Category: Lead

• Tinubu decries ethnic politics, violence

Elections are over and the healing process must begin, President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu said yesterday. 

He urged Nigerians, particularly the political class, to rise above their differences and team up with him to strengthen the “valued strings” that bind Nigeria together, irrespective of their ethnic backgrounds. 

Noting that the tasks of governance in the post-election period are arduous and challenging, Tinubu said “the time for leadership and governance is now upon us.”

The President-elect emphasised the need to take urgent steps to unite Nigerians who voted for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and supporters of other platforms, stressing that “we all must embrace the healing process.”

Tinubu was elected president on the APC platform on February 25. 

He defeated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar,  and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Peter Obi, in a historic poll that has been adjudged credible by foreign observers.

The President-elect, in a statement titled: “Elections are over: healing must begin,” noted reported infractions associated with the exercise in some states. 

He said a proper expression should be given to democracy by winners who must be magnanimous in victory.

Those who did not win, he urged, should have a large heart for tolerance and respect for the national interest. 

Tinubu said he was “pained” by cases of ethnic slurs reported in some locations, adding that the “physical and verbal assaults committed are unacceptable and antithetical to democratic ethos”.

Stressing that politics should now give way for governance, Tinubu said: “The time for politicking is gone. This is time for nation building, a task beyond one individual or a section of society. 

“We need every hand from wherever it may come to be on deck.”

He added: “I am ready to work with you all as your President. 

“I will be a worthy partner you can trust and rely on as we all bond together, in the unity of purpose and renewed hope for, the betterment of our blessed country and beloved people.”

The President-elect congratulated the newly elected governors across the 28 states and House of Assembly members in 36 states. 

He applauded President Muhammadu Buhari, the Independent National Electoral Commission, security agencies, observer groups, Civil Society Organisations, development partners and the electorate for the success of the elections, which, he said, were pivotal to the growth and sustenance of democracy and democratic governance at the state level.

In his view, consolidating democratic governance at the sub-national level will bring more development and improved quality of life to the masses.

He added: “The more we entrench and consolidate the gains of our democratic venture across the length and breadth of our country, the more our people benefit in terms of dividends of democracy and good governance.”

However, Tinubu condemned the isolated infractions during the elections and its aftermath in some states.

He pointed out that the report of arson after the announcement of governorship results in one state did not represent the true picture of Nigerians as peace-loving people.

Frowning at the infractions, he said the physical and verbal assaults were unacceptable and antithetical to democratic ethos.

Tinubu stressed: “Elections should be a celebration of our maturing democracy and freedom of choice and ought not to be moments of grief. 

“I am particularly pained by cases of ethnic slurs, which are capable of creating needless mischaracterisation reported in some locations.”

The president-elect appealed to Nigerians to rise above their differences, which, in reality, are fewer than the valued strings that bind them together as a people, “irrespective of the circumstances of our births.”

Tinubu, who attested to the strength of the country’s diversity and togetherness as former Lagos State governor, promised to bring into national governance that spirit of inclusiveness so that Nigeria can attain its full potential.

He promised to expand the civic space and safeguard citizens’ freedom to exercise their rights within the bounds of the law.

Tinubu said: “Indeed, the elections are over. The people have voted to elect their governors and state legislators that will serve them for the next four years. 

“The time for leadership and governance is now upon us.

“In a democracy, the majority would have their way but that majority must not suppress the minority from having their say. As democrats, we have to safeguard free expression. 

“Winners must be magnanimous and those who did not win should have a large heart for tolerance and respect for the greater interest of the nation.”

He added: “As the elected, the only way to justify the trust and confidence of the people and the mandate entrusted in us is to commit ourselves to the service of the people. We must all work diligently and sincerely to make life better for the masses. 

“As elected officers, we have no other assignment than to be burden-bearers for the masses and ensure they have the better life that we promised during the campaigns.

“We must take urgent steps to unite the people; those who voted for us and those who did not. 

“We must champion the healing process by embracing the opponents and their supporters.”

By Nduka Chiejina, Abuja, Collins Nweze, Lagos and Ernest Nwokolo, Abeokuja

DESPITE a claim by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele that the apex bank has pushed nearly N1 trillion into circulation, Nigerians continue experience scarcity.

Many branches of the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) complain of inadequate allocation of cash from the CBN on daily basis.

Emefiele told reporters after the end of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting at the CBN headquarters in Abuja yesterday that the apex bank has pumped more cash into circulation.

Fielding questions on the outcome of the MPC meeting, Emefiele said on the Naira redesign policy and where things stand now, the “currency in circulation is roughly close to a N1 trillion and the CBN continues to pump the newly designed currency into the market.”

Speaking on cash flow since the March 3 Supreme Court judgment, Emefiele said: The CBN will need to re-access again to know whether the currency in circulation has attained an optimal level so as to be able to put in place measures that will ensure that we don’t go back to what we had before, where people were keeping a lot of money outside the banking system for their own benefit.

“The MPC has noted that the naira redesign and cash withdrawal limit policies have resulted in a sizeable reduction in Currency-Outside-Banks, indicating an expected improvement in the potency of monetary policy tools.”

The CBN governor praised Fintech operators, whom he said “used their idle capacity to boost their online payment,” adding “they have made a lot of money from that.”

He said the “online payment on the Intech sector has actually improved quite a lot and we are happy that rather than relying on just only the banks, we have many other channels through which online payment services can be done so that Nigerians don’t suffer because we are in insisting that we have to go cashless.”

He apologised to Nigerians for the pains they go through while trying to carry out electronic transactions across several bank channels.

But notwithstanding Emefiele’s claim that more cash had been pumped into circulation, businesses, consumers and banks customers have demanded immediate end to the ongoing naira scarcity.

As far as they are concerned, the impact of the cash injected by the CBN is yet to be felt in the banking system.

According to small business operators, the cash crunch has limited their transaction volume and ability to meet the financial needs both to their customers and families.

Mary Okon, a Lagos-based entrepreneur said the cash crunch has reduced her volume of sales.

She said: “Before now, I made at least N35, 000 daily sales. Today, recording N10, 000 daily sales has become a big challenge. I plead with the CBN to release more cash to the economy.”

Although banks continued the payment of both old and new naira notes to customers, the volume of the notes in circulation has not met the demand for cash.

Many banks within the Lagos metropolis did not dispense cash to their customers either over the counter (OTC) or through the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).

“There were long queues of bank customers at most ATM points that had some cash to dispense. One bank branch in Marina Lagos, could only dispense N10,000 to customers with the bank’s ATM card. Customers of other banks got N5,000,” a customer narrated.

In Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, agonies of residents arising from the persisting cash crunch worsened yesterday.

Banks in the Gateway City ran out of cash – both the new and old naira notes of 200, 500 and 1,000 denominations.

At Omida, Lalulu Street (Okelewo), Panseke, Jide Jones, Sapon, Ita – Eko, Kuto and the Old Secretariat area, investigation  showed that they only opened to their surging customers to lodge complaints over truncated transactions and debit issues that occurred since the redesigned new naira notes policy took effect.

Those who came for cash withdrawals returned home with disappointments. There were neither OTC payments, nor from the ATMs.

The few ATM points that were dispensing cash stopped at 11am. A security guard in one of the banks cited mechanical faults and cash shortage as reasons.

By Tony Akowe, Frank Ikpefan, Abuja; Sunny Nwankwo, Umuahia; Damian Duruiheoma, Enugu and Chris Njoku, Owerri

Voters in Abia, Enugu, Adamawa and Kebbi states have been kept waiting over the outcome of last Saturday’s governorship election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is expected to fix dates for re-runs in some Kebbi and Adamawa polling units.

It is unclear yet what decision will be taken regarding the collation of results in Abia and Enugu, where the process was suspended due to alleged irregularities and over-voting.

INEC on Sunday said it would review the exercise in Obingwa Local Government Area (LGA) of Abia following an invasion of the collation centre and destruction of electoral materials.

Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, said the Commission would take a position on the states soon.

He said: “The Commission is alive and up to its responsibilities. It will meet very soon to decide on that and Nigerians will be informed about the decision as we have always done.”

Asked when that will be, he said: “Very soon. Very soon can mean tomorrow or the next hour. It can mean next week. One thing I can tell you is that it will be very soon.”

National Commissioner, Festus Okoye, denied that the commission has accepted the results from Obingwa.

He told our reporter that INEC was not done with the review.

He added that the results collation would resume as soon as the commission was done with the appraisal.

The commission is also expected to decide on the conduct of supplementary elections to some National Assembly offices that were declared inconclusive.

It was learnt that the Abia election dispute has been referred to INEC headquarters in Abuja for resolution.

INEC spokesman in Abia State, Mr. Bamidele Onyetunji, said they were awaiting further directives from national headquarters.

INEC also dismissed as fake reports (not by The Nation) that its Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, called the Presiding Officer in Abia to direct her to subvert the will of the people.

Oyekanmi said in a statement that the Returning Officer only wanted an official communication on the decision to suspend the collation.

He added: “The Chairman then directed that pending the delivery of the hard copies, the soft copies of the Commission’s letter be forwarded immediately to the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Enugu State and the Administrative Secretary of Abia State.

“The Returning Officer for Abia State then directed that the content of the letter should be read aloud by the Administrative Secretary in the presence of agents of political parties, observers, the media and security personnel at the Collation Centre.

“This is what is now being mischievously interpreted as a directive to the Returning Officer on some phantom criteria at variance with the approved guidelines. There is nothing like that.

“In fact, the content of the letter is basically the same as the Commission’s Press Release dated Monday 20th March 2023 which has since been uploaded to the Commission’s social media platforms and is already in the public domain. 

“The public should disregard the story as fake news.”

Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate in Abia, Dr Alex Otti, is pleased with the suspension of results collation in Obingwa.

Addressing his supporters at his Campaign Office in Umuahia, he said: “We received a report from INEC that they have suspended the collation from Obingwa LGA and also postponed the return and declaration, which should have happened today. 

“I think it is appropriate that INEC did that.

“If you have followed all the things that have happened since Saturday, it is very clear that Obingwa LGA has turned itself into a terror. 

“And it is not Obingwa indigenes or residents. It’s thugs that were imported from outside Abia.”

Otti said aside from holding INEC officials hostage, the thugs also battered an LP LGA agent, Dr George Chidozie.

At a briefing in Abuja, he alleged a plot to rig the election.

From the results released on the INEC website, Otti won 10 of the 16 LGAs.

He polled 171,747 votes while Okey Ahiwe of the PDP scored 79,477 after winning in five LGAs.

The LP candidate said: “What has happened this time around is that the BVAS has demystified Obingwa Local Government in Abia State.

“In 2015, when I contested for the first time, the PDP produced 82,000 votes from Obingwa and overturned the victory that the Abia people gave us.

“This time around, they want to do the same thing but the BVAS proved that there are no more than 30,000 votes in Obingwa…

“Sixteen LGAs have been collated out of 17 and the total votes that LP scored out of the 16 LGAs is about 172,000 and that of PDP is less than 80,000.

“So anyhow you flip and dice it with the numbers they have written, it still doesn’t have the support that would upturn our victory.

“It’s also important to underscore the point that we believe that INEC will do the right thing.

“All the other local governments that have been declared through the BVAS machine for accreditation, it is our firm belief that INEC will not change the rules in the middle of the game.

“We are calling on our supporters to remain calm and wait on INEC to finish their review and release the results.”

Enugu

The ‘Occupy INEC’ protest over the alleged manipulation of the results in Enugu entered the second day yesterday.

Hundreds of PDP and LP supporters took over the roads leading to the INEC office in Enugu.

While the PDP supporters mounted several canopies with food and drinks at the WAEC Junction just before the state headquarters of INEC, their LP counterparts did the same at Agric Bank, just before The Good Shepherd Anglican Cathedral.

Supporters of PDP governorship candidate, Peter Mbah, who were led by a former member of the House of Representatives, USA Igwesi, told reporters they would continue the protest until a declaration is made.

They accused INEC of adopting a different rule from the one it used during the national collation of presidential election results where it ignored complaints from the agents of opposition parties.

Igwesi also accused INEC of usurping the functions of the Election Petition Tribunals.

He said: “We don’t need any soothsayer to tell us that Peter Mbah won the election. We’re surprised that INEC is still holding this result undeclared.”

The “Obidient Movement,” and supporters of LP governorship candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, insisted he must be declared the winner.

Enugu State Chairman of LP, Casmir Agbo, said they did not want PDP to manipulate the outcome of the election.

“We won convincingly in all the 17 local government areas. We won by more than 11,000 votes. We have seen the results. 

“The only problem is the Nkanu East, where they padded the results and wanted INEC to accept it. But we won’t allow that to happen,” he said.

The Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL) expressed concern over the delay in announcing the Enugu and Abia results.

Its leader, Goodluck Ibem, said in a statement: “We call on INEC, not to delay, but announce the rightful winners of the governorship election in Abia and Enugu states to calm the frayed nerves in both states.”