POLITICS
Ken Nnamani Points Direction for APC Leadership Candidacy in Enugu
Sen. Ken Nnamani has promised to support someone who is ready to serve the party as mirror in the scheduled Oct. 16, state congress of All Progressives Congress (APC).
Nnamani made this statement in Enugu on Thursday during a stakeholders’ meeting of the party.
He thanked the stakeholders and the state caretaker Committee Chairman of the party, Chief Chikwado Chukwwunta, who is also a host, for making the gathering possible.
He hinted that the essence of the meeting was for general reconciliation of aggrieved members of the party.
Nnamani appealed to those who were not favoured during its ward and local government congresses to calm down as everybody would be carried along.
The former senate president said that the party rushed to do zoning of who would become the next Party’s chairman for the scheduled state Congress.
He explained that the stakeholders would re-visit the zoning stressing that they would vote for someone who would be the mirror of the party.
Nnamani also said that they wanted someone that would be anxious and eloquent enough to make suggestions before others and also capable of winning elections.
He, however, said that he had not backed any candidate as everybody was free to contest.
He also noted that the party needed a consensus candidate to reduce expenses on its members who would want to run for chairmanship and other positions.
He pleaded with members to come together as one, a development he said would make them to win governorship position in 2023.
The APC chieftain appealed to the older members to accommodate the new members to bring in novel ideas capable of moving the party forward.
He equally suggested that the stakeholders should set up a committee that would guide them to select a consensus candidate in the forth coming congress.
In his remark, the former Governor of Enugu State, Mr Sullivan Chime, said that he was in support of zoning to allow zones to be part of decision making.
Chime hinted that the party could not afford to work without zoning adding that the members all had capable people in each zone that would move the party forward.
He stressed that the worst mistake they would make again was to install mole as the party chairman adding that they needed someone that could resist temptation.
In his speech, a member of the Board of Trustee of the party, retired Maj.-Gen. JOJ Okoloagu, said that he was in support of zoning a development, he hinted, would make them win election.
Another chieftain of the party, Sen. Ayogu Eze, said that he was in support of Sen. Nnamani noting that the committee, if formed, would help to harmonise things.
In the same vein, Chief Gbazuagu Nweke Gbazuagu, a top notch, appealed to interested party members to bear in mind that everybody would not be party chairman at the same time as it was meant for one person.
Nweke hinted that the party needed someone that would add value and one they would vouch for in terms of character urging party members to sheath their swords for the party to go on.
The former Speaker, Enugu State House of Assembly, Chief Eugene Odo, suggested that for the party to get it right the reconciliation should trickle down to wards and local governments before the state.
Odo said that the stakeholders were not contesting membership longevity in the party adding that he was only interested in togetherness of the party for a better results.
He said on the issue of zoning that the party should list all the expected positions from state to federal government and share it equally for the interest of peace.
The former South East vice chairman of the party, Chief Emma Enukwu, described politics as marketing adding that they need people who would market the party to win election.
He remarked that the party had never won councillorship position in the state.
Enukwu rejected the issue of zoning saying that what the party needed was someone that could work hard to make a difference.
The stakeholders set up a nine-man committee that would look into the zoning system.
It included: Chief Eugene Odo, Chief Joe Mamelu, Chief Emma Okenwa, Chief Okey Ezea and Chief Ikechukwu Ugwuegede.
Other were Mr Jerry Eneh, Chief Phil Eze, Dr Vivian Chukwuani and Chief Val Nnadozie.
The committee was urged to present its report on Oct. 10. (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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