₦airaland Forum

Ejike Mbaka, Controversial Catholic priest and spiritual director of Adoration Ministry in Enugu State has, again, apologised to Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP).

Mr Mbaka, who had previously attacked and apologised to the former Anambra governor, had on Wednesday renewed his attacks on the opposition candidate, describing him as a stingy fellow who will not emerge president of the country.

He said his previous apology was made under duress and not of his own volition, recalling how Mr Obi dumped and refused to financially reward him after assisting in helping him reclaim his mandate when ousted as Anambra governor.

After his renewed attack, Nigerians condemned his outburst while the Catholic diocese in which he serves dissociated itself from the disparaging remarks.

Apologising again in a statement he signed on Friday, the cleric refused to state if he was being pressured to do so again and was not reachable for comments as at press time.

Below is his second apology obtained from Journalist101 and reproduced below.

I am grateful to God for His unquantifiable and favourable blessings, miracles, love and life for the Adoration Ministry, Enugu, Nigeria. I assure the people of God and Nigerians that I am praying for Good Governance and Good Leadership in this country and that God will give us leaders after His own Heart.

As it stands right now, it is obvious that Nigeria is passing through an indescribable insecurity, inestimable unemployment, massive corruption, heinous crimes and unbearable suffering engendered by bad leadership. I bear with my fellow country men and women in whatever we are passing through in this trying time. I call on the adorers and the entire people of God to join hands in praying that God will deliver us from the plans of the devil and it’s wicked agents.

I am a servant of God and my intention is not to malign His Excellency, Peter Obi’s image, but to pray for him. May God’s will be done in his life. I pray to God whom I serve to give our beloved people good and excellent leaders who will take care of them and lead them to the promised land. Anyone who God wishes to make our Leader is my choice. In this vein, I give my blessings to the supporters of His Excellency Peter Obi. In any way they feel offended by my utterances or however I was misunderstood by them, I ask for their understanding and forgiveness. As a servant of the Most High God, I pray that it shall be well with my people. I am an ardent supporter of Good Governance, Justice, Equity, Love and Godliness.

At this time our people are passing through the valleys of shadows of death (Ps23.4), I pray for peace, love and anything that will bring blessings and favour to our people and to our suffering teaming youths. I will always stand with you in all your ordeals. God will take care of you and bless you miraculously for me.

My intention is not to fight or malign Mr Obi. May God bless him and his good supporters. God’s will be done in his political endeavours (Mk.14:36). The followers of Peter Obi are the same youths I am praying for, sacrificing for, fighting for, speaking for and working for their integral well being. What the youths are passing through and their conditions give me sleepless nights. It is for this reason that I yearn for good governance and worthy leaders that will take care of them. We are passing through indescribable ,unbearable and undeserved hardship in this country.

I pray for Divine intervention.

I am not in any political party but I support good people and good governance. Any good person that God can give us is my choice candidate. I am a servant of God; For the sake of peace, I ask for forgiveness in any way I am misunderstood. And to Peter Obi himself, I ask God to bless him and manifest his will in his life. When God says Yes, who can say No? And when God says No, who can say Yes? I bless Peter Obi and pray for him. I bless my dear fellow Adores and pray for them. I bless the people of God everywhere and I pray that it shall be well with you all.

For the sake of those who were gruesomely killed on Pentecost Sunday at St St. Francis Xavier parish Owo, Ondo State who are being buried today, there will be no all-night Adoration program today,17th June 2022. We join the entire Catholic Church to mourn their demise. May their souls and the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in Perfect Peace. Amen.

Meanwhile, all adorers are asked to convene on Sunday 19th June 2022 for our usual 10 am Mass and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Fellowship. Thank you and God bless you

Signed.
Rev Fr Mbaka Ejike Camillus Anthony.
Spiritual Director, Adoration Ministry Enugu Nigeria.

lecowas:
Why ranting already. Lol. It is not even a confirmed news yet. At this rate, u will cry ur eyes out tomorrow.

haffaze777:
I will have to put you where I normally put mkpurumiri addict like you

haffaze777:
Both some people are protesting as we are now,moreover you haven't tell me how Dora akunyili make Jonathan president.

Akanoaaa:
Lol.. Which SE? Same SE that their votes are not up to one local government in Kano? You people can't decide what will happen until you people ready to vote. Rest.

Iamzik:
Bitter hatred and empty noise
You and Kalu should get ready to wail tonight

All you SE candidate are stepping down for northerners. This is the reason why nobody will ever take igbo presidency serious in the next 20 years

Your delegates will collect money and vote against their own Igbo aspirants. The enemy of Igbo is Igbo not youruba or Hausa.

Sorry but that is the hard truth

crixlight2:
Which of the North East politician don talk say if powers no go to North East it should go to South , Fulani will always lord over us because We are just too gullible , beside Wetin stop Kalu from contesting

haffaze777:
I forgot Dora akunyili also lead save Nigeria protest

haffaze777:
The same south we fought yaradua cabal to have their son as substantial president,the same south we voted for in 2011 without having any agreement to do so.there can be betraying without agreement so u better consult ur dictionary before you started fishing word out

9jatriot:
This is a a lame logic. Tinubu stood by his party in 2015 not because GEJ was a southern. All members of PDP are also expected to stand by their candidate for example irrespective of where he comes from.

haffaze777:
We're Western and we don't need you Igbo to do our thing,we will liase from our south south brother to achieve this,if they say no we will continues our relationship with North and if we didn't get the power,we will go back to drawing board,we don't see anybody as enemy, saboteur or betrayer,did we cry in 1993 when you voted tofa? we're not a crying baby that cry to everyone that care to listen.

haffaze777:
When is he defeating Tinubu?did Tinubu ever promise Jonathan or PDP alliance?he (kalu) promise to defeat Tinubu one on one and ran away before the fight start

haffaze777:
Some months back,one Orji uzor kalu promise to square up against Tinubu and win APC presidential ticket.
APC as a party stand as a refree by selling presidential ticket to both Tinubu and kalu,millions of Nigeria have been waiting for the epic fight to start but just before the commencement of the fight,orji uzor kalu runaway and started hiding behind aboki, illiterate,gworo chewing head slamming terrorist Ahmad Lawan according to his people.

Here's the link where he promise to defeat Tinubu hands down

President Muhammadu Buhari has replied Bola Tinubu, one of the presidential aspirants of the All Progressive Congress (APC) who boasted of singlehandedly making the former Nigeria’s leader.

Mr Tinubu had last week recalled how he went to Kaduna to pressure Mr Buhari who contested thrice and failed to retry the fourth time despite the latter vowing not to contest again amid televised tears.

Responding on Monday, presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, in a statement disagreed with the remarks of national leader of the ruling party.

The statement is reproduced below.

It is perhaps not surprising that on the eve of the All Progressives Congress (APC) flagbearer primary there are those running as candidates who wish to associate themselves with the President’s rise to elected office seven years ago.

There are many people who played parts large and small in his historic election in 2015, making history as the first opposition candidate to defeat a sitting president with power changing hands peacefully at the ballot box.

There are those who advised the President to run again; those who decided to build a political party – the APC – that could finally be the political vehicle capable of delivering victory where all other opposition parties and alliances before it had failed.

Those decisions may have been agreed upon by a few. But they were delivered by thousands and voted for by tens of millions. No one can or should claim to have made the possible.

Yet as important as that moment was, it is not what should decide the next general election.

What matters is the future: the policy platforms, the ideas, the drive, and the determination to take over the President’s stewardship of our country and build upon his legacy to make our country better than it has ever been.

The person most demonstrable in those qualities is the one to lead our party and our country forward.

Garba Shehu
Senior Special Assistant to the President
(Media & Publicity)
June 06, 2022

President Muhammadu Buhari has backtracked in his earlier decision of handpicking his preferred candidate who will succeed him in office when his tenure expires next year.

Before embarking on a state visit to Spain earlier in the week, Mr Buhari had appealed to state governors of the All Progressive Congress (APC) to support him in picking his would-be successor.

But on Saturday night while at a dinner with presidential hopefuls of the APC in Abuja, Mr Buhari, dumped the alternative, advising aspirants to prepare for the primary scheduled for next week Monday.

His decision comes moments after 11 Northern governors backed power shift to the South, advising him to follow suit.

The president who later backed power shift to the Southern part of the country during the gathering reportedly said the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) block of the ruling party during its merger in 2014 should produce the party’s presidential candidate.

The ACN camp has Bola Tinubu, former Lagos governor and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as top contenders.

President Muhammadu Buhari has reportedly backed power shift to the Southern part of the country.

Mr Buhari took the decision on Saturday in a meeting with presidential aspirants of the All Progressive Congress (APC).

The president who said he will handpick his preferred successor is yet to unveil the identity of the beneficiary.

Details later…

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo should be selling pop corn and ice cream on the streets and not competing with Bola Tinubu, frontline presidential aspirant, for the top office, Kashim Shettima, former Borno governor has said.

Mr Shettima representing Borno Central at the Senate stated this while featuring on Channels TV’s Politics Today monitored by TODAY POLITICS Friday evening.

“Osinbajo is a good man,” the lawmaker, on the campaign train of the former Lagos governor, acknowledged. “He is a nice man but nice men don’t make good leaders. Nice men should be selling popcorn, and ice cream.”

The Borno-Central representative, who said it was an insult to mention his presidential candidate among the best, went further to belittle the number two citizen when asked if Mr Tinubu has stepped down for Mr Osinbajo.

“How do you expect an elephant to step down for lilliputians?” he queried while rejecting the notion that a consensus candidate will emerge from the All Progressive Congress (APC).

He warned of consequences if his candidate who accused Buhari of betraying him is barred from testing his popularity at the party’s convention next week where its flag bearer will emerge.

Babachir Lawal, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) has berated Bola Tinubu, presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC) for claiming he singlehandedly made President Muhammadu Buhari the country’s leader.

Mr Tinubu while wooing delegates from Ogun and Oyo in Abeokuta on Thursday claimed that if not for his benevolence, Mr Buhari would not have finally been elected president after trying thrice and failed.

“If not for me that stood behind Buhari, he wouldn’t have become the President,” Mr Tinubu, who spoke in Yoruba in a trending video clip seen by TODAY POLITICS, explained. “He tried the first time, he failed. The second time, he failed. The third, he failed.”

He accused the Nigerian leader of betraying him by opting for a consensus presidential candidate and choosing to breach their gentleman agreement of handing over power to him on completion of his second and final term next year.

The president had sought the support of APC governors in choosing his successor like they (governors) usually do while leaving office, a move seen by political analysts as a plot to disenfranchise aspirants from participating in the ruling party’s convention where the flag bearer will emerge.

Berating on the former Lagos governor, Mr Lawal said the effort of Mr Tinubu alone was not what got the president elected in 2015, the first time an opposition party will oust a ruling party in charge.

“Sometimes it is very difficult to support a Yoruba person in national politics if you are not one,” the ex-SGF said in a response published by Vanguard. “They have a way of making you regret your support because they eventually make you seem like a traitor to your own people. Now all these comments about Bola’s Yoruba presidency and his support of Buhari without which Buhari would not have been president is bullshit.

“He wasn’t the only one whose support made a difference. There were many others from all around the country and they are not bragging about it.

“You may wish to know that all of us Buhari supporters are shocked and pissed off by Bola’s speech on this occasion. It is unlike him.

“And this speech is massively trending in the North and being given a negative connotation as you can well imagine. I first read it this morning on an Adamawa group platform and the anger is palpable and all round.

“You would think Yorubas will resist the temptation of joining in the northerners-bashing game at this very critical time – the primary election is only three days away. It is unfortunate that Bola himself chose to join in this bashing game – choosing to speak in the Yoruba language and in Yoruba land in a manner that seems to denigrate Buhari. I could vividly imagine the discomfort of all the northerners sitting beside him on that podium.

“This appears to be the Abiola saga being replayed. Abiola won the election with majority Northern votes but they took the brunt of the post-election protests that followed.

“Just survey all the people that are doing more meaningful practical things to enthroned Bola as president and you will find that almost all are northerners while his kinsmen engage themselves social media activism and Northern bashing.

“When Yorubas vilify the North like this, our sense of fear and insecurity under a Yoruba presidency gets heightened and in the end, pushes us to rethink our support for not only Bola but any Yoruba as president for that matter.

“Please, do not join our opponents to destroy our chances of clinching Monday’s primary elections.”

Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State has tactically replied frontline presidential aspirant, Bola Tinubu, who said the former would not have become the state governor but for his benevolence.

Mr Tinubu on Thursday was in the state to woo delegates of the All Progressive Congress (APC) to his side ahead of the party’s primary next week.

At the Abeokuta gathering which involved delegates from Oyo State, he accused President Muhammadu Buhari of betraying him after working tirelessly to get him elected president in 2015. He, nevertheless, said it is his turn to take a shot at the presidency next year.

The former Lagos governor who spoke using the Yoruba language also recalled how he nominated Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to deputise the Nigerian leader.

He also doubled down on Mr Abiodun who has declared support for Mr Osinbajo jostling for the topmost position with his former principal.

“This one sitting behind me, Dapo, can he say he could have become a governor but for me?” the APC leader queried pointing at him.

The governor who watched being humiliated at the event but could not respond immediately has now found his voice. Tweeting Friday morning, he subtly referred to Mr Tinubu as a political emperor with an entitlement mentality who sees the presidency as his family inheritance.

Mr Tinubu had said becoming president was his life-long ambition and was ready to fight dirty to achieve the feat.

“I am not an emperor by any chance and this is not my family inheritance,” the governor said. “I am holding this position in trust for all the people of this state and I have vowed to be fair, just and equitable and this is the solemn agreement I made between the Almighty God and myself.”

Mr Tinubu began firing from all cylinders when it dawned on him that the president will opt for the consensus mode of primary to pick his successor and he is definitely not the preferred candidate of the Nigerian leader.

He said the gentleman agreement he had with Mr Buhari in Kaduna before teaming up with him to oust former president Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 was that the president will hand over power to the Yorubas – through him – after completing his constitutionally-allowed tenures.

President Muhammadu Buhari says he will pick his successor in office like some state governors have been doing while leaving office.

Mr Buhari stated this on Tuesday during a meeting with governors of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Abuja.

He sought the support of the governors to ensure his preferred candidate who will emerge at the party’s national convention at the weekend wins next year’s presidential election.

“…The Party has successfully established internal policies that promote continuity and smooth succession plans even at the state and local government levels,” the Nigerian leader noted. “For example, first term Governors who have served credibly well have been encouraged to stand for re-election. Similarly, second term Governors have been accorded the privilege of promoting successors that are capable of driving their visions as well as the ideals of the party.

“In a few days, the Party will be holding its Convention during which primaries would take place to pick the Presidential Flag Bearer for the 2023 General Elections. This is a very significant process and its outcome should prove to the world, the positive quality of the APC regarding democratic principles, culture as well as leadership.

“As we approach the Convention, I appeal to all of you to allow our interests to converge, our focus to remain on the changing dynamics of our environment, the expectations of our citizens and the global community. Our objective must be the victory of our party and our choice of candidate must be someone who would give the Nigerian masses a sense of victory and confidence even before the elections.

“In keeping with the established internal policies of the Party and as we approach the Convention in a few days, therefore, I wish to solicit the reciprocity and support of the Governors and other stakeholders in picking my successor, who would fly the flag of our party for election into the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023,” Mr Buhari added.

His position indicates that the concensus method the ruling party used in picking its present National Working Committee (NWC) will again come to play at the weekend.

This is certainly not going to augur well with some aspirants who have expressed displeasure at the decision. One of them, Bola Tinubu, who occasionally decides who becomes governor of Lagos State, had recently described the concensus method as undemocratic, calling for the race to be thrown open for all interested participants.

Mr Tinubu informed the president of his intention to succeed him in office, claiming he has the president’s support but politically analysts who often quote the president who preferred to keep his successor to his chest, are saying the opposite.

Chief Whip of the Senate, Orji Kalu, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure a Northerner succeeds him in office or have power return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Mr Kalu gave the advises in a statement he posted on Facebook Sunday morning while reacting to the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the candidate of the opposition party for the exalted office.

He argued that with the emergence of Mr Abubakar who is from the North-East, a region that has not produced president like the South-East since the return of democracy in 1999, power shift to the Southern part of the country should be jettisoned if the ruling party wants to retain power.

He reiterated that the party should micro-zone its ticket to the North-East where the APC has Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, as its sole aspirant.

“Congratulations to the PDP for electing a North Easterner,” the Abia North lawmaker said. “Nigerians must have seen what I saw yesterday. For our party the APC, it is no longer feasible to talk about Southern candidates except the APC want to go on political retirement.

“I urge the National Chairman of the party and the entire NWC to stamp their feet and zone APC presidential ticket to the North East .

“President Muhammad Buhari has a right to choose his successor and I call on him to pick Senator Ahmad Lawan as his successor. In every democratic setting, presidents and Governors support and pick their successors. I call on President Buhari to pick a successor from the North East and that will be the equity the South East needs. With the North East , the cycle will be closest to completion of regions producing the president of Nigeria.

“By now , all APC aspirants should drop their ambition and support a North Easterner. Senator Ahmad Lawan is the destination,” he added.

helinues:
That empty threat can't even move a paper. Kanu will remain in the prison and nothing, I repeat, nothing will happen.