Category: Lead

•President supporting APC candidate, says Lai Mohammed
•‘No split in APC’

President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to the victory of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the February 25 presidential poll is not in doubt, Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai and Works and Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola confirmed yesterday.

The President, they said, is solidly behind the ruling party’s candidate.

Their confirmation came in the wake of an affirmation by Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, of the President’s backing for the aspiration of the one-time Lagos State governor.

El-Rufai, who dismissed as a mere rumour that Buhari was not supporting Tinubu’s presidential bid, said all APC governors under the umbrella of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), would work hard for victory on February 25 and March 11.

Speaking on Journalists’ Hangout, a Television Continental (TVC) programme, the governor rubbished many of the polls that tipped the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, to win the presidential race.

El-Rufai, who insisted that Buhari has publicly declared his unflinching support for Tinubu, said due to national assignments, the President cannot be in all states for their party’s rallies.

He said: “It is not true that President Buhari is not attending our rallies. The first major rally we had was in Jos, Plateau State. 

“Buhari was there and he spoke very well. Publicly, the President said Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is his Khalifa, meaning my successor.

“The next place was in Kano, but the President was not there. When I met him, I asked why. He said, he was not invited; he was not scheduled. That was when we had to schedule him for Adamawa, Yobe, Bauchi and other states.

“In Adamawa, he raised Asiwaju’s hands and said: ‘This is my successor, this is my Khalifa and you’re lucky as a party to have him as the candidate of the party’. He said the same thing in Yobe.

“He was supposed to be in Kwara, but, due to national engagements, he could not. He asked the Vice President (Prof Yemi Osinbajo) to represent him. He, too could not make it. On the day he was supposed to be in Ogun, he was somewhere else.

“So, it is not true that President Buhari is not supporting Asiwaju.”

Recalling how Buhari, alongside Tinubu with Ogbonnaya Onu and some others founded the APC, El-Rufai said the President would never work against the party.

He said: “Buhari will never work against the APC. He may not go out of his way to help us like other presidents do, such as rigging elections for their party.

Read Also: We will work until Tinubu, other APC candidates win, says el-Rufai

“He may not lift a finger to give an advantage, but he will never, never work against us. It is those elements that are doing these things and using the name of Buhari.

“He will still go to other campaigns, though you need to understand that it is his primary responsibility to govern the country. 

“But when he is with us, he endorses our candidate, he praises Asiwaju and the relationship between them is excellent.”

On the polls favouring Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar to win the election, El-Rufai said: “I am in love with data analysis. 

“When I was a student at the Kennedy School of Government, I was a teaching assistant to statistics. The most important thing in looking at any opinion poll is the sample, followed by your methodology.

“When you have about 100 million registered voters and you are sampling 2,000 voters, I am sorry, your results from day one are unreliable. You will have a wide margin of errors. And most of those polls are like that.

“What about methodology? Most of these polls, like those by Bloomberg, the ANAP and a few others, used telephones.  

“How many registered voters have their telephone on INEC’s record? It is just 31 per cent. So, from the beginning, your results are dead on arrival.

“I can take each of these polls and deconstruct them. This is because I understand sampling and methodology. So, with the greatest respect, those polls are a joke.”

Admitting that the election will be tight, the governor, however, said the poll he conducted tipped Tinubu ahead of others.

El-Rufai said: “We have done a poll with a sample of nearly 40,000 across Nigeria and the results show that we are ahead. It is going to be a tight election.”

El-Rufai said his polls revealed a large percentage of undecided voters, saying the ruling party must work hard to swing the undecided to our side.

On Obi, he said: “How can Peter Obi, who is polling one per cent in Sokoto, two per cent in Katsina, five per cent in Kano, win the election? The fact that you are doing 70 per cent in Anambra State does not mean that somebody doing 10 per cent in Kano is not better than you.

“Kano has four million votes. The number of voters in Anambra is one local government in Kaduna State.

“Yes, Peter Obi will sweep Southeastern states; he will do well in Southsouth, where else? He won’t do well in the Southwest. He is polling well in the Christian enclave in the north. But how many are they? Obi cannot win the election.

“He does not have the number of states. He does not have the 25 per cent spread. Peter Obi is a Nollywood actor and that is where he will be.

“This election is between the APC and the PDP because they have the spread.  

“Ethnicity and religious bigotry will not take you anywhere and those are what the Labour Party’s campaigns are about.

“The APC is the only party with a broad base of support across Nigeria and by the grace of God, the party will win.”

Fashola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, spoke during an Instagram live question and answer session with popular TV host, Morayo Afolabi-Brown, monitored by The Nation.

He affirmed that President Buhari was strongly committed to Tinubu’s victory at the poll.

He said: “I saw the President, and I’m not the one to tell you what I discussed with the President in private. I saw him and what he told me, dispels all rumour.

“We were just having a conversation and he (Buhari) just said ‘I’ve to do this… This is very important for our campaign’…that’s much I’m going to say. That dispels all of these hearsays.”

According to Fashola, the APC candidate was fighting for Nigerians when he expressed concern about the scarcity of the new notes.

He admitted that the naira redesign policy “is hurting Nigerians” and must therefore be reviewed.

Fashola said: “It is in the interest of the opposition to create or spin a criticism of an impact of a policy, and that’s the impact of policy.

“Our candidate has not said don’t change the naira, but that it is hurting people. So, let’s be frank. The implementation needs a relook and this is what Asiwaju has been famous for.”

On why he has not been on various campaign grounds, Fashola said: “I was at the Lagos rally, and that was the only rally I also attend in 2019, but I was doing a lot of work for our party backroom. I’ve had all manner of meetings today with different directorates of our party.

“We are working, and we are not going to show the opposition what we are doing. Everybody can’t be on the rally stage. We are working round the clock.”

‘President’s support not in doubt’

Mohammed said the President has demonstrated his support for Tinubu by actively participating in the APC campaigns, adding that “the President is not equivocating on his support for Tinubu”.

The minister made the clarification in his opening remarks at the 22nd PMB administration scorecard in Abuja.

He said: “Let me use this occasion to make a quick clarification. Yesterday (Wednesday), while reacting to a question at the post-FEC briefing at the State House, I said, inter alia, that Mr. President is committed to free, fair and credible elections, and that he is doing everything possible to ensure a level playing field for all contestants.

“This comment has been misinterpreted in some circles, especially with regard to Mr. President’s support for Tinubu.

“Well, I want to say, unequivocally, that Mr. President is in total support of our party’s flagbearer, and that is attested to by his continuing campaign with the candidate across the country.

“It is preposterous to even suggest that Mr. President, who is the leader of our party, is equivocating in his support for our presidential candidate. 

“I hope this clears any ambiguity that may have arisen from my statement yesterday.”

•Cashless banks turn back customers •APC governors to meet President today

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday directed banks to commence immediate over-the-counter cash payments to their customers.

But it pegged the daily amount at N20,000.

It is to reduce queues at Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) terminals across the country.

Also yesterday, the Federal Government implored Nigerians to see the current scarcity of the naira as a temporary sacrifice for a saner national economy.

Just as the directive and admonition emerged from Abuja, Kaduna State Governor Nasiru El-Rufai, revealed that All Progressives Congress (APC) governors would meet today with President Muhammadu Buhari to discuss the naira redesign policy. 

He said the governors would plead for an extension of the deadline for the swap of old notes to new ones beyond February 10.

El-Rufai, who was featured on Arise TV, said the progressives governors would present to the President, information on the hardship being faced by Nigerians in their states as a result of the redesign policy.

Although some banks started complying with the early morning CBN directive yesterday, many in Lagos still boldly told their customers that they had no cash.

At the few that had their ATMs working, scores of customers shoved and pushed themselves as they struggled to be in lines.

On Lagos Island, for instance, a group of persons protested from one bank branch to another. 

In spite of the lingering cash scarcity, a bandit kingpin in Kaduna State released a video in which he was seen bragging that he had about N10 million of the new notes at home.

Shortly before the video, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC) announced the arrest of a woman for allegedly colluding with “key elements” in the financial sector to divert and sell the new notes in the black market.

In the latest directive, the CBN urged Nigerians “to embrace and adopt other payment channels for their transactions”.

The apex bank also urged Nigerians in the statement by its Director, Corporate Communications, Osita Nwanisobi, “to exercise patience as the CBN is working assiduously to address the challenge of queues at ATMs”.

Nwanisobi said the bank had noted “ an upward trend in cases of people stocking and aggregating the newly introduced banknotes” as well as “cases of unregistered persons and non-bank officials swapping banknotes for members of the public, purportedly on behalf of the CBN.”

According to him, those who stock and aggregate the new notes for reasons best known to them risked being arrested.

The CBN spokesman also warned Nigerians, “particularly those at social functions such as birthdays, weddings and funerals to desist from disrespecting the Naira or risk being arrested by law enforcement agencies.”.

A part of the statement reads: “In line with this resolve, the Govenor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has directed deposit money banks (DMBS) to commence the payment of the redesigned naira notes over the counter, subject to a maximum daily payout limit of N20,000.

“We also admonish members of the public to embrace and adopt other payment channels for their transactions.”

Read Also: Atiku to CBN: don’t extend deadline for old naira notes

As of 2pm yesterday, customers of United Bank for Africa (UBA) on Ralph Sodehinde Street, Central Business District Abuja, started receiving N20,000 cash from over the counter but in lower denominations.

On that same street, Wema Bank did not pay over the counter but had a manageable crowd at its ATM points.

Zenith Bank on the same Ralph Sodehinde Street and in AMAC Plaza, Wuse Zone 3, did not pay over the counter. Their ATMs were also not dispensing cash.

Access Bank within the Federal Secretariat was, however, paying N50,000 over the counter in N50 naira denomination. But its ATMs were not dispensing cash.

At its National Assembly branch, neither the tellers nor the ATMs paid cash to distraught Nigerians.

In Lagos, some banks rationed payments to their customers.

At Sterling Bank, Matori branch, customers got only N10,000 across the counter in the morning hours. But the bank’s ATMs were not dispensing cash. 

In some other banks, payments by tellers were limited to between N3,000 and N5,000 per customer.  

Many ATMs on Awolowo Road, Falomo, Ikoyi were not dispensing cash.

Protest, however, erupted in Marina, Lagos Island with customers moving in groups from one bank branch to another singing: “All we are saying, give us new notes.”

The spokesperson for the group was captured in a video saying: “We are in front of Wema Bank, we just passed UBA, we are going to the headquarters of all banks.

“The new naira notes belong to all of us. We have gone to ATMs, but we cannot access them. We have gone to banks, we cannot access the new naira notes.

“We are aware that the CBN has made available the new naira notes to the banks, and that is why the civil society leaders have taken it upon themselves to storm various banks, to tell them to stop suffering Nigerians.”

In some branches, some customers fought one another while waiting in line for cash.

At one of the new-generation banks, two male customers fought themselves and threw dangerous items in the banking hall.

At another bank, a set of customers also got into a fight over attempts by one to use different cards for ATM withdrawals. 

ICPC arrests ‘serial entrepreneur’  

A woman, Oluwadarasimi Emma, who describes himself as a “serial entrepreneur,” was arrested by the ICPC for selling new notes via social media.

The spokesman for the ICPC, Azuka Ogugua, announced the arrest through a statement.

Bandit leader flaunts new notes

Baleri, a bandit kingpin, said in a video that he acquired sacks of the new notes to buy arms and ammunition 

In the video, Baleri could be seen alongside some armed men displaying N1000 and N200 notes.

He said: “We want to send a message to Nigerians, their leaders, and the masses, to be fair and just because of God and his holy prophet.”

“All the tribalism that is happening in the country will not solve anything unless things are done because of God.

“They (the government) redesigned the naira, poor people who are innocent don’t even know about it. Some don’t even own up to N10,000. He has to wake up early in the morning to go and hustle.

“The money they are saying people are changing, we that are in the bush are changing it, some people who are in the cities haven’t even received it.

“But you see, the people they are referring to as terrorists have hold of the money. This is the new N1000 note, this is the new N200 note.

“We are just showing them a little out of what we have. We have plenty sacks of the new money and only God knows the amount of the new notes that we have.”

Buhari unhappy to see Nigerians suffer

At the 65th ministerial briefing in Abuja, Finance, Budget and National Planning Minister Zainab Ahmed told reporters that President Muhammadu Buhari was not happy with the difficulties Nigerians are facing in getting the new notes.

Ahmed, however, said at the briefing organised by the Presidential Communication that the pains should be seen as a temporary sacrifice to achieve long-term economic sanity.

She said: “We’re not happy that citizens have to queue and struggle at bank ATMs to be able to get their cash, but this is a temporary solution. 

“Mr. President is not happy that citizens are suffering. But we are convinced that it is something that needs to be done at this time and also the Central Bank has been responsive in terms of providing some extension.”

Governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai of Kaduna State bared his mind on the state of the nation while featuring on Television Continental (TVC) yesterday. Among other issues, he shed light on the crisis rocking the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), particularly the challenges posed by some elements within Aso Rock that are allegedly working to frustrate the presidential ambition of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and new naira note scarcity. Assistant Editor EMMANUEL BADEJO monitored the interview. Excerpts:-  

How did the Northern governors get to bring the presidency of your party down South?

Honestly, it was not very difficult to get that done.  First of all, right from 2019 after President Muhammadu Buhari won the election, some of us privately approached him and asked for his succession plans. In our one of the meetings I had with Mr. President, he told me that he has no succession plan.  Then, I told him that he must be interested in his successor. He insisted that the democratic process will produce his successor.  But I reasoned otherwise and I said to him that things don’t work that way. I told him that he must have a legacy and he should be interested in who will preserve those legacies.  Then, he said to me that it was a brilliant idea and that he would think about it. Till 2020, Buhari did not have a position.

In 2020, I asked him where he would want his successor to be from.  I said to him that he did not have to anoint anyone, since he believes in the democratic process. I continued to engage him till a point he asked why I was much concerned about his successor.  Then, he said to me, Nasir, going by our arrangement, my successor must be from the South. I said, thank you, Mr. President.  I asked him if I could go public with that and he granted that permission. People will recall that late in 2019 or early 2020, I was the first governor to come out and say that the next president of Nigeria must be from the South.

To be fair to Mr. President, he has been consistent in private conversations with some of us on this.  So, it was not very difficult for those of us in the APC, particularly the Northern governors to say this is the President’s position.

But why was the intense intra-party heat before your candidate eventually emerged?

What happened was that all kinds of political games that took control of the party began in a way to achieve a predetermined conclusion that was not very clear to us at the time.  But one of the things we pushed was for the President to declare who he wanted as the chairman of the party.  I remember the Progressive Governors Forum at a time mandated me with the task to seek audience with Mr. President on who he wanted as the chairman of our party.

Again, the President first said all chairmanship aspirants should come out to seek votes from the delegates. But, we insisted that he should tell us who he wanted and we will all support him.  Then, he said the chairman should be from North-central and finally, he nominated Senator Abdullahi Adamu. We agreed.   Once that decision was taken, it was a very clear signal that the next presidential candidate of our party will be from the South. Then, we swapped positions of party executives.

Having established the position of the party chairman, who is from the North, it was simply logical for us that the next president must be from the South and we were all looking at how to minimise competition within the party to pick a Southern candidate.

We also heard that some members of the Working Committee called us and said the Senate President was the anointed one.  Then, the northern governors sought audience with Mr. President over that rumour and this is not consistent with what you have been telling us in the past two to three years.  The President expressed shock and said he was not part of the game. Right there and then, he summoned Garba Shehu to issue a statement that he had not anointed anyone. 

But, we learnt that at some point, the President preferred a Northern candidate?

We also heard the same and it was of concern to us when some governors and some senior members of the party began to get calls from some elements in the Villa nudging them to buy forms to contest for presidency.  That began to worry us.  So, some of us went back to the President to ask what was going on.  The President said his position had not changed. But, it was worrisome that there were some senior members of the party, believe it or not, that wanted another northerner to succeed President Buhari.

How did you handle the situation then?

We, the APC governors from the North, had to sit down, reviewed the situation and considered what our forefathers would do. We are Northerners.  We are people of honour.  We keep our words. We respond to kindness with kindness. This is the political culture in the North. This is what Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, practised. This is what Tafawa Balewa practised.  This is what Aminu Kano practised.

We talked to ourselves that we would not allow any other agenda to produce the presidential candidate from the North. And all of us, including Governor Badru of Jigawa who was encouraged by those elements in the Villa to buy form, made a decision that the presidency must go South. We, therefore, sent a delegation to the President to inform him about our decision and we made our decision public. That was the second step.

Now among the Southerners, we had a challenge whether we should come up with a consensus or we all go to the primaries.  This was because some of us supported Amaechi; some supported Osinbajo; some supported Asiwaju; and some supported Kayode Fayemi. Again, we had to have another round of discussions. Of course, all of us could not come to an agreement because one of us, Yahaya Bello, was running too. And he said he was not going to step down. 

But still, the momentum was from the Northwest. The Northwest governors, along with Senator Wammako met, and after several meetings of going back and forth, we decided that we will go with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Then, Northeast followed and North-Central, to a large extent also followed.  That was why we went to the convention quite confident that Asiwaju will have the numbers and the momentum. We were even shocked by the margin with which he won.  It was clear that it was not just the Northern APC governors that supported him, but Tinubu had support across the country.  And he emerged as the candidate overwhelmingly.

We also learnt that some of the governors are withdrawing their support from Tinubu.  What is the situation?

I want to assure you that as we speak today, all the 22 APC governors, including those that contested for the presidency, are solidly behind our presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and we are doing everything we can to ensure that he succeeds. But for us as Northern governors, it was a matter of honour; it was a matter of just doing what is right; it was a matter of doing what is fair.

How then did you handle the issue of many aspirants coming from the South?

The President told us to go and give him five aspirants from the South and he will pick one.  We, the Progressive governors went back, met and came up with the names of Vice President Osinabajo, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Gov. Rotimi Amaechi, Gov. Dave Umahi and Gov. Kayode Fayemi.  We took these five names and said to him that we believed any one of them can be a veritable successor and they can preserve his legacy. 

We said they have been either past or serving governors and they know how to handle state and institutions and we can work with them. “Pick any one Mr. President and we will support your choice.   Then, most of us had our preferences but we said we will defer to him because of the love and respect for you.”

Please, don’t doubt this.  All of us have great respect for the President because we know his heart and we know his intention.  He is a man of integrity who has great and good intentions all the time. He could be misled, he is human, though.  Mr. President said the five names were good choices, having worked with them and any one of them can be President.  He said now, we put him in a quagmire.  But we told him to close his eyes and pick one.

He said no. Then, the President said they are all my brothers or children, therefore, let the democratic process produce the winner and that was how we went to the primaries. Yes, some elements wanted to force a consensus around one person, but the President insisted that the democratic process must prevail.

Since the President had already concluded that the democratic process should prevail, was there subtle influence from Aso Rock during this time?

Yes, there were.  Those elements in the Villa were the ones that wanted a particular candidate and they didn’t have the courtesy to call us as governors to inform us so that we could have discussions on the matter or even give our views, but that didn’t matter. It was convenient to hide behind the President’s name and say this, as if we cannot go to the President to ask him.  And this is their modus operandi. People like me who can go to the President to ask him about any rumour coming from the Villa is the most hated because I have that relationship with the President and I can always go to him to ask.  This is why I am the enemy of most of them along with some of us.

With these elements in the Villa, don’t you think they should be unmasked now?

Unmasking them is not as joyful as defeating them. They’ll be unmasked in due time.  But we have defeated them when they wanted their own people in the national working committee of the party.  We have defeated them when they wanted their anointed candidate to be the presidential candidate of the party without due regard to due process and even respect us as governors. Governors have been touted to be corrupt; governors are said to be bad and we didn’t matter to them. Meanwhile none of them has contested for governorship or even councillorship and if they did, they would not win.

We will get to the unmasking stage.  The stage we are now is to come to Nigerians and draw their attention to the fact that there are elements that are doing this and they don’t mean well for our party.  They want to incite voters against our party so that we lose election.  Once Nigerians know that, then, they will know where these funny decisions are coming from. 

And once the election is done and settled, by the grace of God in our favour in three next three weeks, the process of unmasking them can start.  We are not sleeping.  We are going to work hard till February 27 when all the election results would have come out and by the grace of God when Asiwaju would have been elected and other APC candidates would have been elected.

The presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party has said that the CBN should not extend its policy on cash swap.  What is your take?

If you look at the statement from the other party after I spoke on the cash swap, we are not against the policy.  Cashless is the way to go. We have no problem with it, but you don’t do it in a few weeks.  Allow time for every farmer, trader, student, market women in the villages to be able to take their money to the bank and get new currency or go and meet them where they are doing their business, take the bullion vans with security to them and change their money for them with ease. POS won’t work in some places where there is network challenge.  Let us sit down and look at this thing and give a reasonable time to do this thing. 

Even the CBN Act that empowers the President to issue a directive on currency redesign says that reasonable time must be given before a currency ceases to be legal tender. Are few weeks a reasonable time? So, what’s your take on Atiku’s reaction?

The fact that the Presidential candidate of the PDP, who last week issued statement appealing for extension because he wanted to get sympathy now turning around to sing another song speaks volume.  He wanted to come out to speak against our party and the President.  Now, with the extension of 10 days, he is turning round to say that the CBN should not extend means something.  It shows clearly that he is benefiting from the pain Nigerians are going through at the moment. I have seen protest in Lagos today.  I have reports of people in Kaduna that cannot buy food; they cannot sell because there is no cash, and yet, the PDP’s presidential candidate says don’t extend because he is gaining from it. 

The incitement of the people against the government of APC is a gain to him.  This incitement is stronger in the North where Atiku hopes to benefit from. Secondly, we should know that the presidential candidates of the other parties, like the NNPP, have strong relationships with some banks and even own some. They can get the currency while we can’t.

I want Nigerians to understand very clearly that it is unfortunate that somebody who advocated for extension last week is now saying don’t extend.  If he has the poor at heart, the farmers, the market women and men, the villagers, he won’t say that.

He has said the policy will tame vote-buying. Is this correct?

If Atiku Abubarka or anybody is saying that if you extend, there will be vote-buying. Is Naira the only currency with which you can buy votes? You can go across to Niger and buy cefa if the dollar is too big.  And after elections, cefa can be converted into Naira. That is not the solution to vote-buying.

Some have accused the President of not supporting your candidate as he has not been attending your party’s presidential rallies in recent times.  Is that true?

It is not true that President Buhari is not attending our rallies.  The first major rallies we had in Jos, Plateau, Buhari was there, and spoke very well. And said Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is his Khaliah, meaning the one coming after him.

The next place was in Kano but the President was not there. When I met him, I asked why, he said, he was not invited; he was not scheduled. That was when we had to schedule him for Adamawa, Yobe… In Adamawa, he raised Asiwaju’s hands up and said this is my successor, this is my Khaliah and you’re lucky as a party to have him as the party’s candidate judging from the great things he did in Lagos. He said the same thing in Yobe.

He was supposed to be in Kwara but due to national engagements, he could not. He, however, asked the Vice President to represent him.  He, too, could not make it. On the day he was supposed to be in Ogun, he was somewhere else. So, it is not true that President Buhari is not supporting Asiwaju.  The President alongside Tinubu and Ogbonaya Onu and some other people gave birth to the APC.  He will never work against the APC. He may not go out of his way to help us like other presidents do, rigging elections for their party, he may not lift a finger to give an advantage, but he will never, never work against us. It is those elements that are doing these things and using the name of Buhari.

Some have insinuated that there is no cordial relationship between your presidential candidate and the President. What’s going on?

He will still go to other campaigns, though you need to understand that his primary responsibility is to govern the country.  But when he is with us, he endorses our candidate; he praises Asiwaju and the relationship between them is excellent.

Some polls have put the candidate of the Labour Party ahead of yours. How do you see this?

I am in love with data analysis.  When I was a student at the Kennedy School of Government, I was a teaching assistant on statistics. The most important thing in looking at any opinion poll is the sample, followed by your methodology. When you have about 100 million registered voters and you are sampling 2,000 registered voters, I am sorry, your results from day one are unreliable.  You will have a wide margin of errors.  And most of those polls are like that.

What about methodology? Most of these polls, like the Blumberg, the ANAP, the Okonjo-Iweala, all used telephones.  How many registered voters have their telephone on INEC’s record? It is just 31 per cent.  So, from the beginning, your results are dead on arrival. I can take each of these polls and deconstruct them.  This is because I understand their sampling and methodology.  So, with the greatest respect, those polls are a joke.

We have done a poll with a sample of nearly 40,000 across Nigeria and the result shows that we are ahead. Yes, the election is going to be a tight one.  There is a large percentage of undecided.  So, we must work hard to swing the undecided to our side, but we are ahead.

How can Peter Obi, who is polling one per cent in Sokoto, two per cent in Katsina, five per cent in Kano, win the election? The fact that you are doing 70 per cent in Anambra state does not mean that somebody doing 10 per cent in Kano is not better than you. Kano has four million votes. The number of voters in Anambra is one local government in Kaduna State. Yes, Peter Obi will sweep South-eastern states; he will do well in South-South, where else? He won’t do well in the Southwest.  He is polling well in the Christian enclave in the North. But how many are they?  Obi cannot win this election.  He does not have the number of states.  He does not have the 25 per cent spread.  Peter Obi is a Nollywood actor and that is where he will be.

This election is between the APC and the PDP because they have the spread.  Ethnicity and religious bigotry will not take you anywhere and those are what the Labour Party’s campaigns are about. We are the only party with a broad base of support across Nigeria and by the grace of God, we are going to win.

Quot

We have done a poll with a sample of nearly 40,000 across Nigeria and the result shows that we are ahead. Yes, the election is going to be a tight one.  There is a large percentage of undecided.  So, we must work hard to swing the undecided to our side, but we are ahead.

How can Peter Obi, who is polling one per cent in Sokoto, two per cent in Katsina, five per cent in Kano, win the election? The fact that you are doing 70 per cent in Anambra state does not mean that somebody doing 10 per cent in Kano is better than you. Kano has four million votes. The number of voters in Anambra is one local government in Kaduna State. Yes, Peter Obi will sweep South-eastern states; he will do well in South-South, where else? He won’t do well in the Southwest.  He is polling well in the Christian enclave in the North. But how many are they?  Obi cannot win this election.  He does not have the number of states.  He does not have the 25 per cent spread. .This election is between the APC and the PDP because they have the spread.  

•Governor has directed local govt. chairmen, aides to work for Tinubu, says Atiku’s camp

•Atiku, an unrepentant enemy of Rivers, Nigeria, says Rivers PDP

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has explained that the reason why his government stopped the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) presidential flag bearer in the forthcoming election, Atiku Abubakar from using the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium for his campaign is to safeguard the facility from vandalism.

The governor who spoke at the Rivers PDP campaign in Degema, Degema Local Government Area yesterday, described the claim that the Rivers government did not want PDP Presidential Campaign Council to campaign in the state as erroneous, as he recalled that the government earlier gave approval to the party to use the stadium at no cost. He said: “Don’t say we stopped them from holding their rally; we didn’t. They applied to me and I gave (Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium) to them. They now went back and began to meet with the faction of the opposition, and you know that the opposition has never held any rally without violence.

“And I said I cannot joke with Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium. Since we have this intelligence we will not allow it. Did anybody force us to give them before? Are we not the ones who gave them? Did they pay money? Go and see the place. I know they are happy because they know there is no way they can fill that stadium. Instead of them to say thank God for covering our shame.”

Following the withdrawal of the initial approval by the Rivers State government for the use of the stadium, the PDP Presidential Campaign Council must have made moves to use the University of Port Harcourt. But, the university yesterday denied a report that the PDP presidential campaign had been shifted to its campus. The university described the report, which came after Atiku and the PDP were denied the use of the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium by the state government, as false.

In a statement, yesterday, by its Public Relations Officer, Dr. Sam Kpenu, the institution said the university was not a campaign ground. The statement reads: “Management has not authorised any political campaign rally at the university. The university is not a political ground for political campaigns

“We are not contemplating releasing its facility to the Atiku Campaign Council. The public is, therefore, called upon to discountenance this deliberate falsehood aimed at tarnishing the towering reputation of the university, as it is simply a figment of the imagination of the author.

“The institution warns the originator of this falsehood to desist forthwith or face the wrath of the law. Meanwhile, this issue has been reported to law enforcement agencies for appropriate action.”

In its reaction, the Rivers PDP Campaign Council said the PDP presidential candidate has proved in his words and deeds to be an unrepentant enemy of Rivers and Nigeria. The party hailed Governor Wike’s decision to deny the PDP Presidential Campaign Council the use of the Port Harcourt stadium for Atiku’s rally, which is scheduled to hold next week Saturday (February 11).

The Rivers campaign council said in a statement yesterday by its Director of Publicity and Communications, Ogbonna Nwuke, that the Rivers people would not collude with persons, who did not share their aspiration for a stable and better society.

Nwuke’s words: “Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is proving by the day, through words and deeds, to be an unrepentant enemy, not just of ordinary Nigerians, but also of the Rivers people. At a time when Rivers people of all walks of life are struggling with great difficulty to obtain scarce funds from banks to buy food for their families to eat, when the CBN is responding to the cries of ordinary Nigerians and the National Assembly over its currency swap policy, Atiku whose only interest is to be a Nigerian President is urging the apex bank not to bend to the will of the people.

“How mean and out of tune can this man who wants power at all costs be? His latest call on the CBN not to listen to public opinion proves beyond reasonable doubt that all that Atiku has, all that he feels for the Nigerian people is contempt.

“Most vehicle owners in this State and others across Nigeria are parking their motor cars because they do not have money to access petroleum products. They are victims of an evil cabal which does not trust in the well-being of the nation and its people.

“Nigerians are not puns on a chessboard. They are humans who feel pain, people who have aspirations of their own and rights that must be protected by the Nigerian state.”

Nwuke said they were shocked that in obtaining permission to use the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, those who ought to appreciate the kind gesture of the governor were conniving with a violent faction of the APC.

Meanwhile, Governor Wike has been accused of supporting the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the forthcoming election.

In a letter dated February 1, Atiku’s camp said the Rivers State governor had already directed all local government chairmen, his aides and party executive members to deliver Tinubu at the poll. The letter addressed to Wike and signed by the Director of State Campaign Management Committee, Rivers State chapter, Dr Abiye Sekibo, was in reaction to the reason given by the governor for cancelling an approval he gave to the council to use the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium for Atiku’s campaign.

Sekibo accused Wike of trying to frustrate and stop the PDP candidate from emerging as the next president of Nigeria.

He also said Wike’s involvement in the activities of the G-5 was the height of anti-party and wondered why the governor would in turn accuse them of working with a faction of the APC in the state.

Sekibo denied the claim by the governor that the council was working in collaboration with a faction of the APC led by Tonye Patrick Cole to share the approved facility with the APC.

Addressing the governor, Sekibo said: “We completely sent your assertion as patently false and perverse and we believe that our highly respected security agencies cannot furnish you with such untrue and unfounded lies.”

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has said the fuel and cash crisis orchestrated to hurt his campaign will not stop his victory on February 25.

He spoke in Osogbo capital of Osun State where thousands of residents received his campaign train.

The jubilant residents, members of APC and supporters thronged to the venue of the campaign, Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, Osogbo via Old garage to give Tinubu a rousing welcome.

Tinubu, in the company of Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu(Lagos); Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano) and Dapo Abiodun (Ogun) with national leadership of APC, arrived the venue around 4:54 pm on an open roof of a campaign bus.

They could not come out of the bus to the already prepared stage of the campaign to prevent a stampede at the venue.

Read Also: VIDEO: Kwam1 entertains as crowd awaits Tinubu’s arrival in Osun rally

Tinubu, who addressed the supporters and the elated crowd on top of the bus spoke in Yoruba, said: “Intrigues of money and fuel scarcity will not frustrate my presidential bid. There is nothing they can say. Even if they turn the money to Kobo, the place where we are going to vote is not far from our houses. We will trek to polling units to cast our votes. Wherever they put the ballot boxes, we will get there.

“You don’t smash the seed from a palm nut by being gentlemanly. We are not bastards. We were the ones that put them there and we will be the ones to succeed them. If you say you want to frustrate us, we have come a long way and no matter the situation, we will remain steadfast. We are grateful for your gesture towards us.”

He added: “All the youths searching for jobs will get a job. I want to assure you that whoever wants to learn a craft will do so conveniently. We will establish companies for our children who couldn’t gain admission.

“For those who are in school, call me a bastard if you spend more than four years. You will use four years to finish your studies. We will lend those who are not financially capable money. Whatever your school fees are, we will pay them. No child of the poor will be left out. We are all equal. Wherever they locate polling unit, we will trek to the place, we will vote and we will emerge victorious.”

The Rivers chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Council has said  the PDP’s presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has proved in words and deeds to be an unrepentant enemy of Rivers and Nigeria.

The party hailed the decision of Governor Nyesom Wike to deny the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation the use of the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, for Atiku’s rally scheduled in Rivers for February 11.

The Rivers PDP Campaign Council in a statement on Thursday by its Director of Publicity and Communications, Ogbonna Nwuke, said the Rivers people would not collude with persons, who did not  share their aspiration for a stable and better society.

Nwuke said: “Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is proving by the day, through words and deeds, to be an unrepentant enemy, not just of ordinary Nigerians, but also of the Rivers people. 

“At a time that Rivers people of all walks of life are struggling with great difficulty to obtain scarce funds from banks to buy food for their families to eat, when the CBN is responding to the cries of ordinary Nigerians and the National Assembly over its currency swap policy, Atiku whose only interest is to be a Nigerian President is urging the apex bank not to bend to the will of the people.

“How mean and out of tune can this man who wants power at all costs be? His latest call on the CBN not to listen to public opinion proves beyond reasonable doubt that all that Atiku has, all that he feels for the Nigerian people is contempt.

“Most vehicle owners in this State and others across Nigeria are parking their motor cars because they do not have money to access petroleum products. They are victims of an evil cabal which does not trust in the wellbeing of the nation and its people. 

Read Also: Wike directed LG chairmen, aides, others to work for Tinubu, says Atiku’s camp

“Nigerians are not puns on a chessboard. They are humans who feel pain, people who have aspirations of their own and rights that must be protected by the Nigerian State.”

Nwuke said they were shocked that in obtaining permission to use the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, those who ought to appreciate the kind gesture of the governor were conniving with a violent faction of the APC.

 He said: “The  Almighty God will continue to expose all who hate Rivers State. This is why the collaboration of the Presidential Campaign Council of the PDP with a violent faction of the APC, attempts to distort the peace in an otherwise peaceful State, has been revealed.

“We thank Governor Nyesom Wike for taking urgent steps to deny the Atiku team of the use of the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium. Recall that on the 11th of January 2023, the governor had graciously released the facility to the presidential candidate of the PDP for free.

“We believe that the decision to approve the stadium for use by the Presidential Campaign Council of the PDP was borne out of the conviction by Governor Wike that it is equitable and germane to give a fair chance to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his supporters to access the government facility”.

Nwuke added: “As a people, we are constrained by our perception of what should constitute our quest for the realization of the ‘general good’, to separate the noble goals of the PDP as an entity from the desire of an individual whose parasitic lust for power over the years is well known.

“Our primary concern, as we speak, is the welfare and wellbeing of Rivers people. This should be paramount and this is why we stand with Governor Wike, following his decision to revoke an approval earlier granted for the use of a state facility. 

“In collaborating with a deadly, blood thirsty group led by Tonye Cole, Atiku has proved that he is the mastermind of a move  to instigate violence in a State that is peaceful.

“Now that the Rivers people know how vicious, selfish and uncaring Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is, and understand that he is up to no good, this is the time to avoid him completely in the interest of the nation. 

“There are those in our midst, blinded by personal gain, who clone Atiku as a friend of the Rivers people. He is not a friend. He never was.

“We urge Rivers people who believe in the future of Rivers State to throw their weight behind the candidates of the Rivers PDP, from the governorship,  Senate, House of Representatives to the State House of Assembly. “

There is heavy security ahead of the arrival of the presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress(APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima for campaign rally in Osogbo capital of Osun State.  

Checks by The Nation on Thursday observed that security operatives manned strategic junctions and flash points around the capital, Osogbo.

Read Also: Tinubu didn’t attack Buhari at Calabar rally, says APC PCC

 Operatives of Police, NSCDC, FRSC and Amotekun were sighted at Ola-Iya, Africa, APC secretariat, Ogo-Oluwa, Oke-Fia, Old-Garage among others. 

Security operatives, including local security agents, were sighted at the venue of the campaign rally, Nelson Mandela Freedom Park via Old Garage. 

Supporters and party members are thronging to the venue to await the commencement of the programme. 

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reversed itself and directed banks to commence paying customers new Naira notes Over The Counter (OTC).

The apex bank said the order was to reduce queues around Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) across the country.

CBN Governor Godiwn Emefiele gave the directive in Abuja on Thursday.

A statement from CBN’s Director Corporate Communication Osita Nwanisobi, explained banks can only pay N20,000 of the new notes over the counter per day to individuals.

The statement reads: “The Govenor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has directed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to commence the payment of the redesigned Naira notes over the counter, subject to a maximum daily payout limit of N20,000”.

To ensure the effective distribution of the newly introduced naira banknotes, the CBN urged Nigerians “to exercise patience as the CBN is working assiduously to address the challenge of queues at ATMs”.

Speaking to the long queues at ATM points, Nwanisiobi lamented the queues at ATMs across the country “and an upward trend in the cases of people stocking and aggregating the newly introduced banknotes”.

He said these people “serially obtain cash from ATMs for reasons best known to them. Also worrisome are the reported cases of unregistered persons and non-bank officials swapping banknotes for members of the public, purportedly on behalf of the CBN”. 

Read Also: CBN, Emefiele: confusion over deadline

The CBN spokesman appealed to Nigerians “to embrace and adopt other payment channels for their transactions.

“There are moves now by the CBN and security agencies to go after party goers who abuse the Naira. In the same statement, Nwanisiobi said “it is unlawful to sell the Naira, hurl (spray), or stamp on the currency under any circumstance whatsoever” describing those engaging in these practices as “unpatriotic persons”.

The CBN particularly frowned at those “who sell the newly redesigned banknotes and those who flagrantly abuse the legal tender by hurling wads of Naira notes in the air and stamping on the currency at social functions”.

To stop this practice, Nwanisiobi said “the CBN is collaborating with the Nigeria Police, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to address the unpatriotic practice”.

He warned Nigerians, “particularly those at social functions such as birthdays, weddings and funerals, to desist from disrespecting the Naira or risk being arrested by law enforcement agencies”.

According to him, “the Naira is our legal tender and symbol of national pride. Therefore, let us respect it and handle it with care”.

For emphasis, Nwanisiobi drew party goers’ attention to “section 21(3) of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act 2007 (As amended) which stipulates that “spraying of, dancing or matching on the Naira or any note issued by the Bank during social occasions or otherwise howsoever shall constitute an abuse and defacing of the Naira or such note and shall be punishable under the law by fines or imprisonment or both.”

Also, Section 21(4) states that “It shall also be an offence punishable under Sub-section (1) of this section for any person to hawk, sell or otherwise trade in the Naira notes, coins or any other note issued by the Bank.”

The Minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola has affirmed President Muhammadu Buhari is strongly behind All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. 

Fashola spoke during an Instagram live Q&A session with popular TV host, Morayo Afolabi-Brown, monitored by The Nation.

He noted that the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) “is hurting Nigerians” and needs to be reviewed. 

He said: “I saw the President, and I’m not one to tell you what I discussed with the President in private. I saw him and what he told me dispels all rumor and I didn’t ask him….

Read Also: Tinubu/Shettima campaign train hits Ekiti Friday

“We were just having a conversation, and he (Buhari) just said “I’ve to do this… This is very important for our campaign”…that’s much I’m going to say. That dispels all of these hearsays.”

Fashola further stated that Tinubu was fighting for Nigerians when he expressed concerns about the scarcity of the new notes.

“It is in the interest of the opposition to create or spin a criticism of a impact of a policy, and that’s the impact of policy. 

“Our candidate has not said don’t change the naira, but it is hurting people. So let’s be frank. The implementation needs a relook, and this is what Asiwaju has been famous for.”

On why he has not been on various campaign grounds, Fashola said: “I was in Lagos at the Lagos rally, and that was the only rally I also attend in 2019, but I was doing a lot of work for our party backroom. I’ve had all manner of meetings today with different directorates of our party. 

“We are working, and we are not going to show the opposition what we are doing. Everybody can’t be on the rally stage. We are working round the clock.” 

The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seeking to restore the nullification of the participation of Osun’s ex-Governor and his Deputy, Gboyega Oyetola and Bendict Alabi in the July 16, 2022 governorship election.

Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja had, in a judgment on September 30, 2022 nullified the participation of Oyetola and Alabi in the governorship election on the grounds that their nomination forms were endorsed by an acting Chairman of APC, who was also a serving governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni.

Read Also: Osun: How Oyetola retrieved his mandate

Justice Nwite’s judgment was set aside by the Court of Appeal, Abuja in a judgment in December last year, a decision the PDP appealed to the Supreme Court.

In a judgment on Thursday morning, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court, led by Justice Centus Nweze, held that the appeal by the PDP was without merit and directed the lawyer to the PDP, Kehinde Ogunwumiju (SAN) to withdraw it.

The court held that the PDP could not, under the law,  question the process leading to the emergence of Oyetola and Alabi as candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election.

Details shortly…