POLITICS
10th NASS: CSOs Reveal Why Northwest Deserves Senate Presidency
A Coalition for Advance Democracy (COAD) has said there is nothing unconstitutional or unethical in the Northwest region producing the next senate president.
The coalition revealed this while reacting to the statement credited to the National Vice Chairman, Northwest of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Salihu Lukman, purporting that it is unethical for senators-elect from the Northwest zone to aspire for the senate presidency.
Speaking after an emergency meeting held in Abuja on Wednesday, the convener of the coalition Malam Yousouf Zulkiflu said Mr Lukman’s intervention is “grossly unfounded and bereft of empirical evidence.
”“We found it seriously appalling for the APC Northwest National Vice Chairman to embark on such unnecessary religious and ethnic tirade at a time Nigeria is trying to move ahead.
Nigerians have trooped out to vote for the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima ticket without considering their religious affiliations,” the coalition said.The coalition said “it is unfortunate for Mr Lukman to seek to disenfranchise the Northwest for giving President-elect Bola Tinubu the highest votes in the February 25 presidential elections.
“Who is Mr Lukman working for? Why is he working against the Northwest? Is it a crime to garner highest votes for Asiwaju Tinubu? All these questions require urgent answers,” Mr Zulkiflu said.
The coalition said Mr Lukman is blinded by some cynical irredentism that he forgot that in 1978, “the NPN formed a government with a Muslim president, Christian vice president, Christian senate president and Christian House of Reps speaker. At the same time, except President Shehu Shagari, his deputy Alex Ekwueme, Senate President Joseph Wayas, Speaker Ume Ezeoke and NPN national chairman Alhaji Alani Bankole, were all southerners. The NPN had ran the country with majority Christians and majority Southerners heading most exalted positions and the heaven didn’t fall,” the coalition said.
He said the Northwest deserves the number three slot having contributed 30.0 percent of votes in the presidential election. “What is the justification for Mr Lukman’s warped reasoning of rooting for the zoning of Senate Presidency to Southeast or Southsouth which contributed only 1.45 percent and 9.10 percent to Asiwaju Tinubu respectively?,” the CSOs said.
The CSOs said it’ll be unfortunate for the ruling APC to deny the Northwest the number three position despite its painstaking efforts of delivering astounding victory to Tinubu/Shettima ticket.
The coalition said, “Mr Lukman’s misguided utterances that seek collective punishment of the Northwest – the zone that lays the golden eggs – is not only reprehensible, uncalled for, but capable of diminishing the huge fortunes of the party in the largest geo-political zone in the country.”
The COs said the Northwest is blessed with veteran and productive politicians such as Senator Abdulaziz Yari to occupy the number three position.
The coalition urged the national leadership of the APC to disregard the primitive reasoning of Mr Lukman, by quickly zoning the senate presidency to the Northwest.
“Zoning the senate presidency to the Northwest will ensure justice, fairness, equity and fair play in the APC. With the current political algorithm in the APC, the senate presidency should be zoned to the Northwest- that is the surest way of engendering tranquility and mutuality among the political flora and fauna in the ruling party’s ecosystem,” the coalition said.
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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