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Tag: APC

  • Amosun, lawmakers unite for party registration

    Amosun, lawmakers unite for party registration

    There were indications yesterday that All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftains in Ogun State have resolved their differences.

    Governor Ibikunle Amosun and the party’s National Assembly members gathered at the June 12 Cultural Centre in Abeokuta for a stakeholders’ meeting on the party’s membership registration, which begins tomorrow.

    At the meeting were Senator Gbenga Kaka (Ogun East); Senator Akin Odunsi (Ogun West); Senator Gbenga Obadara (Ogun Central); the party’s seven members in the House of Representatives, Kehinde Oduneye, Olumide Osoba, Segun Williams, Abiodun Abudu, Bukonla Buraimo, Kunle Adeyemi and Babatunde Olabode; members of the House of Assembly and top government officials.

    Amosun urged members to be orderly and peaceful during the registration.

    He said the party was united, adding: “All chieftains, including our leader, Chief Olusegun Osoba, are one. We must, through our words and actions, affirm the oneness of Ogun APC members at all times. We are one.

    Ogun APC Membership Registration Committee Chairman Adeniyi Fabikun urged members to participate actively in the registration, which begins daily at 9am and ends at 5pm. The exercise will end on Sunday.

    Intending APC members are to go to the nearest polling booth to them with two passport photographs. They would be required to sign or thumb-print. The registration is free.

    Fabikun urged stakeholders to mobilise people for the exercise.

     

     

  • Ajimobi mobilises APC members for registration

    Ajimobi mobilises APC members for registration

    Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi has urged members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to endure whatever discomforts they may encounter duuring the party’s membership registration, which begins tomorrow.

    He spoke yesterday at the Mapo Hall in Ibadan while sensitising members for the APC membership registration.

    Ajimobi said inconveniences, such as long waits at registration centres, that may be encountered during the five-day exercise were necessary to ensure the continuity of his administration.

    He said: “I urge you to endure any difficulty you may encounter during the registration, bearing in mind that you are yet to become bonafide members of the APC until you are registered. It is only when you are registered that you can take part in the party’s activities.”

    The governor urged members to be actively involved in party activities and attend meetings regularly, so as to be informed of developments.

    He assured all members of a level playing field, saying there was no old or new member in the APC.

    Ajimobi urged aggrieved members to be patient, saying their grievances would soon be addressed by the party’s leadership.

    Chairman, Oyo APC Registration Team, Shola Akinwumi said the registration would be hitch-free.

    Oyo APC Chairman Chief Akin Oke urged members to participate in the exercise.

    The highlight of the occasion was an address by an American, Mr. Kevin Barry, who spoke Yoruba language fluently to the delight of the crowd.

    Barry told the crowd that his adopted Yoruba name was Kayode and hailed the governor for the changes that in the state in the last two-and-a-half years.

    He said: “People in this country struggle to get visa to America, but now, Americans struggle to get visa to come to Nigeria and to Oyo State. When I first came here some years ago, Ibadan was very dirty and disorganised, but when I returned here last year, I saw unprecedented changes. The time of peace, safety and comfort has come.”

  • Be vigilant, Fayemi tells APC members

    Be vigilant, Fayemi tells APC members

    Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has urged All Progressives Congress (APC) members to participate actively in the activities organised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the June 21 governorship election.

    He spoke at the weekend in Iyin-Ekiti at a meeting of APC leaders hosted by former Governor Niyi Adebayo.

    Fayemi said members must monitor the electoral process to ensure that it conforms to the provisions of the electoral act and leads to a credible election.

    Urging members to be prepared for the task ahead, he explained that the APC membership registration, which begins in Ekiti tomorrow, would be followed by the INEC stakeholders’ forum, manual registration of voters, confirmation of names and distribution of permanent voter cards.

    Fayemi said the APC membership registration was aimed at authenticating members and will be done at polling units across the state.

    He said: “We have to be prepared for the task ahead of us. The registration process starts on February 5, which is aimed at authenticating members of the party. The INEC process will follow while the INEC stakeholders’ forum comes up on February 12. That will include manual voters’ registration, confirmation of names, distribution of permanent voter cards, validation and continuous registration of new voters until campaigns formally begin on March 23. I urge members to be alert and be part of the process. We must monitor it well and do everything within the constitution and electoral act to promote a credible, fair and free process.”

    The governor urged aspirants for various political offices in 2015 to work for the party’s success in the governorship poll, adding that victory in the June 21 poll will motivate members to work harder in 2015.

    Adebayo, who is the APC Interim National Vice-Chairman, Southwest, urged members to troop out for the registration; adding that it was one of the ways to work towards the APC’s victory in the forthcoming election.

    He backed Fayemi’s candidacy, saying Ekiti would witness more transformation, if Fayemi is re-elected.

    Director-General of the Fayemi Campaign Organisation Mr. Bimbo Daramola, who is a member of the House of Representatives, described the belief that no governor can be re-elected in the state as myth, saying Fayemi’s achievements are evident and speak for him.

    Daramola said aside Adebayo, Fayemi is the only governor who has finished his four-year term, adding: “So there is no jinx around re-election since his predecessors never completed their terms, let alone seek re-election.”

    The meeting was witnessed by a mammoth crowd of party faithful.

  • APC alerts Lagosians on training of hoodlums

    APC alerts Lagosians on training of hoodlums

    •FERMA denies new trainee scheme

    Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has warned that any attempt to compromise the security of life and property enjoyed by Lagosians would be resisted by the government and residents.

    The party gave the warning in view of the reported alleged training of some people by the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) under the guise of policing federal roads in Lagos.

    In a statement in Lagos by the Lagos State Interim Publicity Secretary of the APC, Joe Igbokwe, the party said neither the party nor Lagosians were fooled by the antics of those behind the training of youths in Lagos on the purported excuse of protecting the dilapidated federal roads.

    It said government and Lagosians were ready to deal with the instigated mischief behind the training and would mobilise residents to resist any effort to compromise the peace and security by desperate politicians.

    FERMA has described the ‘new FERMA trainees’ as a fraudulent scheme to deceive the public.

    It said it has its operational offices in all states, but has no scheme going by that name.

    The agency’s position was made in a statement by its management, which noted that the agency was forced to react, following the concerns raised by Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola in an interview.

    The governor raised concerns over the group, which he said he brought to the attention of the Minister of Works, who also said the ministry had nothing to do with the group.

  • Whose budget

    Whose budget

    Against the background of the directive by the leadership of the All Progressive Congress to its members to shun the consideration of the 2014 Budget, our Sunday columnist, Idowu Akinlotan, aka Palladium, had in his usual inimitable style, submitted that the directive by the party was not only wrong-headed, but would at best, supply a cheap alibi for a document that has hardly ever worked, and one which for all practical purposes, is designed to fail.

    He simply couldn’t understand why the party would want to be blamed for the farce that was presented in the name of the national budget.

    I beg to disagree. I do not accept that simply because money bill is involved, Nigerians cannot be persuaded of the need to appreciate the larger governance issues which underlie the directive. In any case, what the experience of the last 14 years has taught – at least as far as the budget and the budgeting process is concerned – is the need to shun all pretences about the exercise as anything but farcical.

    What the APC has done may seem to many as no more than a mere fly in the ointment at this time – an unwelcome distraction to those whose egos are threatened; it seems to me as not just a symbolic but a necessary step to halt the steady descent to fascism. In due season, it might well be part of the effort to locate the budget conundrum within the larger conversation on the polity. It is therefore not a question of settling for a half loaf when there are no guarantees that the loaf on offer is not laden with toxins.

    Now, to Budget 2014. I have tried to scan through the 1820-odd pages of the 2014 appropriation bill with planned expenditure of N4.642 trillion of which N3.53 trillion is for recurrent and the balance of N1.1 trillion is for capital spend. Perhaps, if we hadn’t been at this ritual in delusion to the point of making it our lifestyle, we’d probably just ask our lawmakers to do whatever they please while we move on with our lives. Unfortunately, it seems that not a few Nigerians still live in the delusion that the PDP budget would perform the magic that the previous years’ couldn’t hence the uproar.

    No doubt, a lot has been written about the profile of the national budget as been out of sync with the demands of an economy that is said to be rapidly modernising. As it is, no longer is the need to pretend about the virtual regression of the exercise into a placebo. Even if we veer off the annual mismatch between recurrent and capital estimates, we are still left with the bizarre assumptions, the in-built entitlements and layers of earmarks that leaves little imagination as to whose interests the document is supposed to serve.

    I look at the provisions for the Presidency for instance. At this time, we are supposed to have gone past the need for the 11th super jet for the Presidential fleet for the Big Man under whose watch the economy is said to be growing in leaps and bounds, and yet have left far more people at the margins. How about adding the purchase of canteen/kitchen equipment expected to gulp N131,750,000?

    By the way, there is a minor provision for massaging bed – N2.1 million.

    This year, the Vice President’s kitchen will also wear a new look with N8 million equipment earmarked in the budget. Also provided for is a state of the art laundry equipment expected to cost taxpayers N23 million. Never mind that the State House Clinic, designed to deliver first aid before sick officials get evacuated abroad also get N105,731,002.

    You think the Presidency’s officials don’t read? There is provision for library books and equipment that comes to a princely N10,740,600. This year, computer software acquisition at the seat of government would take a chunk of N105,670,000; this is different from the a provision for the upgrading of accounting packages for the State House headquarters in Abuja, Dodan Barracks and Marina for another N50 million. And if I may add another, the Hyperion Enterprise Performance Licence (the public sector budget planning software) on which the nation would also spend N55.67 million.

    So much for their love for e-governance.

    To be honest, I couldn’t resist the thought that the service-wide votes earmarked for software acquisition and licences would actually suffice to start our local Silicon Valley. My little arithmetic actually put the annual spend on them to be in multiples of billions; amounts that could be retained not only to boost local software development efforts, but to kick-start the revolution in the sub-sector.

    This is what officials who are more often than not, vendors for foreign software firms would rather ship abroad in dubious acquisition and licensing fees!

    I guess it’s no longer fruitful to press the point that whereas a comparatively lean Presidency would get N33 billion in allocation, and the National Assembly N150 billion, the works ministry, whose business is to fix our pot-hole-infested roads is allocated a mere N128 billion (the capital estimate is actually N100 billion).

    The same goes for the Police commands in the 36 states and the federal capital; they are supposed to make do with N292 billion of which a huge chunk of N285 billion goes for recurrent expenditures.

    While the ‘paltry’ vote for the works ministry answers to the question of why the Lagos-Ibadan expressway may not be fixed despite the fanfare of its flag-off by President Goodluck Jonathan, the police capital vote, which comes to a mere N6.7 billion would seem at the heart of all that is wrong with the police institution.

    The issue, in the circumstance, is hardly one of making sense of an exercise so revealing of the crass opportunism of our rulers. Rather, it is whether we should dignify a process that has become everything that a disciplined exercise should not be.

    That, to me is the crux of the matter. Today, despite the denials, we know that the economy is in deep trouble. Unfortunately, that has very little to do with the global price of crude; neither is the nation currently experiencing insecurity on such a scale as to threaten oil production. We are simply told that the nation cannot pump enough crude to fund its budget – no thanks to oil thieves said to hold the nation by the jugular. End of the matter. As if that is not bad enough, the nation’s finance minister, has been issuing all manners of waivers and concessions to party hacks and all manners of men.

    Never, it seems, has the nation’s economy known this scale of aided fall.

  • Dangers of mixing politics with religion

    Dangers of mixing politics with religion

    Please stop anti Jonathan and anti PDP. Your Muslim party APC will fail woefully in Osun and Ekiti. Idiot

    I got this from a reader with telephone number 08067661180 in response to last week’s edition of this column. The reader did not sign it for reasons best known to him or her.

    I was thinking about the upcoming National Conference and the modalities for the proposed confab as spelt out by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Anyim Pius Anyim when this SMS came in. That President Goodluck Jonathan would have so much influence on who gets chosen as a delegate was of so much concern to me that I was alarmed when this supporter of the President and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) quoted above, chipped in the issue of religion as we move towards the next round of general elections beginning with the Osun and Ekiti States gubernatorial polls later this year.

    It is no longer hidden that one of the campaign strategies of President Jonathan and his handlers in their bid to retain power post 2015 presidential election is to present him as not just a Christian, but a Christian candidate, who would represent and protect Christian interests better. And in doing so, the opposition is to be presented as representing Muslims and Muslims’ interest and as such most likely to be against Christians and Christians’ interest if voted into power.

    Even though nobody in Jonathan’s camp is ready to admit this, the 2015 presidential race is gradually panning out to be like that and the presidency is happy to shape it that way.

    Ordinarily this like this don’t bother me but the way and manner and intensity with which the President’s supporters like the reader quoted above are using religion to define their candidate and divide the voters is beginning to cause concern among well meaning Nigerians.

    Recently a former member of the PDP who served as a Minister in the Obasanjo presidency and now a member of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) revealed that some church leaders are already subtly campaigning for President Jonathan by branding the APC as party of Muslims. For the record, that former Minister is a Christian.

    And in matters that concern this government and this presidency, some Christian leaders have been speaking in such a manner as to suggest that Jonathan is their own and any criticism of him and/or his actions is against Christians and Christianity.

    The issue of faith has never really played any significant role in the politics of this country especially when it comes to choosing our leaders until now. When late Abubakar Tafawa Balewa became Prime Minister in the first republic, I don’t think Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was chosen as the ceremonial President because he was a Christian, like wise President Shehu Shagari did not pick Dr Alex Ekwueme as his running mate in 1979 because he is a Christian.

    I think the choices then were based purely on geographical consideration. The north had always been going into alliance with the east in national politics/elections and because the two regions are heavily populated by Muslims (north) and Christians (east), whoever would come out from such arrangement naturally would belong to different religion.

    And to test that Nigerians place little premium on the religion of their leaders, two Muslims, one from the south west and the other from north east were voted president and vice president on June 12, 1993 before the election was annulled. And when President Olusegun Obasanjo was being brought in 1999 ostensibly to placate the Yoruba for the denial of their son Chief MKO Abiola of Nigeria’s presidency in 1993, nobody said he should not come in because he is not a Muslim like Abiola. And I believe the choice of Obasanjo’s running mate in Abubakar Atiku was due more to political pragmatism than his religious leaning.

    When Jonathan was paired with President Yar’adua in 2007 for whatever reasons, those who brought them had other motive and consideration than religion. And as was the case in the past, Jonathan running with Vice President Sambo was more of geographic/ethnic balancing than any other consideration. Even though after the Abiola/Kingibe aborted presidency the presidential pairing had always been Christian/Muslim or Muslim/Christian, no candidate or presidency has been seen, portrayed or act as representing a particular religion the was Jonathan presidency is. And I believe it is share mediocrity and incompetence to hide under religion or ethnicity to ask for support for public office especially the presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    By portraying him as a Christian candidate, Jonathan’s handlers and supporters are not just setting a bad precedent but also alienating the Muslims who ordinarily would want to vote for him. Islam and Christianity are well rooted in Yoruba land, south west Nigeria and are about evenly spread among Yoruba. The bulk of Jonathan’s votes in 2011 came from Yoruba land, meaning he got votes from both Christians and Muslims from the south west in large numbers. And in those states in the north where his PDP won, the Muslims there voted for him. So, if anybody now wants to present everybody opposed to Jonathan or the opposition party as Muslim or Muslim leaning just to paint them black before Christians and secure Christians votes for him in 2015, then they are not being fair to those Muslims who voted for him in 2011 and are still likely to vote for him if he became a candidate in next year’s election.

    Most important however, they are not being fair to this country. If they love Nigeria they would not pander or be pandering to religious sentiments. In those countries where the people have not risen beyond religious sentiments, anything religion has always brought crisis especially when there are sharp disagreements. Lebanon is a good example of how religion mixed with politics can destroy a nation. There are unarguably more Lebanese outside of Lebanon than within, not just because of the small size of their country but also the seemingly unending sectarian violence that has almost turned the once beautiful country into ruins, the fact that the Lebanese are mainly Arabs notwithstanding.

    Those nations that have developed and making waves in the world today have no room for religious considerations or sentiments, whatever they do are always based on what is best for their country, their people and humanity in general. Why should our own be different?

    Those who want to turn Christians against Muslims or vice versa in Nigeria because of Jonathan’s presidency or anybody’s ambition will not succeed by the grace of GOD. And President Jonathan also has to be very careful and he should rein in his supporters especially those fanning the embers of religious and ethnic divisions. The President knows them; he should call them to order. While awaiting his choice of delegates to the National Conference, it is hoped that his choice(s) would be guided by the best interest of Nigeria. Even though I have my doubts about his conference and to what use he wants to put its reports, I wish his and the 492 “wise” men and women best of luck.

     

     

  • On the defection of Shekarau to PDP

    On the defection of Shekarau to PDP

    SIR: The defection of a former Kano State Governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau from the All Progressives Congress, APC, to the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, though very unfortunate, is nothing to worry about. Shekarau, just like President Jonathan, is a lucky politician whose relevance is overstated. While Jonathan rode to power through luck and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Shekarau rode to political stardom through the back of Muhamadu Buhari.

    In 2003, the people of Kano, just like during the 2011 presidential election, overwhelmingly voted for Buhari. During the electioneering campaign, Buhari categorically told his lieutenants in Kano to vote for Shekarau, a relatively unknown politician in the ancient city as governor. Fortunately for Shekarau, Presidential and Governorship elections took place the same day.

    Buhari, as one may recall, won Kano for his All Nigerian People’s Party, ANPP. He also delivered the Government House, Kano to ANPP, sending Engineer Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso out of office.

    As preparation for the 2007 elections gathered momentum, Kwakwaso signified his intention to return to power. Skekarau, knowing the gargantum structure of Kwankwaso, spawned an intricate web of high wire intrigues against him by hurriedly setting up a Judicial Commission of Enquiry to probe his administration. The commission, within a month, came out with a controversial report banning Kwankwaso from holding public office for 10 years.  The report, without being thoroughly debated upon by the members of the state House of Assembly, was gazetted.

    Dissatisfied with the report, Kwankwaso dragged the state government, commission members and Kano Assembly members to court. Kwakwaso was then in Abuja, serving as Minister of Defence. His purported indictment made the re-election of Shekerau as Governor in 2007 a walkover. With Buhari as presidential flag bearer of the defunct ANPP, Shekarau was re-elected with a wide margin.

    In 2011, having had his integrity cleared by a court of competent jurisdiction, Kwankwaso declared his intention to return to Kano Government House. By this time, Shekarau, because of his presidential ambition, had used the instruments of state to hijack the ANPP structure from Buhari. The angry Buhari left ANPP with his teeming supporters for Shekarau to form the defunct Congress of Progressives Change, CPC.

    In 2011, Buhari, just like Shekarau, contested for the Presidency, scoring about two million votes in the ancient city of Kano. Shekarau, as the then incumbent governor of Kano, scored less than 500, 000 votes for his ANPP. Kwankwaso, then as the PDP governorship candidate, mobilised more votes for President Jonathan, the presidential candidate of the PDP in Kano than Shekarau did for himself and his party. When the presidential results were released, Buhari of the CPC came first; Jonathan of the PDP came second while Shekarau, the incumbent governor, came third. Shekarau also failed to retain Kano governorship seat for his party, the ANPP.  The ANPP of Shekarau also lost 75% of the National and State Assembly seats in Kano to the PDP.

    Now that Shekarau has left the APC he helped nurtured to the PDP, all one canwish him is good luck.

    Interestingly, Shekarau did not say that he left APC because Kwankwaso is not performing; rather his wish is to be placed above Kwankwaso, the man he succeeded as governor and the incumbent governor in the party. That is impossible. The general public might wish to note that Shekarau defected to PDP without most of his defunct ANPP members. Alhaji Gwarzo, the only Senator elected on the platform of the ANPP in 2011 has pledged his loyalty to Kwankwaso.  The few ANPP House of Representatives members in Kano have endorsed Kwankwaso as their leader.

     

    • Maxwell Adeyem Adeleye,

    Magodo, Lagos.

     

  • APC committed to building a strong, united party – Atiku

    APC committed to building a strong, united party – Atiku

    Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, said on Monday in Sokoto that the All Progressive Congress leadership was committed to building a strong and united party.

    Abubakar made the declaration when he paid a courtesy call on Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State.

    “All of us are now willing to set aside our individual ambitions so as to build a formidable APC.”

    “So, for now, we are not talking about how to pursuing our selfish political aspirations. We are collectively working to ensure the growth of the APC,’’ he said.

    Abubakar said he defected to the APC after nationwide consultations with his political associates.

    According to him, “over 80 per cent of my political supporters are in support of my defection to the APC,” he added.

    The former vice president said that Nigeria was in dire need for change, and commended the people of Sokoto State for rallying behind him always.

    Abubakar recalled that he got the highest number of votes from the state delegates during the 2011 PDP presidential primaries.

    Responding, Wamakko said that the APC’s struggle was aimed at salvaging the North and Nigeria in general.

    The governor urged leaders of the party to put Nigeria first and not their individual ambitions.

    “I am appealing to you not to repeat the costly blunders of 2011 in order to achieve our vision and mission of salvaging Nigeria,’’ he added.

    Wamakko said that such patriotism and political sagacity were required to build a stronger APC that would emerge victorious in 2015.

    The governor said that Nigerians needed a united country where the citizens are equal stakeholders.

    “Good governance cannot thrive where there is no social justice and respect for the rule of law.

    “Nobody should be seen to be above the law, and corruption must be squarely tackled without minding whose ox is gored,’’ he said.

    Wamakko said that God did not make a mistake by creating Nigerians with diverse religious and ethnic differences.

     

  • We want to build multi-party democracy – Buhari

    We want to build multi-party democracy – Buhari

    Former Head of State and Presidential candidate of the defunct Congress for Progress Change (CPC) in the 2011 Presidential election, Major General Muhammadu Buhari has said that the mission of the All Progressive Congress (APC) is to ensure that proper multi-party democracy is established in the country.

    Speaking on Kaduna based Liberty radio on the forthcoming membership registration of the APC, Buhari lamented what he called insecurity and management of the Nigerian nation, adding that the APC intends to properly secure and manage the nation since Nigerians are now well aware of their rights and what they expect from government.

    The former Nigerian leader, who has contested the Presidential election on three different occasions noted that it was because of his belief in multi-party democracy that he went to court to challenge the outcome of the previous elections, adding that the nation’s electoral system will thrive better when people come and go.

    He said “we have been to court three times in 2003, 2007 and 2011 not because we were convinced that we were going to win. We went because we want to make sure that this multi-party democracy takes firm grip on Nigerians. If we can come and go, the system will be strong enough to guarantee security for this country and guarantee prosperity for this country. This is our objective.

    “All we are fighting for is to have proper democracy. What I mean is that whatever people say, whether they reflect briefly on it or not, Nigerians are now well aware of their rights and what they expect from government. In APC, we have reduced it to two your security sound management.

    “We have to secure this country and manage it properly. I think people have suffered enough, they are now prepared to listen and I believe they are listening and are cooperating. We have been convinced that since 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed without a shot being fired that multi party democratic system is superior. But elections must be free and fair.

    “Like I have said, we have to properly secure and manage this country. You cannot deny citizens their rights to express their own opinion or you allow some people to brazenly threaten the cooperate existence of the country and instead of inviting them and asking them to explain themselves to the nation, they are given a ride in Presidential jets.

    “When others do it, you go and lock them up or you harass them. That is not the way to do things. For example, when the seven governors decided to break out from the PDP and we went and visited them; five of the governors took the risk. One of the governors still have problem with the police, his children were arrested, the bank officials that transacted business with his children were locked up.

    “Those are children of governors. You can imagine what will then happen to children of ordinary Nigerians. There is this problem of insecurity in the land, both physical and material which the All Progressive Congress is about to whip out God willing.”

    nation

     

  • APC begins membership registration

    The registration of All Progressives Congress (APC) members begins on Wednesday in 120,000 centres nationwide.

    APC Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the party is targeting 15 million members across the six geo-political zones.

    He said: “It will be a continuous exercise. We are targeting 15 million members. We have printed about 15 million forms for members at polling booths and they are to fix two passport photographs to the forms. The party is preparing to have a data bank.”

    Mohammed, who spoke with reporters at the weekend in Lagos, said a five-member National Registration, Data Processing and Collation Committee had been raised to coordinate the exercise, adding that similar mobilisation committees had been set up at the state, local government and ward levels.

    He said the ward congress will hold on March 22, local government congress on March 29 and national congress on April 26.

    Mohammed said: “We are preparing for the 2014 and 2015 elections. After the ward, local government and state congresses, we will hold our national convention.”

    On the proposed national dialogue, he said: “It is diversionary. Our position on the national conference has been vindicated. We have said that the convener is insincere. He opposed it, but turned around to initiate it. It is President Goodluck Jonathan’s conference. He has the highest number of nominees there.”

    Mohammed warned against repression and chided Senate President David Mark for not reading the letter of the defecting senators on the floor of the Senate, saying his refusal was suspect.

    He added: “More senators will defect as time goes on.”