₦airaland Forum

Senate President a few days ago secured the services of Senator Waku as attack dog against perceived political foes . Waku got an initial down payment of 15million to commence his attack on all the antagonists of the Senate President Saraki and his family. Waku immediately went to work accusing the APC of several sins and also pointedly without any shred of proof a cussing a national leader of the party as been responsible for the EFCC invitation to Mrs. Saraki.
Waku a former Senator known for his caustic tongue is one with no reputation to protect. Even in Benue he is regarded as a rabble rouser and one with zero political value. A leading Benue politician Said no one should pay Waku any notice. " Waku is on a paid job. He is ignorant about what he is saying. Pay him no attention " he said .Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

Breaking news. Saraki Hires Senator Waku As Attack Dog.
Senate President a few days ago secured the services of Senator Waku as attack dog against perceived political foes . Waku got an initial down payment of 15million to commence his attack on all the antagonists of the Senate President Saraki and his family. Waku immediately went to work accusing the APC of several sins and also pointedly without any shred of proof acussing a national leader of the party as been responsible for the EFCC invitation to Mrs. Saraki.
Waku a former Senator known for his caustic tongue is one with no reputation to protect. Even in Benue he is regarded as a rabble rouser and one with zero political value. A leading Benue politician Said no one should pay Waku any notice. " Waku is on a paid job. He is ignorant about what he is saying. Pay him no attention " he said .Waku has on several occasions been found wanting for his utterances and out burst . This is evidence of another such misguided utterance backed by money .

This is the second time Waku is attacking Asiwaju in one day ....it is becoming clear he is an attack dog definately he is being paid for this service. Why would Asiwaju prompt efcc to do their job

David Runciman in his Confidence Trap, an interesting analysis of democracy’s toil through the prism of de Tocqueville’s reading of America’s democracy in the 19th century, underlines the views of Tocqueville on the advantage of democracy over autocracy. According to him “…the long-term advantages of democracy are not readily apparent. They can’t be grasped in the moment. They need time to reveal themselves.” In its crisis mode he noted that “Democracies are caught between their impulse to precipitate action and their instinct to wait. There is no equilibrium between these states of mind.”

The state of Osun under the leadership of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola between 2010 and now approximates Tocqueville’s appreciation of democracy in America. Today, there are few governors in Nigeria well-loved by his people like Ogbeni. I was fortunate to witness his first inauguration and could vividly recall the ecstasy and frenzy of the day in Oshogbo. For the people of Osun, Ipinle Omoluabi, it was a new dawn. The bond between the governor and his people was massively displayed in his re-election. The election was a test of strength of people united behind their leader and irredentist central government. In that re-election exercise, over 700,000 voters turned out, amounting to about 54 per cent of the total registered voters, the highest recorded in elections in the country at the time and about 55 percent of the valid votes sealed the mandate of the incumbent. Never in our history has a state election excited so much interest. It was a contest between good and evil but of course the people triumphed.

Ogbeni’s re-election took place against a background of a dip in the price of oil in the international market and for a country solely reliant on a mono product from which it merely extract rents, it was a matter of time that the entire economy would reveal its structural weakness. With a paltry internally generated revenue and with over 50 percent cut in accruals from oil revenue, the chicken came home to roost. The distributable pool in the federation account could barely pay the salaries of workers across states of the federation. At the last count over twenty states were unable to settle their wage bills, some, for upwards of eight months and even the central government with its buffers owned workers in many agencies and institutions of government.

The states affected are Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Cross River, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Enugu Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kogi, Kebbi, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Yobe and Zamfara. Only about 14 states have been able to pay salaries up-to-date. These states include Anambra, Adamawa, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, Edo, the FCT, Gombe, Kaduna, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Sokoto and Taraba. As at 2014, the domestic debt of states was put collectively at about N1.7 trillion by the Debt Management Office (DMO). The case of Benue states was so bad that the Governor Suswan was overwhelmingly voted out in his bid for the senate in the last general elections. Cross River, Edo, Kaduna, Lagos and Ogun have the biggest external debt profile. Currently, Osun states own its workers up to five months salary arrears. As Olusegun Adeniyi has observed in his ‘States of Emergency’, Ogbeni was the only governor of the lot to admit so. Sincerity ought to be a distinguishing character of democracy as Tocqueville found out in the case of America.

At this point, the pertinent question is why the disproportionate focus on Osun state? Recently, the Osun State House of Assembly has inaugurated a seven-man committee to probe the alleged financial recklessness of the governor. Indeed, the commonplace narrative is that the governors mismanaged state resources. Whereas this may be true of some states, there are other objective factors that we ought to relate with, they are in the main developmental and go to lengths to explain the Osun dilemma. They flow from the commitment of the governor of the state to his state and his people whose price he is currently paying as the butt of sometimes extremely uncomplimentary remarks coming from grossly ill-informed and bellyaching commentators. Again, this is the beauty of democracy. The governor comes from the most oppositional crust of the Nigerian polity and we cherish that value. Amidst the chaos of the babel, the truth must find its way and that is the providence in democracy. I shall present in what follows concrete development steps which Osun state governor has embarked upon since 2010 when he assumed leadership of the state

Upon his inauguration, Ogbeni provided jobs for 20,000 of our youths within the first 100 days in office under the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES), a social welfare programme in which the youths are involved in community service as well as capacity building that costs the state about N8.8 billion so far. This has been acclaimed by the World Bank and other multilateral institutions. The governor introduced a school feeding scheme for about 252000 school children at a yearly cost of about N3.5 billion. Over 3000 community caterers and sundry commercial farmers benefit from this scheme. The education development also include Opon Imo, an electronic Learning tablet provisioned for about 150,000 high school students gulping about N1.67 billion, the development of model school infrastructure, teacher training School, uniform harmonization which has stimulated he largest garment factory in West Africa. The state’s pathway to diversification of agriculture led to investment in agri-business which resulted in the development of one of the largest poultry producers in the country while the cocoa factory in Ede are equally being restored. Oshogbo town is undergoing one of the most ambitious urban renewal project in the country with the development of road infrastructure.

It is pure miracle that Ogbeni could make this mileage with the state paltry fiscal profile. Resources from Federal Allocation Account (FAAC) between November 2010 and April 2015 was about N121.4 billion. Personnel cost alone gulped about 121.4 billion between November 2010 and November 2014. Internally generated revenue, capital receipts as well as proceeds from bonds went into recurrent expenditure and capital projects. It is clear beyond doubt that that Ogbeni is paying the price of commitment to his people. He may have made some mistakes inadvertently. He means well for his state. The democratic instinct to wait will justify the Osun project and elevate the status of Ogbeni in the service of his people.

Dr. Akhaine is a visiting member of the Guardian Editorial Board.

So Rochas Okorocha is from Ogbomosho stop this tribal sentiments is any Calabar man on the entourage or lagosian or kwara or sokoto I beg

COMMITTEE FOR THE PROTECTION OF PEOPLES MANDATE (CPPM)
10, Afolabi Lesi Street, Ilupeju, Lagos
Telephone: 08023172694, 07033853232
Email: cppmandate@gmail.com

13/07/2015

PRESS STATEMENT


The Committee for the Protection of Peoples Mandate (CPPM) wholeheartedly congratulates President Muhammadu Buhari and the entire people of Nigerian over the dismissal from office of the national security adviser and service chiefs by Mr. President.

We regard this sack as a long awaited and welcome development which will go a long way in repositioning and enhancing our democracy, military and national security, as well as a step in the right direction towards restoring the lost glory of the military which was brought into public opprobrium by the conduct of the military in recent past.

We make bold to state that the Nigerian military as an institution epitomizes the pride, discipline, character and unity of the Nigerian state and thus must be above board in its conduct at all times. The military is a professional and unbiased institution whose conduct and dedication to securing the territorial integrity of the Nigerian state must not be in doubt, but unfortunately during the last dispensation, the Nigerian military under the sacked leadership brought the image and integrity of the Nigerian state and military into public disrepute by its unprofessional, biased, corrupt, partisan and embarrassing conduct.

Therefore, in the light of the above national and international embarrassment that the Nigerian state was subjected to under the sacked national security adviser and service chiefs, the Committee for the Protection of Peoples Mandate (CPPM) demands the following:

1. Immediate investigation of the tenure of the national security adviser and service chiefs in the discharge of their constitutional responsibilities.
2. Immediate investigation of the role of the national security adviser and service chiefs in the prosecution of the war against book haram.
3. Immediate investigation of the alledged role of the national security adviser and chief of army staff in complicity with Governor Ayodele Fayose, Brig Gen. Aliyu Momoh, Musiliu Obanikoro, Jelili Adesiyan, Iyiola Omisore, Caleb Olubolade, etc in violating the constitution by assaulting democracy in the conduct of the Ekiti state gubernatorial election of June 21, 2014, now derisively known as Ekitigate.
4. Immediate investigation of the roles of the national security adviser and service chiefs in committing treason by forcing the postponement of the 2015 general election from February 14 and 28 to March 28th and April 11th, 2015.
5. Immediate investigation of the roles of the national security adviser and service chiefs in committing treason and dereliction of duty by their inability to provide security which necessitated the postponement of the 2015 general elections.
6. Immediate investigation of the roles of the national security adviser and service chiefs in the assault on democracy by the use of hooded and unidentified military men for the Osun state gubernatorial election of August 9, 2014.
7. Immediate investigation of the roles of the national security adviser and service chiefs in assaulting democracy by the use of unidentified men in military uniforms to “provide” security during the Ekiti and Osun states gubernatorial elections on June 21 and August 9, 2014.

Our above demands for investigation and prosecution for assault on democracy and the constitution by the national security adviser and service chiefs stems from the fact that the military symbolizes the discipline and unity of the Nigerian state, thus very concerted and patriotic effort must be made at all times to ensure that national security and unity remains sacrosanct.

We hereby call on President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure a speedy investigation and trial of proven violations of the constitution so as to serve as a deterrent to others that the Nigerian military is an institution whose honour and integrity must not be soiled, no matter the circumstances.

Thanks.

Yours Sincerely,

Signed.
Nelson Ekujumi
Chairman.

The seemingly coordinated vicious attacks on the former Governor of Lagos and APC National Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a direct result of the front-line role he played in ending the 16-year reign of the PDP.
In recent times, Asiwaju Tinubu has been the target of attacks both in the traditional and Social Media, apparently orchestrated by those who blame him for everything happening to the party, especially the crisis triggered by the National Assembly leadership election.

The attacks have become stronger since Friday, when he was needlessly pilloried for not attending the NEC meeting of the party in Abuja, called to resolve the National Assembly leadership crisis.

''There is no doubt that the attacks are being orchestrated by those who have not forgiven Asiwaju for the visionary role he played in bringing about the merger of opposition parties into the APC, which then went ahead to win power at the centre.

''But for Asiwaju's uncommon vision and extraordinary politics, such a merger could never have been consummated, not to talk of winning power at the centre in less than two years of its registration by INEC.

''Add that to APC 's unprecedented feat of becoming the first party to unseat a ruling party, and you can then begin to understand why those who had their long snouts tucked into the nectar of power under the PDP will never like the APC visioner. Come to think of it, no PDP member or supporter will ever see anything good in Asiwaju'' one source said.

Another source said that in a twist of irony, Asiwaju's unprecedented success in politics has also been the source of anger and hatred directed at him by those who were very comfortable with the status quo, especially since the beginning of the current political dispensation in 1999.

''Recall that when Obasanjo embarked on his onslaught against the South-west in 2007, only Lagos State under Tinubu survived. But for his survival then, which he then leveraged upon to retake power from the PDP in the region, there would have been no APC today, because the ACN - the key legacy party of the APC - would never have been born.

''The PDP, lacking visioners like Tinubu, never for once imagined that some opposition elements will put their differences aside and opt to work together for higher interests, like it happened in the case of the APC, to unhorse them. That was why, in their moment of power stupor, they boasted that the PDP will rule for 60 years.

The source said but for Tinubu, that prediction of power longevity, boastful as it might have seemed to many, would have come to pass.

''It is therefore not strange that the man, Tinubu, is being attacked and blamed for every perceived wrong in Nigeria, in the APC or for allegedly seeking to grab every imaginable post in his party.

''But there is no cause for alarm. Every great man in history has gone through the same motion of being pilloried, being misunderstood or being simply hated for their greatness. It is not about to change with Tinubu, but like it or not, his place in Nigeria's history is guaranteed. He has earned that and no level of attacks can take it from him.

''Tinubu should take solace in the words of another great man of his time, Albert Einstein, who said: ''Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.''

Dullard do u know how much revenue nigeria generates daily ..this money came from the Nigerian liquified natural gas company.....this shud show u big dumbo the type of money carted away by the Jonathan admin

The legendary Nostradamus probably reincarnated in me during the historic run-up to the 2015 general elections in my article titled "Asiwaju Nourishing Vipers In His Bosom" which was published by both local and foreign media some eight months ago. In a swift response and reaction Mr. Joe Igbokwe, the Lagos State APC publicity secretary got it all twisted and severely criticized that piece accusing me of wanting to fell the holm oak - the Asiwaju of the Yoruba race. Upon my soul, my intentions were not only misjudged, misrepresented but ultimately misconstrued!




There is no denying Tinubu's place in history for he has doubtlessly become an iconic figure today in Nigerian letters. He is an astute politician, a political strategist, a tactician who has been at the forefront of Nigeria's pro-democracy struggle. Tinubu began his political career following his election as a senator in the short-lived Nigerian Third Republic. His daring exploits began in 1993 when the election that would have brought late Abiola to power was annulled by the self-styled evil genius, ex-military president, Ibrahim Babangida. Nigerians on June 12 went out and voted en masse for the above-named uncrowned winner. That was the election in Nigeria that for the first time succeeded in cutting across ethnic and religious divides but, IBB, as he is fondly called had it annulled like a marriage of convenience thus the sovereign wishes of the Nigerian electorates were ultimately bastardized.




At this period under sad review, it became clear that the military was not ready to relinquish their hold on power in Nigeria and Tinubu along with other Nigerians embarked on pro-democracy struggle with the military authorities under the auspices of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) many of whom were killed during Abacha's reign of terror. It was all in a bid to revalidate the results of June 12 and restore the stolen mandate. This saw his flight from Nigeria on self-exile from where he continued the struggle to return Nigeria to civil democratic rule. As luck would have it, his efforts did not see the light of the day. Abiola died while in detention. The curtain at this juncture was torn in two and the Nigerian political firmament reek of gloom, anxiety and uncertainty which led to a series of demonstrations across the country. Nigeria eventually returned to civil democratic rule in 1999 with Tinubu elected as the Lagos State Governor on the
platform of Alliance for Democracy.




These were indeed interesting times! He delved into work immediately and in no time the plot against Lagos was aided by his policies to restore the state's lost glory. This he did by dint of hard work to reposition the state in the path of socio-politico and economic development. This found expression in infrastructural renewal and development that ultimately made Lagos a reference point in governance in Nigeria to this day. Continuity has always been the watchword by his handpicked successors.




Tinubu and Lagos, Nigeria's number one state, and economic hub became the cynosure of all eyes in Nigeria and beyond. Many Nigerians thus wanted the developmental strides in Lagos replicated in their states. In the elections that followed Tinubu's party rose to capture states in the South West that were under the Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) control notably Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti and later Edo State. Tinubu has at this time become a formidable political force to reckon with and this brought him to national prominence.




Having successfully established himself as a power broker and iron-jawed icon of Nigerian politics especially in the South West, the most developed region in Nigeria, Tinubu as a kingmaker became a force to be wooed if one is to go far in a bid to get Nigeria's plum job. Former President Jonathan had no option but to seek his support in the hotly contested election of 2011. Tinubu's political machine in the south-west roared into motion on which former President Jonathan sat and rode to power with the country's north especially core Hausa-Fulani states throwing their weight behind the candidate of the defunct Congress For Progressive Change (CPC) Gen. Muhammadu Buhari Rtd.




Sources close to Jonathan say there was no brokered one tenure agreement with the northern political gladiators, who visibly frowned at his interest and desire for a second term. Thus every antic was employed to frustrate him in order to get back their "slot" by returning power to the region. Tinubu and the South West became a Hobson's choice and the wooing of the Great Oak began under whose branches they expect to find solace.




On Bourdilon Road, Ikoyi residence of the Asiwaju a series of meetings ensued that was to change the political climate of Nigeria. Another agreement was brokered with the South West forming a political alliance with Hausa-Fulani oligarchy. This brought about a merger that gave birth to the All Progressives Congress (APC). With Tinubu at the forefront, the presidential primaries took place in Lagos, Nigeria and through the agency of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Muhammadu Buhari clinched the Presidential ticket to contest the presidency again which he has previously lost in three consecutive times.




With Tinubu delivering the whole of South West votes to APC save Ekiti State, Buhari 'won' the 2015 presidential election and former President Jonathan early concession of defeat saved a nation and a people who were dangerously on the brink. Thus the "dogs and the baboons" - a metaphor employed by Buhari for Nigerians - were saved the dangers and agony of bloodshed.




Today Buhari is Nigeria's 'elected' President; the man who sits on the throne presiding over the affairs of over 170 million Nigerians. His "success" story will not be complete without mentioning the pivotal role played by the Great Oak- the Asiwaju of the Yoruba race, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. This dogged fighter on whose back the north and Buhari rode back to power deserves a pat on the back, all things considered.




Today, I often read the diatribes in all the popular dailies downplaying the efforts of a man that has sacrificed and contributed so much to Nigeria's nascent democracy and more so on whose back the north rode back to power in Nigeria. Ay, I often sit back with mouth agape in bewilderment on hearing the strings of roughshod over a man who bankrolled the APC to the seat of power in Abuja. The question that agitates the mind of this writer is:




Does Tinubu deserve the treatment being meted out to him by the northern political gladiators?




When caught trying to reap where you did not sow you are labeled a thief and chargeable with theft. Many who criticize him today stayed aloof while the battle raged to kick the military out of power in Nigeria. President Buhari, the major beneficiary today of Tinubu's prodemocracy struggle had himself tucked away in the desert city of Daura, Katsina State. But today he bestrides the Nigerian political world like a colossus in his capacity as the President of Nigeria while the major power broker is surprisingly being kept tabs on to cut him down to size - this could be likened to none other than the foolish counsel of Ahithophel in one of the Bible stories by his kith and kin of northern extraction which the President has taken hook, line and, sinker. This ought not to be after all!




Events playing out in the NASS election and the President's reaction calls for concern. Buhari, we read, in the dailies has insisted on the party supremacy. We have read times without number when his apologists of northern extraction have advised that Tinubu and Amaechi be paid off to make it a strictly northern presidency.




Upon my soul, I saw it coming and aptly rose to caution Bola Ahmed Tinubu that Buhari is none other than a viper which he was nourishing in his bosom. Events playing out today have proven me right. What and who Nigeria urgently stand in need of are none other than peoples' redemption programmes and competent technocrats to regenerate Nigeria from the obviously decadent paralysis, but his folks of northern extraction have hijacked power, a reality which we all shall soon be awoken to before long. Need they need reminding that 2019 is not an eternity?




Iyoha John Darlington, aka Lington Donovan who is a social activist, political analyst and public commentator on national and global issues writes from Turin, Italy.





Email: jamestmichael2003@yahoo.com

The lies and unfounded rumours about Tinubu’s absence at the APC NEC meeting continue to assault our eyes. These sponsored stories aimed at embarrassing Tinubu are so hollow. Tinubu who in the past had missed more than 3 NEC meetings decided he was no longer interested in attending a meeting where the members where working against the party and polling the wool over the faces of other members. An APC chieftain who spoke to News Digest said Tinubu had more than a week ago told them in a private discussion that he was not going to attend the NEC meeting.’’ There was no such plan to embarrass Dinuba. The stories about humiliating Dinuba surfaced the day before the meeting by those who were afraid of his presence and how it could turn things around. They used the social media and some pliant newspapers to plant the story that a protest was been planned and Dinuba will be stopped’’. The party chieftain further stated that the reports were laughable
and very far from the truth. Tinubu had a choice to attend or not to attend. He said Tinubu was not one to shy away from a confrontation saying Tinubu had a lion heart and could confront any situation. ‘’Tinubu does not need to prove anything to anyone at this point. He deserves respect at this point, not the rubbish some selfish and power hungry party members are spreading’’.
Further investigations revealed that Tinubu had is week planned out and never had the NEC meeting on the agenda. This was a non-fact. Yes he was invited as a leader of the party and he had the right to attend. The APC would have been ridiculed if Tinubu, a major financier, a political brain box and one of the two pillars of the party was heckled or disgraced at the meeting a source said. Those behind it would have faced the wrath of the party and that of members.
Oyegun now under a heavy cloud of bribe taking is now speaking up to deny such. The truth will soon come out about how he sold the party to Saraki and has since lot focus and firmness.

The Action Group of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has risen in stout defence of the former Interim Chairman of the ruling party, Chief Bisi Akande, saying his recent utterances on the crisis bedevilling the party at the national assembly were those of a sincere leader.
The Group, through a statement by its spokesperson, Segun Dipe, said the ramrod qualities of Chief Akande qualify him to see when things are skewed towards failure and was right to have called the people involved to order.
"Here is the man who steered the ship of our party through the turbulent waters from conception to birth. He did so with sincerity of purpose and great sacrifice that even President Muhammadu Buhari, a man of few words, not given to praise-singing, confessed that he respected Akande's patriotism while acknowldging how he led the interim party "with dexterity and integrity." Party Chairman Chief Odigie Oyegun also admitted that he saw in Chief Akande trustworthiness and sincerity. Is it such a person that would now wish the smooth-sailing ship of the party should capsize?"
APC-AG recalled how Chief Akande had journeyed with Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu through thick and thin from the dark and lonely days of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) to the Action Congress (AC) and then ACN before arriving at the APC, saying such a person knows what true loyalty and discipline are and should be taken serious when preaching them.
Chief Akande had been criticised for his recent utterances with which he cautioned some party members who he accused of trading the party's birthright and dining with the enemy with a bid to get choice positions.
Specifically, he mentioned some northern elites and the nPDP members within the APC as those rocking the party boat with indiscipline and disloyalty.
But the APC Action Group said the former interim chairman was on point and had only reiterated what was already in the public domain. Perhaps it is making more meaning to them now that it is coming from a person of Chief Akande's flawless character.
"When some reckless youths engage in reckless and mindless cutting of a mighty tree, it takes a discerning elder like Chief Akande to see where it would eventually fall and warn of its dire consequencies. That exactly is what he is doing and his voice should rather be heeded than criticised."
" Here is a man whose conscience no money can buy. A man of merit whose records are untainted. Isn't it better and a privilege to have such a person speak out at this early stage of the crisis rather than allowing it to fester and then cash in on it the way some leaders are waiting to do?"
"Our position in APC Action Group is that all sensible party faithful should heed Baba Akande's call at this point and queue behind him."

Signed:

Segun Dipe
Spokesperson
APC Action Group

According to party insiders, APC Chairman John Oyegun is actively betraying the wishes of the majority of the party by refusing to take a principled stand against the anti-party actions of Senate President Saraki and House Speaker Dogara.

Most party insiders are perplexed by the ambivalent attitude of Oyegun to the obvious and public insult that Saraki and Dogara committed against the party and Oyegun as Chairman of the party. As one member stated, ‘It is as if the man has no backbone or self respect. When he should move, he sits down. When he should talk, he is mute. When he should make a decision, he sleeps and after finally making a decision he takes days to implement something that could be done in minutes.’ Party sources state that Oyegun’s footdragging has been a primary cause of the crisis rocking the party in the National Assembly.

From the beginning of the nomination process for the Senate Presidency and House Speakership, Oyegun failed to assert strong leadership. ‘He seemed more the led than the leader,’ according to a group of frustrated APC legislators. He temporized for days when time was of the essence in determining the procedure to select the NASS leadership. He was always ambivalent to bringing the matter to a vote among APC lawmakers and reaching a final conclusion. ‘It was as if he was hedging for more time, but for what purpose?’

Inside observers state that the delays proved decisive. The slow pace gave Saraki and Dogara precious time to perfect their plans with the PDP lawmakers to capture the leadership slots. Without the wasted days, the men would not have been able to reach their intricate deals with the PDP. They would have had to submit themselves to the internal party democracy and discipline of the APC, according to an NEC member. ‘If Saraki owes the PDP the most for his rise to Senate Presidency against the will and decision of the party, the person Saraki is most beholden to for this odd gift is our very own chairman,’ argued an APC senator who claimed to be thoroughly disgusted with the wiles of the Chairman. This man is with us but not for us, added the lawmaker.

One lawmaker stated that Oyegun had to be forced to hold the mock elections that elected Lawan and Gbajabiamila as the party’s choices for the two top NASS offices. If you recall, Oyegun held his head in his hands during the entire process as if he objected to the outcome of the vote. Oyegun was not happy with the result and thus never tried to actively assert the decisions made.

After Saraki and Dogara rebelled by aligning with PDP NASS members, Oyegun remains strangely mum and unmoved to the harm being done to his and the party’s authority. ‘He took the rebuff too lightly and quickly as if he almost welcomed it,’ recounted a member of the party secretariat. Oyegun seemed to be following a script that we did not know and seemed to working toward an objective that none of us understood, lamented a party official.

When Oyegun had a chance to reassert himself in the appointment of party positions of Majority leader and Party Whips in both chambers, he returned to his signature delay mode. He called for endless meetings and consultations that did nothing but waste time yet reached no conclusion. It was only after APC governors intervened and applied heavy pressure did he write a letter to the Senate President and House Speaker naming the party’s choices for Majority leader and the other posts. Even then, the letter was half-hearted, oddly brief and strangely passive in tone. It was as if he wrote it under compulsion because he had been backed into a corner by the governors and not by conviction. Once again Saraki and Dogara rebuffed him and once again Oyegun took the insult as if he asked for it.

‘We no longer understand our chairman. It is as if he was there for our electoral victory so that he can preside over the dismantling of the party post election,’ alleged one party member intimate with recent events.

The majority of party members are angry at the ways things are going. They want to instill party discipline, They especially want Saraki removed from the Senate Presidency or suspended from the party. However, Oyegun is acting otherwise. One member said that ‘Oyegun has become good at turning the other cheek when insulted by Saraki and Dogara because he has become two-faced.’

Oyegun has sounded out many party members. He has received petitions and recommendations from a wide spectrum of the party. The opinion is the same. Saraki and Dogara need to be disciplined for this unprecedented misconduct. However, Oyegun refuses to say a harsh word or even lift his voice.

One incensed party member stated the opinion of the rank and file: ‘ events in the NASS go beyond Saraki and Dogara. These men would not have dared such rebellion unless backed by strong forces wanting to continue business as usual. The forces of reaction and unjust privilege now conspire to thwart the progressive change and reform the electorate endorsed in the last election. These people never wanted President Buhari to emerge and have been fighting him from the beginning. They pretended to ally with him only when his victory seemed likely. They came close not to help but to hinder his program. People like Saraki and Dogara are in this camp. Having rode the APC to victory, they now seek to destroy the party because of its progressive intent to fight corruption and bring broadly shared prosperity through fundamental economic reform. That is what this fight is about. It is a fight for the soul of the party and for the fate of the nation. ‘

Other APC members suggest something more mercenary is also at play. ‘We have credible evidence that high-ranking members of party have sold their souls to Saraki and Dogara. Oyegun has been implicated in taking money in order to slow and distort the party machinery so that Saraki and his team have time to outflank us, declared one APC senior official.
‘We are not surprised by Saraki and Dogara. A snake will do what a snake will do. However, we are extremely saddened by Oyegun’s conduct. We thought we had a man of integrity. We have found out now that we have a man who will act in accordance to the whims and will of the highest bidders. If he continues, he will go down in history as one of the group of confederates who conspired to impair change and sink the nation further into a hole,’ said the official. In helping to break the Buhari government and this party, Oyegun and others are breaking sacred vows made to the Nigerian people. There is no amount of money worth that. However, Oyegun does not apparently think so, concluded one APC lawmaker.

A key indispensable ingredient required for any enterprise to be successful, credible and long lasting is discipline. Discipline is a key building block without which any structure will collapse and unfortunately, this has been the bane of our national life since time immemorial. However, this national malaise must not be allowed to continue unchallenged, it must be condemned wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head like we are witnessing now.
Since the controversial inauguration of the 8th National assembly in which Senator Bukola Saraki and Honourable Yakubu Dogara controversially emerged as senate president and speaker of house of representatives respectively in defiance of their party’s choice in circumstances that can best be described as acts of indiscipline and disregard for party rules, things have never been the same again for both legislative houses, whose leaderships have thrown discipline, decency, respect and loyalty to the dogs.
Just like millions of Nigerians who are dumfounded and watching in disgust at how our legislators who are supposed to exhibit the greatest character of discipline, responsibility, loyalty and respect for constituted authority symbolized by Change that they voted for, in contrast to the preceding era of lawlessness, criminality and impunity, this writer inclusive, has been utterly disappointed, but not surprised.
One indisputable fact about our political system is that we are operating a multi party democracy in which persons can only aspire to public office by submitting themselves to the rules and regulations of the party which is the principal and is the only entity allowed by law to field a candidate for election. In a party democracy, the party is the principal of any politician and it smacks of indiscipline for any politician to disobey his principal’s decision or rules on an issue collectively agreed on. In as much, as a politician has a right to disagree with the decision of his principal, the party, but once it’s collectively agreed on, it’s binding and must be respected, alternatively, the only available option is for such a politician to seek his sojourn elsewhere.
Notwithstanding the opposite and supportive opinion of some people for this acts of gross indiscipline, disloyalty and disrespect for party’s supremacy and decision by the duo of Dr Bukola Saraki and Honourable Yakubu Dogara, the groundswell of opinion monitored via the media and public discourse so far, reveals that the electorate who withstood the rigours of the economic, political and social dislocations to effect the desired Change from the previous shameful political order at the polls, are fast coming to terms with the reality of the image of the average Nigerian politician as an insincere, dishonest, untrustworthy, unpatriotic, selfish, irresponsible, personal interest driven being and this I must confess, portends grave danger for our democracy and society.
If Senator Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara can be so disdainful of the feelings of the people for responsible and disciplined political practice by disobeying their party position, through whose vehicle, they got into public office today, what stops them from jettisoning public interest which is the purpose of their being in the national assembly for personal interest? If by tomorrow, these duo lead the national assembly to pursue interest inimical to the good of the Nigerian people, who do we hold responsible to call its members to order, if not their party?
Therefore, the latest and adding salt upon injury disregard for the party’s choice of principal officers of the senate by Dr. Bukola Saraki which was unfolded some days ago, like in their tradition, is expected to be replicated by the Honourable Dogara led leadership in the house of representatives when they reconvene, but the truth of the matter is that, the people are already developing thick skin by the realization that our national assembly is a congregation of selfish and dishonourable people led by a leadership whose ethos is at variance with the values of the Nigerian people of honesty, humility, respect for law and order, dignity, selflessness, etc.
Unfortunately, Dr. Bukola Saraki and Honourable Yakubu Dogara condemnable acts of indiscipline has further strengthened the arguments of advocates of those calling for the scrapping of one arm of the national assembly like happened in Senegal recently to save cost because it is viewed as corrupt, idle and wasteful without commensurate productivity to national development, if we all recall that the 7th national assembly led by David Mark and Aminu Tambuwal failed to fulfill the mandatory constitutional requirements for house sittings and were only able to pass 108 bills in four years. This irresponsibility and trivialization of legislative business by the 7th legislature was capped by its history making, now in Guinness book of record passage of 46 bills within 10 minutes, which is reprehensible, condemnable and legislative rascality.
As these unhealthy developments unfold in our legislature, it is important to admonish Senator Bukola Saraki and Honourable Yakubu Dogara to make a u turn from this character of indiscipline, irresponsiveness, irresponsibility and self interest which has the potential to imperil our democracy and society by further alienating the legislature from the people.
Thanks.
Yours Sincerely,
Nelson Ekujumi.

Dear Dr Bukola Saraki,
I have restrained myself from commenting on the confusion that the NASS has suddenly become under your watch for many reasons, top of which was because I felt some conflict was normal in a political party that was a marriage of necessity amongst warlords with differing political orientation and philosophy. I however assumed that since we fought so hard together to effect Change for the sake of country, you all will be guided by the patriotic zeal to put Nigeria first...I assumed WRONG!
Frankly, I had no angst that you emerged Senate President because, as the Senate Rule says, it is an election of one by his peers. You actually had a right to aspire and most Nigerians were willing to cut you some slack on the issue...however, you were too impatient and hasty by the ambush strategy you employed...tantamount to a hostile takeover of the Upper Chambers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria!
If you had been less arrogant and desperate, you could have still won that election with all the APC Senators in the Chambers...but you needed to prove a point ( one wonders to whom) and in that power drunk stupor, you mortgaged the Change millions of Nigerians labored for; some lost lives and limbs for what you treated with disdain by ceding your Deputy position to the PDP in exchange for their support! That was the height of insensitivity sir!
As if that was not enough disrespect of our collective mandate, today,you openly defied your party again by disregarding the party's choice of principal officers in spite of a formal letter to that effect! In other words, Senator Saraki, you became a law unto yourself and a sole political platform which incidentally is not known or recognized in our constitution.
In view of these your recent actions, one cannot but ask "who exactly do you think you are sir?" Are you greater than the collective will of a people? Why must you throw the nation into turmoil simply because you want your way? Did Nigerians vote for you to dominate the political space or dictate our priorities for us? Was your name on ANY ballot paper in the last elections? Save for your senatorial constituency, did you traverse the 36 states and Abuja canvassing for our votes?
Just in case you have conveniently forgotten, Nigerians voted in their majority for the APC, a political party that sold its CHANGE vision to us. We rejected the PDP with its TRANSFORMATION agenda that was leading us nowhere fast. For you to reintegrate the PDP into our CHANGE government just because of your singular ambition is to exalt yourself above and beyond all of our collective wills...that is unacceptable sir!
It has been rumored that all this disrespect is about posturing for 2019. I sure hope not! How do you expect us to entrust our collective destinies to a man who cannot be accountable to Authourity? If you are too haughty to submit to your party, the platform upon which you were elected into the Senate, who will you be accountable to if you ever become President? The adage says "morning shows the day".
Mr Senate President (by hostile takeover) it is no longer amusing neither is it entertaining anymore. It is now getting really annoying and downright irritating. All the carrying ons need to stop forthwith as you are fast losing the goodwill bump you had when Nigerians thought you were a victim of an imposition cabal. It is now clear to all that you are most probably the aggressor and not the victim. Sole dictatorship is no longer in vogue as a political ideology. Even the bible says "two heads are better than one". No matter how erroneous your party position might appear to you, as commonly said in boarding schools back in the 1980s, you "Obey first, and then complain!"
Please sir, as much as I really don't want to burst your bubble, this is really NOT about you! It is about millions whose daily livelihood is threatened by an economy on the brink of collapse; It's about millions of children whose education is inadequate and irregular; it's about millions of unemployed youths whose future is bleak unless the change that they braved intimidation and oppression for starts to happen fast! Those are the headlines we want to wake up to; those issues are what we expected to dominate our airwaves not your personal tussle for power in your own self delusory "Game of Thrones" soap opera.
Enough already please! We have a nation to run!
This is definitely NOT the CHANGE we voted for!
NB: Please note that I am not in support of imposition by any godfather. The issue for me is that our representatives MUST be accountable to the platform structure that produced them. What is happening in NASS is an enthronement of lawlessness and impunity again. This is the reason we fought to defeat PDP and we must speak against it now!

When I wrote the piece: ‘Tribute to Tinubu: A Parody of Shakespeare’ a few friends and colleagues said I was un-characteristically ‘patronizing’. Some wondered if I too had not fallen for the Tinubu ‘cult of the personality’; or as one of them put it ‘cult of the insatiable power-seeker’. And to quite a few of those friends and colleagues whose opinion about my professional integrity I do give a damn about, I did vouchsafe some cogent explanation: first I said that even as I was sure they knew me not to ‘advocate for the devil’, yet they should not forget that I was not one either not to ‘give the devil his due’.

I should say, for the records, that I believed –and I still do- that Tinubu deserved that tribute which I paid to him; that I still think him worthy of all the sentiments contained therein and that I still feel proud that I wrote that piece. Tinubu has fathered a peaceful political revolution in Nigeria which has not only moved our democracy beyond a notch by its shattering of the myth of the invincibility of incumbency, but it has saved the nation from the malignance of a ruinous era of political impunity which was bent on balkanizing our country.

And let me say that if Tinubu, afterwards should, for any reason lend the instrumentation of his time, his prowess and his resources in the promotion of any contrary ideal odious or antithetical to the noble one of growing our democracy and developing our nation-, I should also, with a measure of antipathy equal to the enthusiasm with which I had praised him, deploy the venom of my pen to harangue and to dis-approbate him.

But come to think of it, if you ask me whether I think Tinubu is ‘evil’ –politically, I should answer as much with the affirmative ‘Yes’ as with the negative ‘no’. For as ‘beauty is in the eyes of the beholder’, logically-speaking I think, so should ‘ugliness’ be also ‘in the eyes of the beholder’. And so to a bitter PDP whose defeat the Asiwaju’s deft, adept and adroit politics had caused, Tinubu is most definitely ‘evil’; and thus in the subjective eyes of members of PDP Tinubu is uglier than the mythical Gorgon. But to the APC whose political fortunes Tinubu’s (even if) neo-Machiavellic master-tactic has now raised from ‘nothing’ to ‘everything’, the Jagaban is most definitely no ‘evil’ but ‘good’. and thus in the objective eyes of sincere members of APC Tinubu should be the personification of beauty itself –politically that is.

Alas, as we see presently in the treacherous hustle and jostle for political positions, this is not so with the hawks and vultures in the APC who now masquerade as altruistic progressive change-agents of the Buhari government. To these neo-conservative opportunists, all of a sudden ‘Asiwaju’ ‘The Leader’ is now simply Tinubu ‘The meddlesome interloper’! He is as they now claim ‘unnecessarily interfering with our democratic processes’ and must thus be cut to size. And on this you cannot but have a sense of the poignantly disgusting and the de ja vu: especially if you recall what the then Rhodesia’s oppressive head Colonist Ian Smith said to the anti-colonial world of the 70s about Zimbabweans: “These blacks are spoiling my democracy!” ‘my democracy indeed!’

Or maybe if you have some appreciable knowledge of the UPN’s Second Republic politics when the then ‘Adedibu’ of that era’s Ibadan politics, Adelabu Adegoke, after a resounding UPN victory achieved through the instrumentation of Adelabu’s political enfant terrible, was told plainly by Awo that since he had no western education, he could not be a Commissioner!

Though academics is not the basis of this comparison, Adelabu’s reply aptly typifies, today, the mentality of those who have contributed next to nothing to the birth and ascendancy of APC, but whose hubris is now questioning the leadership of the man who almost singlehandedly formed, midwifed and nurtured it to power. Adelabu was said to have asked rhetorically in Yoruba: “adiye da lori iresi, sugbon ko da n kpalo?”, meaning: ‘so cooked chicken is good sitting atop a bowl of rice, but a live one is not good to grace the hallow of the parlor?’

They said that the Asiwaju wants to install surrogate leaders for the legislature so he can remote-control them. And I say: ‘assuming, without conceding, that this is true, to what end, if we may ask, would Tinubu want to remote-control the NASS?’ Is it to prevent it from passing good progressive bills that will give effect to the promise of ‘change’ by Buhari? Or is it to egg the NASS on to anti-Buhari tantrums so that the General’s government cannot effectively function? I really don’t get it!

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And I even wonder more: did they not invest Tinubu with all the sobriquets and appellations of a ‘Leader’? Did they not say that he was the courageous ‘Jagaban’; the one who led from the front? And did Tinubu not lead them from the front? Selflessly giving his time, his energy and his resources? Did he not put his life on the line of a hysterically dangerous incumbency desperately angling to keep power by hook or crook? Did they not say that Tinubu’s was a goal-oriented and decisively go-getting ‘Leadership’?

And need one also ask: did we not, to the occasional rousing applause of Nigerians, see them severally winning one political battle after another under the leadership of the Jagaban? From when Tinubu fought to win series of judicial victories to restore the political control of the South West into the hands of the progressives; a feat which gave the earliest fillip to the initiative for the formation of a formidable coalition of opposition political parties?

Did we not see the series of political mutations afterwards initiated and set in motion from the pre-natal stages, the singular efforts of one man to corral several ideological eggs into one political embryo, so as to give life to a new all-embracing political Party around which both progressives and even repentant fascists could congregate to make practicable what was thought well-nigh impossible, namely enacting the parting of the political Red Sea to say to the behemoth PDP ‘let my people go!’

But maybe what we were seeing from aloof was different from what exactly was happening within! But I thought that we all saw Tinubu burning the political candle through nights and nights of vigils to disprove all the known theories of war which posit that more than one battle cannot be fought at a time; I thought we saw the Asiwaju take on both INEC and government in a proxy war with surrogate usurpers of the baptismal of the new political ideology, the A-P-C! -and which he won!
We thought that we saw Tinubu walk the miles from the North West to the North East; from North Central to the South East and from the South West to the South-South to build strong bridges of geo-ethnic and geo-political consensus; planning and strategizing to form alliances, to create leagues of political amity and to search out for men and women of weight and of mettle; political and non-political actors with diverse gifts and varying competences, to man the many points of the opposition’s political rudder.

These efforts were rewarded with successes in the creation of the first ever successful merger, the formation of the first ever peoples Party, the conduct of one of the most transparent Party Primaries, the emergence of the most popular presidential candidate, the running of the most competitive Presidential electioneering campaigns, and the first ever defeat of incumbency by an opposition party in one of the most transparent Presidential elections.

But now that the political dinner table is set, surrounded, unfortunately, by opportunistic political vultures and hyenas, they are telling us that although Tinubu is an excellent political cook, he is not as good in the culinary art of dishing. That the Party Leader must stay away from the Party’s First Political Supper! In fact like Caesar they accused the Asiwaju of ambition. The same Tinubu who had publicly announced that Buhari had offered him a chance to be on the Presidential ticket –an offer which he said he politely declined.

Tinubu does not deserve this kind of treatment. The Asiwaju as the Party Leader and the Party are the veritable taproots of Mr. President. If they who care about Mr. President’s success are left at the mercy of the Party’s vultures and hyenas who only care about the spoils of politics, sooner or later the shrub of the Presidency and its blooming foliage will feel the wilt. It is both morally and politically expedient that Buhari steps in to restore rank discipline and to assure the Asiwaju and the Party hierarchy that he has ‘got their back’; just like they, through thick and thin, had always had Mr. President’s back.

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How on earth can this be true of a man who has done everything in his power to ensure President Buharis nomination for the President and his victory over the PDP...why bother if he had a such useless plan.. Does it seem logical to plan a merger succeed at it only to plan to scuttle it in the end ....your statements are unfounded , irresponsible and without fact .......Even Sen Lawan was not Tinubus choice for Senate President but Sen Lawan had the party support and so did Gbajabiamila ...why should Tinubu depart from the Party's choice to support another individual who decides not to tow the party line.....please youth forum members do not start to steer up muck in order to do some haters bidding ...this democracy will survive so you better tow a positive line stay in support of APC and this new government of national reconciliation, reconstruction, correctional and transparent. Never in the history of this nation have we had a President that has the support of the whole country East West North South Buhari is best Buhari is here to stay and he has the whole weight of the APC united behind him ....sai Buhari

How on earth can this be true of a man who has done everything in his power to ensure President Buharis nomination for the President and his victory over the PDP...why bother if he had a such useless plan.. Does it seem logical to plan a merger succeed at it only to plan to scuttle it in the end ....your statements are unfounded , irresponsible and without fact .......Even Sen Lawan was not Tinubus choice for Senate President but Sen Lawan had the party support and so did Gbajabiamila ...why should Tinubu depart from the Party's choice to support another individual who decides not to tow the party line.....please youth forum members do not start to steer up muck in order to do some haters bidding ...this democracy will survive so you better tow a positive line stay in support of APC and this new government of national reconciliation, reconstruction, correctional and transparent. Never in the history of this nation have we had a President that has the support of the whole country East West North South Buhari is best Buhari is here to stay and he has the whole weight of the APC united behind him ....sai Buhari

On the surface, it appears as if Senator Olubukola
Saraki and his co-traveller at the lower house, Hon
Yakubu Dogara, who earlier in the week emerged as
the Senate President and Speaker of the House of
Representatives, respectively, through what political
observers have come to identify as path of treachery
must have planned the coup alone and must have
acted the fast one selfsame day without any input or
actions pre-dating that day other than Saraki
promise to play by the rules.
Little did the undiscerning observers of the power
play know that some of the APC leaders,
especially, those who have succeeded in forming
a ring around President Muhammadu Buhari, were
party to the ploy. These ones have since been
shedding crocodile tears to give an impression of
their commitment to the party tenets. They did
not only support Saraki and Dogara against the
candidates of their party, they went as far as
participating in the bribery of the PDP Senators
who rallied against their candidates.
Prominent among the party leaders who
encouraged their followers to vote for Saraki at
the Senate and Dogara at the House of Reps,
sources has revealed, is the Sokoto State
Governor, Aminu Tambuwal. He was alleged to
have had a clandestine meeting with the three
senators from the state, namely Ibrahim Gobir
representing Sokoto East, Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto
North) and Ibrahim Abdullahi (Sokoto South)
specificall instructing them to cast their vote for
Saraki at the expense of the party candidate.
More revelations are beginning to emerge,
pointing to the fact that Saraki and Dogara were
not lone runners, but were actually goaded to act
against their ‘conscience’ by some forces, both
internal and external to the All Progressives
Congress (APC).
Here is a blow-by-blow account of who did what
behind the scene:
The Tinubu Angle:
At the outset, the leader of APC, Ashiwaju Ahmed
Tinubu showed his support for the candidacy of
Senator George Akume from the same North
Central geopolitical zone with Saraki as the
Senate President. Akume is a known friend of
Tinubu and the latter did not hide his preference
for the former. However, Tinubu had to withdraw
his support for George Akume at the prodding of
President Muhammadu Buhari when the latter
told him that Lawan was his preferred candidate.
It then became a moral became a moral burden
for Tinubu to communicate the decision of the
president to his friend. But he eventually did and
encouraged Akume to step down for Lawan, while
accepting to take the deputy Senate president
slot.
Initially, Akume turned down the offer, believing it
was the turn of the North Central to be the
Senate President, but later felt he had no option
than to accept it, realising that it in other not to
rock the boat of the party or tamper with the
peace of the fledgling administration.
Elements from the South west:
Curiously, but true, certain elements resolved to
work against the interest of, not only their Leader
Ashiwaju Tinubu, but also that of President
Buhari. These elements were led by the
party of Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State,
Babatunde Fasola of Lagos State and Kayode
Fayemi of Ekiti State. Facts emerged that the
three beneficiaries of Tinubu political sagacity
held clandestine meetings on different occasions
on how to outsmart both their master and the
president, while giving maximum support to the
candidacy of Saraki.
Part of their strategies was to invite some of the
moneybags with financial baggages, who would
want to curry the president’s favour to escape
investigations, disempower Tinubu by circulating
negative stories against him and thus cause a
disaffection between him, Buhari and some other
leaders in the APC. They also schemed their ways
further into the heart of the president, impressed
on him to live up to his words of to everyone and
belonging to no one as a way of further boosting
his soaring democratic credentials. They were
also able to frame up Senator Lawan, who had
been in the Senate since 2007, as a marked boy
in the Upper Chamber. Trusting these his “men,”
the President swallowed the bait.
At one of the meetings held in Abeokuta on
Thursday June 4, 2015 the day Fashola was
honoured by Babcock University, the party
invited Aliko Dangote, Femi Otedola, Tony Elemelu
and the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr.
Godwin Emefiele, to sell the Saraki candidacy to
them, with assurance that he would provide the
shield for any probe darts against them.
Well, these business and financial moguls had no
option than to key into the plan and dole out
billions for its prosecution. Consequently, Fashola,
Fayemi and Amosun expanded their frontier, got
and sought support from the party Chairman,
Chief John Oyegun and Engr. Segun Oni, to
further give “credibility” to their action as well as
convince the president of the need to stay away
from Tinubu, who according to them, was
becoming overbearing within the party. Further
support were garnered for the Saraki project
during the president’s German trip.
The PDP Angle:
Benjamin Disraeli’s saying that “There is no act
of treachery or meanness of which a political
party is not capable; for in politics there is no
honour” could not have found a better landing
space than within the People’s Democratic Party
(PDP). Capitalising on his membership of the
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the
dwindling fortune of the party of late, Senator
Saraki, in the company of a co-sojourner in APC
from PDP and the factional chairman of the then
new PDP Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje,
approached his former allys, particularly the
former Governor Akwa Ibom State and Senator-
elect for Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District, Godswill
Akpabio, who helped perfect the strategy of
winning other PDP Senators over the for Saraki
candidacy in exchange for financial and choice
position compensations. Saraki also brought in
the embattled Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State,
with a promise of soft-landing.
Having been sold the possibility of negotiating
with the pro-Saraki elements, the PDP elected
senators saw it as an opportunity to get its
pound of flesh from the APC. They also felt they
could make some money in the process. Former
Senate President David Mark was then saddled
with the job getting his colleagues together for a
“retreat’ in PortHarcourt, where they did not only
discuss the modalities of decimating the APC
Senators. The strategy included inviting some of
those involved in the fuel subsidy fraud to back
them financially with a promise to ensure that
President Buhari would not be able to pursue
their matter. Saraki was again on ground to give
the assurance that as the Senate President, no
such probe would see the light of day. He further
assured them that those around the president
were also with them in the game. They
PortHarcourt meeting also resolved that in order
to ward off any suspiscion, they would continue
to discuss with Tinubu and other APC excos,
selling them dummy that the PDP Senators would
support the APC candidates for both Senate and
House of Reps in order to ensure peaceful reign in
both houses.
The mafia fell for the blackmail and played ball by
releasing money running into billions for the
execution of the Saraki-for-Senate-President
project. The money, sources revealed was later
shared at the Presidential suite on the 10th floor
of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja. In
attendance was Dino Melaye, a Saraki faithful
from APC. And in order to make it appear that
their party was carried along in the scheming, the
PDP Senators briefed their former Chairman,
Board of Trustees, Tony Anenih and enlisted his
and the entire party’s support for them to go
along with the Saraki team. Anenih however
advised them to still meet the Sunday night
before the election to put the matter to votes in
order not to betray one another. Of course the
idea received a unanimous voting both as a result
of the financial inducement and the joy of
watching the ego of the APC deflated the
following day.
Meanwhile, Tinubu later learnt of the PortHarcourt
meeting and all that transpired. He challenged
David Mark with facts, but Mark lied that it was
all rumours and that APC should take the promise
of the PDP Senators to the bank.
Well, they did and the rest is now history.

When I wrote the piece: ‘Tribute to Tinubu: A Parody of Shakespeare’ a few friends and colleagues said I was un-characteristically ‘patronizing’. Some wondered if I too had not fallen for the Tinubu ‘cult of the personality’; or as one of them put it ‘cult of the insatiable power-seeker’. And to quite a few of those friends and colleagues whose opinion about my professional integrity I do give a damn about, I did vouchsafe some cogent explanation: first I said that even as I was sure they knew me not to ‘advocate for the devil’, yet they should not forget that I was not one either not to ‘give the devil his due’.

I should say, for the records, that I believed –and I still do- that Tinubu deserved that tribute which I paid to him; that I still think him worthy of all the sentiments contained therein and that I still feel proud that I wrote that piece. Tinubu has fathered a peaceful political revolution in Nigeria which has not only moved our democracy beyond a notch by its shattering of the myth of the invincibility of incumbency, but it has saved the nation from the malignance of a ruinous era of political impunity which was bent on balkanizing our country.

And let me say that if Tinubu, afterwards should, for any reason lend the instrumentation of his time, his prowess and his resources in the promotion of any contrary ideal odious or antithetical to the noble one of growing our democracy and developing our nation-, I should also, with a measure of antipathy equal to the enthusiasm with which I had praised him, deploy the venom of my pen to harangue and to dis-approbate him.

But come to think of it, if you ask me whether I think Tinubu is ‘evil’ –politically, I should answer as much with the affirmative ‘Yes’ as with the negative ‘no’. For as ‘beauty is in the eyes of the beholder’, logically-speaking I think, so should ‘ugliness’ be also ‘in the eyes of the beholder’. And so to a bitter PDP whose defeat the Asiwaju’s deft, adept and adroit politics had caused, Tinubu is most definitely ‘evil’; and thus in the subjective eyes of members of PDP Tinubu is uglier than the mythical Gorgon. But to the APC whose political fortunes Tinubu’s (even if) neo-Machiavellic master-tactic has now raised from ‘nothing’ to ‘everything’, the Jagaban is most definitely no ‘evil’ but ‘good’. and thus in the objective eyes of sincere members of APC Tinubu should be the personification of beauty itself –politically that is.

Alas, as we see presently in the treacherous hustle and jostle for political positions, this is not so with the hawks and vultures in the APC who now masquerade as altruistic progressive change-agents of the Buhari government. To these neo-conservative opportunists, all of a sudden ‘Asiwaju’ ‘The Leader’ is now simply Tinubu ‘The meddlesome interloper’! He is as they now claim ‘unnecessarily interfering with our democratic processes’ and must thus be cut to size. And on this you cannot but have a sense of the poignantly disgusting and the de ja vu: especially if you recall what the then Rhodesia’s oppressive head Colonist Ian Smith said to the anti-colonial world of the 70s about Zimbabweans: “These blacks are spoiling my democracy!” ‘my democracy indeed!’

Or maybe if you have some appreciable knowledge of the UPN’s Second Republic politics when the then ‘Adedibu’ of that era’s Ibadan politics, Adelabu Adegoke, after a resounding UPN victory achieved through the instrumentation of Adelabu’s political enfant terrible, was told plainly by Awo that since he had no western education, he could not be a Commissioner!

Though academics is not the basis of this comparison, Adelabu’s reply aptly typifies, today, the mentality of those who have contributed next to nothing to the birth and ascendancy of APC, but whose hubris is now questioning the leadership of the man who almost singlehandedly formed, midwifed and nurtured it to power. Adelabu was said to have asked rhetorically in Yoruba: “adiye da lori iresi, sugbon ko da n kpalo?”, meaning: ‘so cooked chicken is good sitting atop a bowl of rice, but a live one is not good to grace the hallow of the parlor?’

They said that the Asiwaju wants to install surrogate leaders for the legislature so he can remote-control them. And I say: ‘assuming, without conceding, that this is true, to what end, if we may ask, would Tinubu want to remote-control the NASS?’ Is it to prevent it from passing good progressive bills that will give effect to the promise of ‘change’ by Buhari? Or is it to egg the NASS on to anti-Buhari tantrums so that the General’s government cannot effectively function? I really don’t get it!

And I even wonder more: did they not invest Tinubu with all the sobriquets and appellations of a ‘Leader’? Did they not say that he was the courageous ‘Jagaban’; the one who led from the front? And did Tinubu not lead them from the front? Selflessly giving his time, his energy and his resources? Did he not put his life on the line of a hysterically dangerous incumbency desperately angling to keep power by hook or crook? Did they not say that Tinubu’s was a goal-oriented and decisively go-getting ‘Leadership’?

And need one also ask: did we not, to the occasional rousing applause of Nigerians, see them severally winning one political battle after another under the leadership of the Jagaban? From when Tinubu fought to win series of judicial victories to restore the political control of the South West into the hands of the progressives; a feat which gave the earliest fillip to the initiative for the formation of a formidable coalition of opposition political parties?

Did we not see the series of political mutations afterwards initiated and set in motion from the pre-natal stages, the singular efforts of one man to corral several ideological eggs into one political embryo, so as to give life to a new all-embracing political Party around which both progressives and even repentant fascists could congregate to make practicable what was thought well-nigh impossible, namely enacting the parting of the political Red Sea to say to the behemoth PDP ‘let my people go!’

But maybe what we were seeing from aloof was different from what exactly was happening within! But I thought that we all saw Tinubu burning the political candle through nights and nights of vigils to disprove all the known theories of war which posit that more than one battle cannot be fought at a time; I thought we saw the Asiwaju take on both INEC and government in a proxy war with surrogate usurpers of the baptismal of the new political ideology, the A-P-C! -and which he won!
We thought that we saw Tinubu walk the miles from the North West to the North East; from North Central to the South East and from the South West to the South-South to build strong bridges of geo-ethnic and geo-political consensus; planning and strategizing to form alliances, to create leagues of political amity and to search out for men and women of weight and of mettle; political and non-political actors with diverse gifts and varying competences, to man the many points of the opposition’s political rudder.

These efforts were rewarded with successes in the creation of the first ever successful merger, the formation of the first ever peoples Party, the conduct of one of the most transparent Party Primaries, the emergence of the most popular presidential candidate, the running of the most competitive Presidential electioneering campaigns, and the first ever defeat of incumbency by an opposition party in one of the most transparent Presidential elections.

But now that the political dinner table is set, surrounded, unfortunately, by opportunistic political vultures and hyenas, they are telling us that although Tinubu is an excellent political cook, he is not as good in the culinary art of dishing. That the Party Leader must stay away from the Party’s First Political Supper! In fact like Caesar they accused the Asiwaju of ambition. The same Tinubu who had publicly announced that Buhari had offered him a chance to be on the Presidential ticket –an offer which he said he politely declined.

Tinubu does not deserve this kind of treatment. The Asiwaju as the Party Leader and the Party are the veritable taproots of Mr. President. If they who care about Mr. President’s success are left at the mercy of the Party’s vultures and hyenas who only care about the spoils of politics, sooner or later the shrub of the Presidency and its blooming foliage will feel the wilt. It is both morally and politically expedient that Buhari steps in to restore rank discipline and to assure the Asiwaju and the Party hierarchy that he has ‘got their back’; just like they, through thick and thin, had always had Mr. President’s back.

By Mohammed Adamu


When I wrote the piece: ‘Tribute to Tinubu: A Parody of Shakespeare’ a few friends and colleagues said I was un-characteristically ‘patronizing’. Some wondered if I too had not fallen for the Tinubu ‘cult of the personality’; or as one of them put it ‘cult of the insatiable power-seeker’. And to quite a few of those friends and colleagues whose opinion about my professional integrity I do give a damn about, I did vouchsafe some cogent explanation: first I said that even as I was sure they knew me not to ‘advocate for the devil’, yet they should not forget that I was not one either not to ‘give the devil his due’.

I should say, for the records, that I believed –and I still do- that Tinubu deserved that tribute which I paid to him; that I still think him worthy of all the sentiments contained therein and that I still feel proud that I wrote that piece. Tinubu has fathered a peaceful political revolution in Nigeria which has not only moved our democracy beyond a notch by its shattering of the myth of the invincibility of incumbency, but it has saved the nation from the malignance of a ruinous era of political impunity which was bent on balkanizing our country.

And let me say that if Tinubu, afterwards should, for any reason lend the instrumentation of his time, his prowess and his resources in the promotion of any contrary ideal odious or antithetical to the noble one of growing our democracy and developing our nation-, I should also, with a measure of antipathy equal to the enthusiasm with which I had praised him, deploy the venom of my pen to harangue and to dis-approbate him.

But come to think of it, if you ask me whether I think Tinubu is ‘evil’ –politically, I should answer as much with the affirmative ‘Yes’ as with the negative ‘no’. For as ‘beauty is in the eyes of the beholder’, logically-speaking I think, so should ‘ugliness’ be also ‘in the eyes of the beholder’. And so to a bitter PDP whose defeat the Asiwaju’s deft, adept and adroit politics had caused, Tinubu is most definitely ‘evil’; and thus in the subjective eyes of members of PDP Tinubu is uglier than the mythical Gorgon. But to the APC whose political fortunes Tinubu’s (even if) neo-Machiavellic master-tactic has now raised from ‘nothing’ to ‘everything’, the Jagaban is most definitely no ‘evil’ but ‘good’. and thus in the objective eyes of sincere members of APC Tinubu should be the personification of beauty itself –politically that is.

Alas, as we see presently in the treacherous hustle and jostle for political positions, this is not so with the hawks and vultures in the APC who now masquerade as altruistic progressive change-agents of the Buhari government. To these neo-conservative opportunists, all of a sudden ‘Asiwaju’ ‘The Leader’ is now simply Tinubu ‘The meddlesome interloper’! He is as they now claim ‘unnecessarily interfering with our democratic processes’ and must thus be cut to size. And on this you cannot but have a sense of the poignantly disgusting and the de ja vu: especially if you recall what the then Rhodesia’s oppressive head Colonist Ian Smith said to the anti-colonial world of the 70s about Zimbabweans: “These blacks are spoiling my democracy!” ‘my democracy indeed!’

Or maybe if you have some appreciable knowledge of the UPN’s Second Republic politics when the then ‘Adedibu’ of that era’s Ibadan politics, Adelabu Adegoke, after a resounding UPN victory achieved through the instrumentation of Adelabu’s political enfant terrible, was told plainly by Awo that since he had no western education, he could not be a Commissioner!

Though academics is not the basis of this comparison, Adelabu’s reply aptly typifies, today, the mentality of those who have contributed next to nothing to the birth and ascendancy of APC, but whose hubris is now questioning the leadership of the man who almost singlehandedly formed, midwifed and nurtured it to power. Adelabu was said to have asked rhetorically in Yoruba: “adiye da lori iresi, sugbon ko da n kpalo?”, meaning: ‘so cooked chicken is good sitting atop a bowl of rice, but a live one is not good to grace the hallow of the parlor?’

They said that the Asiwaju wants to install surrogate leaders for the legislature so he can remote-control them. And I say: ‘assuming, without conceding, that this is true, to what end, if we may ask, would Tinubu want to remote-control the NASS?’ Is it to prevent it from passing good progressive bills that will give effect to the promise of ‘change’ by Buhari? Or is it to egg the NASS on to anti-Buhari tantrums so that the General’s government cannot effectively function? I really don’t get it!

And I even wonder more: did they not invest Tinubu with all the sobriquets and appellations of a ‘Leader’? Did they not say that he was the courageous ‘Jagaban’; the one who led from the front? And did Tinubu not lead them from the front? Selflessly giving his time, his energy and his resources? Did he not put his life on the line of a hysterically dangerous incumbency desperately angling to keep power by hook or crook? Did they not say that Tinubu’s was a goal-oriented and decisively go-getting ‘Leadership’?

And need one also ask: did we not, to the occasional rousing applause of Nigerians, see them severally winning one political battle after another under the leadership of the Jagaban? From when Tinubu fought to win series of judicial victories to restore the political control of the South West into the hands of the progressives; a feat which gave the earliest fillip to the initiative for the formation of a formidable coalition of opposition political parties?

Did we not see the series of political mutations afterwards initiated and set in motion from the pre-natal stages, the singular efforts of one man to corral several ideological eggs into one political embryo, so as to give life to a new all-embracing political Party around which both progressives and even repentant fascists could congregate to make practicable what was thought well-nigh impossible, namely enacting the parting of the political Red Sea to say to the behemoth PDP ‘let my people go!’

But maybe what we were seeing from aloof was different from what exactly was happening within! But I thought that we all saw Tinubu burning the political candle through nights and nights of vigils to disprove all the known theories of war which posit that more than one battle cannot be fought at a time; I thought we saw the Asiwaju take on both INEC and government in a proxy war with surrogate usurpers of the baptismal of the new political ideology, the A-P-C! -and which he won!
We thought that we saw Tinubu walk the miles from the North West to the North East; from North Central to the South East and from the South West to the South-South to build strong bridges of geo-ethnic and geo-political consensus; planning and strategizing to form alliances, to create leagues of political amity and to search out for men and women of weight and of mettle; political and non-political actors with diverse gifts and varying competences, to man the many points of the opposition’s political rudder.

These efforts were rewarded with successes in the creation of the first ever successful merger, the formation of the first ever peoples Party, the conduct of one of the most transparent Party Primaries, the emergence of the most popular presidential candidate, the running of the most competitive Presidential electioneering campaigns, and the first ever defeat of incumbency by an opposition party in one of the most transparent Presidential elections.

But now that the political dinner table is set, surrounded, unfortunately, by opportunistic political vultures and hyenas, they are telling us that although Tinubu is an excellent political cook, he is not as good in the culinary art of dishing. That the Party Leader must stay away from the Party’s First Political Supper! In fact like Caesar they accused the Asiwaju of ambition. The same Tinubu who had publicly announced that Buhari had offered him a chance to be on the Presidential ticket –an offer which he said he politely declined.

Tinubu does not deserve this kind of treatment. The Asiwaju as the Party Leader and the Party are the veritable taproots of Mr. President. If they who care about Mr. President’s success are left at the mercy of the Party’s vultures and hyenas who only care about the spoils of politics, sooner or later the shrub of the Presidency and its blooming foliage will feel the wilt. It is both morally and politically expedient that Buhari steps in to restore rank discipline and to assure the Asiwaju and the Party hierarchy that he has ‘got their back’; just like they, through thick and thin, had always had Mr. President’s back.

NASS leadership election: How Tambuwal betrayed Tinubu
Hot Stories News Politics10 hours ago

When Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State as then Speaker of the House of Representatives dumped his former party – People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressive Congress (APC) he became like the bride long yearned for.

He brought into the APC the needed tonic for more acceptances at the national level and so when the party needed an ally in its preparation to select the leadership of the 8th National Assembly, Tambuwal was relied upon by the national leader of the party, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Tinubu in his desperation to stop Hon. Yakubu Dogara’s (who was chairman of the committee on House Services and Welfare) aspiration to assume leadership of the House of Representatives in preference to Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila plotted a smear campaign against him, Nigerian Times investigation has revealed.

Dogara was to be accused of corruption and mismanagement of House resources during plenary by a group of legislators sympathetic to Tinubu’s cause. Tambuwal being aware of the plot secretly alerted Dogara to come to the floor with relevant documents and prepared to defend himself.

His preparation and defence saved him from the disgrace and plotted disqualification from contesting for the speakership position.

The Nigerian Times also learnt that against Tinubu’s expectation of Tambuwal, the later used his influence to mobilise retuning members of the House especially northerners in support of Dogara. These roles played by Tambuwal are being perceived as a betrayal of trust by the leadership of the APC who believed that Tambuwal have again bitten the hands that fed him.

Tambuwal in a statement issued by his spokesperson, Imam Imam, after the election of Dogara as speaker commended members of the two Chambers of the National Assembly for exhibiting “high sense of maturity and defence of legislative ethos in the choice of their leaders”.

He said the outcome of the National Assembly elections indicates that democracy has come of age in Nigeria and that the doctrine of the independence of the legislature is gradually taking firm root.

He also admonished those who were unsuccessful in the contests to regard their actions as positive contributions to democratic process and accept their defeat in good faith.

He urged all Nigerians to rally round the new leadership for them to execute their mandates.

He expressed confidence in the ability of those who emerged, saying their various experiences will allow the new APC-led Federal Government, under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, to deliver on their electoral promises to all Nigerians.

The governor admonished the new leaders to carry all members along and ensure that unity, peace and stability pervades the Assembly at all times.

In other reports, the APC is said to be planning to sanction the Sokoto Governor based on other evidence that he supported Dogara so that he (Tambuwal) could retain his influence over the lower chamber of the National Assembly.

Tambuwal is being alleged in the report to have ensured that Dogara emerged the Chairman, House Services Committee, which is the most influential committee in the House because of his closeness to Dogara.

“Tambuwal is also nursing a presidential ambition and needs to retain control over the House. He will not be able to retain such influence if Gbajabiamila is the Speaker,” the report

.


__,_._,___

.
>
> Tinubu Media office
>>
>> As we remember the June 12 struggle we are challenged to guard our hard won democratic freedom and prevent any hijack or abuse of the very principles of constitutional democracy.
>> This anniversary offers us another reminder that this country is one set for greatness. Chief Moshood Abiola the symbol of June 12 struggle is one of the greatest Nigerian to ever live. Through his life we glean selfless service and commitment to people. Through his political struggle, we glean courage and incorrigible commitment to principles of the just, free and humane society.
>>
>> Today our democracy thrives on the selfless sacrifices he made. His politics was without bitterness and rancor. His patriotism was devoid of tribal marks and nepotism. It will be said, here lies a man who did his duty on earth; it is what we should all strive for. We owe it to Abiola and all the fallen patriots of the June 12 struggle to make sure our democracy never falters and this current government succeeds. We must also make sure that the People remain the focus of our policy and politics. This is the Commitment the new APC government has made to the people of this great country and by Gods grace we intend to keep it under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari.
>
> Signed. Bola Tinubu.
>
>>
>>

News from Venue of APC Mock Election for NASS members in Abuja

APC lawmakers are currently expressing surprise that Hon Yakubu Dogara said he has more than 200 supporters. Only for him to resist moves by the party to conduct a primary election between him and Femi Gbajabiamila. The Dogara's camp are saying that election should be postponed because they did not mobilize to the ICC, venue of the meeting and are leaving the venue in protest.

An APC lawmaker from Kano said " no matter how Dogara and his camp keep buying time and the APC as a party want to ensure PDP does not hijack the House of Representatives election. It's obvious that the most popular candidate would finally emerge on Tuesday. "

Another member from Benue in his response to happenings at the conference center in Abuja, "Even a mad man can see that majority of Reps members entering the ICC hall were flaunting Femi Gbaja 's badge . It is becoming a fact that Femi Gbaja is more popular among members than any other candidate"



Update!!!!
**Few hours after the deliberation and intervention of the NWC on possibility of conducting the mock election on Saturday. Initially Members reached truce on need to conduct the election. Only for some members of Dogara's camp to leave when it was obvious Gbajabiamila has majority of APC members by him and members resisted moves to impose Dogara as deputy also failed

Story-With My Eyes I Saw An Open Process.Kudos APC

by Bisi Morgan

Today, at the International Conference Center, ICC in Abuja, i got a glimpse of the kind of modern and open politics APC was going to practice under the present dispensation. instead of imposing or forcing down a candidate for the Speakership position, the APC decided on a consultative process that culminated into the MOCK or STRAW POLL on saturday. The party decided on this universally practiced process to checkmate any attempt to create more tension or hijack the process. It was an open and transparent process. What I saw with my eyes was the elected members of the House. I did not see or smell any imposition. members happily and in an order role performed the role they were to perform. Many grabbed the mic to express their opinions. The party leadership was in control and dealth with all issues that arose with maturity. they reminded us all that the party is supreme but not in an offensive way.
The APC by devising a process to navigate out of the turbulence of picking a speaker has demonstrated that it is a 21st century party. The opn ballot system worked. Votes were counted and announced. Hon. Gbajabiamila 154 votes. Hon. Dogara 3 votes (18 of his supporters walked out). It was convincing outfit. Was there an imposition.NO. Did anyone hijack the process.NO. Was it open and satisfactory to the majority? YES.
There you have it, The lawmakers have spoken and we know their preferred candidate.

June 12 Coalition of Democratic Formations
c/o CCG, 10 Afolabi Lesi Street, Ilupeju, Lagos

28th May, 2015

Press Statement

May 29th 2015 Inauguration Day, Congratulations Nigerians, it’s a New Dawn

The June 12 Coalition of Democratic Formations (J12CODEF) with heartfelt gratitude to the Almighty God, would like to use this medium to appreciate the following; Nigerians across ethnic and religious divide who came out peacefully to exercise their franchise on election day despite all the hiccups, the political parties who participated in the elections, the media, Prof. Attahiru Jega and his management team in INEC for a wonderful job done to enhance the integrity of our electoral system, the security agencies who carried out their constitutional responsibilities without fear or favour, the vigilant local and international observers, international partners and all those too numerous to mention, who contributed in no small measure towards ensuring a free, fair and credible 2015 general elections that has made this New Dawn possible.

We are indeed very delighted to witness the peaceful exit of the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan administration and the entry of the incoming administration of President Muhammadu Buhari which symbolizes the resilience and doggedness of the human will to overcome obstacles which cannot but arise in the course of life. Once again, we give glory to God.

As President Muhammadu Buhari mounts the saddle starting May 29th, 2015, we would like to admonish him to realize that the expectations of Nigerians on his government to chart the path for a greater tomorrow is very high, because of the great hopes and trust in his tested and trusted ability to deliver which was a key factor that motivated the electorate to exercise their franchise and ensure it counted despite the inducements and threats against a credible general elections by enemies of democracy.

President Muhammadu Buhari must realize that he is carrying the burden of over 170 million Nigerians to clear the rot of our political, socio and economic system which have been planted by years of misrule, lawlessness, corruption, impunity and everything unrepresentative of the values and character of the Nigerian people which has been our lot for some time now. President Buhari must also be made aware of the fact that the rest of Africa are looking up to him as the leader of the Giant of Africa to chart the way for its renaissance from bad governance and political corruption which is the bane of the African continent that is bedeviled by wars, terrorists attacks, diseases, ethnic conflicts, suicidal migration across the Mediterranean, etc.

We equally want to congratulate Nigerians and urge them to be prepared to make the necessary sacrifices to make Nigeria great. They must realize that Rome was not built in day, so it is imperative for them to be mindful of the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is coming into office at a very critical period in our national life when lawlessness, corruption and impunity has taken root as a national policy in our public and private lives. It behooves on Nigerians to realize that part of the sacrifices that they would be called upon to make for a greater Nigeria, is to be very patient and dogged in the cause for a national rebirth which is very imperative now.

As we enter this New dawn in our national life, it is the fervent wish and prayers of the June 12 coalition, that may the path to a great and virile Nigeria of our dreams as envisaged by our founding fathers be laid by the incoming administration that is a beneficiary of our collective mandate, so help us God.

Fellow Nigerians, we are very grateful to God and wish you all a fruitful and rewarding democratic experience under the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration.

Thanks.

Yours Sincerely,
Signed,
Nelson Ekujumi,
General Secretary.
June 12 Coalition of Democratic Formations,

June 12 Coalition of Democratic Formations
c/o CCG, 10 Afolabi Lesi Street, Ilupeju, Lagos

28th May, 2015

Press Statement

May 29th 2015 Inauguration Day, Congratulations Nigerians, it’s a New Dawn

The June 12 Coalition of Democratic Formations (J12CODEF) with heartfelt gratitude to the Almighty God, would like to use this medium to appreciate the following; Nigerians across ethnic and religious divide who came out peacefully to exercise their franchise on election day despite all the hiccups, the political parties who participated in the elections, the media, Prof. Attahiru Jega and his management team in INEC for a wonderful job done to enhance the integrity of our electoral system, the security agencies who carried out their constitutional responsibilities without fear or favour, the vigilant local and international observers, international partners and all those too numerous to mention, who contributed in no small measure towards ensuring a free, fair and credible 2015 general elections that has made this New Dawn possible.

We are indeed very delighted to witness the peaceful exit of the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan administration and the entry of the incoming administration of President Muhammadu Buhari which symbolizes the resilience and doggedness of the human will to overcome obstacles which cannot but arise in the course of life. Once again, we give glory to God.

As President Muhammadu Buhari mounts the saddle starting May 29th, 2015, we would like to admonish him to realize that the expectations of Nigerians on his government to chart the path for a greater tomorrow is very high, because of the great hopes and trust in his tested and trusted ability to deliver which was a key factor that motivated the electorate to exercise their franchise and ensure it counted despite the inducements and threats against a credible general elections by enemies of democracy.

President Muhammadu Buhari must realize that he is carrying the burden of over 170 million Nigerians to clear the rot of our political, socio and economic system which have been planted by years of misrule, lawlessness, corruption, impunity and everything unrepresentative of the values and character of the Nigerian people which has been our lot for some time now. President Buhari must also be made aware of the fact that the rest of Africa are looking up to him as the leader of the Giant of Africa to chart the way for its renaissance from bad governance and political corruption which is the bane of the African continent that is bedeviled by wars, terrorists attacks, diseases, ethnic conflicts, suicidal migration across the Mediterranean, etc.

We equally want to congratulate Nigerians and urge them to be prepared to make the necessary sacrifices to make Nigeria great. They must realize that Rome was not built in day, so it is imperative for them to be mindful of the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is coming into office at a very critical period in our national life when lawlessness, corruption and impunity has taken root as a national policy in our public and private lives. It behooves on Nigerians to realize that part of the sacrifices that they would be called upon to make for a greater Nigeria, is to be very patient and dogged in the cause for a national rebirth which is very imperative now.

As we enter this New dawn in our national life, it is the fervent wish and prayers of the June 12 coalition, that may the path to a great and virile Nigeria of our dreams as envisaged by our founding fathers be laid by the incoming administration that is a beneficiary of our collective mandate, so help us God.

Fellow Nigerians, we are very grateful to God and wish you all a fruitful and rewarding democratic experience under the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration.

Thanks.

Yours Sincerely,
Signed,
Nelson Ekujumi,
General Secretary.
June 12 Coalition of Democratic Formations,

(A Statement Made By Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Special Guest of Honour at the Public Presentation of Dynamics of Change: The Amaechi Years in Lagos on May 14, 2015).


PROTOCOL



In the course of the historic campaigns for the 2015 Presidential election I was emphatic that the election itself was a great opportunity to popularise and test the noble idea of a Common Sense Revolution in Nigeria. Soon enough we found in the resonance of the APC Change mantra with the electorate a confirmation that Nigeria needed a Common Sense Revolution that is non-violent.

2.Indeed there is a publication with that title authored by me in which I argued that Nigeria was ripe for a change of leadership and Nigerians must act in a Common Sense and rational way in choosing their leaders. The results of the March Presidential elections and that of April have demonstrated clearly the desire by Nigerians for change.

3.Elections over, both the leaders and citizens must brace up to meet the challenges required to built a better, more prosperous nation. Indeed, even as we subscribe to the tenets of Common Sense Revolution, we must retool ourselves the new leadership must embark on policies that will improve the general well being of the mass of our people.

4.Permit me to recall here how I once attempted to encapsulate the idea of Common Sense Revolution: “… This revolution is not a violent one to tear things down it is a revolution to rescue us from violence, injustice and poverty.
It is a positive one to rescue, repair and restructure the nation and its institutions in ways that further collective prosperity and well-being. The only violence that is to be done is to violence, injustice and poverty themselves. At its essence, a common sense revolution is a call to return to a level of decency in the relationship between government and the governed, between each one of us and his neighbor...” That was at commissioning of people-centred projects on March 23, 2015 in Kano under the leadership of Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.

5.We are here today, because one of the generals in the Common Sense Revolution Army, Rotimi Amaechi is bold and willing to show the world what he has achieved in the task to chart the critical path to total political and economic emancipation of the people whose mandate he enjoyed for 8 years.

6.In my view, our gathering to celebrate the landmark achievements of my brother, Governor Rotimi Amaechi, in Rivers State in the last eight years is also another justifiable celebration of idea of Common Sense Revolution for development. The publication of the book, Dynamics of Change: The Amaechi Years is a timely service to history. This occasion is all the more remarkable because of the huge challenges Amaechi has been facing especially in his second term from an extremely hostile federal government. His role as the chairman of the Governors’ Forum invariably brought him into a bitter collision with President Goodluck Jonathan.

7.Governor Amaechi and most of the governors want a properly defined federalist relationship with the government at the centre. The President would have none of that as in the notable example of the management of the federation account. This is, therefore, another great opportunity to salute Amaechi’s rare courage of conviction and sense of purpose. The All Progressives Congress (APC) has every cause to be proud of him.

8.You can, therefore, imagine how much gratified I feel at the immense intellectual efforts invested in the publication of Dynamics of Change: The Amaechi Years. I salute the editors and authors of essays in the book. It is thoughtful of them to document the legacy of Amaechi in Rivers state. The high quality schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, security and human capacity projects, among others, richly documented in the book are a testimony that social democratic ideas can indeed be implemented in this clime.

9.It is our hope that the legacy of governance for genuine development that Amaechi is leaving behind in Rivers would inspire state governments to make the welfare and security of the people the focus of governance. It is important to empahasise that security here includes social security if the war against poverty must be won.

10. The APC change agenda is anchored on the three Rs- Reform, Relief, Relief, and Recovery. It is the Tripod upon which Nigeria must operate in order to unleash her potentials.

Rotimi will go on from here to continue to serve Nigeria in key positions. He will not be alone. He will share the company of many change agents and professionals who have cast their lots with the new political order under the Leadership President elect, General Muhammadu Buhari.

Once more, I congratulate Governor Amaechi as he leaves behind this proud legacy in Rivers State.

I thank you for listening.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu

Lagos — THE United States of America (USA) has cleared Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State of involvement in any criminal activity in that country or its territory. The US Consulate in Lagos in a February 4, 2003 letter to the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun said there was nothing in the records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) indicating that Gov. Tinubu had, at any time in the past, been arrested or wanted for crime in the US. The letter signed by the Legal Attache in the Consulate, Michael H. Bonner reads: "Our sincerest greetings to you and all of the law enforcement personnel in the Nigeria Police Force, whose continued assistance is very much appreciated. In relation to your letter, dated February 3, 2003, reference number SR. 3000/IGPSEC/ABJ/VOL. 24/287, regarding Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a records check of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) National Crime Information Centre (NCIC) was conducted.

"The results of the checks were negative for any criminal arrest records, wants, or warrants for Bola Ahmed Tinubu (DOB 29 March 1952). For information of your department, NCIC is a very centralised information centre that maintains the records of every criminal arrest and conviction within the United States and its territories."

TRIBUTE TO TINUBU:

A Parody of Shakespeare
By Mohammed Adamu

His name is now as household as the “report of fashion in proud Italy”. He is a leader of leaders; and a true leader at that; because he commands not from the rear, but he braces, with his chest the heat and the chill of all battles. He is the veritable “Knight of the Garter” of our contemporary politics; “valiant and virtuous, full of haughty courage, such as is grown to credit by the wars; not fearing death nor shrinking from distress, but always resolute in most extremes”. Time has proved that where “your ‘good’ word cannot advantage him, your slander never can en-damage him”.

He is petit and unassuming; as ‘modest as the dove’; as ‘temperate as the morning’; “for patience, he will prove a second Grissel”; his words are “bonds and his oaths are oracles”; his ‘truth’ is as the ‘truth’ of Martin Luther; it is ‘Marching on’; his code of battle as mosaic as Malcolm X’s: to “Forerun woe with woe”. His is “courage mounted with occasion”; and although he is not the war-mongering muckraker, yet he is one ready always “to parley or to war” -as the occasion demands. That is the stuff that ‘courage’ is made of: namely that although great men should not be “mutinous in peace” yet when the occasion demands they should be no less “bold at war”.

He did once assert that the ruling political dynasty was a deeply rooted evil-iroko tree; hard put to uproot except it is axed ‘limbs’, ‘trunk’ and ‘torso’! And now he has proved to us himself that every ‘obstacle’ has odds to which it must yield; and that “many strokes, though with a little axe will hew down and fall the hardest timbered-oak”. Little did we know he was a prophet of his own time; - a voice in the wilderness of our troubled democracy, prophesizing the looming fall of a ‘behemoth’.

He is Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Asiwaju and the Jagaban; once ‘Leader of the Opposition’; now the great ‘masquerade’ himself daring to be opposed –if any the courage have! “The blood stirs more” they say “to rouse a lion than to start a hare”; but who dares to rouse a lion must have more than a mortal’s measure of blood! Tinubu is the Hannibal of our time; the scourge of the ruling political dynasty –now in its inevitable throes of death. For device and tactic, he has proved another Hercules; for “grim aspect” and for knitted brow in moments of battle, he is the Hector of our age. Thus Tinubu is Hannibal, Hercules and Hector all in one!

It is said that “When ‘Fortune’ means to men most good, ’She’ looks upon them with a threatening eye”. Tinubu did not, yesterday, walk the paved or gilded roads to the hill station of today’s renown; he has braved the dry and dusty weathers of Fortune’s threatening stare; and in reward of which both “Nature and Fortune have now joined to make him great”. He is now the “theme of Honor’s tongue, Sweet Fortune’s minion and her pride”; but more than else he is today, “among the groove of his rank, the straightest plant”.

“Small curs” they say, “are not regarded when they grin; but great men tremble when the lion roars”. They are right Tinubu, you are truly a Lion in a rare den that is uniquely yours; but they are dead wrong, you are not ‘The Lion of Boudilon’; that is a den too small for a Lion with your kind of Mane! The Asiwaju is more suited to ‘The Lord of the Nigerian Manor’ –that is a befitting ‘den’ truly your size.

“Strong reasons make strong actions”; or so the Great Shakespeare would say. Once a troubled nation we did stand as “upon a rock environed by a wilderness of sea”, waiting for the surge of the ocean’s tempests to make of us a sumptuous meal; but just when we were hovering around the precipice, when it seemed almost as “far from help as Limbo is from bliss”, just then Tinubu, in a league of amity with our nation’s greats, alighted right in the firmament of our political woes”; for the inevitable to happen, -a battle long foretold between the army of ‘good’ and the forces of ‘evil’; between ‘change’ to a libertarian today and tomorrow and ‘continuity’ of the impunity and arbitrariness of old.

Let the annals of our history bear witness, that in that battle the Jagaban “stirred as the time”, you were “fire for fire”, you “threatened the threatner and you outfaced the brow of bragging horror; you put the dauntless spirit of resolution; you glistened like the god of war when he intendeth to become the ‘field’!

And behold when the jagged fields of battle are emptied; they attest to the deeds of great men: “blood hath bought blood; blows have answered blows; strength matched with strength; and power confronteth power. And the Jagaban, being last on the field, has become the Lord of it!

Many had “cowardly fled” the battle ground, “not having struck one strike” at all; but you said to the enemy loud and clear: “A crown or else a glorious tomb; a scepter or an earthly sepulcher”. It was that courage of conviction; that steadfastness in the face of danger that stands you, today above all mortals. And now your sacrifice has become a prologue to a beautiful symphony of liberation. Happily a ‘crown’ it will be and not a ‘glorious tomb’; a ‘scepter’ you will have and never an ‘earthly sepulcher’.

In sixteen years it had been ‘nay, nay, nay; they would ‘not let my people go’; yet in just one moment of electoral ‘truth’ -right at the twilight of the month of March, they sang, perforce, another tune: ‘aye, aye’ they said in shame! And the Commander-In-Chief said: ‘I yield, I yield, I yield’; “Oh wonderful when the Devil tells the truth”, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!

The Progressives will now sit on the throne of our own democracy, a feat purchased with the illiberal blood of anti-development reactionaries; the evil Party “that was wont to conquer others” but which hath now made “a shameful conquest of itself”. And behold Asiwaju, the ‘David’ with the crooked sling. He plucked the eye of vaunted pride; leaving almighty Goliath a giant heap of human debris aground. ‘Might’ which was once ‘right’, now gives way to ‘right’ which now is ‘might’.

All thanks to the Jagaban,

MOHAMMED ADAMU is an Abuja-based Public Affairs Analyst.

Tuesday, 28 April 2015
Tinubu: Smear Campaigns of Envious Traducers
Since the landslide victory in most parts of the country of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the recently concluded general elections, the mood of the nation has changed from hitherto politics of mudslinging and besmear; Majority of Nigerians now eagerly look forward to reap from the party’s promised CHANGE that is expected to reposition the country after sixteen years of exploitation and rape of our collective legacy by the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

However, the lucre of office sharing along geo-political zones, rather than overall national interest, is goading some rapacious elements within the APC to stop at nothing to bring down the house. They have contacted their agents in newspaper houses and faceless agents on the social media to circulate concocted teaspoonful of lies against Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Asiwaju of Lagos state. The game of such criminal propaganda is not new but Nigerians should be alerted in earnest to discountenance the cheap blackmail of those unscrupulous internal agents that are out to score cheap political points that they do not deserve at the expense of the hard working national leader of APC.

These smear campaigns have not worked in the past and it would not start working now. Some individuals have decided to peddle another round of rumours to albeit, erroneously tarnish the image of the national leader of Bola Tinubu. This writer’s study of past baloney against Tinubu has shown that the more the gibberish against the man, the more his profile soars. In the end, on most instances, the futility of time and resources of the brains behind such retrogressive plots get smashed beyond any meaningful coupling.

The story’s testing waters emanated from ThisDay newspaper only to be accorded convoluted propaganda covertly by disgruntled elements within and outside the party over who exerts more influence in the in-coming government. They have shamelessly resorted to play unfruitful gutter politics, once again.

These agents of chaos in the party may think they are not known but the faces behind their masquerades have been unraveled. Surprisingly amongst these ungrateful elements are a serving governor from the southwest and another former governor in the southwest. Others are a former governor from the North Central and a current senator. Yet these were the same elements who were previously unknown before but rode to power on same Tinubu platform. These elements are losers who believe the ongoing political permutations towards constituting the next government both executive and legislative to work with President-elect Muhammadu Buhari is slipping off their fingers and would do anything to distract the ongoing process.

The actions of these agents of chaos have become the routine pattern of desperate politicians whose only concern have always been self rather that that of the generality of the people. They tried futilely to besmear Tinubu during the last national convention of the party in Abuja and amongst others in deciding party leadership posts, choice of gubernatorial candidate in Lagos state and, the choice of running mate for the president-elect. So the current mudslinging does not come across as a mere coincidence but usual frantic reactions to legitimate processes by power mongers and immature political jobbers.

In the last 20 years, Sen. Bola Tinubu has not only been elected the executive governor of Lagos state for eight straight years, he has since then remained at the fore front of the drive to wrestle power at the centre for the progressives; a feat hitherto considered herculean. He has also been brought before a code of conduct tribunal on thumped up charges and the same system heavily manipulated by the ruling class found nothing tangible against him; he was there and then discharged and cleared. The arsenal of propaganda of the enemies against Tinubu fell like a pack of cards.

The hack writer on the social media even admitted that there are no evidence that Tinubu was ever indicted; none at all. In the United States credited for being one of the world leading economies with very high tolerance for freedom of information, it would amount to outright balderdash to claim such documents needed to drive home these cheap points are not in existence. How and why should such a writer be taken seriously?

The trend of the article in its entirety shows the mix plot to drag other individuals into the murky waters and try to paint all individual brown to give them the same tag. Tinubu in the last 20 years has made over twenty trips to the United States which should have served as an opportunity for the US government to apprehend him if these allegations were ever true. On the flip side, let Buruji Kashamu of PDP make just a trip to the US if only to prove his innocence on the weighty allegations hanging on his neck.


But for the sake of innocent Nigerians who would seek clarifications, this response in the real sense would have been considered needless. Responding to such phantom story may not be necessary in future

It is not in my place to ask you to disregard these faceless individuals; the facts are there right in the so-called article. Read through if you have the time to spare and ask yourself some real questions. After all, the onus of proof is on the claimant.

For the APC, the party cannot afford to be drawn into cheap denigration of one of its most illustrious leaders by some arrogant and selfish political masquerades within its fold.

Signed
Civil Morality Group of Nigeria