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Tag: 2019

  • 2019: Don’t discuss Buhari’s second term with me – Tinubu

    The national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, on Monday told journalists not to discuss the possibility of President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term with him.

    Tinubu was speaking to State House correspondents shortly after meeting behind closed doors with the president inside the new Banquet Hall of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja

    When asked whether he agreed with different groups and individuals calling on Buhari to seek re-election in 2019, Tinubu simply responded: “Don’t discuss that one with me.”

    The former governor of Lagos State, however, said the APC-led government was on course.

    However, recall that presidency recently commissioned a secretariat for Buhari support Organisation, BSO, ahead of 2019 Presidential election,

    Besides the commissioning, Vice President Osinbajo also relaunched the Buhari support group at Utako, Abuja, just as he commended the men and women that were in the vanguard which produced the government of change that Nigerians wanted.

     

    Details soon…

  • OYO 2019: I am not contesting governorship election again, says Ladoja

    Former governor of Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, has declared that he would no longer be contesting governorship election in the state whether in 2019 or anytime in the future.

    Ladoja dumped Accord for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) a few weeks ago, a party he left in December 2010 in the wake of a power tussle for the soul of the umbrella party in the state.

    The former governor, who is the Osi Olubadan of Ibadanland, spoke on Political Circuit, a radio interview programme on Fresh FM 105.9.

    Ladoja, on rejoining the PDP, declared interest in the national chairmanship of the party recently, seeking to play the role of a reformer if elected.

    Asked if the governorship contest would be his Plan B should he fail to become PDP national chairman, he said “No, I am not contesting governorship election again.”

    He attributed his inching towards the Olubadan stool and PDP national chairmanship bid as part of the reasons he foreclosed the possibility of taking another shot at the governorship of the state.

    “Since I am aspiring to the national chairmanship of the PDP, it will be like someone wanting to be president and then coming back to be governor. I don’t do my politics that way,” he said.

    Speculations had been rife that the coalition of four opposition parties under the banner of the PDP and Ladoja’s leadership was being done to have the chemical engineer re-elected for another term to which he is constitutionally entitled.

    But Ladoja said the people of the state were suffering and promised to ensure the coalition succeeds in upstaging in 2019, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which he accused of using propaganda as a weapon.

    He admitted that the inability of the opposition figures to come together under a common platform partly cost them the governorship seat by losing to the APC candidate, Governor Abiola Ajimobi, who got 32 per cent of the total votes.

    On the potentially negative perception of the PDP in the state, Ladoja said it was not parties that make politicians but that politicians make parties, adding that wherever he goes the people of the state would follow him.

  • 2019: Buhari has not fulfilled his campaign promises to Nigerians, Customs DG, Hameed Ali

    The Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (retd.), has said that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has derailed from its concept of change because it has not fulfilled most of its campaign promises of the 2015 general elections.

    Ali said this at the unveiling of an ultra-modern Buhari Support Organisation, (BSO), office complex in Jabi, Abuja, on Friday.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the BSO is the umbrella body of all pro-Buhari support groups that articulated and coordinated the President’s 2015 presidential campaigns.

    The customs boss said the challenge ahead of 2019 elections was bigger than that of 2015.

    He said the event was designed to rekindle “what we started in 2015 and what we used as a vehicle to fight in the trenches, out of the trenches, along routes and in so many different terrains to see to the success of vision and mission.”

    We confiscated 3,665 vehicles worth N13bn in two years – Customs

    Ali recalled that in the pursuit of the vision, so many lost their jobs and businesses in a bid to bring the change required for a better Nigeria. He noted that some started the journey (with Buhari) in 2003, others in 2007, 2011 and others joined in 2015.

    He, however, expressed regret that halfway through after capturing power, the core values of the change mantra are being lost.

    The customs boss said, “Let me say here without fear of being contradicted that I think halfway through the journey, we are losing our core values. We are losing our vision and mission and I think that the idea of our being here today is to look critically at what we need to do to get back on track.

    “There is no doubt that we have derailed because we are not doing what we say we want to do. Why is it so? We need to find an answer to that. If we do find an answer; then, what should we do to get us all back on track? We owe this great nation and the 180 million Nigerians the duty to give good governance.

    “Good governance is what they voted for and good governance is what they expect to get and they deserve that. We, therefore, as BSO, have a great task ahead of us. My dear comrades, the battle and the job start now.

    “We have won one battle by taking over power. But what we make of this power is essential to us and to humanity. Therefore, I want to take this opportunity to tell my colleagues here that we have to change the narrative. When we were out there working and jumping on the streets and reaching every corner, we were shouting change, change for a better Nigeria.

    “Now, the keyword is good governance for Nigerians. We must agree that we cannot finish our four years without delivering and leaving something to be remembered for in this country for a long time to come. We have no problem with our President because he is on course.”

    He re-echoed sentiments earlier expressed by the Wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, that, “We have been infused by people who were not part of this journey and these people are the ones that call the shots today. That is why we are derailing.”

    Ali said “We are the ones that will be asked to account for what happened. Are we willing to face Nigerians and tell them that we have failed? I think this is the time for us to come together, create a system that is very robust enough to fight back and take back government in our hands and ensure that we deliver.

    “I will, therefore, ask my colleagues of the BSO to go back to the study room. This is a commission, but it is also the beginning of the fight for good governance. We must get back to the trenches, draw our own battle plan and battle line. I enjoin you to have the same commitment we had in 2015; I implore you to bear with us and commit yourself to a better future for Nigeria.

    “We will be calling on you from now on and we will be working day and night. We must do so because we want to save our name at the end of the day and the name of the President for what he is doing,” Ali said.

     

  • 2019: PDP drubbing of Fayose over ambition, By Ehichioya Ezomon

    By Ehichioya Ezomon

    Any political party, especially in the opposition, will be thrilled to have a candidate of the calibre and clout of Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose, willing and faithful to wrest power from the ruling government. That’s exactly what Mr. Fayose has promised to achieve for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 elections.

    At his formal declaration for the position of president on September 28 in Abuja, the governor presented himself as the only candidate that could unseat President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    He boasted: “My party leaders, standing before you is Peter (The Rock) Ayodele Fayose, the man already destined by God to take Nigeria out of the present political and economic stagnations. We (PDP) must be mindful of the fact that our party needs a candidate like me, with a penchant for defeating incumbents.

    “Twice, I defeated incumbents to become the Governor of Ekiti State and I am confident that with your support as my party leaders and supporters, I will defeat the incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari, in a free and fair election.”

    But metaphorically, it’s been a ‘Night of the Long Knives’ in the PDP since the governor formally declared his ambition. The party top shots are not amused, as they view his action as breaching a code of conduct or “gentleman’s agreement” couched in the zoning arrangement of rotating the presidency between the North and South of the country. And they are primed to prevent him from assuming awesome powers and disrupt the well-choreographed plan of the party for 2019.

    Surely, Governor Fayose acknowledged the PDP zoning and yet, chose to query the absence of aspirants from the region, even as he recalled that other aspirants contested in 1999 and 2003, and also in 2007 when the party allocated the slot to the South and North, respectively.

    He said: “If PDP gives me ticket, I will use it and win. They say they have zoned presidency to the North, what if nobody comes out from the North? Whoever wants to contest for the seat of president, what are they afraid of? Let them come out. We don’t want to package anyone for president again. God forbid.”

    Chances are that due to his self-appointed over-sight of President Buhari and his administration, Governor Fayose has been very busy to realise the depth of loathing, and rejection his audacious aspiration has caused in the PDP platform he intends to use.

    Truly lately, rather than blame himself for the political drubbing he’s facing from members of his party, he switched to holding the President responsible for allegedly instigating the EFCC to seize his aides “because they (Buhari and the APC) know I will defeat them in 2019.” No wonder he quickly sensed the biblical “The Voice of Jacob, The Hand of Esau” (the ‘Voice’ representing Buhari and the ‘Hand’ implying EFCC) in the anti-graft arrest and detention of his commissioners.

    In a press interview, he cautioned his traducers: “My ambition to contest the presidential election in 2019 is God’s project and no human effort can thwart it. Democracy allows for people to aspire to occupy public offices and I have not breached any law doing that. Those who think they can get to (sic) me by harassing my aides and supporters would soon hit a dead end.”

    Still, to PDP leaders, Governor Fayose is his worst enemy: for deliberately flouting the party arrangement to produce the president from the North in 2019. Hence, he needed reminding about that position at the Port Harcourt convention. The first reminder came from the governor’s home turf of Ekiti – from the PDP spokesperson, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, who wants to replace Fayose in 2018.

    To Adeyeye, Fayose is not eligible for the position he’s aspiring to. “The highest organ of the party, which is the national convention, zoned the presidential ticket of the PDP to the North. That has not changed,” he said. And when the governor continued rationalising his action, the Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of the PDP, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, delivered the knock-out punch.

    At a meeting in Abuja with Northern leaders and elders of the PDP on the zoning for the 2019 elections and the convention in December, Makarfi picked his words carefully: “Anything that has to do with the party, it is from the leadership of the party that you will hear and that is why I have reaffirmed that the zoning position of the party has not changed. It was the decision of the Port Harcourt May 21, 2017 convention. The decision is supreme.

    “I wish to emphasize that the Supreme Court, in affirming the authenticity of our caretaker committee, has also reaffirmed the supremacy of decisions of the (Port Harcourt) convention.”

    Senator Makarfi previously told journalists in Kaduna that, “He (Fayose) is on his own. What he is doing is not in compliance with the position of the party. The party’s position has not changed. The convention has zoned the presidency to the North and the chairmanship of the party to the South.”

    The fear in the PDP is that Governor Fayose’s success or failure in capturing the candidacy has the potential to sow discord in the party – a marked departure from their embrace of his “triumphal entry” into the Abuja mini-convention of August 12, when they thought his hint about running for the presidency “was a fluke.”

    But the governor’s formal declaration has changed the calculus. His initial clever-by-half letter that his ambition was “without prejudice to the party’s position” but “in the interest of the party and Nigeria, as I know how to defeat incumbents,” has not mollified the PDP leaders in their resolve to stop him “before the damage is done.”

    So, the long knives have been drawn from all sides, threatening to sink a once-promising ambition of an enfant terrible to replace the very President that’s his butt and plaything, before he sinks the PDP itself in the bargain!

     

    * Mr. Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

  • 2019: Former Jigawa Gov. Lamido announces presidential bid

    Former governor of Jigawa state Sule Lamido has declared his intention to run for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2019.

    Lamido, made his intention known in a letter to all members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) across the country, thereby becoming the first politician from the North to do so.

    The PDP had earlier said it had zoned its presidential ticket for 2019 general election to the region.

    But that did not discourage Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state, a Southerner, from earlier declaring his intent to run for the office.

    In a statement issued by his media aide, Umar Kyari, Lamido lamented that the nation has departed from the dreams of its founding fathers.

    The letter read: “The PDP will and must lead the nation back into a bright, progressive, and innovative future.

    “To the world, Nigeria must demonstrate our confidence, tenacity in our ability and capability to address our domestic regional and global challenges that confront us.

    “It is against this background that I offer myself to vie for the office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2019 if my party finds me worthy to fly its flag.

    “I am no means claiming to be the only capable material, any PDP member, given the trust and support can fly our flag, and I expect many more aspirants will express the desire to run.

    “My hope and prayer is that at the end of all the process which I hope will be open, fair transparent and credible is to give Nigeria in 2019 candidate who will lead the party and Nigeria. This is because there is no alternative to PDP in 2019, it will be a defining moment in the Nigerian political evolution.”

  • We’ll complete construction of second Niger Bridge before ending of 2019 – Osinbajo

    Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has assured Nigerians that the present administration would complete the second Niger Bridge before the end of 2019.

    Mr. Osinbajo stated this on Friday in Onitsha at the official flag-off campaign of Tony Nwoye, the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate in Anambra.

    He said that N2 billion had already been paid to the contractors as mobilisation fee for the take-off of the bridge project.

    Mr. Osinbajo said that all projects embarked on by the federal government would be completed without exception including rail and federal roads.

    The Vice President said that Anambra was the first to start the Federal Government School Feeding programme, adding that the programme had successfully spread to many other states.

    He called on the people in the state to support the APC candidate, whom he said would use his youthful ability to deliver on the party’s manifesto.

    In his speech, the National Chairman of APC, John Oyegun, said APC successfully removed a sitting president and would do same in the state come November 18.

    According to him, there is no alternative than for the people in the state to join the mainstream of Nigerian politics by voting Nwoye.

    Earlier, the Minister of Labour and Productivity and former governor of the state, Chris Ngige, urged the people of the state to identify with the aspiration of the APC for the state.

  • Tinubu warming up to be President come 2019 – Dele Momodu

    Publisher of the Ovation Magazine and former Presidential aspirant, Dele Momodu has explained a recent comment by an All Progressives Congress chieftain, Chief Bisi Akande, on issues of ‘automatic ticket’ is a pointer that national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bolaji Tinubu is warming up for presidency come 2019.

    Akande during a meeting of the South West leaders of the ruling party had made it clear that there was no automatic ticket for President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Reacting to the matter in a long article he shared on social media yesterday, Momodu pointed out that Yoruba leaders are preparing a former governor of Lagos State and national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bolaji Tinubu for presidency come 2019.

    He said the decision is borne out of frustration, adding that the Yoruba leadership will no longer support any other tribe for the presidency.

    Part of his article reads, “What Baba Akande has not said is simply that the days when the Presidency would be voluntarily zoned to exclude most sections of the country in favour of another section, whether the candidate presented and supported by the people is competent or useless, are over.

    “The truth is zoning never worked anyway, as some Presidential candidates left their original parties for other parties in defiance of the zoning formula of their own party.

    “Without mincing words, it is obvious that the Yoruba leadership has decided it would no longer support other tribes, zones or regions to attain to power to the exclusion of their tribe.

    “They would rather work hard, reach out, and join hands with like minds to get power.

    “Their decision is borne out of the acute frustration and disappointment that makes them feel cheated about the Nigerian configuration which does not throw up the best but regularly favours the dregs of society who have only contributed to drawing Nigeria backward, in most cases.

    “The campaign has probably started in earnest, culminating in the search for a Yoruba Presidency.

    “Though the Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Peter Ayodele Fayose has controversially but ceremoniously thrown his hat into the ring, it is the fact that the capo di tutti capi, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, may be warming up for his turn to take a major shot at the race of his life that is most significant.

    “Mark my words. One of the greatest political strategists in Nigeria, Tinubu is tired of being a kingmaker and he would rather be the king.

    “Indeed, that has always been his ambition but this has been largely curtailed by circumstances.

    “Like many of those who supported Major General Muhammadu Buhari to attain power, after so many attempts, the former Senator and former Governor of Lagos State, feels he’s not gotten the respect and relevance he deserves for his monumental effort. Accordingly, he seems determined to make a personal push.

    “Apart from the virtues of Baba Akande that I have enumerated above, a lesser known one is his deep sense of loyalty.”

  • Ready-to-die Wike vows to face APC in 2019, says ‘all of us would go down with it’

    The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, says he is ready to lay down his life if it will ensure victory for the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2019 general elections.

    Wike said this in the latest issue of ‘The Interview,’ a monthly magazine.

    The governor said one of the reasons the then President, Goodluck Jonathan, lost the presidential election was that he was surrounded by insincere people, especially ministers.

    He, however, said Rivers State fought tooth and nail to ensure victory for the PDP in 2015 and 2019 would not be any different.

    Wike said, “The whole thing boils down to sincerity and commitment and sincerity. We said if things would not happen, all of us would go down with it. That was the driving spirit for us and that is what we are going to repeat in 2019.

    “If the Federal Government is going to kill all of us, so be it. Because we know what they have planned and their strategies and so when it is time, we will face the APC squarely in this state. Just watch.”

    The governor described Jonathan as a gentleman who condoned too many things.

    Wike said for instance, when Jonathan went to campaign in the North, he was stoned in a number of states but did nothing.

    The governor said if he were the President, things would have been different.

    He added, “God gave every leader his strength and way of doing things. You see, I will not accept that. Let the heavens fall. If Nigeria was going to end on that day, let it end. I will not take what he took. That is why I respect the man a lot. I will not take that.

    “If Nigeria will come down that day, let it come down. I mean, what is it? He was President and you were throwing stones at him? No single respect for that office? And you tell me to accept it? No, I will clamp down on you.”

    Wike said the fact that those who stoned Jonathan were neither arrested nor prosecuted, showed that some northern elements, including the ones in the PDP, sabotaged Jonathan’s campaign.

    He wondered why a northern state which was ruled by a PDP governor would allow such a thing to happen.

    The governor also said he supported what a former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godsday Orubebe, did at the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission when he attempted to stop the Chairman of the commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, from announcing the results of the 2015 presidential election.

    Wike said Orubebe’s actions were justified since the elections were rigged.

    When asked if he supported what Orubebe, he said, “I did. Of course, why not? You saw clear rigging. I don’t like a system where you see something is going wrong and you keep quiet.”

    The governor, who is heading the PDP’s reconciliation committee, said his committee would do everything to attract as many political heavyweights into the party.

    He said the party could even go as far as wooing a former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; and a former Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso.

    Wike said, “What is the crime in wooing people? Who told you that we would not woo people like Tinubu and Kwankwaso? You see, whether they will come or not is immaterial. Those that the APC wooed, did they not join the APC?

    “Who told you that we would not go and woo prominent APC governors? That does not mean that they will come. All the APC leaders at the National Assembly, were they not PDP people? What is all this trouble about wooing and not wooing?”

    The governor said he did not regret helping a former Borno State governor, Ali Modu Sheriff, to emerge as the PDP chairman despite the fact that it nearly led to the total collapse of the party.

    He said at the time, he did not know that Sheriff was “an agent of darkness.”

    Wike added, “Why should I regret? I am not a coward. I am not one of those that takes decisions and goes back to say I am not part of that decision.”

  • Corruption: Yakubu spits fire, says ‘We might get rid of everybody in INEC before 2019 elections’

    The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu on Tuesday said the Commission under his leadership might overhaul the entire system in order to kick out the corrupt officials before the 2019 general elections.

    The INEC boss noted that the commission will continue to cooperate with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to fish corrupt officials in the within its fold.

    Yakubu also disclosed that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was already probing the commission’s officials in 20 states over alleged electoral fraud.

    He said this during a quarterly consultative meeting with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday.

    Regarding the prosecution and probe of 205 of its officials for allegedly receiving part of the N23bn reportedly disbursed by a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani-Alison Madueke, the INEC boss said he would continue to cooperate with the EFCC.

    Yakubu said the last report given to him by the EFCC involved 16 states. He said the EFCC was already probing INEC officials in 20 other states

    He said, “I want to say that this is the first time in the history of our elections that in one fell swoop, 205 officials were disciplined based on the interim report we received from the EFCC covering 16 states.

    “Under the terms and conditions of service what we can do is to interdict them which means placing them on half salary and suspending them from work until their innocence or guilt is established. The last report covered 16 states and only last week I heard they had started prosecuting them.

    “However, after receiving the report, we had a discussion with the EFCC and told them that for the outstanding 20 states, they should not submit any interim report to INEC but just prosecute them.

    “Once they are taken to court, we activate the provisions of the terms and conditions of service. Whatever we need to do we will do even if it means getting rid of everybody in the commission and recruiting afresh for the purpose of the 2019 elections. We are committed to doing so.”

    Giving a breakdown of the Continuous Voter Registration conducted between April and September 2017, the INEC boss said about 667, 103 persons registered to vote in the South-South geopolitical zone. The zone comprises Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo and Rivers states.

    The South-West came in second with 532,172 persons registered to vote while the North-West, which has seven states, had a combined 477, 056 registered voters.

    The North-Central came in fourth with 374, 923 while the South-East which has five states recorded 352,942 voters.

    In the North-East, 350,398 registered within the same period.

    Rivers State recorded the highest number of registered voters at 151, 398 while Lagos came second with 144, 076. Ondo recorded the lowest number with 29, 766.

    In total, about 2, 786, 405 persons registered to vote between April and September. However, only 108, 752 had come forward to claim their cards.

    Yakubu said eight million voter cards remain unclaimed.

    Yakubu lamented that out of the eight million PVCs were unclaimed nationwide, Lagos accounted for about one million.

    He said, “Some of you will also recall that Lagos has recorded the least collection of PVCs not in terms of numbers but in relation to the numbers that registered. Out of the eight plus million PVCs still uncollected nationwide, over a million are uncollected in Lagos.”

    The INEC boss said the voter apathy in Lagos was worrisome as various strategies employed by INEC seemed not to be working.

    He said the last two by-elections in Lagos had recorded very low turnout.

    The INEC chairman said the commission was ready for the Anambra governorship election which comes up next month.

    He said over 6,000 smartcard readers would be used for the election

    The INEC boss said the commission would not be discouraged by the legal obstacles it was facing in the process of recalling the Kogi-West lawmaker, Senator Dino Melaye.

    Yakubu said constituents had the right to recall anybody they wanted to in a democracy.

    The INEC boss also warned politicians seeking to run in 2018 and 2019 to stop campaigning as this was in contravention of the Electoral Act.

     

  • Restructuring alone can’t solve Nigeria’s problems – Pat Utomi

    A former presidential candidate, Prof. Pat Utomi, has stated that restructuring is not the panacea to Nigeria’s development challenges.

    According to Utomi, a former presidential candidate, evidence showed no correlation between more resources and development in the country.

    He made the statement while speaking at “The Platform,’’ a national discourse forum organised by the Covenant Christian Centre in Lagos on Monday.

    The APC chieftain further explained that some states with less resources were more developed than some resource-rich states.

    The APC chieftain, therefore, said that the belief that the states would do better with more resources was a myth. He added that only those states that made the people the core of their governance would develop.

    He described governance in most states as poor, while saying local governments in the country were dysfunctional.

    “The local governments in the country are dysfunctional and are a bloody waste of resources,’’ he said.

    Speaking further, Utomi said Nigeria needed to be restructured in a way that the costs of governance would be reduced, so as to be able to deliver the goods.

    Utomi described the call for the creation of more states as antithetical to development.

    Utomi said the destiny of the country was in the hands of everyone and urged Nigerians to work for the progress of the nation.