Former Presidential aspirants on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), as part of efforts to galvanize support for the party’s 2023 candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will meet in Abuja, next week.
The meeting is coming barely three months after some of them went head-to-head at the primary for the presidential ticket of APC that eventually produced Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as party’s flagbearer.
Those expected to be in attendance include the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; former Science and Technology Minister, Ogbonnaya Onu; former Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba and former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio.
Also five serving governors expected to attend are Yahaya Bello (Kogi), Dave Umahi (Ebonyi), Abubakar Badaru (Jigawa), Ben Ayade (Cross River) and Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti).
A statement on Thursday in Abuja by the media office of the APC youngest presidential aspirant, Dr. Nicolas Felix, also listed Senate President, Ahmad Lawan; former Ogun state governor and serving senator, Ibikunle Amosun; a serving senator, Ajayi Boroffice; former Zamfara governor, Ahmad Sani; former Imo State governor and serving senator, Rochas Okorocha; a former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole; fiery cleric, Tunde Bakare; Pastor and Businessman, Dr. Nicolas Felix; former Information Minister, Ikeobasi Mokelu; Businessman, Tein Jack-Rich and the only female among them, Uju Ken-Ohanenye.
“The special invitation to the strategic meeting of all 2023 APC Presidential Aspirants, which will be held at Transcorp Hilton in Abuja, on Wednesday, August 31st, 2022 by 2pm is to brainstorm on adopting winning campaign strategies that will carry every Nigerian along and address the challenges bedeviling our country,” the statement reads in part.
The Joint Union Congress of the Police Service Commission has issued a notice of indefinite strike to the management of the commission over a breach of agreement.
The union noted that the strike will commence with effect from Monday, August 29, 2022.
Chairman of the Joint Service Union, PSC chapter, Mr Adoyi Adoyi, disclosed this in an interview with our correspondent on Thursday.
The notice is coming amidst disagreement between workers of the commission, the Chairman of the commission, Mr Musiliu Smith, and the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, on which body should be responsible for recruitment, promotion, and appointment of constables and officers.
He noted that the IGP and other police chiefs in connivance with the chairman of the PSC, have overruled the constitutional duty of the PSC.
Adoyi added that the IGP has allegedly taken it upon himself to carry out the functions of the PSC in flagrant disregard of the Nigeria constitution, a verdict of the Appeal Court, and the authorities of the PSC.
Adoyi said, “We’re embarking on an indefinite strike from Monday, August 29, to show how discontent with the way the PSC is being run by the chairman of the commission, and the flagrant disregard for the constitution, the court of law, and the PSC by the IGO, Usman Baba.
“The duties of the PSC are spelled out in the constitution, but the IGP has disregarded all of that, and has taken over the duties of the commission. He appoints and promotes at will as opposed to what is stated in the constitution.
“According to the constitution, the appointment, promotion, and recruitment of police officers and constables are the prerogative of the PSC, not the IGP.”
The Senior Pastor of Awaiting The Second Coming Of Christ Ministry, Adewale Giwa has disclosed that if the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, should emerge winner of the 2023 presidential election, the existence of the country might be threatened.
Giwa stated that Nigerians should be vigilant in preventing the APC from regaining power in order to save the country from collapsing.
The pastor, who stated this on Wednesday, emphasised that an event that will recreate Nigeria for better would soon happen.
He said, “This is the time reasonable Nigerians should put their heads together to resist the policies of some politicians who always think of themselves. Nigeria is above the interest of any individual.
An unexpected event will happen that will recreate and change the name of Nigeria. Until the event happens, there is nobody elected that can proffer solutions to the problems plaguing Nigeria.
I don’t care for Atiku, I don’t care for Obi, I don’t care for Tinubu. They are all birds of a feather.
More importantly, all hands must be on deck to prevent the current ruling party from manipulating its way to power again.
“We should forget Nigeria if APC wins the coming presidential election. The country will be forgotten totally if APC should find its way to power again.”
Labour Party Presidential Candidate – Mr Peter Obi is scheduled to hold an interactive session with Nigerians in Germany after which he will move to USA.The meeting will hold tomorrow,26th August,2022.
According to the message posted on his Facebook page, the message reads ”I hold Nigerians in Diaspora in very high esteem; they represent the core of our human development capital and contribute immensely to nation building via remittances and technical knowledge transfer.
My present outing will take me to Germany, Italy, Canada & the U.S.A. I look forward to the very constructive engagements” the message concluded
Ayo Adebanjo says the leadership of the Southern and Middle Belt Forum (SMBLF) told Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to prioritise restructuring if he wants to get their support.
The leader of the pan-Yoruba sociopolitical group, Afenifere, said this in a telephone interview with Channels Television on Wednesday, hours after top leaders of SMBLF including Adebanjo, Edwin Clark of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, Dru Bitrus of the Middle Belt Forum, and George Obiozor of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide met with Obi.
Adebanjo, who described the former governor of Anambra State as a partner in progress, said the Labour Party presidential candidate is “fighting for the oppressed”.
“He (Obi) came to meet Southern and Middlebelt leaders in my house. It was an exchange of views; we believe in the same cause,” he said, adding that they won’t back any candidate that does not support restructuring.
“We are all partners in progress. The fight he is fighting is a fight for the oppressed.”
Giving further details about the meeting, Adebanjo said, “Restructuring was at the front burner; we should have a country first before we have any development plan. That is the pillar on which the Southern and Middlebelt leaders stand.
“Constitutional review, community policing, devolution of power and others are all embedded in restructuring. Where we have a constitution where everybody is dissatisfied, you won’t have peace and without peace, there will be no stability. These are fundamental.”
Continuing, he said, “There is nothing new about restructuring; we are only saying let us go back to where we started before the military came. Where did we start? The constitution was made in 1964, endorsed by Awolowo, Azikwe and Sardauna, and was what we had until the military came in 1966 and imposed this constitution.
“This constitution is a fraudulent one and the government has never refuted it. They set aside the constitution before 1966, imposed this one and included all the things that were excluded that are causing confusion till today. We must go back to that constitution.”
Before Wednesday’s comment, Adebanjo has been unequivocal about his support for a South-East presidency and may back the Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections.
In March, the elder statesman had protested that the South-East zone made up of Imo, Enugu, Anambra, Abia and Ebonyi has been denied presidency since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999.
“How can you say rotation in the North and South, and when it comes to the South, it would be South-West and South-South every time? Is the South-East not part of the South? What is the moral we are talking about?
“Is it not the South-West that has served Obasanjo for eight years, Osinbajo for another eight years as Vice President? South-South has served its own. Is the South-East not part of the South? That is the question we should answer,” he said during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that the electronic transmission of results cannot be manipulated due to the nature of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
Prof. Mohammad Kuna, the Special Adviser to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said this on Tuesday in Abuja, during a panel discussion at a two-day workshop organised by the National Peace Committee (NPC) headed by a former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd) and The Kukah Centre.
The event held on Tuesday in Abuja, has the theme, ‘The role and impact of Digital Technologies in facilitating Peaceful Elections in Nigeria’.
BVAS is an electronic device designed to read Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and authenticate voters.
“With the nature of BVAS, the uploaded polling units (PUs) results cannot be manipulated. The machine was designed to edit the photographic results uploaded and sent to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV); and once sent cannot be recalled,” Kuna said.
Information reaching us has it that the Majority Leader of Anambra State House Of Assembly and Member representing Awka South Constituency 1, Hon. Nnamdi Okafor (Akajiugo Awka) collapsed in the early hours of today in a Hotel at Sandton City Johannesburg, South Africa and was confirmed dead hours later.
Cause of his death is yet to be ascertained as at the time of filing this report.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has confirmed a new case of Ebola in its violence-wracked east, the country’s health ministry said, just weeks after the end of a previous epidemic.
The DRC early last month declared its latest Ebola outbreak over, more than two months after the virus re-emerged in the northwestern Equateur province.
Last week, however, the World Health Organization said DR Congo was investigating a suspected case.
The sample from a 46-year-old woman who died on August 15 in Beni city, North Kivu province, “tested positive” for Ebola, DR Congo’s health ministry said in a statement published late Monday.
It added that tests showed the case is linked to a previous strain of the virus from 2018 and was not a new variant.
The ministry sought to reassure the public that officials were “hard at work on the ground” to respond to the situation.
Ebola is an often fatal viral haemorrhagic fever. The disease was named after a river in Zaire, as the country was known when it was discovered.
Human transmission is through body fluids, with the main symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea.
Over 120 militias roam the DRC’s mineral-rich but volatile east, where attacks on civilians are routine.
This is the story of the first oil war, which was fought in the 19th century, in the area that became Nigeria.
All through the 19th century, palm oil was highly sought-after by the British, for use as an industrial lubricant for machinery. Remember that Britain was the world’s first industrialised nation, so they needed resources such as palm oil to maintain that.
Palm oil, of course, is a tropical plant, which is native to the Niger Delta. Malaysia’s dominance came a century later. By 1870, palm oil had replaced slaves as the main export of the Niger Delta, the area which was once known as the Slave Coast. At first, most of the trade in the oil palm was uncoordinated, with natives selling to those who gave them the best deals. Native chiefs such as former slave, Jaja of Opobo became immensely wealthy because of oil palm. With this wealth came influence.
However, among the Europeans, there was competition for who would get preferential access to the lucrative oil palm trade. In 1879, George Goldie formed the United African Company (UAC), which was modelled on the former East India Company. Goldie effectively took control of the Lower Niger River. By 1884, his company had 30 trading posts along the Lower Niger. This monopoly gave the British a strong hand against the French and Germans in the 1884 Berlin Conference. The British got the area that the UAC operated in, included in their sphere of influence after the Berlin Conference.
When the Brits got the terms they wanted from other Europeans, they began to deal with the African chiefs. Within two years of 1886, Goldie had signed treaties with tribal chiefs along the Benue and Niger Rivers whilst also penetrating inland. This move inland was against the spirit of verbal agreements that had been made to restrict the organisation’s activities to coastal regions.
By 1886, the company name changed to The National Africa Company and was granted a royal charter (incorporated). The charter authorised the company to administer the Niger Delta and all lands around the banks of the Benue and Niger Rivers. Soon after, the company was again renamed. The new name was Royal Niger Company, which survives, as Unilever, till this day.
To local chiefs, the Royal Niger Company negotiators had pledged free trade in the region. Behind, they entered private contracts on their terms. Because the (deceitful) private contracts were often written in English and signed by the local chiefs, the British government enforced them. So for example, Jaja of Opobo, when he tried to export palm oil on his own, was forced into exile for “obstructing commerce”. As an aside, Jaja was “forgiven” in 1891 and allowed to return home, but he died on the way back, poisoned with a cup of tea.
Seeing what happened to Jaja, some other native rulers began to look more closely at the deals they were getting from the Royal Nigeria Company. One of such kingdoms was Nembe, whose king, Koko Mingi VIII, ascended the throne in 1889 after being a Christian schoolteacher. Koko Mingi VIII, King Koko for short, like most rulers in the yard, was faced with the Royal Nigeria Company encroachment. He also resented the monopoly enjoyed by the Royal Nigeria Company and tried to seek out favourable trading terms, with particularly the Germans in Kamerun (Cameroon).
By 1894, the Royal Nigeria Company increasingly dictated whom the natives could trade with, and denied them direct access to their former markets. In late 1894, King Koko renounced Christianity and tried to form an alliance with Bonny and Okpoma against the Royal Nigeria Company to take back the trade. This is significant because while Okpoma joined up, Bonny refused. A harbinger of the successful “divide and rule” tactic.
On 29 January 1895, King Koko led an attack on the Royal Niger Company’s headquarters, which was in Akassa in today’s Bayelsa state. The pre-dawn raid had more than a thousand men involved. King Koko’s attack succeeded in capturing the base. Losing 40 of his men, King Koko captured 60 white men as hostages, as well as a lot of goods, ammunition and a Maxim gun. Koko then attempted to negotiate a release of the hostages in exchange for being allowed to chose his trading partners. The British refused to negotiate with Koko, and he had forty of the hostages killed. A British report claimed that the Nembe people ate them. On 20 February 1895, Britain’s Royal Navy, under Admiral Bedford attacked Brass and burned it to the ground. Many Nembe people died and smallpox finished off a lot of others.
By April 1895, business had returned to “normal”, normal being the conditions that the British wanted, and King Koko was on the run. Brass was fined £500 by the British, £62,494 (NGN29 million) in today’s money, and the looted weapons were returned as well as the surviving prisoners. After a British Parliamentary Commission sat, King Koko was offered terms of settlement by the British, which he rejected and disappeared. The British promptly declared him an outlaw and offered a reward of £200 (£26,000; NGN12 million today) for him. He committed suicide in exile in 1898.
About that time, another “recalcitrant King”, the Oba of Benin, was run out of town. The pacification of the Lower Niger was well and truly underway. The immediate effect of the Brass Oil War was that public opinion in Britain turned against the Royal Nigeria Company, so its charter was revoked in 1899. Following the revoking of its charter, the Royal Niger Company sold its holdings to the British government for £865,000 (£108 million today). That amount, £46,407,250 (NGN 50,386,455,032,400, at today’s exchange rate) was effectively the price Britain paid, to buy the territory which was to become known as Nigeria.
N.B: This post was originally published on May 19, 2014
