POLITICS
2023: Fayemi in Borno, Yobe, Promises Quick End to Banditry, Insurgency
By Jude Opara, Abuja
Governor of Ekiti state and a presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has taken his campaign train to Yobe and Borno states where made a promise to being a quick end to insurgency and banditry ravaging the region.
Fayemi who also got the endorsement of the delegates assured that he would hit the ground running from the first day if given the opportunity to serve.
A statement signed Friday in Abuja by the Director of the Fayemi Campaign Organization, Femi Ige, said the presidential hopeful who led his campaign team comprising former APC Deputy National Chairman (North), Senator Shuaib Lawal, former National Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Tijjani Tumsal, popular national leader of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Alhaji Haruna Dan Zago, Senator Domingo Obende, Mallam Garba Abari (DG NOA), promised to build upon the legacies of the Buhari administration and address the identified as soon as gets into office.
He said; “We will build on the legacies of President Muhammadu Buhari and urgently address the identified gaps. Security will top my agenda as a security expert. I have a Ph.D in War studies and I consulted for Nigeria under President Olusegun Obasanjo, I was deeply involved in the resolution of the wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda and Sri Lanka.
“We have a template that we’ll use in bringing peace to our people, so that we can farm in peace, school in peace and live in peace. If I can do it outside why not for the country that has given me everything?”
In his response, the Borno state Chairman of the APC, Hon. Ali Bukar Dalori, described Fayemi as a preferred presidential candidate for the people of the state because; “we know your qualities.
“What you did for all the chairmen under me as the Chairman of all APC states chairmen in the country is unprecedented and that has nothing to do with ambition. That is the heart of a caring leader and our love for you is from the heart and we will demonstrate it with our support for you.”
Also, in Yobe, the state governor, Mai Mala Buni who was represented by the deputy governor and the entire state exco told Governor Fayemi not to dissipate energy selling ice to Icelanders “because this state is for you. You are the first to come and as you have remarked, it will be first come first served.”
While addressing the Yobe delegates afterwards, the aspirant promised to ensure a quick end to insurgency, banditry and all issues fueling acrimony in the country.
Fayemi said; “My focus would be on bringing peace to my fatherland and ensure that the Ibadan man finds home in Sokoto and the Sokoto man finds home in Akure, Abakaliki, Ontisha or Owerri. The Owerri man must find home in Damaturu. This is the Nigeria I want to fight for and I’m confident it’s achievable.”
Speaking with newsmen on the issue of zoning within the party, Fayemi said zoning of the presidential seat in the 2023 electioneering will build trust and confidence in the Nigeria project taking cognizance of the diverse ethic configuration of the country.
“Nigeria is a diverse country and there are diverse competency. There are competent people across the country but in a multi-cultural, multi-dimensional and multi-religious society, you also need zoning to build trust and confidence,” he declared.
However, the aspirant said zoning should not be used to supplant competence even as he advised politicians to abide by whatever zoning arrangements their parties may decide.
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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