POLITICS
Alkali Welcomes Shekarau, Others to NNPP
…Party Shifts Senate, Guber Primaries
By Jude Opara, Abuja
National Chairman of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) Professor Rufai Ahmed Alkali has expressed delight with the gale of defections especially from the ruling All progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples democratic Party (PDP) into the NNPP.
In a statement issued at the weekend and made available to DAILY ASSET, Prof.
Alkali who spoke on behalf of the NNPP National Working Committee (NWC) was particularly elated that a serving senator and former Kano state governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau has also joined his party.Recall that Senator Shekarau recently joined the NNPP from the APC, just few days after Abdulmumin Jibrin, a former member of House of Representatives and a Director-general of the Bola Tinubu campaign group also announced his membership of the party.
The statement which was signed by the media Adviser to the NNPP Chairman, Dr. Obinna Nwachukwu noted that the duo’s defection and those of others came despite efforts by Abdullahi Ganduje, Kano state governor, to prevent them from leaving the APC.
“Before the chain of defections, at least 17 members of Kano State House of Assembly as well as Ganduje’s Chief of Staff had left the PDP and the APC to the NNPP”.
Reacting to the mass movement to the NNPP, Prof Alkali said; “Senator Ibrahim Shekarau’s movement to our party as well as other movements in various parts of the country has now changed the permutations and political alignment in the country ahead of the 2023 general elections.
“But with the PDP and APC engrossed with leadership problems, our party has become the precious bride been sought after by many politicians across the country.
“Unlike in 2019, the political calculation in 2023 will be a different ball game. This is because we have taken far reaching steps to re-launch and reposition the party as one of the major political parties in the country”.
“So far, we have successfully conducted ward congresses in all the local government areas across the country. The local government congress, state congress and national convention were also conducted peacefully.
“We are therefore bold to say that our presence is now felt in all the 774 local government areas as Nigerians continue to embrace our party.
“The NNPP is the only party in Nigeria that has offered the youths less than 35 years of age fifty percent discount for the purchase of nomination forms. This has led to an influx of youths to the party and the party is equal to the task as it has put in place all measures to avoid rancour during the election”.
In a related development, the NNPP has announced a shift in the dates for the senatorial and governorship primaries.
According to the statement, the National Secretary of the Party and Chairman Convention Planning Committee Dr Dipo Olayoku, said the action was taken by the party leadership to ensure transparent and hitch free primaries and elections.
Consequently, the following are the new dates for the elections. For the Senate, Screening is slated for Wednesday May 25th, 2022, while Appeals will hold on Thursday, May 26th, 2022. The Primaries are scheduled for Saturday, May 28th. 2022, while the Appeals will hold on Sunday May 29th, 2022.
Similarly, for the Governorship election, Screening will take place on Saturday, May 28th, 2022, while the Appeals will hold on Sunday May 29th, 2022. The Primaries are scheduled for Monday, May 30th, 2022. The Appeals are slated for May 31st, 2022.
The statement further directed that all the processes for the Senate will take place at the States, while for the Governorship, only the primaries slated for Monday May 30th will take place at the states, the other processes will take place in Abuja.
The NNPP also directed that because of the sit-at- home order on Mondays, any programme fixed for Mondays in the South East will now be held on Tuesdays.
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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