The Nation Newspaper

Tag: ELECTION

  • You cannot harass me with election, Obaseki tells detractors

    The internal wrangling in the Edo State All Progressives Congress (APC) might go for the worse as Governor Godwin Obaseki has insisted that he would not be harassed with second term election.

    Some party members are spoiling to stop Obaseki from securing a second term ticket. Governor Obaseki, who spoke at a meeting with new executive members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said he would remain focused and never be distracted.

    The governor vowed not to return the state to the era of thuggery when traders and workers lived in fear of the activities of miscreants under the guise of collecting revenue for government.

    He said: “We will never go back to where we are coming from. Oredo’s monthly Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) was N7 million when I came in, but today, working with the union and by digitalising the process, we now earn N70 million and we can do more.

    “This is why we can now pay salaries and pensions. If I allow people on the streets to collect revenue, how will I pay salaries? I am being threatened and harassed with election, but I will ever remain focused and as I continue to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people.

    “As a state, we have all the resources but need to manage these resources well to serve the people’s interest rather than serving the interest of a few. That is what I am doing; I am putting the people first.”

    NLC chairman Comrade Sunny Osayande appealed to Obaskei to extend the healthy working relationship established with the former executive to the new council.

  • Case for more inclusiveness for Nigerian women in governance

    THE 2019 election has come and almost gone as the battles have shifted to the legal front. But a look at the race has shown that women are significantly few in the number of candidates and winners in the election. Except for a few of them that were elected into legislative houses, there were little gains for the women folks in the Nigerian political system.

    Truth be told, the two major political parties in the country – All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) – claim to love the womenfolk dearly. They wax lyrical tunes and political messages to show their interest in advancing the political interest of women in the country, but unfortunately, this is where it ends.

    In the last general election, no woman was nominated governorship candidate of both parties and none was elected. Instead, the best they did was to nominate a few of them as deputy governorship candidates – and like deputy governors all over the country, they do not have any political influence, and their relevance is negligible.

    According to statistics, women and youth make up almost 80 percent of eligible voters in the country; yet, they have been ignored politically, except during elections when their votes count.

    During the 2015 election circle, due to pressure put up by women’s right organisations who used Dame Patience Jonathan as their anchor person, the government of President Goodluck Jonathan, realising it needed the women’s votes, proposed to reserve 35% of all appointive positions for women and youth. This has somewhat become the official policy of the two parties.

    Early last year, President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law, the Not too Young to Rule policy which significantly reduced the age that people need to attain before vying for some positions, and also giving greater opportunities and inclusion for women and youth. This was done to curry the votes of the women and youth.

    But has this come to any advantage? The outcome of the 2019 general election has proved the contrary.

    No doubt, politically, the Nigerian woman has made political progress. From the days of the Aba women riot to Mrs. Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti to Mrs. Margaret Ekpo to Hajia Sambo Sawaba, there has been gradual inclusion of women in the political system.

    Not surprisingly also, along with their children they make up the bulk of victims of political violence in the country. Despite these, they are hardly compensated with positions in government commensurate with their qualification apart from being given such politically irrelevant posts.

    But in the last few years, some of them have however taken on such sensitive positions like the Ministry of Finance and Education where they have performed creditably well. However this is significantly low.

    In numbers, in the current political system, women’s representation in the House of Representatives is 5.5%; In the Senate: 5.8%. Only 5 out of 73 candidates that ran for President in 2019 are women. 1668 men and 232 women vied for 109 senatorial seats while 4,139 men and 560 women competed for 360 seats in the House of Representatives.

    Mrs. Pauline Tallen, a former minister and the first woman to be nominated a deputy governor under the 4th Republic, said at a capacity building workshop for budding women politicians, “I advise [young] women to believe in themselves. Be prepared because it’s not easy.”

    Not easy indeed. Three decades have passed since Tallen joined politics, but the state of women’s political participation in Nigeria remains abysmally low, with less than 6 per cent women in the parliament. Today, Nigeria has one of the lowest rates of female representation in parliament across Africa, and globally, it ranks 181st out of 193 countries, according to the International Parliamentary Union.

    “We have a whole lot of women across Nigeria who can do so much better than what we are offered now,” explains Joy Ada Onyesoh, National Coordinator of Nigeria’s Women Situation Room and Country Director for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). “The issue is that we are not given the opportunity…”

    Since 2006, Nigeria’s National Gender Policy highlights women’s right to equality in economic, social and political life, with provisions to increase women in elected and appointed positions to 35 per centbut that hasn’t happened.

    “There have been so many protocols, conventions, amendments of the Nigerian Constitution, which support providing a quota system, but in reality, women are excluded in politics,” says Blessing Obidiegwu, Head of the Gender Division for the Independent National Electoral Commission.

    In 2016, a Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill was tabled, calling for the adoption of Temporary Special Measures to eliminate discrimination in political and public life. UN Women supported the Bill’s passage in five states (Anambra, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi and Plateau) and is currently advocating, alongside partners, for its adoption at the National Assembly.

    Although Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili was just one of the six females among the 73 presidential candidates, before she withdrew her candidacy, her role was significant insofar as she was a direct repudiation of the gendered narratives that portray women candidates as incompetent and unable to compete in the world of politics.

    While women make up 47 percent of registered voters for the 2019 elections, only eight percent were cleared to vie for electoral positions in the presidential elections.

    In the federal elections Presidency, Senate and House of Representatives women’s candidature was unimpressive. For the presidential elections, men swamp women by a 12:1 ratio. Women’s presidential candidature stood at eight per cent.

    At the National Assembly, women’s candidature was only 12 percent of the total seats available, given that a total of 763 women vied for seats for the Senate and House of Representatives out of 6,563 places available.

    Women’s minimal participation in Nigeria has multi-dimensional implications for the democratic project in Nigeria and for the continuing quest for gender equality in Africa’s biggest economy.

    The role of First Ladies in political inclusion in the country

    The first of the wife of Nigerian to play significant roles in advancing the course of women was Mrs. Maryam Babangida. With her Better Life for Women programme, she significantly brought to the fore, the woman’s cause. This was followed by Mrs. Maryam Abacha, Mrs. Stella Obasanjo and Mrs. Patience Jonathan each in their individual ways.

    In the present dispensation, the Wife of the President, Dr. Mrs. Aisha Buhari, has been very outspoken in her resolve for political inclusiveness for women. Earlier, she openly said to her husband and the political leadership that she would not mobilise the women for him if there are no political changes in the system.

    During the 2019 election she and the wife of the Vice President, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo, introduced and ran the Women and Youth Presidential Campaign for the APC. The success of this was clear through the door-to-door campaign members embarked upon across the country. This is an indelible new introduction into the political lexicon of Nigeria.

    Before the elections, President Muhammadu Buhari has repeatedly announced that he will engage more women when he wins his second term. We wait to see whether he will follow his words with action now that he has won his second term.

    Progress

    Liberia’s former Head of State, Ellen Johnson Sir-leaf, has made history as Africa’s first female President. In the United States, Senator Hillary Clinton has made a positive impact in America’s politics. Also the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, John McCain, picked a woman – Sarah Palin, the Governor of Alaska, as his running mate for the U.S election. This could be seen as the strong factor women constitute in the political parlance of any nation.

    Today, many countries of the world are making efforts to bridge the gap between men and women in politics. But in Nigeria, the representation of women in government, though it has improved, is still very low compared to what obtains in other nations of the world, particularly in the developed nations. As it were, the number of serving female ministers is still very few.

    A greater inclusion of women in the parties’ permutations in order to win future elections has become a reality. Whereas the exclusion of the women folks has been maintained by successive governments without repercussions, just as it happened in the last elections, the implication of neglecting women may prove costly in 2023.

    There is no doubt that women have some potentials and rights to contribute meaningfully to the development of their country. Therefore, the Nigerian government should work towards achieving gender equality in democratic governance, increase women participation and access to politics. It must be realised that the role of women as home makers cannot be down played in that it equally has an extended impact on their responsibility in service, the feminine touch  they say, cannot be wished away.

     

    -Ayomo is a rights advocate and media consultant.

  • Action Alliance gets nod to inspect election materials

    The Elections Petitions Tribunal in Imo State has granted the Action Alliance (AA) leave to inspect materials used for the March 9 governorship election.

    The panel granted the petitioners leave to also inspect copy, photocopy and obtain Certified True Copies of all the electoral materials related to or in connection with the conduct of the Imo State governorship election held on March 9, including but not limited to ballot papers (used and unused); the voters’ register; forms EC8A, EC8B, EC8C, EC8D, EC8E, EC 17A, EC 25A, EC 25B, EC 40A, EC 40G, EC 40H; all the incident forms filed by voters in all the polling units; the list of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) collected and used in the election; all the card readers; data of accredited voters as captured by the smart card readers; record of ballot paper allocation to all the polling units; list of all presiding officers for all the units.

    Read also: APC warns against Amosun’s last -minute transactions

    Also to be inspected by the petitioners include INEC’s manual and guidelines; the list of the polling agents submitted to INEC by all the political parties and every other electoral material used in the conduct of the election for the purpose of instituting, maintaining and prosecuting the petition and for the purpose of presenting same at the trial.

  • Appeal Court has not voided my election, says Omo-Agege

    Senator representing Delta Central, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege has dismissed insinuations that the Court of Appeal has voided his election and that of all candidates of the All Progressives Congress in the just concluded general elections, saying the court was yet to determine the appeal against the judgement of the Federal High Court in Asaba. Omo-Agege said Friday’s ruling of the Appeal Court merely states that only the APC can appeal the judgement of the lower and not individual candidates.

    The statement by his mead aide said Senator Omo-Agege had applied to the court to be joined in the appeal, a position which was rejected by the court in it’s ruling on Friday. The statement reads: “Following the  judgement delivered by Justice Toyin Adegoke of the Federal High Court, Asaba on the 18th of March,  2019 which was being misinterpreted in some quarters to have nullified the Delta State Executive Committee led by our able chairman, Prophet Jones Ode Erue and the candidacy of Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru, Distinguished Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and other candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Delta State, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and Rev. Francis Waive filed an application seeking the leave of Court to join as parties to the Appeal, on behalf of themselves and other candidates of the APC, against the judgement of the Federal High Court sitting in Asaba.

    “It is instructive to note that the ruling delivered by the Court of Appeal today only struck out the application on the ground that Senator Omo-Agege and Rev. Waive cannot appeal the judgement as individuals since they are both members of APC who can appeal the judgement on their behalf. The APC has already filed an appeal against the said judgement. Furthermore, it is important to note that today’s ruling delivered by the Court of Appeal sitting in Benin has not and did not determine the appeal filed before it by the APC.

    “We reiterate that the Consent Judgement delivered by Justice A.I. Chikere of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja is still valid and subsisting and all the recent happenings in court have neither invalidated nor set aside the Consent Judgement. Therefore, the Prophet Jones Ode Erue led Exco remains the authentic and legitimate APC Executive Committee of Delta State, so also are all the candidates of APC in the just concluded 2019 general elections.”

    “It is important to note further that the recent judgement delivered by Justice U. A. Ogakwu of the Court of Appeal sitting in Calabar made it succinctly clear in the case of Sir John Ochala & 5 ORS. VS. Hon. Godwin Etim John and 2 ORS that ” It is settled law that a court cannot make a finding that will prejudicial against a person that is neither before it nor a party to the case and cannot in the same vain grant a relief which will affect a person who is not a party in the suit: OKONKWO vs. OKAGBUE (1994) 9 NWLR (PT 368) 301. The effect of Order(s) made against persons not joined as a party is that such order is a nullity and of no effect”. The status of all the candidates of the APC in Delta State for the 2019 general election remains valid and legitimate.”

     

  • Low turnout, ballot snatching mar election in Imo

    The rescheduled election in parts of Imo State was characterised by high rate of voter apathy, late arrival of voting materials, ballot box snatching and other forms of violence.

    The elections scheduled to hold in five local government areas of Ngor-Okpala,  Ikeduru, Oguta, Isu and Orlu, did not commence until 11 O’clock.

    Read also: APC wins Kwali chairmanship supplementary poll

    In some of the polling units monitored by our correspondent in Ikeduru, electoral officers were waiting for the voters and party agents to commence.

    Meanwhile, there were reported cases of ballot box snatching in Eziama Ikeduru and Alulu in Ngor-Okpala Council Area.

     

  • INEC suspends election in Bayelsa constituency

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has suspended the supplementary election in the Brass Constituency 1of Bayelsa State.

    The commission said the decision was in compliance with an interlocutory order of the Federal High Court, sitting in Yenagoa, the state capital, which halted the planned rerun election.

    INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Monday Udoh Tom, in a statement in Yenagoa, said that INEC as a law-abiding agency complied with the court order. Tom, however, stated that the supplementary elections will still hold in the other two constituencies of Ogbia II and Southern Ijaw IV where elections were declared inconclusive on March 9, 2019.

    Read also: Osun: I’m still governor, says Oyetola

    He said: “The conduct of supplementary election in Brass constituency I, ward 6, polling units 11-16 has been put on hold by an interlocutory order of the Federal High Court, Yenagoa, in suit No. FHC/YNG/C5/41/2019 and dated 22 March, 2019. As a law abiding agency, the commission will inform stakeholders as soon as the court order is dispensed with Brass constituency I.”

  • Rerun elections: ‘We must not allow Kano to burn’

    Kano concerned citizens initiative (KCCI), on Monday in Kano declared that the group of elders will not fold its arms and allow anyone’s vaulting ambitions to plunged the state into chaos.

    Chairman of the group, Alhaji Bashir Tofa alongside eminent members of the group made this statement while speaking to news men over recent happenings in the political circle of the state.

    He said the elders will do everything possible to protect and prevent Kano and would not allow the state to burn on account of ambition of an individual.

    Tofa who was one time presidential candidate of the defunct National Republican Convention, (NRC) noted that KCCI is disturbed, anxious, concerned and troubled by the seeming discord and agitation manifesting in Kano since the collation of the March 9th election results which culminated in INEC declaring it inconclusive.

    He called on political leaders to desist from making unguarded utterances capable of inflaming passion, which could trigger violence.

    “That it is incumbent upon political leaders to strictly obey the rules of engagement and the law by admonishing their members, operatives and followers to be mindful of the full wrath of the law this time around adding that open monitory and other unlawful inducements must never be condoned during the rerun elections.”

    Tofa, however, charged security personnel to remain alert from now until the formal declaration of the rerun election results and after.

    He also urged them to provide sufficient personnel to be detailed and posted to each of the polling units scattered over the 88 registration areas (wards) in the 30 affected local government areas of the state.

    “Security operatives must be seen to be upright and above board and completely nonpartisan. They have done well during the previous elections but the rerun exercise may yet prove to be more arduous and daunting.”

    “It also becomes imperative to take such security measures as would prevent people from neighboring states, who are non-residents of the state from coming in to partake in the March 23re rerun elections to forestall unnecessary tension or violence”

  • Imo governorship election

    By way of paired comparison, Imo and Ogun states shared a lot of similarities in the just concluded governorship elections. But they also have their dissimilarities. They stand out as the two states incumbent governors fell out with the national leadership of their party in the choice of the governorship candidates.

    During the primaries of the All Progressives Congress APC, both governors, Rochas Okorocha and Ibikunle Amosun had their preferred candidates for the governorship position. The national leadership of the party preferred otherwise and went ahead to offer its ticket to candidates of the party’s choice to the dissatisfaction of the governors. But they still left both governors with the senatorial tickets of the party.

    Not satisfied with the development, the governors opted to still push their preferred candidates through the platforms of some other relatively unknown political parties basking on the political structures they had established in their respective states. So it was that while Okorocha opted for Action Alliance, AA with his son-in-law Uche Nwosu as the candidate, Amosun went for the Allied Peoples Movement where his preferred candidate Adekunle Akinlade flew the flag of the party.

    The governors pursued their senatorial ambitions through the platform of the APC while at the same time working against the candidates of their party at the governorship level. But whereas Amosun emerged successful in the senatorial election, Okorocha’s election was enmeshed in serious controversy. The returning officer had while declaring the result in favour of Okorocha, said he was doing so under duress and to save his life.

    Apparently acting along this line, INEC said it would not offer Certificates of Return to any candidate where results were announced under duress. It made good this decision by excluding Okorocha from the list of successful senatorial candidates to receive that certificate. But Amosun’s was devoid of controversy. It is not certain the final position INEC will take in relation to Okorocha’s case. But one thing that appears certain is that there are still thorns strewn on his way to the National Assembly.

    The governorship elections have come and gone. While Amosun’s candidate lost to the candidate of the APC, both the APC candidate and that of Okorocha lost to the Peoples Democratic Party PDP in Imo State. For keen watchers of political events in the state, the turn of events should not be surprising.

    Okorocha came into the saddle after he defeated the incumbent regime of Ikedi Ohakim who had fallen out of favour with people of the state. He had a very popular mandate such that expectations were high that he would take the state to higher heights. This feeling was fuelled by some of the philanthropic ventures he was involved in before he became the governor. The expectation was that if he could touch many lives in his private capacity, he would definitely do more when he has the resources of the state at his disposal.

    But this expectation was to turn out a pipe dream. He soon began to incrementally squander the goodwill that brought him to power through very unpopular policies and scant regard to due process.  He was even quoted to have queried the efficacy of due process in the business of governance. He displayed an uncommon disdain for elite involvement in governance accusing leaders who came around him of a hidden desire to share government money.

    Okorocha became so loud, boasting that he was going to retire all known political leaders in the state except himself and made good this promise by relegating the elite and people of substance to the back seat, always preferring to surround himself with yes-men for whom the lure of the stomach was the prime motivation. He began to create a new class of leadership with questionable credentials, always preferring those who will do his bidding without questioning.

    With such a mindset, Imo State was brought down to its knees. His new class of leaders basking on the euphoria of their newly unmerited status displayed an uncanny disdain for those who cared to question the slide to the precipice into which the state was inevitably headed. Every sector of governance: the education system, the civil service, social infrastructure and the health care delivery system were so assaulted and desecrated that it will take years to bring them back to form. Even in the area of some of the projects he attributes to his credit, poor quality work and an abysmally poor standard of performance combine to erase whatever credit he might wish to ascribe to his regime.

    His regime became a catalogue of woes as workers were owed salaries; pensions and gratuities running to several months stood in arrears. But he found comfort in praise singing and cronyism. His became a regime of what has now been aptly described as government of Okorocha for himself and members of his immediate family. He was so blinded by the trappings and arrogance of power that his became a verity of Lord Acton’s maxim that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

    Apparently because of the enormous resources at his disposal and his connection with the federal government, he thought he could bulldoze his way to become a maximum ruler in the state whose words must be obeyed at all costs. It was very common to hear him rehearsing how he single-handedly built the APC in the southeast, the insults he received in the process and how that should qualify him for special attention.

    All this was designed to run down his people by creating the false impression that he is the only one that can be trusted and entrusted with higher offices by the powers that be. So it was that he could not find any other person suitable to hand over power except his son-in-law despite extant understanding that power should rotate among the three senatorial zones of the state. Curiously, Okorocha who has been positioning to run for the presidency on the grounds that power will shift to the southeast in 2023 scorned the same principles in his state. Despite protestations and tension created by the idea of having three governors from the same zone for 24 years, he was bent on bulldozing his way at all cost.

    But respite came the way of the state when his party denied his anointed candidate the governorship ticket. He failed to see the handwriting on the wall. Not even the strident campaigns mounted against him by the national chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole was enough for him to do a rethink. Oshiomhole had during the flag-off of the campaign rally of the APC in Imo lambasted Okorocha accusing him of sundry misdeeds including running the government of the state as a family business. In saner climes, that was all that was needed to vote out Okorocha or any of his surrogates from any elective office.

    He trudged on accusing Oshiomhole of being an ingrate for turning round to work against him after he had helped him to secure the office of the national chairman of the party. Before Oshiomhole, he also had issues with John Oyegun, the immediate past national chairman of the party. And when Oyegun left he boasted that all the wrongs he allegedly wrought against him especially in the conduct of the primaries of the party will be redressed by Oshiomhole.

    It was a matter of time. Soon, he again fell out with his supposed rescuer. Curiously Okorocha was blinded by the lust for power to decipher the handwriting on the wall. He talked to himself, listened to himself and could not come to terms with the reality that he was in a deep mess. Imo people resented him, resented all that he represents even as he went around with the noxious obsession that he was the best thing that had happened to the state.

    But the people of the state spoke very unequivocally in their choice of the PDP candidate, Emeka Ihedioha as their preferred governor despite Okorocha’s sundry strategies and devious subterfuge to procure victory by all means. The verdict of the Imo people is clear. It is a verdict against running government as a family business; a verdict against poor leadership and a verdict for credible alternative and power rotation. It is a verdict of the will power of the electorate and that verdict must be respected.

    It is a bold statement that Okorocha, who defeated an incumbent in 2011with practically nothing, could not install his preferred candidate in 2019 with everything at his disposal. Such is the verdict of history and he should give peace a chance!

  • Innocent people are being killed because we won election, Taraba govt cries out

    The Taraba State government yesterday cried out that innocent people were being killed since the day Governor Darius Ishaku was declared winner of the governorship election in the state.

    The Commissioner for Information, Simon Dogari,  who briefed reporters on the incidents trailing the outcome of the election, said the attacks were being masterminded by the opposition parties who lost at the polls.

    He said the attacks were intended to give the impression that the governorship election in the state was not credible.

    Dogari said: “There have been several cases of attacks on innocent and defenceless people in Jalingo by miscreants hired and armed by those who lost the elections.

    “Their intention is to create tension and anarchy in the state such that the impression would be created that the elections were not credible.

    “The state government is happy that this motive has not been achieved. We give the credit to God and to all the good people of Taraba State who have ignored the call to arms and have in various ways helped to defuse tension rather than yield to the temptation to react violently.

    “The elections were generally free, fair and peaceful. There were no major incidents, as voting took place in all the centres.

    Read also: APC, PDP take INEC to task

    “It is also instructive that one of the major contestants in the gubernatorial election, Senator Aisha Alhassan, also rated the election as free, fair and credible, even though she lost.

    “Yet, the main opposition group has embarked on a mission of organising armed youths to confront people who came out in their numbers to celebrate the PDP victory.

    “The most unfortunate and dangerous dimension to this campaign was the religious colour their group tried to assign to the crisis.

    “It is disheartening that a man who is aspiring to a high position of leadership of this state would resort to religious bigotry to achieve his ambition.

    “Again, we thank God and the larger section of the populace for refusing to cooperate with him to cause more tension and damage to lives and properties.”

    He said that Governor Darius Ishaku “deeply appreciates the contributions of all the good people of the state in achieving peace and wishes to thank everybody, including Christian and Muslim leaders, who have been part of the peace building process.”

    The state government said it would ensure that all law abiding people are protected in order to go about their lawful activities without molestation.

    “Governor Ishaku also wishes to remind all of you that peace is the bedrock on which every positive human endeavour can thrive, hence his peace mantra: Give me peace and I will give you development.

    “We urge you to refuse to be used as political thugs, to shun violence and all forms of drug abuse and to support the government to build that future you deserve.”

  • Election: ‘Anglican Church committed to better Nigeria’

    The Diocese of Lagos West, Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, has restated its commitment to better Nigeria.

    Speaking on behalf of the church in Lagos, during a press briefing, the Lord Bishop of Diocese of Lagos West, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), The Rt. Rev’d Dr.James Olusola  Odedeji, said that the church committed huge resources in order to make the country have credible elections.

    The cleric, who described the participation of  the Diocese of Lagos West, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), in ensuring credible elections as expensive, said the church deployed 300 well-trained observers to cover all the nooks and crannies of the state, mobilized 40 buses and drivers and drafted the church dignitaries to man situation room, taking complaints wherever there was any and communicating same to the INEC, Lagos office.

    According to him, the church had earlier trained observers before the election with the assistance of INEC officials. “Despite the cost, as has been our tradition since we started in 2007, we did not seek, nor obtain any form of support whatsoever from any quarters. It is our concept, our commitment.

    “We are determined to join other stakeholders in sanitizing the political landscape of Nigeria. Nigeria must be restored. It used to be a beautiful land flowing with milk and honey before leaders turned to dealers and selfishly invaded the space with a view of acquiring our common patrimony for private ends,” he said.

    Odedeji told The Nation that when the church realized that there was no bond between the leader and the led, the church organized a debate which was well attended by 12 candidates contesting to be governor of Lagos State.