₦airaland Forum

Feggie3:
The only thing I need Senator to do for me is to secure Kaduna, Niger and FCT votes for us then he can now go rest and sleep and then leave the rest for us.

The man is not a core politician. He cannot secure anything.

Evaromantik:
Noo.. Edoma is majority, Igbo is minority.

Has your orgasm began yet?.

Ok. Good luck.

Evaromantik:
This man is an enemy of this country. Why would he be wishing Nigeria bad already, just because the majority aren't supporting his candidate.

A man from a minor tribe trying to put two bug tribes against each other.

Well, i can see he will be the downfall of Atiku.

Igbo majority?

Odefani:
Reno, the paid propagandist. A Nigerian activist turned political jober

We will Design a professional Company Logo for your Business or Letterhead Design for 2k Only

Drop Us Your Company Name:

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If you are advertising your product, you have to show neutrality in this kind of politics going on in naira land but ok when you don't involve your business.

Obidient4Tinubu:
it will shock you. Some of you think this is BBNaija contest. Even Obi knows he can never win.
Take it or leave it, even in Anambra, PDP will get the highest votes, followed by Apga, then APC, then ADC, then PDM then Labour Party

Obi will get Anambra because Soludo will be neutral. In other Southeast states, I cannot vouch.
Some will argue that the governors only have one vote, but believe it or not in a country like Nigeria they are the determinant forces in any election.

strangest:
Osita Chidoka, Dino Melaye, Ifeanyi Ubah, Deji Adeyanju...


Graduates of Baze University...



Yeah, Peter Obi's VP...

Osita Chidoka is intelligent and educated. Others I cannot vouch for

Kennedyli:
Lol. This is a 2016 article from one of Obianos close paddy.

They were trying to throw anything at Obi to make him look bad. But we now know how it ended.

Even most of the claims Obiano made against Peter Obi has turned out to be false.

Ben Obi used to be very close to Peter during his time as governor. They are from same Agulu town.

So this is an achievement. Smh!

Don't be crowded with politics. Before, you can only go this place by canoe or boat. Can you imagine the happiness this will bring to these people and how it will open up their place?

Totilopussylick:
You can't be defending a certain person

If you are not benefiting from his urine

He used to be a hero. What happened?

Who is even sure they plan to conduct this election.

Crowwejihadist:
See big difference in reasoning of these two people.

I swear if we loose this golden opportunity come 2023, I will loose hope in Nigeria completely.

Which golden opportunity?

SteveDGreat:
David Hundeyin takes a swipe at the North for claiming they are good at politics. This is Coming after Kwankwaso claim East are at the bottom of politics

"Igbos aren't good at politics" isn't even a smart opinion. 4 of the 10 states with highest HDI in Nigeria are in the southeast.

14 of the bottom 14 are in the north.

You might be good at elections, but make no mistake about it, you're terrible at politics
H/T: @sbmintelligence https:///vR3PORIjRX

The ultimate measure of how good at politics you are is the quality of life you are able to provide for your people. By that measure, the table above clearly tells us who is good at politics and who is not.

If your only measure is elections, then congrats I guess��‍♂️

Encouraging education is politics. Outlawing pedophilia so women can become economically productive adults is politics. Encouraging private enterprise and competition is politics.

These are the things that lead to prosperity.

Never conflate politics with elections.

Southern Nigeria by and large, is much better at politics than northern Nigeria. The north however, is good at elections.

Conflating elections and politics is like conflating who wins the referee's pre-game coin toss with who wins the actual match.

Completely different things.

You're "good at politics" because your state can deliver 1.5 trillion votes from a 1 million total population. Fine.

But if Microsoft sets up in your state tomorrow and asks for just 50 software engineers to hire, your state doesn't have them.

Good at politics? Give me a break.

Know who is good at politics? South Korea. The EU. Japan. Malaysia. Heck, even India. They have used political processes and decisions to engineer prosperity and better lives for themselves.

Not some dumbasses languishing at the foot of humanity who think voting is a superpower.

Whoever this man is supporting need to tell him to keep quite for some time because he is causing him harm.

abobote:
This man has been very loyal to APC, despite not getting anything in Buhari's 7yrs.

Its too early to predict, but as it stands now, all the odds favour Atiku

He is director General of Radio Nigeria

Rag tag

OP, you are not helping your candidate with this type of post

FuckkME:
lols the man is not even Igbo... his Akwa ibom

Ekpa is from Ebony state

Goodday90:
Southerners will not vote for kwakwanso because of Boko haram,banditry,child marriage,Fulani herdsmen menace,suicide bombing

How does that sound?

They lump the south together when it fits you. He said the north will not vote anybody from south east due to Biafra and the killings of the hausas and fulanis in the south east.

Obalacam:
The kind of energy used by these urchins in demarketing PO should have been used in telling Nigerians will they should vote their candidate

It is politics. Throw all you can see.

Time to attack Kwakwanso.His time to receive the attacks and insults.

State of the Race: Peter Obi’s illiberal supporters and Atiku’s tight rope

Peter Obi’s presidential aspiration appears to have been appropriated by a social media lynch mob who are attacking his opponents in packs and tyrannising those who do not share their views.

ByBisi Abidoye

 

 July 3, 2022

 



On Thursday, the senior pastor of Covenant Christian Centre, Poju Oyemade, tweeted a message on faith, which he concluded by urging youths not to waste their enthusiasm on a “poorly planned project.”

Oyemade’s tweets

He wrote in the tweets: “Faith is not just blind belief or hoping for a miracle. Faith sees. Faith has her eyes opened and possesses the evidence upon which it builds its belief. Faith prepares long, sometimes for years just as Joseph did for the years of famine. Faith counts the cost before embarking.
“Without having real evidence upon which you are acting nor preparation for the task, recognising real obstacles that lie ahead and making concrete plans, one is just being delusional about the outcome. The enthusiasm of
the youth must not be wasted on poorly planned projects.
“Noah spent months/years planning for the flood & he was operating in faith. Jesus said no man goes to battle without taking stock first nor lays the foundation of a tower without counting the cost first lest he will be
mocked. Our faith is intelligent; it doesn’t live in denial.”
As the host of The Platform, a forum which brings together resource persons to discuss national issues, Mr Oyemade is never shy of political commentaries. Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has appeared in the forum a couple of times to propagate his political ideas. The cleric appeared to be enamoured of the politician.
Although Mr Oyemade’s tweets of Thursday made no direct reference to politics, Mr Obi’s supporters descended on the clergyman moments after the tweets appeared. They held the message as a criticism of their campaign for Mr Obi. Young people, many of them having no contact with the candidate or his party, have been the mainstay of Mr Obi’s campaign thus far.
Their vitriol was, as usual, relentless. Even after Mr Oyemade took down the tweets, the supporters continued to drag him on social media, as they gloated over the capitulation of yet another “enemy” of Mr Obi.
Commenting on the development, Sam Amadi, a lawyer and regular political commentator, wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday: “Pastor Poju was right about the need for rigor and not rhetoric to solve national problems. But thay have cancelled him.”



It is a pattern that has become recurrent and thus disturbing, as the 2023 polls approach.

Like Oyemade, like Mbaka

Two weeks earlier, the chaplain of the Adoration Ministry in Enugu, Ejike Mbaka, was hounded by the same group of supporters after a foot-in-the-mouth remark the cleric made that Mr Obi 


It is a pattern that has become recurrent and thus disturbing, as the 2023 polls approach.

Like Oyemade, like Mbaka

Two weeks earlier, the chaplain of the Adoration Ministry in Enugu, Ejike Mbaka, was hounded by the same group of supporters after a foot-in-the-mouth remark the cleric made that Mr Obi would fail in his presidential ambition because he is “stingy.”
Within days of the statement, thousands of Mr Obi’s supporters who were also followers of the Reverend Father bragged that they had unfriended him on his social media accounts. Their attacks persisted even after the Catholic Diocese of Enugu dissociated itself from Mr Mbaka’s utterances, before eventually suspending him from all activities of the church. Mr Mbaka later apologised for his statement.

Pandora Papers

This newspaper too has felt the intolerance of the supporters. Shortly after the party primaries, PREMIUM TIMES had reshared some of its previous investigative reports that indicted three of the leading presidential candidates of corruption.
The reports had earlier been published between September 2020 and October 2021 on the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, his counterpart of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and Mr Obi.
None of the politicians challenged the findings of the reports, so they were reshared to offer readers glimpses of their past and characters.
Although the three publications were shared within hours of each other, the supporters of Mr Obi were the most vicious in attacking this newspaper over a consortium of international journalists’ findings in the Pandora Papers that he registered secret companies outside Nigeria. The supporters baselessly alleged that the report was done out of bias or inducement.

But their attacks have not been for only those who criticise them or their candidates. They also go after Nigerians for merely expressing support for different candidates. Although this is not peculiar to Mr Obi’s
supporters, they have taken it to a new low.
A day before turning on Mr Oyemade, they had ignited a controversy by their attacks on some actors who had declared their support for Mr Tinubu.



The actors made their position known in a video clip shared by one of them, Yinka Quadri, that features them taking turns to endorse Mr Tinubu’s candidacy.
In this instance, Mr Obi’s supporters accused the actors of giving their support to the APC candidate because he is Yoruba like them or trading it for money.
In the controversy that followed on Twitter, a commentator, @ManLikeIcey, wrote: “Psquare are free to support Peter Obi, it’s their right. Yoruba actors/actresses are free to support Tinubu, it’s their right. You’re equally allowed to support your preferred candidate, it’s your right. Don’t bully people for their constitutional right.”

Lynch mob

Mr Obi’s presidential aspiration appears to have been appropriated by a social media lynch mob who are attacking his opponents in packs and tyrannising those who do not share their views.
Reno Omokri, a former aide of former President Goodluck Jonathan and campaigner for PDP’s Mr Abubakar, last month cried out about the incessant verbal abuse he receives from the supporters of Mr Obi.
“In my life, I have never been insulted the way @PeterObi supporters insult me. Yet, this same Peter lobbied me when he wanted to be Atiku’s running mate in 2019. I supported him over others. Yet, he watches as his people
insult Atiku and I. Nobody knows tomorrow.”

Obi’s call for restraint

To be fair to Mr Obi, he had repeatedly admonished his supporters to stop insulting or attacking his opponents and their supporters. For instance, rather than joining issues with Mr Mbaka over his remarks on him, the candidate urged his supporters to cease the attacks, saying he would meet the cleric over his misgivings.
Yet, the illiberalism of his supporters bodes ill for his own ambition and Nigerians’ efforts at building a democratic culture.
Following the attacks on the actors supporting Mr Tinubu last week, some commentators quickly observed the contradiction in attacking the actors when entertainers and other celebrities who are Igbos like Mr Obi had also been campaigning for him without apology. They also remarked that many of his campaigners on social media are of the same ethnic stock.

Identity politics

Nigerians have been trying to escape from the trap of identity politics, since it was acknowledged as a big factor in the collapse of the First Republics. In the transition to the Second Republic, the military government tried to ensure that the political parties are national in outlook, although the success of the effort was modest.
In the short-lived Third Republic, the military government of Ibrahim Babangida imposed two parties on the country in a futile effort to rebuild Nigerian politics on ideological foundations.

ⓘ

Identity politics have also proved very inflammable and lethal in some countries, including Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and defunct Yugoslavia

However, despite the liberal nature of the laws guiding party formation in Nigeria, politicians have realised that a candidate cannot win the presidency without broad national support, regardless of the level of support the candidate draws from their own part of the country.

Party structures

Mr Oyemade might well have been alluding to Mr Obi’s supporters in his controversial tweet of Friday. But given his relationship with the candidate and concerns about political development in the country, he might have been giving honest advice through his admonition.
Many observers genuinely see the frenzied campaign of his supporters as a sail that will take Mr Obi nowhere, until his party builds a structure across the country on which it can compete with the two major parties in a national election. He apparently recognises this too as he has been in talks with other parties for an alliance that may help them cover the country.
The APC and PDP have party executives in perhaps each of the about 10,000 wards in Nigeria. These officials will mobilise party members and voters in their campaigns across the 774 local government areas of the country and monitor the process in the 178, 000 polling units on election days. Without structure in a constituency or area, the party is invisible, however heavy its work may be on social media.
In last month’s governorship election in Ekiti, the LP was not visible for this reason and returned with an appalling 285 votes from across the 16 LGAS of the state. This is in spite of some of Mr Obi’s most ardent
supporters being from the state.
This may also be the case in the July 16 governorship election in Osun where the LP candidate, Lasun Yusuff, refused to have anything to do with Mr Obi’s social media mobilisers because the presidential candidate himself had not reached out to him.
So if Mr Oyemade intended his message to be applied to the current politics, he probably was advising Mr Obi and his backers to spare time and energy in the eight months before the general elections for building the structures their party needs to harness Mr Obi’s seeming popularity and save the hope and enthusiasm of his youthful supporters from ending into a mirage in February 2023.

Above scrutiny

Another implication of intolerance of opposing views is that it scares people away from frank discussion of the personalities, records and ideas of the candidates. As can be seen in the case involving publications by this newspaper on three candidates as earlier cited in this piece, overbearing supporters want to place their candidates above scrutiny.
Aside from denying the electorate the robust information they need to make informed decisions, it bears with it the danger of shrinking the political space and denuding pluralism. Democracy thrives on pluralism and that is the reason it strives for harmony by accommodating different tunes.
In the final analysis, Mr Obi’s supporters cannot win broad support for him by merely sanctifying him in the sea of their own adoration and demonising everyone else. Other supporters also think the candidates they support are the best but they have no right to force those views on others.

ALSO READ: Why Peter Obi should accept to be my running mate – Kwankwaso

Akin Fadeyi, the founder of “Corruption, Not in My Country” advocacy group, in a comment on Thursday, after a supporter of Mr Obi attacked him over a comment he made on the candidate, said: “Those of you who have constituted yourself into E-THUGS for politicians, you’re not better than ballot-snatching political thugs you always repudiate. Some of them are actually better than some of you. Just take this to the Bank: Powerful and resourceful brains don’t make noise and you can never win converts for a candidate you’re building enemies for.”
Nigerians know that none of their politicians is a saint and after 19 years in active politics, eight of them as a state governor, it is Mr Obi’s past record in government as well as his ideas and promises that voters will use in assessing his candidature. He will be placed under scrutiny by those who take him seriously and all of them will not deliver the same verdict.

Atiku walking a tight rope

Atiku Abubakar’s ecstasy over his victory at the presidential primary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has ebbed over cracks in his party since he picked Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, as his running mate.
Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom confirmed in an interview with Arise Television on Wednesday that the advisory committee the party’s leadership and Mr Abubakar set up for guidance on the pick, by 13-4 votes, recommended Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike for the slot.
Mr Wike, who was already aggrieved with the manner in which Mr Abubakar defeated him at the primary, has refused to take his latter disappointment with equanimity.
It is a big concern for the PDP and its presidential candidates, realising that they cannot risk Mr Wike’s wrath going to the elections, for many reasons.

Rivers and PDP

The governor’s Rivers State has always given the PDP some of its largest blocks of votes since the beginning of the Fourth Republic, largely compensating for the opposition’s usual victories in Lagos and Kano, the two states with the highest numbers of registered voters. Losing the state or a large portion of its votes may be suicidal to the PDP in its quest to end its eight years out of power.
Mr Wike also has influence in other South-south states, especially in Cross River State. Since that state’s governor, Ben Ayade, fled to the APC, Mr Wike has taken its PDP chapter under his wings. Cutting off his support will affect the campaigns of the party where the PDP is in the opposition for the first time in its life.

Wike’s backers

It has also been established in recent weeks that Mr Wike’s broad support at the primary was not a fluke. At least five other governors are in his camp. They are united in their current disaffection with their parties, which has further strengthened Mr Wike’s hands in the confrontation with the party’s national leadership.
Mr Abubakar is an inadvertent victim in the furore over the choice of his sidekick. He had to choose whom he considers best to work with. And many leaders of the party, especially in the North, do not think highly of Mr Wike as a candidate for the high offices of president and deputy.
This was one of the reasons that roused them into action when they realised the Rivers’ governor could bully his way into nomination at the convention. It was the reason that Sokoto governor, Aminu Tambuwal, succumbed to the pressure on him to step down at the last moment for Mr Abubakar, even though the two had never been friends.
Ironically, Mr Wike had backed Mr Tambuwal to the hilt at the previous convention that he hosted in Port Harcourt and could not have expected the Sokoto governor to deliver the stab that killed his own bid in Abuja.
Mr Abubakar rubbed salt on Mr Wike’s hurt when, in announcing his running mate, he said he picked Mr Okowa from among those recommended because the Delta governor is suitable to be president.
To be fair to Mr Abubakar too, he would have also drawn the wrath of Mr Okowa and others who helped him win the ticket, had he picked Mr Wike.

Infidelity to principle

Mr Abubakar is also a victim of his party’s infidelity to principle. In this case, however, maybe he does not deserve much sympathy.
Since he first returned to the PDP after the fiasco of his presidential run in 2007, he had been among the vocal advocates of zoning, the basis for their demand that President Jonathan should not run in 2011.
They asked Mr Jonathan, who became president in 2010 after the death of President Umaru Yar’adua, to stand aside so that the northern wing of the party could complete its abbreviated turn in that office. Eventually, a compromise was reached by the power brokers in the party for Mr Jonathan to run for a single term, his own South-south region having never produced the president or vice president.
However, in 2015, after the president had developed his own sense of entitlement to a second term, Mr Abubakar was among the rebels who sabotaged his reelection by defecting to the newly formed APC.
When he returned again to the PDP ahead of the 2019 elections, Mr Abubakar also campaigned on the zoning principle, as a result of which southern members left the field to their northern colleagues in the presidential primary. Mr Abubakar was reported to have promised his southern supporters that he would serve only one term and hand the baton over to the south in 2023.
But having failed in his election bid again in 2019, Mr Abubakar, who appeared to have retired from politics after relocating to Dubai following that defeat, returned home – this time to lead the charge against the zoning principle.
He got his way again but may pay a heavy price in 2023 unless he manages to fill the cracks in his party.
Some southern leaders of the party like former Ekiti governor, Ayodele Fayose, are implacable over the perceived dubiety of their northern colleagues. Mr Fayose on Wednesday vowed to support only a southern candidate next year, despite being a member of the ad hoc committee that recommended to the party to throw the presidential primary open, so that the best candidate could emerge.

Lopsidedness in hierarchy

Another facet of the crisis is how to resolve the albeit foreseen consequence of the party’s presidential ticket going to the North after the national chairman emerged last year from the same region.
When Iyorchia Ayu was elected as the chairman, it was on the understanding that the south would produce the presidential candidate. But it was also proposed that in the event the ticket again went to the North, Mr Ayu would give up his chair. Mr Wike and his camp are demanding that as the minimum condition for sheathing their swords.
But Mr Abubakar is more comfortable with Mr Ayu, a political associate since the Third Republic, remaining on the chair. He can ill afford to have behind him during the election a chairman whose loyalty may be to another person or cause.
Mr Abubakar has urged Mr Ayu to be allowed to remain until after the elections. It is not clear how he would persuade Mr Wike and his camp. But unless one of the sides backs down, Mr Abubakar risks retiring as the most persistent candidate who never won the Nigerian presidency.
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/540665-pt-state-of-the-race-peter-obis-illiberal-supporters-and-atikus-tight-rope.html

Foolishbuhari:
Then why did he exonerate them? You see you people ehn, there's enough dirt to dig up on your sick candidate. We will publish all the panel findings on OPC and tifnubu's complicity, translate it into hausa, and propagate it in the north

OPC is purely for security. They never spoke about seceding from Nigeria. How can you compare OPC with IPOB?

id911:
This propaganda against Obi is becoming irritating to those of us that are undecided. Is Atiku not supposed to be a major challenger to Tinubu? Why all the hatred against Obi for Christ sake?!

How do you know if the OP supports Atiku or Tinubu?

lexxwiz:
Shame Dey catch me for you guys iswear.


Like are you guys really this unstable?


People are trying to help your lives, your parents lives, you guys are hell bent on sabotaging the only good thing that’s going to be on your ballot next year. For what really?


When they said “black people” are really backwards, they were actually talking about you guys that are immune to progress.


Tueh!

PO23

Your own personal opinion.

I believe this was a bad move my Peter Obi.
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/ssouth-east/377411-peter-obi-abaribe-umeh-others-attend-burial-of-nnamdi-kanus-parents.html

At time when I read some of things in this mainland, I get seriously angry. We breed illiterates and idiots in this country.

OP, Fashola is actually making sense. Enough of all these nonsense and childish propaganda. Let us play like intelligent people and not like illiterates.

Kzinne:
Rubbish

Why is it rubbish? He mentioned many names there including white men in case you will argue that he bribed those Nigerians he mentioned.

Wike hits France to meet Tinubu

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike is said to have left Turkey for France to meet the APC Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

A die-hard loyalist of Tinubu and Special Adviser to the Governor of Lagos State on the Environment and Water Resources, Joe Igbokwe disclosed this on Wednesday.

Igbokwe said while they were on social media abusing everybody, Wike has gone to France to meet Tinubu.

He said on his Facebook: “While they are on Social Media abusing everybody Gov Wike goes to France to meet Asiwaju. Abuse, calling names, hate and bigotry are no strategy.

“They hated and abused PMB since 2015 and now they have transferred the aggression to Asiwaju. We wait and see.”

Wike had been at a loggerhead with the PDP since he lost the presidential ticket to Atiku Abubakar.

Atiku overlooked Wike when he chose Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta as running mate.

https://pmnewsnigeria.com/2022/06/30/wike-hits-france-to-meet-tinubu/