Sahara Reporters Latest News Friday 14th December 2018
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 14/12/18
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target=_blank>Politicians Responsible For Election Violence, Says Bayelsa CP
Joseph Mukan, the Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police, has said Nigerians should hold politicians responsible for violence during elections.
He, however, expessed optimism that the 2019 general election in the state would be peaceful, noting that the outcome would depend largely on the stakeholders.
According to Mukan, the stakeholders — including the political class, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), security agencies, media and the electorate — must collaborate to ensure the outcome is not characterised by violence.
He made this known on Wednesday in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, during a visit by the members of the Federated Correspondents Chapel (FCC) of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Bayelsa State Council, led by the Chairman, Comrade Osaro Okhomina of Leadership newspaper.
Speaking on the violence recorded during the party primaries and the 2016 governorship elections in the state, the Police Commissioner said: “When the political class and their supporters see politics as not a do-or-die affair, the outcome will be peaceful. The political gladiators hire thugs and these and many others were responsible for the wave of violence during elections in the state.
“When things are done properly, we will get it right one day. If INEC gets it right; if the security gets it right; if the political class gets it right, and with the objective reportage of the media we will get it right also.
“We have been talking with the political gladiators on why there should be peaceful and transparent elections. The political class should be held responsible for violence for seeing elections as a do-or-die affair, forgetting that the contest is between themselves and not with foreigners.”
On the FCC lecture series to hold on December 20, 2018, Mukan declared his support for the event.
In his remarks, Osaro Okhomina, the FCC Chairman, commended the new Commissioner of Police for the successes recorded in reducing the rate of crime in the state.
He also commended the Police over the speedy response to the extrajudicial killing of a youth in the state capital.
Okhomina also used the opportunity to formally invite the Commissioner of Police to the Fifth Annual FCC Lecture series with the theme: ‘The Quest for a People’s Governor, The Case for Bayelsa State’.
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target=_blank>The Nigerian Youth Of Blurry Future By Ibrahim Adeyemi
“Parents listen to your children, We are the leaders of tomorrow, Try to pay our school fees, And give us sound education” — marching song for elementary school pupils.
Whosoever wrote the above marching song for pupils in their preliminary level of education had done nothing good for the Nigerian youth than making us unreasonably excited when those lines are being sung. I think the killing of the youths’ bright future starts from what is inculcated in us from our primary level. Setting the future of the youth ablaze by the ageists did not start today; it started before our fathers could eat themselves with their first right fingers. Those who intend to rule this country forever had and still have a good architectural plan on today’s youth, psychologically.
In a more microscopic point of view to the above marching song, the writer begins by ordering the parents to listen to the illusionary dream of their children. What’s the so-called dream? “We are the leaders of tomorrow.”
However, one will wonder why we are not the leaders of today. What is today and what is tomorrow? When shall we witness the tomorrow? Is there any forethought tomorrow when today is carousing? How on earth will today assume duty when yesterday has not retired or resigned, let alone tomorrow that is even likely to be uncertain?
The ‘leaders of tomorrow’ as we are called, is not only mystical but also mysterious; there is something seemingly obscure and nebulous about the so-called nomenclature which is used to refer to the Nigerian youth. There is something unsaid or not well said about something and, that is the word ‘tomorrow’. When we intend to have today, we shall have tomorrow and whenever we have tomorrow, we shall always have another tomorrow. Calling us “the leaders of tomorrow” is like placing us properly on a legless high chair. The ageists have their own conspirational meaning for ‘tomorrow’ for today’s youth.
Jon Earthneel said this about Tomorrow: “Tomorrow doesn’t exist. Tomorrow shouldn’t exist. And we should try to comprehend tomorrow. Since it is so beyond our brain capacity, it will destroy our sanity”. This as implied by Jon is what the ageists mean by ‘tomorrow’ and not ‘the day after today’. And, here we are, willing and hoping for ourselves, by ourselves to be the leaders of tomorrow, thinking things will be different, yet, tomorrow is nothing but often the redundancy of today. We are dissatisfied and disappointed again and again every now and then.
The truth is clear except we wish to hold the lips. That tomorrow when we shall be ruling our Motherland may not come since those who ruled yesterday are ruling today and still willing to rule tomorrow. They want to be in power for ever and ever and if at all, death will have to stop them. They still want their children to further rule us and continue from where they stop in setting our bright future ablaze. Only the sons and daughters of the poor are done in or done for; they will ever be subservient to the sons and daughters of these devilish gerontocrats.
Furthermore, the marching song writer urges our parents to do two things: “Pay our school fees” and “give us sound education”. Whether our parents or government is responsible for paying “our school fees” is not my modus operandi now. But the winning worry on my mind is the “sound education”. This, we already know, is one of the plots made to make us believe that free education is not the responsibility of the government but the duty of our parents to “pay our school fees”. But then, what about the sound education? What Nigerian youth are getting is not education; I suppose it is called schooling. Technically, it is one thing to be schooled and another thing to be educated. Both of them are not the same, are they?
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education,” said, Martin Luther King. Webster’s dictionary defines schooling as “the process of being taught, such as in a school”. The process of educating is really not tantamount to schooling; they are two different things. Education is productivity, creativity and the ability to make things real. “Any system of education which does not help a man to have a healthy and sound body and alert brain, and balanced and disciplined instinctive urges, is both misconceived and dangerous,” said Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
It is said that education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today. Because the evil ageists are aware of this fact, they have refused to give the youth qualitative education. Teachers are treated scornfully. Students are good for nothing because they have received nothing good from their badly treated teachers. The system of education in this country is as poor as the church’s mouse. Creativity is misplaced in arts; technology is dead in sciences and productivity is not found anywhere. Cramming is encouraged and comprehension is discouraged. Students read with pressure and not pleasure. While ASUU strikes the Federal Government by not working, our public servants and leaders travel abroad to celebrate their children’s convocations. All these are exactly why we are aback in everything. Nothing worthy of appraisal is coming from Nigerian youths. This is consequentially a reflection of our impoverished state of education in Nigeria.
The ageists or the gerontocrats believe that both the elephant and its calf are not expected to trumpet at the same time. They say the young bird does not crow until it hears the old one. But then, if these evil habituated old men will not desist from setting the future of the youth on fire, isn’t it high time we let them know that the youth are not too young to run?
Courage, ability, responsibility and responsiveness, integrity and the mind to serve humanity are all that we need to tool in fighting against the so-called evil-minded old men. Nigeria will never move forward unless we employ youthful minds that are up to the minutes, rather than the barbaric sexagenarians, septuagenarians, octogenarians and so on. To make mincemeat of these aging men, we youth have a mountain to climb.
Ibrahim Adeyemi is a student of English and a campus reporter from Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto.
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target=_blank>Nigerians In The Diaspora Cannot Vote But IDPs Can, Says INEC
The Independent National Electoral Commission (lNEC) has described as untrue, reports that displaced Nigerians abroad will be able to participate in the 2019 general election.
According to Festus Okoye, National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, there is no truth in such claims, as the Framework and Regulations for IDP Voting was presented and validated by stakeholders at a conference held in Abuja on Wednesday, with it not containing diaspora voting.
“The attention of the independent National Electoral Commission (lNEC) has been drawn to a report by a section of the media which gave a false impression that the Commission has ‘made special provisions for internally Displaced Persons outside Nigeria to Vote in the 2019 General Elections,’” he said in a statement.
“The Commission wishes to state unequivocally that there will be no Diaspora or Out-of-Country voting tor any Nigerian, in accordance with extant provisions of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 (as amended). Only duly registered Internally Displaced Persons (lDPs) within Nigeria will be allowed to vote.
“The Framework and Regulations for IDP Voting was presented and validated by stakeholders at a conference held in Abuja on 12th December, 2018. However, there was no reference whatsoever in the remarks made by the Hon. Chairman. Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu or during deliberations at the validation meeting that special provisions will be made tor lDPs outside Nigeria to vote in the forthcoming general elections, contrary to the said media reports.
“It should however be noted that while Internally Displaced Persons currently residing in states where they registered can vote in all elections. those displaced from their states and are currently living in states other than where they registered can only vote in the Presidential election.
“The framework validated by stakeholders at the conference is in consonance with the provisions of Section 26 (1) of the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2015 which provides that ‘in the event at an emergency affecting an election, the Commission shall as far as possible ensure that persons displaced as a result of the emergency are not disenfranchised.’”
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target=_blank>ALERT: Niger Delta Projects Listed Among Buhari’s ‘Achievements’ Are ‘Nowhere To Be Found’
Ijaw youth leaders from the nine states of the Niger Delta region have challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to probe some ministers from the region over alleged non-execution of federal projects awarded by his administration.
According to the youth, the projects listed by President Muhammad Buhari as part of his administration’s achievements, while commendable, are nowhere to be found.
The leaders, under the auspices of the Ijaw Unity and Peace Committee (IUPC), lamented that some of the projects listed as Buhari’s achievements in Bayelsa State, for instance, are not in the state.
They threatened to carry out massive protests against the “diversion of projects”. The leaders particularly said projects awarded to Bayelsa under the Federal Ministries of Agriculture and Niger Delta Affairs were not being implemented.
In a statement made available to newsmen on Wednesday in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, Apostle Bodmas Kemepadei, the convener of the group, lamented the underdevelopment in the region, stating that there were persons within the presidency working against the present administration.
Kemepadei, who is also the leader of Egbesu Brotherhood, said contrary to claims that there were rural road projects in Bayelsa as part of Buhari’s achievements in the Niger Delta, nothing of such could be found anywhere in the state.
He also said claims by the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs that the Federal Government constructed a cassava processing plant in Bayelsa were false and misleading.
“I seriously think President Muhammadu Buhari is not aware of what is going on in Bayelsa State because what the Presidency listed as part of its achievements in the Niger Delta is just a figment of someone’s imagination,” he said.
“It is only in the media that we read of projects awarded to Bayelsa by his administration, but in reality this is not true. Those representing Buhari in the state are deceiving him; they are not reporting the true situation of things. We have nothing to show as benefits from the present administrations. The agricultural loans, fertilisers, rural road projects, empowerment schemes, awarded by Buhari to Bayelsa, are not being effected. There are no named Bayelsans that are beneficiaries of such programmes.
“This is not only painful, but wicked. How can Buhari be awarding to projects, releasing funds, yet nothing is happening?
“It is on this note that we are bent on staging this protest. We want the Presidency to be aware and discipline whosoever that may be involved in the diversion of Bayelsa projects. The date for the protest will be made public very soon. No individual has the monopoly to cart away with public properties.”
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target=_blank>Sowore’s Supporters Protest At Channels TV To Demand His Inclusion In Presidential Debate
The #TakeItBack movement has conducted a peaceful protest to express their grievances over the exclusion of Omoyele Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, from the presidential debate organised by the Nigeria Elections Debate Group (NEDG) and the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON).
NEDG and BON had announced only five political parties — Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Young Progressives Party (YPP) — scheduled to participate in the presidential debate scheduled for January 19, 2019.
The protesters marched to the headquarters of Channels Television in Isheri, Lagos on Thursday, bearing placards with inscriptions such as ‘#SoworeMustBeIncluded’; ‘#DemocracyIsParticipation’; ‘#LetNigeriansDecideCharacter’, among others.
The selection of only five presidential candidates has generated much criticism against NEDG and BON, with many calling for more candidates to participate in the debate.
Speaking at the event, one of the members of the movement, identified as Juwon, said the selection of only five candidates is “thoroughly unfair corruption in an election with more than 30 presidential candidates”.
He called on Nigerians to “ensure that more candidates, including Omoyele Sowore, participate in the debate, and also that President Muhammadu Buhari does not send a representative to the debate or else it would disrupted”.
Similarly, another member of the movement, Comrade Femi Adeyeye, said: “Nigerians have the right to interview who they are going to employ for the next four years, hence the demand to fairly include candidates contesting the elections.”
On Thursday, Oby Ezekwesili, ACPN presidential candidate, and Fela Durotoye, ANN presidential candidate, also called on NEDG and BON to include Sowore and other presidential candidates in the debate.
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target=_blank>Durotoye Asks NEDG/BON To Include ‘My Brother’ Sowore In Presidential Debate
Fela Durotoye, presidential candidate of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), has urged the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) and the Nigerian Elections Debate Group (NEDG) to include Omoyele Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) and the former Governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), in the presidential debate slated for January 2019.
NEDG and BON had selected only five political parties — All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) and Young Progressive Party (YPP) — for the presidential debate.
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The selection has since generated much debate among Nigerians, with many berating NEDG and BON for limiting the selected candidates to only five.
According to Durotoye, presidential debates must be inclusive and “as many candidates as possible” should be given the opportunities to share their vision with Nigerians.
A tweet by Durotoye read: “Our #PresidentialDebates must be inclusive and opportunities given to as many candidates as possible to share their vision with all Nigerians. My brother @YeleSowore and @Donald_Duke should be allowed to participate in these debates. That’s the beauty of democracy. #YOUNITED
“Inclusiveness is the beauty of democracy and I believe the organIzers of the #PresidentialDebates should include other frontline candidates.”
Oby Ezekwesili, the ACPN presidential candidate, had also earlier called on the organising bodies to include Sowore and other candidates in the debate.
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I Especially Want To See A Candidate Like Sowore Participate In Presidential Debate, Says Ezekwesili
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E2%80%99s-devil-electoral-bill-azu-ishiekwene target=_blank>Where’s The Devil In The Electoral Bill? By Azu Ishiekwene
Exaggeration is the most common strain of fever at election period. Politicians make voters – and the general public – believe that the world might end on ballot day, when in fact what they are playing for is their own survival.
The Electoral Bill is not just the biggest talking point; it’s been perhaps the deadliest battleground since last week. What is it about the bill that gives the impression that its immediate non-passage is not only a threat to the 2019 general elections but also proof that President Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) is determined to rig the elections?
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), among others, has said Buhari’s repeated claims of commitment to free and fair elections next year are just what they are – lip service.
The party insists that the extension of the tenures of the service chiefs and the Inspector General of Police, recent encounters between some members of the opposition with security agencies, and now, Buhari’s refusal to assent the Electoral Bill, will undermine next year’s poll.
The opposition, particularly the PDP, said while the card reader and electronic transmission of results, which it favours, would make the process more transparent, the criminalisation of the non-use of card readers and transmission of results, which it claims the ruling party is opposed to, would encourage under-age voting, especially in APC strongholds.
Among what the PDP-dominated leadership of the National Assembly described as “the nine benefits” of the just concluded amendments to the Electoral Bill are, a) stopping of manual transmission of results, in fact, manual transmission of results has been criminalised b) online publication of voter register c) full biometric accreditation d) removal of “unfair” qualification processes e) limit on election expenses, including party form fees f) amendment in the process for dealing with substitution, resignation and replacement by the parties, and so on.
On the face of it, it’s difficult to argue with the good intentions of the amendments. Some of the best laws are the ones made by crooks, who have gamed and benefited from the system and who therefore know exactly where to fix the plugs. Or perhaps by those who think like them. The contentious amendments are no exception.
Our election process has improved over time and the best in recent times has been the one in 2015. Before then, elections were conducted pretty much the same way they were done in ancient Greece, only with the worst rigging mechanisms included.
Up till 2010 and well beyond, for example, anyone could claim to be a registered voter and the only way an electoral officer at the polling unit could verify that from his register was the presentation of an ID card, which could have been printed in the potential voter’s backyard.
That was how Mike Tyson and Nebuchadnezzar were found in the register. In the more decent examples, there were also cases of ghosts who thumb-printed with palm kernel nuts.
That changed in 2015 with the introduction of the card reader and the requirement of full biometrics. The problem was that under the 2015 Electoral Act, the use of the card reader, which digitised voter data and also facilitated biometrics collections, was only a regulation, an expediency if you like, not contained in the Act.
But like a child that had been born, the pregnancy could no longer be aborted, nor the child’s existence denied. On March 26, two days to the last general elections, former President Goodluck Jonathan signed into law an amendment to the 2015 Act, empowering the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to use any device, including the electronic register, to conduct elections. In other words, the expediency became law.
It’s been said in some quarters that Jonathan took this step, in spite of himself. His close advisers were betting that the elections would be massively rigged in Buhari’s stronghold and pressed him to sign off the amendment to catch the riggers. He did, but somehow left the law in the closet.
The test came later. In spite of the law, two of the greatest unfathomable rulings of the Supreme Court (in the Rivers State and Akwa Ibom governorship elections), the Court still gave precedence to the manual register against smart card reader.
Even though the Court did not say the use of the card reader was illegal, its confusing verdict left enough room for even an educated few to make the convenient case that the court had ruled the use of the card reader illegal.
If the National Assembly’s amendments are intended to cure that defect, once and for all, what is the problem with that?
The problem is that the National Assembly has weaponised the bill; it has become one more tool in the war theatre between the legislative and executive branch, a theatre that Buhari himself helped to install by his standoffishness at the beginning of his administration.
To understand the odyssey of the electoral bill is to trace the feisty legislative-executive relationship, especially the defection of key members of the National Assembly to the opposition. The moment Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara decided to leave the APC, anything to undermine the executive, including the electoral bill, was fair game.
The long delays (especially in the House of Representatives, where the bill languished for over one year); the four cycles of back-and-forth, which saw multiple amendments and a self-serving attempt to usurp INEC’s role; the omission of even the card reader in the third draft bill passed in August; the disgraceful typographical errors by the National Assembly bureaucracy; the needless multiple postponements of resumption by the National Assembly, all served to bring the country to this sorry pass.
Of course, the executive was not blameless. It simply took a leaf from the survival script of the legislature and served a backhand to avoid the booby traps and save its own neck.
Buhari said there were serious drafting and scheduling issues with the bill; that signing the bill will create confusion of interpretation; that while he supports the use of the card reader and biometrics, he is opposed to the criminalisation of non-electronic transmission of results, as contained in the bill.
An additional concern, according to Buhari and his party, is that whatever the merit of the electronic transmission of results, it has not been tested, even on a limited scale, and therefore should not be deployed in a major election.
And, on top of that, he said, signing the bill now will be a violation of Article II (1) of the ECOWAS protocol on democracy and good governance 2001, a consequential factor in the last election crisis in Kenya.
Where is INEC in all this? The Commission has said there’s no going back on smart card readers and that the “incident forms”, which dubious officials often exploited as excuse to use the manual method, would not be allowed next year. That should, for now, sufficiently address the concerns on all sides about the potential second coming of Mike Tyson and co.
I think the defining question is, what likely danger does Buhari’s non-assent, pose to free, fair and transparent elections next year?
Next to zero. The Electoral Act under which Buhari was elected was passed, and tinkered with up till the last minute, by a PDP government. So, why is the PDP worried about contesting under a law passed by its own government? And if Buhari has said he does not mind assenting if the amendments would commence after the next general elections, what is wrong with that?
I long for the day when elections would be held without the militarisation and near-complete grounding of normal life; when elections would be held in the morning of a working day and the results are electronically transmitted and declared within the shortest time possible.
Not because technology does not have its problems (after all Florida, in the US, is the world’s election recount capital) or that hackers and meddlers have not shown us the perils of technology, but because whatever its flaws, technology increases transparency and confidence in the system, making the vote really count.
If, all said and done, the National Assembly believes that we are doomed without the amendments, then it can save us by overriding the President’s veto. Surely, it wouldn’t be hard to find the two-thirds required to do so. Or is this just politics of exaggeration, as usual?
Ishiekwene is the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview and member of the board of the Global Editors Network
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target=_blank>Shiites Hold Protest To Mark Three Years of El-Zakzaky’s Detention
Shiites during the procession in Abuja
Shiites during the procession in Abuja
Followers of Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky have staged a peaceful protest to mark three years of Zaria massacre and El-Zakzaky’s “unlawful detention” by the Nigerian government.
The protesters carried placards and stormed the federal secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday, chanting anti-government songs and demanding the release of their spiritual leader, who has been in custody since December 2015.
Addressing the protesters, Abdullahi Musa, Secretary of the Academic Forum of Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), said El-Zakzaky is being kept in detention for “no just cause”.
His words: “On 12 December, 2015, a planned and systematic attack on Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky was launched by the Nigerian Army under a hoax of road blockage. The attack lasted for more than 48 hours and led to the killing of more than 1,000 people, including women and children. Those killed during the attack include sons of Sheikh Zakzaky namely, Ali, Hamid and Humaid. After the attack, the Buhari-led administration detained the Sheikh without proper medical care.
“The attack started when soldiers of the Nigerian Army were stationed directly opposite Hussainiyyah Baqiyyatullah Centre (where teaching sessions and other activities are held) located along Sokoto road, adjacent to polo pitch, Zaria, Kaduna State. On that day, the followers of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky were to commemorate the arrival of Rabiul Awwal, the birth month of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAWA).”
According to Musa, the soldiers burnt many people alive, including an elder sister to Sheikh Zakzaky. He also accused the Nigerian Army of conducting a “secret mass burial of the victims at a site in Mando Kaduna”.
He continued: “Three years after the Zaria massacre and despite the recommendation made by the report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry (JCI) of July 2016 for the prosecution of the perpetrators of the Zaria massacre, the Nigerian government under Buhari is yet to prosecute the perpetrators of these great atrocities.
“In fact, instead of prosecuting the perpetrators, Tyrant Buhari continued to give orders for further killing of the followers of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky. The recent killing is the attack made by the Military and Nigerian Police during the annual Arbaeen Symbolic Trek between 27th and 30th October, 2018 where more than 50 followers of Sheikh Zakzaky were killed in Abuja.”
He, however, stated that the group would not relent in its demand for the unconditional release of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky and his wife.
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target=_blank>I Especially Want To See A Candidate Like Sowore Participate In Presidential Debate, Says Ezekwesili
Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), has called on the Nigerian Elections Debate Group (NEDG) and the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) to include Omoyele Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the presidential debate scheduled for January 2019.
NEDG and BON had issued a statement on Tuesday, noting that only five political parties — Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Young Progressives Party (YPP) — would participate in the presidential debate scheduled to hold on January 19, 2019.
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The announcement had been greeted with criticism as Nigerians across various platforms demanded for more candidates to be included in the debate.
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Also lending her voice to the calls for inclusion of more candidates, Ezekwesili noted that she especially wants to see Sowore on the platform.
Making her comments on the subject, she tweeted: “As a country with huge contingent of parties fielding candidates for election, it does make sense to at least allow more than five such parties, at least 25 per cent of those candidates, to participate in the most influential of presidential debates. #PresidentialDebates
“I especially want to see a candidate like @YeleSowore whose AAC has been diligent in crisscrossing universities to awaken our young to engage in our politics.
“He is doing the country a great service, because we must have that generation of Nigerians fully understand and embrace Plato’s counsel: ‘those who think that politics is beneath them shall be ruled by their inferiors’.” He is doing the country a great service because we must have that generation of Nigerians fully understand and embrace Plato’s counsel: “those who think that politics is beneath them shall be ruled by their inferiorsâ€. #PresidentialDebates— Oby Ezekwesili (@obyezeks) December 13, 2018
The ACPN candidate and former Minister of Education also asked that APGA, KOWA and Socialist Democratic Party be added to the list of parties.
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Sultan To Politicians: Don’t Use Other People’s Children As Thugs
Ahead of the 2019 general elections, the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, has cautioned politicians against using other people’s children as political thugs.
He spoke yesterday at the flag-off of senatorial districts voter education and sensitization exercise organised by the National Orientation Agency.
Sultan, represented by Chiroman Sokoto, Alhaji Buhari Abubakar, reminded politicians that God gives power to whom He wishes, asking them not to see politics as a do-or-die affair.
NOA Director in the state, Maude Danchadi, cautioned Nigerians against vote-buying and violence.
He also stressed the need for Nigerians to avoid election apathy.
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