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Tag: 2019

  • Nigerians must reject Buhari, APC, PDP in 2019 – Sheikh Gumi

    Sheikh (Dr) Ahmad Abubakar Gumi has advised Nigerians to reject President Muhammadu Buhari, his party, All Progressives Congress, APC, and opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, insisting that the masses are suffering despite the promise of change by the president and his party.

    The Islamic scholar said this in his assessment of Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last two years.

    He noted that the general assessment of government’s performance was below the expectation of Nigerians, and urged Nigerians to reject both the APC and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) if they really desire a new lease of life.

    His words: “The problem is that no matter how good you are as a leader, you should have a team. If you put Maradona in a bad team, no one will pass the ball to him in order to score a goal. The APC government has failed for lack of a team”.

    “Every failure has reasons. When a patient dies in the hospital, there is usually a post mortem examination to determine the direct cause of death. We have symptoms but they may not be the cause of death.

    “The widespread suffering in the country is a symptom of an underlying disease afflicting the nation that needs to be tackled. But if the government has been listening all along, it could have alleviated the problem or it could have done more than it is doing.

    “I can imagine somebody who has nothing. How is he surviving? How is he paying his children’s school fees? How can he treat his children when they are sick? How can he feed? So, when you look at all these indices, you will know that it is a miracle that we are still existing.

    “So, if we want to do a post mortem on this government, you have to look far beyond the inception of the administration. Like I said, they inherited some of the defects and the solution would have been to manage Nigeria as a critically ill patient”.

    Gumi, a medical doctor, also stated that Nigeria is not united. He said the APC took over a divided country and that what political scientists needed to do at that time was to design a template without dividing Nigeria.

    “Now, there is too much hostility and bad blood in the country. All I know is that all Nigerians are one. What we need was someone to correct us”, he told New Telegraph.

    “This is the time to bring people together, the kind of leader that Nigeria needs at this critical time is the one that can pacify. Not one that will show that he is clean and the other person is dirty. No. He should show that we are all dirty, let us all come and clean ourselves.

    “So, the so-called clean party which has the broom, who is it trying to sweep? It is so antagonistic. It is so provocative that it has divided the country. If your house is also dirty, you cannot clean someone’s house. People thought that change is coming when it was not possible to effect that change.

    Gumi fumed that top officials were getting away with stealing and corruption and cited examples.

    “The allegations of corruption are already been made against the (suspended) Secretary to the Government of the Federation, of a government that is fighting corruption. And the government cannot do anything besides suspension.

    “The present administration came to rule Nigeria using the slogan of war against corruption and this is disrupting the unity of the country. The unity of the country is more important than the money that people stole; more important than the current underdevelopment that we are witnessing”.

    Asked the way out of Nigeria’s problems, Sheikh Gumi advised that before 2019, politics has to change completely and drastically.

    “No more APC or PDP”, he declared, adding that “once they continue, Nigeria’s problems will continue. What I am saying is that they should metamorphose, they should change. When you see a butterfly, there was a time when it was a larva.

    “The parties have to change; PDP has to change, APC has to change or it will break because it is an alloy which is not well moulded. We want these parties to change because of the future of our children.

    “The major defect of APC is that it is a party which was grown by the power of individuals; Buhari in the North and Tinubu in the South West. And there is danger in this kind of politics. Look at Mugabe now, he has suppressed and pinned down everybody in Zimbabwe and he has been winning elections in quote.

    “If we continue along this path, Nigeria will be like that. When we have somebody who feels that he is the Messiah, then we are in trouble because as I am speaking to you now, not everybody in the North can speak to you like this.”

  • ‘Osinbajo cannot replace Buhari if PMB dies…’ Says northern elders

    ‘Osinbajo cannot replace Buhari if PMB dies…’ Says northern elders

    Chairman of Northern Elders Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi, has maintained that should President Muhammadu Buhari’s failing health prevents him from seeking re-election in 2019, the North must retain the presidency.

    Abdullahi stressed that the region must be allowed to field a presidential candidate through the All Progressives Congress, APC, in 2019 should Buhari fail to seek re-election.

    The don said in the situation of any eventuality, the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo should be allowed to complete the current tenure but will not be allowed to contest in 2019.

    Speaking with New Telegraph, Abdullahi said, “The constitutional provision says that in the event that the president dies in office or becomes incapacitated for one reason or the other and cannot perform the duties of his office, he will be succeeded by the Vice president.

    “But no one is in a position to know at what point he is going to recover fully and come back to office, or whether the unexpected could happen.The northern elders insist that Osinbajo cannot replace Buhari in 2019

    “If the worst case scenario happens, and Buhari is not back on seat, the constitution is very clear that the vice president takes over.

    “And what we then expect is that he will take that tenure to its logical end and from there, the politics of power sharing will take precedence over anything else.

    “When the unexpected happens, in 2019 we will be back to our position that the north should be treated equitably and fairly.

    “And we expect that another northern candidate will emerge as presidential candidate on the platform of APC.”

  • I may not live till 2019 – Pope Francis

    I may not live till 2019 – Pope Francis

    Head of Catholic Church, Pope Francis has urged young people to lead the church’s future, even as he voiced doubts that he might not be around much longer to see it.

    The 80-year-old pope referred to his own mortality twice in the span of a few minutes during a vigil service to rally enthusiasm for the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day, to be held in Panama in 2019.

    “I don’t know if it will be me, but the pope will be in Panama!” he told the crowd gathered at the St. Mary Major basilica.

    A few minutes earlier, he drew gasps from the pews when he teased: “At my age, we (old people) are about to pass away.”

    Sensing their pained reaction, he added: “Who guarantees life? No one. At your age, you have the future ahead of you.”

    Francis is known for his casual, self-deprecating remarks and has said repeatedly he didn’t expect to be pope for very long. Early on in his four-year papacy he predicted two to five years would do it. He has also not ruled out the possibility of resigning like his predecessor, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, did.

    At the same time, there’s nothing indicating that Francis is slowing down.

    According to the Associated Press, later this month, the Pope begins the first of his 2017 foreign travels that are expected to bring him to Egypt, Portugal, Colombia, India, Bangladesh and perhaps South Sudan. He is also gearing up for the next big meeting of the world’s bishops this fall, dedicated to young people.

    The Vatican has solicited direct input from young people to inform its work and participate in the synod. Francis took that request further Saturday, saying he wanted to involve not just dedicated Catholics but all young people, atheists included.

    “The future is in your hands,” he said.

    In his April 8 speech, the pope noted how the prayer vigil marked the “double-beginning” of the 2018 Synod of Bishops on “Faith, Young People and the Discernment of Vocation,” as well as the upcoming 2019 global World Youth Day encounter in Panama.

    The journey of WYD is being taken from “Krakow to Panama, and in the middle the synod,” he said, explaining that the synod is an event “from which no young person should feel excluded.

    “We are holding this synod for Catholic youth, but also youth who come from Catholic associations, so then it’s stronger? No. This synod is a synod for all youth!

    “Young people are the protagonists,” he said, explaining that this includes agnostics, those who are far from the Church or struggle with their faith, and even those who consider themselves to be atheists.

    The synod, he stressed, “is a synod for youth, and we all want to hear you. Every young person has something to say to others, has something to say to adults, to priests, to sisters, to bishops and to the pope! We all need to listen to you.”

    Recalling what he told youth during the 2016 International WYD in Krakow, Francis said that “it’s terrible to see a young person ready to go into retirement at the age of 20. It’s terrible. And it’s terrible to see young people who spend their lives on their couch.”

    What is needed instead are young people who walk, who go out on the street and “move forward beside others, but looking toward the future.”

    He pointed to the Gospel already read during the encounter, which recounted how Mary “went in haste” to her cousin Elizabeth after learning that she was pregnant in her old age.

    Like Mary, “the world today needs young people that go with haste, who don’t get tired of going with haste. Of young people who have that vocation of feeling that for them, life offers a mission,” he said.

    As he frequently has in the past, the pope emphasized the importance of experiencing life as a journey, saying that the world and the Church need youth who participate in this journey and who are engaged in the process.

    “But what drama there is in the world today,” he said, noting that unfortunately, today “young people are often discarded; they don’t have work, they aren’t given an ideal for their lives, they don’t have education, they lack integration. Many are forced to flee and live as refugees in in other lands.

    “It’s hard to say this, but often times young people are treated as garbage,” he said, explaining that the goal of the synod is to show the world that “young people are here. We are going to Panama to say that we are here, on a journey, we don’t want to be garbage, we have value to give.”

    However, participating in the journey involves risks and the possibility of making mistakes, he said, but cautioned that if a young person doesn’t take risks, “they have grown old. We must take risks.”

     

     

     

  • 2019 elections will be a battle between Nigerians and those in authority – PDP

     

    The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has said the 2019 general elections will be a battle between Nigerians and those in authority that are unnecessarily making life difficult for them (Nigerians).

    The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Dayo Adeyeye, therefore, called on Nigerians not to see the 2019 election as a PDP problem, but a Nigerian problem.

    Adeyeye, who is a member of the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led PDP Caretaker Committee, spoke during a post-national convention press briefing in Port Harcourt.
    In his words: “The 2019 (election) is a battle between those in power and those that want to wrest it from them. It is a battle between Nigerians and those who are making life difficult for them; it is a battle to save the country.”

    Adeyeye stated that Nigerians were aware of those behind the crisis rocking the PDP, pointing out that those seen on the stage were mere puppets.

    “Some members allowed themselves to be used by some people that are in authority.

    “Some of the people you see are mere puppets, but those pulling the strings are behind. Nigerians know those who are causing the crisis in the PDP,” he added.

  • Only God can stop me from becoming president in 2019 – Sule Lamido

    Only God can stop me from becoming president in 2019 – Sule Lamido

    Immediate past governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido, has said that only God can stop him from becoming Nigeria’s president in 2019, if he decides to contest.

    According to a report by The Sun, Lamido made this claim on Sunday night, after policemen were reportedly deployed to Bamaina village of Birnin Kudu, to stop a rally organized by youths urging him to run in the next general elections.

    “The desperation by those in authorities of power today must know that the same God that have made Balewa, Ironsi, Gowon, Murtala, Shagari, Buhari, Babangida and Jonathan Presidents could do the same for me if Allah so wishes,” Lamido told pressmen.

    “All this coercion and intimidation was because of my aspiration and I must tell them that no matter what, if Allah has destined that I will be President, they cannot stop me or deter me because that will amount to fighting against the wish of God.

    “Leaders should beware of the consequences that followed tyranny, impunity and abuse of human dignity.

    Speaking further, he added: “I am their father and they are coming to greet me and you are saying they have to ask for permit, permit for what?

    “All over this country I’ve never heard of a mutual gathering that requires one to ask for permit, even on Saturday, we were in Sokoto for a wedding where thousands of people attended or even naming ceremonies where hundreds attend, have you asked them to show their permit?, but because it’s Sule Lamido, whoever that is coming to see me must acquire a permit to do so”.

    Speaking to the youths, he said: “If your prayers for me to be the President of this country is the wish of Allah, let it be, for Allah is the One that made others like Jonathan, Tafawa Balewa, Obasanjo.”