Category: Politics

A group, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Action 2023 has urged the party’s 2019 presidential candidate, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar to step aside and allow the younger generation to fly the party’s ticket in the next general election.

PDP action 2023 in a statement by its Chairman, Rufus Omeire, Wednesday, noted that “for PDP to achieve this aim, it should present an acceptable candidate for President in 2023”.

The group noted that ” in 2019, the PDP presented Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. He contested against President Buhari and lost. He will be 77 in 2023. It is very shameful that since he lost the presidential election, he moved to Dubai, abandoning all members of PDP, all the stakeholders, and millions of ordinary Nigerians who voted for him and PDP in 2019.

“It is a betrayal of trust for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to neglect the feelings and sacrifices of ordinary voters who supported him and PDP in 2019, the group added.

“We think that time has come for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, GCON, to step aside and allow others, preferably the younger generation, to step forward. He can be asked to take the position of the Chairman PDP Board of Trustees where he will play an advisory role to younger politicians, as an elder statesman”.

Senate President Ahmed Lawan has underscored the need to reduce external borrowing through the blockage of revenues leakage from government agencies.

Lawan spoke Monday at the Presidential, Villa Abuja, while interacting with State House correspondents after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari.

The President of the Senate said federal, State, and local governments must swiftly find lasting solutions to the menace of agencies that were not remitting revenues to the treasuries.

He said: “We also had discussions on some other governance issues that have to do with making the revenues in the country, especially for government at the federal and the state levels, and even local governments even more.

“There are so many agencies of government that are not remitting their internally generated revenues and this is something that we have to address and address as stiffly as possible and as quickly as possible because we need to find a way of reducing the borrowing that we do.

“So, if there are areas that we can now get revenues that will help us reduce the amount of borrowing, then so be it and this is something that we all agree with Mr. President that we should continue to look at those areas that we need to improve on revenue generation and collection.”

Former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani Kayode has fiercely defended his attendance of Yusuf Buhari’s wedding in kano state on Friday.

FFK faced strong criticisms from Nigerians on Social media over his attendance of the wedding ceremony of President Buhari’s Son, Yusuf and Zahra Bayero, a daughter of the Emir of Bichi.

The fierce politician stated that Isa Pantami, a minister accused of supporting terrorism, is his ‘friend’ now adding that anyone not pleased about it can ‘Go and Die’.

“Are you still foaming at the mouth because I shook hands with Isa Pantami? Keep foaming and let your blood pressure go higher.”

“If you like drop dead. I offer no apology or explanation and I need no validation from you. You either trust my judgement or you do not and either way I do not care. You see my faith teaches me to forgive those that express regrets about their past actions and utterances and to be at peace with as many people as possible.”

“It also teaches me to shake a hand when it is extended to me in friendship. The bottom line is as follows: you can do and say your worse. You can vent until you wee in your pants. You can wail until you defecate in your trousers. You can scream and shout from morning till night.”

“You can run up and down like a weather beaten and rain soaked chicken whose head has been cut off until you collapse. You can do all these things simply because I took a picture with a fellow Nigerian and called him my friend and brother.”

“It does not move me and it changes nothing: though we may not agree on everything, Isa and I are now friends and we will remain friends. Live with it or die with it. If most of you had 10% of my courage and foresight Nigeria would be a far better place. History will vindicate me and posterity will judge us all.”

“You do not know what I know and you do not see what I see. You assume the worse because you are the worse. Whatever you choose to say or do I don’t care. All I know is that I will never prostitute my principles or compromise my stance on fundamental issues and I will disagree with those that I choose to disagree with but I will never be driven by hate or be deaf, dumb and blind to reason.”

“And unlike most of you I can never be a coward. I have the courage to be civil and to be civilised to those that offer me respect and friendship even if we do not agree on all things. The question is do you?”

“You didn’t see Buba Galadima hugging Ahmad Lawal. You did not see GEJ shaking hands with PMB. You did not see Atiku shaking hands with PMB. You did not see GEJ shaking hands with Osinbajo. The only thing you saw was FFK shaking hands with Isa Pantami!”

Former Kogi West Senator, Dino Melaye, has disclosed that the All Progressives Congress, APC, would break up before the 2023 elections.
Melaye said APC is not a political party but a Non-Governmental Organization, NGO.

He also explained that the ruling party faced an imminent implosion due to the “illegality” of the Governor Mai Mala-Buni-led Caretaker Committee.

The former APC chieftain noted that Buni’s appointment as caretaker chairman contravenes Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution as well as the Article 17(iv) of APC Constitution.

Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike says the present National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, cannot lead the party to victory in the 2023 general elections, hence the quest for its replacement.

“If you go to the public and ask Nigerians if PDP is ready to take over power in 2023, if you take referendum, you will know that Nigerians are even waiting for PDP. But the fear of Nigerians is whether PDP is ready to take overpower. So, people are concerned about it. Obviously, it is ripe for PDP to take over, but you must be prepared to take over.

“And we said with what we have now, it will be difficult to take over power in 2023 if there are no amendments. Leadership was the problem. The point is this, the current NWC, as it is today, cannot lead the party to victory. Nobody has said they have not done well, one way or the other, but we are talking about the challenges ahead.

“That is why we are pushing for the party to have other people to lead the party and to give it a different strength altogether. If you know APC, you know that you need a robust, determined leadership of the party (PDP) to make sure you match them word by word, action by action.”

Professor Attahiru Jega, former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has said rotational presidency is not the way forward for Nigeria.

Professor Attahiru Jega, former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has said rotational presidency is not the way forward for Nigeria.

As the 2023 elections draws nearer, there has been a clamour for power shift across political parties.

But when he featured on an ARISE TV programme, Jega said Nigeria’s next president can be from any region as long as the person is competent.

“The way Nigeria is now, we need the best person with competence, capacity, experience to be the president to get this country out of the challenges we have presently.”

“That person can come from the North, South, East or the West, but the important thing is that even if political parties decide that a candidate should come from a particular area, what we need to do is that Nigerians must interrogate the capacity of that person to lead this country appropriately.

“This idea of rotational presidency cannot take us out of the challenges we have in this country, presently,” he said.

Former presidential media aide Doyin Okupe says he is in the consideration of former military president Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida for Nigeria’s presidency in 2023.

“I believe when IBB was making that speech, he was talking about me. I haven’t spoken with him in a long time, I agree with all his points,” Mr Okupe said Friday morning when he appeared on a live television programme on Arise News TV.

Mr Babangida, who turned 80 recently, is revered in many parts of the country for his cunning political dexterity and vast network of associates.

He is blamed for the entrenched culture of corruption in the Nigerian establishment, though he says corruption under subsequent governments is far worse than his regime’s.

“I have started visualising a good Nigerian leader, a person who travels in this country and as a friend virtually everywhere he travels,” Mr Babangida told Arise TV in an exclusive interview days ago. “He know at least one person that he can communicate with. A person who is very vast in economic and a good politician who should be able to talk to Nigerians.”

“I have seen one or two or three already in their 60s,” the military strategist further announced.

Mr Okupe said the criteria laid out by Mr Babangida fits his profile perfectly and that the ex-junta leader must have had him in mind while reeling out the qualities for the next Nigerian leader.

“I am part of the three individuals IBB was talking about. I am the most prepared person for the job,” the 69-year-old Mr Okupe boasted.

Driving home his point, the medical-doctor-turned-politician asserted that he is popular and has friends around the country and beyond.

“There is no where in the country I don’t have contact,” he said.

Bode George, former Deputy National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has alleged that Bola Tinubu, National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, steals “humongous” amounts of money from the Lagos State Government monthly.

George, who was reacting to a former Minister of Works, Adeseye Ogunlewe’s remark that Tinubu is the best person to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023, spoke on Arise Tv’s ‘Morning Show’ on Wednesday.

Ogunlewe had said Tinubu was the most qualified and mentally capable to take over power from Buhari.

However, George, who is a member of the PDP Board of Trustees, BoT, said the former Governor of Lagos State has no certificate.

“He has stolen humongous amounts of money from Lagos State and continues to do so every month.

“Ogunlewe is talking nonsense, the best man to lead this country?

“Go and look at the archives to hear what this same Ogunlewe said about Tinubu not too long ago.

“I am shocked that Ogunlewe would be saying this in public.

“Ogunlewe knows that Tinubu can’t tender his school certificates because he doesn’t have them,” he said.

In a show of appreciation for all the benevolence he enjoys from Katsina State, Senator Rochas Okorocha, the former Governor of Imo State has said he will establish an Islamic University within the Daura Emirate.

Daura is the country home of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The decision was disclosed by Dr. Isa Halidu, who stood in gap for the former governor at an event organized by ‘Compare and Contrast Youths Initiatives’ in Daura Katsina State on Saturday.

According to Okorocha, his resolve to establish the university in Katsina State is as a result of the preference he enjoys in all aspects of human existence, particularly from the Daura Emirate.

“I’m going to give a gift, perhaps, that would not be forgotten.

“I will build in not too long a time, an Islamic university with modern facilities under Rochas Okoracha’s Foundation and it will be commissioned by myself in Daura town.

According to Dr Isah, every student of the proposed institution would enjoy free feeding, accommodation and constant water supply while studying in the school.

The Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Mustapha Inuwa, who represented Governor Aminu Bello Masari at the occasion applauded Sen. Rochas for the decision to establish the university in the state.

“Katsina State is thankful to Rochas Okoracha for being part of these developmental milestones, though, he couldn’t make it to the occasion personally, but because he has interest in developing youth, he sent in a representative which shows he is a true leader.

“As we all know, history has it that all the zones of Nigeria have been benefiting from Rochas Okoracha’s foundation irrespective of religion or tribal affiliations.

“Undoubtedly, during the 2019 general election, we all know, too, how he single-handedly canvassed his tribal men and women to vote massively for President Buhari particularly. We appreciate him and pray God to strengthen him now and always.”