₦airaland Forum

In what appeared to be a planned motive behind giving Vice President Yemi Osinbanjo’s visit to Jigawa State a blanket blackout, all top government functionaries deserted the state.

On arrival, Prof. Osinbanjo (SAN) was received at the Dutse Airport by the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Adamu Fanini; Chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC) in Jigawa, Alhaji Sani Aminu Gumel; party executives; state Assembly members, among others.

Osinbanjo was in Dutse to meet with Jigawa APC delegates for a consultative meeting ahead of the forthcoming presidential primary.

It was learnt that the inability of the Governor Muhammad Badaru Abubakar to welcome the VP might not be unconnected with his divergent political interest, as he is not in the same camp with the VP, despite both of them belonging to the ruling party.

During the closed- door consultative meeting with the delegates, the VP told them that politics should be seen as a tool for expanding frontiers of progress and development through constructive focus, commitment and hard work.

He said:” Let us modify our political culture in line with the present-time challenges. Let our polity be politics of inspirations conceived with innovative ideas and laudable issues that can bring about future political prospects for even development for our collective interest…”

Osinbajo said politics should be viewed as a vital tool for national cohesion and strengthening of national unity among the country’s divergent races.

He continued: “My reason for aspiring for the office of the President is to serve the Nigerian people. I have no other reason or objective except to serve…”

“After I have been in office as a vice president for seven years, I know that God did not give me that opportunity so that I would sit down somewhere and write the history of my service as vice president.

“God doesn’t give you a challenge without showing you how to solve them. I know all the efforts we are putting in place, especially led by President Muhammadu Buhari, we will see an end to insecurity in our country. In the next few years, we will definitely see progress in our country.

“There is a lot of hope. This country has everything that is necessary to be great: the talents, resources and we also have the men and women who are able to serve. I am very optimistic that all will be well with our country.”

The Rivers State Governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike, yesterday, said he would support whoever wins the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential primary elections holding on May 28 and 29, 2022.

Wike, a presidential aspirant, made this promised in Lagos at a Town Hall meeting with the PDP’s national delegates from the state.

The Rivers governor was accompanied to the meeting by the Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, former governors of Cross River, Ekiti and Gombe states, Donald Duke, Ayo Fayose, and Aliu Dakwanbo, respectively. Also in entourage are former Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, serving and former National Assembly members, among others.

According to the Rivers governor, he has never left PDP before and would never leave the PDP even if things were not going his way, stressing that God has used the party to make him what he is today.

While assuring that if voted into power, he would replicate his numerous landmark projects in Rivers State across the entire country, the presidential aspirant however, advised the delegates not to give their votes to those who betrayed the PDP and made it an opposition party in 2015.

He said: “Sometimes, I’m not happy but as a committed party member, I don’t have to leave the party and I will never leave the PDP. Even if I don’t win the primaries, I will support whoever wins.

“When they come to ask you for votes, ask them what happened in 2014/2015. Ask them why did they fight PDP. Today, we are struggling to get back power which you know is not easy to get but those that made the PDP opposition are the ones asking you to make them president.

“It’s your choice but I want to urge you to give support to those who will not leave the party for any reason. Don’t give power to those who will use the opportunity to even form new parties”

He boasted that he is the only person who has the capacity to wrestle power from the jaws of the ruling All Progressive Congress.

“Among all the presidential aspirants, I’m the only person who can win the election for the PDP. The only person the APC members are afraid of is me. They know me, they know what I can do and they are afraid”, he stated.

A presidential aspirant under the All Progressive Congress, Bola Tinubu has stated that qualifying to be president of Nigeria doesn’t require strength but intelligence and smartness to overcome the numerous problems bedevilling the country.

Tinubu stated this when he met with delegates of the APC ahead of the party primaries in Minna on Friday.

He said, “A President’s job is not to climb mountains, wrestle or carry concrete. It is to think and perform with his brain.

“We are not looking for WWE wrestling fighter. We are looking for a thinker to provide security for us.

“We are looking for a doer who will look at economic opportunities and turn it around to prosperity.”

He also stated that he knows what he is contesting for and what is required to become a president in a country like Nigeria, adding that he has a track record of transforming Lagos state which he intends to replicate in Nigeria.

“I know the road to prosperity, safety, clean environment, development of our nation and infrastructure because I have done it all in Lagos state and I can do it again,” the former Lagos State governor said.

He urged delegates to choose someone who has made other people who they are in Nigeria.

“Where is their track records? How many Councillors, local government Chairmen and chairperson, members of house of Assemblies, House of Representatives or Senators have they produced? I have produced them,” Tinubu boasted.

He also wondered why there were many people contesting for the presidential ticket of the APC adding that he wonders where they are running to.

Tinubu said, “Too many people running, running, running where are they running to? Some of them are running to sokoto, some to Suleja while some are running to Kontagora but am running for the Presidency of Nigeria.I don’t know where the others are running to.”

VeryWickedMan:
I hope the other female pigs are taking note.

Fat is dirt.
Its poverty that makes a man crave for fat women. Every rich man I know chases after slim undergrads not fat hippos.

Over 1500 Peoples Democratic Party delegates attended former Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki’s official declaration for president today in Abuja.

At a Breakfast and Media Session titled, “Why I Am Running for President”, organised by Saraki Support Group in Abuja, the former Senate President said if elected, he will be President for all, and will represent a Nigerian identity that is truly diverse, inclusive, and truly Nigerian.

He also stated that he will be the bridge between the young and the old.

Saraki said he will also be the bridge between the private sector and the public sector.

“I will be the bridge between Muslims and Christians. I will be the bridge between the North and the South. because I am the Nigerian for all Nigerians,” he added.

Although he acknowledged the great efforts of all past leaders over the years, he, however, said as long as there is a child in Nigeria that cannot read or write, then the job is not done.

“And it is for this one child that I want to run for President because I will ensure that the law on compulsory basic education is enforced and quality of teaching improves in all public schools,” he said.

He acknowledged that the nation has experienced setbacks in the last couple of years that no one could have imagined possible only less than a decade ago, he said 2023, therefore, presents a great moment of decision for Nigerians.

“2023 presents the moment to choose hope over hopelessness; the moment to choose peace and security over fear and terror; the moment to choose unity and inclusion over division and exclusion; the moment that we draw a bold line in the sands of history and say, ‘no more’ and then move ahead as one people, as one nation, towards our God-assigned destiny as the greatest black nation on the face of the earth,” he added.

On his part, the chairman, Saraki Campaign Council, Prof. Iyorwuese Hagher, described the immediate-past Senate President as “a real change maker”, saying if elected as President in 2023, he will restore stability in Nigeria.

Hagher said Saraki will “give Nigerians, not the change from the top to the bottom, but the real change we wanted in 2015 to live in peace, pursue life, liberty, and happiness and be guaranteed security, prosperity and good health.”

He further noted that Saraki is loaded with political capital as a man who has integrity, courage, and the love of Nigeria.

Hagher said his integrity was a reason why coalitions of party men and women were supporting him.

He explained that the Bukola Saraki Campaign for the Presidency symbolises the age and social movement when Nigerians have been gravely disappointed with politicians who were elected because of where they were born, the language they spoke, and the way and what they worshiped.

Speaking further, he said: “In Bukola you are witnessing a social movement in Nigeria when, (I paraphrase Dr. Luther King Jr.) ‘Nigerians are ready to elect their President, Judged by the content of his/her political achievements and vision and not by his tribal origin, what language he speaks, and his faiths.'”

He further noted that in the past three months Saraki has been in 36 States of Nigeria either in person or through his Campaign Council to declare his intention to contest for the elective position of President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“His declaration in all the 36 States of Nigeria was well received and the PDP Members and the Nigerian citizens are already in a frenzy to see him win the Primaries to become the flag-bearer of his party the PDP,” he added.

The Independent National Electoral Commission would continue to reject requests by political parties for the extension of deadline for the conduct of their primaries because it would contravene the timetable and schedule of activities for the general elections earlier released, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini, said on Wednesday.

Using the 2023 elections as a reference point, the Akwa Ibom REC said the commission had given ample time to parties to conduct their primaries based on the timetable and schedule of activities for the 2023 elections.

Igini who was responding to questions from journalists on why INEC was refusing the request of 18 political parties under the aegis of Inter-Party Advisory Council for changes in the electoral timetable and schedule of activities, maintained that the June 3 deadline was fixed and firm.

He said the dates were arrived at based on the provisions of Sections 76, 116,132, 178 of the constitution as well as the provision of Section 28 of the 2022 Electoral Act.

The chairman of IPAC, Yabagi
Sani, had appealed to INEC, to extend deadline for conduct of primary elections.

He had said that Sallah holiday, the forthcoming Ekiti and Osun States governorship elections and screening of an unprecedented large number of aspirants were issues that could hamper timely and strict compliance with the timetable.

But Igini however wondered “why some parties chose almost the last few days to the end of the month of May for these all important activities when they know that submission deadline is June 3, 2022.”

He lamented that within the broad outline of the timetable issued, parties have been making changes and sending letters almost everyday shifting dates, venues and time for the conduct of their primaries.

The REC said, “As disruptive as these changes to our internal workings, they are free to do so and these shifts have all been accommodated by the commission to the extent that our staff now work and in the field during weekends.

“They are at liberty to make these changes have been at huge cost to the commission that deployed staff to various states from Abuja and within states. By the time they arrive, they get messages of postponement even sometimes on the way to venues. All these have endured and accommodated within the framework of the electoral timetable published.

“The only request the commission has difficulty in accommodating is in respect of fundamental shift of dates of submission of names of candidates that emerged from primaries and conventions as contained in the fixed and firm timetable and schedule of activities.

“These dates are fixed and firmed as published and repeated severally in all interactions with political parties because they were arrived at based on the provisions of sections 76, 116,132, 178 of the constitution as well as the provision of section 28 of the 2022 Act. If I may observe and ask, why is it that political parties decided to leave out the whole of April that they should have commenced the conduct of primaries?

“Why is that some of these parties chose almost the last few days to the end of the month of May for these all important activities when they know that submission deadline is 3rd of June 2022 ? Haven’t they been hearing and reading the Chairman’s consistent refrain of constitutional and statutory timelines are “fixed and firmed” at all stakeholders meetings?

“Look, as I have said, changes of venues and time within the framework of already issued constitutional timetable by the commission, no problems and they have been doing that but a fundamental shift is what the commission has advised against to allow for certainty of timeline for the 2023 elections otherwise we will continue to shift and shift the timetable.”

Following the threat by Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON, to down tools tomorrow owing to the high cost of aviation fuel, the Federal Government has urged the union to give it time to explore means of resolving the challenge.

Minister of Aviation made the plea in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Public Affairs, James Odaudu.

The statement read: “The attention of the Honourable Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika has been drawn to reports that the nation’s air transportation system will be disrupted from Monday, May 9th, 2022, following threats by airline operators to shut down operations as a result of the rising cost of Jet A1, otherwise known as aviation fuel.

“As the Ministry charged with the management of the industry, we are greatly concerned about the difficulties being faced by the airline operators in the country in procuring aviation fuel which has resulted in spiralling costs in Air transportation in the immediate past.

“We also acknowledge that the airline operators are in the business to make profits while servicing the very critical sector that is not only the preferred mode of transport for most Nigerians but also the main international gateway to the nation.

“Unfortunately the issue of fuel supply is not within the purview of the Ministry and so the much it can do in the present situation is to engage with agencies, institutions and individuals in positions to provide succour to the airlines. This is already being done by the relevant team led by the Honourable Minister.

“While the efforts to assuage the situation are on, we wish to appeal to the airline operators, even in the difficult situation, to consider the multiplier effect of shutting down operations, on Nigerians and global travellers, in taking their business-informed decisions and actions.

“We also assure Nigerians, especially stakeholders in the sector, that the Buhari administration remains stoic in its commitment to the creation and sustenance of an environment that promotes the growth of the aviation industry where major players like the airlines can operate in a profitable and competitive market.”