₦airaland Forum

http//:www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2017/10/12/nwodo-apc-is-the-easiest-party-to-beat-in-an-election/


Quote
It is as good as we should have left the money
with those who stole it because it is not impacting
on the country. They should have built factories
and employed people.

After an assessment of the All Progressives
Congress, a former National Secretary of the
Peoples Democratic Party, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo
came to the conclusion that the ruling party has
not kept a single electoral promise. He spoke
with Wale Ajimotokan who presents the excerpts:

How is PDP repositioning for 2019 election?

Our desire is to elect an executive that will give
one, a robust opposition to government of the
day, make sure they are on their toes to deliver
on their promises to the Nigerian electorate and
where they fail, Nigerians will be ready for a
change in the next election. The second thing
we expect the executive to do is to conduct a
transparent national convention at the
appropriate time to elect our presidential
candidate as well as the candidates of
governors in the various states of Nigeria,
because there was once a time PDP paraded as
many as 24 governors out of the 36 in Nigeria.

The membership of PDP has not changed
drastically in most of those states. So, we have
a very good opportunity once we get the party
back and learn from our mistakes, especially
the impunity that have characterised elections
in the party in the past. To correct those things,
we should be able to parade candidates that will
be acceptable to those states once more to
hand over their destiny to the PDP government.
We believe that with the performance of this
government today, PDP has a very good chance
to get a very good presidential candidate in the
next election to win back federal government.

PDP is known for zoning political offices. What
is the zoning arrangement now?

Well, we have just zoned two offices principally
for now. The presidential candidate of the party
will come from the north and the chairman will
come from the south. Of course, the other
positions in the national executive of the party
have been zoned to the six zones and all the six
zones have some offices zoned to them they
will now go back again and zone to the states
that constitute those zones. And as much as
possible, candidates for those offices will be
nominated at the state level to come for the
convention. Our constitution says we must take
zoning and rotation of political offices into
consideration in order to carry the whole
country along in the party.

Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose is already
campaigning for the presidency. Going by what
you said, the North will present your presidential
candidate, is he trying to contradict what the
party’s leadership has proposed?

Well, Fayose cannot run. I tell you why. When
we formed PDP, it was a battle. The first battle
that PDP fought and won as a party was to
zone the presidency to the south and those of
us from the south made a case that in the First
Republic the Prime Minister was from the north;
in the Second Republic, the president was from
the north; the Third Republic, a Southerner won
and the election was annulled. There was no
way we would go back to the south and say let
us elect a northerner and again without giving
the south the slot. It raged on, but eventually a
decision was taken that the presidency should
come from the south and the chairman of the
party should come from the north. That was
how Solomon Lar became the chairman and the
secretary was zoned to the south, and I filled
that slot as the secretary of the party. Now, it
did not go down well with some members even
after the party had made the decision. And they
felt that they must exercise their inalienable
right. For example, the Late Abubakar Rimi,
former Governor of Kano; he paid for a form to
run. I was the National Secretary at the time. I
retuned his cheque and wrote him that the party
had taken a decision, the candidate can only
come from the southern Nigeria. When we went
to the convention in Jos, he actually, without
having a form, because we did not give him a
form, he came to the venue and started to
campaign. And then, we had to get some party
leaders there to go and counsel him that we did
not want to get the security agencies to
manhandle him or embarrass him. And good
counsel followed and he stepped down. So that
was what PDP did and now we have not only
zoned the presidency to the north, we have,
following the report of the Ekweremadu
Committee, at every other opportunity, re-
emphasised that zoning would take place. For
anybody else who is not from the north, who is
running, the party will not collect his expression
of interest money and will not issue him a form,
will not collect his money to contest and issue
him with a nomination form. The party will not
do that.

Can you beat your chest and say that come
2019, PDP will bounce back?

We owe it to the country, first of all, before
owing to ourselves, because there is no doubt
that we made mistakes in the 16 years that we
ran the country. And that is why we lost the
election. Now we have learnt from those
mistakes and we have seen that the party that
replaced us has not been able to even fulfil their
basic electoral promises. They have not been
able to do so. We have also seen a lot of
indices in our country going bad as a result of
the country being midwifed by APC. Whether
you talk about foreign exchange, unemployment,
poverty level, quality of education and our
hospitals, they promised us that nobody will
travel again outside the country for medical
treatment, but the president himself is always
abroad for medical treatment. There is
absolutely nothing that they promised Nigerians
that we are enjoying. So, it’s the easiest party
to beat in an election. And all that we need do
is to get ourselves together and know that this
country needs PDP like it needs oxygen. And
with that spirit of patriotism and commitment
we have no alternative but to go to that election
with our best foot forward, correct our past
mistakes and rescue Nigeria from APC.

PDP ran the country for 16 years and APC is
just into its third year now. APC also said that
most of the crisis facing the country now were
caused by PDP, what is your position on that?
My position is that when PDP came into power
in 1999, the price of crude oil was $8-$9 per
barrel. We inherited an empty treasury -Gen
Abdulsalami handed over an empty treasury.
There was nothing. We were able to rescue the
country from a pariah state, we were able to
restructure the economy with $8 per barrel. By
the time oil hit $20-22 per barrel, we left this
country with a buoyant economy in the sense
that the strategic reserve of the country went
from almost zero to a couple of billions of US
dollars. We were able to begin to think about
doing railway. Before Obasanjo left, a 25-year
railway plan was in place. We were able to get
debt forgiveness for Nigeria. The economy
changed drastically. There is no doubt, no
matter what you say about Obasanjo, he left this
country better than when he got to power. And
when Yar’Adua came in, you can imagine an
elected president, his first reaction in his
inaugural speech was he was not satisfied with
the election that brought him to power. And he
set up the Uwais Panel to review the electoral
laws and having done so will continue to
improve on performance of elections in this
country from that time on. And I believe that
President Goodluck Jonathan kept that tradition.
Elections became much more transparent and
better organised. Therefore, I also want to say
again that the growth rate of the economy at
the time PDP left the office was 7 percent,
inflation was one digit, about 9 per cent or eight
percent. Today inflation is double that figure
hovering around 17 percent. The exchange rate
before we left was N160 per dollar. Under this
regime, it’s close to N500. How can I explain
that other than the strategy the government is
using faulty? So, if you look at the 16 years of
PDP from when we took over from Abdulsalami
to the time Jonathan left, every index in the
country had monumental improvement from the
day we left. There was nothing we met that
went bad. But since we left, everything has
gone down. So, I want to be proved wrong that
the country is doing badly because PDP left the
country in a bad shape. We met the country in
the worst shape than we handed over to APC
and people know what we handed over to APC.
The GDP was growing at 7 percent, anywhere in
the world you don’t see any growth of more than
eight percent.

But the GDP growth was predicated on oil
prices that was making a rally in the global
market …

…No, there was just what we may call
acceptable international indices for looking at
the figures. It was the fastest growing economy
in Africa and we were looking forward to 2020
to be one of the 20 best economies in the
world. Today no one is talking about 2020
anymore. Nobody is talking about we are
growing at about 3-4 per cent now. Can you
imagine that from 7 percent it was in
comparison to anywhere in the world.
Something is wrong somewhere. If you say that
PDP stole all the money, you may have
recovered up 50 percent. So that should bring
us back to somewhere. There is no person in
the country today who is feeling better because
money has been recovered. There is no food on
any body’s table because money has been
recovered. You don’t see where the money that
is recovered is being injected in order to
improve the lot of the common man. Is it in
road construction or agriculture? Where is the
money? So, it is as good as we should have left
the money with those who stole it because it is
not impacting on the country. They should have
built factories and employed people.

What is your position on the future of the south-
east in the PDP since the party has zoned the
presidency to the north, which will likely keep
the presidency in the region for another eight
years. Where does that arrangement leave your
zone?

What it means to our zone is that we are not
interested in running for the position of the
chairmanship of the party. I was Chairman and
Ogbulafor was also chairman in the past. The
people who are showing interest for
chairmanship now are south-south and south-
west. Secondly, we are not interested in
presidency of the Senate because we had five
Senate presidents when it was our turn. The
only position that we have not held that we are
interested in is Vice- President. We prefer to
have Vice-President rather than to have
Speaker, we have been Deputy Speaker. But the
other zoning will come after we have secured
the Northern presidential candidate and
southern chairman. Then we will know where
those can come from. Then the other four
zones will now be left to choose the other four
positions –the Vice President, Senate President,
Speaker and Secretary to Government of the
Federation. This is how PDP will zone its
principal offices in the 2019 election.

The IPOB had it coming. They felt too superior; too power druken. They ate all of Kanu's words. They were gettin too arrogant; feeling untouchable. Now they what it is to have true power. They know what a proper military outfit is. They have seen that all their pompous actions are nothing and that they have eaten more than they can chew. I just wish for no more bloodshed and less violence. The igbos are not naturally known for violence but these few rotten eggs have tarnished their reputation. There is no way to acheive secession by chest beating; if you want to leave do it properly. It takes years to get these things right; to sell out your idea or belief; to knock on the right doors. You don't just wake up and get it once. There are agitations all over the world but you need to follow a template. Many have been struggling for decades ; struggling in a democratic manner and not this. The IPOBS have let themselves down.

This is somewhat ironic. It means the 919 men spent 24 hours. How many minutes did each man spend? In conclusion, she slept with the world's laziest-in-bed men. I'm sure they hurried for her to be beat the record. No matter how you look at it; it is not something that can be done fairly and squarely.

Nairaland makes it easy for people like this guy here to posting nonsense because it keeps its users under a "low profile".

It just goes to show the rot and moral decay in the society world over. Even here in Nigeria, many express their stupid, racial or tribal thoughts on social media. Now look at this good for nothing riff raff who is probably worthless than a dog posting this about blacks.

In every other country Kanu would be in jail right now.

Watch Plateau united get relegated next season.

Kowor:
Y'all can kill yourselves and when the heat is too much, we travel. That is 9ja celebrities for you. Tomorrow they'll felaberate.

You are a bigger "goat".

I guess she's pretty "hot" for someone her age.

What a pathetic excuse. You failed woefully; Woodward only tried to easen your grief. Yes Jose has commercial value but he also has so many other qualities that superceeds yours.

Whether or not it is scarce, I'm not bothered. Them no use beef swear gimme. Nigeria must advance; so must our policies. Grazing should be prohibited; ranching encouraged. YOU DIDN'T IMPORT ALL THOSE GRASSES FOR NOTHING NOW, DID YOU?

Nigeria would keeping running in circles if they think Atiku is the man to lead them out of the "wilderness". We are in such a haste to get things back to normal. Just 50% rise in international fuel price would take us close to normal but must we still lazily depend on oil price? We feel deep into recession due to unrest in the ND and low oil prices coupled with corruption, mismanagement and poor policies and implementations. We are out of it because reverse is the case. Yes, our non oil sector has improved & gradual this administration is having quite a steady ship but a drop in oil price would be catastrophic as it would be so disastrous that it would affect even the non oil sector and we would be right back where we started. WHAT NIGERIA NEEDS IS THE RIGHT MINDSET AND THE RIGHT LEADER AND I JUST DON'T THINK ATIKU IS THAT LEADER.

For these girls: the more revealing the better. Later, when you get caught staring or get a boner or both, they start calling you a pervert. They can't even take pictures without showing of their backsides; another useless trend.

Nigeria is blessed with all kinds of natural resources and a natural-disaster free region yet we are still underdeveloped. Floods that should be minor or harmless would end up leading to loss of lives and properties because of poor drainage systems or the lack of it. I weeep for Naija.

Cc lalasticlala

Where is Lalasticlala?

LOL. Celebrity or not; Everyone should not have brown or yellow teeth.

The Doctor sef should stop seeking publicity and should advice to brushing & keeping a healthy teeth instead of artificial whitening .

Yeligray:
Davido use condom oo

Davido? Use condom?

Omeokachie:
Unlike what happened during the Abuja prayer session... they should not forget to pay these boys o!

Before a video surfaces of where they have seized somebody's boxers.

LOL. Nobody really comes out to genuinely protest or organize any rally for any politician without money exchanging hands.

Somebody is surely behind this support group.

Do I still need to cc lalasticlala since everything FFK makes FP?

modelmike7:
Still reading to.
Find much more about this woman's matter.

She just heated up the polity for nothing.

She ought to be fired; no two ways about it.

Although, I admire her courage and the fact that she a retracted her stance or backed down.

http://dailypost.ng/2017/09/10/mama-taraba-liar-agent-provocateur-presidents-second-term-guaranteed-buhari-support-group/

cc lalasticlala

Nigeria’s Women Affairs Minister, Jummia
Alhassan, on Sunday received further bashing
over her open declaration of support for former
Vice President, Atiku Abubakar ahead of the 2019
presidential election.
This time, President Muhammadu Buhari’s
supporters under the aegis of Buhari Support
Organisation (BSO) Enugu State chapter have
thrown their full weight behind his seco​nd term.

They said he needed eight years to consolidate on
his achievements in the revamping our decayed
infrastructure, war against corruption and
insecurity, hence laying a solid foundation for
economic prosperity.

The group called Alhassan, popularly known as
Mama Taraba a ‘liar and agent provocateur’, for
claiming that President Buhari told her that he will
stay only one term in office.
h​​ttp://dailypost.ng/2017/09/09/atiku-finally-reacts-
mama-tarabas-comment-buhari-apc-2019-
election/
According to BSO, President Buhari at no time told
anybody that he would not run in 2019.

In a statement released on Sunday by the Enugu
State Chairman, Anike Nwoga, BSO said “whereas
Women Affairs Minister, Jummia Alhassan has
the inalienable right to support anybody of her
choice for president in 2019, they were of the
candid opinion that President Muhammadu Buhari
should complete his 2nd Term.

“From all our interactions and that of our
leadership, with President Buhari before the
election, there was no day the issue of one term
was discussed.
”​Rather from day one we had always known that
the rot left behind by the successive Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) squandermania regimes
was deep and that President Muhammadu Buhari
needed eight years in order to cleanse the Augean
Stable.
”​And to be exact he needs to consolidate the war
against corruption, insecurity in the land and to
consolidate the solid foundation for economic
prosperity.

“All we in the BSO is praying to God is to guard
and give President Muhammadu Buhari good
health to complete the good works he is doing in
revamping our critical infrastructure, Enugu Coal,
2nd Niger Bridge and so on.”
Asked about President Buhari’s skewed
appointments which seem to have marginalised
the South East, Chief Anike quipped: “We are sure
Mr. President is going to readdress the imbalance,
BSO has always focused more on fixing the
decayed infrastructure nationwide which will
provide employment, alleviate poverty and
cushion poverty. Because we know that there will
be overhaul and more appointments, we view
appointments as temporary and transient.

“Remember that during the 2015 presidential
campaign we told our people that after President
Buhari’s 2nd Term, it will be the turn of the South
East. For the zoning convention favours Ndigbo
because our brethren in the South West and the
South South had 8 years and 5 years stint at the
presidency respectively after our return to civil
rule in 1999. This is why we told His Excellency,
Owelle Rochas Okorocha not to challenge the
zoning convention.”

Nwoga equally took a swipe at former Vice
President Alhaji Abubakar for claiming that he was
sidelined after he contributed in installing the
President Muhammadu Buhari led APC federal
government, arguing that “if he was indeed
sidelined, how come Garba Shehu, Dauda Abari,
Jumai Alhasssan the agent provocateur and a
host of others are close aides of Mr. President?”
Both the social and mainstream media have been
agog in the past few days with videos of
Alhasan’s Salah visit to Atiku where she threw her
weight behind the 2019 presidential ambition of
her host, saying even if Buhari decided to run in
2019, she would support her godfgather, the
Turaki Adamawa.

She went further to announce that President
Buhari vowed to stay for only one term in office,
to clean up the mess of the former ruling People’s
Democratic Party (PDP).
Reacting to Alhassan’s outburst, Nwoga, repeated
that whereas she was entitled to freedom of
expression, her support for Atiku tantamount to
crass disloyalty to the Buhari government and she
should therefore resign.

Nwoga recalled that in 2015 APC primaries, Atiku
with all the billions of dollars and naira he spent,
managed to come a distant third in the APC
primaries, trailing former Kano State Governor,
Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso who came second and
President Buhari, the eventual winner.

He said nothing had changed in the country now
to show that in 2019, the tide will turn.
“We know Atiku is her godfather. But, it is difficult
for us to comprehend why she should make such
an outburst against President Buhari, especially
considering what this honest man went through
while on medical vacation in London.

“Her outburst clearly shows her disloyalty to the
Buhari government and so we see no reason why
she should remain in office as Minister. She
should be honourable enough to resign and face
Atiku’s 2019 campaign.

“On the other hand, we are not surprised that
Atiku said he was sidelined. How could Atiku say
he was sidelined, when he nominated Hajia
Alhassan,Garba Shehu, Dauda Abari and host of
others of his loyalist into the FEC and important
offices. Atiku’s problem is that Buhari is not
sharing money.

“Under the guise of privatization, we know those
who sold all the national assets to themselves
when they were in the presidency”, Nwoga said.
Contrary to Atiku’s below average score for
Buhari administration, the BSO chief said Buhari
was building a foundation for Nigeria’s resurgence
through his silent social revolution.

Nwoga observed that certainty in public affairs
was gradually being enthroned, unbridled
corruption being tamed, Boko Haram and other
forms of insecurity being contained and
construction workers returning back to work
while impunity has been bade farewell.

He expressed confidence that in the fullness of
time, as evidenced in the presidential system of
government mid-term matrix, “Buhari will make
balanced appointments, sanitise corrupted
institutions, revamp Enugu Coal, jump start ICT
University and its campus in Enugu, complete 2nd
Niger Bridge and make tremendous input in
agrarian revolution.”

CC Lalasticlala

Morell, 27, is believed to be heavily-pregnant.

This photo is from the first night Wes and Karla
met
Instagram photos of Irish Karla, who lives in
London, emerged.
One shows her with a red rose as Morgan puts
his arm round her.
It was taken outside a pub three years ago
before the blonde changed her hair to brunette

The Leicester City captain’s partner of 14 years and mum to his two boys was devastated. Morgan, who led the Foxes to their shock 2016 Premier League title, had spent the past three years cheating on her. Beautician Sheneen confronted him at their £800,000 Nottingham home about heavily- pregnant mistress Karla Morrell, 27.
“He broke down and confessed everything. She booted him out.” Morgan, 33, who grew up in Nottingham, is now living in a £350,000 apartment in the city while Sheneen remains at the family’s six-bed mansion with sons Rio and Roman. Yesterday he led his side out in their home clash with current champions Chelsea, who won 2-1 .

Leicester City ace Wes Morgan has been kicked out of his family after his fiancee finds out about pregnant mistress It’s understood Morgan has been seeing Karla Morell for three years.

Fiancee of Leicester ace
Wes Morgan kicks him out of
their mansion after learning he
has a pregnant mistress.

Heartbroken Sheneen Fisher had no idea
until receiving a phone call 'out of the blue'
tipping her off about Wes' extramarital
actions.

THE fiancee of Prem ace Wes Morgan has
kicked him out of their mansion after finding
out he has a pregnant mistress.
Heartbroken Sheneen Fisher, 33, had no idea
until a phone caller tipped her off “out of the
blue”.

cc lalasticlala

Personally, I feel the lady is lucky not to have been fired already. Whichever way we choose to look at it this is insubordination. Imagine a US Minister saying this an Trump's reaction.

Has Buhari grown soft or he is just being a "democrat"?