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Tag: atiku

  • Stop playing politics with soldiers’ death, APC tells Atiku, PDP

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its Presidential candidate Abubakar Atiku came under attack yesterday as the All Progressives Congress (APC) accused them of playing politics with the killing of soldiers by insurgents.

    According to the APC, it was callous for anyone to ‘dance on the grave’ of the soldiers, who died in active national while defending the territorial integrity.

    The opposition party, in a statement by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, had blamed the killing of soldiers in Metele on alleged mishandling of funds meant for the procurement of weapons for the war against terror on the Federal Government under APC’s watch.

    But the APC National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu fired back in a statement yesterday, saying the PDP got it wrong in its claim that funds meant military operation  have been diverted to campaign ahead of next year’s elections.

    According to him, Nigerians have seen through the deceit of the PDP and will not be fooled by such antics.

    He said President Muhammadu Buhari remained committed to bringing lasting peace and security to all parts of the country. He added that the President has been ensuring that internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were rehabilitated and reintegrated into the society.

    The APC statement reads: “The allegations by the PDP that military funds have been diverted to finance the 2019 election campaigns of the APC is a sad reminder of the evil and retrogressive practices the PDP was notorious for during its defunct rule.

    “God forbid that the APC inherits and apply such morbid practice as brazenly displayed during the immediate-past PDP administration where funds allocated to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast were shared among PDP leaders and their cronies.

    ”It is clear that the PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, have decided to dance on the graves of our valiant and patriotic soldiers by politicising their deaths in the recent Boko Haram attack on the Nigerian Army Metele base.

    “The PDP and Atiku are playing desperate politics where even the blood of our fallen heroes is fair game. Their actions are callous and insensitive to the families and dependants of the late soldiers and indeed our military which battles daily to ensure our territorial integrity.

    “Nigerians see through PDP’s ploy to score political points as elections approach and it will surely backfire.

    “While the APC mourns the death of our military and other security personnel who have lost their lives in the line of duty, we urge them to remain focussed on the brave task of securing the nation.

    “The President Buhari-led administration remains solidly committed to bringing lasting peace and security to all parts of the country and ensuring that previously displaced persons are rehabilitated to resume their normal and productive lives.”

    Also yesterday, the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) accused the PDP and Atiku for what it described as their scant regard for human lives and for playing politics with the death of Nigerian soldiers in battle.

    In a statement signed by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, the BMO described as unfortunate that the opposition and its presidential candidate have been using every opportunity to celebrate the unfortunate attack on troops at 157 Battalion in Metele, a remote Borno State village bordering Nigeria and Chad.

    The group said: “We are at a loss as to why opposition elements have been milking the tragic deaths of national heroes so much so that the international media took notice with different castigating headlines which should have made these people retrace their steps.

    “In a bid to discredit the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, PDP posted gory pictures of dead soldiers from elsewhere and few days later, Atiku offered scholarships to the children of slain soldiers.

    “The former vice president’s move came at a time the military authorities had not even completed the standard practice of identifying soldiers killed in action or even notifying their next of kin.

    “The inhumane act amounted to dancing on the graves of those who paid the supreme sacrifice to ensure that the PDP presidential candidate could conveniently invite his friends to celebrate his American University of Nigeria Founder’s Day last weekend.

    “He and his media handlers have forgotten how in 2014, he lamented at a press conference that a handful of Boko Haram fighters had successfully invaded and hoisted the caliphate flag in Mubi, a town with a population of about 300,000 as well as Michika and Gulak after they had over-ran Bama a town nearly 400 kilometres from Yola.

    “This gave rise to thousands of displaced persons in Adamawa, and not once did the former Vice President announce relief support for IDPs or scholarships for children of soldiers that died liberating his state.

    “The height of Atiku and his party’s insensitivity is the fact that they are still busy issuing statements critical of the military leadership twenty four hours after Air Force jets crossed into a neighbouring country to launch airstrikes on the base of the terrorists who carried out the Metele attack, based on actionable intelligence.

    “They didn’t even acknowledge that over 200 foreign terrorists were killed and some of their armoured vehicles destroyed in the air raids.”

    BMO noted that Nigerians would not forget in a hurry how the PDP allowed insurgency to fester for years, recalling how Boko Haram seized 14 local government areas and raided villages at will in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.

    ”We make bold to say that if the $2 billion set aside for arms purchase in 2015 were not shared to PDP members through the office of the National Security Adviser, no one would be talking about the capacity of Boko Haram or ISWAP in 2018,” the BMO said.

  • 2019: Between Buhari and Atiku

    The inauguration of the campaign documents of President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flagbearer, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has set the tone for the campaigns for next year’s election. Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN spoke to some Nigerians who shared their expectations.

    THE Chairman of Arewa Professional Group, Malam Idris Mustapha, said President Muhammadu Buhari deserves second term, given his track record of performance.

    Mustapha said the Buhari administration has been prudent with nation’s resources and that he has also embarked on projects across the country. Buhari started delivery of infrastructural facilities when the crude oil was as low as $28 per barrel.

    Mustapha said: “This government has shown determination and the will to squeeze water from stone. At a point when they started taking this very critical infrastructure across the country – rail, roads and power-oil dropped to $28 per barrel. So, it shows that it is a government that is very prudent in the management of resources.”

    In his view, the President has plans to deliver more dividends of democracy to Nigerians. He said the bane of Nigeria’s under-development has been the mismanagement of public funds.

    But , the Director General of the Atiku Campaign Organisation Organisation, Chief Gbenga Daniel,  said President Buhari has failed to deliver his contract of job creation to Nigerians. He recalled that the President, during 2015 campaigns, had promised to provide about three million jobs but failed to do so.

    Daniel said Buhari at that time said if he failed to fulfil the promise, then, Nigerians were at liberty to choose another leader. He challenged the President to honour his pledge and resign from office to enable Nigerians to elect a new president.

    The former Ogun State Governor believes the PDP candidate is best man for the job. He said the country is not working and Atiku has the capacity to get things working again. He said: “Nigeria is not working again and I want to start by quoting what the current president said in one of his tweets, specifically, I think this was sometime in March 2015 just before the election, he promised Nigerian jobs and he said and I quote : ‘If I don’t fulfil my promises, you have the power to decide who leads you and how they lead you’.

    “Part of what is key for us is provision of jobs and my submission is if the contact that Buhari had with the people is that he will create jobs, then he has failed to deliver that contract. Going forward, in Atiku Abubakar, we clearly have a better person; we clearly have someone who has better exposure to all the facets of this country. We have someone who is very much at home everywhere.”

    An economist, Dr Usman Aliyu, has dismissed Daniel’s submission that the Buhari administration has failed to fulfil promise of job creation

    Aliyu observed that since Buhari took office in 2015, the unemployment rate has slowly edged down with millions of jobs created.

    He said in agriculture, for example, this administration has created over seven million jobs. He said: “When it assumed office in 2015, about five million farmers were engaged in rice production. Through the introduction of the Buhari’s administration Anchor Borrowers Programme, the number of farmers engaged in rice production today stands at 12.2 million.”

    Aliyu said 69,736 have been created in the Power, Works and Housing sectors. The National Social Investment Programme of the administration has created 200,000 jobs, in addition to empowering 500,000 others under the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).

    Quoting the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the economist said: “The Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing has created 69,736 jobs (direct and indirect) across the country. The power sector projects created 1,740 jobs, the Works sector created 38,391 jobs while the Housing sector created 29,605 jobs.”

    He explained that the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, through which 6.4 million school children in 33,981 schools across 20 states are being fed with one meal a day has created a job for 61,352 cooks.

    Lawyer and human right activist, Mr Monday Ubani, has advised Nigerians not to take promises made by politicians hook, line and sinker. He said this is a season when politicians would promise heaven and earth to win people’s vote, adding that people should put them to task on how they would implement all promises and how they would fund projects, if elected.

    Ubani recalled that the All Progressives Congress (APC) made many promises in 2015, but denied some of the promises on getting to power. He added: “For instance, the APC promised restructuring of the country for true federalism to prevail. But when the APC got into office they denied making such promise. However, the ruling party made a face-saving effort by setting up a panel headed by Governor Nasir El-Rufai to look into the issue of restructuring. We don’t know what has happened to the report of that committee.”

    Ubani also expressed disappointment with the APC government that promised change. It was on the basis of that promise that many Nigerians voted out the PDP government. He noted that though the Buhari administration had performed in certain areas, but it has not brought radical change expected from it.

    The right activist said the APC that accused the PDP of impunity in 2015 is also guilty of that offence. He said the APC primaries conducted at the state level lacked internal democracy. He said: “You can see some governors behaving like emperor, imposing candidates on the party and threatening to undermine the party’s success if they don’t have their way. We had thought APC would lay a good precedence in party management.”

    Ubani also faulted Atiku’s promise to “make Nigeria working again”. He challenged the former vice president to tell Nigerians at what point did Nigeria stop working. As a major player, in the Obasanjo regime, what role did he play in ruing Nigerian economy?  He said: “He should tell us as the person in charge of economy under Obasanjo how he managed the sale of government companies and enterprises before he can convince us that he has what it takes to make Nigeria work.

    “I am surprised that Atiku didn’t mention anything about development of seaports in his campaign document. We have many ports that are idle in this country. Only Lagos ports are working. Those in Calabar, Warri and Port Harcourt are either abandoned or underutilised. Putting these ports into optimal use will reduce pressure on Lagos roads and improve the economic activities of the areas they are located.”

    Ubani urged Nigerians not to vote for a presidential candidate that is not committed to restructuring. He said most of the socio-economic problems facing this country have to do with the present structure that is inimical to true federalism. He recalled that Nigeria got it right between 1960 and 1966 when true federalism was at play. The regions had control over resources under their jurisdiction; there was competition among the regions; unlike now that is everything is centralised.

    Read also: 2019 poll: Why Buhari must continue, by Tinubu

    A Kaduna-based lawyer, Mr Andrew Obaseki, lauded Buhari government for improving and intervening in some critical sectors such as power, housing, transportation and infrastructural development. He said rods rehabilitation is being pursued vigorously with work going on important roads such as Lagos- Ibadan; Bonny-Bodo; Ilorin-Jebba-Mokwa-Birin Gwari-Kaduna and Kano-Maiduguri roads.

    Obaseki said: “Even though, it is not yet uhuru , there is no doubt that Buhari administration  has done well and deserves commendation. The anti-graft war reched its peak under the Buhari administration with N500,000 billion recovered from corrupt people. This is in addition to property worth billions of naira also recovered. The whistle blowing policy of the government has led to the recovery of billions of naira too.”

    On security, he noted that Buhari within a very short period of coming to power decimated the dreaded Boko Haram, secured the release of 106 out of 276 Chibok school girls who were abducted by terrorists during the Goodluck Jonathan.

    Public Affairs analyst, Malam Mohammed Aminu, scored Buhari low on security. To him, the state of security has not changed. He said Nigerians across the country are not safer today than they were during the Jonathan administration.

    Aminu said: “Both the land and coastal borders are still poorly guarded, allowing for the high influx of arms.. Armed robberies, killing and kidnappings still happen in broad daylight, with the Abuja-Kaduna axis has been known for these.

    “The Shiite crisis is still a fresh wound that has not healed since after the Zaria massacre carried out by the military. The herdsmen-farmer clashes though have reduced but still on in Benue, Taraba and Kaduna states where hundreds of lives had been lost.” A student activist, Mr Lanre Adesanya, said Nigeria has never had it so good. He argued that those who are opposed to re-election of Buhari are those who plundered the nation’s commonwealth under the previous administrations.

    Adesanya said: “Buhari’s administration should be commended and not condemned. A ruin of 16 years under the PDP cannot be fixed in three and half years. So far it has been so good under Buhari.”

    He said the administration has delivered on its key promises of anti-corruption fight, security and economy. He believed that the government has invested in people, ensured justice reform, improved diplomacy and international relations and enthroned new vision for the Niger Delta region. He said if re-elected Buhari would consolidate on the gains recorded in the first term and make Nigeria a great country. Nigeria is on course, we should not allow the looters to return to power in 2019, he pleaded.

     

  • 2019: ‘Atiku can’t dare Buhari in presidential debate’

    … debate should be issue based.

    A Non-governmental organization, Known as “Door to Door Campaign for Buhari/Ganduje 2019” on Tuesday in Kano urged President Muhammadu Buhari to respect the open invitation by honoring the presidential debate against the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alh. Atiku Abubakar, coming up 19th January 2019, organized by Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON).

    The National Chairman of the campaign organization Engr. Atiku Ahmad Dongurawa, who spoke to reporters, said that president Buhari’s credential speaks volume of his laudable achievements in many areas of human endeavors, to stand any public debate with opposition parties.

    Engr. Ahmad who is also a chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC) said the president’s tremendous accomplishments in the diversification of economy, agriculture, security, infrastructural development, power generation and the most celebrated war against corruption in Nigeria stood tall and above the 16 years records of PDP’s administration, adding that there was no basis for comparism between Buhari and Atiku.

    According to him, “There is no reason why president Buhari should shy away from the presidential debate looking at the period when the government came to power, there are so many projects and programs that were executed by this government, even the Nigerian citizens, will bear witness. Also there is no justification that will hinder president Buhari coming out for the debate, because the president has many things to tell Nigerians that will convince the electorate to re-elect this government back to power”.

    Read Also: 2019: Between Buhari and Atiku

    Engr. Ahmad explained that the campaign organization was established to promote the good works of APC governments at all levels and use same to educate, enlightening and mobilize the public towards renewing the APC mandates come 2019 general elections.

    “This organization wants to stress the needs for the upcoming campaigns to be issued based. Our strategies from the National, state, zonal to ward and polling unit levels, is about developing innovative and substantive modalities that will help the party in winning a free and fair election.

    Commenting on the state of the nation, “We hail president Buhari and his vice effort towards a prudent and responsible management of the nation’s resources and security.

    He further said that the ongoing infrastructural transformation in Kano, spearheaded by the APC administration under Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje deserves commendation and urged Kano state citizens to return come 2019 for consolidation of its huge achievements. He appealed to the electorates to ensure that president Buhari and Ganduje get another mandate through peaceful campaign.

  • 2019: Between Buhari and Atiku

    The inauguration of the campaign documents of President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flagbearer, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has set the tone for the campaigns for next year’s election. Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN spoke to some Nigerians who shared their expectations.

    THE Chairman of Arewa Professional Group, Malam Idris Mustapha, said President Muhammadu Buhari deserves second term, given his track record of performance.

    Mustapha said the Buhari administration has been prudent with nation’s resources and that he has also embarked on projects across the country. Buhari started delivery of infrastructural facilities when the crude oil was as low as $28 per barrel.

    Mustapha said: “This government has shown determination and the will to squeeze water from stone. At a point when they started taking this very critical infrastructure across the country – rail, roads and power-oil dropped to $28 per barrel. So, it shows that it is a government that is very prudent in the management of resources.”

    In his view, the President has plans to deliver more dividends of democracy to Nigerians. He said the bane of Nigeria’s under-development has been the mismanagement of public funds.

    But , the Director General of the Atiku Campaign Organisation Organisation, Chief Gbenga Daniel,  said President Buhari has failed to deliver his contract of job creation to Nigerians. He recalled that the President, during 2015 campaigns, had promised to provide about three million jobs but failed to do so.

    Daniel said Buhari at that time said if he failed to fulfil the promise, then, Nigerians were at liberty to choose another leader. He challenged the President to honour his pledge and resign from office to enable Nigerians to elect a new president.

    The former Ogun State Governor believes the PDP candidate is best man for the job. He said the country is not working and Atiku has the capacity to get things working again. He said: “Nigeria is not working again and I want to start by quoting what the current president said in one of his tweets, specifically, I think this was sometime in March 2015 just before the election, he promised Nigerian jobs and he said and I quote : ‘If I don’t fulfil my promises, you have the power to decide who leads you and how they lead you’.

    “Part of what is key for us is provision of jobs and my submission is if the contact that Buhari had with the people is that he will create jobs, then he has failed to deliver that contract. Going forward, in Atiku Abubakar, we clearly have a better person; we clearly have someone who has better exposure to all the facets of this country. We have someone who is very much at home everywhere.”

    An economist, Dr Usman Aliyu, has dismissed Daniel’s submission that the Buhari administration has failed to fulfil promise of job creation

    Aliyu observed that since Buhari took office in 2015, the unemployment rate has slowly edged down with millions of jobs created.

    He said in agriculture, for example, this administration has created over seven million jobs. He said: “When it assumed office in 2015, about five million farmers were engaged in rice production. Through the introduction of the Buhari’s administration Anchor Borrowers Programme, the number of farmers engaged in rice production today stands at 12.2 million.”

    Aliyu said 69,736 have been created in the Power, Works and Housing sectors. The National Social Investment Programme of the administration has created 200,000 jobs, in addition to empowering 500,000 others under the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).

    Quoting the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the economist said: “The Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing has created 69,736 jobs (direct and indirect) across the country. The power sector projects created 1,740 jobs, the Works sector created 38,391 jobs while the Housing sector created 29,605 jobs.”

    He explained that the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, through which 6.4 million school children in 33,981 schools across 20 states are being fed with one meal a day has created a job for 61,352 cooks.

    Lawyer and human right activist, Mr Monday Ubani, has advised Nigerians not to take promises made by politicians hook, line and sinker. He said this is a season when politicians would promise heaven and earth to win people’s vote, adding that people should put them to task on how they would implement all promises and how they would fund projects, if elected.

    Ubani recalled that the All Progressives Congress (APC) made many promises in 2015, but denied some of the promises on getting to power. He added: “For instance, the APC promised restructuring of the country for true federalism to prevail. But when the APC got into office they denied making such promise. However, the ruling party made a face-saving effort by setting up a panel headed by Governor Nasir El-Rufai to look into the issue of restructuring. We don’t know what has happened to the report of that committee.”

    Ubani also expressed disappointment with the APC government that promised change. It was on the basis of that promise that many Nigerians voted out the PDP government. He noted that though the Buhari administration had performed in certain areas, but it has not brought radical change expected from it.

    The right activist said the APC that accused the PDP of impunity in 2015 is also guilty of that offence. He said the APC primaries conducted at the state level lacked internal democracy. He said: “You can see some governors behaving like emperor, imposing candidates on the party and threatening to undermine the party’s success if they don’t have their way. We had thought APC would lay a good precedence in party management.”

    Ubani also faulted Atiku’s promise to “make Nigeria working again”. He challenged the former vice president to tell Nigerians at what point did Nigeria stop working. As a major player, in the Obasanjo regime, what role did he play in ruing Nigerian economy?  He said: “He should tell us as the person in charge of economy under Obasanjo how he managed the sale of government companies and enterprises before he can convince us that he has what it takes to make Nigeria work.

    “I am surprised that Atiku didn’t mention anything about development of seaports in his campaign document. We have many ports that are idle in this country. Only Lagos ports are working. Those in Calabar, Warri and Port Harcourt are either abandoned or underutilised. Putting these ports into optimal use will reduce pressure on Lagos roads and improve the economic activities of the areas they are located.”

    Ubani urged Nigerians not to vote for a presidential candidate that is not committed to restructuring. He said most of the socio-economic problems facing this country have to do with the present structure that is inimical to true federalism. He recalled that Nigeria got it right between 1960 and 1966 when true federalism was at play. The regions had control over resources under their jurisdiction; there was competition among the regions; unlike now that is everything is centralised.

    A Kaduna-based lawyer, Mr Andrew Obaseki, lauded Buhari government for improving and intervening in some critical sectors such as power, housing, transportation and infrastructural development. He said rods rehabilitation is being pursued vigorously with work going on important roads such as Lagos- Ibadan; Bonny-Bodo; Ilorin-Jebba-Mokwa-Birin Gwari-Kaduna and Kano-Maiduguri roads.

    Obaseki said: “Even though, it is not yet uhuru , there is no doubt that Buhari administration  has done well and deserves commendation. The anti-graft war reched its peak under the Buhari administration with N500,000 billion recovered from corrupt people. This is in addition to property worth billions of naira also recovered. The whistle blowing policy of the government has led to the recovery of billions of naira too.”

    On security, he noted that Buhari within a very short period of coming to power decimated the dreaded Boko Haram, secured the release of 106 out of 276 Chibok school girls who were abducted by terrorists during the Goodluck Jonathan.

    Public Affairs analyst, Malam Mohammed Aminu, scored Buhari low on security. To him, the state of security has not changed. He said Nigerians across the country are not safer today than they were during the Jonathan administration.

    Aminu said: “Both the land and coastal borders are still poorly guarded, allowing for the high influx of arms.. Armed robberies, killing and kidnappings still happen in broad daylight, with the Abuja-Kaduna axis has been known for these.

    “The Shiite crisis is still a fresh wound that has not healed since after the Zaria massacre carried out by the military. The herdsmen-farmer clashes though have reduced but still on in Benue, Taraba and Kaduna states where hundreds of lives had been lost.” A student activist, Mr Lanre Adesanya, said Nigeria has never had it so good. He argued that those who are opposed to re-election of Buhari are those who plundered the nation’s commonwealth under the previous administrations.

    Adesanya said: “Buhari’s administration should be commended and not condemned. A ruin of 16 years under the PDP cannot be fixed in three and half years. So far it has been so good under Buhari.”

    He said the administration has delivered on its key promises of anti-corruption fight, security and economy. He believed that the government has invested in people, ensured justice reform, improved diplomacy and international relations and enthroned new vision for the Niger Delta region. He said if re-elected Buhari would consolidate on the gains recorded in the first term and make Nigeria a great country. Nigeria is on course, we should not allow the looters to return to power in 2019, he pleaded.

     

  • 2019: Southwest may lose out as Southsouth lobbies PDP, Atiku for SGF slot

    Southsouth is lobbying for Secretary to the Government of the Federation( SGF) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  and its candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

    With the development, the Southwest, which is demanding the SGF’s seat, may lose out if PDP and Atiku bow to the Southsouth pressure.

    Atiku has promised to concede the position to the Southwest as re-echoed recently by ex-Governor Gbenga Daniel, who was the Director-General of the now disbanded Atiku Campaign Organisation.

    Some Southsouth leaders and ex-militant leaders in the Niger Delta are behind the lobbying.

    They believe no other post could assuage their marginalisation than the SGF slot, The Nation learnt.

    The leaders, especially the former Niger Delta warlords, are said to be insisting that they will not play second fiddle if PDP returns to power in 2019.

    Their position is said to be the outcome of a recent meeting between some South-South opinion leaders and ex-militant coordinators.

    A source, who spoke in confidence, said: “We have a fresh challenge at hand because the Southsouth wants the SGF slot in a move which may alter pre-primaries negotiation with the Southwest.

    “This demand from the Southsouth is part of the intrigues surrounding the ongoing horse-trading in PDP. Every geopolitical zone is interested in what PDP and Atiku will offer it.

    “So far, neither the PDP nor Atiku has been forthcoming on the positions to concede to the South-South.

    “What the South-South leaders are saying is that they will not wait till after the election before knowing PDP’s and Atiku’s plans for their zone. And it is more complex because ex-militant leaders are collaborating with respected leaders from the Niger Delta in this latest agitation.”

    Atiku’s camp,  however, said it is too early to jostle for positions when a big battle is ahead.

    One of Atiku’s  strategists, Mr. Phrank Shuaibu, said:  “The party has already done its zoning and that was why it’s presidential candidate came from the north. The candidate does not intend to alter the decision of the party unless the party decides otherwise.

    “We regard these remarks as permissible conjectures, allowable agitations or gambits that can be used for negotiations, particularly now that it is becoming obvious by the day that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the PDP is a clear favourite to win the 2019 presidential election.

    “However, the truth of the matter remains that it is still early in the day  to firmly  allocate certain sensitive positions at the national level when the real battle ahead is to defeat and dismiss President Muhammadu Buhari and his APC Government at the centre.

    “The discussions on the issue of power sharing and ethnic balancing are an evolving conversation and negotiation. Nothing is static or written in gold or even cast in stone.

    “ Realistically, it is the party leadership that will have the final say on such matters and discussions are ongoing.”

  • 2019: How Atiku plans to beat Buhari in Southwest

    •To kick start campaign in Lagos on November 28
    •To embark on house-to-house campaign
    •Tackle APC on issues as SW voters ‘cannot be led by the nose’
    •To leverage on influence of Obasanjo, Afenifere leaders

    The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has launched a covert plan aimed at defeating the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, in the Southwest in the 2019 poll.

    As part of the scheme, Atiku will kick-start his presidential campaign with a zonal rally in Lagos on November 28.

    But it was learnt that the weak structure of PDP in the Southwest is of concern to the candidate and the PDP.

    Also, ahead of the commencement of his campaign, pressure for posts has delayed the announcement of the full members of the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the party.

    The list of PCC was still being tinkered with at the last minute to “accommodate different interests”.

    As at press time, the PDP candidate was yet to make a commitment to the leaders of the party, especially the Southeast caucus, on whether or not he will spend one term in office.

    The Southeast wants power shift to the geopolitical zone in 2023 and it is seeking a firm commitment on this desire.

    The six-year plan in Atiku’s manifestoes has created more anxiety for Southeast leaders in PDP.

    Checks have however confirmed that Atiku is set for campaign with a hectic programme.

    According to a copy of the campaign schedule of Atiku, which was exclusively obtained by our correspondent, Atiku will hold zonal rallies as follows: Lagos (November 28 for Southwest); Kano (December 1 for Northwest); Enugu (December 5 for Southeast); Ilorin (December 8 for Northcentral); Port Harcourt (December 12-Southsouth) and Bauchi (December 15 for Northeast).

    Atiku is expected to start a marathon state campaign shuttle from Sokoto on December 18.

    A top source, who spoke in confidence, said: “The choice of Southwest, especially Lagos, is to underscore the determination of PDP to win the zone in 2019. With the Southeast and South-south in our kitty, the main target is the Southwest.

    “The Southwest has a huge and sophisticated voting strength; it remains a major target of our campaign. With ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s backing, PDP will go all out to change the narrative in this zone.

    “We have a big plan to win the Southwest if it means going from door to door.”

    It was however learnt that the weak structure of the party in the Southwest has been a major headache for PDP.

    A party leader said: “Our party is not too strong in the Southwest like when Obasanjo was in power. This is giving us a bit of concern. But since we will tackle APC on issues, there might be empathy for PDP.

    “The people of the Southwest cannot be led by the nose. We want to capitalize on their discerning minds to capture the zone.”

    Investigation also revealed that Atiku is yet to release the list of members of the Presidential Campaign Council due to pressure to tinker with it and accommodate some party leaders.

    A PDP stalwart said: “Atiku is always reworking the list in order to make it representational.

    “There is always pressure to accommodate vested interests. But in the next few days, Atiku will roll out the names of PCC members.”

    Ahead of the campaign launch, it was gathered that Atiku has not made any commitment to the party and the Southeast Caucus on whether or not he will spend one term in office.

    The issue of tenure was said to be central to the backing of the Southeast for PDP because the zone is after power shift in 2023.

    A member of the National Executive Committee of PDP said: “Atiku has not been forthcoming on whether he will spend a term in office or two terms. We are trying to read his lips but no commitment yet.

    “Instead, we read of his six-year plan which pointed to a second term. If he spends two terms in office, it will give the North an edge of 16 years in power and it might foreclose the chances of the Igbo. This is why some PDP governors and leaders from the Southeast are being sceptical of Atiku Project.”

    But one of the strategists of Atiku, Mr. Phrank Shaibu, has said that there was “nothing in the Atiku Plan to suggest a hidden agenda of two terms in office for Atiku Abubakar.”

    He said:  “The document is a product of 18 months of well researched and widely consulted hard work on how to move Nigeria forward and to speed up the pace of development across all the critical sectors of the economy.

    “The reason the policy document was authored to cover up to 2025 and beyond was simply meant to address the volatility and unpredictability of global trade and economics, as most progressive leaders who understand the intricate nature of growing their economies, draw up 10 year strategic vision plans for their nations, even when they well understand that their term in office will not extend to such a period.

    “Government is a continuum and as such a sound and effective development plan can serve several leaders who are desirous of enhancing the welfare and wellbeing of their citizens.”

    The campaign strategist cited three examples from Nigeria’s recent past where the current administration continued to implement some major projects and policies of the immediate past PDP administration.

    He listed the projects to include Railway projects, the implementation of the TSA and BVN financial policy, by the Buhari administration, which were actually inherited by the sound development plan of the President Goodluck Jonathan era.

    “Sadly, the mudslinging intentions and diabolic attempts to divert the campaign away from the real issues that continue to bedevil the country, has been given a new twist by the purveyors of negative propaganda.

    “These persons have simply overlooked the salient points contained in the “My plan to get Nigeria working again” document to invoke ethnic and divisive sentiments by insinuating that the document has exposed a hidden agenda of a second term plan by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and by so doing are directly provoking the Southeast or even Southwest into erroneously believing that they have no stake in 2023″

    “With all these, it is obvious that “My Plan to get Nigeria working Again”, is indeed a comprehensive work plan that has been structured to outlive Atiku’s stay in office, even if it was to become a two-term presidency.

    “The mention of 2025 and 2030 as delivery dates for some of the critical components of the plan is a clear demonstration that Atiku’s vision reflects the sincerity of his intentions to achieve a better more progressive Nigeria and the generosity of the mind of a good leader who thinks ahead in a selfless manner for common good.

    “Indeed, working with a man like Peter Obi, who incidentally is from the Southeast and whose sterling track record as a financial guru and economic master-strategist, speak volumes for the expansive nationalistic vision of Atiku Abubakar.”

  • Buhari, Atiku and 2023

    GIVEN the enormity of the social, economic and political problems confronting Nigeria, voters had hoped that the 2019 elections would be mostly about issues. The opening salvoes of the campaigns, however, seem to indicate that the campaigns will be significantly about geopolitics and to a lesser extent, and almost as an afterthought, about issues. It is not clear why this is so, indeed, why it has been so for a very long time. Is it because Nigerians lack the depth to appreciate and champion issues? Or is it because their leaders fear that voters are themselves alarmed by issues, with most of them preferring the rather simplistic attachment to the more comprehensible and immensely satisfying crumbs of primordial fancies?

    Whatever it is, the two leading parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), will make gestures in the direction of issues, as they are already routinely doing with their ‘Next Level’ and ‘People’s Policy’ plans, but take more determined steps in the direction of introducing geopolitics into the election equation and profiting from it. By now, everyone knows that the APC standard-bearer, President Muhammadu Buhari, is mystified by issues, and has for more than three years stuck stubbornly and rigidly to his political and campaign slogans, most of them poorly conceived and in dire need of rejigging. He is, therefore, unlikely to promote any debate or discussion about issues beyond regurgitating his campaign promises of combating insecurity and fighting corruption.

    But he has aides and technocrats whose polemical gifts help the party to decipher and advocate great and impactful issues. In fact, when the president kick-started his campaign in Abuja last Sunday, and some of his ministers made presentations, it was abundantly clear that they, rather than the president, owned their ideas and were captains of their projects. Three years and scores of cabinet meetings were enough for the president to have acquired and owned the disparate ideas subscribed to by his ministers. But, so far, both domestically and in his foreign travels, the president has been unable to give any indication that he understands the dynamics of those ideas and projects, let alone own them and give them added fillip. Overall, issue for issue, the president’s aides and ministers will be able to hold their grounds, and to some extent pass off the ideas and projects as the president’s.

    Former vice president Atiku Abubakar loves to luxuriate among issues, and quite easily adumbrates those issues as much as he promotes them. He can be said in fact to be enamoured of issues, and will hope that the 2019 campaigns can be restricted to mainly issues. Issues — at least talking about them — are his forte, and he will hope to lure President Buhari to those treacherous grounds to be perfectly skewered. Should the president envision himself as capable of walking on water, and decide to take on Alhaji Atiku in debating issues, the combat will be fierce but brief, with the outcome not in doubt even to an infant. The former vice president will try to restrict the campaigns, as much as he can manage, to issues, but no one will let him — not the country, and not, especially, the president and his abrasive and cantankerous crew. The APC may not be able to disembowel Alhaji Atiku on issues, but they can crucify him on the matter of integrity. They have said it repeatedly that the former vice president has no integrity, regardless of the absence of judicial conviction. What is more, the country seems persuaded that if indeed he has integrity, the onus of proof should be on him to confirm it, assuming the people are still amenable to persuasion.

    Barring a celestial miracle to herald a dark horse into the presidency, the two leading candidates of the APC and PDP will dominate the political space and campaigns in the coming weeks. They know they have their failings, and are galled by their own weaknesses, but they will pretend all is well, and will argue issues and debate integrity as much as the voters will give them a hearing. It is unclear whether the candidates will succeed in portraying themselves as supermen in the estimation of sceptical Nigerians miffed by their terrible shortcomings and mortified by their unworthy dominance of the political space. Despite their hesitations, both the president and the former vice president will, at least on the surface, talk issues. But more realistically, they will concentrate on permutating geopolitical advantages for themselves and their parties. The politics of issues will be abandoned somewhere halfway, with the country witnessing only occasional and half-hearted eruptions.

    Instead, as the aides and minders of the two standard-bearers have shown, more attention will be devoted to cobbling together a winning geopolitical formula. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with that strategy in a multilingual, multi-religious and complex society. Merit-based system has its shortcomings, and no standard-bearer can hope to win a national election without a scrupulous and idolatrous gesture in the direction of balancing ethnic configurations, whether they mean it, as Alhaji Atiku has sometimes demonstrated through his marriages, or they don’t mean it, as the president’s one-sided appointments have shown. But because the two parties are adept at this game, having at least superficially satisfied the geopolitical yearnings of the country, they have upped their game by attaching the issue of 2023 presidential ambition to the ruse. The South, it is believed, wants the presidency in 2023. The 2019 presidential campaign is thus about to be reduced, firstly, to who can better promise to deliver that 2023 goal, and secondly to who better understands which geopolitical zone to deliver it to — the Southwest or the Southeast.

    By selecting Peter Obi, a former Anambra State governor from the Southeast as his running mate, Alhaji Atiku is widely believed to have made his stand known, even without saying it clearly. When Igbo leaders endorsed the former vice president in Enugu on November 14, winning the presidency in 2023 was believed to be at the back of their minds, for it was assumed, without any substantiation, that a departing president would find it easier and more attractive to hand over to his deputy. But notwithstanding the PDP candidate’s policy plans lasting beyond his first term should he win, and extending to 2025 as indicated in his working papers, the Southeast appears to be prepared to take their chances with Alhaji Atiku. Such optimism is unprecedented.

    However, the Buhari camp seems to be in a quandary over the Alhaji Atiku gambit. Should they not make a promise of their own to woo the Igbo into the Buhari column? reasoned some of the president’s top aides. And so, to utopia they went, with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, leading the charge sometime last October, and again last week. He prevaricated, no doubt, but at least he offered something that looked like a promise to the Southeast, alerting them to the possibility of the PDP candidate going for two terms should he win. President Buhari, on the other hand, he said, had only one term left. The message is clear: if the Southeast desires the presidency in 2023, the better route is to endorse a president who has only one term to go.

    Said Mr Mustapha to the press after some Southeast leaders met with the president last week: “This obviously might not be most appropriate time. You remember there was a programme in the south-east where Mr. President asked me to represent him and I flew the kite by telling the south-eastern states that their quickest and easiest means to presidency is to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term… You can’t negotiate from the point of weakness and I believe that that message resonated with the people and their response now is attributable to the fact that even before the flag-off of the campaigns, we have laid it bare on the table for Southeastern states to consider the prospect of working with us to ensure that at least by the time President Buhari finishes his second tenure, they can make a shot at the presidency depending on what they bring to the table.” If the Southeast leaders read the caveat about “depending on what they bring to the table” and missed a heartbeat or two, they were too squeamish to show it.

    But the same APC also saw Works and Housing minister, Babatunde Fashola, admonishing the Southwest not to ditch President Buhari in 2019 if they want to retake the presidency in 2023. In other words, from the same presidency, two leading party apparatchiks have emerged who are perfectly eager to promise the next presidency to the Southwest and Southeast. The Southeast is yet to produce a president since 1999. Should they take it in 2023, for example, it will, all things considered, take the Southwest another 16 years before they can angle for it again. That will mean waiting till 2039 on the assumption that they will not emulate President Buhari in shunning all zoning formulae to contest the presidency.

    Sadly, these geopolitical calculations are likely to influence the next presidential election more than issues. They are damaging to the health of the republic, and are  short-sighted and dangerous. There is absolutely no way to avoid a future implosion. If Nigerian leaders were smart and knowledgeable, they would see how delicate and tenuous the future is, and they would be prepared to take the bold and courageous steps needed to snatch the country from a foolish and futile end. The current system will not work, and no amount of tinkering or doctoring can get it to deliver the great and noble future the people want. If Nigerian leaders are not persuaded by logic and media campaigns to restructure the country, should the tragedies unfolding in many parts of the nation, including insurgency, rampant banditry and kidnapping, and the near total breakdown of law and order, not be sufficient enough to convince them?

    But probably the most profound and insightful statement to come from any Nigerian in recent months was the conclusion reached by octogenarian Mbazulike Amaechi, a First Republic Aviation minister, who argued that neither President Buhari nor Alhaji Atiku would give the Igbo the presidency in 2023. Hear him: “My attitude is that anybody who will enthrone restructuring is the person Ndigbo must support. What is happening in Nigeria is baffling. The country is not in any state of emergency nor the southeast nor any other area, but I am worried about the high level of dictatorship; it is becoming alarming. I have always said that presidency is not dashed; you have to work for it, plan for it, strategise to take it because it is not given. Buhari or Atiku will not give Ndigbo presidency. Nobody will give it to them except they work for it.” He is right. In fact, much more, nobody will give the presidency to anybody except the aspirant is able to put together a coalition of zones, peoples and religions, and then prove himself as the most acceptable man for the moment. But by far the most sensible thing to do in the present circumstance is to take the sting out of the present unhealthy and frenzied competition for presidential office if the country is not to continue immersing itself in impotent and tragic shuffling between its peoples.

  • Crisis hits Adamawa IPAC over ‘endorsement’ of Atiku

    The Adamawa State chapter of the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has been hit by crisis, with members who want the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar endorsed as their common candidate in one camp and those against such idea in opposing camp.

    Twenty-eight political parties make up IPAC in Adamawa State, but of the number, 17 were named at a press briefing yesterday as rejecting an endorsement of Atiku as purportedly made by the leadership of the council in the course of a visit to Atiku.

    “We want the public to note that the statement made by Bakawu Usman, the Adamawa State IPAC publicity secretary on  November 19, 2018 that Adamawa IPAC had endorsed Mr Atiku Abubakar is completely not true,” the state chairman of the Change Nigeria Party (CNP), Mr Aboki Wunuji, who read the text of the press briefing by the aggrieved IPAC members, said.

    The Adamawa IPAC is led by the state chairman of the PDP, Tahir Shehu who is leading the pro-Atiku endorsement campaign, but the state Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr John Muva who earlier lost narrowly to Shehu in the contest for the Adamawa IPAC leadership, is among the 17 IPAC party chairmen not favourably disposed to the endorsement of Atiku and was at yesterday’s briefing.

    CNP’s Aboki Wunuji mentioned in the press briefing text dismissing the reported endorsement of Atiku that the state PDP chairman, during the visit to Atiku, claimed that the various parties visited to endorse Atiku as their presidential candidate for the 2019 election, but that majority of the members of IPEC “became annoyed as this was not their mission,” but just to congratulate Atiku on his appointment as Waziri Adamawa.

    Wunuji therefore urged the general public to disregard the purported endorsement of Atiku by IPAC as only some of the members of the council welcomed such idea.

    Other state party chairmen listed among the 17 not supporting the endorsement of Atiku include Bello Babaji of Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Ayuba Timiwge of the Progressive Party of Nigeria (PPA), Sapwavemo Hillary of Alliance for Democracy (AD), Aliyu Chamalwa (Accord), Liston Ibrahim (Young Progressives Party), Abdullahi Usman (National Conscience Party), Chahandi Ahmed (Action Alliance), Denis Taran (Peoples Progressive Party), Emmanuel Yerima (African Peoples Alliance), Bundi Pius (New Nigeria People’s Party), among others.

    Adamawa, a state with Governor Mohammed Jibrilla Bindow belonging to the All Progressives Congress (APC), has a strong tendency for the APC presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari. Although the emergence of the son of the soil Atiku as the PDP presidential candidate affected Buhari’s support base, it remains too strong for pro-Atiku sentiments to assail easily.

    The Atiku Presidential Campaign Organization has said it did not authorise any grants. In a statement by the organisation, it was not part of a scheme whereby innocent citizens are being asked to buy a form for N500,000 in order for them to be beneficiaries of a financial grant allegedly being sponsored by Atiku Abubakar.

    The statement said “We want to put it on record that neither the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar nor the campaign gave any approval to this scheme or any other one like it.

    “We are aware that a great number of Nigerians are passing through rough patches as millions of people have slipped into the poverty conveyor belt as a result of the bad socio-economic policies of the current administration since 2015.

    “Jobs are being lost in quantum scale, businesses are folding up, foreign investors are afraid to bring in new capital for investments and the cost of living has ballooned to skyrocket proportion. The immediate consequence of all these is that the Nigerian has been laid prostrate for fleecing, out of the desperate bid to burrow their way out of financial incapacitation.”

    It advised citizens to shun such a phantom scheme.

     

  • I’ve always returned to my mission till I achieve it, says Atiku

    THE Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said his success in life is a result of persistence, that he has always returned to his mission till he achieved it.

    “You may miss your target at times, it happened to me again and again but I went to my ambition until I realized it,” Atiku said yesterday evening while addressing students of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, an institution he founded 14 years ago.

    Atiku who spoke as founder of the institution  on the occasion of the 13th Annual Founder’s Day ceremony at the AUN main campus in Yola town, urged the students to be steadfast.

    He told them, “Have an ambition. When you have the ambition, plan towards achieving it. Don’t let obstacles discourage you. With the will and perseverance, you will dismount the obstacles and achieve your target.”

    Atiku who expressed regret that so many people have been losing their lives owing to insecure situations in parts of the country, called for a minute silence especially for the soldiers recently killed by Boko Haram in Borno State.

    The keynote speaker at the event, Sen Ben Murray-Bruce, had earlier set the tone for the  reference to the insecurity in the land when he said that from the Northeast to the Northwest to the Northcentral and the Niger Delta, insecurity caused by insurgents, armed bandits, herders and militants define human existence.

    He charged the students and guests in the packed large event venue to vote, come February 2019, for security by voting Atiku Abubakar as Nigeria’ next president.

    The 13th Annual Founder’s Day ceremony of the AUN was attended by Senate President, Bukola Saraki, three governors: Ibrahim Dakwambo of Gombe State, Seriaki Dickson of Bayelsa, and Darius Isyaku of Taraba State, among other dignitaries.

  • Buhari, Atiku, others get date for chat

    The Nigerian Election Debate Group (NEDG) and Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) have announced the dates for 2019 presidential and vice presidential election debate.

    The vice presidential candidate debate is scheduled for December 14. The presidential debate will hold on January 19, next year.

    BON Chairman John Momoh made the announcement yesterday at a news conference in Abuja.

    Momoh said the debates will be aired on all BON member radio and television stations and also streamed on social media platforms.

    He said: “The Nigerian Election Debate Group and the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria are organising a presidential debate on December the 14th, 2018 and a vice presidential debate on January the 19th, 2019.

    Read also: Atiku in Adamawa: vote out Buhari

    “The debates would hold at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja and will be broadcast live on all BON member radio and television stations across the country.

    “The debates will also be streamed live on all mobile and social media platforms such as Youtube, Facebook, Twitter And Instagram, to give it a global coverage,” Momoh said.

    The issue-based debates will focus on restoring the economy, providing electricity, creating jobs, securing health care for every Nigerian, making and achieving excellence in every Nigerian school and ensuring safety and security for Nigerians.

    Momoh said the NEDG will also set the formats and rules of the debate.

    He said: “The NEDG would set the format and rules of the debate, handle moderation, outline the criteria for political party participation, ensure the objectivity of audiences and steer negotiations between broadcasters and the parties.

    “Nigerians expect the leaders of all political parties to be challenged in a very public and robust way in these debates. Not just one of them, but a series of them.”