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  • 102 elected senators, 338 Reps get certificates today

    WINNERS in the February 23 National Assembly elections are to get certificates of return (CoR) today by at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja.

    According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), 102 senators-elect will get their certificates by 10am and 338 would-be House of Representatives members will be issued theirs by 2pm.

    Going by the list of candidates, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has 63 senators, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has 38 and Youth Progressives Party (YFP) has a seat.

    Seven seats have been declared inconclusive and will be contested for during the supplementary election slated for March 23.

    For the lower chamber, the ruling party also has the majority with 211 members.  The PDP has 111 members.

    Other political parties share the remaining 16 seats -APGA (six); African Democratic Congress (ADC), three; Action Alliance (AA) two and Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), two. African Democratic Party (ADP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) have one slot each.

    Twenty-two seats are still up for grabs where elections were declared inconclusive. Make-up polls in the affected Federal Constituencies (excluding in Rivers State) have been fixed for March 23.

    Elections were suspended in Rivers State for INEC to review. The process that has been wracked by protests.

    The two major parties – APC and PDP – will be slugging it out in six states where elections were declared inconclusive. They are: Sokoto, Adamawa, Bauchi, Kano, Plateau and Benue.

    SOKOTO

    There are 526,892 votes to be contested for in the six states.  In Sokoto, where Governor Aminu Waziri of the PDP, who scored 489, 588, was leading with 3,413 votes, the two leading parties will battle for 75,493 votes in 136 polling units in 22 local government areas. The APC candidate, Aliyu Sokoto, was trailing with 486, 145 votes before the process was declared inconclusive.

    ADAMAWA

    Before the process was declared inconclusive in Adamawa, the PDP, with 367,471 votes as against APC’s 334,995, was leading by 32,476 votes. The candidates of the two parties have 40,998 votes to fight for. Incumbent Governor Jibrilla of the APC and his challenger PDP Umar Fintiri will be slugging it out on March 23.

    BAUCHI

    In Bauchi, it was too close to call. The PDP candidate Bala Muhammed was leading the APC candidate, Governor Mohammed Abubakar with 4,059. There are 139,240 votes to decide the winner. After the first ballot, the PDP had 469,512 and the APC got 465,453.

    BENUE

    Governor Samuel Ortom of the PDP, who got 410, 576, was ahead in Benue with 81,554 votes. He will be slugging it out with his APC challenger Emmanuel Jime for 121, 011 votes. Jime got 329, 022 at the close of the first ballot.

    PLATEAU

    In Plateau, incumbent Governor Simon Lalong of the APC got 583, 255 to lead Senator Jeremiah Useni of the PDP with 44,929 votes. Useni got 538, 326. The duo will be fighting for the outstanding 49,377 votes.

    KANO

    There are 100, 873 votes to decide who wins the election. The PDP, with 1,014,474 votes, was leading the APC, which got 987, 810, with 26,664 votes.

    As at the time of filing this report, the Commission has not received the report from the investigative panel it raised on the disruption of the electoral process in Rivers State.

    Though the committee, which was given 48 hours to turn in its report, has not been able to do so as a result of many factors, it has, however, met with critical stakeholders in the state, including the governor and other governorship candidates.

    The committee was set up on Sunday to review the situation that led to the disruption of the electoral process. Going by the 48-hour time lag given, the panel ought to have submitted its report on Tuesday.

    It was learnt last night that the panel was “wrapping” up its assignment.

    The commission had suspended collation and announcement of results, citing electoral violence and safety of its workers. It therefore raised a fact-finding committee to assess the situation and report back within 48 hours.

    Responding to an inquiry from our correspondent, Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, said the committee may have been bogged down by flight delays and others factors.

    He, however, assured that “immediately the committee turns in its report, the commission will take a decision in respect of Rivers State”.

    Meanwhile, INEC has debriefed all accredited observers on the last polls.

  • Buhari: I look forward to effective relationship with Ninth National Assembly

    President Muhammadu Buhari is looking forward to a good working relationship with the Ninth National Assembly.

    He spoke in Daura, his country home in Katsina State yesterday.

    The President said that a harmonious working relationship between the Executive and the Legislative arms would rub off positively on the budgetary process and restore the January-December fiscal cycle.

    He made the remark while receiving his old school mates, who came to congratulate him on his re-election.

    The President, according to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, recounted how the delay in the passage of budgets hindered timely execution of projects across the country.

    With the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the presidential election and majority seats in the Ninth Senate, President Buhari expressed confidence that more work will be done to improve the efficiency of the budgetary process.

    He told his classmates in the 1953 set of Katsina Middle School, Daura, led by Senator Abba Ali, that it is on record that the 2018 budget proposals submitted to the National Assembly on November 7, 2017, was passed after seven months.

    Notwithstanding the challenges, President Buhari assured his classmates that the Executive arm of government, under his watch, will strive towards effective implementation of national budgets while promoting transparency and accountability.

    He thanked his old school colleagues for the ‘reunion’, praising their interest and useful suggestions on advancing Nigeria’s prosperity and stability.

    Senator Ali said majority of Nigerians believed in his purposeful leadership and resoundingly renewed his mandate.

    The Senator, who wished the President more success in his second-term, noted that the country will benefit more when the executive and legislative branches of government work in unison on national interests.

  • Party chief on AWOL with millions of naira

    THE 2019 presidential and National Assembly elections have come and gone. But while many politicians are counting their losses, others are counting their gains.

    Among the politicians whose accounts are on the positive side of the balance sheet is a party chief whose party was said to have given hundreds of millions of naira for the presidential election initially scheduled for February 16.

    Upon learning on the eve of the election that it had been postponed by one week, party leaders instructed him to stay action on the disbursement of the funds. He complied.

    Then came the rescheduled election and time to spread the largesse, the party chief was incommunicado. All the efforts made by party chieftains to reach him physically or even on the phone, as they say, ‘proved abortive.’ The election held nonetheless, “any how, any how,” apology to our Niger Deltans. Suddenly the next day, the party chief showed up.

    Asked what happened, he said he had been busy working for the party and reaching out to people that mattered. But as it turned out, the result of the election showed that there was no work done by the party chief.

  • Reasons PDP can’t hijack 9th National Assembly’s leadership —Reps Chief Whip Doguwa

    House of Representatives Chief Whip, Hassan Ado Doguwa, believes that the opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won’t be able to wrest the leadership of the 9th National Assembly from the majority party, All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Northwest caucus leader in the House gave his reasons, in this interview with DELE ANOFI, the Northwest caucus leader, among other issues. Excerpts:

    THE composition of the House leadership is the next most important agenda as the 8th Assembly winds down. The grapevine has it that the minority party, PDP, is strategising to turn the table against APC again, reminiscent of the emergence of the current leadership, are you (APC) not alarmed?

    To start with, I was not in any way a key player in the emergence of this current leadership under Yakubu Dogara as it were because I have always been a loyal party member. Throughout the period of the power struggle for the leadership of the 8th Assembly, I stood by the party directives. We voted for Femi Gbajabiamila all through. That was the party’s decision then and we all stood by the party agenda as far as the leadership of the House was concerned. The point I came in was when Dogara won his election, of course, without my vote and support. There was the need for us to stabilise the House leadership and there was a call for Dogara to extend a hand of fellowship to me. Of course, I accepted and the same was extended to the Leader of the House, Gbajabiamila, and we all agreed to take part in the current leadership. None of us, neither Gbajabiamila nor myself, nor Pally Iriase, Deputy Chief Whip, was in anyway a party to the emergence of Dogara as Speaker.

    The composition of the leadership of the 9th House of Representatives is certainly going to be the next agenda, not only of the House but that of APC since we have a comfortable majority in the Senate and the House. If we are to go by the arithmetic we have at hand now, I don’t think it is going to be possible for any opposition party, however powerful, however manipulative to think we would be able to repeat the mistake we made in past. They would not get away with that attempt this time around, not only because we have a comfortable majority in both chambers; no, it’s because I think we in the parliament, those of us in APC have learnt our lessons and I also want to believe that our leaders, our major national stakeholders in the party, must have learnt their lessons too. With all sense of responsibility and respect, I want to say that even Mr. President must have learnt his lessons arising from the kind of misgivings encountered in the current leadership of the National Assembly by extension. And I want to say that all these things happened because some right decisions that ought to have been taken ab initio were not taken, either on the part of the Executive arm of government or the party, because they felt then it was not necessary for them to intervene directly in the processes of the emergence of the leadership of the National Assembly. I don’t think the party also did quite well in the process of coordination and galvanising support for the right candidates to take the leadership of the National Assembly. All I’m saying is that whoever may think of having a repeat or replica of what happened in the 7th and 8th Assembly where the party had a position and unfortunately, the opposition party connived and conspired with some of our members in the party and got their way, I don’t think that is going to be possible again. If they succeeded the last time, it was because that was the first time they outsmarted the party and the parliament. This time around, I think we have now come of age and I believe we would not allow the opposition have any opening to take advantage of any crisis or rift within our party to take the leadership again. Taking the leadership of the National Assembly from the majority party by the opposition can only be possible or achievable if the party is not guided by the principle of fairness and justice. Even in the past, it was about fairness and justice. It wasn’t as if there was no issue with the party agenda in the past; there was a lot of problem; some of the agenda presented by the party were lopsided, selfish and not fair but we decided to remain obedient to the party because we didn’t want to create problems, most especially those of us from the Northwest where the President came from. Ee were grateful for the love Nigerians showed us by electing the President from our zone; so, we felt duty bound to agree to all the decisions by the party. But there were actually some problems but I want to believe that the party under the leadership of present Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, wants to get it right this time but we must be ready and prepared to avoid some of those mistakes of the past. Critical among those mistakes were the mistake of selfishness, mistake of bringing in personal agenda, trying to toe the line of an individual, which will always work against the interest of the party and the people. I want to assure that we don’t hope to have the same problem, we won’t encourage a repeat of that problem because Mr. President at the moment would want to have a very friendly National Assembly by way of its leadership so that he will be able to consolidate on the gains of democracy, which he has already set a very foundation for.

    You are one of the highest ranking members of the Green Chamber and a serving principal officer, what would you propose for the composition of the leadership of National Assembly since the composition of the Executive has not changed?

    My opinion is that as long as the party would build its decision on the basis of fairness and justice in politics or democracy, you are talking of the compensation of the people who have laboured for the party to get this success. And you must also take into cognizance the fact that we operate a federal system of government, where we have different ethnic affinities, tribes, regions and if we must be fair, the performance of each zone must be taken into account and when it comes into compensation, you give them what is due to them on the basis of their performance and contribution to the efforts and success of the election. It does not matter who had the President, the parliament is a separate arm of government. Sharing positions in the Legislature requires that cognizance is taken of the fact that this is another independent arm of government. As such, compensation must be according to performance and contributions. This is in consonance with this Karl Marx saying that “From each according to his ability to each according to his labour”. As long as the party will detail from this concept of reward and punishment, then there will be problems. I want to suggest to the party to look at the performances of each and different geo-political zones and also complete them accordingly when it comes to sharing leadership positions in the National Assembly. For instance, the Northwest delivered the highest number of votes to the party, and so deserved to be compensated for that. We believe in APC principles and ideologies, so we deserve to be adequately compensated despite having the President from that zone. But, if we are talking about fairness and justice, then other zones that do not have critical positions on the part of the Executive must come into the equation. I say this because as it is now, lots of permutations and speculations, which I believe if they continue like that and eventually becoming real, I want to assure you, no one can stop a repeat of what happened in 2015. For instance, a situation where you have the Vice President, number two person from the Southwest and you are now working for the Speakership of the House of Representatives or the Deputy Senate presidency would not bode well for the party in the parliament. I’m not calling names because these are all speculations that are gaining ground but if it turns out to be true, what stops me from the Northwest where the President comes from, to equally decide to vie for the Speaker’s seat? These are the things we have to avoid. If we want to be fair, let’s be fair all through, be transparent, and come up with an agenda that will be acceptable to everyone. The moment a hidden agenda is promoted to the front burner, while talking about fairness and the agenda doesn’t look fair to Nigerians, then there must be problems. These are the problems we had in the 7th and 8th Assemblies, the party must be ready to avoid these mistakes. So, my suggestions are either share positions on the basis of labour and reward due to performance and contributions or fairness and justice based on federal system of democracy so that everyone will feel carried along. Whichever way the party takes, we in the parliament are ready to stand by the party till the end.

    As the leader of the Northwest caucus, we have not heard anything from you while some of your colleagues have started declaring their intentions to run for one principal office or the other.

    Those of us who have been quiet about our aspirations for the leadership positions in the 9th Assembly are doing that in respect of party supremacy. We are giving the party the benefit of leadership and waiting for the party to declare or come up with a zoning agenda before we now begin to look at it and aspire for whatever positions suitable to us. As loyal party members, we have to be quiet not because we are not ambitious, but take it from me, I will definitely run for one of these principal positions from the Speakership downward.

    For emphasis, I am currently the leader of the party from my zone in the House and I’m also holding a principal position as Chief Whip, so I must obviously run for a principal position in the next House but that is dependent on the zoning formula put forward by the party. With all sense of respect and responsibility, I want to say that it is very wrong for any one of us to begin to declare himself as an aspirant for Speakership or any position for that matter much earlier before the party releases its agenda for the leadership positions. To me, that amounts to disrespect for the party. So, whoever is going round campaigning, consulting for positions when the party was yet to make a pronouncement over it, has obviously shown an intention to undermine the party and breach the principle of party supremacy. We are not ready to be disloyal members or undermine our party but we urge the party to be very fair and just when it comes to the issue of the sharing formula for the National Assembly leadership positions. Anything short of fairness and justice, then everybody can be on his own.

    Has your party done enough to discipline erring members and maintain party supremacy, if we consider the behaviour of some governors before the election?

    In my opinion, the party is doing enough and on course to establish party supremacy discipline erring party members. Unfortunately, this new party structure took off from a frail, weak foundation. The problems we had in the past with the John Oyegun-led National Executive Council  (NEC) was that the party does not have that control, party supremacy was nonexistent, it was only in the words of mouth. But we can now see that we have a vibrant party leadership led by a former governor, who is not only fearless and has democratic principles with clarity of purpose. So it’s like the party is now rejuvenated, coming up with more vigour to ensure that discipline is entrenched. For instance, look at the action taken against two governors recently; I think that is exemplary and commendable because it takes a lot of courage and political will to sanction members of that caliber. This is something we never had in the past and we must encourage it. Though they haven’t performed 100 percent yet but I believe they are working towards addressing issues of discipline and promoting the supremacy of the party as far as APC concerned. First of all, in the parliament, we will be excited if we are able to see this principle of party supremacy being respected by all, which I think can only be respected if we can be galvanised and coordinated within the context and content of fairness, justice and equity, otherwise we will not get it right. What would you say to complaints from sections of the populace that lawmakers that kept coming back to the legislature after three terms are not considerate, since membership of the Nigerian legislature is more of empowerment than service?

    In the first place I want to disagree vehemently with that assertion, it is not a correct and true assessment of legislators that membership is about personal empowerment than service. As long as the President is coming to the presidency in the name of service nationalistic commitments, every other political  public office holder , right from the Local government to the State, to the Federal, I believe is coming with the same commitment, service to the nation. So, alluding to the fact that coming to the legislature is more of self-empowerment than service is to say the least unfortunate, I don’t believe in that and that is not the case. As long as the law allows for someone to come as many times as his people wants to present him, I don’t think that should be an issue.

  • 9th National Assembly: Buhari, APC leaders to decide zoning

    President Muhammadu Buhari and All Progressives Congress(APC) leaders will meet after the governorship poll to decide the zoning formula for sharing power at the National Assembly, a source said yesterday.

    President Buhari has, however, told his strategists that “he won’t be a bystander this time around”.

    He said he will be involved in the talks and intrigues on the election of principal officers of the National Assembly.

    The APC said it will also play an active role in choosing the new leaders of the Assembly.

    According to the results of the National Assembly released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),  APC won 65 of the 109 senatorial seats, representing about 59.6%. PDP won 42 senatorial seats(40.3%) and Young Progressives Party (YPP) got one (1%).

    As for the House of Representatives, APC won over 230 of the 360 seats, leaving PDP with over 100 slots.

    The horse-trading has started among the senators-elect and representatives-elect.

    Leading the agitation for principal offices  in the Senate are Senators-elect from the North-East, North-Central, South-South, and South-West.

    Some of those aspiring for Senate President are Senate Leader Ahmad Lawan; former Senate Leader Ali Ndume; former Gombe State Governor and outgoing Committee on Appropriation Chairman  Danjuma Goje, Parliamentary Support Group (PSG) Chairman and ex-Governor Adamu Abdullahi and Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege.

    Some of the  seven ranking senators from the Southwest are already jostling for either Deputy Senate President or Senate Leader or Deputy Senate Leader.

    The House of Representatives Speaker may come from the Southwest, with the outgoing Majority Leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, as a leading candidate. He will have a repeat match against Speaker Yakubu Dogara of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    The APC has not decided on whether or not to retain its pre-2015 poll power sharing formula.

    Some party leaders are said to be pushing for a review of the zoning system since the President has promised an all-inclusive government.

    A source said: “We are actually waiting for the last strands of the general elections before we work out a formula which will guide the election of principal officers in the National Assembly. We won’t allow hijackers under any guise.

    “I think the ongoing agitation is based on the 2015 power rotation system in the party, which was altered by some rebellious members who later conspired with the PDP to produce Dr. Bukola Saraki as Senate President and Dogara as Speaker.

    “Some of our leaders are pushing for the undiluted implementation of the 2015 power formula, but others are insisting that we must tinker with the zoning system and align it with the sharing formula in the Executive arm in order to give a sense of belonging to all the six geopolitical zones.

    “In fact, some leaders want the allegation of nepotism  against the APC administration addressed.”

    Asked of the position of the President on the 9th National Assembly leadership, a Presidency source said: “He has told his strategists that ‘I won’t be a bystander this time around.’ But he  did not say his mindset or those he has favoured.

    When contacted, the National Publicity Secretary of APC, Mr. Lanre Issa-Onilu, said: “There is no discussion now on the choice of principal officers until after the governorship and state House of Assembly elections.

    “We will take stock after the poll because we need to know what our number is in the two chambers because there are still some results hanging.

    “I can, however, assure you that the party is going to play an active role this time around. We will ensure the emergence of principal officers who will put the nation first and assist the Executive to implement APC manifestoes.

    “Our party wants National Assembly leaders who will work hard and assist the President to execute far-reaching programmes.

    “APC will mandate its members to cooperate with members of the opposition in the National Assembly to see that Nigerians get the best.”

    Responding to a question, Onilu said: “We will not tolerate anti-party activities by newly elected Senators and members of the House of Representatives and we have already demonstrated this. If a serving governor can be suspended by APC, then it should be clear to all that we won’t condone indiscipline.”

  • Chief whip to PDP: you can’t take over 9th National Assembly

    The main opposition party in the National Assembly, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been advised to banish any thought or attempt to wrestle the leadership of the 9th National Assembly from the majority party, All Progressives Congress (APC).

    House of Representatives Chief Whip, Hassan Ado Doguwa said APC has learnt its lesson and have taken steps to correct the mistakes of the past that led to the taking over of the leadership of the outgoing Assembly by PDP.

    Doguwa, who secured the ticket for the sixth term to represent Tudun Wada/Doguwa Federal constituency of Kano State inthe next House of Representatives however urged the leadership of APC to as a matter of urgency come out with the sharing zoning strategy for the principal offices in the two chambers of the National Assembly.

  • Lessons of presidential, National Assembly polls

    The presidnetial and National Assembly elections have been won and lost. Lanre Matiluko examines the lessons of the polls.

    The 2019 presidential and National Assembly elections have come and gone.  But their ripples are very much around, especially the underwhelming performance of the federal ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the South West, the traditional bastion of progressive politics in Nigeria.

    Yes, the APC still won four of the six states (Lagos, Ogun, Osun and Ekiti; losing Oyo and Ondo only marginally); and also cleared most of the National Assembly seats (winning 14 out of 18 senatorial seats).

    Still, the “dropped points”, to borrow that sports lingo, would appear galling to many.  Indeed, many a fanatical partisan, with a “winner-takes-all” mentality, would insist it’s a good win that tastes like a bad loss!

    Take Ondo State, with an APC governor in his second year.  The party lost two key senatorial seats, just because Rotimi Akeredolu, the sitting governor, would appear warring with almost everyone in sight, in his party.  The party, therefore, had itself for electoral dinner, in a fit of political cannibalism.  The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were clear beneficiaries.

    The Oyo case was almost a replica, though APC still grossed two out of three senatorial seats — thanks to a dogged and determined electorate and party mobilizers; ranged against the election-time leprosy of Abiola Ajimobi, the Oyo State governor.

    Ajimobi, contrasted to his predecessors from 1999, has been a near-excellent governor, raising the bar in polite and modern governance, security, urban renewal and sanitation, infrastructure and general quality delivery.  But all that he smashed with a stupendous personality flaw, which peaked at the wrong time, and cost him his senatorial bid.

    Ogun could have been another victim of such terrible governor’s character flaw,  despite a near-stellar tenure, but for the maturity of elders like former Governor Olusegun Osoba who, election-eve, launched a campaign for party unity.  Though sitting Governor Ibikunle Amosun was chief beneficiary of that rapprochement (he won his Ogun Central senate bid), his bad grace goaded him to brazen post-victory anti-party activities.

    That essential bad grace, of Amosun’s post-victory campaign for his APM preferences, in the final run to the gubernatorial and state legislature polls, has earned him a suspension, which could well peak in outright expulsion — just as well!  Alleged anti-party activities have also earned Akeredolu a query from the APC National Working Committee (NWC).

    But the story behind the story, of intra-party friction from the Amosun-Akeredolu bloc, would appear an anti-Tinubu rebellion by younger Turks within the party, determined to push and position themselves as “new” South West leaders, that President Muhammadu Buhari must reckon with, en route to the 2019 elections.

    Though that plan collapsed with the balance of power and influence in South West streets, with the president yet again settling for joint chair of the APC national campaign with Tinubu, the South West plot never really fizzled out.  That would explain the Amosun show of shame, at the APC presidential campaign at Abeokuta, when his APM storm-troopers even pelted the president with stones.

    But the plot was also to manifest where it would have hurt most: use the expected underwhelming results from Osun and the desperate challenge in Lagos, to undermine both Asiwaju Tinubu and former Osun Governor, Rauf Aregbesola.

    Though both failed (APC still cleared the three senatorial seats in Lagos, while in Osun it won two, including Osun West, which APC had earlier lost to Ademola Adeleke, an APC defector to PDP, after the sudden death of elder sibling, Isiaka aka Serubawon), the Aregbesola target dates back to the Ondo gubernatorial nomination process that Akeredolu won.

    Not a few accused Aregbesola of backing Olusola Oke, the Alliance for Democracy (AD) candidate.  Though Oke was an APC aspirant after defecting from PDP, he stormed out to AD to protest Akeredolu’s emergence.

    But Aregbesola got repaid in alleged same coins, when the Akeredolu and Amosun lobby allegedly pitched tents with defectors from APC, in the 2018 Osun governorship election, which result turned out a bitter cliffhanger, with APC nicking it, with the slimmest of margins. — the closest governorship win in Nigerian electoral history.

    Amosun’s grouse would appear to date back to the 2015 ministerial nomination, when he had a reported tiff with Tinubu over the Ogun nominee.  Amosun, from his actions from then, seemed determined to press his “independence from Bourdillon”, leveraging his closeness to, and personal affinity with, the president.  With his present bind, he seemed to have gone too far.

    If all the plotting had succeeded, Osun election result would have been the excellent scapegoat to hit at Tinubu’s “declining influence”; and Aregbesola’s creeping irrelevance.

    It would have been a near-perfect scape-goating, just as it was during the pan-Nigeria salary default crisis, which the media and Osun local opposition painted as Aregbesola’s sole failure, despite what could pass as Osun’s Renaissance, in almost every facet of life, under his charge.

    Even with a 2:1 senatorial scorecard, APC’s loss of Osun West (the Ife-Ijesa senatorial district, and therefore Aregbesola’s  home turf), could still be an object of political blackmail.  But the analysis of the results shows that much of the faults came from the Ife segment of the district, though the commanding Ijesa support, that gifted Ife man, APC’s Jide Omoworare two senatorial terms, appears to have vanished.  Nevertheless, APC still carried the Ijesa end of the tally, though with a much diminished margin.

    But such putative blackmail lost its bite with the disastrous returns from Ondo, where ironically,  Ajayi Boroffice, Akeredolu’s famous intra-Ondo APC “arch-enemy” it was, that saved the ruling party (state and national) from a total senatorial rout.  Nor is it helped because of the Ogun triumph, which comprises Amosun’s personal senatorial triumph, despite the governor’s pre- and post-poll gracelessness.

    If that plot had worked, it would have undermined the greatest heroes of the change in Nigeria’s electoral and governing landscape, since the APC triumph of 2015.

    PMB’s re-election would have been seriously affected.  Tinubu, whose re-alignment with the PMB bloc started it all, would have been greatly undermined, thus leaving the alliance with no effective South West political general.

    On his part, Aregbesola would have been mocked and baited.  Yet, without his clear thinking and more-than-doughty resolve, the schools feeding programme, which Osun patented and tested despite a very perilous economic environment, would perhaps never have been mainstreamed on the national front.  But that is a classic South West welfarist agenda, planted on the Nigerian national front.

    Still, this phase of election is lost and won.  Despite all these wrangling, APC still triumphed in the South West, as it did nationally, given PMB’s renewed mandate.  It’s time, therefore, to push for general reconciliation;.without compromise to sanctions for who did what, especially if the guilty are unrepentant.

     

    • Matiluko, a public affairs analyst, writes from Lagos..

  • PDP takes protest to INEC

    The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Tuesday took its protest over the conduct of the February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Headquarters in Abuja yesterday.

    Led by its National Chairman Uche Secondus, the PDP restated its rejection of the presidential election, won by incumbent President Muhammadu of the All Progressives Congress (APC)

    The party chieftains were received at the commission’s main entrance by three INEC National Commissioners, who stood in for their chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu.

    Secondus told the INEC officials: “We want to place on record and bring to your attention the very obvious and noticeable infractions and violations of the Electoral Laws and the Regulations/Guidelines regulating the 2019 general elections which have very negative implications on the credibility, transparency and integrity of the entire electoral processes, particularly the just concluded presidential and National Assembly elections.

    “This has become imperative as we approach the gubernatorial and State House of Assembly elections billed for Saturday, March 9, 2019.”

    The party chairman listed the infractions and violations to include, non-usage or selective enforcement of the Smart Card Reader (SCR) machines.

    He expressed regrets that the usage of the machines was enforced strategically in the Southsouth, Southeast and the Northcentral zones of the country, which he felt “are essentially PDP strongholds”.

    Secondus said: “This is radically different from what transpired in the Northwest, Northeast and the Southwest which were estimated as the APC strongholds.

    “This is quite contrary to the provisions of Paragraph 10(a) & (b) of the Regulations and Guidelines governing the 2019 General Elections and all the assurances you, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu frequently gave up to the last hours before the elections.”

    The party chair carpeted INEC for non-deployment of the Electronic Collation System (E-Collation) for election results from the units, through the ward centres to the Presidential Collation Center in Abuja as provided for in the 2019 Electoral Regulations and Guidelines.

    He said: “This is more so when you have never bothered to explain to Nigerians the justification for this sudden official somersault on such a critical component of the electoral process, especially with all the tax payers’ money spent to install the facilities.”

    He informed the electoral umpire that some collation centres were cordoned off to pave the way for the manipulation of results, alleging that INEC accepted the results that were tampered with.

    He listed Lagos, Rivers, Nassarawa, Abia, Benue, Plateau, Ondo and Osun as the states where results were illegally cancelled.

    Secondus faulted plans by INEC to conduct supplementary election in some areas on Saturday after it had announced the results.

    INEC National Commissioner Festus Okoye had explained that the supplementary election has nothing to do with the presidential poll.

    Okoye said the supplementary election that will be conducted simultaneously with the Governorship and Houses’ of Assembly election is in respect of cancelled National Assembly election results.

    INEC National Commissioner (Legal Services) Mrs. May Agbamuche-Mbu, thanked the party chiefs for the orderly manner they conducted themselves.

    Agbamuche-Mbu said: “I want to say that in INEC, we are here to do a professional job. But don’t forget that INEC cannot do the work alone. First and foremost, INEC has received your complaint.

    “We are going to look at it critically, where we need to change, we will change, where we need to come together, we will come together and work together

    “This country belongs to all of us and we must protect it with all our might. I believe that on Saturday, the elections will go on very well but our mantra in this election is that we want peace in our country.

    “I supervised Rivers and Bayelsa States, so, I know what it means to invest in that area, and the people of Rivers and Akwa-Ibom know what they want.

    “Because this election is very crucial, we intend to make it free and fair election. All we ask is that for your own sake too, your mantra should be peace.

    “If you ring peace to the people on the field, you can rest assured INEC and the security agencies would do their part and we look at it again”.

  • INEC regrets election irregularities in Imo

    The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Imo, Prof. Francis Ezeonu on Tuesday expressed regrets at the challenges and irregularities witnessed at the Feb. 23 Presidential and National Assembly elections in Imo.

    Ezeonu made his view known at the Imo INEC Interactive Meeting with Stakeholders in Owerri.

    He noted that the meeting afforded the commission an opportunity to X-Ray what happened during the Feb. 23 election in the state.

    The REC explained that there were a few hitches which impeded the early deployment of materials on the election day.

    Read Also: INEC yet to commence collation in Imo

    “There were deliberate efforts to frustrate the use of Registration Area Centres (RACs) and in some places, our water tanks were carted away soon after delivery and wires used in reticulation of the centres were removed and taken away.

    “In a few places, the community members disrupted activities at the RAC centres.

    “Out in the field, there were too much turmoil, we battled with thugs for INEC materials, corps members were hijacked and returning officers harassed and intimidated and in a few places forced to declare results that were obviously concocted under duress.

    “Some other staff were obviously compromised. The maxim was either to play along or be battered.

    “Our materials were destroyed and our office at Isiala Mbano burnt down by irate mob. At Isiala Mbano alone where the office was burnt, we lost 204 Smart Card Readers and over 600 ballot boxes among others.

    “In Ohaji-Egbema we lost more than 30 Smart Card Readers. Our ballot boxes and other electoral materials were destroyed with impunity. This obviously is not our idea of an election.

    “I regret that the election did not turn out as good as we planned,” the REC said.

    Ezeonu explained that the most painful was that highly respected members of the society, who were supposed to demonstrate leadership allowed emotion and muscle to displace reason.

    “For me, it is not a palatable experience. I had earlier warned that in this journey each one of us had a role to play.

    “As the Resident Electoral Commissioner, I take responsibility for all the shortcomings during the last election and I pledge to make amends. However, there are issues for which I cannot be held liable,” he said.

    The REC said that there was the need for Nigerians to create an amiable environment for the ad hoc staff to do their work urging those who claimed to be honourable, distinguished and Excellencies to exhibit honourable conduct.

    “The experiences of the last election have sent shock waves; so much so that some ad hoc staff have given notices that they would not wish to participate in the next election.

    “Even corps members are threatening to withdraw.

    “The way things are going, we may come to a stage where no person will be willing to officiate during elections. The situation is that bad, but we can all work together to change it,” he said.

    He however, declared that strategies would be employed to ensure the experiences of last election did not repeat.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that some of the stakeholders drawn from the civil society groups, party agents, party candidates, party chairmen and others expressed their dissatisfaction with the last election.

    They advised INEC to ensure they put modalities in place to check the discrepancies.

    Mrs Juliet Okayi, Programme Officer Development Dynamics while commenting, reeled out all the challenges and anomalies experienced during the election and called for correction.

    Mrs Ijeoma Onwubuariri, Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) Secretary urged INEC to opt for the use of electronic voting to curb the challenges.

    She said that observers and other staff that participated at the election experienced hardships, while the election started very late in most polling units in the state. (NAN)

  • Big four, big fall

    Dr. Bukola Saraki. Godswill Akpabio. George Akume. Abiola Ajimobi. These four political leaders fell last weekend. Their bid to return to the National Assembly was thwarted by lesser known politicians. Saraki, Senate President and ex-Kwara State two-term governor, fell to Yahaya Oloriegbe. Akpabio was beaten hands down by Chris Ekpeyong, a former deputy governor to Obong Victor Attah. Akume, an ex-governor of Benue State and All Progressives Congress (APC) leader there, was defeated by Orker Jev. And Abiola Ajimobi, Oyo State Governor, lost to Kola Balogun —the younger brother of one of the new obas in Ibadan.

    Saraki, Akpabio and Akume are sitting senators. Ajimobi was a senator before becoming governor and was cocksure he would become senator once more contrary to a prayer he once said that there was no position he craved again after leading Oyo.

    Saraki’s fall is the loudest. He was the undisputed leader of Kwara politics – a position he hijacked from his father, the late Olusola Saraki, who was Senate Leader in the Second Republic. While Saraki was serving out his second term, his father wanted his younger sister, Gbemi, to succeed him. The younger Saraki would have none of it. He stood up to his father. So fierce was the battle that his father had to abandon the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for him and tried to install his daughter through a lesser known party. As it turned out, the younger Saraki triumphed by installing outgoing Governor AbdulFatai Ahmed. The political feud was settled thereafter. It, however, was not long after that the Second Republic Senate Leader joined his ancestors. But what was clear to all was that the son had displaced the father as the new strongman of Kwara politics.

    As senator and later as senate president, everybody knew where power was in Kwara. Ahmed never failed to acknowledge Saraki as his leader. House of Assembly members knew who to pay allegiance to, and House of Representatives members worshipped the ground on which the ex-bank top gun walked.

    Will Saraki spring a surprise in the governorship election by ensuring Razaq Atunwa, the PDP candidate, is elected to replace Ahmed? If this happens, it will be a major victory for him, but the omens are scary. The people of the state seem set to complete the enough is enough (o to gee) cycle.

    Like Saraki, Akpabio was lord in Akwa Ibom. When he sneezed, many caught cold. But his fall began not long after he installed Udom Emmanuel as his successor. When the signs started showing, I wrote a piece titled Emmanuel’s Will on Friday, August 28, 2015. In it, I pointed out that Emmanuel was acting as though he was afraid of a fight with Akpabio. Aniekan Umanah, who was the Commissioner for Information at the time, was livid in his reply to me. In his rejoinder, he said it was “really appalling that one so often gets to read some gibberish in newspapers, all in the name of commentaries or opinion”.

    He declared with a note of finality: “I will not allay Yishau’s fear about the strong camaraderie existing between the duo of Their Excellencies, Governor Emmanuel and former Governor Akpabio. They are not going to fight anytime soon or later as you wish. Indeed, for those who are waiting to be entertained with a fight by both leaders, they should prepare for a long wait.”

    We certainly did not have to wait too much. Interestingly, when the fight broke open, Umanah was one of the first victims when he and other Akpabio men were eased out of government. Umanah re-aligned with time. He is now with Emmanuel. He won an House of Representatives seat on Saturday.

    The uncommon governor, as Akpabio liked to address himself, has had an uncommon fall. We were expecting he would help President Muhammadu Buhari win Akwa Ibom. He could not help himself, not to talk of helping Buhari. He fell in an uncommon manner.

    Akpabio’s fall has seemingly confirmed what his first deputy governor, Patrick Ekpotu, said last August. Ekpotu, in a statement, said his former boss’s influence was overrated.

    Ekpotu, who was Commissioner for Information under Attah, said Akpabio’s defection was “long awaited”, and showed that he was incapable of operating within an opposition platform because of “his usual reliance on force of power apparatus”.

    He said: “His recourse is often to rely heavily on apparatus of state security to cow people into submission and dominion. His decision to embrace the APC now, among others, is because APC is today the custodian of that state apparatus. And I think he is highly mistaken for misapprehending that President Buhari is cut out in the weaknesses of a former President that was recklessly used to his political peril and became the first to dump him.”

    Ekpotu went on: “Even if Buhari avails him the security apparatus, remember that Akpabio is not used to elections, which is the norm today, but ‘return of entire number of votes’ in INEC register to himself.

    “But With INEC’s card reader system today, hardly would we have such number of votes in consideration, let alone to be ‘returned’. So, all odds are against him and the APC.”

    In that statement Ekpotu added that a shock awaited the former Senate Minority leader, saying: “A journey into that past rather evokes disdain and repugnance following its glaring shortcomings to which the people had long answered objections and cannot allow a replay, no matter where Akpabio derived his inspiration. I see, not just the PDP in the state, but also majority of its citizens playing this out strongly, stoutly, and committedly in days ahead.”

    Akpabio, Ekpotu observed, is “surrounded by those who constantly drum to him the beauty of his weird world, he gets encouraged to live in delusion. He is fully conscious of these shortcomings, but rather than work to improve on them, pretends that all is well.  And APC will soon know his true value.”

    Now, the question is: is there any miracle Akpabio can still perform in the March 9 election to ensure that Emmanuel is replaced with Nsima Ekere? The omens are scary, really scary.

    Akume, like Akpabio and Saraki, was governor. He was governor from 1999 to 2007, and has been in the Senate since then. He installed Samuel Ortom as Benue State governor. Some months back, Ortom dumped APC for PDP. Akume remained and vowed to deal with his estranged godson. In his heydays, anybody who wanted political power in Benue sought him out. I doubt if that will still play out with his fall to Jev. If not for Jev, he would have been in the Senate for the fourth time.

    Ajimobi’s case is a bit different from the trio. As a sitting governor, many thought Ajimobi should easily win election in one senatorial district. But he lost and certainly life after May 29 will never be the same again. Even if APC wins the governorship, the pain of loss will have its political effect on Ajimobi, who may now have to battle Communications Minister Adebayo Shittu for the state’s ministerial slot.

    Shittu and Ajimobi have never been on the same page. Shittu wanted to be governor, but was screened out by the national secretariat of the party for skipping National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). He became a minister despite Ajimobi’s objection. I see a major fight ahead of these two sworn enemies!

    My final take: In politics, falling is not a sweet music, especially for giants such as Saraki, Akpabio, Akume and Ajimobi. Their fall is only sonorous in the ears of their opponents and adversaries. I urge them to be humble now that they are low, as advised by John Bunyan, so that they shall ever have God as guide.