POLITICS
2023 Elections: PCG Upbeat about Osinbajo Presidency
By Jude Opara, Abuja
Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the Progressive Consolidation Group (PCG), an offshoot of the All Progressives Congress (APC) says it is satisfied with the warm reception it got at the weekend during the pro-Osinbajo lobby in Katsina.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja on Sunday, members of the Progressive Consolidation Group (PCG) said their weekend mobilization and advocacy visit to the Governor of Katsina state, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari, the Emir of Daura Emirate, Alhaji Faruk Umar Faruk as well as a strategic meeting with APC members from all the 34 local government areas in the North-West State was a huge success.
National Chairman of the PCG, Alhaji (Dr.) Aliyu Rabiu Kurfi, its National Secretary, Dr. Eli Eberechukwu Dibia and PCG’s Co-ordinator in the South-West geo-political zone, Comrade Olufemi Lawson, said their 10-man delegation and a team of 50 members from Kano and Katsina states ensured that the outing was a huge success.
According to Kurfi, the strategic decision of PCG to begin it’s nationwide mobilization and advocacy visit from Katsina, the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari was a well thought out one.
“Every passing day, we see further indications of success in our mobilization and advocacy efforts towards ensuring that Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo succeeds President Muhammadu Buhari and sustain our party, APC’s progressive ideals.
“We deeply appreciate the warmth and hospitality offered by the people and government of Katsina state during our visit to Government House, Katsina last Friday as well as our visit to His Royal Majesty, the Emir of Daura, Alhaji Faruk Umar Faruk last Saturday.
“Governor Masari personally received us and advised that we also apply our members’ energies towards further strengthening the APC nationwide.
“Our Royal father, the Emir of Daura also heard our genuinely patriotic reasons for making Professor Yemi Osinbajo our preference for leadership of Nigeria and while he is not a politician, he notes the excellent working relationship between both President Buhari and the VP, Professor Osinbajo.
“We assure all true Progressives and members of the APC in Nigeria and abroad that at the Government House, at the Palace and at our strategic meetings with various stakeholders drawn from all the local government areas of Katsina state, our concerns for stability, unity, peace and progress of Nigeria profoundly resonates,” Kurfi stated.
Similarly, the National Secretary, Dr. Eli Dibia further explained that the PCG was motivated to push Professor Yemi Osinbajo’s candidature, because of the need to sustain the legacies of the Buhari administration under the banner of APC.
“As everyone knows, we started our awareness for good governance since March 2019, with a collective resolve to promote our great party, APC, so as to ensure that our party again produces Nigeria’s next President come 2023. “Looking at the extant developmental challenges that the country is contending with, it is only wise for the Party to choose a most qualified and most acceptable Candidate to sustain and improve on the positive gains, achievements and legacies of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“It is in view of this development that we at the PCG feel convinced that an Osinbajo Presidency come 2023 will bring down tension, facilitate stability and accelerate further progress in all sectors of the economy.
“Therefore, we went before Governor Masari, the Emir of Daura and other stakeholders 8n Katsina state, to seek for support, wise counsel and advice towards accelerating the possibilities of collective success,” he stated, adding that Prof Osinbajo is one of those elements with8n the current system that can further enrich the nation’ s prospects,” Dibia stated.
The Abia Chapter of the INEC Staff Welfare Association (ISWA) has warned its members to uphold the integrity of the commission and guard against the culture of manipulating election results.
The Abia Chairman of the association, Mr Collins Eze, gave the advice at the group’s general meeting and end-of-year party in Umuahia.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen on the sideline of the ceremony, Eze said that the staff members were adequately aware of their enormous responsibility and should ensure free, fair and credible elections.
He said: “We have also told our colleagues that anywhere they find themselves they should make sure that they do the needful by ensuring transparency in the conduct of elections.
“We have always told them not to allow anybody to induce them with money to manipulate election results.
“I’m happy that they have been building the capacity of our colleagues on election processes.
“So, in the coming years, we won’t have any problem in ensuring free, fair and peaceful elections.”
He said that the end-of-year party was special as it afforded them the opportunity “to wine and dine together as well as thank God for sustaining them in 2024”.
Eze said that his leadership had introduced various means of assisting members in dire financial needs by providing platforms to solicit suppory for them.
He expressed gratitude to members for their support and cooperation, describing them as the “secret behind the success of this administration”.
He said that 34 of at least 350 staff members of the commission in the state retired from service in 2024.
According to him, the development has placed a huge financial burden on the association, in terms of their welfare and entitlement as members.
Report says that each member received a carton of tomato paste as Christmas gift from the association. (NAN)
A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be thankful to God that its 16-year administration was not probed by the successive APC-led governments.Okechukwu stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, while reacting to a statement by PDP congratulating Ghanaians for the conduct of free, fair and transparent general elections.
Report says that PDP had, in a statement, said that the verdict of the people of Ghana in the presidential election was a signal to the APC that its days were numbered. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, had said in the statement that the power of the people in Nigeria, just like in Ghana, would ‘surely prevail and end the APC’s oppressive rule’.This, he said, would “return Nigeria to the path of good governance, security, political stability and economic prosperity on the platform of the PDP in 2027.”However, in his reactions to Ologunagba’s statement, Okechukwu said that the PDP clan should thank God that former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Tinubu, out of sheer statesmanship, had refused to probe ‘the 16 locus years of PDP administrations’.Okechukwu, a former Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), described the 16 years of PDP administrations as ones full of squandering and lack of plan.He said that Nigeria had yet to recover from the humongous culture of impunity and trust deficit planted by PDP on the Nigerian soil.Okechukwu said corruption was among the culture of impunity, saying it governed the privatisation of Nigeria’s electricity value chain, a key element in the country’s industrialisation drive.“Another is the blatant rigging of the 2007 general elections which the foremost beneficiary, President Umaru Yar’Adua, out of good conscience and noble magnanimity, publicly acknowledged the malfeasance which characterised his victory,” he said.Okechukwu also mentioned what he called conscienceless sale of the legislative and ministerial quarters, the annual rentage of which, he said, was bleeding the country’s treasury.“Another one is the neglect of $23 billion Greenfield Refinery, which could have saved over $70 billion expended on importation of refined petroleum products and which simulated the economic hardship of today,” he said.On why, for nine years, the APC administration could not fix those challenges, he recalled the efforts made by the Buhari administration to reopen talks on the Greenfield Refinery which, according to him, the Chinese regrettably rebuffed.The former VON director-general said that Nigerians were not in a hurry to forget the deliberate breach of the rotational convention of president from the north to the south.He said that the country could not also forget the utter disregard for Section 7 of the PDP’s constitution which expressly mandated zoning.Okechukwu advised the PDP not to insult the sensibilities of Nigerians by assuming that citizens would easily forget how they were put in the harms way.He said that PDP should thank God that Buhari and Tinubu did not want to probe them, adding “that’s why Nigerians cannot decipher the difference between the two political parties.” (NAN)
Sen. Ned Nwoko (PDP-Delta) says that Local Government Administration is central to democracy in Nigeria as it ensures grassroots governance and service delivery at the local level.This is contained in a statement signed by Dr Michael Nwoko, the Chief of Staff to the lawmaker in Abuja on Monday.Nwoko said this on the occasion of the presentation of an award “Icon of Hope” to him by the Association of Local Government Vice Chairmen of Nigeria (ALGOVC).
He was represented by his Chief of Staff. He said that the importance of local government administration in the country could not be overemphasised, as it was the bedrock of democracy.According to him, local governments in Nigeria play key roles in the country’s democracy by promoting participatory democracy, providing services, and representing citizens.“Local Governments help determine local needs and how to meet them. They also act as a link between the centre, state, and local people.“They are created to decentralise power and bring the government closer to the people. They perform both mandatory and concurrent functions.“It is in view of this that I took it upon myself to enhance the viability of local governments through the Paris and London club loan refunds,”he said.Dr Folashade Olabanji-Oba, ALGOVC National Chairman, while presenting the award at its 7th Annual National Conference, said the award was in recognition of the lawmaker’s significant contributions to strengthening local government administration.She highlighted Nwoko’s critical role in ensuring the Paris and London Club loan refunds, a financial breakthrough she said enhanced the capacity of local governments nationwide.(NAN)
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