By Johnson Eyiangho, Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on its founding members and others, who have left the party for reason or the other, to return, assuring it is willing to welcome them back to the fold.

Acting National Chairman of the PDP, Amb.

Damagum said, “Let it be said and known that our doors remain open to those who wish to return, and it is my earnest prayers that in their return, they may rediscover themselves. After all, we are still the party that gave many their first political home.

“But we must also confront the hard truth, much of the injury the PDP has suffered has been self-inflicted. From the Obasanjo era to this moment, we have too often jettisoned ideology in favour of personal ambition.

“This has cost us dearly. Yet, there is still a beauty that exists only in the PDP; our founding vision, our commitment to internal democracy, our enduring mechanisms for dialogue and reconciliation, and our true national outlook. These are not ordinary attributes. They are the very pillars that made and have sustained the PDP as the bedrock of Nigeria’s democratic journey, and they remain our guiding strength today.”

However, former Governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, countered the PDP Acting National Chairman, describing the party members who had defected as nomadic politicians, who cannot remain in the fold.

Aliyu said, “I heard both the (acting) chairman and the chairman of Governors Forum have been very diplomatic and saying, come back, come back. No, you don’t invite nomadic politicians back to your place. These were people with a history of nomadism.

“In nomadic life, your own selfish interest becomes more important than the interest of the people. So we need to understand that the lack of discipline has created this problem.

“We cannot continue like this, knowing that the black sheep in the family keep on destroying whatever we are building. And then you say, come back. In fact, the most shocking time, the most shocking period was 2019.

“Our constitution is specific. You leave the party; you join the queue. The party is not just to win elections. The party is also to ensure the culture of selling real, principled politics. So even if we don’t win elections, but we are one united, principled party, we will be recognized. Please, let us pay attention to what we should be doing, rather than looking at those people who will never, never, ever think of you, but only think of themselves.”

By Abiemwense Moru

By happenstance, 16-year-old Blessing Obiabo found herself on the frontline of a national movement.

Obiabo, a student of Lyngra Private Montessori School in Karu, Nasarawa State, found her voice the day Cedars Refuge Foundation (CRF) brought its anti-tobacco campaign to her school.

“We are not fools; this is our future, and we are taking it back,” she said.

Obiabo’s declaration mirrors a growing wave of youth-led resistance sweeping across Nigeria, fueled by the CRF’s Students Congress Against Tobacco (SCAT) initiative.

The programme, inaugurated under the banner of a “Tobacco-free Revolution,” is a response to what CRF describes as a calculated and aggressive invasion by the tobacco industry into the lives of young Nigerians.

The Executive Director of CRF, Mr Peter Unekwu-Ojo, minced no words at the campaign inauguration in Karu.

“The tobacco industry is a well-dressed cartel selling flavoured slavery.

“They are not selling lifestyle; they are selling addiction, bubble-wrapped in mango flourish and influencer smiles.”

According to Unekwu-Ojo, the tactics of the tobacco industry have become more deceptive than ever.

“Gone are the days of plain cigarettes; in their place are brightly-packaged e-cigarettes, vapes, and other nicotine products, flavoured, flashy, and dangerously appealing to teenagers.

“It is the same poison, just packaged in sleek tech and tropical flavours.

“These flavoured products, often promoted through digital marketing and pop culture influencers, create the illusion of harmless fun, masking the reality of addiction and long-term health consequences.”

The SCAT programme, now active in several schools across Nasarawa and Abuja, was created to expose and counter these tactics.

It promotes in-school advocacy, peer-led clubs, creative campaigns, and dialogues with teachers, parents, and community leaders.

Unekwu-Ojo emphasised the call for urgent reforms, including a nationwide ban on flavoured tobacco and nicotine products, higher tobacco taxes, strict penalties for marketing to minors, and the enforcement of school-based prevention programmes.

“If we do not protect the future in classrooms, we will be fighting addiction in clinics,” he warned.

Mr Abba Owoicho, CRF’s Programme/Operations Officer, weighed in.

“We are witnessing a silent epidemic thriving on ignorance and regulatory loopholes.

“SCAT is not just a campaign; it is a counter-offensive,” he said.

At the school level, educators are stepping up.

Mrs Blessing Onu, Head Teacher at Lyngra, welcomed the initiative.

“Our students will not be left defenceless in the face of such a manipulative industry,” she said, announcing the establishment of a Tobacco-Free Club in the school.

Mr Pius Nnaemeka, a senior teacher, appealed directly to national authorities.

“If we continue to play soft while our children inhale poison, history will not forgive us.

“The government must outlaw flavoured tobacco, fund preventive education, and support civil society groups championing this cause,” he said.

These school-based actions are mirrored across other institutions.

At Klinnicaps Academy in Koroduma, another CRF outreach event themed “Exposing Lies, Protecting Lives” engaged students in interactive sessions that peeled back the façade of flavoured products.

Unekwu-Ojo told the students that the industries were setting young people up against their future.

“They sandwich their products with glamorous colourful packaging and high-profile adverts, hiding the dangerous consequences of addiction.”

He described the educational sessions as a wake-up call.

“Tobacco use is not a fashion statement; it is a death sentence disguised in shiny colours,” he said.

Mr John Egla, Executive Director of Development Initiatives for Societal Health, reinforced the message: “There is no safe level of smoking.”

He cited global statistics from the 2018 Tobacco Atlas, noting that more than 942 million men and 175 million women worldwide smoke, with rising usage among African youth.

In response, CRF is establishing Tobacco-Free Clubs in at least 10 more schools in Nasarawa State, equipping students with peer leadership and advocacy tools.

The message is resonating beyond classrooms.

In Katsina State, the Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Musa Adamu-Funtua, recently stressed the importance of school-based campaigns.

Speaking during World Tobacco Day celebrations, he warned that a society that allowed the exploitation of its youth by profit-driven tobacco companies is a society at risk.

Adamu-Funtua urged joint efforts among government agencies, civil society, parents and youths.

“Let us choose health over harm, strength over addiction,” he said.

The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has also thrown its weight behind tobacco control.

At a recent workshop in Bauchi, its Senior Programme Officer, Mr Solomon Adoga, highlighted tobacco’s role in multiple cancers and reproductive health challenges.

“Tobacco significantly contributes to Nigeria’s cancer burden,” he said.

CISLAC’s Executive Director, Auwal Rafsanjani, called for urgent policy reforms, stronger laws, and intensified awareness campaigns to stem tobacco-related deaths.

Beyond the halls of policy and classrooms, the anti-tobacco wave is being carried by mothers.

In Ilorin, Kwara, a march led by Bundies Care Support Initiative and other groups amplified maternal voices demanding action.

Mrs Funmilayo Osiegbu, Executive Director of the initiative, sounded a note of warning.

“We cannot stand by while our children are exposed to harmful tobacco products.

“We are urging the government to enact policies that shield young people.”

Inspired by international campaigns such as Tobacco-Free Jordan, the Kwara mothers demanded full implementation of Nigeria’s National Tobacco Control Act.

“This includes stricter enforcement of bans on advertising and sponsorship, and stronger measures to prevent youth access,” she said.

Kwara’s Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs Afolashade Opeyemi, reaffirmed government’s support.

“The administration has zero tolerance for smoking any substance,” she said.

Also, health experts lend their support.

Prof. Abiodun Afolayan, Chair of the Nigeria Cancer Society in Kwara, warned that lung cancer had become the most common cancer worldwide, driven largely by smoking.

“Often, the damage only appears when it is too late,” he said.

Mr Lekan Mikail, Special Adviser on Drug Abuse to the Kwara Governor, urged parents to stay vigilant.

“We must protect our children from this slow and silent killer,” he said.

As the SCAT initiative prepares to expand to 30 schools by 2025, it is clear that a national youth-driven movement is taking root.

From Obiabo’s defiance to policymakers’ endorsements, Nigeria is witnessing a shift in its tobacco control landscape.

But for CRF’s Unekwu-Ojo, the work is far from over.

“Every child deserves a future free from the industry’s traps, flavoured nicotine, flashy adverts, and peer-induced pressure,” he said.

His words echo in classrooms, streets, and government chambers across the country; the call is no longer just to awareness, but to action.

Mrs Precious Ojiaku, Dean of Studies at Klinnicaps Academy, said tobacco had no place in the future of Nigerian youth.

“Living a morally grounded life and rejecting these traps is the strongest resistance we can teach,” she said.

With the ongoing concerted efforts, stakeholders believe the threat posed by tobacco can be contained.(NAN)

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By Mike Odiakose, Abuja

Immediate-past Executive Secretary of the National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), Prince Paul Ikonne, has commended Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo state for his avowed support for the vexed issue of creation of an additional state for the South-east.

For the Prince, Governor Uzodinma’s principled stand aligns with the position of well meaning Igbos and Nigerians across the different zones who have at various times decried the grave injustice against the Igbos which has innevitably, led to the eastern region having for instance, 15 senators whereas other regions have 18 to 21 senators; more access to federal resources and appointments, with the consequent disproportionate influence in national affairs.

In a statement released Thursday in Abuja by his media aide, Chiagoziem Enoch, Prince Ikonne, viewed Governor Otti’s ambiguous stand during the hearing on the 1999 Constitution review, held in Owerri on July 19th as a huge waste of an opportunity for him to stand and be counted for the entire Eastern Nigeria in a matter his counterpart, Senator Uzodima in Owerri showed such zeal to drive.

Otti had said Nigeria does not need additional states since the existing ones lack viability for economic self-sustainability.

Ikonne, however, said: “But for those who know the Abia governor, that occasion afforded him the golden opportunity to express his deep resentment and vendetta against a section of Abia who must not be allowed the casual luxury of an innocuous boast of being the indigenes of Aba.”

According to Ikonne, Governor Otti has always hated the fact that Aba is located where it is today which unfortunately he cannot do anything about.

“Seeing that he lacks the power literally to undo what God has done in his eternal plans, he has resorted to other nebulous ways to express his frustration.

“On assumption of office, the first thing Governor Otti did was to rush to Aba solely to declare to a crowd of both indigenes and non-indigenes that Aba is a no man’s land, an act that was capable of needlessly pitching the indigenes against non-indigenes.

“Many wondered why he had to do that, considering that Aba has always been known to be at peace with its residents, not minding who is an indigene and who is not.

“Thankfully, the Aba spirit and its ‘Nwa Aba’ cliche, a trans-sectional phrase and aura that has adhesively bound the city, swallowed that mischievous and ill-intended divisive declaration which had the capacity to initiate deep sectional sentiments in that great city.”

The Crown Prince frowned at Otti’s” “dubious and infantile attempt to make us believe that an additional state in the East is not viable, and queried his credibility as a first-class economist in 21st century.”

The statement believes that Otti knows the truth, that the new frontier is the knowledge driven economy which Aba and the people of Abia pride themselves of and which has been successfully deployed by countries like Finland, Israel, Singapore, Netherlands and so on.

“The Governor deliberately forgot that the finite nature of natural resources has made proactive administrators to redirect their focus to other initiatives that provide sustainable development, not prone to the vagaries of nature by depending only on natural resource endowments, but one that will initiate knowledge based programs and policies that will move the new state away from lazily looking up to the Federal Government for monthly handouts as it is presently in Otti’s “New Abia.”

He further stressed that the clear marginalization of Ndi Igbo has continually provided the canvass upon which the agitation for a sovereign nation for ndi Igbo has rested. He explained that the people who have canvassed for the East to be at par with the other zones in terms of states believe that redressing this ugly imbalance will help to douse the agitation in our zone and offer a feeling of inclusion for Ndi Igbo in the Nigerian state.

“It is therefore worrisome that Gov. Otti who should be in the frontline with the likes of Senator Uzodinma in leading the agitation for the creation of additional state for Abia to address this abnormally is the one leading the gang to frustrate the actualization of an additional state for the South East

“It must be remembered that the agitation for an additional state and the viability of Aba State has passed the needed criteria thresholds.What remains is the declaration of what our fathers have put in their very lives and resources to achieve.”

The former NALDA boss encouraged all to commend the frontline leadership of the Governor of Imo state Hope Uzodinma which he said has offered in support of Aba State and called on all well meaning Easterners from every state of the East to que behind him in the struggle.

He said: “Abians for the avoidance of any doubt, will not relent in demanding for an additional state as it is sine quo non to peace and justice in the Federation.”
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