A renowned scholar and Director of the Abuja School of Social and Political Thoughts, Dr. Sam Amadi, has slammed the Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Olusegun Agbaje, for calling some Permanent Voter Card, PVC, registrants from the Southeastern part of the country as “migrants”.
Speaking via a post on his Twitter handle on Thursday, Amadi said Agbaje was a disaster, insisting he should be called to order.
Recall that Agbaje had, while featuring on Channels television’s programme on Thursday, denied the state was having serious challenges with the distribution of the PVCs.
He claimed migrants from the Southeast were the ones who had issues with the collection of PVC.
He said, “Lagos State INEC is trying its best, and I don’t think there is a serious problem in the state. We are not having any challenges. The challenge we have is that many people that ought to have done a transfer last year did new registration, and by the commission’s guidelines, anybody with new registration cannot get another PVC because it is assumed he already has one PVC. The only area with the majority of people in that category is in Oshodi, particularly Okota, in Oshodi Local Government Area.
And so we have told the people that they cannot have PVC because many of them are from the South Eastern part of the country. Last year because of the insecurity in their area they ought to have migrated to Lagos. But what they did was to go and do another registration which is double registration.”
However, Amadi accused Agbaje of stigmatizing Nigerians as migrants.
He wrote, “This man is a disaster. In response to failure to give PVC to registrants, he talked about people who ‘migrated’ from the Southeast. Haba. Is it southeast Mexico?
“Instead of explaining and promising to look into the issues he is accusing and stigmatizing Nigerians as migrants or immigrants”
President Muhammmadu Buhari is holding a closed door meeting with Governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) under the aegis of the Progressive Governors’Forum (PGF).
The meeting at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, is being attended by PGF Chairman, Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State.
Others in attendance are: Dave Umahi (Ebonyi); Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos); Hope Uzodimma (Imo); Bello Matawale (Zamfara); Dapo Abiodun (Ogun); Mai Bala-Buni (Yobe); Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna); Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano); Abdul Rahman Abdulrazak (Kwara) and Sani Bello (Niger) and among others.
“Was Tinubu planning to be the president of the living or the dead?…”
Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller was a German theologian and Lutheran pastor. He is best known for his opposition to the Nazi regime during the late 1930s and his widely quoted 1946 poem featured on the United States Holocaust Memorial, it reads: “First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out -because I was not a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out -because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Tinubu’s anguish reminds one of Martin Niemöller’s reviling of self. Like Martin Niemöller, Tinubu did not speak out when it mattered the most; when his perishing countrymen looked out for men. Even the First Lady of Nigeria at one point shouted, “Where are men in Nigeria”? Tinubu kept mum, maybe he saw the First Lady as an irritant. He was not there for Nigerians when they needed him the most. Why then should he expect Nigerians to rescue his dying presidential bid?
With 25 days to D-day, it is only dawning on Tinubu that the underwhelming performance of the Buhari government will be his greatest undoing. Yes, some patriotic Nigerians warned but his minders and spin doctors wouldn’t listen. They said no, Tinubu’s achievements as Lagos governor nearly 2 decades ago would do the magic. But it has not. Not enough at all to make any difference Nigeria-wide and assuage the tragic suffering of Nigerians.
Now late in the day, Tinubu has turned back to where he ought to have started. Six months of shadow-chasing and shadow-boxing was all they offered since Tinubu talked about emilokan (it’s my turn). To frighten Nigerians the most, Tinubu promised to continue from where Buhari stopped. Such an existential threat! What he promised is akin to burying alive Nigerians who Buhari’s govt has literally killed. It is only a tree that hears of its impending death and still stands there waiting.
Furthering these killer grips on Nigerians’ national economic, social, and political life means these indicators will get worse and result in more deaths. The dollar will then exchange for over 1,000 Naira and fuel will most likely hit N800 a litre.
Tinubu seems to have realized that his promise to start from where Buhari stops has alienated a few Nigerians who still have little sympathy for his vaporizing presidential ambition. He has now turned to his party and called it a failure, giving the damning verdict: “Today, they moved the exchange rate from N200 to N800. If they had repaired it, if they had arrested this, we won’t be where we are today, we will be greater. They don’t know the way, they don’t know how to think, they don’t know how to do.”
Tinubu is now speaking the language of opposition and not that of a ruling party. However, Tinubu as a citizen has the right to criticize his party. But at what point did Tinubu realize that his party cannot think? Is it now that his chance in the 2023 presidential race is irretrievably vanishing that he is waking up? If so, it means he does not genuinely care about the suffering masses.
The real question is: what did Tinubu do or say when the nation was seized by the jugular by the incompetent APC government? He and the governor of Lagos state, Sanwo-Olu both were said to have played key roles in the EndSars brutality by involving the army. The massacre resulted at Lekki Toll Gate, a business concern in which it is believed he has an interest. Did Tinubu condemn the brutality with which the EndSars protest was crushed? How many such deaths and massacres did Tinubu condemn? Is it the Owo Catholic Church massacre or which one else meant anything to a man who wants to rule Nigeria as a lifelong ambition? Was Tinubu planning to be the president of the living or the dead?
In the area of poor governance, Tinubu also kept mum till the nation’s debt profile rose to an unprecedented N77trn and debt servicing has now hit over 80% of the nation’s total revenue.
Tinubu has never said anything about insecurity in the country or blamed his party for not thinking well about it. Or, spoke tongue-in-cheek when he managed to utter a word not to annoy the power donors. Bandits that were brought into the country by his party to force Goodluck Jonathan from power (many thanks to Hon. Baraje for the great revelation) have grown into a full terrorist group, according to the latest status confirmed by the Nigerian courts.
The Killer herdsmen have taken over most Nigerian forests and killed, raped, and maimed. Suspected herdsmen killed the daughter of 97-year-old Pa Reuben Fasoranti, the national leader of the Pan Yoruba Socio-cultural organization, Afenifere. Fasoranti’s daughter was one of the many high-profile Nigerians they killed in the South West alone. Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Olu Falae escaped by the whisker and his police orderly was killed.
The rampaging killer herdsmen have killed even more in the South East. Before Obadiah Mailafia died, he told Nigerians that over 100 communities in the middle belt have been sacked by herdsmen and the displaced communities replaced by them. Tinubu never saw anything wrong. To say nothing about the spiraling unemployment and inflation that now stands at an unprecedented 22%.
The APC came to power brandishing a whopping 222 campaign promises, which included restructuring, state police, and even fiscal federalism. Not one of these mouthwatering promises has been fully met. But let us leave the APC promises out for a moment and look at Nigeria’s misery index which has grown worst on all counts since Nigeria gained independence with unemployment now at 33.3%.
Here are incontrovertible comparisons between Nigeria that Tinubu wrestled from Jonathan and handed over to Buhari: Dollar exchanged for N190 in 2015, but now exchanges for N740 or more; Fuel went for N87 in 2015, now it’s N300; Kerosene sold for N150 in 2015, and now N1,000; Diesel went for N155, now selling for N900; Cooking gas sold in 2015 for N180, but now N850; Rice was N8,000 in 2015, now N45,000; Bread was N300 in 2015, now N1,000; Chicken went for N2,500, now N10,000; flight was N13,000 in 2015, now N80,000; Insecurity was only in the North East zone, now all over the country; Debt profile was $9.7bn, but now $98.6b or N77trn.
When the gloomy future loomed on the horizon before unleashing, where was Tinubu? But today, barely three weeks to the 2023 presidential election he says, ‘They Don’t Know How To Think’ for Buhari’s Govt moving Exchange Rate From N200 To N800. Fact is: the failure of the Buhari govt was well predicted but the lust for power blinded the likes of Tinubu.
For this February 2023 General elections, Nigerians should offer the prayer of Josiah Gilbert Holland –
‘God give us men’
“Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty and private thinking;
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land and waiting for Justice sleeps.”
Yes not men who will keep silent while the nation perishes for fear of injuring some pride and stepping on toes of power donors. Nigerians desperately need men and women who can provide total leadership and who possess the courage to restructure the polity and move the country to nationhood and make Nigeria the pride of Africa and the envy of the world. Not the likes of Tinubu that are only after the capture of state power rather than the welfare of Nigerians.
With less than 23 days to the forthcoming February general elections, Dr Uche Ekwunife, the Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial District, has shocked Nigerians following her sudden switch of support for the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to that of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi.
Ekwunife, a member of the PDP ,disclosed her decision during a stakeholders’ meeting, made up of men and women leaders at the Agulu town hall on Sunday.
Speaking in Igbo, she said, “Vote for me in PDP. In the presidential election, we all know where we are going to vote. We are politicians. We know this game very well. It’s on our fingertips. Peter Obi is our son and my mentor; we can’t work against him.
“But what I’m asking you is to vote for me in PDP. At the presidential level we all know who is our preferred candidate. That one is not in dispute. It’s settled. She spoke in Igbo.
Though, Ekwunife had at the official flag-off of the presidential campaign of PDP held at Uyo, Akwa Ibom State in October, 2022, said Nigeria didn’t need a kindergarten president.
In the video which went viral, the senator while campaigning for the PDP Presidential candidate, Mr Atiku Abubakar said Nigeria would not need someone who would always remind the country of her problem, but one who knew how to solve it.
Many followers of Peter Obi in Anambra State and beyond had interpreted the video to be referring to Peter Obi, the Presidential candidate of LP.
Many supporters of Obi also lashed out at Ekwunife, who had before now, declared herself a political daughter of Obi, before his (Obi) departure from PDP to LP.
But in a press statement, Ekwunife who seemed to have realised her mistake had recanted, saying she was not referring to Obi.
A press statement by her media assistant, Mr Kingsley Ubani said the video was being misinterpreted. It said: “The Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial District, Uche Ekwunife PhD, earlier today (in October) stated that Nigeria needs a President that can transit its economy from consumption to production, adding that the country does not need a kindergarten President.
“Ekwunife who spoke at the PDP Presidential Campaign flag-off in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state was addressing Nigerians on the need to support her Party’s Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
“The interpretation in some or that Senator Ekwunife was referring to the Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Mr Peter Obi or the candidate of any other political party in her speech, is wrong.
“Senator Ekwunife’s statements were in line with the fact that Nigeria needs a President who is well rounded, and has the resume’, experience, mindset and qualifications to lead the country out of the woods.”
Labour Party (LP) standard-bearer, Peter Obi, has yet again emerged the most preferred candidate to win next month’s presidential election, according to a new poll.
The poll which was conducted by Nigerians Decide, an independent research think-tank based in the United States of America, was concluded on Monday
Peter Obi garnered 1,856,537 to lead his closest rivals Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC); and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP).
Atiku had 1,539,568 votes, Tinubu garnered 1,486,401 and Kwankwaso polled 12,907 votes according to the latest poll released by Nigerians Decide.
According to the US-based organisation, the online opinion poll was launched on December 6, 2022 and concluded today, Tuesday, January 31, 2023. The poll was launched to determine and predict the possible direction and outcome of the 2023 general elections in Nigeria.
We are glad to launch www.nigeriansdecide.com, a United States of America-based non-profit and independent research think-tank. We conduct opinion polls on matters of public policy, like public engagement and participation in democratic exercise,” the agency’s project director, Rosalynn Carte had said in a statement.
It’s gathered that the poll had no connection or relationship or link with any politician or organisation interested in Nigerian politics, but purely for data collection.
Former Anambra governor, Chief Willie Obiano was disgraced at Onitsha main market while campaigning for his wife with chant of obi obi obi. The deafening chants made them hurriedly leave the market for fear of being lynched.
“It’s unfortunate that other Nigerian tribes haven’t truly understand who Igbos are, true Igbos don’t support looters, be it Igbo politician or none Igbo. Ndigbo are republicans ,they hate people without good records. Obiano has taken ndigbo as fools and that is why he failed to appreciate the fact that his eight years in Government was a total disaster .This is a lesson to other public officers. There is always time for judgement’
Omoyele Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), has revealed that the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 general election, Bola Tinubu Slept all through their meeting with the National Peace Committee (NPC) in Abuja today.
The National Peace Committee met with some presidential candidates and other stakeholders on breaches to the Peace Accord signed in September 2022.
Also in attendance for the meeting were the vice presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ifeanyi Okowa; and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Bishop Isaac Idahosa.
The Chairman of the NPC, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd); Secretary, Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah; and Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III also came for the meeting.
Others in attendance are leaders of political parties, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Nigeria Police, and civil society organisations.
Speaking on what happened at the meeting, Sowore said the candidate of the APC didn’t say a word all through the meeting because he was sleeping and their party’s National Chairman spoke in his stead.
We just returned from a meeting of party leaders/Presidential candidates with the national peace committee in Abuja, the Presidential candidate of The @OfficialAPCNg @officialABAT slept through the meeting, he didn’t say a word. His party chair spoke on his behalf,” he tweeted on Friday.
These days, I am up most nights, swatting mosquitoes and pouring sweat. I tell you, it feels like hell. With fuel selling at 400 on the black market, and diesel costing double in both consumption and price. Like hell. How Governance is absent, and nobody takes responsibility enough to say – It is my failing. Blame me. Instead, those already in Power lament with us and say, ‘Put me in a different office, a higher office, and you will see…’ See what? What will we see that we have not already seen?
The bastardization of the word ‘change’. It is not that we are not deeply appreciative of rice pyramids, and railway lines, we are. But the idea was to add this to the pre-existing state of relative peace and security, and inter-ethnic co-existence. Not to take that away for locally produced rice. Ah! E no balance. No. For it is better to be importing rice, but travelling with relative peace of mind from Lagos to Kafanchan. Than to be unable to carry that bag of locally made rice to Maiduguri for fear of bandits. Yes. Law and Order is the First Law of Civilization.
For this reason, to me, it is clear, the cancerous effects of Tribalism. Yes. This is it. This tendency to condone the petty criminality of our ethno-religious kinfolk. Saying, ‘No, they are just hungry. No, they are just angry. No, it is not really murder.’ Shielding them from the full weight of the Law, always in the false belief that anarchists from your own side of the country are on your side, and will shield you and yours from the worst consequences of their anarchism. I tell you, Extremism is nobody’s pet. It is, and will always be, a tiger. And those who feed it will end up in its belly. That is the eternal tragedy of Tribalism, with its naïve belief that the Terrorism of relatives can be domesticated.
Let me tell you. If you are muslim who believes that jihad is not about violently seizing other people’s lands, but about valiantly striving against the downward pull of earthbound propensities, you have far more in common with a Christian who understands what Christ meant when He said, ‘The kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force’ than you have with someone who thinks capturing and enslaving young girls of contrary faiths is Islam. It is not. It is not Christianity either to say, ‘God says to love one’s neighbour as one’s self, but these Fulani people eh… Hmm. It does not apply to them’. It does. For eternal truths are not only true when it comes to forbidding the white man from discriminating against the black man. No. They are also true when it comes to forbidding the black man from discriminating against the black man. You see? Racism or Tribalism, it is one root.
So, free your heart from this prejudice and bias. Yes. It is how to begin the process of re-building one’s capacity to hear, again, one’s human spirit, and see the road ahead clearly. For the decadence all around us is rooted in our inability to call a spade a spade when that spade is in the hand of a member of our ethno-religious group. You see? Where there should be light, there is darkness. Where there should be peace, there is war. Where there should be singing and dancing, mothers are wailing and weeping deep into the night for lost sons and daughters. Because we would rather sit in suffering under the incompetence of someone from ‘our side’ than let the best man or woman win. I swear, Tribalism is a bastard.
So, I let it go. These years of deep conditioning, to put my socio-cultural idiosyncrasies above the Truth. No more. It is one country, and no life is more precious than the other, no culture is more beautiful than the other, no faith is more valid than the other. Yes. Let God be the judge. But here and now, on this earthly plane, between me and you, I owe you nothing more than Love and Justice.
Frank Nweke Jr, the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, on Thursday addressed Biafran agitators in a section of his rousing lecture delivered at the Faculty of Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Nweke, who shared his perspectives on how the Igbos can reclaim their identity was unequivocal in stating that while the agitations for secession could be traced to logical reasons, the methods deployed by the majority of the separatists groups were counterproductive.
In his submissions, the guest lecturer recalled the devastating effects of the civil war, highlighted the loss incurred by the southeast for every day a sit-at-home order is observed and implored individuals demanding a secession to consider the effects continued agitations would have on the people they desire to liberate.
“The effects of your agitation today are not felt by those who govern us. Instead, the poor are getting poorer, being battered by a government that ignores them and a nonstate actor that keeps them in fear.
“The Southeast bleeds profusely every Monday that local businesses, schools, hospitals, and institutions are closed. We lose an average of N75.711 billion every day that a sit-at-home is observed.” He shared.
Instead, he urged them to pay attention to instituting a leadership structure that will be trusted and held accountable to deliver the dividends of democracy to our region.
“What is the quality of the leadership that will take over the reins of administration should a referendum be granted, and the new entity demanded with intense passion become a reality?
“I implore you to reconsider the motives and the strength of your pursuit. I speak to you as one that is unhappy with the current system and wants to see a change, that we sit down and re-evaluate our methods, our goals, and our values.”
The Lecture, which was the first in the series for the Faculty of Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 2023 had in attendance almost 3000 students, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Patrick Uchenna Okpoko, the Dean, Faculty of Arts, Professor Obi Ani and the Head of the English and Literary Studies Department and Chairman, Local Organizing Committee for the lecture, Professor Stella Okoye.
The senatorial candidate of the Labour Party ( LP) for Anambra Central Senatorial Zone, Senator Victor Umeh said he has no regrets in contributing his quota for the emergence of Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo.
The former National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) said he had forgiven Soludo for removing his campaign billboards in Awka.
Umeh, who spoke with reporters in his campaign office at Udoka Housing Estate, said he won’t challenge the Governor’s action in Court as he had resigned himself to fate.
He said during the 2021 governorship election, he toiled day and night working as Soludo’s returning officer on the election day yet the only way he had to pay him was to remove all his campaign billboards that were fully paid for because of party politics and interest.
Umeh said: “I campaigned for him (Soludo) to be Governor; I was a member of the National Campaign Council and the State Collation Agent for Soludo and APGA including the run-off Election at Ihiala and I discharged that duty creditably, ensuring that his votes were not stolen and after that, I took the result to him in Isuofia his community and presented it to him.
“I have no regret. I only told him my interest then was for him to take care of Anambra people and it is left for the Anambra people to judge if he is doing well or not.
“Anything I say now will be misinterpreted because the Governor recently pulled down my billboards. It’s left for people of the state to judge him.”
He said the Governor ordered the removal of the billboard during a meeting with some members of his party at the Governor’s Lodge.
According to him: “He ordered them to remove it but someone told him that I duly paid for the billboard to stand at Unizik temporary Site junction, but he replied that they should refund my money to me, that the space was too strategic for any other political party to display their billboards.
“They removed it on Saturday morning, and on Saturday evening, they replaced it with APGA billboard.
“I made inquiries before I accepted to pay for placement of that billboard. That space was previously occupied by Interfact Brewery, makers of Hero Beer, and when their contract there expired, an advertising company, which is duly registered, which works with us told us the space was vacant.
“We paid N1 million for our billboard to be hoisted on that space and the billboard had my face and that of the Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi.
”The advertising company also paid the Anambra State Signage and Advertisement Agency (ANSAA) for the billboard.
“That billboard has been there since December and the contract was to expire after the election, but he ( Soludo) ordered it to be removed.
“He did it in bad faith and I heard that he has asked me to go to court if I liked, that if I do, the matter will remain there until after the election.
“On the very day he ordered that the billboard be removed, about five people who were in that meeting called to tell me too.
“This is impunity. The Soludo government has been very intolerant of other political parties campaigning in Anambra, except APGA and PDP. That is unfair.”
