POLITICS
APC Appeals to Nigerians to Shun Sentiments on its Choice of Shettima
Alhaji Murtala Ajaka, All Progressives Congress (APC) Deputy National Publicity Secretary, has appealed to Nigerians to ignore religious sentiment being raised on the party’s choice of Sen. Kashim Shettima as its 2023 Vice-Presidential candidate.
Ajaka made the appeal in a statement on Monday in Abuja while reacting to sentiments being expressed by especially opposition political parties on APC’s choice of Shettima.
News men report that Sen.
Bola Tinubu, APC’s 2023 presidential candidate in Daura, Katsina State, announced Shettima, a Muslim and a former two-term Governor of Borno, as his running mate.Tinubu, also a former two-term Governor of Lagos State and one of the leaders of the APC, had gone to Daura to pay Sallah homage on President Muhammadu Buhari.
Shettima is currently representing Borno Central in the National Assembly.
Ajaka, while commending Tinubu’s choice, said the fears being expressed in some quarters only existed in the imagination of opposition political parties.
The APC spokesman described Shettima as the best choice for the APC to win the forthcoming 2023 presidential election.
According to him, the opposition parties, especially the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had been thrown off balance since Shettima was announced as APC’s Vice-Presidential candidate, hence the noise and their agony.
Ajaka said Shettima was a man of knowledge, accomplishment, courage and integrity, who was not given to bigotry, or having corruption badges with any anti-corruption agencies.
He added that the sterling qualities of Shettima as APC’s Vice-Presidential candidate, had once again thrown the opposition parties off balance.
“The PDP and others would have preferred our presidential candidate to settle for the less to make it easy for them to win election.
“But the choice of the trusted and trust worthy Shettima must have disorganised their evil plans.
“While we sympathise with the opposition parties, we appeal to Nigerians, who will eventually be the beneficiaries of good governance under Tinubu-Shettima presidency, to see beyond the sentiments of religion and tribe.
“Both Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Sen. Kashim Shettima are not religious fundamentalists or ultra Muslims, their records in public offices are testimonies to rely on,” he said.
Ajaka recalled that as a two-term former governor of Borno, Shettima enjoyed the support of the Christian community throughout his tenure as testified by the state’s chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
He added that there was no government in the history of Borno that had been fair to the christain community as much as that of Shettima.
He said Shettima as Governor of Borno, sponsored the highest number of Christian pilgrims yearly from 2011 till he left office.
“This and many other records of mutual respect for all faiths, are there to verify in Borno,” Ajaka said.
He, however, added that the APC and its presidential candidate would not be distracted from the goal of winning the 2023 general elections at all levels.
“Borno has the largest votes in the North-East where Kashim Shettima has been governor for eight years and now a Senator and still politically relevant.
“If APC had enjoyed massive support from this state and the entire North-East and the emergence of Shettima as our Vice-Presidential candidate will deny the candidate of the PDP a smooth ride in the zone.
“I think APC and our presidential candidate are politically correct because our main goal for now is to emerge victorious in the coming elections, not forgetting competence which Shettima represents,” he said(NAN)
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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