₦airaland Forum

There was anxiety yesterday over former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso’s political future. There were rumours that he had defected to the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP).


It was learnt that many PDP bigwigs had been disturbed over Senator Kwankwaso’s next move.

But the former governor yesterday said he was still in APC and yet to give defection any thought.

According to sources, APC leaders were jolted yesterday by the alleged defection of Kwankwaso.

A party leader, who spoke in confidence, said: “We were all shocked by the news of Kwankwaso’s exit from APC because Kano State was strategic to our victory in 2015.

“We have not been able to get in touch with the ex-governor, but we have doubts on the veracity of the news in some media.

“We know that Kwankwaso is a straightforward politician, he does not take action through the backdoor.

“We are however trying to establish contact with him to know the truth.”

Responding to a question, the party source said: “The party is no doubt aware of a disagreement between the ex-governor and some APC leaders, especially his successor, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.

“The leadership of APC has been doing its best to resolve the intra-party crisis. And in fairness, Kwankwaso has been cooperating with the party.”

A member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of APC said: “We have been receiving enquiries from our leaders on Kwankwaso. We believe that some elements somewhere were flying a kite to create a crisis in our party. We suspect desperation on the part of some PDP elements.

“We don’t know why the opposition is interested in defection of APC leaders. Are they short of credible leaders and trying to poach some in APC?”

The Personal Assistant to the ex-governor, Mallam Nafiu Umar Dankura, dispelled “the rumour and fake news that is circulating in some online media and radio stations that the Distinguished Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso has defected to PDP”.

“This is not true as the Distinguished Senator is a strong pillar of APC and he is still an APC card holder.

“The senator has not at anytime thought of decamping to PDP.”

Asked if the PDP had made overtures to Kwankwaso, Dankura said: “There has never been anything like that. PDP was only calling on all their members that left the party to come back. It wasn’t just about him.”


http://leaders.ng/anxiety-grips-apc-camp-alleged-kwankwaso-defection/

Federal Government will spend a total of N61m through National Library of Nigeria to enlighten public on the importance of reading across the country.

This was disclosed by the National Librarian and Chief Executive Officer of the National Library of Nigeria, Lenrie Aina shortly after he paid visit to Karshi Information Centre, in Karshi town, in Abuja.

“Government is doing very well. They gave us N61m to go round the country and encourage people on reading.”

According to him, the campaign would begin from urban areas and later extended to local areas for ensuring effective success.

He said the campaign team would target pregnant mothers and educate them to start reading to their new born babies to make them accustom to reading by the time they are enrolled in the primary schools.

He further said that they planned to partner with the National Service Youth Corps (NYSC) to reach out to the nooks and crannies of the country.

He said the NLN has been committed to increase the knowledge of peoples’ reading for a better society.

The National Librarian said they have determined to move people from the streets into libraries, saying there was nothing like reading.

He urged people to read adding that once a person is accustom to reading he is on the top of the world.
Speaking earlier, the Executive Director, Karshi Rural Information Centre, Bawa Umar, urged members of Karshi community and Nigerians to imbibe the spirit of reading culture and wider the scope of their knowledge.


http://leaders.ng/fg-spend-n61m-enlighten-public-reading/

Alhaji Ghali Umar Na`Abba was Speaker of the House of Representatives between 1999 and 2003 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

He joined the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC just before the 2015 General Elections and is presently a member of the party’s Board of Trustees, BoT.

In this interview monitored on the African Independent Television, AIT Focus on Nigeria programme, he speaks on the clamour for Nigeria’srestructuring and other crucial issues. TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI who monitored the session brings the excerpts:

What do you think is the way forward in the settlement of internal disputes in APC?

In this respect, credit must be given to the PDP. When I was in the House of Representatives, and at least for two years, from 1999 to 2001, we used to have caucus meetings of the party every Monday; and given the tension then between the executive and the legislature, these caucus meetings were very helpful in solving certain problems. If not for those caucus meetings, the tensions would have been higher and it was only in 2001 when a new chairman of the party, who is the current minister of agriculture, (Chief Audu Ogbeh) came on board that those caucus meetings became obliterated because the president (Chief Olusegun Obasanjo) didn’t really like those meetings. He didn’t like to be challenged. Under that kind of arrangement, senior party members are given the opportunity to discuss governmental affairs, to challenge government policies and such. I believe that it is very good for the system because some of these presidents because of their military background and other idiosyncrasies don’t like to be challenged.

Did these meetings help to stave off some of those attempts to remove you?

In spite of the caucus meetings, the attempts to have me impeached as speaker were ongoing. It was an ongoing project from the time I became speaker to the time I left the House of Representatives, but I never allowed those attempts to cloud my objectivity and the sad thing about the existing situation is that the party that is ruling today is, as a senior member of the party, the last time I attended any caucus meeting or Board of Trustees meeting was in February 2016 and that was one year five months ago! Which means that there is no synergy within the party, there is a disconnect within the party.

Is that a breakdown of the system in the party?

The system is breaking down because government doesn’t feel obliged to be accountable to the party that brought it to power whereas at the same time they are demanding accountability from all institutions of government. It is a contradiction. Anybody who is elected must be accountable, and that is the reason I believe they don’t like the caucus meetings because they give senior party members the opportunity to advance, give their opinion and to even mingle with senior party members like the president which they ordinarily would not have an opportunity to meet.

Is this not the reason we are now having controversies over the budget and confirmation of Ibrahim Magu as chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission?

All these things revolve around the philosophy of separation of powers. The legislature has no right to propose appropriation, only the president is empowered to initiate appropriation, and the constitution asks the president to submit estimates to the legislature. What normally happens is that the legislature has a Majority Leader who is in charge of all the business of the legislature, being the leader of the party in power.

Normally, when the appropriation is received, the Majority Leader has the responsibility of preparing the bill on behalf of the executive because once estimates are in the legislature, the executive cannot do anything. So since they are from the same party and it is expected that the appropriation would have been discussed before then, it is the duty of the leader to prepare a bill and present to the larger House whether it is the Senate or the House. The legislature is supposed to prescribe the way money is spent by the executive, period! But over time, opinions are being formed; some are of the view that the legislature has the power to decrease the amount proposed by the executive but cannot increase, some will say that you can increase but you can also decrease and all this is very, very uncomfortable because the constitution is clear.

The spirit of the Constitution is that both the legislature and executive are working for the people. So, what are the best possible means for them to work together? Because if each of them should insist on its power, nothing will go on. So, the expectation is that before they commence the appropriation process, the executive or the president must call the party, must call the legislature and also, other stakeholders, whether it is on zonal basis or otherwise so that what should be in the budget should be discussed.

What are the priorities of the party? What the party promised the people during the campaign. All of these things should be discussed, and we used to do these things during our caucus meetings from 1999 to 2001.

In fact, there was a time a committee was set up headed by former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme to discuss with us on the possibility of having certain projects in the budget; that the legislators wanted to see in the budget and the possibility of deferring some projects for a supplementary budget which would come in September 2001. He came with us, discussed with us and we accepted.

Indeed, nobody knew about this until now that I am saying it. This is what we call preventive diplomacy; we do things without anybody knowing because it was not necessary. And there was another time during the caucus meetings because we had conflicts over certain issues but the legislature and the executive were asked to correct the Constitution and each one of the institutions were asked to present to the caucus what they viewed to be their position. We did it, and the president appointed a team under the Attorney General, they did their own, and we did our own, we presented to the caucus, and certain agreements were reached, and I think it was healthy for the system. But today, even interventions, there is nobody to do it.

What were the intrigues that shadowed your re-election quest?

The night before the primary election some of the delegates came and said that the state governor had asked that they should be rounded up and some of them were promised money, machines, and cloth so that they don’t vote for me. There was collusion between the president and my governor, and therefore they wanted me to arrange so that they could be taken somewhere.

What we did that night was to arrange for them to sleep in Katsina. I was Speaker, and this was happening to me. They slept in Katsina and around 7.00 a.m. they returned to Kano and went straight to the venue. The election was to begin around 11.00 o’clock, and suddenly we discovered that the state government had abducted the chairman of the panel sent from Abuja to supervise the primary. They went on to declare that election in my constituency will not take place because there was a security situation which was false. Around 2.00 p.m. an SSS assistant director based in Kano but from Ogun State came to me and said ‘sir, I have heard what is being arranged against you, and as long as I am in Kano, nobody can do that to you.’

He told me to give him time to go and look for that chairman, wherever he is, and bring him out. I thanked him, and he left. Around 6.00 p.m. he came back and told me that he had located the guy in the Government House and that I should arrange for women dress for him so that he can go and bring him out! We got the women dress for him, and he left, and around 8.00 p.m. he came back and told me that he had taken the man out. As at that time the SSS man advised that the election should not take place until after midnight and the election started by 2.00 a.m. and finished around 4.30 a.m. This tells you the extent to which certain governors could go.

How can we manage the calls for restructuring?

People are calling for restructuring because there is a perception that this system is not working; that there is no justice in the system. We must have a system that is healthy, and unless we have a system that is healthy, this call for restructuring will continue and I personally I am in favour of some of it.

What aspect?

More power should be devolved to the states and this I believe will help the system especially as it pertains to agriculture.

Do you think political parties in the country have done or are doing enough to promote, preserve and project democratic ideals?
Our political parties have definitely not done enough to promote, preserve and project democratic ideals. This, no doubt, has to do with some of the first set of political office-holders we got in 1999. Today, the only role the political parties play is that of being mere platforms for contesting elections. The parties do not play their role of educating their members. Successive governments do not carry the parties along in the formulation of policies. In fact, the manifestoes of the parties are no longer advertised when campaigns are going on. This, no doubt, is due to the high level of personalization and godfatherism in politics. The worst thing is that there is almost no internal democracy in the parties. Governors have particularly taken over the parties in their states and pocket them. Therefore, important reforms with regard to our political parties are needed in our political system, particularly in the area of internal democracy, the lack of which is threatening the stability of the country.
It is common knowledge that state governors appropriate political parties to themselves. Most of our political parties have decided to make the governors leaders at the state level, while presidents are the leaders at the national level, thereby rendering the parties’ executive committees almost useless. By so doing, the governors and presidents use these positions with relish in their quest to dominate the political space. The consequence is that these governors have transformed the political parties into a fourth factor of production, along with land, labor and capital. In other words, the political parties have become capital with which political power and money are acquired and accumulated. The political parties thus appropriated, are being used to generate undue political power for the governors and presidents. Today, because of this pervasive evil and diabolical phenomenon, politics is effectively taken away from the people. This state of affairs is realised through the refusal of the governors to allow free and fair elections into the executive committees of the parties in the wards, local governments and states, take place during congresses. Rather, they recruit into these executive committees, through fiat, people who would do whatever the governors want, thereby effectively making them agents of the governors.
When elections approach, it is from this category of people that delegates that will elect aspirants to become candidates of the parties are selected. These delegates will only elect the aspirants that the governors instruct them to elect, often without regard to the track record of the aspirants. Through this unwholesome means, the governor in a particular state determines who gets elected into all institutions of governance. The growth of our political parties and our democracy has been impeded in this manner. Today, if it were possible to see our political parties and political system physically, they will appear like dwarfs, because their growth has been hindered. In a democracy, which is a social system, there must be unity, coherence and harmony between all parts of the whole system.
It is supposed to be a dynamic system like a caravan in which all the travelers are linked together in the manner of big and small parts of a machine, working together towards the same purpose and aim. The function and meaning of every part is according to the position it occupies in this organic whole. Every part helps in the proper functioning of other parts in this system of mutual relationships. Any kind of failure or deviation in the functioning of any of the parts is sufficient to retard, or throw the whole system out of harmony. The asphyxiation of internal democracy, through the deviation of the rules of engagement, has had a profoundly negative effect on our socio-economic and political system, thereby throwing the system out of harmony.
In this endeavour, sycophancy becomes the main qualification for recruitment into political offices. Competition, which remains the best tool for the recruitment of political leaders, is thus jettisoned. The incentive to excel on the part of the contestants, competitors; is therefore eliminated, with the intellect becoming a casualty. No nation develops without the application of its intellectual resources. The net effect of this syndrome is the dearth of qualitative leadership at many levels of governance, the stagnation of our economy with serious unemployment levels, and the stultification of the political system. The whole social system is in a state of inertia; all these are interrelated and are a direct result of lack of internal democracy.
Even lack of attendance in our legislative houses can be traced to lack of internal democracy. Insurgencies, militancy, kidnapping and assorted crimes are all fall outs of this phenomenon. The effect is very pervasive and reform is very necessary if we are to get things right.

http://leaders.ng/disconnect-within-apc-naabba/

ovadozes:
I ve said it before that it is actually true that some people can exist without a brain, this is a typical example.

Pieromania:
I see a gang up against federal government through the judiciary. I smell The new Chief judge of the federation is a tool in the hand of the corrupt thieves

Mumu zombie

Chai Magu is finished

More comments

Nigerians dragged Tboss' sister, Wendy, after she made a post on Tboss' Instagram page saying they suffered racism while growing up both in Nigeria and Romania. According to her, they suffered acceptance in Nigeria because of their skin color and mixed nationality, but things got worse when they traveled to Romania for their University education. She wrote;

Growing up we faced a lot of challenges but the major challenge we faced was "Acceptance". Having a different skin color and hair texture made us stand out and we never felt like we truly belonged. Apart from a few good friends, we never belonged to any cliques or groups like other people. Growing up in Nigeria people saw us as white and we never really blended in, so we were relieved to travel to Romania for our university education, just to get there and be called blacks. In Romania we got to find out the true definition of racism. Some Nigerians might not flow with you because you don't have same skin color as them but they won't resort to violence but in Romania a "few people" could be real extremists. So once again acceptance was a problem because people look at your skin color and think of you differently. For TBoss all that has come to an end now, after 11 weeks in the #bigbrothernaija2017 house people have actually begun to see TBoss as a real human, with real feelings and emotions, she gets happy, sad, angry, depressed, heartbroken and excited like every other human being, she plays, she eats, she drinks, she sleeps and has aspirations and goals like everyone else and for the first time the world has accepted her and stood by her side and fought for her. For this we can never stop saying thank you!!!

However, Nigerians didn't find it funny and they dragged her on her page. See some comments below...


http://www.lindaikejisblog.com/2017/04/nigerians-drag-tbosss-sister-after-she.html

This is the worst and compromised big brother show ever


Voting Statistics: total percentage is 100.01% how come?

They couldn't even rig the votes well, they shot themselves in the foot with the total percentage of Votes.

We have been raising alarm that PayPorte already have their winner as Tboss, they have been manipulating votes and bending rules to get Tbsoss to the finals since the show began

Voting Statistics: total percentage is 100.01% how come? ....#BBNaija is a monumental scam and fraud.

three:
Will the people that didn't support #FreeAudu trend #FreeOmoyele?

If they do then question is why the inconsistencies

Nobody get Sowore time....dem go lock the mofo inside Kuje prison with Dilector Kanu, dem go come throw the key inside river Niger

Sowore don buy market...e go chop beans tire for kuje prison

Representing Edo

Naija bloggers and family sources

Fayose has finished Ali Modu Sheriff

Lauretta old witch

ogrin:
You have no idea how many men your mother fuccked to be able to raise you. slowpoke

E pain for another person matter

Dem go ban u for at least 5 months, i can guarantee u that.

U have broken Nairaland rules


I don table ur matter give the mods