Fmr Gov Fayemi Slams APC, Says Party Has Lost Vision Of Founding Fathers, Urges Devolution Of Powers

May 23, 2026

By Ayodele Oni

Claims credit for swinging the Wike-headed 2023 G5 towards Tinubu’s corner, Says he asked Tinubu to meet with Peter Obi after 2023 Election

Former Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has observed that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), he helped build has drifted from its founding ideals.

Fayemi was unflinching in his criticism of the APC’s current state, admitting that the party has lost both its ideological compass and the vision of its founders.

“We have lost our bearing and we’ve lost the vision of the founding fathers of this party,”

Fayemi made the disclosures during an extensive interview on State Affairs, a podcast hosted by Edmund Obilo.

Asked about intellectualism within the APC, Fayemi was blunt: “You don’t see intellectualism because there’s no debate in our party. There’s no debate.”

He criticised the party’s turn towards consensus and imposition over competitive primaries.

All but one candidate Fayemi put forward during recent primary elections in Ekiti state were roundly defeated by government candidates.

He reflected on his political journey, his role in Tinubu’s emergence as president, the rise of Peter Obi as a political phenomenon, and his vision for restructuring Nigeria.

The former governor also confirmed that he was the one who brokered the deal that brought the G5 governors, including Nyesom Wike, into Tinubu’s fold during the 2023 campaign.

Fayemi recounted how he stepped down for Tinubu during the APC presidential primary, explaining that he did so because of their shared history in the political trenches.

“Tinubu and I had been in the trenches together. Of all the people who were in the race with me, at least he was someone that I was very familiar with his trajectory in politics, with his courage, with his consistency, with his can-do spirit and that I was a much younger person and that there’s still time for me,” Fayemi recalled.

He then revealed that he went beyond merely stepping down, actively working to secure Tinubu’s victory including brokering the critical alliance with the G5 PDP governors, who had fallen out with their party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

“I then went ahead to do what I had to do in order to ensure that he won, including bringing the G5 into his fold, by the way,” Fayemi disclosed.

When pressed on how he achieved this, Fayemi explained that as Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, he had cross-party relationships that positioned him to bridge the gap.

“I knew what challenges they were going through on the other side and I felt I was reasonably well positioned to bridge the gap once they fell into difficulty with their own party and their candidate Atiku,” he said,

On the emergence of APC candidates through consensus, Fayemi explained “There is nothing in principle wrong with consensus if it is genuine consensus.

“However, I am a product of a democratic process and I would always be on the side of primaries, all the time,” Fayemi stated.

He warned that the APC’s approach of absorbing opposition politicians and governors was unsustainable.

“If you kill them in that manner, then you are breeding internal opposition within our own fold,” he cautioned.

In his most politically charged observation, Fayemi suggested that Nigeria may be drifting towards what political scientists call “competitive authoritarianism” a system where autocratic governance is disguised in the trappings of democracy.

“A lot of autocrats are covering their system and government in the garb of democracy.

“Whether you’re talking of Erdogan, or you’re talking of Putin, or you’re talking of Trump, or you’re talking of the man who just got kicked out of Hungary, you will see that incrementally our democracy is being subverted by autocracy. And I hope that’s not the bad lesson we are learning in Africa,” Fayemi stated.

He warned that the danger was particularly acute given Nigeria’s youth demographics.

“If you talk to young people who never experienced or lived under military rule, they’re the campaign managers for the juntas of this world.

“Go on social media and see the way they sing their praises because they’ve never lived under military rule.”

Fayemi revealed a previously undisclosed encounter between Obi and Tinubu at the Vatican during the inauguration of the new Pope, which he personally facilitated.

Fayemi recounted that he and Obi both Catholics had breakfast with a Cardinal on the morning of the papal inauguration and were seated four rows behind President Tinubu at the ceremony.

When Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs and a member of the presidential delegation, came to greet them, Fayemi suggested to Obi that they go and greet the President.

“Peter had his concern that ‘look, this might be misused in the media.’ I said, Peter, it really didn’t matter. You are Catholic.

“You are a Nigerian. You are here. Our president has honoured us. He’s even a Muslim. He’s not a Catholic like you and I,” Fayemi recounted.

“Obi agreed, and they walked up to the President. “I said, ‘Mr President, welcome to the Vatican.

“Thank you for honouring us with your presence.’ And the president is quick-witted he immediately retorted, ‘Kayode, what are you saying? I should be the one welcoming you because I’m the leader of the Nigerian delegation.’

“And Peter kindly said to him, ‘Yes sir, you are our leader. Thank you for coming to Rome to honour us even though we’re not part of your delegation, but you are our leader,’” Fayemi narrated.

Fayemi devoted significant portions of the interview to his vision for restructuring Nigeria, drawing from his recent book, “If This Giant Must Rise: Interventions on Leadership and Governance in Africa.”

He argued that Nigeria’s majoritarian winner-takes-all democracy is not delivering development, and that the country needs “alternative politics” driven by inclusion, rather than the current four-year electoral cycle that produces governments worse than their predecessors.

“This majoritarian winner-takes-all approach is not taking us anywhere developmentally, and we probably need another alternative political framework that allows us to deal with the structural question and then deal with the governance question,” Fayemi stated.

He advocated for devolution of powers from the federal government to the states, arguing that the military’s centralisation of power had arrested Nigeria’s development.

“If we had continued at the pace of development from the 1952 self-government period to independence to 1966, Nigeria would probably be where South Korea and similar other entities are now,” Fayemi observed.

He called on President Tinubu, who has an overwhelming majority in the National Assembly and about 30 governors aligned with him, to use his political capital to drive constitutional reform, rather than governing through the existing centralised structure.

When asked directly whether he still wanted to be president, Fayemi was characteristically diplomatic but did not close the door.

“My political journey is not ended. I still want to serve Nigeria to my capacity. I want to serve Nigeria,” Fayemi stated, while deflecting follow-up questions about specific ambitions.

He described his governorship as a “vocation, not a profession,” noting that he is primarily a scholar who has returned to the university to teach, and urged the interviewer not to define him solely by his gubernatorial tenure.

Kayode Fayemi’s Karma Arrived Sooner Than Anyone Envisaged

The Source

May 23, 2026

By Olabode Opeseitan

There is a prayer point many Nigerian politicians have conspicuously omitted from their devotionals: ”Lord, may I never invest in a political associate who will turn coat and spend the rest of his days trying to dismantle everything I built.”

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, now President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, clearly never said that prayer before he threw his considerable weight behind Kayode Fayemi’s political ascent.

Their bond was forged in the crucible of exile. When the annulment of Chief MKO Abiola’s June 12, 1993, presidential mandate ignited a resistance movement, Tinubu and Fayemi were among those who refused to look away. Tinubu provided the funding; Fayemi and other foot soldiers implemented the strategies. It was the kind of shared sacrifice that creates bonds men carry to their graves, or so one would think.

Tinubu, ever a man who rewards institutional loyalty, did not forget. He favoured Fayemi above most political associates when choices had to be made. That calculus showed clearly in Fayemi’s emergence as Ekiti State Governor and in the pivotal role Fayemi would later play in the formation of the All Progressives Congress. Without Tinubu’s compass pointing in his direction at critical junctures, Fayemi’s trajectory would have looked very different.

When Gratitude Expires

On his return for a second term as Ekiti Governor, something shifted. Fayemi, it seemed, had concluded that he was now his own man, a self-made political colossus who could chase the same presidential ambition his benefactor was actively pursuing. He eventually stepped back and endorsed Tinubu at the 2022 APC presidential primary, but only after testing the waters himself. In that limited sense, he managed to outperform Professor Yemi Osinbajo, another man whose entire political career was essentially gift-wrapped by Tinubu’s influence and goodwill.

Osinbajo ran the presidential race to a dismal third-place finish and, by no credible account, ever formally supported the man who had made him Vice President. History records no such gesture. But that is a story for another day.

The Prodigal Who Never Quite Repented

But the ingratitude did not begin in 2023. It has a longer, more instructive history.

When Fayemi first became Ekiti Governor in 2010, after a bruising three-year legal battle to recover his mandate, few paused to ask who had bankrolled the original 2007 campaign or who had quietly picked up the legal fees through every exhausting round of litigation. The answer to both questions was the same man: Tinubu. Yet for the better part of his first term, Fayemi systematically decoupled himself from the man also popularly called Jagaban, conducting his governorship as though he had arrived at the table entirely on his own merits.

The universe, however, has a sense of timing.

In June 2014, Ayodele Fayose of the PDP handed Fayemi one of the most crushing electoral defeats ever suffered by a sitting Nigerian governor, losing all sixteen of Ekiti’s local government councils to a man staging his own political resurrection. It was a humiliation of seismic proportions. Completely knocked down by the vicissitudes of political fortune, Fayemi did what pride had previously prevented. He went back to Bourdillon.

Insiders who witnessed what transpired confirmed that Fayemi performed the dobale, the full Yoruba prostration of submission, before Asiwaju later in 2014, seeking forgiveness for years of deliberate political distance.

Tinubu, large-hearted to a fault, forgave him. In his characteristic let-bygones-be-bygones manner, he drafted Fayemi as Chairman of the 2014 APC Convention Committee, the very platform that produced Muhammadu Buhari as the party’s presidential candidate. It was a gesture of rehabilitation extended to a repentant prodigal.

What Tinubu perhaps did not anticipate was how quickly the prodigal would revert to type. A credible source who directly witnessed events at that convention told me that Fayemi wasted no time cozying up to Buhari the moment he emerged, almost immediately lobbying to be named running mate, a move transparently designed to exploit the contrived opposition to a Muslim/Muslim ticket, the principal target of which was eliminating Tinubu from vice-presidential consideration. Several media outlets documented the fierce lobbying through December 2014.

The intrigue ran deeper still. There were credible speculations that Fayemi was among those who commissioned British scholar Professor John Paden to write a book chronicling how Buhari became the first opposition candidate to defeat a sitting Nigerian president. The book was strategically crafted. It systematically downplayed Tinubu’s otherwise pivotal role in delivering that historic victory, while simultaneously claiming that Buhari personally chose Yemi Osinbajo as running mate, adding pointedly that he did so “despite significant pressure from Bola Tinubu, who wanted the vice-presidential position for himself.”

There was a school of thought that the architecture of the narrative was to project Fayemi, then Solid Minerals Minister, as the emerging intellectual and political leader of the Yoruba under a Buhari presidency, with Tinubu written out of the story he had largely authored. It is important to note that there is no published report directly linking Fayemi to Professor Paden. Until such a report emerges, his role in that enterprise remains a speculation, even though the signals that existed placed it firmly within the range of possibilities.

To Osinbajo’s enduring credit, in that rare instance, he publicly contradicted the book’s account of his emergence as Vice President and confirmed that it was Asiwaju who nominated him for the second highest office in the land.

A man who had prostrated for forgiveness in 2014 was, by 2015, linked to the groundwork for his benefactor’s political erasure. If that is not the textbook definition of a recurring pattern, it is difficult to know what else to call it.

The Steady Stream of Sour Grapes

Since Tinubu assumed the presidency, it has been a steady stream of sour grapes. If Fayemi is not granting pointed interviews criticising the APC, he is reportedly strategising with former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, on how to dismantle the administration. The irony would be almost poetic if it were not so predictable.

What makes the saga particularly revealing is Fayemi’s spectacular display of lily-liveredness.

When Amaechi publicly alleged in 2025 that both men were the architects of a coalition designed to remove a Yoruba man from power, Fayemi’s rebuttal was so breathtaking in its evasion that it must have left Amaechi staring at the wall in disbelief. The man who allegedly co-designed the blueprint suddenly could not locate his own fingerprints on it.

The Saint from Mars

In a recent interview with broadcaster Edmund Obilo, Fayemi lamented what he described as the death of intellectualism in the APC. He mourned the collapse of internal democracy. He condemned the consensus arrangement as a polished synonym for imposition. He spoke with the serene conviction of a man who had never once imposed anything on anyone. Fayemi spoke like a saint from Mars.

For those who lived through his tenure as Ekiti State Governor, the cognitive dissonance was almost physically painful. His administration operated less like a democracy and more like a well-run fiefdom. Candidate lists for elective offices were drawn from the Governor’s office with the quiet efficiency of a procurement exercise. Loyal party men and women who had spent their own resources, sacrificed weekends and sleep, and earned genuine grassroots support in their constituencies were discarded. They were not reassigned, not compensated, not even properly explained to. Simply discarded, like pieces of rag that had outlived their usefulness.

Allow me to share a direct account.

A friend of mine, a lawyer employed in the telecoms sector, decided to contest a House of Assembly seat in his constituency. For months, he made the Lagos-to-Ekiti journey almost every other week, hosting communities, listening to their concerns, representing them in legal matters free of charge, and earning the kind of organic political capital that cannot be manufactured. By the time the primary season approached, the constituency was unambiguously behind him. He had done the work.

Then the list came.

His name was not on it. He was quietly advised, in his best interest, to shelve his ambitions. No explanation. No compensation. No acknowledgement of the months he had invested. My friend was not an isolated case; he was merely one of many who discovered that in Fayemi’s Ekiti, democracy was a performance staged for external consumption.

What the Harvest Looks Like

Today, the same Kayode Fayemi has positioned himself as a champion of credible primaries and internal party democracy ahead of 2027. The irony does not merely sting; it burns.

Whatever political misfortune Fayemi may be experiencing now in his own dealings with the APC establishment cannot possibly measure up to the futures he quietly mortgaged for others. There is no credible evidence that everything Amaechi alleged is accurate. But between my friend’s direct experience and what has been extensively documented in the Nigerian press, Fayemi is simply not the most convincing advocate for democratic principles this country has ever produced.

In life, you reap what you sow. Sometimes the harvest arrives slowly, and you forget you ever planted those seeds.But the earth remembers. And karma, as it turns out, arrived sooner than anyone envisaged.

A New Nigeria is Possible In 4 Years: 10 Things to be Done

The Source

May 23, 2026

By Steve Osuji

This column has determined that any leader who cannot reverse Nigeria’s drift in four years may never be able to do so in 40 years.

Peter Obi, the frontliner of the National Democratic Party, NDC, has vowed repeatedly that all he needs is just a term of four years as a president and he will initiate a new Nigeria that will stand irreversible. He has also said over and over that he has both the capacity and acumen to change the current morbid trajectory of the Nigerian state for good – in only four years!

But his political opponents have mocked him saying his postulations are at best, a desperation for power. They say he will spend the first six months trying to understand the maze that is Aso Rock, the seat of power and another six to set up his cabinet. Some of his kinsmen from the east are up in arms, saying they would not let him abridge the Igbo turn and tenure. They argue that other ethnic groups have had eight, even 16 years on the saddle as number one.

But Peter Obi insists that it’s not about the number of years one sat on the throne, but the impact made. He says that governance is not rocket science; that it’s all about able and visionary leadership. He has continued to tell the world that he would simply set the current rudderless ship of state called Nigeria on the right course. He would wring critical institutional changes that would remain irrevocable and upon which a new Nigeria would be anchored.

TO DISLODGE A ROGUE SYSTEM

Many Nigerians are not listening to Obi. Many listen but are skeptical. Yet many more are inured by the rogue system which has prevailed since independence and gets worse as the years roll by. Many are they who are benefitting hugely from the now pervasive roguery and they fight the change.

This Column here encapsulates some of the points Mr Obi has been trying to explain.

ONE: FREE AND FAIR ELECTION IS EVERYTHING AND IT IS ACHIEVABLE

Imagine such a day when the Nigerian voter is the lord and the voter’s card is the ultimate instrument of democratic change? Obi believes that in four years as President of Nigeria, he can set the electoral law right and ensure electoral integrity in Nigeria’s democratic system.

We have seen how the Presidency and the ruling party resisted and actually sabotaged the will of the people during the recent review of the electoral laws.

Obi insists his presidency and his party will lead such a change and make the laws perfect for Nigeria’s democracy to thrive.

He also would work to ensure that Nigeria adopts a one-term tenure of five or six years for the president and State governors.

Once these two critical objectives are achieved, Nigeria’s ruinous politics would become normalised as obtains in advanced democracies.

This is not an impossible task, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was on the verge of achieving this paradigm shift.

TWO: REDUCE CORRUPTION DRASTICALLY

A sincere leader who is imbued with integrity and is driven by the power of personal example doesn’t need eight years to curb corruption.

Obi says he and his family would shun corruption. That alone would have eliminated the canker by half.

Most importantly, fighting graft is not so much about chasing thieves all about the town but more about making sure thieves are preempted and therefore prevented from stealing. The system has numerous checks against official corruption (like the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federal) but the presidency and the ruling cabal stymies such checks. Obi says he can fight, and indeed curb corruption drastically without the current accompanying hoopla!

THREE: FIX ELECTRICITY

Obi believes that a sincere president who is not himself corrupt can fix Nigeria’s power deficit in four years. The major problem with the seeming intractable electricity snafu in Nigeria is corruption. Most of the funds budgeted for fixing this crucial problem are simply stolen. There’s a current example of Mr Mamman Saleh, a former Power minister jailed for siphoning N500 billion meant for the Mambilla Power project.

Obi believes that under his watch, such a project would have been delivered in less than four years.

FOUR: CUT COST OF GOVERNANCE

All around us, all we see in every aspect of governance today is a humongous waste of public resources. Over one quarter of Nigeria’s budgets at all levels of governance are deployed to frivolities. This huge sum would definitely be deployed for the development of Nigeria. In only four years, the difference would be glaring.

FIVE: DRIVE AGRIC PRODUCTION

Successive Nigerian governments have either neglected agricultural production or they don’t really understand what it means. The situation is worse under the incumbent.

The little gains made by his immediate predecessors (Good luck Jonathan and Mohammadu Buhari) have been obliterated. Nigeria is a net importer of food under President Tinubu. Huge investments made in rice production particularly, are being wiped away right now.

Obi thinks a perspicacious president can lay the foundation for semi-mechanised and mechanised agric production, processing and exportation in four years. Nigeria can actually leapfrog into a net exporter of foods and agro-based industrial needs. This will create massive employment.

SIX: GALVANISE SME GROWTH

Small and medium scale enterprises would be supported to sprout and grow. This remains the fulcrum of industrial production and job creation.

SEVEN: DRIVE EDUCATION, FOCUS ON STEM, TVET AND IT

Education is of course, the driving force for any society’s growth and development. Intensive investment in STEM, technical and vocational education as well as information technology over four years would lay such foundations that would be difficult to dislodge by succeeding governments.

EIGHT: UNLEASH THE POTENTIALS OF NIGERIA’S FEMALE POPULATION

Nigerian women are among the most educated population to be found anywhere in the world but they are also the most relegated. In four years, all the legal and institutional structure, holding down Nigeria great women population would be torn down to unleash the limitless potentials in them. This doesn’t require all of four years to achieve.

NINE: MAKE NIGERIANS BELIEVE IN NIGERIA AGAIN

Obi has always said that he will run a Nigeria where merit, equity and justice would be the abiding codes of government.

You don’t have to know a governor or senator to get a job in the CBN, NNPC or the Customs, for instance. Opportunities would be created for all and the very best among us will benefit. In just four years, Nigeria’s japa syndrome would be reversed. Nigerians will begin to believe in Nigeria again.

TEN: FIGHT INSECURITY HEAD ON

The only reason Nigeria remains among the top most terrorised countries in the world is because successive leaders have been shy from confronting the evil head on. A lack of will, corruption and all sorts of irrational reasons have allowed evil to thrive in Nigeria for nearly two decades. A serious government will simply set a deadline of two years to completely stamp out the evil of terror in Nigeria and properly rehabilitate the victims across the country.

These things are the basic minimum a president would be expected to achieve in four years. Any president who cannot pledge to these standards is really not fit to be.

■LAST LINE: N3 TRILLION METRO RAIL AND ECONOMIC GENOCIDE AGAINST IGBO

The APC government seems to have an unwritten genocidal agenda against the southeast. It’s genocide of the economic kind. If there was any doubt about this, the recent approval of a N3trillion metro rail projects in the northwest and South west that excluded the southeast is a proof.

This pattern has been consistent since the time of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Southeast has about 70% of Nigeria’s gas deposits but the resource is piped and deployed in every part of the country but Igboland.

Cabinet appointments, federal jobs and just any opportunities and privileges that can be denied Ndigbo is brazenly denied them in the APC era.

It’s common knowledge that people of the southeast travel the most both locally and across the world. But the federal government have most wickedly denied these people a proper international airport. Even a cargo airport developed by Imo State for over 40 years is now being used for pilgrimages to Mecca and Jerusalem instead of the economic purposes it was developed for.

The entire southeast has been shunted from the national rail programme in the last 20 years. Knowing the importance of railways to growth and development, we can conclude that what’s going on is a predetermined ill-will against the southeast. This doesn’t augur well for Nigeria’s peace and unity.

Fallout Of Court Ruling On INEC: IPAC Advises Commission To Deepen Engagement With Pol Parties

Ayodele Oni

May 23, 2026

Independent National Electoral Commission - INEC

By Ayodele Oni

The Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), has hailed the Federal High Court Judgment which set aside guidelines for 2027 general elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), describing it as victory for democracy and Rule of Law.

IPAC expressed the hope that the ruling will prevent exclusionary conditions capable of disenfranchising aspirants and party members.

Publicity Secretary of the council, Comrade Egbeola Wale Martins, in a statement, pointed out that “the judgment of the Federal High Court affirming that while the INEC possesses supervisory powers over elections, it cannot prescribe binding timelines regulating how and when political parties conduct their internal primaries is timely”

“This judgment is a clear reaffirmation of constitutional supremacy and the rule of law. It is an aberration for INEC to attempt to rewrite the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria through administrative guidelines.

“INEC guidelines can never be superior to the Constitution or the provisions of extant laws governing the electoral process.

“While no one is questioning the powers of INEC to issue guidelines for the conduct of elections, such guidelines must operate strictly within the confines of the law.

“This judgment therefore represents a major victory for democracy, the rule of law, political parties and indeed all citizens of Nigeria.

“It restores the constitutional rights of political parties to manage their internal affairs in line with democratic principles and without unlawful administrative interference.

“Importantly, this judgment will enable political parties to provide all eligible members equal opportunity to participate in party primaries, while discouraging exclusionary conditions capable of disenfranchising aspirants and party members.

“IPAC also calls on the Chairman of INEC to deepen engagement and consultation with political parties, who remain the most important stakeholders in the electoral process.

“Greater collaboration and dialogue would have helped prevent this avoidable error and the unnecessary legal disputes arising from it.

“This development further validates IPAC’s consistent position that INEC’s attempt to compress and undertake too many electoral activities within a limited timeframe before elections could create confusion, administrative bottlenecks and exclusion within the electoral process.”

The judgement is expected to give room for aspirants that lost primary election of their party to decamp to other parties.

APC Primaries: “Disaster Beckons”, Ned Nwoko Warns

Suleiman Anyalewechi

May 22, 2026

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

The Senator representing Delta North District, Ned Nwoko, has warned that dire political consequences await the All Progressive Congress, APC, should he be successfully schemed off the party primaries ahead of the 2027 polls.

The Source reports that preliminary result from the APC National Assembly primaries conducted on May 18, in the Senatorial Zone, was won by former Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, a development which Nwoko has hotly disputed and dismissed as heavily manipulated.

In the result declared by the national officers, Okowa was returned as the winner having, polled 113,309 ,as against Senator Nwoko’s 2,612 votes.

At a media briefing in Abuja on Friday, May 22, 2026, by Chris Okobah, his legal representative, Senator Nwoko insisted that unless the obvious irregularities that characterized the primaries are urgently addressed ,the APC risks political backlash of monumental proportion ,and internal collapse in Delta state.

According to him, the manifestly flawed primaries in Delta state, if not properly managed by the National leadership, and President Bola Tinubu, could have far-reaching consequences on the electoral fortunes of the party in the State.

He alleged that the primaries were largely defined by manipulation, open intimidation, and gross procedural violations, a development that produced outcomes clearly in conflict with the will of party members.

While describing the primaries as “a theatre of fraud”, Nwoko maintained that available field reports ward-by-ward documentation, including reports from agents pointed to overwhelming majority support for him across the entire Senatorial District.

Further highlighting his high level of acceptability among the people, Nwoko insisted that there was no way Okowa would have defeated him in a free and fair contest.

He emphasized that the former Governor of Delta State was able to win his re-election in 2019 owing to his intervention and support.

“It was even because of Ned Nwoko that he ( Okowa) won re-election as Governor, because he came kneeling down and pleading with Ned to support him during the election.

“That was why he won his re-election bid. So, if they think they can now sideline him, I am telling you it would be a recipe for disaster for the APC in the State” Nwoko’s Counsel warned.

He, however, informed that he has decided to first explore all the available internal conflict resolution mechanisms in the party to seek redress, before heading for the courts if necessary.

“We are not going to rush to court for now. We want the party, through its internal conflict resolution mechanisms to address the issues raised.

“We will only consider the court option if the party fails to resolve the situation”, he added.

Nwoko, therefore, urged the President, as well as the national leadership of the party to act quickly, with a view to ensuring justice .

Assembly Speaker, Salihu Wins Kwara APC Gov. Primary Election, As Fmr Minister Faults Result Of Oyo

Ayodele Oni

May 22, 2026

By Ayodele Oni

The Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Engr Yakubu Danladi Salihu, has been declared winner of the gubernatorial primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC)

The primary election, held on Friday, took place across 193 wards of the state.

The Chairman of the State Primary Election Committee, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, made the declaration at the final collation held at Banquet Hall, opposite Government House, Ilorin.

According to him, Danladi Salihu secured 94,990 votes to defeat other aspirants in the shadow poll.

Obanikoro disclosed that other aspirants such as Abdulfatai Yahaya Seriki garnered 41,700 votes while Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa polled 22,118 votes based on the official tally.

Meanwhile, a former Minister of Power, Mr Adebayo Adelabu has faulted result of the primary election in the state, declaring that the total number of registered members of All Progressives Congress, (APC), in Oyo State is not up to 500,000.

Adelabu made the assertion on Friday via a statement signed by his media aide, Femi Awogboro.

Adelabu resigned as Minister of Power to contest the Oyo APC gubernatorial primary, but lost to Senator Sharafadeen Alli.

However, Adelabu, who had alleged that the primary election was manipulated, in the statement by his media aide, dismissed claims that Senator Alli polled over 500,000 votes to emerge as the party’s candidate. The statement described the figure as inaccurate.

Adelabu noted that the total number of registered APC members in Oyo State stands at 153,640 and not 500,000.

Adelabu in the statement enjoined members of the party to wait for the official declaration.

The statement noted that it was evident from the turnout that Adelabu enjoys overwhelming grassroots support across the state.

“Those in charge of the results need to be careful and not to be used by anyone to truncate or alter the results because it is already clear to us from what we are collating from each ward,” the statement said.

State Of The Nation: ADC Chieftain Slams Tinubu’s 3yrs Of ‘Catastrophe’

Tosin Olatokunbo

May 22, 2026

Fierce lawyer and African Democratic Congress, ADC chieftain Kenneth Okonkwo, has describe President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government as a catastrophe. Since Tinubu came to office three years ago, his tenure has brought misfortunes on the country, he said.

The ADC chieftain launched a blistering attack on the president, while speaking on Inside Source, on Channels Television saying the accumulation of debt for the country is the only achievement recorded by the government.

Okonkwo spoke after President Tinubu accused some cabals in the country of coming after him because of the various economic reforms embarked upon by his administration, particularly the removal of the fuel subsidy.

The president accused the cabal of trying to kill him because of his boldness to embark on the reforms.

But Okonkwo who took an overview of the Tinubu’s administration scored him low, saying, under him the country is not producing anything, and the security situation has worsened, adding that nothing is working in the country.

“This is the government of catastrophe. The only viable business is politics,” Okonkwo said.

On the issue of national security, Okonkwo said “Nigeria has become a killing field,” under the watch of President Tinubu saying Nigeria’s global security rating has falling abysmally.

“You have 195 countries on earth, and Nigeria is the fourth most terrorised nation,” Okonkwo stated.

President Tinubu, had two days ago, in a message delivered on his behalf, by a former Governor of Ogun state, Olusegun Osoba at the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO book launch in Lagos claimed that some unknown persons were after him because he ended the corrupt fuel subsidy regime.

“Those cabals who are doing round-tripping will wish him dead any time, but he is determined that if that is the only thing he would do, he would make sure he rearranges the economy. No matter what, he is determined to face it. So that’s the message from Mr. President,” Osoba said.

NDC Constitutes National Selection Committee For Governorship, National Assembly Primaries

The Source

May 22, 2026

The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), in furtherance of its commitment to transparency, internal democracy, and credible candidate selection, has approved the constitution of a National Selection Committee.

This decision was taken by the National Leader of the Party, acting on the recommendation of the National Working Committee (NWC), as part of ongoing preparations for the screening and selection process ahead of the forthcoming Governorship and National Assembly primaries.

The Committee is mandated to review, scrutinize, and consider the reports and recommendations of the National Screening Committee, and to take appropriate decisions on the screening outcomes of all aspirants.

MEMBERSHIP OF THE NATIONAL SELECTION COMMITTEE

Sen. Cleopas Moses Zuwoghe – Chairman
Comrade Babatunde Ali – Member
Alhaji Sidi Abdul Bomi – Member
Alhaji Mohammed Bakin Zuwo – Member
Dr. Danlami Arabs – Member
Barr. Fredrick E. Owotorufa – Member
Chief Teddy Obey – Member
Chief Barnabas J. Ejisi – Member
Pastor Dr. (Mrs.) Adedayo Ekong – Member
Yenusa Tanko – Member
Dr. Moses Paul – Member
Buba Galadima – Member
H.E. Aminu Abdulsalam – Member
Danladi Abdulhamid – Member
Prof. Udenta Udenta – Member
Barr. Reuben Egwuaba – Member
Dudu Mamman Manuga – Member
Dr. Grace N. Onyekusiobi – Member
Alhaji Shittu Mohammed – Member
Barr. Ikenna Morgan Enekweizu – Secretary

The Party calls for the understanding, cooperation, and patience of all aspirants, stakeholders, leaders, and members, noting the tight timelines within which these critical tasks must be concluded. This process is designed to promote consensus-building and ensure the emergence of widely acceptable candidates through a free, fair, and credible mechanism.

In line with the Party’s reform-driven approach to internal democracy, only aspirants who have been duly screened by the National Screening Committee and cleared by the National Selection Committee shall be authorized to purchase nomination forms.

Where consensus is not achieved among aspirants, the Party will proceed to conduct direct primaries scheduled to hold from 28th to 30th May, 2026, in accordance with established guidelines.

The National Selection Committee will be formally inaugurated on Monday, 25th May, 2026, and is expected to hold its inaugural meeting immediately thereafter.

The Nigeria Democratic Congress reaffirms its commitment to a transparent, credible, and inclusive selection process that strengthens party unity and positions the Party for electoral success.

Signed:

Hon. (Barr.) Ikenna Morgan Enekweizu

National Secretary

Gowon: “Murtala Muhammed Insulted Me In A Signal, Asked Me To Get My Fat Butt Off The Chair”

Ayodele Oni

May 22, 2026

By Ayodele Oni

General Yakubu Gowon has accused the late former Head of State, Major General Murtala Muhammed, of disobeying command orders during Nigeria’s Civil war. That disobedience, he said, led to the invasion of Asaba by federal troops and subsequent massacre.

What is now termed ‘Asaba Massacre,’ has been described as “deadly onslaught perpetrated by the Nigerian Army, specifically the Second Infantry Division under the command of Murtala Muhammed targeted the people of Asaba, mostly Igbo people. Not a few people call it genocide.

These were contained in Gowon’s autobiography, ‘My Life of Duty & Allegiance’, a rare personal insights into the rivalries, battlefield mistakes and political tensions that shaped the 1967–1970 civil war.

General Gowon also reopened some of the deepest controversies of Nigeria’s Civil War, revealing how the late sage, Chief Olusegun Awolowo, stepped in to save late military ruler, Gen. Murtala Mohammed.

Gowon revealed one of the sharpest revelations in the memoir which concerns the failed federal attempt to cross the River Niger from Asaba into Onitsha, an operation long regarded as one of the war’s most controversial military decisions.

Gowon said Murtala ignored repeated warnings against the operation because of rivalry with another Commander and his determination to claim battlefield glory.

“As the C-in-C, I considered his plan quite suicidal,” Gowon wrote.

According to him, Army Headquarters warned that rebel forces could destroy the Onitsha Bridge and trap federal troops during the crossing.

Gowon stated that he advised Murtala to approach Onitsha through alternative land routes already secured by federal forces, but the commander refused.

“His pride did not allow him to wish to pass through 1 Division area owing to his rivalry with Colonel Shuwa,” he stated.

The former Head of State pointed out that the operation ended in disaster after Murtala pressed ahead with the river crossing.

“Murtala did not accept my advice and did exactly as he had proposed, to cross the River Niger by boats and barges, but with catastrophic consequences of the loss of men and equipment during the failed river crossing,” he wrote.

“The war also exposed deep fractures inside the federal command.”

Gowon recounted how Murtala once sent him what he described as an insulting signal from the battlefield during intense fighting.

“In a fit of anger, he went beyond the bounds of reason or military decorum to send me, his Commander-in-Chief, an impertinent signal that I should get my fat butt off my chair to sort out things in the battlefield, instead of giving orders from the comfort of my office in Dodan Barracks,” Gowon wrote.

The former wartime leader said the message angered him so much that he considered removing Murtala from command immediately.

“His unconscionably rude signal to me from the war front made me angry enough to consider removing him from command with immediate effect,” he stated.

But Gowon said Awolowo stepped in before he acted. “Chief Awolowo noticed the depth of my anger with Murtala after I received the signal.

“He promptly intervened on his behalf and pleaded that I should not respond the way I had intended,” he recalled.

FCT Minister Wike Behaves As If He Owns Rivers State – Donu Kogbara

Ayodele Oni

May 22, 2026

By Ayodele Oni

An international multimedia Journalist and a former BBC correspondent, Donu Kogbara, has observed that there is nothing new in the political rift between Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers state and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike.

Wike, now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) was Fubara’s political godfather until both disagreed on the governance of the state.

The FCT Minister had twice used his influence on the members of the State House of Assembly to impeach Fubara, but for intervention of President Bola Tinubu.

Kogbara, strongly criticized the FCT Minister over the ongoing political crisis in Rivers State.

Speaking during an interview from 4:10 on Arise News, Kogbara compared the situation between Wike and the current governor of Rivers State, Fubara, with the relationship between the current Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and his successor, Udom Emmanuel, in Akwa Ibom State.

According to her, although Akpabio was unhappy about some of the treatment he allegedly received after leaving office, he never attempted to destabilize the state or turn lawmakers against the sitting governor.

In her words: “I remember the current Senate President, Akpabio, telling me some years ago what he went through after he installed Udom Emmanuel.

“He never told me the whole story, but I know he was not happy about some of the treatment that was dished out to him in the immediate aftermath of his departure.

“But Akpabio has not gone back to Akwa Ibom to destabilize it viciously, mess everybody up, or turn all the State House of Assembly people against the governor. He has not allowed his ego to rise.”

Speaking further, Kogbara stated that what Wike may have experienced from Fubara is not unusual in Nigerian politics.

However, she stressed that she has never seen this level of refusal by a politician to accept that a state does not belong to him or his family.

In her words:

“Look, there are so many governors who have been through what Nyesom Wike has been through.

“It’s kind of normal in this country, but never before have I seen this level of megalomania and this refusal to accept that a state does not belong to you, your family, and your colonies.”

1...323334...2,937 Page 33 of 2,937