TheNewsGuru

Author: Peter Tuketu

  • What if it is an Osinbajo vs Obi or Amaechi/Tinubu vs Atiku race? – By Mideno Bayagbon

    What if it is an Osinbajo vs Obi or Amaechi/Tinubu vs Atiku race? – By Mideno Bayagbon

    By Mideno Bayagbon

    (mideno@thenewsguru.ng)

    It is the week of primaries across the two major political parties, nationwide. Already, candidates are beginning to emerge for all the roles that need filling up in May 2023. States Houses of Assembly, House of Representatives, and Senate candidates, except in places where exigencies led to the postponement of the primaries, are now known.  As at press time, across the country, it has been surprisingly calm. Only one fatality, in Ogbia local government of Bayelsa state, has been reported. Very unlike the usual fare where thuggery and bloodshed are the common denominator.

    We have even had the rare privilege of seeing a defeated candidate, Orode Uduaghan, daughter of former Delta State Governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, congratulating her opponent who beat her at the primaries. A commendable gesture.

    But all our eyes are on the big one: the presidential primaries of the All Progressives Congress, APC; and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Whoever emerges in any of the parties will give us an indication of what 2023 and after holds in stock for Nigeria and Nigerians. For now however, the two parties are playing hide and seek with each other. They each want the other to conduct their primaries first. So in this game of the mind, it might come to the last minute before we eventually get to know who each party has selected to carry its flag. The suspicion is that both of them want to field candidates from the same geographical zone; but, if only they  think they have a better candidate who can floor the opponent in the election from that same zone.

    In this calculations, for example, if PDP were to pick Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as its flag bearer, the fear within the APC will be that there is no Southern candidate who can match him in the north. So APC will not want to field an Alhaji Bola Tinubu who may want to present a Moslem-Moslem ticket: Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu and an Alhaji  Abdullahi Umar Ganduje pair, which was on the card before Kwankwaso and Shekarau tore Ganduje’s remaining political capital to shreds, recently.

    There will be great revulsion in the South and Christian north against a Tinubu Moslem-Moslem ticket even though Tinubu has always believed that it can be managed, that he can swing it. Yet it was because Buhari and his minders did not believe, despite Tinubu’s assurances, that it can sail through in today’s religious, geographically and ethnically fractured Nigeria, that an Osinbajo, and not Tinubu ended up as Vice President to Buhari.

    Nevertheless, were he to present the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, a Christian, or even the current one, Boss Mustapha,  another Christian, the fear will be that the average Northern Moslem does not consider a Moslem from the South as a proper Moslem so will be suspicious of a Tinubu candidacy parading a Northern Christian. Again the average Northern Moslem may not feel comfortable enough to cast their vote for a Northern Christian as their  Vice Presidential representative. Not if blood thirsty radicals like Isa Ali Pantami, Buhari’s Aso Rock imam and minister for Communication and Digital Economy, and his bunch have a say.

    True, Tinubu says it has always been his life ambition to be President of Nigeria. True, too, he and his camp believe this is his God ordained time to achieve that feat. There is no doubt that he is one of the top three, if not the top candidate for the APC ticket. With his wealth, pedigree and political connections in the north, perhaps but for a few attenuating factors, this could actually be his time. But close watchers of his ambitious foray, aver that Tinubu’s boisterous optimism is hiding three critical fears.  First, his age. This is perhaps the last and only opportunity the one his admirers fondly call Jagaban or Asiwaju, has to claim the presidency of NIgeria. He will be well into his 80s before another opportunity presents itself.

    Moreover, the President’s notorious body language, and schemings by his close associates, do not seem to suggest that Tinubu has the President’s critical support. To put it mildly, he is not the Villa’s candidate. He would have to deploy massive counter offensives, which some reckon in Naira, Dollars and Pound Sterling to make a headway.

    Then there is the little matter of his health. Should he miss it this time, it is mostly likely the end of the road for his ambition to rule Nigeria. By the time another opportunity knocks, he will be too old, too frail to be of any contention. So for Asiwaju, this primaries is a do or die affair.

    So comes in Senate President Ahmed Lawan. He is from the same North East like Atiku Abubakar and a Moslem like him. Seemingly drafted into the race, in the last minute, he is the openly hidden hands of the die hard irredentists who want power to remain in the North, at all cost.  No doubt, he can easily get one of the so called Southern aspirants to kowtow to him as vice presidential candidate. Black sheep like Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, whose South Eastern region has been clamouring for the presidential slot of the parties to be zoned to them, has already jumped ship, hoping to be the one, despite the heavy political baggage he carries, who will be selected to be Vice Presidential candidate to Lawan. But this is politics in Nigeria where a bunch of people with criminal codes are among those who make laws and determine the future of the country.

    Like Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is on his last leg as an aspirant for the exalted position. He is about 76 years old currently. This is for him too a-do-or-die affair. Yet of all the candidates, in both parties, he is the one who has wanted it the most. He is the most prepared but age and zoning sentiments are not looking good for him. He is giving it his all but whether his all will convince Southern leaders and delegates to make him, yet again, PDP’s candidate is the waiting game we all have to participate in.

    Lets stretch the permutation further. Lets say APC comes up with an Osinbajo or an Amaechi, with potential of having a strong Northern Moslem as Vice. Will the PDP retaliate with a Peter Obi, who is currently riding high in the public mind, but is relatively unknown in the north; or a Nyesom Wike, the self-acclaimed mad man ready to fix the country? Of course they will go for a strong Moslem Vice Presidential candidate.

    What an interesting time it would be if the choices were Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo  (APC), versus a Peter Obi (PDP); or Rotimi Amaechi (APC) vs Nyesom Wike or Bala Mohammed, or Anyim Pius Anyim (PDP). Seemingly possible scenario: Atiku Abubakar versus Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    Well I am commenting as an outsider not privy to the last minute horse trading going on in the conclaves of the two parties. But one thing is sure: no Nigerian alive today can conveniently predict who will emerge the candidates of the two parties. It is that fluid. But a wild guess: Atiku Abubakar  (PDP) versus  Ahmed Lawan (APC). Rotimi Amaechi for President is a very high possibility.

  • Are you not ashamed to be called a Nigerian? – By Mideno Bayagbon

    Are you not ashamed to be called a Nigerian? – By Mideno Bayagbon

    By Mideno Bayagbon

    (mideno@thenewsguru.ng)

    I had wanted to write about the perfidy represented by the trio of the disgraceful Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele’s conduct; the unbelievable mumu-ishness of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan; and the shamelessness of Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige. But a late night discussion with a friend, whose medical condition kept him in the United Kingdom for almost one year, and hundreds of thousand of Pound Sterling later, changed all that. He had just returned with barely the skin of his life. God, and not medical science, has kept him alive. He is back and is immediately thrown into the abyss we have descended as nation. A symptom of which is darkness generated by 3000 megawatts of power shared by 200 million people.

    Our discussion; no, lamentation, stole my peace of mind, gave me a sleepless night. I tossed and tossed and wished in vain for sleep. My brain just couldn’t find enough rest to fall asleep. A resort to self help pills failed abysmally. A sense of shame, which is our collective lot, enveloped me. The comedic political nuisance sprouting all over Nigeria, ensured that sleep went on an uninvited sabbatical. How I wished, over and over again, that I didn’t have that discussion about Nigeria. But too late.

    My mind, on its own will went on an excavation of our history. It dived deep and was relentless. The mission being to find out where the rain started beating us. Where we fell into the cesspit. How far we have sunk. What, if anything, can be done to dig ourselves out of the deep morass. Questions kept popping up as I struggled with facts and history: where did we get it all wrong, who were the major actors? How could we not sustain the golden Yakubu GowonYakubu Gowon era in which all the major infrastructure, we have now destroyed or are pillaging, were conceived and built?

    Yes, the military misadventure into politics is the progenitor. It spurned the catastrophic civil war, it brought near-nitwits into power. It destroyed the foundation every developing nation relies on: its civil service and recruitment of quality manpower to man its leadership positions. It brought the brash but zealous Murtala Mohammed who destroyed a significant level of the nation’s development by destroying the civil service. He brought to an end the era of the Super Permanent Secretaries and well crafted and executed development plans which saw the Gowon regime transforming the economy and positioning it for massive development.

    The General Olusegun Obasanjo regime built major infrastructure by following the vision to make Nigeria a shining light in Africa and the world. This was a vision encapsulated in the already in-place development plan. The successive regimes that overthrew the civilian government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari put the final nail on the nation’s coffin. Surprisingly, the man at the helms of affairs in Aso Rock today, General Muhammadu Buhari, was a major player in the downward slope into the abyss. It is hardly a surprise that the leopard has not changed its skin. His current seven year tenure, as a civilian president, so far, has been an unmitigated disaster. He has taken the nation so far back that the average Nigerian life was better off in 1970 when the civil war ended than it is today. His is an incompetent, divisive and anachronistic government.

    The little modicum of quality civil service ethics left has since been thrown into the garbage dump by President Buhari’s clannish and fundamentalist adherence to religion and region. The only qualification needed under his government is not competence and top range education but what the Igbos describe as mma-madu! You have to be related somehow to Buhari, come from a certain section of Nigeria and practice a particular strand of his religion; and or be affiliated to one of his minions. That is all that qualifies you. There is no department or ministry today where competence, quality, experience and right education have not been sacrificed.

    In 62 years of unbelievable wealth thrown on our lap by God, we are today not just the poverty capital of the world, we are the laughing stock to our poor neighbouring countries and indeed the entire world. Take for example, Ghana and Benin Republic. Today, they are ranked far higher than Nigeria in the human capital development index. They are more stable, more secure and rated higher on the world development scale than richly blessed Nigeria. Ghanaians indeed mock Nigerians as a stupid set of people, a failed state. Small Ghana with GDP less than Lagos, Rivers and maybe a few other states. They laugh at our stupidity, at our self-inflicted power situation where probably hundreds of billions of dollars have been sunk into darkness. They laugh at our destroyed educational sector. The laugh at the fact that poor to middle level Nigerians, who cannot afford to pay the higher fees in Europe, Canada and the Americas, now flood Ghana and Benin Republic mushroom universities. They laugh at the trash piece that is now our Naira.

    And it is not their fault. Like everything else, we have destroyed the outstanding educational system, which till about the middle of the 1980s, was among the best worldwide. Yet, a failed Labour Minister, Chris Ngige, whose seven years tenure has seen to the total destruction of all that is left of our tertiary education wants to be president. All public universities since the Buhari regime started have spent most of the years on shut down. Yet, Ngige was bold enough to fork out N100 million to buy the expression of interest and nomination forms of the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential forms. He too, unbelievably wanted to be president of Nigeria. A man who has failed so spectacularly in the assignment he was given wants to be the Lord of the manor.

    From being a nation which enjoyed medical tourism from other nations, whose universities competed with the best in the world; from being a nation which produced the Chinua Achebes, the Wole Soyinkas, Cyprian Ekwensis and the legion of literary scholars, a nation which produced the Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the Ahmadu Bello, Sarduana Sokoto, we have become a nation of beggarly Lilliputians. We have become a nation where the worst of us rides roughshod over the best of us. We have become a nation whose best brain drains or get sentenced to stew in poverty, unrecognised and unappreciated. We have become a nation where a professor earns less than a local government councillor in real terms. Hence it is no surprise that most of our best brains, in every field, have fled and are fleeing the nation to go to other nations where they are valued and appreciated.

    Today, following the bad example set by President Muhammadu Buhari, who has failed in almost every area of governance, all who can afford it, not wanting to take the risk of getting treated in a Nigerian hospital, are all flooding Europe, India and America for treatment for illnesses and diseases which were easily handled by our doctors even as far back as 50 years ago.

    What kept me awake all night is the fact that we are a nation that likes living in denial. Like the ostrich, instead of confronting the myriad of problems confronting the nation and Nigerians, we bury our heads in the sands of self deluding politics, ethnicity and religion. We are engrossed in the feverish pitch of 2023 elections as if that is a be all ultimate solution to all our problems. And taking their clue, a sleuth of no good politicians are flooding the land wanting to replace the incompetence of the Buhari regime with a more confounding incompetence. That accounts for the lack of vision, the lack of detailed plans by any of the aspirants on how to tackle the devilish evils roaming naked around the country.

    It is clear that until the nation lines behind a shared vision, until our best brains are allowed to take over the reins, until we return excellency to our civil service and governance, until we decide to place the education of our youths on the top cylinder and rejig our health system, hoping that the 2023 presidential and other elections will somehow, by some fluke, produce the leaders who will drag us back from the precipice of the looming implosion will just be another pipe dream, a mirage never held in pursuit.

  • My N100m presidential nomination form – I don get alert – By Mideno Bayagbon

    My N100m presidential nomination form – I don get alert – By Mideno Bayagbon

    By Mideno Bayagbon

    (mideno@thenewsguru.ng)

    Acct101****970
    Debit, 03-05-2022 0700hrs
    Desc:TRF O… GODWIN
    Purpose: ALL PROGRESSIVE CONGRESS (PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION FORM AND EXPR INTEREST FOR MIDENO BAYAGBON)
    Amt:N100,000,000.00
    Bal:419,205.11
    REF:3585567794

    I am happy to report that I have joined the gang of Nigerian big-boiz politicians, (at least in my dreams), who get nebulous pretender groups, unknown associations and persons to go to the secretariat of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, purportedly to buy expression of interest and nomination forms for them. The pretence is, they are so in demand, so saviour-like, that groups and persons are begging them to contest for the presidency of the country.

    Mine came in the form of a text message. The message was crisp and short: “I just paid for your APC Presidential nomination form my brother. My contribution to your Presidential ambition”

    Imagine my shock; the sheer level of disbelief. Imagine how many times my heart skipped a beat when I opened my phone and the content of the alert was the text above. Unbelievable. A good Samaritan has taken it upon himself to pay the humongous N100 million fee demanded by the corruption abetting, and deeply conniving All Progressives Congress, APC.

    Recall that a while back I had written that I Have Been Ordered To Join 2023 Presidential Race. And in trying to justify my reluctant entrance, I had written the following as an introduction: Here is the news: I have been ordered to join the 2023 Presidential race. This is authentic. It is, as it were, from the horse’s mouth. And I have no choice. Consider it a fait accompli. I have been ordered and it is compulsory that I obey; no questions asked. The order has come from quarters no man in his right senses would disobey. It has come from the one I sometimes call, head of government or Amebo Deno!

    All I can say for now, is that you, my dear friends, and enemies alike, get ready. Get ready to give your widow’s mite. Get ready to pound the streets, knock on doors, shake every hand, and take the message to all the hamlets, villages, towns and cities of this country. It is urgent, it is incumbent. No excuses. No dilly dallying. We will win the race without the billions of stolen funds politicians have stacked.

    Yet I did not, even in my wildest dreams, think of going into Nigerian politics. I have over the years resisted every attempt to co-opt me into it. I have rejected appointments up to the federal level and refused serious attempts to drag me into contesting for political offices. Yes, yet here I am, now fully into the race and I am starting at the top. I am now ready to give all the Tinubus, the Amaechi, the Anyims, the Atiku Abubakars, the Sarakis, and so on, a run for their money. And I will triumph, beating them silly, even in their homesteads.

    Somehow, someone, somewhere, a well heeled acquittance, had taken the above to heart. And seriously, like so many people who have volunteered to be of service in one area of the campaign or the other, decided to concretise the dream by “donating” the outrageous sum demanded by the corruption deodorising APC leadership.

    I was still in this euphoric state when I woke up to news that some unnamed farmers have also decided to toe the part of the Nigerian comedy. They too have decided to sell a cup of garri here, an egg over there, some tomatoes in the neighbourhood, and generally have gathered millions of other farmers, to buy the N100 million APC Presidential Nomination Form for the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele. How come I didn’t know Emefiele was such a messiah to Nigerian farmers? I burst out laughing. I laughed hard and long at the unfolding tragicomedy before I could check myself. This is serious, I found myself muttering seconds later, still stewed in shock and disbelief.

    Then the floodgate of other groups allegedly buying the N100 million forms expanded further. Minister of State, Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva, was all celebratory as he attempted to make Nigerians believe, that yet another group, Good People of Nigeria, without his knowledge have somehow magically bought him the forms. I was still ruminating over this when yet another news flashed. This time with definitely the icing on the cake: the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), or a group pretending to be them, claimed to have bought the N100 million forms for the dilly dallying former President Goodluck Jonathan. No questions asked. They promptly hit the media with the story. By the time Ikechukwu Eze, the spokesman of the former President issued a statement distancing Jonathan from the group, the damage had already been done.

    For some fleeting seconds the names of other presidential aspirants who some curious groups and persons have allegedly bought the nomination forms for, scrolled through my inner mind: Alhaji Bola Ahmed TINUBU, Vice President Yemi OSINBAJO, Minister of Niger Delta and former Governor of Akwa Ibom state, GODSWILL AKPABIO; Africa Development Bank President, Akinwumi Adesina; just to name a few.

    Nigeria is now so prosperous that Okada riders, bicycle repairers, and daily labourers are pulling all their sweat together. They are forgetting the hunger, the insecurity, the poverty ravaging their families. They are raising, borrowing or stealing N100 million to buy forms for the same politicians whose thievery and ineptitude have ensured their lives is brutish, short and contemptuous.

    Nigerians are expected to believe that hungry, unemployed youths, some women group or associations banding together to raise N100 million to buy the APC forms to beg an Akpabio, or an Adesina to run for office as President. It is like Nigerians are a fooled collective, easily deceived and swayed. At least that is what we seemingly are, in the estimation of the politicians in both the APC and PDP. We are such a bunch of fools. That must be why Nigeria politicians motto remains: let the people be fooled.

    The impunity of it all. The sheer devilry in trying to fool the people into believing the lie. They forget the saying attributed to iconic American President, Abraham Lincoln, which says: You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

    What this all boil down to, in my reasoning, is that Nigeria and Nigerians are still not serious about bringing the country back from the brinks of economic, social and political implosion. The politicians think we are in a circus. They think they are the master manipulators. They think they can always deceive us, rape us at will, with no consequence at all. That is why apart from Peter Obi or so, none of them has come out with any serious plans on how they intend to tackle the myriad of problems the Buhari government, especially, and all the others, have pushed us into. Today, we are no longer even a third world country. We ‘are a big for nothing pre Atom Age lilliputians. We are a joke to the rest of the world. No one takes us seriously. We don’t ourselves. So why should others.

    Take the case of Godwin Emefiele. He sits tight as Central Bank Governor and has been, in some cases in collaboration with the Attorney General, Malami, in raiding the courts for ways to breach the CBN Act. He wants to continue to be CBN Governor while pursuing his ambition of trying to become president. Or take the case of Chris Ngige, the Labour minister, whose seven years tenure in that ministry has seen universities shut down for more than half of that time. Like most Nigerian politicians, they are desperate. They lack character. They lack integrity. They insult us all by their perfidious behaviour. That is why they and all those who rubbishes our intelligence with claims of groups buying nomination forms for them, should go hide their heads in shame. Nigeria deserves better than them.
    In other climes, their types end up in the rubbish dump of history.

  • Obasanjo’s k-leg visits APC as Fulanis plot 2023 dark horse – By Mideno Bayagbon

    Obasanjo’s k-leg visits APC as Fulanis plot 2023 dark horse – By Mideno Bayagbon

    By Mideno Bayagbon

    (mideno@thenewsguru.ng)

    For those who thought it was a settled matter in the All Progressives Congress (APC), that its presidential flag bearer would come from the South, in the forthcoming 2023 presidential election, a rude awakening greeted them last week. Two new, but related twists, surfaced sending shock waves into the camps of aspirants. The two events amount to what former President Olusegun Aremu Okikiola Obasanjo would describe as K-Leg to the aspirations of Southern candidates.

    First, the new Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Adamu, came out to announce, against the reported instructions by President Muhammadu Buhari and perceived agreements of party leaders, that NO, the party has not concluded on which part of the country its flag bearer will emerge from. Before now, it was assumed, as a concluded matter, that the party’s candidate will emerge from the South.

    Secondly, from being whispers in dark crevices, the light shown on the rumour that Senate President, Dr Ahmed Lawan, is the hidden hand of the Fulani North which it intends to unveil as the dark horse, the consensus candidate of the power bloc whose ascendancy came with the foisting of former Nasarawa State Governor and Senator, Abdullahi on the party as chairman.

    Before now, the brash, poorly performing governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, was the only one from the North, who had indicated interest in, and indeed tried to canvass votes to contest for the candidacy of the APC. Most of the other aspirants were from the South. This appeared in line with the convention in the party whereby offices and positions are rotated between the South and North. The Southerners who lined up so far include Professor Yemi Osinbajo; the Jagaban, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu; and Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, the Transportation Minister. There are also Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi; former Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun; former Abia State Governor and now Federal Minister, Ogbonnaya Onu; Labour Minister, Senator Chris Ngige. There are also former Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha; former Senate President, Ken Nnamani; Cross River State Governor, Prof Ben Ayade with his oversized ego, are also posturing for the past. So was former Governor and now Senator Orji Uzor Kalu.

    Lurking in the wings is Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, who most thought was the hidden hand of the mafia around the President, who they had wanted to impose as the consensus candidate of the party. Of course, there is Goodluck Jonathan, our former President who, most are surprised, is even considering contesting for the position, against popular opinion. The Minister of Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio and Minister of State, Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, as at last week, were carefully still weighing their options and were still consulting. They too, may join the crowded field of aspirants from the South. It is becoming a comical circus out there in the APC.

    Most people were first introduced to the new twist in the APC flag bearer race when Senator Orji Uzor Kalu came out smoking with anger that the two other zones in the South, that is the South West and South South were fielding candidates for the race when it should be clear that there should be a concerted effort and agreement to get the position zoned to the South East. Kalu who was jailed for corruption but was sprung out on technicalities, huffing with self righteous indignation, withdrew his hat from the ring. Accusing the Southern aspirants of bad faith, he carefully threw in the spanner in the wheel: if they won’t allow the South East run alone for the position, then it should be flung open to all.

    Hidden in all this make belief anger, if you ask me, is an attempt to position himself for a Vice Presidential slot to a Northern candidate. Not just any northern candidate, but one from the North East. Senator Kalu copies Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s argument, that the North East, like the South East, has never produced a Nigerian President. And surprise, surprise! Who is from the North East interested in the position? The soon-to-be unveiled Senate President, Ahmed Lawan! It would be recalled that both himself and Kalu were roommates at the University of Maiduguri, before Kalu was expelled for presenting dubious certificates. But now, Orji Uzor Kalu in pretending to fight for a President of Nigeria of Igbo origin, is attempting to eat his cake and have it. Selling his people and still attempting to make all believe he is fighting for them.

    In all of this, it is clear the manipulating hands, who have seized power in the APC, are not relenting in their wish to foist on the nation whoever they want as the President of Nigeria. They have been very frontal, calculative and daring in their push. First, it was to be former President Goodluck Jonathan. The reasoning then was that the nation was on the brink of an implosion arising from the insensitive, parochial religious and ethnic zealotry championed by President Buhari. They felt there was the need for a unifying figure to be enthroned to avert it. Jonathan, then riding high in public opinion, was to be the ideal candidate for this reason, and for the fact that he can only serve a four year term. Then power will return to the Fulani and conservative wing of the North.

    With public opinion seriously now against a Jonathan coming back as candidate of the APC, with all the implications for the party, a rethink then threw up a Godwin Emefiele. A fawning Emefiele has been the good boy who made their easy access to the Central Bank of Nigeria, in the last seven years, possible. They rewarded him with automatic renewal of his tenure and ensured that his was the first reappointment President Buhari made after he was sworn in for second term. Over the years they have backed him to be another Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to usurp supervising authority over most of the economic sectors. That is why Emefiele as CBN Governor has often attempted to lord it over several ministers. Now, it is Ahmed Lawan who is poised to make a formal declaration this week.

    The South, as usual has shown its true colours: leaderless, spineless, unorganised and void of strategic thinking and thinkers. With Tinubu checkmated and Osinbajo of no great political consequence yet, what can a Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi do to counter this bold move to damn all consequences and have the Fulani North retain power for another eight years?

    Senior party officials spoken to seem to believe though that Lawan being positioned as the dark horse is part of the game the party is playing with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party. Both are delaying announcing the zone its presidential candidate will emerge from. The thinking being that if the PDP zones its candidate to the South, the APC might just reconsider, depending on the perceived strength of the opponent’s candidate, to zone its own to the North. That is where a dark horse Lawan will fit in.

    But most people do not buy this. They say any attempt to get the North to rule for another eight years will not be acceptable. The people of the South and indeed all Nigerians who have endured the gross, incompetent misrule of the Buhari years might just rise up in anger and the consequences will be anybody’s guess

  • Aisha Buhari, N100m nomination forms and our mumu of the week – By Mideno Bayagbon

    Aisha Buhari, N100m nomination forms and our mumu of the week – By Mideno Bayagbon

    The summons when it came was urgent. It was novel, so it rang all the curiosity bells. And one of the presidential aspirants, invited on short notice, to the bounteous Ramadan (Iftar) fast breaking with Aisha Buhari, was heard muttering: Nothing wey Musa, the gateman, no go see for gate for this country! Recall, that, out of the blues, the First Lady, during her cameo visit to the country, last week, from her palatial Dubai base, summoned presidential aspirants to come and break fast with her.

    While some thought it was a goodwill gesture, others felt, what the heck? On what basis, and from what law does she derive her powers to summon, okay invite, those aspiring to take over from her husband next year? Most of those summoned, however, had to double guess the political capital of either honouring her; to dine with her behind her husband, the President’s back, or incur her wrath by ignoring the summons.

    For those who are Christians, the story of Biblical Queen Esther, wife of King Ahasuerus, the all conquering King of ancient Persia, perhaps moderated their decision. A Jewish slave girl turned queen, Queen Esther had the onerous task of saving her people from genocide and extermination devised by a power-hungry confidant of the King who hated the Jews because one of them, Mordecai, arrogantly refused to bow and pay obeisance to him. Queen Esther had to use all her subtlety and charm to organise a special dinner to which only the king and his ambitious lieutenant, the conniving Haman were invited. Too late did Haman realise that it was a dinner of death, a setup for which he paid the supreme price on the gallows he had prepared to hang Mordecai, who unbeknownst to him is Esther’s uncle.

    This is not to imply that the First Lady had any such deviousness behind her summon. For as it turned out, she just wanted an occasion to contribute to the political discourse. She wanted to be reckoned on the side of the women of Nigeria and be their voice in canvassing for recognition, for concession, for consideration for higher political roles. In this case, since no notable woman has shown any interest in vying for governor of any state or president of Nigeria, she felt they should be coopted and be made deputies and Vice President.

    Nevertheless, some who know how estranged the President’s wife is in Aso Rock knew better than to attend the Ramadan Iftar. Not knowing what the First Lady was up to with her invitation they took caution and absented themselves. They just could not risk offending either the President or his minders, who from all indications were not invited and were not part of the dinner. Attending could have huge implications on whether a particular aspirant emerged the anointed candidate or not of the All Progressives Congress.

    This was of no consequence to the self acclaimed National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He was the only one among the top three contenders to make it to Aso Rock. He led a short list of aspirants, which included the joker from Ebonyi state, Governor Dave Umahi. The list surprisingly also included Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Bala Mohammed who is Governor of Bauchi State.

    Political watchers are not sure what the motivation was for the Jagaban of Borgu. But detractors are quick to claim that the out-of-favour former Governor of Lagos State with Aso Rock Insiders, including, it is rumoured, President Buhari, perhaps saw an opportunity to recruit Aisha to his side. He is in a fight of his life to confront the mafia around the president who do not want him to be president. As he confessed, his life long ambition has always been to be president of Nigeria. But how he will package his Moslem-Moslem ticket and convince Nigerians to vote for him is another kettle of fish altogether. That is, if he is able to overcome the opposition from Aso Rock, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi to emerge the candidate of the APC.

    Some have asked me, why I did not attend to the summons by Aisha Buhari. And I am quick to tell them that, apart from other aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party who probably were not lucky enough to be gifted this epochal invitation, presidential hopefuls like Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo joined me in boycotting the presumably sumptuous assortment of delicacies that were on offer. My big brother and friend, Professor Oserhiemen Osunbor, former Governor of Edo state, represented Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. I also adopted him as my representative!

    News filtering out of the repass however indicates that Aisha told those who ate her dinner that they must consider making their Vice Presidential candidates females. The Jagaban and the rest of them have kept sealed lips since after the dinner. But Aisha did achieve her goal: get into media limelight; irritate her tormentors in the Villa.

    N100 MILLION NOMINATION FORM

    Shame to all my friends, supporters and all those who have sent in messages of support, urging me to fully throw my hat into the ring and run for the 2023 Presidential Election. I have waited and waited for them to build me a war chest with which I will stand on to commence in earnest. Rather disturbing is the fact that none of them has come forward with either a N60 million or N100 million cheque to enable me get the nomination form of either the Peoples Democratic Party or the All Progressives Congress.

    As the two leading parties have made known, their nomination form is the first hurdle any aspirant will have to cross to show proper interest in the race. While the PDP is asking interested aspirants to cough out N60 million, its rival, which says it is fighting corruption, has mandated all aspirants to bring a paltry N100 million each for the form. Like some analyst have properly shown, the legitimate emolument of a Nigerian President in eight years comes short of N100 million.

    The electoral law has stipulated that the maximum a presidential candidate should spend on the election is N5 billion which we all know cannot elect even a governor of the poorest state in Nigeria.

    I think I have to do a rethink and a rejigging of those I call my friends and those who want to impose themselves on me as friends. I can’t believe that no group has come up to offer me the money for the forms. Yet groups and individuals are falling over themselves offering to buy the form for Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Yemi Osinbajo, Rotimi Amaechi and even for the stingy, bad market Peter Obi!

    Which also sends me a message: they do not think that funding my election is a good investment. They know I will not steal, and I will never allow anyone in my government to. Which means if you splash N100 million or N5 billion on my campaign with the hope you have a rich harvest ahead, you must be a BIG MUMU.

    LAST LINE: No doubt, the mumu of the week must be former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan! A ragtag, possibly induced gang of youths allegedly stormed the former President’s office to urge him to contest for the 2023 Presidential Election last week. Jonathan and those who don’t wish him well must believe the people of Nigeria are deceived.

    A shame that he wants to use his own hands to destroy the little credibility the outstandingly clueless and poor governance of President Buhari has given him. A shame really.

  • Yemi Osinbajo mans up and Tinubu’s camp is furious and afraid – By Mideno Bayagbon

    Yemi Osinbajo mans up and Tinubu’s camp is furious and afraid – By Mideno Bayagbon

    What an interesting and exciting week this young week is turning out to be. It opened with a lot of exciting promises on the political turf. And the star so far has been the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, grabbing all the headlines in both the traditional media and on the social media platforms. A strategically oiled media plan, on the cheap, was unrolled. Deliberately, speculations were fuelled, that finally, the VP will soon be jumping into the political fray, dare the Lion of Bourdilion, man up, and challenge him to the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

    They let leak that he will be meeting with all the governors on the APC platform to inform them of his desire to contest the primaries of the party. Then the meeting holds, culminating in a recorded video in which Prof Osinbajo formally declares his intention.

    The declaration turns out to be the star declaration so far. Done on the cheap but with maximum media exposure. Not for him the rally in a jam packed stadium, like Transportation Minister, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi did the week before. Not for him also the Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu declaration style. He goes for the simple, modern and adroit use of the media with astonishing results.

    For instance, without seemingly spending a Kobo, on Twitter, in less than six hours, there were 345,000 views of his declaration video. It also attracted 27,000 likes, 18,000 retweets and over 3 million impressions. As monitored by TNG reporters, on YouTube, there were 15,000 views within six hours. These are outside the free, wide publicity which all the newspapers and online news platforms gave him. Facebook and Instagram did not fail him too as hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Nigerians, were forced to receive the news of the declaration. Quite impressive.

    Something tells me a paragraph is being taken from former President Barack Obama’s campaign strategy notes. Without the traditional caucuses behind his ambition, without endorsements from the established political quarters, especially from his original political family, the Bola Tinubu political machinery in the South West, there seems to be a plan to use the media as a catalyst. The target are the youths who are digital natives in all the social media platforms. I suspect the Vice President does not plan to run the typical campaign. I can decipher that he plans to leverage on the social media to reach the unreached youths, and like Obama, mobilise them to push his campaign to fruition.

    But then there is the almighty roadblock: the primaries which are just slightly over a month away. How this plan will mobilise the grassroots and different tendencies in the party which will determine who eventually triumphs to carry the flag of the APC , is still under construction, I assume.

    Two things stand between him and his ambition. One, he is more of an academic, a technocrat and religious leader than a politician. Which means, unlike a Bola Tinubu and an Amaechi with well oiled political bases, his political strength lies only on his being Vice President to a poorly performing President, whose support, for now, is doubtful.

    Secondly, there is the tiny issue of cash. Billions of them in Naira and other currencies, that he needs to oil and fuel his strategy to garner as superior votes to put him in pole position; and eventual win. Not before now known as a man of means, except there are tangible signals from Aso Rock that he is the man President Buhari has anointed, the opportunistic moneybags who usually throw in humongous cash to back “sure bankers’ will not be available to him. How will he then, without a solid political base and without the billions to buy delegates, be able to confront his former boss, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who some of his close aides have boasted, money will not be a problem, even if it means budgeting more than a billion Naira per state and Abuja. We are talking of at least N37 billion on the day of the primaries. But then a day is indeed a very long time in politics. Who knows, Tinubu who publicly denounced him, two days ago, can still back him, if superior forces intervene!

    For now, however, for his temerity in throwing his hat into the ring, instead of queuing behind the Jagaban, he has turned out a leper and an orphan in that circle. Asked about one of his sons, that’s the Vice President, declaring his interest to contest the primaries of the APC for the Presidential ticket, the self acclaimed leader of the APC could hardly conceal his disgust: “I don’t have any son grown up enough to make such declaration” he told journalists.

    APC leadership in Lagos, the assumed constituency of both the VP and Bola Tinubu, following their leader’s cue, promptly declared that they do not know VP Osinbajo as their member. The VP is not a member of the APC in Lagos they shouted from the roof top.

    One of Tinubu’s attack dogs, Joe Igbokwe, was furious in his reprimand of the VP. He ordered him to withdraw immediately from the race. He said “Let me drop it here for history and posterity: if you are one of the people Asiwaju raised up and you are eyeing the presidency of the federal republic of Nigeria, show respect and withdraw from the race.”

    From the opposition, RENO OMOKRI: had the most critical of views on Osinbajo’s declaration. He said; ”Osinbajo’s declaration speech was watery and baseless. First of all, how could he say he is running to “complete the task” that Buhari started? Buhari stated extreme poverty and overwhelming security for Nigeria. Under Buhari, our country’s debt has grown from ₦12 trillion in 2015, to almost ₦50 trillion this year (if the new ₦6 trillion loan requests are granted. If Osinbajo is running to “complete” that, then he is running to completely destroy what is left of Nigeria!

    ”Osinbajo said he is running to provide jobs for millions. Those were his exact words. The fellow has been in charge of Nigeria’s economy for the last seven years, according to Buhari, who boasted that Osinbajo heads his economic management team . Yet, Nigerians have lost jobs created by other administrations. His job record is FAILURE! Nigeria has less jobs now, than in 2015, and our unemployment rate has increased from 12% in 2015, to 33% according to the National Bureau of Statistics….

    ”For years, Osinbajo has been posing as an intellectual. So, at the very least, we expected his declaration speech to be filled with his achievements in office. But it was instead filled with promises. Empty promises. Because he and Buhari have no achievements to show for their wasted seven years”

    Reno Omokri of course was reacting to the following promises by Professor Osinbajo: “If by the grace of God and the will of the people, I am given the opportunity, then I believe that first, we must complete what we have started; radically transforming our security and intelligence architecture, completing the reform of our justice system focusing on adequate remuneration and welfare of judicial personnel.

    “We will work together by the grace of God. The Nigeria of our dreams in a few short years. We will build on the foundation laid by our predecessors. We will need to move, with much speed, intentionality, and perseverance, towards the vision of a prosperous, stable, and secure nation.

    “I am convinced beyond doubt that we have the creativity, the courage, the talent, and the resources to be the foremost black nation on earth. Let us now birth the expectations of greatness conceived by generations before us.

    “Let us build a Nigeria where the man from Nnewi sees the man in Gusau as his brother, where the woman in Warri sees the woman in Jalingo as her sister, where the love of our nation burns alike in the hearts of boys and girls from Gboko to Yenogoa.

    “Where everywhere, in this land, is home for everyone, where our diversities, tribes and faiths unite, rather than divide us.

    “Let our tribes become one tribe; the Nigerian tribe, where all are treated fairly, justly and with respect–where all are given equal access to the abundant opportunities that God has bestowed on this nation. It’s time.

    There is no doubt the entrance of Osinbajo into the race portends great drama and promises. Could he be the game changer?

  • 2023: Of Buhari, Governors and Aso Rock as major Corruption enablers – By Mideno Bayagbon

    2023: Of Buhari, Governors and Aso Rock as major Corruption enablers – By Mideno Bayagbon

    By Mideno Bayagbon

    (mideno@thenewsguru.ng)

    NIgeria has been one hectic hell hole to live in in the last three weeks. If it is not the impunity of unpunished adulterated fuel and its contrived scarcity, it is the corrupt national grid collapsing, for the one millionth time. Marry that to the uncouth drama happening in the two main buccaneering parties: the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. And for good measure, mix these with the issue of climate change which some people still see as oyibo people talk. The dramatic hotness in the weather in Abuja and across the country, especially in the northern part in the last two months, should make them have a rethink. With no fuel, no light, no food, the heat has made night rest for most people an aggravated nightmare.

    From his London luxury pad, the President sent us a make una no vex press release! Finally, for a moment, but temporarily so, joy and hope swelled in the hearts of Nigerians. Some even started a premature jubilation that perhaps the London doctors have succeeded in fixing the painful ears of the President which have prevented him from hearing the loud wailings of Nigerians over the devastating impact of the abysmally managed economy. For a delusional moment I joined in hoping that perhaps things are about to turn the corner, for better. For a fleeting second, I thought the President was about taking the bull of leadership by the horns. That he was about to stem this tide on the road to Golgotha. But it was an unreasonable hope.

    The President returns. He gets drowned in the contrived crises of his party which he helped foment before jetting off to yet another medical tourism in the United Kingdom. Recall that he had hurried back from Kenya three weeks ago to militarily dismiss the Yobe state Governor, Mai Buni, from the interim headship of the All Progressives Congress. He forgot he was now a civilian not a military dictator. He didn’t know that was power the law does not allow him. He imposed a new head, from whose feet the carpet was easily pulled off, before resuming his medical trip to the United Kingdom.

    Since his return, he has put the euphoria of make una no vex into the dustbin. He is his usual self: ensconced in Aso Rock but yet to remember that he is President over Africa’s largest country. None of the myriad of problems which are the daily lived reality of Nigerians is seemingly of any concern to him. He is consistent in this, however.

    Consistent too have been the Governors of both parties. Whether in APC or PDP, the Governors are breaking heads, crushing every opposing bone to their demand to have the final say in their parties. They are unabashedly, pompously usurping the leadership powers of their parties and want to be the final voice and authority in taking critical decisions. In this, there are no APC or PDP. They are behaving exactly alike. They are the engine rooms of funds for their parties and want to dictate the tune all their members, including President Buhari must dance to.

    It did not start today. As we say in Waffi: it has taeyed! Remember how powerful PDP Governors were and how their say so must be obeyed? Remember the Ibori’s, the Sarakis, the Tinubus, and the Amaechi’s? Their overlordship was the beginning of wisdom for their party. Even with a strong man President, Olusegun Obasanjo, they forced the PDP to present mostly themselves as the Presidential aspirants and eventually candidate of their parties. Or be the ones to decide who the candidates should be.

    That accounts for all the brickbats, the name callings, the fighting and the commotion in the two front-line parties. That, for example, explains the indecorous tongue lashing the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike gave first the deputy Governor of Edo state, Phillip Shuaibu and his principal: Godwin Obaseki. As everyone knows, Wike says he has carried the party on his head, funding it and leading it for the past seven years. He expects to be the final authority, on every issue in the party. This is more so now that he is beginning to think that he too can be President.

    Even Obaseki, a new comer in Edo PDP, is lording it over all. All the prominent chieftains have been running from pillar to post, trying to hide their heads from Obaseki’s slammer.

    Almost all the umbrella party Governors are underground soliciting support to emerge their party’s candidate.
    Even an Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta state, unbelievably is wasting state resources on this gambit. So are Aminu Tambuwal, Udom Emmanuel and others. Patent failures at the state level want to bring their monumental incompetences to the federal level. They have their state resources to plunder for their vaunting ambitions. Unfortunately, their ambitions are dead on arrival.

    In the APC, it even got to a ridiculous extent that one of the Governors, who says he has 18 others on his side, called four others Yahoo Yahoo Governors for siding with the trouble Governor Mai Buni. Again, like in the PDP, each of the Governors either want to be his party’s candidate for the Presidential election next year or have a huge voice in choosing who should be.

    The questions to ask is simple: why are Governors so powerful in the two parties? Why do they always want to cast the deciding votes in each of the parties? The answer is simple. At the centre of the fight over who should control the parties, is to ask a follow up question: who has been funding the parties, and where will the parties get the monies they are going to use to fund the 2023 elections? The answer again is simple: the Governors. They are the ones funding the parties. They are the ones who are going to fund the elections next year.

    Let’s amend that. The APC is in power and Buhari, despite his pious mouthing of anti-corruption, is a willing collaborator in the slush funds that were used to fund his re-election in 2019. Does anyone remember how EFCC and other agencies were used to harangue Atiku and the source of his funds? Was that ever replicated for the Buhari re-election campaign team? That will be the day when the President will come out, Koran in hand, and swear, that it was not corrupt or money from the CBN, MDAs, parastatals and so on that were used to fund his re-election.

    The APC already has its “funding formula” and Governors are not going to be major players in it. That’s what makes President Buhari the sole proprietor of the APC currently. His handlers will handle the funding. He will decide and undecide. He will choose and pick. He will in real terms decide who will fly the APC flag next year. That is why the 19 Governors suddenly found that their victory in instigating the throwing out of Mai Buni turned pyrrhic.

    Nevertheless, ask yourself, when Governors say they are the funders of their parties, is it their personal monies they use or state resources? Where for example, with all his loud mouth and posturing, did Wike get the monies he has been using to fund the PDP in the last how many years? Which job or major business has he done, all his life, which gave him the humongous monies he has spent on the PDP? Replicate this for all the Governors and you will find that most have been career politicians without any major pedigree in business or economy. Most are politics and office billionaires: appropriating their state resources for their personal and political party usage.

    In all of this, it is clear that Governors are the major enablers of corruption in Nigeria. In APC, there is the added fact that Aso Rock handlers are the chiefest enablers of corruption in the land today. That accounts for who they are backing to replace President Buhari. They want the sweet lollipop of free federal monies to continue beyond the Buhari Presidency. They will try to ram through their desire but the APC with its three contending blocs will implode.

    That is a major reason why it makes more sense today to go back to the Parliamentary system. It will kill these centres of corruption and the nation and people will be the better for it.

  • PDP ‘OWNERS’ FIGHT ATIKU, SARAKI, KWANKWASO – By Mideno Bayagbon

    PDP ‘OWNERS’ FIGHT ATIKU, SARAKI, KWANKWASO – By Mideno Bayagbon

     

    The fight over who controls the party machinery and where and to whom the party’s presidential flag should go, is generating intense heat in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Up in arms are Governors, who through their not so subtle financial strength have funded the party since the All Progressives Congress (APC), supplanted it and became the governing party.

    As it was the case, when the PDP held sway for 16 years at Aso Rock, and indeed nationally, Governors of the PDP, with Governor Nyesom Wike as arrowhead, have drawn the battle line. They want to be on the driving seat in deciding who should be the party’s flag bearer in the coming presidential election. You can amend that to read, they want possibly one of the governors, to be the flag bearer of the party. Read that too to mean: Nyesom Wike, Aminu Tambuwal, Bala Mohammed, Udom Emmanuel, Ifeanyi Okowa, want to be the kingmakers and one of them probably the king himself.

    The case of Nyesom Wike is well known. It is mainly him and a sprinkling of a few others who carried the party on their shoulders in the last almost seven years. Wike has played the role of the leader of the party, funding it, gathering like minds together, and almost daily “terrorising” the ruling APC government. It was he who put in place the recently dissolved executives of the party, headed by Uche Secondus. To a large extent, he singlehandedly chose a large number of the members of the current executive council of the party. If insiders are to be believed, he brought most of the funds for the convention. Don’t ask me from where he got the money to so do.

    For someone who insiders say is not interested in running for the office of president, but Tuesday warned that no one can stop him should he decide to run for the office, his criss crossing the country, flying his state’s private jet from one state capital to the other, has raised curious eyes even as he has succeeded in mobilising the governors to work together as a team. Nevertheless, how far he has succeeded in his second agenda, zoning the presidency to the South, is yet to be seen.

    Recall his anger during the last primaries of the party which was held in Port Harcourt. That was when the party’s flag bearer in the person of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, emerged despite Wike”s wishes. Today, all PDP presidential aspirant know that to ignore the Rivers State Governor, or discount his influence in the party, is to court trouble in capital letters. As is, Wike seems to have learnt one or two lessons from his failure to have his way at the last primaries. Hence, it seems, he has gone into alliance with all the governors of the party to form a gangatuan coalition to forestal an Atiku, or anyone without their backing, from becoming the flag bearer of the party in the coming Presidential Primaries of the party.

    How this will impact the ambition of the Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, who is a Wike co-conspirators, since he is also pounding the pavements, consulting party leaders across the country, is yet to be known.

    One needs no clairvoyant powers to guess who the opponents of this gang up and the major targets of the governors are. No doubt, Atiku Abubakar, Bukola Saraki and former Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State. They are not only nursing presidential ambitions, but have teamed up with some leaders of the party who the governors are trying to sideline. Knowing Atiku Abubakar and Bukola Saraki as major mobilisers, with their own followers in the party, the die appears cast.

    Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, is particularly a target for two main reasons. One, he is considered too old, being over 70 years old. Two, for those of the governors, who think the post should be zoned to the South, he is from the wrong side of the geographical divide. What is, however, unstated is that he is not beholden to any of the Governors, and he has enough resources to match them Naira for Naira and Dollar for Dollar. He easily is one of the party leaders who has significant followers but is seen as not being interested in funding of the party.

    But undeterred, the Atiku Abubakar team, headed by Alegho Raymond Dokpesi, himself a great mobiliser, are pounding the streets, literally canvasing support for their aspirant. In trying to woo South Easterners, for example, the Atiku team is telling them to shelve their ambition for now and wait for an Atiku presidency which will run only one term and thereafter hand the mantle to an Igbo son or daughter for that matter.

    The team of former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, is not listening to the Atiku Abubakar wait for me to run first gospel. There is no doubt that Anyim is a serious aspirants who is not just campaigning to be president of South East origin but is building coalitions across the country, in an effort to be accepted and voted as the flag bearer of the party. He seems to enjoy the graces of the Nyesom Wike group even though he is not a Governor. The South East too appear to be standing solidly behind him. Though it is early days yet, no other high calibre aspirant from the South East has emerged in the PDP.

    Also though he has continued to say that his aspiration is not based on zoning the PDP presidential ticket to the South East, it is clear that he would be the major beneficiary should the PDP yield to the cries of the Igbos in the South East and zone the presidential ticket to them. Groups after groups are springing up in his support. He is one aspirant to watch closely as the race gathers momentum.

  • For Tinubu, What A Bad Week Last Week Was! …And The Igbos Are Coming

    For Tinubu, What A Bad Week Last Week Was! …And The Igbos Are Coming

    By Mideno Bayagbon

    (mideno@thenewsguru.ng)

     

    For frontline Presidential aspirant, Alhaji Ahmed Bola Tinubu, it was a bad start to his life long ambition to be president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It was a week better forgotten by him and his campaign managers. From unforced errors to downright spit on the face, the Tinubu campaign organisation recruited more people to dislike their aspirant than to like him.

    Take the case of Honorable Jubril Abdulmumin, the self acclaimed DG of the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu Political Support Group. On AriseTV, Rufai Oseni, one of the anchors of the Morning Show asked two ordinarily simple questions: “How did your candidate make his staggering wealth? Secondly, there have been discrepancies about his age. Let me ask you, how old is he?” These questions so stunned the former House of Representative member, who at a time wanted to be speaker of the House that he could only attempt filibustering. He stuttered. He tried haranguing and bullying the anchorman, who stood resolute with demands for answers to the questions. Jubril Abdulmumin ended up doing more damage to the campaign dreams of the Tinubu group with the viral video, which soon went ballistic on social media. Any good the announcement of Bola Tinubu candidacy could have generated was frittered away. An enemy or rival could not have done worse.

    To compound his woes, bad news also came from the home front. Afenifere, the pan Yoruba Social Cultural Group, came out boldly to voice their opposition to Tinubu’s candidacy. Also a seemingly orchestrated cacophony of voices, of mostly elite Yorubas, especially in the media, joined Bode George, Tinubu’s known traditional enemy, in standing up to register their rejection of his aspiration. Which must be a bit surprising to the Tinubu team which was busy up north, with their principal, trying to woo the northern political heavyweights to their side.

    To add insult to injury, the Arewa Consultative Forum, in veiled reference to the rumoured health challenges of Asiwaju Tinubu and his age which has attracted so much debate, warned that Nigeria cannot afford to have another President with health challenges. As everyone remembers, of the four Presidents we have had since the return to democracy in 1999, two have had their tenures moderated by ill health. Indeed, one of them, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua actually transited while in office. The other, President Muhammadu Buhari has spent so much time attending to his health mostly in the United Kingdom that his tenure, in the final analysis, maybe classified by historians as one marred by ill health.

    As it were, the Jagaban of Borgu, is currently living the saying: A man’s enemy could be members of his household. Most of the vitriols and attacks on his ambition have mainly come from the South West where he is regarded, by some, as the new Obafemi Awolowo, the renowned sage of the Yoruba nation. Even some of his known friends, like Professor Wole Soyinka, who some overzealous supporters of the Asiwaju had insinuated, have endorsed his ambition, have come out to denounce such.

    Against expectation that the South West will queue behind his ambition, there have been discontents and open rebellion against his ambition. As it is, the South West is fragmented into at least three groups. There are those who support him overwhelmingly as opposed to those, especially of the younger elements, who are rooting for Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo and John Kayode Fayemi, the outgoing governor of Ekiti State. This is not to mention people like Tunde Fashola, Akinwunmi Adesina (President of the African Development Bank) and a few others hanging in the wings, scanning the impending scenario for an opportunity to jump into the presidential race.

    Despite pretence to the contrary, the Tinubu campaign group could be heard last week expressing frustration at the perceived soft landing the mafia around President Buhari have given VP Osinbajo. Feeling betrayed, they were murmuring all over last week that Buhari and the people around him have not hidden their opposition to Bola Tinubu succeeding Muhammadu Buhari. They appear to be chumming up to the Vice President and to the one his followers call the Lion of Ubima, Transportation Minister, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi. Then there is Fayemi also pulling weight among the President’s circle.

    Nevertheless, unperturbed by the seeming gang up around the villa, Tinubu strategically continue to romance some leaders in the core north, with the hope they can come through for him when the dice is thrown and muscling hands are needed. It’s too early to call how the Jagaban, a veteran of sorts, in the Nigerian political firmament, will surmount the hurdles around Aso Rock, the unquenched rumours about his age and stupendous wealth and the growing opposition from his home front.

    But the benefits of his foray into the northern political hemisphere are already yielding some good vibes as former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, who was rumoured to be a parring partner to the Jagaban, before he fell from power, and some top notch politicians are beginning to queue behind him and are openly canvassing his candidature.

    …AND THE IGBOS ARE COMING

    Like the Igbo proverb goes, all animals with horns were invited to a festival to which even the millipede and snail surprisingly showed up. That is almost the situation in Igbo land currently where every Emeka, Chidi and Ngozi are horning their dance steps to come into the presidential ring.

    Former Senate President and Secretary to Government of Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, was the first to brace the trail, throw his hat into the ring and dared all who cared to listen: whether the Peoples Democratic Party, to which he is a top member, zones the Presidential Spot to the South East or not, he will run…and win. He is, among top Igbos who have shown interest in the race, and who has been able to gather the leaders of PDP in the South East in one room to canvas their support. He it is, who has made the call by the Igbos for a compassionate consideration of a Nigerian of South East origin to vie for, and be the president of Nigeria. He has traversed the entire north, consulting and trying to build a coalition behind his ambition. He is currently pounding the pavements in the South South and South West.

    Since the end of the Civil War 52 years ago, only Chief Alex Ekwueme, of blessed memory has come anywhere near the Presidential Villa, as Vice President to President Shehu Shagari. Their seeming marginalisation, which has crystallised into the badly managed IPOB, ESN and Nnamdi Kanu tomfoolery, is chalking up support for the call that people of South Eastern origin should be given the chance to also rule as President of Nigeria.

    Another Igbo, the loud mouthed Nyesom Wike, Governor of Rivers State is also criss-crossing the states promoting his ambition to either be the presidential candidate or vice president to whoever eventually emerges the candidate of the PDP. He has the humongous revenue of his state behind his personal ambition, so does Ifeanyi Okowa, another Igbo and governor of Delta State.

    On the side of the APC, the roll call is getting long too. The best positioned among them however, seems to be the Transportation Minister, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, another Igbo from Rivers state. Then there is Orji Uzoh Kalu, the billionaire ex governor of Abia State who was sprung from prison after being jailed for massive corruption perpetuated during his tenure as Governor of the State. Without doubt, he is well connected in the north and though he has not publicly declared his interest in the seat, his consultation drives across the country are all pointers.

    Ebonyi state Governor, Dave Umahi, has also come out publicly to signify his ambition to occupy Aso Rock after President Buhari. A new comer to the All Progressives Congress, APC, Umahi appears to be positioning for other positions other than the presidency. He does not seem to have the national connection, the backing of critical stakeholders and cash to back his ambition. Coming from a back water state like Ebonyi, where he is even engaged in a war of attrition with some critical political leaders, his part seems strewn with pebbles.

    Not so for Peter Obi who most people are still expecting to come into the race anytime from now. But being a strategic business and political thinker, it does appear that he wants to read the emerging political scenarios correctly before making the move to either contest for the Presidential seat or position for consideration as Vice President.

  • Aquariavwodo, Gbagi, Augoye Sweat As DC23 Prunes Guber Aspirants to Three

    Aquariavwodo, Gbagi, Augoye Sweat As DC23 Prunes Guber Aspirants to Three

    There is palpable tension in the political camps of governorship aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Delta Central, as the pan Urhobo political group, DC23 prunes the number of Delta Central aspirants to three.

    DC23 had earlier waded through the huge numbers of aspirants from the zone pruning them to five, while promising to further reduce them to three before eventually settling for the zone’s choice candidate.

    Chaired by Chief Ighoyota Amori, DC23 had last Saturday, invited and screened the groups five approved aspirants: Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Sheriff Oborevwori, former Chief of Staff to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, David Edevbie; former NDDC Managing Director, Senator Emmanuel Aquariavwodo; former Minister of State, Education, Kenneth Gbagi; and immediate past Delta State Commissioner for Works, Okakuro James Augoye.

    Information filtering in from the DC23 camp indicates that the group is having a hard time in deciding on the three contenders to present. According to unconfirmed information, David Edevbie and Sheriff Oborevwori appear to be in the front while Augoye,, Aquariavwodo and Gbagi positions could not be determined easily.

    Their task, of selecting the three aspirants to present, is made particularly more difficult by the fact that the interest of Governor Okowa, who currently controls more than 60 percent of the grassroots in the state, and whose body language has shown clearly he will not support certain aspirants, while keeping to himself his preferred candidate, has to be taken into consideration.

    But for this and the recent entrance of Sheriff Oborevwori and Emmanuel Aquariavwodo into the race, which has scattered all permutations, David Edevbie, said to be the candidate of the acclaimed leader of PDP in the state, Chief James Ibori and James Augoye, once rumoured to be the favoured candidate of Governor Okowa and Prof Oyovbaire, were neck to neck at the top of the race. But not anymore.

    Intense lobbying and political brickbats are on going and the credibility and acceptability of the groups decision will either cement a united front for the Urhobos or throw the race open to all comers again.

    The Speaker, said to enjoy support of at least 80 percent of the members of the Delta State House of Assembly, by current estimation, has bulldozed his way into the top three position and is gathering massive followers. His campaign appears to be well funded too.

    Former Senator Emmanuel Aquariavwodo’s fortunes recently shot through the roof when political calculations and permutations for an acceptable compromise candidate seem to favour him. A known friend of Governor Okowa, who seemingly enjoy his graces, he has ramped up his campaign and is making a bold move for one of the top three positions.

    Serial aspirant, Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, also counting on support of Governor Okowa, has shown a level of seriousness, especially in the social media, which was absent in his previous efforts to be governor of the state.

    By the political calculations, and the unwritten code among the three senatorial zones in the state, Delta Central, home to the majority ethnic group in the state, Urhobos, will produce the governorship candidate of the party in the 2023 elections.