POLITICS
NNPP Mocks APC Over Ganduje Appointment as National Chairman
By Jude Opara, Abuja
The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has taken a swipe at the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Abdulahi Ganduje over his alleged incendiary comments against the party’s Presidential candidate, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
Ganduje had claimed that he was never a political son to Kwankwaso, but the NNPP insisted that Kwankwaso was ahead of the APC National Chairman politically.
National Chairman of the NNPP, Abba Kawu Ali, who spoke after the National Working Committee (NWC) meeting on Monday also berated the APC members for making Ganduje their National Chairman.
Ali stated that it would be divisionary for them to discuss the APC National Chairman, as their focus was on how to rebuild their party.
It would be recalled that last week Ganduje, also a former governor of Kano State like Kwankwaso said he was never a political son of the NNPP Presidential Candidate. The statement was made in furtherance of the political rivalry between the two leaders.
Ganduje served as Deputy Governor and Chief of Staff to Kwankwaso, until 2015 when they fell apart after the 2015 general elections.
Ali said he was surprised that the party could settle for a man like Ganduje despite his alleged various controversies.
He said the party performed very well in the 2023 general elections given the fact that from its formation to the election proper was less than one year.
Apart from winning seats in both the National and State Assemblies, the party also won the Governorship election in Kano state. He added that the party is the third party in the National Assembly after the APC and the PDP.
Said the NWC meeting was called to take a stock of its achievements and where it is supposed to be in the next coming years.
Nine states were said to have been involved in anti-party activities, but eight were found guilty by the Disciplinary Committee.
He gave the names of the affected states as; Ogun, Katsina, Delta, Zamfara, Rivers and Enugu.
“The states executives especially the Chairmen have been suspended and interim leadership to run the affairs of the party before the Caretaker Committees would be set up.
“However, in the case of Ogun and Delta states, the Chairmen have been expelled them and very soon will begin to expose what they have been doing to undermine the party”.
He added that in the context of repositioning the party for service delivery to the country, some of the states affected did not even have enough members to form a leadership.
National Auditor and National Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee, Ladipo Johnson, who spoke at the occasion said the party was doing well and in a very strong position.
He added that some of the people alleged to have been writing negative things about the party are free because they are not even members of the party.
He dismissed insinuations that some members were plotting to retrieve the party from the control of Kwankwaso as he said that there was nothing like taking the party back because nobody has taken the party away from anyone in the first place.
“NWC will be ready to take hard and strong decisions to protect the party and that means that anyone that steps out of order would be whipped in or be shown the exit door,” he stated.
The National Auditor said going forward, the party will be dwelling on social issues that will benefit the people of Nigeria.
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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