The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) will be shaken to its foundations, but it will survive. The most problematic question for the party, of course, is who carries its presidential flag in the 2023 election when President Muhammadu Buhari will step down…If Tinubu survives the ambush of the wolves in his party, the race is over – My precipitations, December 31, 2021.

In the last three years, I have formed the dangerous habit of forecasting what the new year might bring, roughly speaking. The quote above was extracted from the piece I wrote on New Year’s Eve of 2022, six months before the APC presidential primaries. 

Apart from my disastrous predictions that the Super Eagles would qualify for the World Cup and that Senegal and Algeria would be bankable bets. I was bang on the money from Tinubu’s emergence to Wike’s showdown with Atiku Abubakar and from the return of stolen Benin Bronzes to the resilience of insurgency and its franchises.

Let me start this time with one of the most frequently asked questions: who will likely win the presidential election of February 25, 2023? My guess is that the APC presidential candidate, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, will

win. I’ll explain later.

Concerns have been expressed about whether the election will even hold, especially in light of the worsening violence in the South-East, including the burning of INEC offices, insurgency in the North-East and some parts of Kaduna in the North-West. 

I have witnessed and reported over half a dozen general elections in Nigeria, and not a single one has been without the fear of actual or potential violence beforehand. Yet, virtually all held, however contentious, the eventual outcome. The next one will not be different. It will hold.

A closely related question is whether a winner will emerge on the first ballot. This is not a baseless concern. For the first time since 1979, when NPN’s Shehu Shagari and UPN’s Obafemi Awolowo could have potentially gone to a second ballot, the chances that a clear winner may not emerge in the first round of next year’s presidential election never looked more probable.

Will a combination of the damage by Governor Nyesom Wike’s faction and Labour Party’s Peter Obi be enough to undermine the leading candidates – Tinubu and Abubakar, especially the latter – and force a rerun? I doubt it. 

Even though this might be the first time in over 40 years that a presidential election would keep the two frontrunners looking over their shoulders to the finish line, my guess, again, is that a winner will emerge at first ballot. 

Tinubu will likely win, and the presidential election will not go to a rerun. Why? The South-East and South-South, two zones that were formerly PDP’s strongholds, have been severely undermined by the crisis in the party and the emergence of Obi.

Otherwise, the APC would have had a far more difficult task at the polls, especially given President Muhammadu Buhari’s poor record on the economy, employment and security.

Some may argue that the South-East recorded less than three per cent of the total votes that brought the APC to power in the last two election cycles against the PDP’s 16.6 per cent. With Obi’s emergence, however, the hold of the opposition party in that region has never been more precarious. The region may, once again, not vote for the APC’s candidate, Tinubu, but his loss will not be Abubakar’s gain. 

And even though the PDP’s candidate may perform better in a few South-South states like Delta (where his running mate is from) and perhaps Akwa Ibom, his performance in these places would be eroded in

Cross River, where Governor Benedict Ayade carefully thrashed PDP before defecting to the ruling party. 

In Edo, where the showdown between Governor Godwin Obaseki and his estranged benefactors (Adams Oshiomhole and Wike) has entered the

bare-knuckle phase, the slugfest promises to leave the governor and the PDP hanging by the skin of their teeth not only in February but well into the twilight of Obaseki’s remaining 18 months in office.

Perhaps the biggest electoral blow to the PDP in the South-South will come from Rivers State, the largest PDP vote bank in the region, second in the entire South to Oyo. I forecast, based on what I have heard, that whereas there are less than five billboards of any presidential candidate in main town Port Harcourt, as of today, before the end of January, Wike, the most influential of the G-5 governors, will openly declare his support for Tinubu. 

He will be followed by another member of the group and Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde. Depending on how they hedge their bet, the remnant

– Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu); Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia); and Samuel Ortom (Benue) – will be left fighting for their political lives.

It would, of course, be a mistake to suggest that the next presidential election would be decided solely in the South, East or South-South. While events in these regions could significantly reduce the chances of a rerun and tip the scale in favour of the APC candidate, they might also instigate sympathy votes in many core Northern states for Abubakar, who will

be perceived as a victim of a Southern gang-up.

This sentiment, which will be reinforced by traditional rulers and clerics in the region, will spill to battleground states in the North-West, where Abubakar will perform better than had been forecast in Kano, Kebbi, Katsina, Jigawa and perhaps even Sokoto, largely at the expense of NNPP’s Rabiu Kwankwaso and Obi.

On the whole, however, a number of moneybags and influential governors who have a manifest stake in the continuity of the ruling party at the centre, will ensure, by all means, that the APC candidate retains the edge over his rival in the North-West; while the North-East apart from Adamawa, Taraba and perhaps Bauchi, will be in significant play for the

ruling party.

The situation in the North-Central states that used to be the bellwether of Nigeria’s politics has been undermined by the toxicity of identity politics and farmer-herder conflicts, especially under Buhari’s government. The sweep of APC’s broom will be impeded in Niger, Kwara, Benue and perhaps Plateau states, where Atiku and Obi could make unexpected gains mainly in faith circles but hardly enough to change the overall electoral map.

Of the six South-West states, Lagos, Oyo, and Osun will prove the most interesting. Because of the cosmopolitan nature of Lagos (especially the

relatively large population of Southeasterners), I forecast that Obi would likely score more votes in Lagos than he would get from three of the five South-Eastern states combined. 

Osun has a record of wild voter swings. But the fence-mending between Rauf Aregbesola and his successor, Gboyega Oyetola, may be crucial to the outcome even though Governor Ademola Adeleke will see the presidential election as the first big test of his clout. 

Abubakar’s performance in Lagos and Oyo will be severely impeded by the position of the party’s leaders in the region that the PDP has not been fair to the South, giving Tinubu a stronger edge, not just in Lagos and Oyo, but also in other South-West states. 

In spite of discussions in elite circles about issues-based politics, the virulence of the politics of money, tribe, and religion will be such as has never been seen in Nigeria for decades. Also, the presidential election coming first might weigh on the outcome of tight races in the governorship elections in a number of states two weeks later.

While the general election is not the only tree in the forest of 2023, it is the tree that will define the forest in the year. Until the new president has been sworn in by May and the National Assembly inaugurated in June, expect nothing much. After the elections, it promises to be a six-month year. 

There would be no honeymoon. The new president will descend into a perfect storm: inflation at nearly 22 per cent; unemployment at 33 per cent; foreign exchange scarcity and declining revenue from oil sales; looming debt crisis; a population surging ahead of GDP; an inefficient, lopsided and bloated public service; and broken confidence in government.

It will get worse, at first, as the new president’s men struggle to displace the old in a combustible lobby industry, the kind of which we have not seen in the last eight years. 

Subsidy on petrol will go, sparking initial higher prices and demand for higher public sector wages by union leaders who know the truth but prefer to play to the gallery. To tackle the scandalous difference between the official and black-market exchange rates, expect the new government to adjust the official rate from the current N430-450/$ to around N550/$1 in the first instance.

Also, expect a dialling back of the CBN’s current over-extended role, among other inevitable changes. The flip-flop over the new naira notes that started with the increase of withdrawal limits to N500,00 will not end there. The deadline for the full introduction of the new naira notes will also be extended from January ending.

The official reason will be the insufficiency of the new notes, but the untold reason will be that on the eve of an election when cash-in-hand is everything, politicians will unfailingly stage a self-interest coup that will confirm that the CBN, like the proverbial okra, never grows taller than the farmer.

Where will the new government find money? More taxes, tolls and levies. And perhaps by providing a stimulus package for upstream production of oil and gas and the real sector. There’s a racket called “oil theft”, which is reportedly costing the country millions of dollars daily. 

What is closer to the truth, however, is that the “theft” is largely a fiction created by smart creditors owing banks an excess of $6 billion for downstream oil and gas assets they bought but which they’re either unwilling or unprepared to repay. They have zero appetite for any new investments to renew the assets. 

Has anyone asked why the wells should keep pumping, knowing full well that the products will get siphoned? Why is no one simply turning off the tap to mitigate loss? And why is this complaint not prevalent in assets managed by foreign oil firms? I expect the new government to tackle this demon and to insist on efficiency as a first step toward raising the country’s production quota and also increasing revenue.

In nearly eight years, Buhari has used up his lucky charm and also those of politicians who look like him, whether or not they are his party members. Perhaps the year would also reveal that his greatest legacy is the gift of a dangerously divided, utterly cynical, hope-bereft country desperately in search of greatness.

It’s a year when, to retain one’s sanity, common sense recommends cautious optimism.

Ishiekwene is Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP


Read more: https://mcebiscoo.com/what-you-might-expect-in-2023/

The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on 28th December 2022 swore Lariba Zuweira Abudu MP, and Francesca Oteng Mensah MP into office as Minister and Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection respectively with an admonishing to ensure a fair balance between their legislative and executive duties.

Congratulating the appointees, President Akufo-Addo said, “Let me remind you of your dual roles in the legislature and the executive, and how your appointment does not relieve you of your duties as members of the legislature. You will have to learn how to balance effectively your twin responsibilities as members of Parliament, and as members of government. It is exacting but doable, and do it you must.”

He said, “always bear in mind the new arrangements of the conduct of parliamentary business, that is the time for a sitting, and the provision of decision dates have been engineered to facilitate your work in the executive. There thus can be no excuse for neglecting your parliamentary obligations.”

“The wide acceptance of your nominations by the Ghanaian people and the nature of your individual performances during Parliament’s approval processes are for me, indications that the confidence I repose in you is not misplaced. You nonetheless have to justify your selection especially as you should know that there are many of your peers in the house, who have not been selected, despite having similar claims of competence as yourselves, he indicated,” he added.

He stated that “your appointments have come into critical moments in the history of our country, and your success in this endeavour, will be a consequence of the oaths, you have solemnly sworn to uphold the interest of the republic, its constitution and its citizenry, and to dedicate yourselves to the promotion of their general wellbeing, the quality of integrity, which will permeate your work is extremely important.”

In lieu of this, he continued, “you have to remember at all times the solemn commitment that we in the New Patriotic Party, have made collectively and individually, jointly and severally, in the language of the lawyers, to serve the Ghanaian people, honestly and competently. We are called to these public appointments to provide public service, not to promote our personal gains. Do not in this regard fail to file your assets declarations properly, and remain above reproach in your public dealings. Your conduct, my conduct, our collective conduct in the executive, will determine the fate and fortunes of our party, the New Patriotic Party in this and succeeding decades.”

Concluding President Akufo-Addo, said, “the success of your work will be seen in the hard work you bring to it, you have both been carefully chosen for your portfolio. Your educational and professional background, your life experiences and your characters have dictated these choices. An opportunity is being afforded to you to serve your country in an elevated capacity, seize the opportunity with humility but with determination and perform, guided always by the almighty God.”


Read more: https://mcebiscoo.com/akufo-addo-swears-in-gender-minister-and-deputy-into-office/

The Ekiti State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Ado Ekiti on Thursday threw out a suit filed by the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the June 18 election, Segun Oni challenging Biodun Oyebanji’s emergence as governor of the state.

POLITICS NIGERIA reports that the Tribunal, in its judgement delivered by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, threw out Oni’s case and affirmed that all certificates presented by Monisade Afuye, now Deputy Governor belong to her and all are genuine.

It would be recalled that Oni, a former governor of the state had filed a petition against Oyebanji (All Progressives Congress, APC), alleging that he scored the highest number of valid votes and APC didn’t have a governorship candidate.

Oni also said Mrs Afuye now-Deputy Governor submitted fake West African Examinations Council (WAEC) results to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Oyebanji, a former Secretary to the Ekiti State Government and a former Chief of Staff, was officially sworn in as Governor of Ekiti State on October 16, 2022. He is the seventh democratically-elected governor since the return of democracy.

https://mcebiscoo.com/ekiti-tribunal-quashes-suit-seeking-removal-of-gov-oyebanji/

Does a Mouth Action give you more pleasure than sex?

Also Check Here: https://mcebiscoo.com/does-a-blow-job-give-you-more-pleasure-than-sex/

Masterkraft Calls Out The Headies For Ignoring His Contribution To Music Industry

Masterkraft has slammed organisers of The Headies award for refusing to recognise his contribution to the Nigerian music industry.

Nigerian music producer, Masterkraft has taken to social media to call out The Headies organizers for constantly ignoring his contributions to the music industry.

Masterkraft Calls Out The Headies For Ignoring His Contribution To Music Industry View pictures in App save up to 80% data.

Masterkraft Tackle Headies

KanyiDaily recalls that the 15th edition of the Headies award was held in the early hours of Monday at the Cobbs Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta, USA.

Following the 2022 edition of the prestigious Nigerian music award, Masterkraft who didn’t make the list of nominees in the producer of the year category, took to Twitter to express his disappointment at the organizers.

The producer said despite several hits he has produced for Nigerian music big shots, including Burna Boy, Wizkid, David, and Olamide, The Headies “have chosen to ignore me for years.”

Mastercraft decried the lack of acknowledgment of his success by Nigeria’s biggest music award show. He, however, congratulated his colleague, Sarz who won the Producer of the year award on Sunday.

He wrote, “And while I can, I have been a blessing to this Naija music industry for years and will forever be a legend to anybody who chooses to be excellent, exceptional and special in the music space of this continent. And while the @The_Headies have chosen to ignore me for years.

“I will never give up or quit !!! I’m gonna forever leave this world a legend and a blessing to many. Every single year I come thru and I carry @2niteFlavour @phynofino @wizkidayo @davido @burnaboy @Olamide and as many as I have been blessed to work with.

“On my back … and I’m still not recognized for whatever reasons best known to the headies is crazy shaaa !!!! Congrats to my Hommie @beatsbysarz for winning producer of the year after 1billion years of being a co Genius as myself !

“We move, It’s all love !!!! I’m gonna be here for a long time y’all and expect the best !! I was gonna say Bleep u headies but again lemme keep it cool !!!! God is the greatest !!!! Thanks @BankyW @kennyogungbe.”

KanyiDaily recalls that the organizers of The Headies had earlier disqualified fast-rising Nigeran singer, Portable, who was nominated in the “Rookie of the Year” and the “Best Street-Hop Artiste” categories.

https://naijalee.com/masterkraft-calls-out-the-headies-for-ignoring-his-contribution-to-music-industry/

Most red Chile peppers are known for their hot and spicy taste. Yesterday’s visit by Tinubu and his running mate, Shettima alongside the APC Governors to Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan is currently causing ripples amongst the opposition parties.
The visit was all smiles and, of course, added spice to the ongoing political game. Since last week, there have been rumours that the opposition is trying to unite in order to take on the APC, which they fear is becoming an increasingly formidable and impenetrable front

.
Recently, pictures of Atiku meeting with the LP presidential candidate and some PDP governors were all over the internet

, with some Nigerians flying the kite that Peter Obi has finally agreed to succumb to Atiku.
According to the opposition party’s foot soldiers, Tinubu is gaining massive acceptance from the major political stakeholders; for example, Tinubu’s visit to former President Obasanjo WAS EXPLOSIVE and made headlines for days, fueling speculation that the Jagaban is unstoppable.

Therefore, it is clear that these people are currently uneasy about the visit because the pictures deliver the entire story, signed, sealed, and delivered. Seeing their Hero give Tinubu a Five Star Reception hurts a lot, meanwhile, the political family of Tinubu/Shettima are singing in Wike’s voice ” As E dey Pain Dem Na So E dey Sweet Us”

As we always say, our mission is to bring you the news as it is. Will Tinubu’s current dominance bulldoze over the opposition parties? Can the opposition parties stand the heat from Tinubu/Shettima’s candidacy?

Let’s cross our fingers and see how the game plays out, but in case you missed these “pepper dem images”, take a look below and tell us what you think.

https://mcebiscoo.com/why-tinubu-apc-governors-visit-to-goodluck-jonathan-is-raising-concerns/

Happy Birthday To Me Popularly Known As Mc Ebisco

As I grow older, I am grateful to be alive and for all the people in my life. Happy birthday to me. CEO MC Ebisco

I was born August 26 1989, Today am so grateful once again to see today.

See more photos below:

https://mcebiscoo.com/happy-birthday-to-me-popularly-known-as-mc-ebisco/

Download Mp3: Dennyboi - When E Go Be

This song is an impressive track that will surely be worth a place on your playlist if you are a lover of good music.

The sweet melody is available here for your free and fast download.

Listen and download Dennyboi - When E Go Be below:

https://www.mcebiscoo.com/dennyboi-when-e-go-be/

Nigerian couple does the unusual as they where caught pants down having sex inside a car in a residential area.

According to video clip circulating on social media, some of the residents noticed the unusual movement of the car that was parked along the street and decided to film the moment.

After taking a quickie with the unknown man, the lady goes inside the house and brought water for the exhausted man, see video clip below;

WATCH VIDEO HERE

https://www.mcebiscoo.com/watch-nigerian-couple-caught-making-out-inside-a-car/

Three Rich Men Arrested In Connection To Viral Video Of High School Girls Smoking, Drinking And Tw3rking On Men After They Broke Bounds (Watch Video)

Social media is flooded with a video clip of high school girls who were captured partying, smoking, drinking while twerking.

According to reports, the rich men came at their campus at 10am, picked up 7 girls whom they were taking to their hideout for enjoyment.

Unfortunately, the video of the girls smoking, twerking on the men broke the internet which forced he authorities to take action by arresting three men spotted in the video.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO

See photos and video below; https://ebinaija.com/three-rich-men-arrested-in-connection-to-viral-video-of-high-school-girls-smoking-drinking-and-tw3rking-on-men-after-they-broke-bounds-watch-video/