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Tag: Presidential Candidate

  • 2023: Saraki is the Candidate for Youth – By Ejiro Umukoro

    2023: Saraki is the Candidate for Youth – By Ejiro Umukoro

    By Ejiro Umukoro

    Nigeria’s large youth population offers great opportunity. However, recent Presidents have neglected their responsibilities to create jobs and better future for young people. This situation will only get worse, unless we elect fresh leadership in 2023 which can change the course of the nation. Dr Bukola Saraki is the only candidate who has proven his ability and resolve to be a leader for young people, and all of Nigeria, writes Ejiro Umukoro.

    Nigeria has one of the largest youth populations in the world. Around 60% of the population is estimated to be between 18 and 35. This makes Nigeria more youthful than all of the top three global economic powers – the US, China and Japan.

    Our youth population provides an opportunity to create a strong, flourishing workforce, bolstering a strong economy that enables Nigeria to reach its potential.

    However, years of poor, unenterprising leadership has led to the neglect of our young people, and the betrayal of Nigeria’s potential. Nearly 40 percent of Nigeria’s youth is unemployed. Hard-working young Nigerians are barred from success because of lack of job opportunities, a poor education system, and the absence of protective measures against crime and drug abuse. By neglecting our youth, leaders have fed other problems in the country, creating effective recruitment pools for criminal groups and gangs.

    If we continue to be led by the same type of leaders, with the same old, tired ideas of leadership, this situation will only get worse. Particularly as we face the worst recession in 40 years due to the pandemic, there is more pressure than ever to put Nigeria on the right track.

    That is why the 2023 election is so important. We have the chance to elect a leader who can provide real solutions and give young people the future they deserve.

    Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki is the only candidate with demonstrated support for young people. Former President of the Senate from 2015 to 2019 and former two-term governor of Kwara State from 2003 to 2011, Dr Saraki’s record of achievement for young people is unrivalled by any other presidential aspirant.

    While governor of Kwara State, Dr Saraki introduced the Clean & Green Initiative in 2003. This waste management and environmental beautification project took care of surface-level sanitation and drainage protection to prevent flooding and erosion from rain. The initiative played a role in quelling women and youth unemployment by creating 2000 jobs for youths.

    Vocational activity is a key means of keeping young people away from lives of crime and violence. This is why Dr Saraki led the Kwara State government’s establishment of the first ever football training institution in Nigeria, namely the Football College of Excellence, now the Kwara Football Academy (KFA), to identify and train young talents.

    Dr Saraki has always realised the importance of keeping in touch with the voices of young people. When Senate President, 75 percent of people working under Dr Saraki were under the age of 35 – from special advisors to legislative aides.

    This pro-youth mindset is reflected is his legislative action when Senate President. Dr Saraki has always shown commitment to improving Nigeria’s education system as a means of bettering youth prospects. The Universal Basic Education programme was first introduced in 1999, aiming to provide “free universal and compulsory basic education for every Nigerian child aged 6-15 years.” Dr Saraki led the Senate’s amendments to the 2004 UBE Act. These amendments made primary and secondary education free and compulsory across the country, eased pressure on states in accessing funds for infrastructure development, increasing the budgetary allocation to UBE Commission by the Federal Government from 100 percent to 10 percent and provided for stiffer penalties for parents who fail to enrol a child in school.

    Drug abuse is one of the worst afflictions facing young Nigerians. To tackle this, the Senate under Dr Saraki passed The Drug Control Bill, which seeks to clarify the mandate and strengthen the capacity of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), as well as the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC). The bill also seeks to establish a central mechanism to facilitate collaboration among law enforcement, regulatory and public health authorities in line with the National Drug Control Policy.

    The Senate under Dr Saraki in 2017 passed the ‘Not Too Young to Run Bill’, to remove barriers to politics for youth. One of the greatest, and boldest, actions to open the political space to young people to air their views and become a positive force for national development. The bill reduced the age qualification for president from 40 to 35, governor from 35 to 30, senator from 35 to 30, House of Representatives membership from 30 to 25 and state house of assembly membership from 30 to 25.

    Nigeria is at a crossroads, where our choice at the ballot box decides the future of Nigerian youth. Dr Saraki is the only choice who will provide a better future for young Nigerians, and steer our country in the right direction.

  • President Buhari, Goodluck Jonathan, others attend Senator Anyim’s birthday party in Abuja

    President Buhari, Goodluck Jonathan, others attend Senator Anyim’s birthday party in Abuja

    ABUJA- Prominent Nigerians including President Muhammadu Buhari and former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan are currently gathered at the International Conference Centre, Abuja to celebrate with former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim who turned 61 years old on Saturday.

    President Buhari, represented by Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha arrived at the venue at exactly 11:07 accompanied by a retinue of aides and associates.

    Dr. Jonathan, the chairman of the occasion in his opening remarks, commended Anyim for his humility saying as Senate President and later Secretary to the Government of the Federation, he did well to serve Nigeria creditably.

    It what appears an endorsement of Anyim’s 2023 Presidential ambition, Jonathan noted that having done so well in previous public offices, “Anyim can do better if given the opportunity.”

    www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2021/10/31/2023-anyim-declares-interest-in-presidency/

    Also at the event are former Vice President, Namadi Sambo, former Senate President, Adolphus Wabara and ex-Sokoto state state governor, Attahiru Bafarawa, among others.

    Anyim Declares Intention to run for presidency

    Former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim says he will contest for presidency in 2023 whether the Peoples Democratic Party will zone it to South East or not.

    Anyim made the disclosure on Saturday in an interview with newsmen.

    He said that the party was being repositioned.

    The former Secretary to the Government of the Federation noted that the party’s national convention would signal the commencement of its political activities.

    “Posters of my presidential bid and agitations by groups for me to contest flooded the social media in 2020 and I disassociated myself from such calls.

    The former Secretary to the Government of the Federation noted that the party’s national convention would signal the commencement of its political activities.

    “Posters of my presidential bid and agitations by groups for me to contest flooded the social media in 2020 and I disassociated myself from such calls.

    “I felt that it was too early for such a declaration, to enable the present administration concentrate on governance.

    “Such calls resurfaced in the early part of 2021 and I chose to be quiet over the issue.

    “We currently have less that 18 months to the next elections, and I feel the time is ripe to indicate my interest,” Anyim said.

    He said that the zoning committe instituted by the party was only saddled with zoning party positions and not other positions.

    “Zoning of such positions was deferred but nothing stops any one from South-East Zone from contesting the presidency even if it is not zoned to it.

    “The most important thing is that the party’s national convention is a sort of rebirth for a group of people who have recovered from a setback.

    “The party members are focused and determined,” he added.

    Anyim said that in spite of the party’s seeming conflict with its former Chairman, Chief Uche Secondus, he remained a friend to many members.

    “He is particularly my friend and we do not have any problem with him.”

    “The issue is that the party needed to move but be assured that he is not going into wilderness,” Anyim said. (NAN)

  • Presidential candidate’s wife under fire over alleged ‘use’ of public servants

    Presidential candidate’s wife under fire over alleged ‘use’ of public servants

    The wife of ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung was on Thursday under fire over allegations of using her husband’s aides to run her errands.

    The errands includes picking up packs of beef, getting drug prescriptions and leaving them at her door step.

    Kim Hye-kyung, the wife of the Democratic Party (DP) presidential nominee, had earlier on Wednesday issued an apology, five days after SBS TV first reported the claims, saying she took full responsibility for what transpired as she should have drawn a line between personal and official business.

    The revelation came only weeks ahead of the March 9 presidential election, a tight race in which her husband has been neck and neck with main opposition candidate Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party (PPP) in recent polls.

    Kim faced further criticism after KBS TV reported that an aide, who worked as a secretary for the Gyeonggi provincial government when Lee was the governor, was made to pay for Kim’s purchase of beef using a personal credit card, only to cancel the transaction a day later and repeat the transaction with a company credit card.

    The media reports have largely been based on text messages and phone calls exchanged between the aide and a higher-level official in an administrative department from April to November last year.

    The higher-level official, surnamed Bae, has been identified as the person who gave the orders.

    Lee also issued his own apology under mounting pressure.

    According to one report, the secretary had collected Lee’s suit from the official governor’s residence and discussed handling his laundry even after he had left office in October.

    “As governor, I failed to thoroughly check for possible wrongful acts by my staff, and my wife failed to detect and stop in advance things that could be problematic,’’ he said in a statement, calling for an inquiry into the use of the company card.

    “If any problems are revealed, I will take responsibility in accordance with the rules,’’ he said, adding that he and his family, and those around him, promise to think and act more prudently from now on.

    The PPP has seized on the accusations after grappling for months with a similar controversy related to the alleged ethical lapses of Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon-hee.

    The party said it plans to report Lee, his wife and the public servant to the prosecution on charges of abuse of power, extortion and violation of the medical law.

    Bae had earlier admitted that she sent the secretary on errands, not at Kim’s orders but out of her own desire to curry favor with the governor couple.

    Initially, she had denied her involvement and threatened to take action against those who spread false rumors.

    The DP has come to Lee’s defence, saying neither the candidate nor his wife was directly involved in the case.

    “We have to determine the facts and the truth behind what transpired between (the two staff members),’’ Rep. Park Chan-dae, senior spokesman of the DP campaign committee, said in a CBS radio interview on Thursday.

  • Tinubu will emerge APC 2023 presidential candidate – Group

    Tinubu will emerge APC 2023 presidential candidate – Group

    The Progressives Solidarity for Asiwaju (PSA) has expressed optimism that Bola Tinubu will emerge as the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate for the 2023 election.

    This is contained in a statement by Dr Adewale Adenaike, PSA’s Director of Media, Strategic Communication and ICT on Wednesday in Abuja.

    “Irrespective of the mode of primaries adopted by the party, direct or indirect, Tinubu will emerge as the presidential candidate of the APC for the 2023 presidential election,’’ he said.

    Adenaike added that the PSA would mobilise its members, who were members of the APC to support Tinubu to emerge as its presidential candidate.

    “Our membership cuts across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    “We will give massive support to Asiwaju to make him emerge as APC standard bearer,” he said.

    Adenaike said Tinubu has the requisite experience to develop the country, following his antecedence as Lagos State governor for a two-term.

    He recalled that when Tinubu was governor of Lagos State, he developed the state even with the stiff opposition from the then Federal Government which denied the state its allocations.

    Adenaike described Tinubu as a person needed to move the country forward.

    According to him, Tinubu is a good manager of human and natural resource that should be supported by all Nigerians

  • OPC not among 57 S/West groups seeking pro-restructuring presidential candidate — Spokesman

    OPC not among 57 S/West groups seeking pro-restructuring presidential candidate — Spokesman

    The O’odua Peoples Congress (OPC) has dissociated itself from a coalition of 57 Yoruba groups allegedly rooting for South-West pro-restructuring presidential candidate in 2023.

    OPC Publicity Secretary, Mr Yinka Oguntimehin, in a statement, denied the involvement of Aare Gani Adams in the mega accord, saying such moves were purely fraudulent and very far from the truth.

    Oguntimehin urged the groups to stop using the name of OPC for petty political mileage, saying OPC was not among the 57 Yoruba groups that met in Lagos at the weekend to mobilise the South-West for Tinubu, Osibajo or Fayemi’s presidency.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that OPC was listed among those behind the mega accord of 57 Yoruba civil society groups that met in Lagos recently with a resolve to mobilise the South-West for a pro-restructuring presidential candidate in 2023.

    The meeting was reportedly presided over by a journalist, Mr Adewale Adeoye, while the communiqué issued at the end of the meeting was signed by Messrs Sunday Akinnuoye, Femi Agbana and Mrs Ganiat Toriola.

    The groups noted that they were aware of presidential aspirants like Dr Kayode Fayemi, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

    They vowed to ensure that the 2023 presidential election produces a candidate that would restructure the country and resolve the lingering National Question irrespective of political platform.

    But Oguntimehin said that OPC under the leadership of Iba Gani Abiodun Ige Adams had, at no time, mobilise the group for any politician, insisting that the group’s interest is beyond the 2023 general elections.

    “Including OPC’s name without specific name attached to the purported arrangement of 57 South-West groups rooting for a South-West presidential candidate was a fraud and illegal because we are not a party to a meeting.

    “There was no visual or audio content of how, when or where the meeting was held, only for us to see the story in the papers.

    “We are aware that when elections are approaching, some politicians usually use the OPC’s name to curry favours.

    “There are some groups that are affiliates of political parties that usually make themselves available for politicians as at when due,” he said.

    According to him, those groups masquerading as OPC members have no programme or activities that they are known for.

    “Even if anything happens in Yoruba land, you don’t hear their voices, except, occasionally, during elections or when they are paid to issue statements against us.

    “So, I enjoin whoever that is behind the arrangement to toe the right path and be specific in attaching OPC’s name to any political accord.

    “Anybody or group using our name without proper attachment or specification amounts to fraud and we will handle such in the most conventional manner,” Oguntimehin added.

  • Niger’s ruling party presidential candidate wins first round, heads for runoff

    Niger’s ruling party presidential candidate wins first round, heads for runoff

    Ruling party candidate and former minister Mohamed Bazoum won the first round of Niger’s presidential vote, the electoral commission announced on Saturday, with a runoff set for next month.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) said the close ally of outgoing President Mahamadou Issoufou garnered 39.33 percent of the votes in last weekend’s election.

    Bazoum will face former president Mahamane Ousmane, who won 16.99 percent, in the February 20 runoff in the West African country, which is fighting a bloody jihadist insurgency.

    Former prime ministers Seini Oumarou and Albade Abouba came third and fourth respectively with 8.95 percent and 7.07 percent of the ballots.

    Turnout reached 69.67 percent or 5.2 million of the 7.4 million registered voters, CENI said, in an election hoped to be the country’s first peaceful handover between elected presidents.

    Bazoum, who has been both interior and foreign minister, campaigned on promises of improved security and education.

    The 61-year-old was the favourite and had hoped to clinch victory in the first round. But he will now likely have to join forces with one or more of the other 29 candidates who ran in Sunday’s election.

    Before the vote, Ousmane clinched a deal with several rivals to back him in a second-round, including former foreign minister Ibrahim Yacouba, who came in fifth with 5.38 percent.

    Negotiations are likely to be complex in the former French colony, where alliances are made and broken quickly.

    Issoufou had received support from Yacouba in 2016, the president rewarding him with a ministerial post. But Yacouba was sacked just two years later over “disloyalty” and went into the opposition.

    On Saturday Yacouba cast doubt on the ballot, saying that CENI had given turnout rates of “97.8 percent or even 99.9 percent in areas were this is unimaginable”.

    Meanwhile, Bazoum’s ruling Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS) is leading in the legislative vote also held on Sunday, with 80 of the 165 seats and five diaspora seats remaining to be decided.

    However, insecurity overshadowed campaigning. Niger has been battered by jihadists on its southwestern border with Mali and on its southeastern frontier with Nigeria.

    Five years of violence have cost hundreds of lives with many more displaced.

    Issoufou, who was elected in 2011 after the country’s last coup in 2010, is voluntarily stepping down after two five-year terms.

    In a New Year radio address he hailed the election as “a new, successful page in our country’s democratic history”.

    Niger has been unstable since gaining independence 60 years ago and is ranked the world’s poorest country in the UN’s Human Development Index.

  • US poll: Presidential candidate concedes defeat, hints another trial in 2024

    US poll: Presidential candidate concedes defeat, hints another trial in 2024

    After roughly four months of campaigning and millions of dollars of his own money invested into the race, popular rapper Kanye West has officially given up his run for 2020 presidential race.

    The rapper chronicled his first-ever voting experience on social media on Tuesday, tweeting, “God is so good. Today I am voting for the first time in my life for the President of the United States, and it’s for someone I truly trust…me.”

    He later followed that up with multiple pictures of his ballot, him at the polls wearing his “I Voted” sticker and another tweet that read “We will heal. We will cure.”

    However, the Chicago-born artist managed to receive just 60,000 votes nationwide, which is nothing compared to the numbers that Joe Biden and Donald Trump received.

    But West, an independent candidate, isn’t letting himself get down by the low numbers though and he is already looking ahead to the next presidential election in 2024.

    The 43-year-old proved more popular in Tennessee than anywhere else, receiving over 10,000 votes in the state. His next best state was Minnesota, where he was voted for by around 6,800 civilians.

    Taking to social media, West posted a photo of himself captioned “KANYE 2024,” suggesting that this failed campaign is just the first of many.

    In his bid for candidacy, West missed the filing deadline in 25 states but did appear on a handful of ballots.

    Total vote counts tabulated for West by The Associated Press amounted to at least 60,000, making up about 2% of total votes cast. As of Nov. 5, total vote counts for West were:

    Arkansas, 4,070 (.3%)
    Colorado, 7,199 (.3%)
    Idaho, 3,632 (.2%)
    Iowa, 3,202 (.2%)
    Kentucky, 6,259 (.3%)
    Louisiana, 4,894 (.2%)
    Minnesota, 7,198 (.2%)
    Mississippi, 3,359 (.3%)
    Nevada, 4,568 (.4%)
    Oklahoma, 5,590 (.4%)
    Tennessee, 10,216 (.3%)
    Utah, 4,568 (.4%)
    Vermont, 1,266 (.3%)

  • Democrats officially nominate Biden as presidential candidate

    Democrats officially nominate Biden as presidential candidate

    U.S. Democratic Party has officially nominated former Vice President, Mr Joe Biden, as its candidate for the Nov. 3 presidential election.

    Joe, whose nomination came on the second day of the party’s virtual National Convention on Tuesday night, will face incumbent President Donald Trump in the race for the White House.

    The candidate immediately reacted to the development in a Twitter post in which he accepted the party’s decision.

    “It is the honor of my life to accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for President of the United States of America,” he said.

    “Thank you very very much. From the bottom of my heart.

    “Thank you all. It means the world to me and my family, and I’ll see you all on Thursday,” Biden, a former vice president, said over video-link, upon the completion of counting of delegates.

    Biden will make an acceptance speech on Thursday, the last day of the mostly-online Democratic National Convention.

    As a formality, each state and U.S. territory cast votes for Biden and his Democratic rival, left-wing stalwart Senator Bernie Sanders, who himself had endorsed the former vice president in a lengthy speech the night before, indicating the party was united facing Trump, a Republican.

    The second day of the convention continued a theme of the first, stressing messages of embracing diversity, including presenting a broad swath of ethnicities, races and sexual identities who support the party.

    It also saw more Republicans jump party lines to get behind Biden.

    Former secretary of state Colin Powell, who served under Republican president George W Bush, endorsed Biden, while Cindy McCain, the wife of the late Republican lawmaker John McCain narrated a video praising Biden’s record and personal character.

    As a formality, each state and US territory cast votes for Biden, often seen as a moderate, and his main Democratic rival, Senator Bernie Sanders, a left-wing stalwart.

    Sanders had endorsed the former vice president in a lengthy speech the night before, indicating the party was united facing Trump, a Republican. The mood in the party was a stark contrast to a sense of divisiveness in 2016.

    The second night of the convention focused more on Biden as a person, including a segment about his relationship with his wife Jill. The couple married more than 40 years ago, after Biden’s first wife and daughter were killed in a car crash.

    Jill Biden, who is now a key adviser to her husband but has a doctorate in education, gave the night’s keynote speech from a school, as the country struggles to figure out how to get children back to classrooms amid the coronavirus pandemic.

    She said in her speech that “love and understanding” were the keys to healing a nation struggling with the virus and severe social fault lines.

    The attacks on Trump, meanwhile, continued unabated. A slew of former national security officials and former secretary of state John Kerry all signalled they viewed the incumbent as a threat to the nation, or at least someone unable or unwilling to defend the country.

    Former Democratic president Bill Clinton said Biden is “go-to-work president, a down-to-earth, get-the-job-done guy” as he blasted Trump for watching cable news and bullying his opponents on Twitter.

    “If you want a president who defines the job as spending hours a day watching TV and zapping people on social media, he’s your man,” Clinton said of the White House incumbent.

    The party put a spotlight on apparent future leaders, including Sanders protege Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a member of Congress from New York who at 30 is the same age Biden was when he first joined the Senate.

    At a briefing ahead of his convention address, Kerry said that under Trump the US “is not the leader of the free world.”

    “The American people are in greater risk because of the presidency of Donald Trump,” the former secretary of state said.

    His comments echoed the opening night of the convention on Monday, when the party sought to present itself as the direct opposite of the Republican president.

    Former first lady Michelle Obama said in a keynote speech that “chaos, division, and a total and utter lack of empathy” defined the current administration, amid a high death toll from the pandemic, elevated unemployment and growing outrage over racial injustice.

    Former president Barack Obama, the country’s first black president, is due to speak on Wednesday, the same night that Harris will accept her historic nomination.

    Polling shows Biden ahead of Trump nationally, amid anger over the president’s handling of the pandemic, though the main races to watch will be in swing states.

    Trump was visiting several of those states, including Arizona on Tuesday, as the Democrats hold their gathering.

    The Republican Party convention starts on August 24 and has also been pared back.

  • Adamawa SDP rejects adoption of Buhari as party’s presidential candidate

    The Adamawa State chapter of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has distanced itself from the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) endorsement of President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for next week’s presidential election.

    The chairman of the SDP in Adamawa State, Mr. John Muva, said during a press briefing at the state secretariat of the party in Yola Friday that members of the party in the state will have nothing to do with Buhari come February 16.

    The NEC of the SDP in Abuja had endorsed Buhari on Thursday, attributing its decision to the “lingering legal battle” between the winner of the SDP presidential primaries, Donald Duke, and his major challenger, Jerry Gana, but the Adamawa SDP chairman insisted Friday that the stalemate over the party’s presidential candidacy is not a sufficient reason to mix the loyalty of members among different political parties and candidates when elections come.

    “We are not part of that endorsement and we were not a part of the meeting held in Abuja to decide that endorsement. We respect the rule of law and the constitution of the Social Democratic Party, but the differences between Donald Duke and Jerry Gana cannot put our state chapter in jeopardy. We are not part of that endorsement,” John Muva insisted.

    He said that in Adamawa State SDP members are not thinking of supporting Buhari or Atiku (of the People’s Democratic Party) for the presidency but of supporting the state SDP governorship candidate, Emmanuel Bello, and other party candidates at the other levels.

    “We won’t mix things up in Adamawa State. We can’t do SDP for National Assembly election, Buhari’s party in presidential election, and SDP in other elections. It is SDP top to bottom,” Muva asserted.

  • 2019: Donald Duke reacts to court judgement removing him as SDP presidential candidate

    The Presidential Candidate of the Social Democratic Party, (SDP), Donald Duke, says he will appeal the judgement, removing him as the party’s presidential flag bearer.

    The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Friday declared Jerry Gana, a former Nigerian Minister of Information, as the presidential candidate of the SDP.

    Duke had been declared as the presidential candidate of the party after the primary election held in October 2018 in which Mr Gana was also an aspirant.

    However, Gana had instituted a case against the result in court, basing his case on the zoning and rotation formula of the party.

    Giving his ruling, Justice Hussein Baba-Yusuf said: “In this instance, the party’s Chairman, Chief Olu Falae, is from the South and Duke is from the South too; the law is clear; there is nothing to write in-between.

    “The law has crystallised that political parties should abide by the regulations which they have made by themselves.

    “The claimant laid sufficient evidence to have the judgment in his favour; it is a clear violation of the party’s constitution; the court cannot wave right over illegality.”

    “Duke’s votes were declared null and void and the judge declared that Gana was the winner of the election.

    “The SDP was also ordered to forward Gana’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) as its candidate for the 2019 general election.

    Duke told journalists in Lagos that: “While we await a copy of the judgement for a detailed review, it is imperative we reiterate our constitutionally backed belief.

    “Every Nigerian who meets the legal requirement is entitled to contest for the office of the President.”

    “Any law that seeks to curtail or subvert that right under any guise is unconstitutional, null and void and of no effect.

    “The delegates of our great party at its convention in October, overwhelmingly elected me as their presidential Flag-bearer

    “Any attempt to subvert their wishes through the instrumentality of the courts will be challenged.

    “As a Law abiding citizen, I urge my supporters and members to remain calm as we are confident that the decision of the Court will be upturned on appeal.

    “We are optimistic that the Appellate Court will reach a decision that reinforces the essential tenets of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

    He said his optimism was in line with the wishes of members of the Social Democratic Party.