₦airaland Forum

Broadcast journalist, Tundun Abiola, has berated her half-sister, Hafsat Abiola-Costello, for likening Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi to their late father and acclaimed winner of the 1993 presidential election, M.K.O Abiola.

Ms Abiola-Costello, director-general of the Yahaya Bello presidential campaign organisation appeared on Arise TV on Sunday where she disclosed that the similarities between her father and Mr Bello encouraged her to take the job.

Reacting to Ms Abiola-Costello’s comment, Ms Abiola said “it was staggeringly inappropriate” that her half-sister would “throw their father under the bus” to score cheap political points for Mr Bello.

She said it was even more “unfortunate” that the late Abiola’s child would be involved in such political gimmicks.

A visibly angry Ms Abiola stressed her half sister should have focused on elaborating her principal’s plans for Nigeria instead of dragging their father’s name through the mud.

“Come out and talk about your principal, his antecedents, his plans for the future of Nigeria and leave daddy out of it. It is not her right, not her name.

“It is our name and it is also the name of future generations of Abiola yet unborn who should be proud of the legacy,” said an enraged Ms Abiola.

She further noted that her half-sister’s comparison was a ridicule to the memory of their beloved father who suffered torture before he got murdered.

“My father was tortured because United Nations (UN) consider solitary confinement as torture. He was tortured and then murdered and has left this legacy only for it to be abused in this manner,” Ms Abiola said.

46-year-old Mr Bello, who became Kogi governor in 2015, is eyeing the presidency while his administration has failed to pay state civil servants salaries.

Ms Abiola warned politicians from using her father’s name for their campaigns, stressing that the “dishonesty and cynical exploitation” of the late Abiola’s struggles was “nauseating”

The Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, on Saturday said government at all levels have abandoned governance.

He made the comment at the National Convention of the People Redemption Party (PRP) which was held in Abuja.

“Our government at the at the state, local and federal level have long abandoned governance,” he said. “And no country can develop without good governance, without good people driving good governance.

“So I urge us to go back and realise that the work of ahead of us is a lot; it may even seem difficult, but it is not impossible to do it.”

Professor Jega is a member of the PRP.

The party is hoping to increase its membership base to 30,000 in each of the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.

At Saturday’s Convention, the party swore in new national executives.

The PRP prides itself as the oldest political party in Nigeria, having being initially registered in 1978.

According to the party’s National Chairman, Falalu Bello, the PRP is in merger talks with other political groups, however it does not plan to change its name or logo.