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Tag: 2023 Polls

  • Buni as APC’s boat-rocker towards 2023 polls, By Ehichioya Ezomon

    Buni as APC’s boat-rocker towards 2023 polls, By Ehichioya Ezomon

    By Ehichioya Ezomon
    Will the All Progressives Congress survive the onslaughts against its existence by dissatisfied members and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, which canvasses delisting of the platform?
    How many court cases will the party contest before deciding the fate of Governor Mai Mala Buni as the acting chairman of the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee?
    What’s so special about Buni’s headship of the committee to risk APC’s continuation? Are the party leaders pinning hopes on the courts, which didn’t give a damn in cases involving the party’s chapters in Rivers and Zamfara in 2019 and Bayelsa in 2020?
    The PDP has routinely predicted APC’s disintegration before the 2023 elections, and the APC appears headed to achieving that projection by getting mired in the quicksand of political obscurity.
    Yet, it seems the likely entity to extinguish the barely eight-year-old party that overthrew the PDP in 2015 is the very custodian that’s supposed to stabilise the APC ahead of the crucial 2023 polls.
    Yobe State Governor Buni, picked to head the caretaker committee, was charged with reconciling the disparate factions in the party, and conduct congresses that would lead to a national convention, to elect new officers.
    The National Executive Committee had dissolved former Governor Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee, “to arrest the crisis in the APC,” aftermath of the congresses/primaries for the 2019 polls in which the APC lost several states to the PDP.
    But rather than serve as the “Julius Berger” that builds bridges to link the different tendencies in the APC, Buni’s acting chairmanship of the caretaker committee has assumed the party’s albatross.
    Notably, the Buni committee is a contrivance by a clique opposed to Oshiomhole’s NWC, which sought to conduct direct primaries opposed by APC governors that control state party structures.
    Many concerned members had raised the alarm that the committee’s establishment was unknown to the APC constitution, and also violated the amended 1999 Constitution of Nigeria.
    Ultimately, some dissatisfied members took out a writ at an Abuja Federal High Court, praying it to sack the Buni committee, and return the Oshiomhole NWC. The court rejected their prayers.
    The anti-Buni campaign was revived after the Supreme Court ruled on the 2020 poll in Ondo State, which PDP and its candidate, Chief Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), lost to Governor Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN).
    Although four of the seven-man Justices of the apex court gave judgment to the APC and Akeredolu, three Justices ruled that the governor wasn’t legally nominated for the poll.
    The minority Justices, ruling in favour of PDP and Jegede, held that Akeredolu’s nomination was forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission by Buni, whose chairmanship of the APC caretaker committee breached section 183 of the 1999 Constitution and article 17(4) of APC constitution, both of which forbid a governor concurrently holding dual executive offices.
    Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution states that: “The Governor shall not, during the period he holds office, hold any other executive office or paid employment in any capacity whatsoever,” while article 17(4) of APC’s constitution provides that: “No officer in any organ of the Party shall hold executive office in government concurrently.”
    That judgment set off renewed calls for Buni’s resignation, to save the APC from disqualification of its candidates/elected officials in future contests and voiding of actions by the Buni committee.
    However, the APC leaders look comfortable with Buni retaining his position, thus instigating the latest bombshell from about 100 aggrieved members in Benue State approaching the court to sack Buni and the caretaker committee.
    The plaintiffs, in an August 18, 2021, suit at a Federal High Court in Abuja, list the APC, Buni, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, the INEC, and others as defendants.
    Contending that the 13-member committee falls short of the required 24 members from not less than two-thirds of the 36 States and the FCT for any governing body of a political party, substantive or acting, under Section 223(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the plaintiffs ask the court to determine the following:
    * Whether the headship of the Caretaker Committee by a sitting Governor holding dual executive offices is prohibited by Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution and Article 17(4) of the APC Constitution, 2014 (as amended).
    * Whether by Article 13(4)(xvi) of the APC Constitution, 2014 (as amended) only the National Working Committee rather than the NEC of the party can constitute a Caretaker Committee in whatever form, nature or guise.
    * Whether the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, who administered oath of office on Gov. Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State as purported Caretaker Chairman, lacks the powers to do so under any provision of the APC Constitution, 2014 (as amended), as he is neither a member of the National Working Committee or even a member of the NEC of the APC.”
    Among others, the plaintiffs seek “an order of injunction, restraining Buni from carrying out the functions, duties, responsibilities and privileges of the National Chairman of the party in dual capacity with his executive functions as the Governor of Yobe State.”
    “An order nullifying all the steps, actions, activities, measures and decisions of the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, for and on behalf of the APC, for being null, void and of no effect. And any other orders the court may deem fit to make.”
    This case by 100 APC members against the party, Buni and others is besides the suit by the PDP, seeking Buni’s outer as governor of Yobe State, and the enthronement of PDP’s candidates in the 2019 polls as governor and deputy governor, respectively.
    In an originating summon at a Federal High Court in Abuja, the PDP, resting its action on the minority judgment of the Supreme Court on the Ondo poll, poses several questions for determination:
    * Whether the 1st defendant (Buni) did not breach the clear provisions of section 183 of the 1999 Constitution when, as the Governor of Yobe State, he accepted the 3rd defendant (APC) appointment as its Caretaker Committee chairman and proceeded to occupy the office.
    * Whether the 1st defendant, who is the Governor of Yobe State and the Caretaker Committee chairman of the 3rd defendant (APC), has not ceased to hold the office of Governor of Yobe State, having regard to the provisions of section 183 of the 1999 Constitution.
    * Having regard to the clear provisions of section 187(1) of the 1999 Constitution and the state of law, whether the 2nd plaintiff (Dama Baba Abba Aji) can lawfully occupy the office of the governor or deputy governor of Yobe State upon the cessation of Governor Buni’s occupation of the office.
    Buni’s headship of the APC caretaker committee has become, with apologies to President Buhari, a case of, “If APC does not remove Buni as its chairman, Buni will remove APC as a political party.”
    The former is the prayer of genuine APC members, and the latter the hope of “fifth columnists” in the APC, and the PDP, which would delight in the self-ruination that the APC is gambling with!
    Mr. Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
  • INEC speaks on attacks on offices, possible impact on 2023 elections

    INEC speaks on attacks on offices, possible impact on 2023 elections

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said the attacks on its offices may affect early preparations for the 2023 general elections if allowed to continue.

    INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, stated this on a monitored Channels Television programme on Monday.

    “For us, we don’t know the motives and it is a huge setback on our preparation for some of the off-season elections we have and the 2023 elections.”

    Okoye added, “We are worried that our preparations are being distracted and distorted. We are also worried because some of our officers are now living in fear in relation to what is going on

    “There is no doubt whatsoever that what is going on is unacceptable, and it is going to divert the attention of the commission from early preparations for the 2023 elections and for the off-season elections that we’re organising.”

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG reports that over the past weeks, INEC suffered losses as a result of the series of attacks on some of its offices by hoodlums in parts of the country, especially in the South.

    During the invasion, the electoral umpire’s offices were set on fire with vehicles destroyed, while sensitive and non-sensitive materials were also destroyed in some cases.

    Condemning the attacks, Okoye decried that the ugly trend was already having a negative effect on the commission’s activities.

    He explained that among the sensitive and non-sensitive materials lost to the attacks were smart card readers and generators.

    The INEC official believes while the commission may decide to rent apartments to replace its burnt local government offices, the disposition of the landlords of such properties may affect the outcome of the elections conducted there.

    “You know that we just finished verification relating to the expansion of voters’ access to the polling units; it was at the various local government offices that these were coordinated – they coordinated the geo-referencing of the old and new polling units.

    “If you attack our local government offices, you are attacking our capacity and capability of conducting elections,” he said.

    Okoye added, “So when you displace the commission, the implication is that the commission may have to go and look for a rented house and when the commission goes to look for a rented office.

    “You don’t know the political disposition and inclination of the landlords of that office; you may just come out on election day and find out that your offices are locked and there is absolutely nothing you will do about it.”

  • Yoruba Summit Group spits fire: Any attempt to conduct 2023 polls without restructuring will spell doom for Nigeria

    Yoruba Summit Group spits fire: Any attempt to conduct 2023 polls without restructuring will spell doom for Nigeria

    Prominent Yoruba leaders have threatened to boycott the 2023 elections unless the country restructures. The leaders also decried the state of the nation, saying, “The ship of state is veering off precariously into a precipice, and that Nigeria is at the very edge of a political subsidence.”

    This was contained in the communiqué issued at the end of the meeting of the Yoruba Summit Group. Yoruba leaders including Afenifere leader, Pa Reuben Fashoranti, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, President, Yoruba World Congress, Prof. Banji Akintoye, Aare Onakakanfo, Gani Adams, former Ondo Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, Dr. Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu, among others participated in the meeting.

    In the communiqué signed by Mogaji Gboyega Adejumo, the leaders said, “We are persuaded that nothing short of restructuring can save this country. Any attempt to go ahead with elections in 2023 without addressing the issue of restructuring would spell doom for Nigeria.”

    The group aslo decried the lopsided appointment in the country and the state of insecurity. The communiqué said: “The emerging resolve of the Yorubas not to be part of vassal state that Nigeria has become, is better managed with due accommodation before any further degeneration and obvious consequences.

    “Our quest shall henceforth be to mobilise the masses of our peoples not to participate in any further elections until the goal of Restructuring or Self-determination is attained.

    “Notwithstanding the interests of some elements in our midst, It would be presumptuous to assume that the masses of the educated Yoruba Nation will dive headlong into being part of the 2023 elections, when all elements of its execution – the Military, Paramilitary, INEC, the Judiciary have been rigged and appropriated by a single very tiny minority Ethnic Group in a small corner of the country.”

    The leaders called the Muhammadu Buhari administration to take “confidence building steps” ahead of the 60th Anniversary of Nigeria as an independent Nation on October 1, 2020. “Steps towards an urgent meeting of all nationalities have to be taken now to determine the nature of our relationships.

    “Unless this peaceful step is heeded to, so that Nigeria heads in the right direction thereafter, the clear alternative would be for self-determination quests to proceed rapidly without any further restraint. “It has become patently untenable for the Yoruba Nation to tolerate further incompetence and impunity as has been foisted on all other ethnic nationalities across Nigeria.”

  • Start preparing for 2023 polls now, Soyinka tells Nigerian youth

    Start preparing for 2023 polls now, Soyinka tells Nigerian youth

    Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on Sunday urged the youth to start organising themselves for leadership positions before the 2023 general elections.
    Soyinka made the call on the sidelines the Wreath Laying Ceremony to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the death of Chief MKO Abiola, organised by Women Arise for Change Initiative (WA) at the late politician’s graveside in Ikeja.
    He said that the youth should recognise that they had the bloc vote to manifest and actualise their expectations.
    “Sometimes I refer to this generation of youths in which one places so much hope, as a ‘Gaseous’ generation because they are so full of gas.
    “But when it comes to action, you are astonished because they keep calling out names like where is Wole Soyinka? Where is Joe Okei-Odumakin? Where is Femi Falana?
    “They keep churning out the same names, same expectations, they do not organise themselves for action.
    “This is what we had hoped to happen in the last elections when we called the public to jettison the two major political parties and for the youths to recognise that they actually have a powerful bloc vote and they should exercise it in a progressive way.
    “Well, it didn’t work the first time, it’s a new concept to them, so, nobody should place so much expectations.
    “But one hopes that in advance, 2023, the youths should begin to organise themselves, they must not wait till the last minute.
    “They should begin right now in manifesting their expectations and the possibility of the realisation of their expectations of taking up leadership positions, ” Soyinka said.