Sahara Reporters Latest News Wednesday 12th December 2018
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 12/12/18
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target=_blank>JUST IN: NEDG, BON Pick Only Five Political Parties For Presidential Debate
The Nigerian Elections Debate Group (NEDG) and the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) have released the names of five political parties expected to participate in the vice-presidential and presidential debates in the lead-up to the 2019 general election.
A statement by Eddi Emesiri, NEDG Executive Secretary, revealed the participating political parties as Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Young Progressives Party (YPP).
In the order listed above, the five presidential candidates are Oby Ezekwesili, Fela Durotoye, Muhammdu Buhari, Atiku Abubakar and Kingsley Moghalu.
The vice-presidential debate will hold from 7pm at the congress hall of the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja on Friday, December 14, 2018, while the presidential debate is scheduled to hold on Saturday, January 19, 2019.
In 2015, Buhari failed to attend the NEDG debate (pictured), even though then incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan participated.
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E2%80%99t-sign-electoral-act-because-he-wants-rig-elections-claims-wike target=_blank>Buhari Won’t Sign Electoral Act Because He Wants To Rig The Elections, Claims Wike
Nyesom Wike, Governor of Rivers State, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of intentionally delaying assent to the amended Electoral Act.
He stated this on Tuesday at the Government House in Port Harcourt, during the visit of the Anglican Bishop of Niger Delta North, Right Reverend Wisdom Ihunwo.
According to a statement by Simeon Nwakaudu, Special Assistant to the Rivers State Governor on Electronic Media, Wike noted that the President’s refusal to sign the amended bill is a threat to Nigeria’s peaceful coexistence after the 2019 elections.
Speaking on the refusal of Buhari to give assent to the bill, Wike said: “This present administration does not want the existence of one Nigeria. We don’t know if there will be Nigeria after the 2019 general election.
“The National Assembly tried to cure the defects of the Electoral Act that led to controversies during the 2015 elections. After the passage, the President kept on giving countless excuses why he wouldn’t sign the amended Electoral Act.
“The whole essence of not signing the Electoral Act is to rig the 2019 general election. And in the plot to rig the 2019 elections, Rivers State comes first and Akwa Ibom State is the second on their list.
“Now, they don’t want to use the smart card readers because they want to sit down and write results. It is painful that the President that says he is fighting corruption is leaving room for the rigging of the 2019 polls. There is no corruption worse than rigging. The President cannot set this country on fire.”
He called on Nigerians to rise to the defence of democracy, just as he urged the church to work with well-meaning Nigerians to resist attempts to rig the 2019 elections.
In his remarks, Bishop Wisdom Ihunwo lauded Wike’s achievements in the state.
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target=_blank>Father Kills All His Four Children In Rivers, Sets Self And House Ablaze
Achibong Patrick, 36, a native of Akwa-Ibom and a father of four, has strangled all his children to death.
Patrick also hanged himself to death and set ablaze his home in Alesa, Eleme Local Government of Rivers State
The motive behind the horror incident is yet unknown but neighbours woke up on Tuesday to witness the hideous story of an entire family wipe out, save Patrick’s wife.
Confirming the ugly development to SaharaReporters, Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer, Nnamdi Omoni, said the children were aged five, six and eight, and were “strangled to death by their father, who also hanged himself and set the house on fire.
“Their corpses have been evacuated and deposited at the morgue, while investigations continue to unravel the mysteries behind the unfortunate incident,” Omoni added.
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E2%80%99s-party-members-arrested-pasting-posters target=_blank>Court Grants Bail To Sowore’s Party Members Arrested For Pasting Posters
The six supporters of the African Action Congress (AAC) arrested and charged to court in a case between them and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi, have been granted bail at a magistrate court in the Samuel Ilori Courthouse, Lagos.
The six were arrested by officers of the Area F Division Ikeja, on Sunday.
A statement by Chike Oti, Lagos Police Public Relations Officer, had accused them of “tearing posters of other political parties and replacing them with that of the African Action Congress”.
They were charged to court on Monday.
The arrest of the AAC supporters led to a peaceful protest at the Area F Police station in Ikeja on Monday, as civil society organisations referred to the action by the Police as “political witch-hunting”.
The protest, however, took a different dimension as policemen fired teargas canisters at the protesters, injuring a lady identified as Annabelle Oko-Oboh, and arresting 10 others.
Meanwhile, in court, the six persons accused of tearing posters pleaded not guilty to the three-count charge levelled against them by the Commissioner of Police, which are “conspiracy to commit felony to with criminal damage to property, criminal damage to property of Jimi Agbaje by tearing up his campaign posters on Awolowo House Fence, and breach of peace by tearing campaign posters of other political parties and replacing them with AAC presidential campaign posters”.
Taiwo Olawale of Falana and Falana Chambers, who represented the accused, told the court that “members of the AAC with Omoyele Sowore as their presidential candidate’s only crime was pasting posters at night”.
“My Lord, because the party is not a major party, the Police are using the instrument of the state to harass them,” Olawale added.
Raising his objection, representative of the Commissioner of Police, Inspector D. Raphael, told the magistrate that the suspects were “indeed caught in a criminal act which will be determined in trial”.
After hearing statements from both the prosecuting and defence counsels, Magistrate B.O. Osunsanmi gave her ruling, stating thus: “This court is not ready for any trial. This is a bailable offence. I hereby grant bail in the sum of N50,000 each with one responsible surety.”
Speaking after the court’s decision, Defence Counsel Taiwo Olawale said: “The court in its wisdom has determined the offence that the Police is alleging is bailable and we will perfect their bail conditions. “The ruling party is always in the habit of oppressing the opposition. They know the power and cadre of Mr. Sowore and what he can do and that is why the Federal Government is coming with all this.”
The prosecuting counsel, however, declined to comment after the hearing. The Commissioner of Police could also not be reached for comments.
Speaking on the incident, Omoyele Sowore, the AAC presidential candidate, called out the CP on his Facebook page saying: “Lagos Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, hasn’t learnt from history. Police officers doing dirty jobs for parties in power will ultimately end in ignominy!”
The case has been adjourned till February 4, 2019.
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C3%A9j%C3%A0-vu-i-fear-it-will-be-unto-buhari-it-was-unto-jonathan-2015-fredrick-nwabufo target=_blank>Déjà Vu: I Fear It Will Be Unto Buhari As It Was Unto Jonathan In 2015 By Fredrick Nwabufo
Fredrick Nwabufo
There is a grand conspiracy. A plot hatched in the pits of despair and agony. There are three conspirators involved in this plot – the Nigerian people, top business executives and the international community.
In this thrilling “scheme”, the Nigerian people are providing the hammer and the nail; business executives are providing the brick and mortar, while the international community is providing the moral and logistics support to seal the fate of an incumbent president.
This is a grand conspiracy!
But why?
The mass movement against President Buhari was expected. Nigerians are easy to please, but they are deficient of patience for incompetence. No doubt, the “locus classicus” of the Buhari administration is arrogant incompetence. It is “generally agreed” that the government is rudderless. Even Aisha Buhari, wife of the president, attests to this. The government has failed on all counts, and has even worsened the yoke of citizens. The economy is floundering, the naira is tottering on the brink of further depreciation and external debts are piling up. 30 million Nigerians are unemployed and 13.5 million children are out of school. And there is no hope on the horizon.
Nigerians are dissipated; after expending so much hope and promise on the current government, they are now at their wit’s end. They want a breath of fresh air.
Also, businesses have not been impermeable to the Buhari hex. Companies are folding up; many of them are laying off staff and many more of them cannot pay salaries. Some top business executives say “Buhari is not good for business”. This has become a code phrase in the business circle.
An influential real estate developer in Abuja told me that the second coming of Buhari disrupted the market negatively, and that the sector has remained in suspended gloom since his administration.
As it is, the international community now longs for a Nigeria without Buhari as president.
In November, Priti Patel, a member of the UK parliament and former secretary of state for International Development, asked investors to be wary of investing in Nigeria. The lawmaker cited specifically the flagrant disobedience of court orders by the administration as the reason for her charge.
She also described the pretend fight against corruption as a “smokescreen”.
Hear her and be shocked:
However, the Nigerian government has continued to flout international law and convention, and it refuses to respect the various court decisions.
Investors must consider this long-running scandal and weigh this obstinance against Nigeria’s mishandled economic potential.
Let us not forget that Nigeria is the only member of OPEC that is dependent upon petrol imports to keep the country going. Nigeria is ranked 145th in the world for its ease of doing business, which demonstrates the risks of investment into Nigeria.
Despite the President’s public anti-corruption platform, Transparency International has not seen any reduction in corruption since Buhari took office. In fact, the precise opposite has happened, with Nigeria falling 12 places between the 2016 and 2017 rankings.
President Buhari currently faces serious allegations, which include staging show trials of opponents of a regime that is accused of corruption and graft, while simultaneously shielding his own party members and inner circle.
We should all welcome international efforts to attract international investment into developing economies. However, to do this successfully Nigeria must seriously tackle corruption, rather than use it as a smokescreen. It must honour its obligations to companies like P&ID. Until then, investors inevitably will be very wary of investing in Nigeria.
Just yesterday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) alleged that Nigerian security forces committed crimes against humanity. I fear some people may even go to jail. The intractable herdsmen killings, which some top officials in the West believe this administration has deliberately allowed to fester, and gross human rights violations, which are all documented by Amnesty International, are some of the grouse of the international community against President Buhari.
But how does one expend all goodwill in three years?
Really, the 2019 presidential election is between the Nigerian people and Buhari.
Déjà vu!
Fredrick is a media personality. He can be reached on Facebook: Fredrick Nwabufo; Twitter: @FredrickNwabufo
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E2%80%99s-economic-adviser-threatens-sue-newspaper-fails-answer-n172m-question target=_blank>Buhari’s Economic Adviser Threatens To Sue Newspaper But Fails To Answer The N172m Question
Dr. Adeyemi Dipeolu, an economic adviser in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, is threatening legal action against the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), over the occupier of the Office of Chief Economic Adviser to the President (OCEAP).
The Genesis
The story began with the paper’s interest in the budgetary allocations to the OCEAP, and whether the funds were utilized for the specified purposes.
The OCEAP had received a sum of N34 million in 2017 to fund research studies on the economy, but it has so far failed to make this research available.
In 2016, the office requested for a capital allocation of N78 million, out of which N47.8 million was budgeted for research and allocation. In 2018, the office’s capital allocation is N60 million, from which N19.9 million is budgeted for research and the rest for purchase of vehicles, computers, office furniture and so on.
Conversely, in the 2017 budget, the total capital cost for the office was N60 million, with every penny going into research and development. The budget had specifically stated the project title as: “Provision of evidence-based research studies on all aspects of the Nigerian economy that will help Mr. President in formulating sound strategies and policies.”
A document obtained from the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation stated cash releases to all government bodies, with N35 million given to OCEAP as part of the first batch of releases. However, more than six months since the 2017 budget implementation period ended and over a year since money was released for the research project, the studies are nowhere to be found.
The Confusion
When ICIR contacted Dipeolu for explanations regarding the funds, he did not expressly state at first that he wasn’t the CEAP. But he did say that the budget item ‘OCEAP85893258’, about which clarification was being sought, was “not under the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters in the Office of the Vice President”.
But when asked to name the CEAP or the official acting in that capacity, Garba Shehu, President Muhammadu Buhari’s official spokesman, had just one answer for the paper: “Dr. Adeyemi Dipeolu.”
Shehu’s answer looked the more plausible of the two, given that the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), the government-owned broadcaster, had reported on August 10, 2016, that Buhari swore in Dipeolu as “Special Adviser on Economic Matters”.
Although NTA had said that “Dipeolu will continue his work under the Office of the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo”, it added that Osinbajo was the “principal economy architect”. So, if Osinbajo is the principal economy architect of this Federal Government and Dipeolu works with Osinbajo, who then is the President’s Chief Economic Adviser? Dipeolu, of course.
To Laolu Akande, the VP’s spokesman, the matter is not that straightforward. “You are saying because Mr Shehu told you that Dr Dipeolu is the ‘Chief Economic Adviser’ when his title says he is a ‘Special Adviser. So, if somebody told you too that I’m the Minister for Information, you’ll just believe it because he said it,” Akande had told the paper.
But there’s another question Akande may want to consider: If the President’s spokesman tells a journalist a thing, and the Vice President’s spokesman tells the same journalist another thing, who of the two is the journalist expected to believe?
Denial Without Clarification
Dipeolu has threatened legal action against the paper for holding him responsible for the funds. A letter from his lawyers to the paper, obtained by SaharaReporters, reads: “We act as Solicitors to Dr. Adeyemi Dipeolu (‘our client”) who is the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters in the Office of the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Instructions at our disposal show that on 17th of October. 2018, your organization published a defamatory article which referred to the person of our client.
“In the said article, it was falsely stated that our Client in his official capacity received the sum of N34.000.000 (Thirty-Four Million Naira) in 2017 to fund research studies on the economy but failed to make the report of the research available to appropriate authorities. For the avoidance of doubt. our Client is the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters and his role is performed within the Office of the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He does not function out of the Office of National Chief Economic Adviser to the President neither is he privy to the budget or any other operational matter relating to this office.
“The said publication which is available online has been read by many of the members of our client’s family, friends and associates. The publication conveys the wrong impression that our client who is a Government official collected money from Government treasury and failed to utilize public funds for the official purpose. Our client. since the publication has been queried by family members. friends and colleagues on why he failed to utilize public funds for the purpose the funds were earmarked. The publication has no doubt diminished our client’s reputation in the eyes of right thinking members of the society, who came across same. In a Tweet headed “Criminals in APC Government”, our client features as a criminal in Government.
“We note that our client’s request that the story “be pulled down” by your organization has failed to attract positive response. We categorically assert that our client is not the occupier of the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to President. We further assert that our client did not collect the sum of N34.000.000 (Thirty-Four Million Nalra) or any sum of money for the purpose of evidence-based research. The publication consequently remains false and defamatory.”
He is demanding a retraction of the said publication, an unconditional apology “to be published in your organization’s website and print media” and immediate pulling down/removal of the publication from the ICIR website within seven days, without which court proceedings would be instituted against the paper.
While Dipeolu’s grievances may or may not be an issue to be decided by the court, there is a more important matter that he, Osinbajo, Buhari or anyone else in government must answer: If Dipeolu is not the CEAP, then who is? Who is that person that should be held responsible for the hundreds of millions of naira released, without accountability, to the OCEAP since 2017?
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E2%80%98embezzling%E2%80%99-n355m target=_blank>Delta Assembly Slams Fresh Three-Month Suspension On Ex-Speaker Igbuya for ‘Embezzling’ N35.5m
Delta State House of Assembly has again slammed the member representing Sapele constituency in the State Assembly and immediate past Speaker, Monday Igbuya, with another round of three-month suspension for allegedly embezzling the sum of N35.5 million belonging to the house.
It would be recalled that sometime in September, the Delta State House of Assembly had slammed the former Speaker with three-month suspension over alleged financial embezzlement while in office. A probe committee was set up during its executive session in October 2017, with a charge to submit its report in February 2018.
The suspension of Igbuya followed the presentation of a report by the ad hoc committee constituted to investigate his alleged financial recklessness, which was considered and adopted at Tuesday’s plenary of the house presided over by the current Speaker, Sheriff Oborevwori,
Presenting the report of the ad hoc committee, the Chairman and Deputy Majority Leader of the House, Oboro Preyor, said that in line with the principles of natural justice and fair hearing as enshrined in Section 36 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), Igbuya was invited to appear before the committee on September 28.
He said the former Speaker did not attend the meeting, prompting the committee to adjourn to October 10, with a second letter of invitation dispatched to the official residence (as was the first letter) of Igbuya, who again compelled the committee to further adjourn its proceedings till October 17 due to his absence.
Preyor said a third letter of invitation was dispatched to former speaker’s home and a copy copiously pasted on the entrance to his apartment, which was followed up by a text message to his telephone line, but to the chagrin of the committee, Igbuya once again ignored the invitation without giving an explanation for his continuous absence.
“At this point, it became crystal clear to the committee that it was a deliberate attempt on the part of the former Speaker to frustrate the work of the committee,” he said.
“Therefore, having satisfied the requirements of natural justice and the constitution by affording the Speaker the opportunity to tell his side of the story, which he has neglected or refused to avail himself of, the committee thus decided to proceed with its work.”
He said the committee took a holistic review of the period during which Igbuya served as Speaker of the house, and sought testimonies from lawmakers who had useful information that could assist the committee in serving the cause of justice.
He added that during investigation, the committee discovered that between April 2016 and May 10, 2017, Igbuya operated as a Chief Executive Officer and as such ran the financial affairs of the house without recourse to due process.
The committee, he said also found that the former Speaker unilaterally withheld the legitimate earnings of seven honorable members of the house and there was no record to show that the monies withheld were paid back to the House of Assembly account.
After considering all the issues and findings raised by the committee, the house resolved that all financial entitlements of Igbuya be withheld forthwith and paid into the coffers of the House until such a time that he can offset the monies he unlawfully withheld from his colleagues and the sum of N35, 536, 370 that accrued to the house, which could not be unaccounted for during his regime as Speaker.
The house further resolved that Igbuya remains suspended for the period of another three months, making it a period of six months in all when he former Speaker will be absent from house plenaries without entitlements and other allowances.
Igbuya, formerly of the Peoples Democratic Party (PPDP), is now the All Progressives Congress (APC) House of Representatives candidate for the Sapele, Okpe and Uvwie Federal Constituency in the 2019 general election.He was impeached by 22 of the 29 members of the House during plenary in May 2017, and was immediately replaced with the member representing Okpe constituency, Oborevwori.
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E2%80%8B target=_blank>You Are Parading Fake Governorship Flag, PDP Tells Kashamu?
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday lampooned Senator Buruji Kashamu, saying he is brandishing alleged fake PDP gubernatorial flag in Ogun State.
The party, in a statement signed by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, described as the height of ridicule, Kashamu’s purported presentation of himself as Ogun governorship candidate of the PDP for which he had to organise his own sham campaign rally, rented an audience and presented alleged fake PDP flag to himself.
The party added that the authentic PDP flag had been handed to its candidate, Ladi Adebutu, by the PDP national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus.
The opposition party accused the lawmaker of acting out the plot of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to destabilise the PDP. It said the APC is allegedly threatening Kashamu with imminent extradition from Nigeria over alleged international fraud.
The statement added “Senator Kashamu, in his forced hallucination, has failed to realise that Nigerians, particularly the voters in Ogun State, have seen through his antics; they know that he is not the PDP governorship candidate in Ogun State; they know that he has a pact with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to destabilise the PDP; they also know that he is a clown on a journey to no where.
“Nigerians are aware that Senator Buruji never purchased PDP nomination form; never participated in our governorship primary or in any process related to nomination of governorship candidate of our party or any position whatsoever.
“Those using Senator Kashamu as their agent have turned him into object of public ridicule, particularly in his charade of organising a rally to hand a fake flag to himself,” the party said.
The PDP however urged the people of Ogun State to completely disregard Senator Buruji and continue their support for the PDP governorship candidate, Ladi Adebutu, who is already coasting to victory.
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E2%80%8B target=_blank>Senate Pays Dariye N85.5m Allowances In Prison?
Six months after his conviction by a Federal Capital Territory High Court, Senator Joshua Dariye is still receiving the N750, 000 salary and N13.5m monthly running cost from the National Assembly, The PUNCHcan report.
Investigations by The PUNCHrevealed that Dariye, who represents Plateau-Central Senatorial District, was still receiving the allowances because his seat had yet to be declared vacant by the leadership of the National Assembly.
Dariye, who was governor of Plateau State from 1999 to 2007, was prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and convicted by Justice Adebukola Banjoko of an FCT High Court for embezzling N1.162bn.
He was subsequently sentenced to 14 years in prison, but his sentence was reduced to 10 years by the Court of Appeal which upheld his conviction last month.
The ex-governor had even made a non-refundable payment of N8m for the All Progressives Congress’ Senate forms but was screened out by the party in September.
Speaking with our correspondent on the telephone, an aide to Dariye, Mr Christopher John, said the convict and his aides were still receiving their full allowances.
He said Dariye had appealed his conviction at the Supreme Court and it would be unfair for his seat to be declared vacant when he had not yet exploited all legal channels.
John said, “He has already appealed the case; so he is still a senator pending the decision of the Supreme Court.
“It is right for us to still be receiving salaries because his case has not ended. There are many other senators having issues with the courts like Senator Attah Idoko from Kogi State. Judgment was given in favour of AVM Isaac Alfa but since Idoko has appealed the case, he is still serving and attending sittings as a senator pending the outcome of the case.
“Aides should still be receiving salary because Dariye is still a senator. And he is still receiving his allowances and will continue to do so until the case is closed.”
Also speaking with our correspondent, the Special Adviser to the Senate President on Media, Yusuph Olaniyonu, said he could not confirm if Dariye was still receiving allowances or not.
Olaniyonu, however, said the former governor’s seat could not be declared vacant until the leadership of the Senate received official communication from the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation.
When asked if the Senate was not aware of the highly publicised conviction of Dariye, Olaniyonu said the legislative arm of government does not act based on media reports but on official communication.
He said, “The Senate President has no power to declare any seat vacant except he is presented with a request. We have to receive official communication from those who prosecuted him. We cannot read a report in the newspapers and go ahead to declare his seat vacant.
“Even if a senator dies, his family would inform the leadership of the Senate or senators would go and pay a condolence visit and officially confirm that he is dead and then the Independent National Electoral Commission will be notified that the seat is vacant.
“Those who convicted Senator Dariye never informed us that he had been convicted. In fact, we even read that he bought the APC ticket to contest for re-election. The AGF prosecuted him and he ought to write the Senate so that the seat can be declared vacant and another election conducted.”
But the Director for Information at the National Assembly, Mr Jerry Agada, said there was no court order or directive from the Senate President to stop Dariye’s salary and so it could not be stopped.
Agada said it was possible for Dariye’s salary to be withheld pending the outcome of the case in court but the National Assembly Commission had no such powers to stop it.
He said, “The procedure of the National Assembly is that a person’s seat must be declared vacant before he is no longer a senator. Based on the latest information we have, they said he had taken the matter to the Supreme Court.
“On our own, we have no power to stop the salary or allowances of any senator whose seat has not been declared vacant. Our intention was that his pay would be put on hold pending the outcome of the case but do we even have such powers?
“He remains a senator in the eyes of the law. It is not a matter of morality now but a matter of law. The power to declare any seat vacant resides in the Senate President or the Speaker.”
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Losing Election Not End Of Political Career, Oshiomhole Tells Members
Adams Oshiomole
The All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole has a word of consolation for party members, who are aggrieved over the conduct of the primaries.
“Losing one nomination does not amount to the end of their political career”, the APC said in Abuja yesterday.
He urged all those who lost nominations to take a cue from President Muhammadu Buhari, who lost three times before winning the presidential election when he had lost hope.
Speaking while receiving the report of the party’s reconciliation committee for the Northeast from Nasarawa State Governor Tanko Al-Makura, Oshiohmole said “although democracy was both attractive and problematic, it remains the best form of governing a people”.
He told the panel members that the National Working Committee (NWC) will study the recommendation and act on it as quickly as possible.
Oshiomhole expressed confidence that the party would come out of the crisis of the primaries stronger and win the general election.
He said: “Thank you for making quality recommendations that will help us to address what has happened and talk people out of their mood and get them to rededicate themselves to the party, but also to learn one or two lesson in the future because this is not the last time we are going to conduct elections and we will be having more than one person participating therefore the possibility of one or more persons not winning the position they applied for.
“You are the first to submit a formal report to us and we are very grateful. I assure you that to justify the time and effort you have invested, and the time spent by the people and the confidence they have reposed in our party and your committee by appearing before you, we will study this report and NWC Will act on it as quickly as possible.
“It is quite reassuring that people recognise that there is no house where there are no grievances. What matters is whether the family has the competence to manage disagreement within the family.
“The only place where there is no disagreement is heaven and since none of us has been there, we can’t even speak to what happens there. But in the real world, people have a right to feel the way they feel. They may be right, they may be wrong, but it is all part of democracy.
“I read a lot of things in the media, some of which are not quite informed. The truth is that if you look at the issue of political parties around the world, the United Kingdom (UK) for example, the Labour Party is more prone to internal contestations than the Conservative.
“The more democratic and liberal a political party is, the more freedom that people feel that they cannot be sanctioned and so, you will have such discordant voices.
“We can learn from those voices and run a better party and a better system in the future. No matter what anybody wants to say, our party is leading by example.”
“For example, we are the only party that allows people to contest election against a sitting governor. All the sitting governors of the PDP had automatic tickets and so, you are not even allowed to murmur about your governor.
“But here, in obedience to our rules, we allowed people wishing to challenge sitting governors to do so and in one case, a governor could not return.
“Democracy is an attractive wind but also problematic. But like they say, it is still the best way to run a system and a country. So, I am very confident that we are going forward; we are going to win this election. The whole essence of this reconciliation is to let people know that the fact that you lost one nomination submit the end of your political future.
“We have the best teacher in our family in person of President Buhari who contested elections three times and lost. He almost gave up, hotness encouraged not to give up. He went for the fourth time and won. He has thought is that this process is only for long distance runners and not a 100 meters dash.
“Secondly, if our primary purpose for seeking nomination and getting elected is to serve the people, and improve on the quality of life, then even if 20 of us file out to contest election as governor, we know ab-initio that only one person will be elected even if all 20 are angels.
“But if democracy is working and working well, that one person that emerged will govern in such a way that will add value to the quality of life of every citizen because the main objective is to improve the quality of life of the people.
“At the end of the day, the deliverable is what will change as a result of my membership of the APC. I am excited that you said people have not decamped and have confidence in the leadership of the party.”
Al-Makura said the committee was glad to report that no aggrieved members in their area of coverage decamped but have confidence in the leadership of the party.
He said: “Immediately after our inauguration and considering the fact that there no time, we immediately hit the ground running. Considering the area to be covered, the committee decided to cluster the area into three. Maiduguri played host to Borno and Yobe; Bauchi played host to Bauchi and Gombe; and Yola played host to Adamawa and Taraba.
“We are pleased to inform the National Working Committee that we were impressed by the response we received across the zone. It showed commitment and faithfulness of members of our party and their confidence not only on our committee, but the leadership of the party”
The Nation Newspaper
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The Nation Newspaper
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