₦airaland Forum

Kim Kardashian and Saturday Night Live alum Pete Davidson have decided to break up and end their romantic relationship. Get the exclusive details behind their split.

The Kardashians star and Pete Davidson have broken up and decided to just be friends, sources close to the couple exclusively tell E! News.

The insiders share that while the pair has "a lot of love and respect for each other," they found that the long distance dynamic and their demanding schedules "made it really difficult to maintain a relationship." The split occurred sometime this week. 

Pete has been spending part of the summer in Australia working on the movie Wizards!. As for Kim, she continues to raise four kids—North, Psalm, Chicago and Saint, with her ex Kanye West.

"The divorce is moving ahead with Kanye," another insider shares with E! News. "They are happily co-parenting." 

Back in November, a source confirmed to E! News that Pete and Kim were officially dating. At the time, the insider said both parties were really happy seeing where it goes. "Pete has told her he doesn't want to see anyone else," the source noted. "She is telling some people they aren't super serious but she isn't seeing anyone else... She's trying to not make a big deal about it but is super into him."

The duo first locked lips when Kim hosted Saturday Night Live in October, and their romance heated up in the following months.

"It was a stage kiss, but it was still a little zing," Kim said on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast in April. "It wasn't anything like a super, crazy feeling."

A few days later, I was like, 'Hmm, there is some BDE action," she said, before remembering that Pete skipped her SNL after-party. "I thought about it later. I was like, 'Damn, he's the only person who didn't come.'"

After they made things official, he went on to bond with her kids and even make a quick cameo on her Hulu show The Kardashians. Pete is expected to appear on the second season debuting this fall, according to a preview that teased them showering together.

From tattoo tributes to a joint appearance at the Met Gala, the couple didn't hold back on showing some PDA over the past nine months. Sister Khloe Kardashian went so far as to say that Kim was in "LOOOOOVVVEEEE" with the comedian back in June.

More recently, a source explained to E! News how the couple was trying to make long distance work while Pete was filming in Australia. "When they are apart, they are in constant communication," the insider said. "Kim loves that he's always making her laugh and he truly makes her day when they talk." 

Now, those talks may be over, as the Kete era is officially done.

E! News has reached out to their reps but has not received a comment.

A teenager, Hamza Yahaya has on Friday threatened to commit suicide from popular Kofar Nasarawa flyover bridge in ancient city of Kano if President Muhammadu Buhari does not resigns.

Hamza’s action created a scene under the bridge linking to the Emir of Kano’s palace and State road as passerby stopped by to catch a glimpse of the scenario.

It was gathered that the one man protest could not be unconnected to the economy situation or hardship in the country. 

It took the intervention of firemen to rescue Hamza from the pavement of the bridge.

An eyewitness and a resident Kofar Nasarawa, Abdullahi Madugu who confirmed the development to Vanguard said he was on his way to attend the Friday Juma’at prayers when he stormed over the scene of the incident.

According to him, “I was rushing to attend the Juma’at prayers around 1:30pm when I saw large crowd of people gathered watching a boy who climbed the bridge (popular Kofar Nasarawa bridge) and threatened to commit suicide or President Muhammadu resign.

“They (people around and even the firemen) pacified him to come down but he insisted that he would not come down. I heard him saying this with my own ears. He is not a small boy. This may be as a result of situation of day to day activities.

“It was one Malam Musa (who move about selling clothes) that drew the attention of the fire service who deployed their men and rescued the boy,” Madugu said.

When contacted, the spokesperson of the Kano State Fire Service, Saminu Yusif denied claims that Hamza threatened to commit suicide or President Buhari resigns.

“We got a distress call around 1:40pm about one Hamza Yahaya, 25-year-old who was found on a pavement of a bridge.

“He told us he doesn’t know how he got in there.

“He told us he is a resident of Sharada area of the state and that he ran away from their house to the area some three months ago because their neighbor sent him on errand with N4,000 and he spent the money.

“He is about 15 years old and can’t say such (commit suicide or President Buhari resigns) but the claims were by people around who coined the story along that line giving previous experiences.

“Our men deployed tactics and safely rescued the boy from the pavement. We handed him over to one SP Rabiu Tale at the Kwalli Police Division to investigate the matter,” Yusif said.

When our correspondent contacted the spokesperson of Kano Police Command, SP Abdullahi Haruna promised to investigate the matter.

tony0806:
So because it's a common entrance exam held in Lagos state, a question on religion shouldn't be added? Then in few years to come, you will start shouting that "little by little, our schools have removed God and everything that has to do with God from the syllables".

Why are some people so myopic?

tony0806:
I had respect for kperogi's write-up before now. But I'm beginning to notice he's some how, creating a disconallegiancy into the minds of his readers. Has he picked up that of other states up North and see the way the test items are designed? Na people like this the start religious war, come travel abroad like Reno Omokrri

Who even told him that the answer to Q.11) is pastorate? That shows kperogi is just inciting violence. He will get a share of it one day.

At least 3 questions in a GENERAL KNOWLEDGE exam that public primary school students in Lagos State took for the common entrance this year asked questions that only Christians—or people who’re familiar with Christianity—can correctly answer, putting Muslim and other non-Christian students at a disadvantage.

That’s objectionable symbolic violence, and it must redressed forthwith in the interest of fairness and justice.

See questions 11, 12, and 14. Even I, a journalism professor who attended government-funded Christian missionary primary and secondary schools, can’t answer questions 11 and 12 because I didn’t take Christian Religious Studies as a student.

Let's start with question 11. To ask students which earthly institution originated from—and was established by—God is to force a religious belief in them, which is a violation of the Nigerian Constitution. That question is in the province of faith, not fact. None of the options is factually correct.

Or did the examiners expect students to choose—and thereby invite them to believe— the “pastorate” as having originated from and established by God? That’s belief, not fact. You can't legitimately test students' belief in a general knowledge exam.

Even “marriage” can’t be correct because it’s a well-established fact in the anthropological literature that marriage didn’t always exist. The first recorded marriage between a man and woman has been periodized to be around 2350 B.C. in Mesopotamia. Before then, people just mated without marriage.

There are still societies such as the Mosuo, a Tibetan Buddhist community, where marriage doesn't exist.

Of course, "schools" and "politics" are decidedly recent human inventions.

So, what response did the examiners at Lagos State want students to pick as the correct answer?

And why is “imamate” not an option if “pastorate” is an option? This is obviously subtle, backhanded Christian proselytization in a secular, general-interest examination, and that’s unacceptable.

Question 12 is an even more blatant instance of noxious religious tyranny. I have not the vaguest clue where Paul was born. Why should a Muslim or non-Christian kid in primary school know that?

To expect a Muslim kid to know the answer to that question is as unfair as expecting a Christian kid to know who the four rightly guided caliphs in (Sunni) Islam are.

The answer to question 14 may seem obvious to people who pay attention to history, but we’re talking of 11- to 12-year-old primary school kids here.

A Muslim kid in Lagos is more likely to know that the Reverend M.S. Cole was the first person to translate the Qur’an into Yoruba in 1906 than that Bishop Ajayi Crowther translated the Bible into Yoruba.

Most importantly, though, those questions don’t belong in a general knowledge exam. No religious faith should be privileged in a secular, general-interest exam.

The Lagos State Ministry of Education must either cancel the exam or compensate students who missed the “correct” answers that braindead, emotionally stunted religious fanatics who set the questions have in mind.

How U.S. played ‘secret role’ in 2017 attack on displaced Nigerians in Borno – Report

The 2017 bombing of Rann IDP camp in Borno State killed more than 160 civilians, many of them children.

An investigation by The Intercept, an online newspaper, has accused the United States of playing an “unacknowledged role” in the 2017 bombing of Rann Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Borno State.

At least 160 civilians, many of them children, were killed in the attack.

The report published on 28 July said the attack was “referred to as an instance” of U.S.-Nigerian operations.

“Evidence suggests that the U.S. launched a near unprecedented internal investigation of the attack because it secretly provided intelligence or other support to the Nigerian armed forces,” the American non-profit news organisation reports, citing a secret U.S, military document it obtained.

“The U.S. inquiry, the existence of which has not been previously reported, was ordered by the top American general overseeing troops in Africa and was specifically designed to avoid questions of wrongdoing or recommendations for disciplinary action.”

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the air raid by the military occurred in January 2017 to target Boko Haram members.

The Nigerian military and the federal government had said the “jet was meant to target suspected Boko Haram members when it accidentally bombed the camp.”

[i]The Nigerian Air Force expressed regrets for carrying out the airstrike, which also “killed nine aid workers and seriously wounded more than 120 people[/I].”

John Eneche, the then defence spokesperson, had said the attack was carried in that location because it was not reflected in the operational map as a humanitarian base. “Hence, it appeared as a place that could equally be used for enemy activities.”


“Thus, when the mass movement was noticed through aerial satellite observation, it was taken for Boko Haram terrorists’ activity, which needed to be neutralised with speed,” Mr Eneche said.

U.S. role

According to the report, U.S. surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations have often been employed in Nigeria, including a Predator drone flown from neighboring Chad, in addition to a longer-range Global Hawk and a manned, turbo prop plane, deployed over Nigeria beginning in 2014, ostensibly to search for children kidnapped by Boko Haram, the Intercept said.

The paper reported that “just days after the attack, U.S. Africa Command secretly commissioned Brig. Gen. Frank J. Stokes to undertake an investigation to determine the facts and circumstances of a kinetic air strike (‘strike’) conducted by Nigerian military forces in the vicinity of Rann, Nigeria.”

“Its findings were never made public,” the paper reported, noting “AFRICOM did not answer its questions about the results of Stokes’s investigation or the extent of U.S. involvement in the attack.”

Relying on documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the Intercept said “it is impossible to ascertain the full extent of U.S. involvement in the 2017 airstrike, but Stokes’s official instructions suggest that the U.S. provided intelligence or other support to the Nigerian military.

“You will gather and preserve any background information that is relevant to a complete understanding of U.S.-Nigerian operations such as this strike,” reads the document cited by the intercept.

“Stokes’s mandate included an inquiry into how the U.S. shares information with Nigeria’s military, protocols concerning its use, and “after action reporting procedures when shared information is used in a strike (e.g., battle damage assessment reports).

“The formal investigation of an African partner’s airstrike was rare, if not unprecedented, and indicates this was no ordinary Nigerian bombing gone wrong. A former Pentagon official with expertise in investigations of civilian casualty incidents, who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity, said that he had never encountered a U.S. investigation of an ally’s airstrike.”

U.S. denies involvement

Meanwhile, the United States has said it was not involved in the 2017 airstrike on the IDP in Rann, a remote village in Borno State.

Jeanne Clark, the spokesperson for the U.S. Mission Nigeria, told PREMIUM TIMES that America, through its embassy in Nigeria, actively engaged the Nigerian military to ensure safeguards were implemented that could help prevent similar incidents.

Regarding the airstrike on the IDP camp, she said it was “the Nigerian Air Force” that “consequently made changes in order to minimise the threat of civilian harm.”

“These changes include a U.S.-supported Air to Ground Integration programme and human rights and law of armed conflict training that have enhanced the Nigerian Air Force’s procedural controls,” she said in an email response to PREMIUM TIMES.

Ms Clark noted that the U.S. Embassy Nigeria “routinely engages with the Armed Forces of Nigeria to reinforce civilian protection and human rights practices through our security force professionalisation efforts that seek to create a modern and effective force.”

A deputy spokesperson at the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, Ryan Essman, had issued a similar statement to The Intercept.

The relevant sections cited include “3.1.1: No broadcast shall encourage or incite to crime. lead to public disorder or hate, be repugnant to public feelings or contain offensive reference to any person or organization, alive or dead or generally be disrespectful to human dignity

The All Progressives Congress (APC) will not be satisfied with 25 per cent votes from the Southeast, National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, said yesterday.

He spoke while inaugurating an eight-man Abia State Reconciliation Committee led by Senator Chris Adighije.

Adamu urged the leaders in the zone to rise above differences and work for the party’s victory in the general election.

He said: “Let Abia go and sit together. All the national elections – House of Representatives, Senate, governorship, presidential election – we will not be satisfied with just the 25 per cent of the vote cast .

“We need the majority of the vote cast for APC. No halfway about it. If we are to win, we must try to win every state.

“We have to do some work and stand together. This is the time to unite; this is the time to work for unity. If we do, God will be with us.”

Adamu advised warring factions in Abia to bury their hatchet and work for the party’s success.

“I hope that with what we have done (inauguration of the committee), there will be peace and we hope this is the very last step. We are not going to hold a reconciliation meeting again.

“We will now leave it to the leaders of Abia to go and play their politics in Abia state. Politics is local,” Adamu told the factions.

Senator Adighije promised to work toward uniting the party in the state.

He said: “We are on our way back to Abia to play the local politics, reconcile all our members and ensure that we go straight for the low-hanging fruits.

“I know that by the grace of God and with the team, we are going to do the needful and ensure victory for our party.”

Other members of the committee are the House of Representatives Deputy Chief Whip, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha (Secretary); Minister of State for Science, Technology and Innovation, Chief Henry Ikoh; former Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr Emeka Wogu; APC National Welfare Secretary, Sir F.N. Nwosu; APC governorship candidate in Abia State, High Chief Ikechi Emenike, and former lawmakers Emeka Atuma and Martins Azubuike.

The Igbo are loyal, giving and unwavering. They have a predilection for going to the grave with a corpse if need be. They are a dependable ally. If you have the Igbo as a consociate, you have an unrelenting sentinel.  

But the Igbo’s devotion to a cause, friend or comrade is their curse. They just do not know when to abandon the corpse and seek the preservation of self. They do not seem to realise when the endgame is already gamed. They do not understand that there is still more to be lived for, many expeditions to undertake, many battles to be fought and many to be won beyond the present realities.  

They are vacant of aptitude for political self-preservation. They would rather sink with the ship than seek safety. They collect their eggs in one basket and when the slithering agent comes it swallows them all.  

They have conquered commerce, industry, science and technology, but are yet to apply the same skills which account for their success in business in politics. These competencies are diplomacy, tact, temperance, a bit of cunning, expansiveness, and flexibility.  

We go all in and throw all in, but get nothing out.  

The Igbo’s flair for persisting in unrewarding political pursuits and relationships out of nothing but fidelity is the reason they stuck with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for years despite the abuse and unrequited loyalty. 

As I asked in a previous column, ‘’What did the PDP do to earn the loyalty of the Igbo?’’ What did the PDP do for the Igbo in 16 years when the party was in power? The Igbo trudged with the PDP through thorns and thistles, yet have nothing to show for their years of thralldom. I had challenged anyone to list the infrastructural achievements of the PDP federal government in the south-east in 16 years, but no one has taken up the gauntlet.  

The second Niger Bridge, for instance, was only in the works on paper – year after year. But today, the bridge is nearing completion under an APC government that the Igbo appear not to fancy. Onitsha-Enugu expressway is also nearing completion as well as other projects by the federal government in the south-east. 

The Igbo kept tailing the PDP through its floundering and wobbles. Even within the party, the south-east was henpecked. Yet, the Igbo sustained the sadomasochism. 

In 2015, the south-east lost its default position. It consigned itself to the backwaters of opposition, where it does not fare well – historically. It chose to sink with the PDP. And sink it did. In the 2019 elections, the south-east rewarded the PDP with support yet again. But the zone is now swinging to the Labour Party because Peter Obi is the party’s presidential candidate.  

I understand my people’s yearnings. I yearn for the same thing. I know the past seven years have been traumatic for the Igbo. It has been enervating. The zone’s political declension is a psychological burden every Igbo bears.  

But are we not repeating the same mistakes of 2015? Are we not letting our emotions colour our reality? Are we not being naïve and walking starry-eyed into political oblivion? Are we not, as always, storing up our eggs in one basket? Are we not attempting a political hara-kiri? 

Peter Obi cannot win the presidential election as things stand now. It is obvious. I dwelt much on the reasons in previous columns. The fact remains if work had been put in by Igbo political leaders in the past six years — forging alliances and mobilising consciences — the right atmosphere would have been created for the zoning of the presidency to the south-east by the foremost political parties in 2023. The mood today says otherwise. The Igbo are not prepared for the presidency — even though deserving of it.  

The Labour Party is not a viable vehicle to ride to victory. It is a rustled-up contraption without deep roots across the country.  

The south-east regaining its place means it must look beyond a solitary party – that is the Labour Party (LP). It must put itself in the thick of things – at the centre — and play realpolitik. To sit at the table, it must wrest itself from the enchantment of the Labour Party and its candidate. 

The south-east should by now have learnt from the perils of political naivety. I suggest, they should be fair and equitable in their support. They should cast their net wide and consider some possible outcomes. The APC and its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu are options they must explore. Going all head in in politics is injudicious.  

What is sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander. Scorched-earth politics will only leave the land barren.

“And please make good your threats, and we will support you with prayers.”

A political party contesting the 2023 elections, Action Alliance, has again sued the Independent National Electoral Commission, All Progressives Congress; its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima, before a Federal High Court in Abuja over alleged double nomination.

The party, in its earlier suit pending before the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, is seeking the disqualification of the APC from the 2023 presidential polls over alleged act of perjury on the part of its presidential candidate, Tinubu.

]b]However, in a fresh suit instituted on July 28, the plaintiff is again seeking the disqualification of the ruling party on the grounds that it has nominated a candidate for more than one constituency in the 2023 general elections[/b].

The act according to the AA, in the fresh suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1256/2022, obtained by journalists on Thursday, contravened Section 35 of the Constitution and the Electoral Act, 2022.

The suit filed on behalf of the plaintiff by Ukpai Ukairo, has INEC, APC, Tinubu and Shettima as 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th defendants respectively.

The plaintiff is specifically seeking, “A declaration that the nomination of the 4th defendant by the 3rd defendant as the Vice Presidential Candidate of the 2nd defendant is void arising from the express provision of Section 35 of the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act, 2022 in that the 4th defendant allowed himself to be nominated in more than one constituency for the 2023 elections.

“A perpetual injunction restraining the 3rd and 4th defendants from holding out themselves as Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates contesting the 2023 Presidential election on the platform of the 2nd defendant.”

The plaintiff also sought for another order of perpetual injunction restraining INEC from listing the names of Tinubu and Shettima as Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates in the final list of candidates in the said election and restraining INEC from placing APC on the ballot for the said election.

In an affidavit in support of the suit deposed to by one Kalu Agu, the plaintiff claimed that the APC contravened the law when it submitted the name of Shettima both as candidate for Borno Central Senatorial and Vice President in the 2023 general elections.

“The 2nd defendant also submitted the name of the 4th defendant as its Candidate in Borno Central Senatorial election for the 2023 election and the 4th defendant swore to a Form EC9 in his capacity as the said Candidate and same was submitted to the 1st defendant

“That the 4th defendant also on July 15, 2022 submitted another Form EC9 to the 1st defendant through the 2nd defendant and this time he was nominated for Vice Presidential Candidate.

“That the 4th defendant also deposed to the oath constituting the said Form EC9 as being nominated for the position of Vice Presidential Candidate.

“That Borno Central Senatorial Zone and the Presidential Election are two different constituencies .

“That the Plaintiff applied through me for the certified true copies of the Forms EC9 of the 4th defendant for the Borno Central Senatorial Zone and the Presidential election but the 1st defendant is delaying the release of it to the plaintiff”.

No date has been fixed for hearing of the suit.

Renowned flutist and former President of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN), Tee Mac Omatshola Iseli, has warned Nigerians against voting the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, Bola Tinubu, saying he was older than he claimed and therefore unfit to run the country.

Tee Mac, who disclosed that he was an in-law to Tinubu , noted that the former Lagos governor’s total existence was too shrouded in secrecy to be given the job of leading Nigeria.

The musician, who responded to a Facebook post by one Yemi Olakitan, who was declaring his support for the politician, alleged that Tinubu was 86 years and not 70.

He, therefore, urged Nigerians not to vote for him, stressing that he was not qualified to run the country as president with all the unanswered questions surrounding his life.

For instance, he pointed out that, the controversies surrounding Tinubu’s age, background and how he made his money remained unresolved.

“Any body can choose any candidate, but an intelligent person will ask himself the question: do I choose rightly? Is the man qualified? Is he honest? Did he tell us the truth about his age, background and how he made his money? Is this man healthy enough at 86 to take up the task of a totally run down country?” Tee Mac said.

According to the flutist, he (Tee Mac) stopped visiting Tinubu after he sold President Muhammadu Buhari to Nigerians in 2015, adding that even as his in-law , he won’t support his ambition to rule Nigeria.

“You see, Tinubu is my in-law. His wife Remi is my cousin. Her Itsekiri mother and my Itsekiri mother are sisters. I have known Tinubu since the mid 1980s personally and even arranged for him to stay in my stepfather’s house (Sir Mobolaji Bank-Anthony) in London, when he went on exile.

"I stopped supporting him and stopped family visits etc when he sold that Buhari to the nation in 2015. My advice to the nation is that this man is absolutely not qualified to
become our next president,” he wrote.

The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore has revealed that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar used to send him documents to fight his former boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo when they were in office.

He said he got the documents through Garba Shehu, the current Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari who was a Special Assistant on Media to Atiku.

Sowore revealed this during a recent interview with Arise TV while reacting to Atiku’s allegations levelled against him that he usually leaves Nigeria after an election and knows nothing about power generation.

According to the rights activist, he has only contested for the office of President once in 2019 and has never left the country since then.

Sowore said: “He mixed up a number of things. I think he is losing memory, otherwise, he would have known, that I have never, at any point, left the issues concerning Nigeria. In fact, for him and others, I was a source of news while they were in office – that means in the government.

“In fact, when Garba Shehu used to work with him as SA, they used to send me documents from the inside. I’m revealing it from the first time so as to counter Obasanjo in those days when they were in each other’s neck.”

Speaking further, Sowore said: “My first time contesting in Nigeria was 2019 and I’ve not left since then. I’ve not left. I’ve been here since that time. But, he has left each time he contested. This is going to be his seventh time contesting.

“I started contesting in 1992 as a student union president. Atiku also contested during the SDP primaries against Abiola. In the 1992/93 transition period, he lost. I won as the student union president. When the system collapsed, it was us that took over and made sure that we fought for that mandate. Atiku ran away. I don’t know where he was between the years 1993 and1999.”

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, on Saturday, said everything about him, including his emergence as both a military Head of State and President of Nigeria, was by accident.

Obasanjo, who was an ex-military Head of State before he was elected as a civilian President in 1999, said he was a farmer by choice and not by accident.

Speaking on Saturday on a live radio interview with Segun Odegbami on Eagles7 Sports 103.7 FM, Abeokuta, Obasanjo said he was always proud to be addressed as a farmer.

Odegbami had asked Obasanjo to speak about what he termed his “romance with farming.”

In response, the former president said, “I don’t like the word you used, ‘romance with farming’. I am a farmer. What do you mean by romance. Everything I have done in my life is by accident. The only thing that is not accidental is farming. Every other thing that I’ve been is by accident. And you called that romance? No! What do you mean by romance?

“You know my beginning. I was born and bred in a village. I went to school by accident. My father just said, ‘won’t you do something different?’ So I went into farming.

"When you look at countries that have made it, they developed on agriculture. First, for the purpose of food security; second, for the purpose of processing what they get from their farms, which is the beginning of industrialisation. Third, to give it out as export, which is for the purpose of foreign exchange; and fourth, as a means of generating employment for the youth.”

Meanwhile, Obasanjo advised Nigerian youths to take over leadership positions right now.

Obasanjo said youths should not allow anyone to address them as leaders of tomorrow, saying the tomorrow may never come.

Obasanjo said some corrupt leaders would destroy the so-called tomorrow if the younger generation failed to rise up and take their future in their hands.

He said, “My advice for Nigerian youths is that, never let anybody tell you that you are the leaders of tomorrow. If you wait for tomorrow before you take over leadership, that tomorrow may not come. They will destroy it. 

“This is the time, youths get up and make it happen.”

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has reacted to the controversy surrounding the choice of his running mate, Ifeanyi Okowa, and why he did not choose the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike.

The PUNCH reports that Atiku had after announcing Okowa as his running mate clarified that he picked the Delta governor because he had the qualities to be a President, adding that he “is a President-in-waiting.”

He said, “In arriving at the decision, I held wide consultations with various stakeholders in our party including our governors, the national working committee, board of trustees, and other leaders to seek their inputs and their wisdom.”

“In these consultations, I made clear that my running mate would have the potential to succeed me at a moment’s notice, that is, a president-in-waiting.

“In other words, the person must have the qualities to be President. The person must have an appreciation of the deep rot which our country has been put into by the rudderless All Progressives Congress government; understands the great suffering that most of our people are going through and the urgency of relieving them of that suffering; understands the critical importance of economic growth and development to provide our young people with jobs, hope, and a pathway to wealth.”

Meanwhile, the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, had on June 29, 2022, during an interview on Arise TV, said Wike, and others who backed the Rivers governor for the PDP vice-presidential ticket slot deserved a detailed explanation from the party’s presidential candidate on his choice of running mate.

This was as he also said he had resorted to fast and prayers to seek God’s direction after the emergence of Okowa as the running mate to Atiku ahead of Wike.

Ortom said it was surprising that Atiku could jettison the recommendation of 14 out of 17 members of the committee that recommended Wike as his running mate.

Ortom said, “But I am waiting for him (Atiku) because there are more things he is expected to do. I expected him to reach out to Wike who came second and he denied him the popular view of PDP members. 14 out of 17 members say that Wike should be the VP but in his wisdom, he chose Governor Okowa. Governor Okowa is a nice man and my friend and I have no problem with him. But if we are in a democratic era, and 14 people out of 17 said that it should be Wike, and he (Atiku) in his wisdom gave it to Okowa, I expect more explanation, I expect him to talk to Wike first, I expect him to even reach out to some of us so that together we can work as a party.

“But the bottom line for me is that I have gone into hibernation and I am praying and at the end, whatever God directs me, I can assure you that I will do it.”

But speaking in an exclusive interview with Arise TV which was aired Friday morning, Atiku said he chose who he felt could deliver among the nominees that were presented to him.

He added that Wike was not rejected and that he only picked who could deliver.

Atiku said, “I didn’t reject Wike, I picked who can deliver. Wike is brilliant and tenacious . Going by history, I had picked an Igbo as running mate in 2007, in 2019.  I still picked an Igbo for 2023.

“The committee that presented the three nominees was chaired by the Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom. They  recommended three people, so I picked one. People should be fair to me and state the facts.”

Speaking on resolving issues with Wike, Atiku said the party was talking to Wike.

“We are reaching out to Wike and talking to him, very soon, we will resolve our internal crises.”

“I have contested this presidency a couple of times and I don’t try to blame anybody, I accept the outcome or go to court,” Atiku said.

Atiku also noted that he was driven by passion to serve the country. “I’m driven by passion and desire to give back to this country, I’m driven by the passion to give back to this country because of what the country has done for me.

“With what I have been able to accomplish at my age, I don’t desire any other thing other than the passion to serve my country.

Speaking on zoning, Atiku said the PDP had never agreed to zone presidency to the South, noting that there was no concession like that. “We never zoned to any part of the country,” he said.

Breadmakers, under the aegis of Premium Breadmakers Association of Nigeria (PBAN), have begun a four-day warning strike over the rising cost of baking materials.

The duration of the strike action will be extended if the government fails to intervene, Babalola Thomas, the association’s spokesperson said in a statement sent to PREMIUM on Tuesday.

Mr Thomas said their bakeries are incurring a “huge loss” due to the continuous increase in baking materials and diesel.

He added that operating in an environment such as this is no longer sustainable.

“Bread is a staple food and one of the cheapest ‘grab and go’ food that is available for both the poor and rich. It, therefore, behoves the federal government to be mindful of this and ensure the survival and sustainability of the industry,” he said.

“In a move to ensure the survival of the Premium bread making industry in Nigeria, we have decided to embark on a withdrawal of services beginning from Thursday 21st July 2022 for four days in the first instance and where no intervention from the government, we shall escalate the duration of the withdrawal.

Requests

The association sought the government’s intervention to stop the 15 per cent “Wheat development levy on wheat import.”

“Grant members access to grants and soft loans being given by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to Minor, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs).

“Stoppage of multi-agencies regulation of the breadmaking industry.”

Mr Thomas further said that multiple meetings with the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Abuja (FMITI) in 2021 have not yielded any result.

“Therefore, the withdrawal of service is the only way we believe we can use to get to the Federal Government and Nigerians and let them know our plight and how difficult it has been with the breadmaking industry in Nigeria,” he said.