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Tag: defeat

  • APC will defeat PDP in 2015, says Buhari

    APC will defeat PDP in 2015, says Buhari

    Former Head of State Gen. Muhammadu Buhari yesterday said the All Progressive Peoples Congress (APC) will sack the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government in 2015.

    Gen. Buhari said Nigerians are tired of bad governance and corruption, which have been the hallmark of the PDP Federal Government since 1999 – according to him.

    He said those factors led the opposition parties to join forces to oust the PDP from power.

    He spoke yesterday at a meeting of elected representatives of his party – the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).

    The CPC has announced the merger with the Action Congress of Nigerian (AC N), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the All Progressive Grand Alliance to form the APC.

    The new party is processing its registration with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    But the PDP also said yesterday that it was strategising to stop the APC from taking power.

    Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio stated this yesterday when he presided over the maiden meeting of the PDP Governors Forum in Abuja.

    Gen. Buhari said the country was in the grip of a bad government whose only intention is to hang on to power by all means.

    “The country is in the grip of a bad government whose only purpose is to retain power by hook or crook; preferably by crook. PDP does not need merger or alliance; they are already merged and are in alliance with police, INEC and Judiciary, with NNPC and pension funds. The country is tired of PDP, we are tired of oppression, corruption and impunity,” he said.

    Gen. Buhari expressed satisfaction with the progress of the merger talks and urged party members not to allow personal and petty interests to becloud them from the broader national interests.

    Gen. Buhari said the CPC Board of Trustees (BoT) met last Saturday and formed eight committees to fast-track the merger. He singled out the registration committee as one of the most important because it is through its efforts that the party will gain more members.

    “Our party is at the doorsteps of a historic opportunity to alter the political landscape of Nigeria . Our move to link and merge with the ACN and subsequently with other parties who have broadly similar philosophies, namely good governance, is on the verge of success.

    “When we sit in negotiating sessions, our strength will be in our numbers. We should negotiate hard, but always have the ultimate goal in mind. Personal and ethnic interest should always take second place to broader national interests,” he said.

    Gen. Buhari urged the elected members to be proud of being the genuinely elected representatives of their people.

    “You did not use police to intimidate voters; you did not use INEC staff to inflate your votes. You won, in spite of all attempts by government to rig you out. How many in the PDP can say that? They are very few. You can, therefore, hold your heads high as genuine representatives of your constituents. You are true sons of democracy. Your position is even more important than party officials and party leaders because you are the face of the CPC,” he said.

    Gen. Buhari urged the CPC leadership and its representatives at the various assemblies to see the merger as a call to duty, stressing that they should regard themselves as arrowheads of the movement.

    “I believe merger is the only way to prevent the continuation of this bad governance. The political class is at one page that the only way to stabilise the nation is for the opposition to merge and face the ruling party because the country is tired of the PDP and its oppression, corruption, insecurity etc,” Gen. Buhari noted.

    The National Chairman of CPC, Prince Tony Momoh, told the party faithful to be ready to embrace change in the affairs of the party as a result of the merger initiative.

    Speaking about the post-election protests within the party, Momoh said the party has given enough room for dialogue and reconciliation with aggrieved members and that now is time for the party to move ahead.

    “Change does not come from the bottom of the mountain, but from the top of it. Change comes not just like change of weather but human being can effect change,” he said.

    Nassarawa State Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, the only CPC elected governor, who briefed the gathering regarding the formation of the APC Governors Forum and its activities, said the forum has since imparted positively towards the achievement of the goals of the merger.

    He said the APC has so far exhibited uncommon patriotism, unity and zeal in supporting the opposition’s coalition movement.

    Al-Makura said the governors resolved to work relentlessly not only to ensure the success of the merger, but also to work towards an APC victory at the polls in 2015.

    He said the governors, who have met twice, would reconvene again at venue to be disclosed later to make further inputs in the constitution and manifesto f the new party.

    Among the CPC leaders at the one-day retreat are former House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Masari, Alhaji Sule Hamman, Alhaji Ishaku Ibrahim, Senator Solomon Ewuga, CPC senators and members of the House.

    Akpabio said a committee led by Katsina State Governor Ibrahim Shema has been set up to look into the crises rocking the party in the Southwest.

    On the Adamawa State crisis, he said the PDP governors resolved to allow the Kugama Mijinjwa-led executive to continue pending the outcome of Governor Sule Lamido Committee.

    He said: “We are of the opinion that we should take steps to set up structures to meet the emerging challenge of APC. And part of the resolution is that we should have continued interaction of the party, the NWC, leadership of the Board of Trustees and build a synergy with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.”

    According to him, the Shema committee on the southwest has two weeks to submit its report.

    Some of the governors at the meeting included Delta, Abia, Bayelsa, Benue, Kano, Jigawa, Rivers and Kogi.

     

  • We shall defeat Boko Haram, says Jonathan

    We shall defeat Boko Haram, says Jonathan

    President Goodluck Jonathan is confident that Boko Haram insurgency will be defeated.

    “With your prayers, we shall defeat them,” he said yesterday during a service at the Ekklisiyat Yaruwa a Nigeria (EYN) (Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) in Utako, Abuja.

    Dr. Jonathan was worshipping at the church, which is the worst-hit by the Boko Haram insurgency. No fewer than 109 of its members have been killed by the sect; while 50 branches of the church, which is predominately in the Northeast, have been burnt down.

    The Northeast states of Yobe and Borno and, to a large extent, Adamawa are the epicentre of the sect’s activities.

    Dr. Jonathan re-assured Nigerians that his administration is working assiduously to end the security challenge.

    He noted that adequate measures had been put in place to contain the menace of the Boko Haram sect.

    The President said the security plans put in place were already yielding positive results.

    He said the strategic security arrangement aborted the plans by the group to launch an attack on Christmas Day.

    He said: “The Boko Haram planned to carry out a lot of attacks on Christmas Day, but we suppressed their plans during the Christmas. The extent of their plans was not executed because of the strategies put in place by the security agencies.

    “Although we still recorded some incidents, but the extent of attacks which they planned could not be executed.

    “Boko Haram will not push us backwards. If their plan is to stop government from providing the dividend of democracy, they would not succeed because 2013 will be a good year for Nigerians and Nigeria.”

    The President also expressed surprise over how terrorism and suicide bombings, which were alien to the culture of any section of the country, had crept in, noting that Christianity and Islam are religions of peace and tolerance which forbid killings and blood-letting.

    He also thanked the authorities and members of the EYN nationwide for keeping the faith and remaining calm in the face of provocation.

    Rev. Mbaya said EYN, predominantly in the Northeastern region is the worst hit by the Boko Haram insurgency.

    He praised Dr. Jonathan for being the first President to worship in any branch of the Church since its inception.

    The president was accompanied by his mother, Madam Eunice Jonathan, his Chief of Staff, Chief Mike Ogiadomhe, Sen. Philip Aduda (PDP-FCT), Executive Secretary, Christians Pilgrims Board, John Kennedy-Opara and some other aides.

  • Snatching hope  from the jaws of defeat

    Snatching hope  from the jaws of defeat

    The reelection of US President Barak Obama was the climax of a close fight between him and the defeated presidential candidate Mitt Romney of the opposing Republican Party. To  say that Obama  fought furiously for his political life in this battle he won will be an understatement.  To add that in terms of suspense and uncertainty, the election compares favorably with epoch, close,  contemporary electoral battles  in US history,  like that of Kennedy/Nixon in 1960 or that of Bush /Al Gore in 2000  will be stating the obvious.

    However,  it is in Obama’s acceptance speech that he reached to the stars to excel in matchless oratory to lift the spirit of his nation and country men and women at his moment of victory. In that speech Barack Obama atoned for a poor economic performance record, showed sincere gratitude to an electorate that had amply rewarded such performance with his reelection, and gave America a new vision of shared destiny, based as he said so eloquently, on love, duty and patriotism. Barak Obama in his reelection virtually snatched victory from the jaws of defeat after a disastrous first debate that gave grit and confidence to an hesitant  and fearful opponent who had come to battle initially with feet of clay. But the such is the stuff of history and  grand political drama.

    At  the end,  both the challenger and the victor at the re election of the 44th US president,  strengthened the concept of  popular democracy   as the ascendant democracy of our time and elections as the engine room of that ideology. Of  course I am talking of free and fair election and that was what the US president was referring to in his  inspiring speech when he said that in some climes,  people and nations still struggle over elections that Americans have come to take for granted. Mitt Romney on his part  conceded defeat graciously and thanked his wife who he said would have made an excellent   first lady.

    He lamented his lack of opportunity to lead as Americans have elected a different leader. Obama too was magnanimous in defeat and thanked his wife Michelle, his Vice President and  millions of his volunteer campaign workers, noting they made his victory happen. I  confess to being carried away by Obama’s acceptance speech,   especially his redefinition of hope in the light of his reelection,  as that stubborn human trait that makes you never to give up in the face of adversity  and daunting odds. At  that moment he paid homage to the twin virtues   of empathy and sharing, the very ‘secret‘ weapons that have ensured his reelection in a nation that has never rewarded poor economic  record by any president with success at  elections.

    In practical terms too Obama  ‘reset‘ his relations with the American people domestically over the stubborn economy and its travails for them even though ‘reset ‘and  ‘engagement‘ are terms he had used to map out the direction of the US foreign policy at his first coming in 2008.

    In  diplomacy and international relations the world can heave a sigh of relief . Britain and Russia were the first to react. British PM David Cameron said he looked forward to continuing his talk on global trade with his friend Barak Obama,  while Russian strong man and President Vladmir Putin  expressed his happiness at Obama’s reelection. Obviously Mitt Romney had jagged a few powerful nerves globally on his utterances on  Israel, Iran, China and other world issues. Initially,  I  had thought that a diplomatic challenge  or  foreign matter – like Israel attacking Iran and forcing the US to support Israel – will be the undoing of Obama’s reelection effort. Fortunately,  that did not happen but a more dangerous natural disaster Super  Storm Sandy threw spanner in the works at  the home front in New York and New  Jersey.

    Ironically however the wild  Hurricane   Sandy did a lot to bring out the best  in the incumbent US   president, to the joy and happiness of his party supporters  and to the chagrin and vexation of Romney and his team,  who could only wring their hands helplessly as the US president acted like the real angel of mercy elected by the American people to look after them in any crises, natural  and man made. Brilliant and bipartisan management of Hurricane Sandy reminded Americans that they have a compassionate and committed leader that can salvage them in any crises – including the  much advertised economic one, hence their reelection of Barak Obama on November 6.

    It  is in the light  of Obama’s redefinition of hope that I  look at events this week in Mali  and  Nigeria. In  Mali  the Islamist group Ansar Dine  that has destroyed Islamic Shrines in Timbuctoo and which is in control of Northern Mali  has agreed to allow aid agencies to bring relief materials and to negotiate as ECOWAS mass  a 3000 man strong military contingent to drive out  the invaders. In  Nigeria there is some relief as the party of General Buhari deny that he knew of any plan to make him a negotiator nominated by Boko Haram, the terrorist group bombing churches on a weekly  basis in Nigeria. In Nigeria too the Anglican Communion held a conference called Divinity Commonwealth Conference  -DIVCOOMM-in Abuja in which it asked its members to confront the dangers facing it from within and without especially the bombing of Churches in the Northern part of the nation.

    In  Mali, Burkina Fasso‘s President Blaise Compraore is the ECOWAS leader in charge of the regional negotiation  with the northern invaders. Compraore has experience in such matters having helped ECOWAS in nipping in the  bud an earlier military coup in Guinea Conakry by seizing the coup leader on his way home after medical treatment in Morocco  and marooning him in Ouagadougou the capital of Burkina  Fasso  while elections were being held in Guinea Conakry. The Ansar Dine have taken over northern Mali from the Tuaregs who defeated the Malian army sent to contain them, leading to a military coup on the ground that the civilian regime in Mali then, had not given sufficient ammunition to the army to contain the rebellion. ECOWAS leaders however put down their feet that the era of coups was over in the region and since Mali was landlocked, starved the military of fuel whereby they agreed to  form a diarchy  of sorts while ECOWAS gave a Coordinator’s role to the Nigerian Head of State President Goodluck Jonathan to get a force to rescue Mali from the Ansar Dine occupying the north.

    The fact that Ansar Dine is ready to negotiate gives sign that the crisis may not be protracted as it is known that some militant groups have promised to launch a jihad from the Sahel on ECOWAS nations once the Islamists in Mali are attacked or dislodged from that nation  by the ECOWAS force. This  is to be taken seriously in the light of information gathered that Boko Haram  group has connection and  are being trained  by the invaders of Mali.

    Similarly  the Anglican Church seem to have taken a stand on defending it devotees who have been subjected to the terror of Boko Haram which says it does not recognize western education and wants Christians to leave the north. At  a welcome address to Anglican faithful attending the second Divcom  Conference in Abuja  the Anglican Primate  Nicholas  Okoh  lamented the bombing of Churches as wicked. The theme  of the conference is ‘Contending for the faith‘ and according to the Primate  – ‘Contending for the faith handed   over to us is not a tea party. It takes sacrifice, denial, focus, even at the risk of taking one’s life‘. To me the Primate’s admonition is one of self- defence at a time when it has become fashionable for Boko Haram to bomb churches even during Holy Communion. The call   should also create  a sort of  adeterrence for Boko Haram to redress or abandon  its impunity of killing Christians at will without any punishment from any quarters. It reminds me of the principles of mutual deterrence or balance of terror during the Cold War when knowledge  of the arsenal of both the US  and then USSR ensured mutual peace and respect   and strengthened global peace. The theme of this year’s Divcomm is a step in the right direction for peace in the north from Boko Haram terrorism.

    Similarly the fact that General Muhammadu Buhari has been absolved by his party  the Congress  For Progressive Change -CPC – of collusion with the   Boko Haram,  inherent in his purported  nomination as a mediator  with the Federal Government  by Boko Haram  showed  that hope is not lost in containing terrorism in Nigeria especially in the North. The CPC  was up in arms in righteous indignation at the suggestion and put the blame and mischief  at the door step of the ruling PDP as being ever  ready to embarrass the CPC leader.  Reportedly,  the President of the nation,   Goodluck Jonathan  called the Boko Haram  a  barbaric organization for bombing churches and it is difficult to see the same government negotiating with a barbaric organisation. It  is my belief that to dine with the devil one must have a long spoon and in killing innocent people Boko Haram should be dealt with summarily in the interest of peace in Nigeria, and before so called global  Human Rights group,   who value the rights of terrorists more than the lives of their victims, turn Nigeria into another Somalia, right before our eyes.

  • Ondo polls: Accept defeat, Obasanjo tells Oke

    Ondo polls: Accept defeat, Obasanjo tells Oke

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday asked the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the recent Ondo State governorship election, Mr. Olusola Oke, to accept defeat in good fate.

    He said going to the election petitions tribunal to challenge the result of the election in which Mr.Oke came second will amount to a waste of time and resources. The former President spoke at the South-West caucus meeting of the party in Ibadan.

    The former President said the party and Oke have nothing to be ashamed of about the Ondo election and that the PDP candidate performed well. He said that rather than brooding over what might have been all PDP members should learn necessary lessons from the election. He told Oke pointblank: “there is no perfect election.”

    “Whatever may be the shortcomings of the election should be overlooked since such may not necessarily upturn the table. We should accept defeat and start looking forward,” he added.

    Obasanjo who arrived the venue of the meeting close to the end re-iterated that the ruling party is “not sufficiently disciplined and there cannot be any meaningful progress and development without culture of discipline.”

     

     

     

     

     

  • Real Betis 2 – 4 Atletico Madrid: Igiebor missing in defeat

    Real Betis 2 – 4 Atletico Madrid: Igiebor missing in defeat

    Super Eagles midfielder, Nosa Igiebor was missing from a nine-man Real Betis squad in last night 2-4 defeat at their Estadio Benito Villamarín (Sevilla) home ground.

    The Nigeria international was not even listed among the subs as Atletico Madrid continued their unbeaten start to the season with Falcao hitting a brace.

    The hosts took the lead after 26 minutes when Salvador Agra’s strike found its way past Sergio Asenjo.

    Madrid responded immediately, however, as Raul Garcia’s pass found Falcao, who made no mistake to level the sides just two minutes later.

    Betis regained the lead right on the stroke of half time when Juanfran diverted the ball into his own net, but it was all downhill for the home side in the second period.

    Just two minutes into the second half they were reduced to ten men when Damien Perquis was sent off. Just a minute later the visitors were awarded a penlaty, which was duly dispatched by Falcao.

    Madrid completed the comeback 10 minutes after the restart when Diego Costa gave them a 3-2 lead.

    Betis’ hopes of drawing level again took a hit with a little over 10 minutes left when Joel Campbell was given his marching orders for a second yellow.