₦airaland Forum

The presidency has explained why Service Chiefs ‘partly’ graced the official opening of President Muhammadu Buhari campaign flag-off.

The campaign team tagged ‘2019 Next Level’ was launched on Sunday and had Service Chiefs of the nation in attendance.

Some service chiefs, including the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin; the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Abubakar Sadiq; and Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete, were reportedly among those present at the launch.

A Senator of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), Godswill Akpabio was seen in a trending picture exchanging pleasantries with one of the service chiefs at the event.

Their presence at the occasion has generated worries over the non-partisan stand they are expected to maintain as the general election draws near.

On social media, the development has generated reactions which mostly condemned the presence of the service chiefs at the event.

Explaining what brought the service chiefs to the occasion, the Presidency said the attendees mistook the occasion of being a non-political one as they left on realisation that it was not.

Garba Shehu, the president’s spokesman stated this on Monday while weighing in on the controversy. He also said the development was unnecessary.

“They were mistaken in their assumption that this was a non-political event, to showcase the achievements of the administration, the success of which they are a part,” Mr Shehu said on his twitter handle.

“Hardly were they seated than did the Minister of Defence, Brigadier General Mansur Dan AlI (Rtd) ask them to leave as this was a political gathering.

“They quickly left, even before the arrival of the President and for the event to get under way. The fuss over this in therefore absolutely unnecessary,” he added.

A Kano high court has granted an interim injunction sought by Abdullahi Ganduje, Kano governor, restraining Daily Nigerian Newspaper and Jafaar Jafaar, its publisher, from publishing videos about him.

The news platform had published videos showing Ganduje allegedly collecting kickbacks from contractors.

Ganduje had subsequently filed a N3 billion suit against the newspaper.

The governor asked the court to declare the publication as wrongful and a defamation of character.

In its ruling on Monday, the court restrained Jafaar and Daily Nigerian, listed as the first and second defendants, and their agents from “publishing, sharing or spreading videos injurious to the plaintiff/applicant pending the determination of the substantive application slated for hearing on the 6th of December 2018”.

The contractor behind the videos had said he was ready to testify before the Kano state assembly panel investigating the matter.

The Kano assembly committee recently halted its investigations following a court order.

Ganduje was on Friday given the Africa Value Award for “effective leadership and economic empowerment”.

Despite the allegations against Ganduje, President Muhammadu Buhari passed a vote of no confidence on the governor, describing him as “very responsible”.

stupidity:
Even Fani Kayode doesn’t believe Kanu on this. Fani Kayode that doesn’t waste time to say trash is keeping mum.

The Nigerian Constitution of 1999 (as amended) says presidential candidates are eligible for the position even without having to submit their academic credentials.

The question of educational qualification for the position has been in the public domain since 2014 when the public was flooded with claims that Muhammadu Buhari, then presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) is not eligible for the position having failed to submit his educational credentials to the Independent Natioanl Electoral Commission, (INEC).

The former military ruler said at the time that his credentials were in the possession of the Nigerian Army. The military had at the time denied the claim.

Political analysts in the country had queried why the claim came out in 2014 given the fact that Mr Buhari has at three different times (aside the 2015 election) contested for the same position without much being heard of his educational background.

It was then seen as a ploy by the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to bully down the growing influence of the APC candidate at the time. Buhari contested in 2015, won the election and was sworn into office. Recently what is currently trending at the moment is the restatement by the president that his academic credentials are still with the military even when he is now the incumbent Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.

Some Nigerians have now began to see their leader as been economical with the truth because they are now wondering why he cannot order the military to now produce his credentials he had claimed was with them.

Even though it is a requirement that presidential candidates should submit their acquired credentials, I do not think it should be a necessity since the constitution never stipulated it to be so.

Section 131 of the constitution listed required possessions a candidate for president must possess. It states that a person shall be qualified for election to the office of the President if –
(a) he is a citizen of Nigeria by birth; (b) he has attained the age of forty years; (c) he is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that political party; and (d) he has been educated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent.

In other words, upon a cursory reading of the provision of Section 131(d), it is easy to come off with the impression that unless a person possesses the Secondary School Leaving Certificate or its equivalent he or she is ordinarily not eligible to contest election to the office of the President of Nigeria.

Critics have often quoted that section to back up their claim and I put it to them that they need to do more research before they arrive at that claim.

The above provision must however be read along with Section 318 which is the interpretation Section of the constitution.

Section 318 defined the equivalent of School Certificate as: the ability to read, write, understand and communicate in the English language to the satisfaction of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

It is on this note that I submit that since President Buhari can read, write, understand and communicate in English language there is no need for the recent cacophony about the paper credentials he failed to submit.

Stanley Chimezie
Political analyst and a freelance blogger.

Opinion(s) expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of NGPOLITICS or its editors.

Another Presidential candidate has claimed his academic credentials are with the Nigerian Military.

Accroding to the constitution, candidates for elective positions in the country are duty-bound to submit certain documents, including their academic credentials, to the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC).

This is coming days after President Muhammadu Buhari made similar claims while filling his party’s presidential form.

The president’s claim first came to limelight when he submitted his 2015 presidential form. Calls on the military, then, to release Buhari’s credentials fell in deaf ears and was seen as a move to frustrate the then opposition presidential candidate.



What shocked most Nigerians this week was the claim by the president that the military was still in possession of his credentials even though he is now in control of Army as the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.

In a recent discovery, Hamza Al-Mustapha, the presidential candidate of Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), has also been reported to have made similar claims while filling his own document.

Mr Al-Mustapha, a retired major general like Mr Buhari stated in his documents that the military has “refused” to release his academic certificates, despite court orders asking them to do so.

Al-Mustapha, the chief security officer to Sani Abacha, late military dictator, indicated that he attended Hausari Primary School, from 1967 to 1974; Government Secondary School, Nguru, YBS, from 1974 to 1979; and Nigeria Defence Academy, from 1980 to 1983.

“I was a victim of persecution for 15 years over deliberate trump of charges. I was, however, exonerated and freed of the wanton charges vide court of appeal ruling on 12 July, 2013,” TheCable quoted him as saying.

“My entire personal documents including my certificates and awards were taken by the then government in 1998.

“Formal complaints were registered before high court of Lagos (2000 – 2001) and federal high court, Lagos division, (2004 – 2007) but government refused to obey court orders till today.

“However, Nigeria army (my employer – 1983 – 2013) is in custody of the certificates this application is asking of.”

While the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has advised the president to present his educational qualifications to INEC or apologize to Nigerians, NGPOLITICS reports that the electoral body has charged critics who feel the information provided by presidential candidates are wrong to seek a legal redress.

DinoMelaye:
After Calling PDP ‘Lootocrats,’ Keyamo Now Challenged To Prove Own Source Of Wealth



Source: https://www.ngpolitics.com/pdp-lootocrats-keyamo-challenged-prove-own-wealth/

The All Progressive Congress (APC) has again shifted its presidential primary scheduled for Tuesday, September 25, 2018.

The APC had earlier fixed the primary on September 20. As the date drew near, the party shifted it to September 25. The ruling party has now fixed September 27, 2018 as a new date for the primary.

The new date was announced in a statement by the party’s acting National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena.

“The presidential direct primary election earlier scheduled for Tuesday, September 25th, 2018 will now hold on Thursday, September 27th, 2018,” Mr Nabena said.

The APC spokesman advised members of the party to collect their party membership cards from their wards.

“Duly registered party members are to collect their permanent membership cards from their respective wards.”

The schedule date, September 25, earlier billed for the resumption of the National Assembly has been shifted.

The shifting was made known in a statement late Sunday by the clerk of the legislative arm of government, Mohammed Sani-Omolori.

Addressing lawmakers on the development, Mr Sani-Omolori said the new resumption date is October 9.

“This is to inform all Distinguished Senators and Honourable Members that resumption of plenary session earlier scheduled for Tuesday, 25th September has been postponed to Tuesday 9th October due to the activities of the primaries of the political parties.

“All Distinguished Senators and Honourable members are expected to resume plenary session by 10 am on the 9th of October, please,” the statement read.

The Osun State Governorship election has been declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday.

Joseph Fuwape, the presiding officer of the election at the INEC headquarters in Osun explained why the declaration was made.

At the end of the collation of votes, the PDP candidate, Ademola Adeleke, won majority votes of about 254,698 votes while Gboyega Oyetola of the APC came a close second with 254,345 votes. Both leading candidates had a difference of about 354 votes.

“I, Joseph Adeola Fuwape, hereby, declare this election inconclusive,” Fuwape said.



“Unfortunately as the returning officer, it’s not possible to declare anybody as the clear winner of the election on the first ballot,” he added.

He explained that the total registered voters in the five polling units where elections were cancelled is 3,498 votes. Since that figure was higher than the difference between the votes of the leading candidates, a re-run election had to be conducted, the INEC chief explained.

The election was marred by vote buying, malfunctioned card readers among others

As the 2019 general election draws near, the Presidency has advised presidential aspirants who have recently been attacking President Muhammadu Buhari to emerge the candidates of their various party first before challenging the president.

Some presidential aspirants have been verbally attacking President Muhammadu Buhari recently in their quest to take over from the Nigerian leader.

Leading the pack are: Bukola Saraki, Senate President; Atiku Abubakar, former vice president; Aminu Tambuwal, incumbent governor of Sokoto State; Sule Lamido, Jigawa former governor; David Mark, a serving Senator, all of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Others are: Omoyele Sowore, of African Action Congress (AAC); Kingsley Moghalu of Young Progressive Party (YPP); Donald Duke of Social Democratic Party (SDP) among others.

Advising the aspirants, Festus Keyamo, the Director, Strategic Communications of President Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organisation, urged them not to continue ranting but secure their respective party’s support to become their candidates. Mr Keyamo was obviously referring to the PDP aspirants who are numerous.

“Presidential aspirants who haven’t even won d trust of their party members at primaries have made it a pastime to be abusing PMB who won d trust of majority of Nigs to become President!” he tweeted on Saturday.

“B4 any of them can spar with PMB, he has to first be a candidate. A butterfly cannot be a bird,” Keyamo added.

Various reports perused by NGPOLITICS showed the president exhibited same attitude during the 2015 general election, attacking the then government verbally and demonstratively even before he emerged the candidate of his party the All Progressive Congress (APC).

Mr Buhari emerged the presidential candidate of his party on Thursday, December 11, 2014.

For instance, on Monday 14 of July 2014, Mr Buhari, then aspirant, had described the then government of former president, Goodluck Jonathan, as hosting impunity and political rascality while selectively targeting and persecuting opposition politicians.



“What we are witnessing today, impunity and political rascality as demonstrated by the selective targeting and persecution of opposition politicians, is an attempt to subdue the will of Nigerians who have made clear their commitment to free their country from the grip of an incompetent leadership that is bent on severing the ties of nationhood and ruining whatever progress we have made as a country,” a statement on the verified Facebook page of Mr Buhari read while he was reacting to speculations that the then Edo Governor, Adams Oshiomhole and his then Rivers State counterpart, Rotimi Amaechi, were to be impeached by their state assemblies.

“These actions portray a government that has run out of ideas, resorting to arbitrariness and executive criminality in order to silence dissent. Nigeria has been through this road before. This is a replay of the selective persecution using instruments of federal might in an attempt by previous regimes to perpetuate themselves in power,” the now president said at the time.

hisgrace090:
He will forever regrates his shameful performance.

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