The Nation Newspaper

Tag: gubernatorial

  • Sanusi cautions supporters over gubernatorial campaigns

    Sanusi cautions supporters over gubernatorial campaigns

    Ibadan-born business mogul Engr. Jubril Dotun Sanusi aka ‘JDS’ has urged groups campaigning for him to run for Oyo Governorship in 2027 to stop immediately.

    Sanusi, currently in Europe, expressed concerns over increasing pressure mounted in him from supporters to contest in 2027.

    Read Also: Aiguobarueghian links up with Ighodalo supporters in UK ahead of Edo Gov poll

    A statement by Sanusi explained his future is in God’s hands and his service to humanity will continue regardless of political ambitions.

    Sanusi is known for his philanthropic efforts and support for President Bola Tinubu and Governor Seyi Makinde in the 2023 general elections.

    He said: “I am not doing what I do for political gains. I am committed to the greater good of our people. Giving is part of my life.”

    “Enough is enough, go and rest.”

  • Gubernatorial pariah

    Guess the self-made gubernatorial pariah?  He is Himself, the Osoko, Irunmale-to-nje-jollof- rice, Peter Ayodele Fayose, the enfant terrible governor of Ekiti.

    Half-stunt, half-ernest and the confusing grey in-between, Governor Ayo Fayose has stylishly and waywardly removed himself from the polite circle of governors, not unlike the Yoruba bad wood that would “expel” itself from fuelling the roaring fire.

    The other time the Osoko was in full lament — why didn’t Aso Rock congratulate him on his birthday?   Aso Rock, as usual, greeted the complaint with granite and funereal quiet — excuse me, it seemed to say with its thunderous silence — did anyone talk?

    Of course, the Osoko could well be talking tongue-in-cheek.  Still, fell  the Freudian slip from a troubled soul that has plumbed new nadirs in uncivil conduct, but still hankers after simple civil courtesies.  He probably would wait till kingdom come.

    Inasmuch as Fayose has the democratic right to choose those whose companies he may wish to keep or shun — including, by the way, that of the president of the Federal Republic who is, after all only a fellow citizen — it is the height of (un)gubernatorial folly not to know when to apply the breaks between personal cravings and state duties.

    By dismally failing on that front, he hurts Ekiti so much, given that while the governor is there for a maximum of eight years, Ekiti is an ongoing concern.  So any governor who, for whatever personal reasons, conducts himself in such a way that he wilfully expels himself, when other governors seize every opportunity to argue their states’ cases with the president, does his state monumental injustice.

    That is the cul-de-sac Fayose has driven Ekiti, and it is so, so sad.

    A few days ago, almost all of the governors had a short session with the president.  The result was the agreement to release a part of the Paris Fund deductions.  Given Fayose’s self-imposed isolation, because of his indecorous conduct, such an event would not have been possible.  If it wasn’t, the benefit derivable would never have been realized.

    Yet, in a fit of infantile stunt, Fayose in his favourite penchant for empty noise, went on a rigmarole over the money as Ekiti money (which is true) and how nobody can dictate how to spend it (which is also true).

    But is everything true right in every particular circumstance?  And the other governors that extracted the deal from the president, did they say the money was not their right?

    Of course, it is the classical Fayose-an empty babble, tailored to impress the naive and the gullible.  It is also a classic case of infantile bluff to save face.  It sounds as hollow and empty as they come.

    The disturbing trend is that it is not the first time Fayose would embark on such empty gambit.  The other time the president met with his fellow governors, Fayose craftily arranged a chieftaincy, hoping without hope the ceremony would crowd out his pariah status, because managing decorous official relations would appear beyond his ken.  If anyone was deceived, it probably was only Fayose himself.

    Still, after almost four years of pulling infantile stunts, to raucous cheers from the gullible in the streets, even the stunt-puller-in-chief knows he is becoming a bad stunt!  That would explain his latest gambit of sewing Christmas outfit for 10, 000 Ekiti kids.  Only in Fayoseland, after the so-called stomach infrastructure programme of rice and live chicken has lost its allure!

    Indeed, Ekiti has paid, with stiff interest, for its electoral folly of 2014.  But the heftier price still looms in the future.

  • Wike and gubernatorial end time

    Things are happening here, Hardball dares to say!

    With the DSS-corrupt judges stand-off (which some passionate partisans have deliberately, if emotively, dubbed DSS-Judiciary showdown), Nigeria might even be on its way to recording its first case of a fugitive judge, never mind that violent contradiction.

    From the news, the sting operation in Port Harcourt was not quite successful. According to DSS, the target judge somewhat escaped arrest, no thanks to the alleged heroics of Governor Nyesom Wike, who virtually sprang from nowhere, with some lorry loads of policemen in tow.

    DSS then made it known it was extending an invitation to the judge.  Except he honours that invitation, and there is no court restraint to the contrary, Nigeria might just be on its way to producing its first fugitive judge!

    But perish that thought!  His Lordship would probably show up and everything would be sorted out.

    Still, that would hardly excuse Governor Wike’s scandalously ungubernatorial conduct, in the whole messy affair.

    Both sides to the drama have stated their respective cases. But there are notorious facts that still shine through.

    Fact: Wike had no business on that scene of alleged crime — not as a lawful citizen; much less as a governor, who the constitution grants immunity from criminal prosecution, as long as he remains governor.

    But an unstated code of that rare privilege seems to have been lost on the governor, as it is lost on too many: whoever is immune from criminal prosecution as governor is unlikely, by his exemplary conduct as a lawful private citizen, to ever run the risk of prosecution.

    In other words, (s)he is not unlike Caesar’s wife: not only above reproach, but must be seen to be so!

    But did Wike’s reported conduct portray?  As governor, he admitted he “blocked” the arrest of a citizen — a judge yes, but a citizen nevertheless — even, with a tinge of drama, claiming that he quit his crusade when the DSS operatives threatened to shoot him.

    Well, Hardball is glad no one eventually got shot.  But not so, that a governor, enjoying constitutional immunity, would turn himself into a wilful barrier against the law, in a scandalous but classic case of standing on gubernatorial dignity.

    Because he enjoys immunity against criminal prosecution, does Wike think he is above the law?  Or that unruly conduct is acceptable to the polity, just because he enjoys the privileges of a governor?

    Besides, if Wike as governor behaves in such a reckless manner, is his conduct telling us his natural instinct is to thumb his nose at the law?  And in future, must we conduct psychoanalysis on gubernatorial candidates before deciding which one of them merits the constitutional grace of immunity?

    Or, because of the Wikes of this world, should we then go ahead and remove the immunity clause, since Wike’s disgraceful conduct does not seem to appreciate the huge and solemn privileges attached to his high gubernatorial office?

    Besides, what was Wike’s business in a matter concerning a judge accused of soiling his hands?  Is he the chief of the judge’s judicial jurisdiction?  The chief judge of Rivers State?  The president of the Court of Appeal?  Or the Chief Justice of Nigeria?

    Why would any right-thinking governor stake the majesty of his high office to aid a judge allegedly accused of acts which could bring him and his high judicial office into odium and ridicule?  And to boot: that judge could well, thanks to Wike’s golden intervention, account for the dubious honour of doubling as a fugitive, one of a very few, if not the first ever in Nigerian history?

    You want answers?  A difficult chore!  But just pass it as Governor Wike’s heroics in a gripping movie: Wike and gubernatorial end time!

    Things are really happening here!

  • This way for gubernatorial buffoonery

    In the Second Republic (1979-1983), when governance still had a modicum of serious business, and the likes of Goodluck Jonathan and Ayo Fayose had not strayed into those portals, a leading player, in the course of a public controversy, cracked a joke.

    Should the late Mallam Aminu Kano, the undisputed champion of the northern talakawa, become president, he wagered, he would probably have led a protest against his own government, bearing the lead placard, before being reminded he was indeed the president!

    The moral?  Mallam Aminu was such a congenital protester he would do so against himself, if and when he got the urge.

    Well, that joke is now playing out in Ekiti — but as a ribald joke taking the shape of gubernatorial buffoonery only a comic-tragic, in the mould of Ayo Fayose, stomach infrastructure governor of Ekiti State, is capable of.

    The impulsive Fayose had thundered, when Osun was in the eye of national storm, on account of salary default: any governor that couldn’t pay salaries had no business remaining in office.  He should resign.

    To that Fayose-an cacophony, the commonsense senator from Bayelsa had added his own sophisticated coarseness: in sympathy with the starving, he would donate part of his wardrobe allowance to  Osun workers and some Bayelsa widows.  How noble!

    Well, as it turned out, both Fayose’s Ekiti and Ben Murray-Bruce’s Bayelsa are catching the salary default bug.  Bayelsa’s Seriake Dickson, despite his state’s oil wealth, is settling for the lean Osun’s half-salary formula for some categories of workers, to placate what Commonsense Senator, in Osun-speak, would have called “starving Bayelsa workers”, to whose rescue his wardrobe allowance must come.

    But our golden senator is mute — pin-drop mute!  Whatever happened  to his Osun offer?  Or doesn’t it apply to Bayelsa, his own people?  Political demagoguery is reckless business.

    But back to Ekiti, where Fayose, away from his numberless ponmo jaunts, is now leading a protest against his own government in sympathy with the striking workers.  Seriously?

    At first, he was deadpan: the stomach infrastructure governor could not pawn himself to pay workers.  Is that not the core of his governmental philosophy? But what happened to his declaration that any governor who couldn’t pay salaries should scram?  Obviously, no quitting for Fayose, only more buffoonery.

    Later, it was a comical motorcade among Ado-Ekiti Okada riders, “protesting” the salary non-payment.  But, of course, a non-thinking governor is most at home with boisterous company.

    Even then, that is a short fix.  In time, even these Okada riders would wise up: the bale of cash their leaders may have taken and the drum of paraga available to the riders could not make up for cash from a hard day’s job.  When the stomach rumbles without cease, they would realise the vacuity of a ponmo-driven governor, hollering stomach infrastructure.

    Now, the last — or latest — act of desperation: the government issuing a fraudulent statement that purportedly recalled a segment of the workers.  How far can Fayose’s tomfoolery go?

    Hardball keenly watches.  It is, after all, democracy: the right to ruin yourself by your vote.

  • Rumpus in Kogi APC over Audu’s gubernatorial ambition

    Rumpus in Kogi APC over Audu’s gubernatorial ambition

    Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan, reports that Prince Abubakar Audu’s interest to contest for the All Progressives Congress’ governorship ticket in Kogi State has raised the stakes ahead the October governorship election in the state

    Though it started as a rumour, whispered in hushed tones, as the people of Kogi State prepare for the 2015 gubernatorial ambition scheduled to hold in October, it is now public knowledge that their former governor, Prince Abubakar Audu, is interested in returning to Lugard House to serve in the same capacity for a third time.

    While the news of the ex-governor’s renewed ambition is being received across the state with mixed feelings, it appears his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), may have been thrown into a serious internal squabble as groups within it battle for and against Audu’s ambition.

    Already, there are allegations and counter allegations. While the former governor’s camp accused his critics of ganging up against him for no reason, other governorship aspirants within the party are accusing Audu of plotting to acquire the party’s ticket through undemocratic means.

    “Prince Audu’s ambition is an ill wind that will blow nobody any good. He knows he cannot win the primary election of the APC and he is planning to subvert the process and award the ticket to himself,” a governorship aspirant lamented. But an aide of the former governor debunked such allegations, saying “these people who before now feel the APC cannot achieve anything in Kogi are now shouting. They are confusionists out to distract the party.”

    The Nation learnt that trouble started within the party following Audu’s decision to finally make his ambition public after months of insinuations and indications. Few weeks back, the former governor announced that he would heed the call of the people of the state to again come forward and contest the forthcoming governorship election.

    He spoke at his Ogbonicha country home in Ofu Local Government Area of the state at a civic reception he organised for his party, the APC’s national and state assemblies’ members in the state. Justifying his decision, Audu said the state was his ”baby” which he would not abandon.

    “The voice of men are the voice of God, the people are yearning for me to come back because of my performance between 1999 and 2003. A lot of people have been wallowing in abject poverty with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in power in the state. A lot of people are dying.  As a matter of fact, Kogi is my baby and if I turn my back against my baby, it means I am an irresponsible father,” he said.

    And as if responding to widespread questions from his critic as to what he is coming back to do, the APC leader said, “I am coming back to salvage; rescue the state and place it back to where I left it in 2003 and even go beyond that.”

    Stiff opposition

    It took little or no time for the public announcement to attract responses from within the party. Expectedly, the first group to reject Audu was the one loyal to the former governor’s arch-rival and fellow party man, Barrister James Ocholi. According to party sources, the group is opposed to Audu because of the running political battle between him and Ocholi.

    “After the successful merger of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), these two leaders, Audu and Ocholi have been locking horns over who becomes party leader in the state.

    Naturally, members who came from the CPC were sympathetic to Ocholi, while those in the ACN group were sympathetic to Audu. Those who came from other parties either followed Audu’s group or Ocholi’s group. As a result of the situation, the CPC group has Muhammed Mabo as their chairman, while the ACN group picks Alhaji Hadi Amentur as the party chairman.

    But they were later reconciled by the party’s national leaders. Hence, Hadi became the chairman in an election supervised by the officials of the party from the national headquarters without the presence of factions. The division was again brought to limelight again during the primary election to pick candidates for the National Assembly and State Assembly elections as election materials were said to have been hijacked by Audu’s group, led by Dino Melaye,” a party source alleged.

    Beside the Ocholi group, some elders are also opposed to Audu’s ambition for some reasons and they are voicing their rejection of him loudly even as the former governor and his team go about seeking the support of groups and individuals within and outside the party in a bid to ensure the success of his ambition.

    The elders, under the aegis of the All Progressives Elders Vanguard, called on the party and President Muhammadu Buhari to save the party from imminent collapse under the leadership of Audu. They claimed that Audu had hijacked the party machinery to his benefit, warning that the APC would lose the goodwill it enjoyed during the presidential election if Audu was not called to order.

    The elders, in a letter to Buhari, warned that the outcome of the state assembly election could be replicated during the governorship election in 2016 except the former governor is prevailed upon to drop his governorship ambition and also allow the rule of law to take root.

    The elders said the party’s misfortune in the National Assembly election in the state was due to the ambition of the former governor. The party was victorious in the March 28 presidential and National Assembly elections, but performed dismally in the governorship and state assembly polls.

    The letter signed by Isa Sani Omolori, chairman of the APC Elders’ Vanguard, Kogi Central, also accused Audu of being interested only in building structures for his governorship ambition than working for the collective good of the party.

    The letter read in part: “The main problem of the party (APC) in the state is not that of followership but leadership, which zeroes down on former Governor Abubakar Audu, whose dictatorial politics would destroy rather than build the party.

    “What happened at the last national elections was for Audu to put up structures to launch his governorship ambition rather than abide by the party’s constitution and follow due process in the primaries.”

    Another group, Kogi Renewal Group, kicked against Audu’s quest to get the APC governorship ticket.

    The Chairman of the group, Dr. Abubakar Yakubu, told journalists that Kogi needed change but the change the state needed was not the return of Audu to Lugard House.

    The group advised him to canvass support for other aspirants outside Kogi East Senatorial District to become governor in 2016, stressing that Kogi State had been generous with their support for candidates from Kogi East in the last 16 years. To them, Audu’s ambition is against the principle of equity and fairness.

    Alhaji Suleiman Baba Ali, a former health commissioner in the state and APC governorship aspirant, also want his former boss to quit the race. “As I said, I worked in an administration led by Prince Audu, 1999 to 2003. You must give that to him. I have said that every time. Among all the governors we have had in Kogi, his performance is still the best. I’m proud to have been associated with that government.

    But basically, we think this is the time for others to have their hands on governance in Kogi. Those of us who have learnt from him and imbibed good things from him, this is an opportunity for us to do well, while he plays the fatherly role and stays back. He should give advice on how to make Kogi a better state.

    At the same time, he should be able to fight for Kogi at national level so that he can get bigger and better things because of his fatherly role. He may not be able to get these things directly if he is the governor himself. That is the role of the leadership of the party at national level. They should look at it and I believe they are looking at those possibilities,” Ali argued.

    Counter position

    But the Kogi Peoples Assembly (KPA) chided some self acclaimed politicians in the state who it claimed are bent on frustrating the governorship bid of Audu, saying they can’t stop him from returning to Luggard House next year. Speaking to journalists in Abuja over the unfolding political power play ahead of the forthcoming governorship election in the state, the group’s coordinator, Engr. Solomon Adaji, said Audu’s position as the leader of the APC in the state was not contestable.

    Describing critics of Audu’s leadership political status in the party as political neophytes, Adaji specifically condemned the recent statements credited to those he called faceless persons operating under groups against Audu, saying they “are jittery over the unwavering and high status of Prince Abubakar Audu in APC”.

    “Audu represents the agent of change and a gift to any nation like ours which is in desperate need to attain democratic advancement. They had tried in vain to ridicule a man of integrity, honour and prudence; a principled and transparent individual; a revered political colossus, a quintessential achiever”, Adaji noted.

    He described as arrant nonsense suggestions from some quarters that Audu was more interested in building structures for his governorship ambition than working for the collective good of the party. Describing Audu as a shrewd politician, Adaji explained that the former governor does not need to build new political structures to actualise his governorship ambition in the next dispensation.

    He said, “Audu had in place magnificent structure in Kogi State, dating back to 1991, when he ran for the position of the governor of Kogi State under the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC). It was under the same 1991 structure that Audu used in 1999 to emerge victorious as governor of Kogi State under the platform of the defunct All Peoples Party (APP).

    “To put in perspective Audu’s political structure and followership transcends the landscape of Kogi State. As an internationally recognised politician cum business mogul, Audu is not an individual in the political scene of the nation as erroneously expressed by these critics.

    “Audu being a household name in Kogi State, with unprecedented political followers, admirers and supporters across the nooks and crannies in the state will not capitalise on any new structures to win the forthcoming governorship election.

    “Audu has built structures within and around notable political parties across the country, and one of which transformed into the political tsunami, called the All Progressive Congress (APC) today.

    “He single-handedly formed a rainbow alliance with the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) Action Congress (AC) and Movement for the Restoration and Defence of Democracy (MRDD) aimed at rooting out PDP’s misrule in the State”.

    He noted that Kogi State was in a deplorable condition under the present leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would therefore require a banker of repute in the person of Prince Abubakar to rescue it.

    Another group loyal to Audu, Confluence for Change, responded, saying Prince Audu is the leader of the APC in the state.

    The group said, in a statement signed by its chairman, Isah Ibrahim, that Audu had remained a rallying point for the APC not only in Kogi State but in the North Central zone.

    Also, thousands of youths from the 21 local governments of Kogi State staged a peaceful rally at Murtala Muhammed Bridge on Abuja-Jamata-Lokoja Road in support of the governorship ambition of Prince Audu. The APC Youth Leader, Omale Moses, who led the rally, said since the former governor left office, the state had collapsed socially and economically, adding that they wanted him to come and save the state from bad leadership.

    Also, a chieftain of the party, Alhaji Linco Ocheje, believed that there was neither a division nor a problem in the APC over who would become the governorship candidate. He said Audu and any other party member were constitutionally guaranteed the right to vie for the governorship seat in a free and transparent primary election.

    He likened the Kogi scenario to the contest among Buhari, Atiku Abubakar and Rabiu Kwankwaso during the presidential primary election when people believed that the APC would have scattered but came out stronger at the end.

    A crowded race

    Findings by The Nation revealed that opposition to the former governor’s ambition is not just verbal, as many aspirants are already warming up to wrestle with him for the APC governorship ticket. The primary elections have been fixed for between August 25 and September 15 by INEC.

    Aside Audu, who was the first governor of the state and leader of the APC in the state, there are about ten other aspirant eyeing the APC ticket. The ex-governor was denied a return to Lugard House by Alhaji Ibrahim Idris in 2003. He had contested all subsequent governorship elections in the state but had always lost.

    Pundits say one major factor that may affect his chances this time around, in spite of APC’s seeming good stead to defeat the ruling PDP, is the agitation for power shift from his native Kogi East which has been ruling the state since its creation in 1991. But his handlers believe his popularity and the numerical strength of his zone will deliver the votes for him.

    Other aspirant seeking the party’s ticket include budding political giant, Yahaya Bello, also called “Fair Plus”, which is his business name, according to sources. He is from Kogi Central, a zone highly favoured by proponents of power shift. This factor, coupled with his popularity across the state, especially among the youths, is expected to work in his favour.

    Audu’s arch-rival, James Ocholi, is another strong contender for the APC governorship ticket from the eastern flank of the state. The 55-year-old Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) is a former governorship aspirant on the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the state. His closeness to President Muhammadu Buhari is being bandied as a selling point by his supporters.

    Also in the race is Salihu Atawodi. He is a retired Air Vice Marshal. A reckoned politician, he, alongside other ex-PDP chieftains, joined the APC shortly before the general election. Although considered an aspirant of note by many, his critics say he is too new in the party to be trusted with the ticket.

    Other chieftains of the APC said to be keen about contesting the primary election for the party’s governorship ticket are Aliyu Zakari Jiya, Habeeb Yaqeen, Suleiman Babe Ali, Onukaba Adinoyi Ojo, Lanre Ipinmisho, Senator Nurudeen Abatemi-Usman, Rotimi Yaqub Obadofin, former Deputy Governor, Alex Usman Kadiri, Nicholas Yahaya Ugbane and Olusola George Olumoroti.

    Fear, assurance

    Consequent upon the open opposition to Audu’s quest to fly the party’s flag and the crowded race to the primary election, keen watchers of the development are warning of a rancorous contest within the party which may affect its chances at the general election later in the year.

    But the APC chairman in the state, Hadi Amentur, insists there is no division in the party. Amentur is confident that there is no cause for alarm because of his belief that there was no PDP in the state at the moment. He said it was normal and constitutional for any member of the party to aspire to get the party’s ticket for the governorship election.

    According to him, any member of the party can contest any position in the party as long as he or she is a member. Nobody can stop anyone from contesting the governorship ticket. He said the constitution allowed those who wanted to contest to do so through the primary election, stressing that those saying somebody should not contest were only making noise because the party constitution clearly spelt it out.

    “We won three senatorial seats, six House of Representatives and 11 State House of Assembly seats. More seats will be collected through the tribunal. With the poor performance of the PDP, led by Idris Wada, it would be an easy ride for the APC,” he said.

    With such reassuring words from the leadership of the party in the state, one can only wait to see how President Buhari’s party men will manage the situation in the Confluence State ahead of the battle for the  Lugard House.