverbial goose that lays the golden eggs.
It will be recalled that ahead of the May 29th inauguration, a militant group, Network of Niger Delta Republic Fighters has threatened to declare Niger Delta Republic on June 1, 2019. This will be two days after the inauguration and swearing in of President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term.
Last year, another Niger delta group had told Muhammadu Buhari not to bother to be sworn in, that whether he wins the election or not, he should go by May 29 or else they will declare Niger Delta Republic. It is not clear whether that group has any relationship with the current group.
In a statement on Monday by the group Director of information Maxwell Dan, the group decried the situation in Nigeria, citing marginalization of the region under Buhari as one of their major reasons.
“It is common fact that Nigeria has completely derailed from the Path of Peace, Justice and Progress as proclaimed by its founding fathers”, the statement said.
They cited the treatment meted on the former DSS boss, Mathew Seiyefa, and the Walter Onoghen saga as part of the injustice against the Niger delta.
“They removed a Niger Delta son, Mathew Seiyefa, the most qualified director of DSS without any due process. Not satisfied with his cruel and selective onslaught against Niger Delta People, they plotted again and removed our son Justice Water Onnoghen from office on frivolous allegations without following due process, neither was he given fair hearing.
It is also unfortunate that after four years of this administration, there is no single viable project executed by the federal government in Niger delta despite the billions of Naira accrued to the government from the resource of Niger delta as a result of ceasefire in the region.”
They claimed to have ammassed weapons for the project.
It was gathered that the announcement brought tensions within Aso rock, bringing memories of threats by the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, MEND, which threatened to bomb Aso Rock, resulting in Aso Rock being deserted by occupants while President Buhari made an emergency trip to the United Kingdom. This was at the begginning of Buhari’s first term.
The Army was said to have been kept on red alert.
Already, tensions have been in Aso Rock since the coup scare by the Military, who came out to debunk their involvement in a document circulating, which advocated overthrow of President Buhari. But there has been no sign of the document anywhere.
No body talked to by this Magazine has agreed that he has sighted a copy of the said document prompting the opposition to allege that it was part of preparing the ground for plan to arrest and detain principal opposition leaders. Minister of Information Lai Mohammed had insisted that the have strong evidence linking the opposition with plans to destabilize the government.
