The Nation Newspaper

Tag: postpone

  • North Korea agrees to talks after U.S., South Korea postpone military drills

    North Korea agrees to talks after U.S., South Korea postpone military drills

    North Korea agreed yesterday  to hold official talks with South Korea next week, the first in more than two years, hours after Washington and Seoul delayed a military exercise amid a standoff over the North’s nuclear and missile programs.

    South Korea said the North had sent its consent for the talks to be held on Tuesday. The last time the two Koreas engaged in official talks was in December 2015.

    The meeting will take place at the border truce village of Panmunjom where officials from both sides are expected to discuss the Winter Olympics, to be held in the South next month, and inter-Korean relations, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun told reporters.

    North Korea asked for further negotiations about the meeting to be carried out via documented exchanges, Baik said.

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un opened the way for talks with South Korea in a New Year’s Day speech in which he called for reduced tensions and flagged the North’s possible participation in the Winter Olympics.

    But Kim remained steadfast on the issue of nuclear weapons, saying the North would mass-produce nuclear missiles for operational deployment and warned he would launch a nuclear strike if his country was threatened.

    U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday called the proposed inter-Korean talks a “good thing” and he and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in announced that annual large-scale military drills would now take place after the Olympics.

    The North sees the drills as preparations for invasion and justification for its weapons programs that it conducts in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. South Korea and the United States are technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

    Trump, who hurled fresh insults at the North Korean leader this week, took credit for any dialogue that takes place.

    “Does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasn’t firm, strong and willing to commit our total ‘might’ against the North,” Trump tweeted.

    In an interview with CNN on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that while it was Washington’s aim to resolve the North Korean crisis diplomatically, “those diplomatic efforts are backed by a strong military option if necessary.”

    Ribbons bearing messages wishing for unification between the two Koreas hang on a barbed-wire fence near the militarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, South Korea, December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

    He said future talks involving the United States could allow North Korea to “chart a way for themselves to a more secure future, a more prosperous future,” and added: “They do know how to reach us if and when they are ready to engage with us as well.”

    Tillerson said how such talks might begin had yet to be determined, but North Korea would have to signal it understood that they would be aimed at “final, full denuclearization.”

    North Korea regularly threatens to destroy the United States and its two key Asia allies, Japan and South Korea, and says its weapons are necessary to counter U.S. aggression.

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang welcomed North and South Korea “taking positive steps to improve ties”, and said the postponement of the exercises was “without doubt a good thing”.

    Slideshow (4 Images)

    China’s Commerce Ministry said it would limit exports of crude oil, refined oil products, steel and other metals to North Korea, in line with tough new sanctions imposed by the United Nations.

    Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera sounded a note of caution about the proposed talks.

    “I think what is important is to maintain a firm defense posture,” he told reporters. “North Korea goes through phases of apparent dialogue and provocation, but either way, North Korea is continuing its nuclear and missile development. We have no intention of weakening our warning and surveillance.”

  • ‘Postpone election by two weeks’

    A group, the Ilaje/Ese-Odo Renaissance Group (IRG), yesterday urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to postpone the November 26 election by two weeks.

    This, it said, will enable all the parties to resolve their legal crises.

    IRG noted that the legal crises had brought confusion into some parties, particularly the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    In PDP, Eyitayo Jegede and Jimoh Ibrahim are battling for the party’s ticket.

    INEC has recognised Ibrahim following a federal high court ruling.

    The runner-up during the September 3 governorship primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Segun Abraham, is in court to challenge the candidature of Oluwarotimi Akeredolu.

    Also, Olusola Oke’s candidacy is being challenged by a faction in the Alliance for Democracy (AD).

    In a statement by its Chairman, Sunday Menukuro, IGR said postponing the poll will reduce the tension generated by the legal crises.

    The group appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to wade into the political crises rocking the state.

  • Project next: Postpone the polls!

    If you fail to plan,” goes that trite saying, “you plan to fail.”  That perhaps best captures the pre-election epigram of the Jonathan Presidency, vis-a-vis the present lobby to shift the general elections, starting with the presidential and National Assembly elections on February 14.

    National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), set off a virtual bomb, that resonated all through the civilised world, aside from causing ripples of cataclysmic proportions at home, when he suggested, after a Chatham House lecture in London, that postponement be considered, given INEC’s lagging behind in the distribution of permanent voter cards (PVCs).

    That Freudian slip, or deliberate leak to test the waters, gives a peep into the Jonathan administration’s probable thinking on the issue.

    But as far as the 2015 polls go, Jonathan’s government has failed to plan; so it would appear doomed to fail — except the postpone-election-gambit works!

    President Jonathan rode to power on some easy yarn of being too poor to own shoes; and some thick sentiments of keeping power from those with born-to-rule mentality, after which, open sesame, some magical breath of fresh air would do the rest!  That was fine, and a pan-Nigeria (conspiratorial) mandate was soon in the bag.

    In office, however, the president was a clear and graphic image of phantom hope.  When, at Buni Yadi, the Boko Haram lunatics set ablaze pupils in a Federal Government College, the president only hee-hawed.  Till date, the criminals have not been arrested.  No action.

    When at Chibok, this same band of criminals kidnapped over 200 school girls from their hostel, the Jonathan government not only dilly-dallied, losing precious lead time to rescue the girls, the very next day, President Jonathan was on the stumps, dancing Azonto at some Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stump in Kano, at the ruling party’s so-called zonal rally. No compassion.

    The security battle, for the Jonathan order, was well and truly lost, casting a pall on the integrity of the Nigerian state.  A few days ago, the graphic result of this graphic failure was writ large: a virtually empty stand stared at the president’s campaign entourage in Maiduguri, while the president’s “I vow to do more” graphics, emblazoned on the presidential stands, virtually shouted at the skies.

    But do more of what — crass incompetence, inaction and culpable lack of compassion?  Hardball wagers: the president and his party already know  the result from such a place!

    The Maiduguri empty stands were an extreme. But the seal of disapproval, near-nationwide, has followed the president wherever he goes. And he leads no united party — for in his desperation to re-contest, he muscled even harmless opposition, birthing at the ludicrousness of the ruling party claiming they only printed one nomination form, even after collecting prospective aspirants’ money!

    Desperation courts disaster, and all too soon we are all thrown back to the immediate pre-June 12, 1993 presidential election days. But the shift-the-polls plotters easily forget this is not military rule but constitutional order.  The United States that brought Gen. Ibrahim Babangida to heel back then, and forced him to conduct the election he later cancelled to ruin himself, is already out warning President Jonathan not to change the rules bang in the middle of the game.

    The president, in fairness, has committed himself to the election timetable. Well, Hardball waits to see if he would walk his talk, or …

     

  • ‘There‘s a plot to postpone elections’

    ‘There‘s a plot to postpone elections’

    All Progressives Congress (APC) National Publicity Secretary Alhaji Lai Mohammed has raised an alarm about a plot to postpone the general elections. At a press conference in Lagos, the spokesman, who denied the allegation that the APC was hacking into the electoral commission’s database, reiterated the need for men of goodwill to rise in defense of democracy.

    The Department of State Services (DSS), on January 7, released the so-called findings from its investigation, following the gestapo-like raids of our Data Centre at Number 10, Ajibola Street, Ikeja, on November 22, 2014.

    The summary of the ‘findings’ is that our party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), had an ‘articulated plan to inflate the party’s membership data as well as hack into INEC’s voter registration database through the creation of party membership forms and cards to match INEC’s voters register across the country’’.

    Our immediate response, which was issued on the same day and which got a big play, was to dismiss the ‘findings’ as hogwash, a great disservice to Nigeria and an embarrassment to all intelligence-gathering organizations around the world. Our stand on the ‘findings’ has not changed.

    However, having taken our time to study the ‘findings’, we believe it is necessary for us to respond to the allegations in a more detailed manner that will show that we were even charitable to have described the report as hogwash. That DSS report is bunkum, garbage, and is not worth the paper on which it is written. We will demonstrate that to you shortly

    But first, let us address the motive of the DSS for this report and the timing of its release.

    We will like to tell all Nigerians that the crap called ‘findings’ is part of the ongoing efforts by the Jonathan Administration to postpone next month’s general elections. Having seen the handwriting on the wall vis-a-vis the growing rejection of the PDP by Nigerians, the Jonathan Administration has gone into a panic mode, while embarking on a plan to postpone the elections.

    Apparently, the thinking at the DSS, which is working in cahoots with the PDP, is that its report that the APC plans to hack into the voters’ registration Data Base of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will raise doubts about the integrity of the voter’s register to be used for the forthcoming polls, and subsequently force a postponement of the elections since the existing register cannot be used for the polls.

    Unfortunately for DSS and the PDP, this thinking was based on a wrong premise, as we will show shortly, and it has backfired.

    Before you say our claim is outlandish, remember that some prominent Nigerians have publicly called for the postponement of the election – which can only benefit the Jonathan Administration and delay its impending Waterloo at the polls. Place the calls side by side with the apparently doctored outcome of the DSS investigations and the timing of the report’s release, and you will understand where they are coming from.

     

    The findings

    We make bold to say that those ‘findings’ cannot stand a serious scrutiny by independent investigators.because the DSS worked backwards, from answer to question, in an effort to reach a pre-determined conclusion

     

    Hacking of INEC’s database

    The allegation that the APC planned to hack into INEC’s voters’ registration Data Base is false. The fact that the DSS made the allegation at all shows that the agency does not understand the concept of hacking, which is pathetic for a primary intelligence agency of its stature.

    We are not aware that INEC has made a complaint of anyone or group trying to hack into its system. The DSS ‘findings’ are baseless as INEC’S database is a reflection of the registered members with the Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs). Please note that at the time of the DSS’ raids, the PVCs had already been printed. Therefore, of what value would it be to hack into the system and input more names?

    Simply put, it is not possible for the APC to hack into the INEC Data Base for the following reasons:

    INEC’s database is not online, how then is it possible for anyone to hack into it?

    To prevent virus intrusion, there is no Internet service at the APC Data Centre that was raided. Therefore it is not possible to hack into INEC’s database.

    The DSS has claimed that hacking tutorials were discovered on an external hard drive. This is a lie! All the USB ports on the pc systems in the office were disabled to prevent virus intrusion. Therefore, the use of external hard drives is not allowed at the APC Data Centre. If this is so, how is it possible for an external hard drive containing these so-called hacking materials to be found on the premises of the APC Data Office?

    Please note that the work stations at our various data registration centres in the country are manned by unemployed youths with just basic computer knowledge. The question to ask is: Would the party have employed these people if the intent were to hack into INEC’s Data Base or employed gurus in the IT world?

    It is clear that the DSS purchased a hard drive and downloaded the information themselves from the Internet. After all, the DSS, by virtue of its duties, should be the hacking experts, hence hacking tutorials will be part of their staff induction training.

     

    Timing of the DSS raids

    As we have said, the overall motive of the raid of our offices and the so-called findings is to give the impression that the INEC voter’s register has been corrupted, hence, cannot be used for next month’s elections. Now, a more specific question: Why did the DSS break into the APC Data Centre at the time it did?

    It is no coincidence that the DSS raided the APC Data Centre on Nov. 22nd 2014, exactly one week before the start of the PVC distribution exercise on November 28, 2014.

    The reason the DSS came to vandalize our Data Centre is because the Service is working hand-in-hand with the PDP. They carried out the raids to know our party’s strength in terms of membership. Please note that after the raids, many of our registered members could not find their names on the list when they went to collect their PVCs. This is not a mere coincidence.

     

    Alleged multiple registration

     of members

    After the first visit of the DSS, it was clear to all Nigerians that the Service’s claim that we were cloning PVCs could not be sustained. That explains why they could not display a single cloned PVC

    During the second raid carried out by the DSS on the same at the APC Data Centre, the security personnel carted away bags with unused membership registration forms. These are the forms to which they have fraudulently attached pictures of babies and  military personnel in order to implicate the APC.

    Or what on earth was the purpose of the DSS carting away blank APC membership registration forms? Why did it take the DSS almost 50 days to reveal this information? If it were true, won’t they have released the information to the general public immediately? Has the DSS hired any renowned  IT organization to attest to its ‘findings’? Can you be an accuser and a judge at the same time?

     

    Alleged registration of armed forces/paramilitary personnel

    This is a no-brainer. The question to ask the DSS is: Will any member of the armed forces and paramilitary organisations be so daft as to join a political party using a passport photograph of himself or herself in uniform? The DSS must think Nigerians are fools.

     

    Alleged registration of babies

    To the best of our knowledge, a baby cannot vote. So, why would any organisation register a baby as a member? Our application edits date of birth, hence, we will not allow the registration of under-aged persons. The DSS should tell the world where it got the pictures of babies that it affixed to the blank forms that were carted away from our Data Centre. We did not and could not have registered babies as members. This allegation is nitwitted, to say the least.

     

    Alleged confessions by workers arrested from the data centre

    Please recall that in a statement we issued of Dec. 5th 2014, we accused the DSS of resorting to the use of torture to obtain forced confessions from the workers who were arrested during the first raid on our party’s Data Centre.

    In that statement, we called the action of the DSS a contravention of the UN Convention against Torture to which Nigeria is a signatory and a violation of the citizens’ fundamental human rights.

    The DSS shackled the hands and legs of those arrested and blindfolded them while they were being taken to Abuja; The arrested persons remained in chains even at the dark detention cell where they were made to sleep on the bare floor for the 10 days they were detained illegally.

    The workers had guns pointed at their heads by DSS personnel who threatened to shoot them

    A pregnant woman among those who were arrested was denied access to her drugs even when she started bleeding due to the torture to which she was subjected by the DSS.

    Gentlemen, we now present to you some of those who were arrested and tortured by the DSS, so they can narrate to you their ordeal in the hands of the DSS – A national institution being maintained by taxpayers’ funds but which has now become the enforcement arm of the PDP to be used by the ruling party to terrorize innocent citizens.

    The DSS said it had charged these workers to court. This is a lie. We were the ones who charged the DSS to court, and the court ordered the security agency to release the arrested workers. Be that as it may, we are expecting them to join us in court, and let the court decide on the crap they called findings. We are confident that the ‘confessions’ extracted from these people, after they were subjected to incredible acts of torture, cannot even stand in any court of law.

  • ‘There‘s a plot to postpone elections’

    ‘There‘s a plot to postpone elections’

    All Progressives Congress (APC) National Publicity Secretary Alhaji Lai Mohammed has raised an alarm about a plot to postpone the general elections. At a press conference in Lagos, the spokesman, who denied the allegation that the APC was hacking into the electoral commission’s database, reiterated the need for men of goodwill to rise in defense of democracy.

    The Department of State Services (DSS), on January 7, released the so-called findings from its investigation, following the gestapo-like raids of our Data Centre at Number 10, Ajibola Street, Ikeja, on November 22, 2014.

    The summary of the ‘findings’ is that our party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), had an ‘articulated plan to inflate the party’s membership data as well as hack into INEC’s voter registration database through the creation of party membership forms and cards to match INEC’s voters register across the country’’.

    Our immediate response, which was issued on the same day and which got a big play, was to dismiss the ‘findings’ as hogwash, a great disservice to Nigeria and an embarrassment to all intelligence-gathering organizations around the world. Our stand on the ‘findings’ has not changed.

    However, having taken our time to study the ‘findings’, we believe it is necessary for us to respond to the allegations in a more detailed manner that will show that we were even charitable to have described the report as hogwash. That DSS report is bunkum, garbage, and is not worth the paper on which it is written. We will demonstrate that to you shortly

    But first, let us address the motive of the DSS for this report and the timing of its release.

    We will like to tell all Nigerians that the crap called ‘findings’ is part of the ongoing efforts by the Jonathan Administration to postpone next month’s general elections. Having seen the handwriting on the wall vis-a-vis the growing rejection of the PDP by Nigerians, the Jonathan Administration has gone into a panic mode, while embarking on a plan to postpone the elections.

    Apparently, the thinking at the DSS, which is working in cahoots with the PDP, is that its report that the APC plans to hack into the voters’ registration Data Base of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will raise doubts about the integrity of the voter’s register to be used for the forthcoming polls, and subsequently force a postponement of the elections since the existing register cannot be used for the polls.

    Unfortunately for DSS and the PDP, this thinking was based on a wrong premise, as we will show shortly, and it has backfired.

    Before you say our claim is outlandish, remember that some prominent Nigerians have publicly called for the postponement of the election – which can only benefit the Jonathan Administration and delay its impending Waterloo at the polls. Place the calls side by side with the apparently doctored outcome of the DSS investigations and the timing of the report’s release, and you will understand where they are coming from.

    The findings

    We make bold to say that those ‘findings’ cannot stand a serious scrutiny by independent investigators.because the DSS worked backwards, from answer to question, in an effort to reach a pre-determined conclusion

    Hacking of INEC’s database

    The allegation that the APC planned to hack into INEC’s voters’ registration Data Base is false. The fact that the DSS made the allegation at all shows that the agency does not understand the concept of hacking, which is pathetic for a primary intelligence agency of its stature.

    We are not aware that INEC has made a complaint of anyone or group trying to hack into its system. The DSS ‘findings’ are baseless as INEC’S database is a reflection of the registered members with the Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs). Please note that at the time of the DSS’ raids, the PVCs had already been printed. Therefore, of what value would it be to hack into the system and input more names?

    Simply put, it is not possible for the APC to hack into the INEC Data Base for the following reasons:

    INEC’s database is not online, how then is it possible for anyone to hack into it?

    To prevent virus intrusion, there is no Internet service at the APC Data Centre that was raided. Therefore it is not possible to hack into INEC’s database.

    The DSS has claimed that hacking tutorials were discovered on an external hard drive. This is a lie! All the USB ports on the pc systems in the office were disabled to prevent virus intrusion. Therefore, the use of external hard drives is not allowed at the APC Data Centre. If this is so, how is it possible for an external hard drive containing these so-called hacking materials to be found on the premises of the APC Data Office?

    Please note that the work stations at our various data registration centres in the country are manned by unemployed youths with just basic computer knowledge. The question to ask is: Would the party have employed these people if the intent were to hack into INEC’s Data Base or employed gurus in the IT world?

    It is clear that the DSS purchased a hard drive and downloaded the information themselves from the Internet. After all, the DSS, by virtue of its duties, should be the hacking experts, hence hacking tutorials will be part of their staff induction training.

    Timing of the DSS raids

    As we have said, the overall motive of the raid of our offices and the so-called findings is to give the impression that the INEC voter’s register has been corrupted, hence, cannot be used for next month’s elections. Now, a more specific question: Why did the DSS break into the APC Data Centre at the time it did?

    It is no coincidence that the DSS raided the APC Data Centre on Nov. 22nd 2014, exactly one week before the start of the PVC distribution exercise on November 28, 2014.

    The reason the DSS came to vandalize our Data Centre is because the Service is working hand-in-hand with the PDP. They carried out the raids to know our party’s strength in terms of membership. Please note that after the raids, many of our registered members could not find their names on the list when they went to collect their PVCs. This is not a mere coincidence.

    Alleged multiple registration of members

    After the first visit of the DSS, it was clear to all Nigerians that the Service’s claim that we were cloning PVCs could not be sustained. That explains why they could not display a single cloned PVC

    During the second raid carried out by the DSS on the same at the APC Data Centre, the security personnel carted away bags with unused membership registration forms. These are the forms to which they have fraudulently attached pictures of babies and  military personnel in order to implicate the APC.

    Or what on earth was the purpose of the DSS carting away blank APC membership registration forms? Why did it take the DSS almost 50 days to reveal this information? If it were true, won’t they have released the information to the general public immediately? Has the DSS hired any renowned  IT organization to attest to its ‘findings’? Can you be an accuser and a judge at the same time?

    Alleged registration of armed forces/paramilitary personnel

    This is a no-brainer. The question to ask the DSS is: Will any member of the armed forces and paramilitary organisations be so daft as to join a political party using a passport photograph of himself or herself in uniform? The DSS must think Nigerians are fools.

    Alleged registration of babies

    To the best of our knowledge, a baby cannot vote. So, why would any organisation register a baby as a member? Our application edits date of birth, hence, we will not allow the registration of under-aged persons. The DSS should tell the world where it got the pictures of babies that it affixed to the blank forms that were carted away from our Data Centre. We did not and could not have registered babies as members. This allegation is nitwitted, to say the least.

    Alleged confessions by workers arrested from the data centre

    Please recall that in a statement we issued of Dec. 5th 2014, we accused the DSS of resorting to the use of torture to obtain forced confessions from the workers who were arrested during the first raid on our party’s Data Centre.

    In that statement, we called the action of the DSS a contravention of the UN Convention against Torture to which Nigeria is a signatory and a violation of the citizens’ fundamental human rights.

    The DSS shackled the hands and legs of those arrested and blindfolded them while they were being taken to Abuja; The arrested persons remained in chains even at the dark detention cell where they were made to sleep on the bare floor for the 10 days they were detained illegally.

    The workers had guns pointed at their heads by DSS personnel who threatened to shoot them

    A pregnant woman among those who were arrested was denied access to her drugs even when she started bleeding due to the torture to which she was subjected by the DSS.

    Gentlemen, we now present to you some of those who were arrested and tortured by the DSS, so they can narrate to you their ordeal in the hands of the DSS – A national institution being maintained by taxpayers’ funds but which has now become the enforcement arm of the PDP to be used by the ruling party to terrorize innocent citizens.

    The DSS said it had charged these workers to court. This is a lie. We were the ones who charged the DSS to court, and the court ordered the security agency to release the arrested workers. Be that as it may, we are expecting them to join us in court, and let the court decide on the crap they called findings. We are confident that the ‘confessions’ extracted from these people, after they were subjected to incredible acts of torture, cannot even stand in any court of law.

  • ‘There’s no need to postpone 2015 elections’

    ‘There’s no need to postpone 2015 elections’

    Babatunde Bamtale is a civil rights activist and the chairman of Concerned Group of Nigeria (CGN), Alimosho, Lagos State chapter. The non-governmental organisation has been mobilising people to turn out enmass to exercise their franchise during the general elections next year. In this interview with ADEOLA OGUNLADE, Bamtale speaks about what inspired the group to embark on the exercise, its activities in Lagos State and other issues.

    What informed the formation of this group?

    Well, the Concerned Group of Nigeria (CGN) is a newly-established group founded with the vision of ensuring that Nigerians enjoy their fundamental human rights. It was founded to stand as a voice for the voiceless, to ensure total accountability from the elected persons to the electorates. Nigerians need to demand accountability. They should let their conscience decide who they vote for, because whoever they vote for must respect them; it is wrong for political leaders to ignore those who vote for them. They should give them account periodically, after being elected into offices. That is why CGN was established to enlighten the electorates on some of these things. This is to ensure that they don’t make mistakes.  CGN was also established to promote true federalism, because that is what can help our nascent democracy to grow.

    Who are your main targets?

    Our targets are the people at the grassroots; the idea is to carry them along, with regards to happenings in the urban world. This is because many of them are ignorant. When they see any politician coming to give them half bag of rice, they would jump at it and begin to vote for such a person. But, after the person is voted into office, he would turn his back against them. We are not promoting stomach infrastructure here; we want them to vote for a reliable person that will deliver and put real infrastructure in place which generations yet unborn would benefit from. Because if they vote for someone that is sharing money or rice or garri, they will suffer it in the next four years; they would pay for it and their children would also suffer. We are educating people to vote for people that can teach them to fish, rather than giving them fish.

    What other reason do you have for interacting with the people at the grassroots?

    We also want to reach the artisans, some of whom lack real information about what is going on in the country. We want to serve as intermediary between them and the government because there are so many gaps in terms of communication and we want to bridge this. That is why the Eko Initiative was also established in the first instance. To educate them to choose the right candidates that we feel would serve them better as we have also been studying events in the state and in the country at large.

    Who do you think is the right person for Lagos State?

    For the past 16 years, it has been a particular group of people ruling the state and it appears this group of people has seen it as their legitimate right to rule the state forever. That is why we at CGN are advocating for change. We want Lagosians to embrace change by voting an opposition party; let’s give change a chance. CGN group has gone deep to know the mind of the people and they have spoken with one voice that they need someone that can fill the gaps on ground and  this is the person we believe has the understanding of Lagosians and their wellbeing is paramount in his heart. He is compassionate about the people at the grassroots and we believe that he is the solution to their problems.

    But, Lagosians believe that Governor Babatunde Fashola has done a lot. How do you want to convince them that the PDP will do more?

    Personally, I am so depressed that for over 16 years a particular group of people have been ruling the state and all what they do is pretend that they are for the masses. It is high time Lagosians started asserting their rights. The state has been governed by Muslims since the time of Lateef Jakande in 1979; no Christian has ruled till date. So, we need a God-fearing person, and that is why we are bringing a Christian on board. These are the things CGN is opening people’s eyes to, so that they won’t be enslaved for ever. If you go to the grassroots, the people are really clamouring for change. They are tired of being enslaved by a single entity. They want to be liberated from the grip of pretenders and their anti-masses policy.

    How do you intend to achieve your goal?

    By educating the people to choose the right candidate we believe we are alleviating their sufferings and that we are solving their problems as well.  That is why we are appealing to the delegates to vote for the right candidates at the primaries. They need to know the mind of people; they need to choose the right candidate that people are clamouring for; we have carried out researches at the grassroots and we know the minds of people. We believe if the right candidate emerges, there is no two ways about it, he would be able to compete favourably with the ruling party and become the next Governor of Lagos State.

    What is your view about the poor distribution of Permanent Voters Card (PVC), especially in Alimosho which has the largest population in Lagos?

    That is one of the things CGN is also doing; we have sent text messages through our organization to all Lagosians, especially those from Alimosho that their voter’s card would be ready on November 28, 2014. Information has been passed across to them to go out and collect their PVCs at the centre where they registered in 2011.

    People believe that due to the security situation in the country that the election should not hold. What is your take on this?

    What I want Nigerians to know is that terrorism cannot be stopped in a day; it can only be reduced to the barest minimum. Check out the developed countries, they are also facing with terrorists attacks; it is everywhere. But, the people in power know the best thing to do; the most important thing is to have a transparent government. We should also go back to true federalism. I don’t believe that terrorism should stop our election in 2015, because if we do so, it means we are giving the perpetrators of this insurgency more power; it means they have achieved their goals. As time goes on, the insurgency will be totally eradicated. There is no way one will not have bad eggs in the government, even Jesus Christ in the Bible had a bad egg among his disciples. These are the people sabotaging government’s efforts, but we shall get to the root of the matter soon. Many people are saying the election will break Nigeria, I don’t believe Nigeria will break up after 2015 election. This is because the country has been through so many crises in the past and yet we are still together. So, this particular one will not make any difference.

  • APC warns against plan to postpone 2015 general elections

    APC warns against plan to postpone 2015 general elections

    NigerianS will reject any attempt by some public officials to elongate their tenure by postponing February’s election, the All Progressives Congress (APC) warned yesterday.

    The APC alleged that some elected public officials are working silently to push the election forward, claiming that the nation is at war.

    The party’s spokesman Alhaji Lai Mohammed in a statement said: ‘’Election is the lifeblood of democracy, the mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates. It is the only way for the citizenry to renew and refresh the governing process so they can get the most benefits out of democracy. Therefore, anyone that tries to sabotage this mechanism is aiming a dagger straight at the heart of democracy,’’ it said.

    The APC said the statement credited to Senate President David Mark, that ‘’there is no question of elections, it is not even on the table now. We are in a state of war,” reflects the thinking in government circles, even though the Senate President, having run into a wall of opposition over his unfortunate statement, has tried to step back from the comments.

    ‘’We in the APC saw this coming, and we have said it at several fora: That the Jonathan Administration has deliberately allowed the insurgency in the North-east, an opposition stronghold, to fester so he can cash in on it to get re-elected. Simply put, the Administration has been playing dirty politics with Boko Haram, at the expense of the lives and property of the citizenry and the well-being of the nation.

    ‘’However, the Administration is being too clever by half to think that Nigerians will reward it for its failure in its main reason for existence, which is the protection of the welfare and security of the citizens. There is just no way this government will be allowed to profit from its ineptness and its conspiracy to prolong an insurgency that should have ended a long time ago,’’ the party said.

    It said the statement by INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega, that the commission has started preparing for elections even in the North-east, represents a ray of hope, but warned the electoral body to remain steadfast and not to cave in to what will be massive pressure from the Jonathan Administration and its gong beaters to scuttle the 2015 elections.

    The APC said just like Jega has said, countries like Afghanistan and Iraq successfully held elections even though they are in a state of war, hence there is no reason why Nigeria cannot organize elections because of the insurgency in a part of the country.

    ‘’We know the Jonathan Administration is mortally afraid to face the electorate, having failed woefully to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people. We know many elected officials are also aware that they will be punished by the electorate because they have failed them (the electorate). It is therefore easy for them to queue behind any plot to ensure the 2015 general elections do not hold as planned, so they can get tenure extension.

    ‘’However, we have got news for these saboteurs: Nigerians have seen through their game and will not allow them to succeed in endangering our democracy. 2015 elections must hold as scheduled. This is not negotiable,’’ the party warned.