Politics

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, have raised concerns over the alleged plot by Kano State Governor, Umar Ganduje, to rig the incoming gubernatorial election and supplementary election in the state.

The Chairman of Kano NNPP, Umar Haruna Doguwa, made the disclosure in a press statement on Sunday.

Mr Doguwa appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari, the International Community and the Security agencies to foil Ganduje’s plan.

He alleged that Ganduje’s interest goes beyond election rigging, but the total breakdown of law and order in the state is also among his evil machinations.

Part of the statement reads:

“The Kano State NNPP has noticed that some attempts are being made by unscrupulous elements in conjunction with some INEC officials to manipulate the collated results as we also noticed improper conduct by some INEC ad hoc staff. We, therefore, call on Presidency, security agencies, election observers, and the international community to beam their searchlight on INEC, especially on the concluded position to conduct supplementary election in the 15 affected polling units at Fagge. Any shift, either in a number of the polling units or continued cancellation of other polling units, will meet our stiff resistance.

“We are also aware that plans are being nursed and sponsored by the State government to cause a total break down of law and order in the state during the upcoming gubernatorial and state assembly elections. While we call on security agencies to take adequate measures on this, otherwise, we as a party and citizens of Kano State have the capacity to defend ourselves and our votes.”

By Uzair Adam Imam

Ahead of the March 11 governorship election, the Youth Society for the Prevention of Infectious Diseases and Social Vices (YOSPIS) has commended the FG’s cashless policy towards the election and the efforts of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in conducting one of the freest and fairest elections in the country.

The Executive Director of YOSPIS, Zainab Ahmad Nasir, who made the call on Thursday, said, “We would like to commend the National Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Federal Government for conducting a free, fair and credible Presidential election in Nigeria. We hope and pray the same will happen next week for gubernatorial elections across the country.

“The vote buying was hugely reduced due to the new naira policy implemented by the Federal Government. However, despite its readiness, the commission [INEC] failed to provide some materials on time, like cubicles, among other materials. Many polling units in the State experienced the faults of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), late arrival of INEC officials and materials, change of polling units, absence of cubicles, violence and overvoting in some areas.”

The Director also urged the general public to remain calm and peaceful during the elections process and report any suspicious act to the security personnel.

She said, “We hope the electorates will continue to remain calm, peaceful and confident in the electoral process and report any wrongdoing they witness.”

The Daily Reality gathered that the Presidential elections last week had left many families in deep mourning of their relatives who were burnt to ashes or sustained gunshot wounds on election day in Kano.

Several reports indicated how Alhassan Ado Doguwa, the Majority Leader of the House of Representative of Nigeria, had allegedly shot three people and instructed thugs to set ablaze the Campaign Office of the New Nigerian People Party (NNPP) in Doguwa Local Government Area of Kano.

The development had allegedly led to the death of no fewer than fifteen innocent souls who happened to be inside the building when it was set on fire.

Miss Nasir concluded that “We hope the perpetrators of this dastardly violence will be brought to book and face the consequences of their actions.”

By Muhammed Tukur Gwarzo

After all the series of controversial letters you wrote, which almost all Nigerians have lost count as well as interest, you have now unveiled your personal agenda towards the whole country. You have for long turned into more of a comedian than a real Statesman.

You do not seem to love Nigeria Sir! And this is a fact! You did all your best to kill everything during your tenure, every good work initiated by our Heroes Past, you either damaged, manipulated, changed or even destroyed it completely. You don’t have anything to tell Nigerians. Therefore, it would not be surprising when someone who is drowning and totally oblivious of the current realities of the country, perhaps due to old age, motive or both, displays such divisive comments at this critical moment in the history of the country. We are not surprised. If you don’t know, now you should know that you have lost all the Moral Rights of an Elder/Statesman, to even think of coming out to advise anyone. You are already partisan. You publicly supported a candidate. Why would you now turn and act as if you are neutral? The respected statesmen of your caliber did not openly support any of the four leading candidates, but you did. Many Nigerians believe that you are acting a script of a hidden agenda.
History will be just to list you as someone who meddles into the affairs of each government since Shagari Administration to date. There is no Nigerian leader you didn’t belittle in the eyes of Nigerians and the International Community, in order to make them look bad, including those that brought you out of jail. They have really made a mistake of taking you out of prison. Their biggest mistake was how they promoted and supported you to be President. And instead of being grateful, you became disrespectful and rude to all of them.

One thing that you think that Nigerians haven’t noticed from you is your attitude of arrogating to yourself a messianic charisma. You always portray yourself as someone who has the full grasp of Nigeria’s problem, not knowing that YOU are the problem! You are among the top three problems of Nigeria and you should know that. You look down upon all the
Nigerian leaders, past and present, simply because you wrongly feel you are better than them all.

Furthermore, it is obvious that you are envious of even someone from your tribal and ancestral extraction. Then who do you think you Obasanjo can spare? Now that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a fellow Yoruba Man from the South West is accepted by Nigeria to be its President, you feel that you are now seconded. You feel: why should Tinubu second you? This is the reason you started spewing divisive commentaries and calls for cancellations of the election, so that another Yoruba cannot be sworn in.

You want it to be on record that you are the only Yoruba man who made that record.
You are even lucky that due to the Esprit de Corps known within the military, most of the well-meaning gentlemen of the military respect you. You mistake that as fear and you do not reciprocate that respect to even General Gowon and likes, who happen to be your seniors.

Another point which you are wrong is on the issue of this public show of self-importance, which is part of you. As someone who studied Theology up to PhD level, you ought to have known that it is religiously wrong to advise a leader in such an open manner. You have direct access to all the leaders but you always choose to tar them in the market place.

As a citizen, and more so a former leader, you have the right, 100%, to make appeals and give advice to government and citizens alike, provided they are unbiased and do not infringe on the unity and stability of the country as you always do.

The way you think that the 2023 general elections results are manipulated defies logic. Lagos was taken by LP, Buhari’s Katsina went to PDP, and many other PDP/APC states were lost to LP. Serving and former APC Governors lost their bids for senate seats; Kano is lost to NNPP; but still, you questioned the results.
During your semi-dictatorial reign, you supervised the most rigged and questionable elections, especially in 2007 when Maurice Iwu was the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Even the elected President, the late ‘Yar’adua of blessed memory, accepted and admitted that the process was flawed. Before then, you were widely suspected to have sought for a third term, which was unconstitutional. When that attempt failed, you then almost truncated the electoral process through a “do or die” politics.

When you were in power, nobody dared advise you for a better cause since you arrogate to yourself wisdom, and never accepted whatever was not from you, even from those that made the mistake of bringing you back to power. They brought you back not because you were the most qualified, but in order to appease the South West over Abiola’s June 12 saga. By then, Olu Falae, a politician and a tested technocrat would have been a better choice but you still cannot reason and remember all these. You are now clearly bereft of ideas in the polemics you wanted to present during your latest presentation. You look like someone entering into a boxing ring, very certain of your defeat. You know that Nigerians will never fall into your trap again. You should not have talked at all!

Sir, you should know that Nigerians are wiser now. They have known all your antics and antecedents through your utterances. What you did can cause an uprising and breakdown of law and order. It is something that borders on National Security, which should not be taken lightly by any serous government.
I advise the present and future governments not to allow such a situation of national security breach from you again and you should be tamed. But if you continue, the government should have an ideal way of dealing with you and your likes decisively!!!

Muhammed Tukur Gwarzo write from Kano, Nigeria.

By Usman Muhammad Salihu.

Nigeria as a country is bedevilled with so many challenges and problems ranging from insecurity to inflation which causes a high cost of living, and the recent introduction of a cashless policy aimed at boosting the economy of the country but somehow causing life more difficult, especially to the masses, among other contributing factors.

Insecurity, especially the issue of Boko Haram militants (in the North East and some parts of north-west and north Central), where almost on daily basis bomb blasts occurred, hundreds of people killed and taken thousands into captivity, among others, were the major factors that force many Nigerians to preach the gospel of change in the year 2015 which after the then general election produces the incumbent president Muhammadu Buhari.

As time went on, Muhammadu Buhari’s administration did quite an impressive performance in curtailing the menace of Boko Haram, but yet, the rising of another phenomenon which is banditry.

Bandit came as a result of the farmers-herders crisis, which later escalated to another phenomenon currently causing serious and harmful effects on our economic, political and social development.

These bandits were known to be riding into villages on motorcycles in order to loot, rape and kidnap the inhabitants of such villages as well as kill anyone who resisted.

 Kidnapping nowadays has become a very lucrative venture, especially in north-western Nigeria. Between 2011 when the problem started to 2022, Nigerians paid millions of naira to free family members, friends, and relatives and in most cases, village inhabitants have to forcefully made by these bandits to pay a certain amount to them in order for the inhabitants to stay in their villages and carry out their day-to-day activities.

Moreso, the issue of the educational sector revamping, the ASUU’s eight months strike is still afresh in the minds of fellow Nigerians, especially students. Without revamping this sector, the future of our youths is at stake. As the saying goes, to kill a nation is to deny it education.

On the economy of the state, is there any nation that exists without an economy? The administration to come must have to do the needful to avoid the policies that may cripple the country’s economic sector, and this can only be done through forming a committee of economic experts who will be advising the government and leading the economic development aspect of the country.

The judicial system has to be allowed to carry out its full function without hindrance or interference from the government. This will pave the way for the sector to maintain its full function and possibly speedy arraignments and passing judgements effectively, and aside from that, it helps the government in the fight against corruption.

To whom much is given, much is also expected.

The 2023 general election is one of a kind, where the issue of vote buying was drastically reduced to a minimal level. This is saying that Nigerians voted for the President-elect based on their expectations of him hence being ready to face the numerous problems of the citizens and find out their solutions.

We pray that the president-elect’s campaign slogan ‘RENEWED HOPE’ will indeed renew the already lost hope of Nigerians.

Usman Muhammad Salihu writes from Mass Communication Department, Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic, Bauchi, Bauchi state. He can be reached via muhammadu5363@gmail.com.

By Sumayyah Auwal Ishaq

Activist and former Kaduna-Central lawmaker at the National Assembly, Senator Shehu Sani, has said that the era when President Buhari and the APC governor tell Nigerians who to vote for is over.  

Senator Sani said, “The era when the President or state governors tell people who to vote for is over. In Kaduna, we have shown that”. 

The former lawmaker reacted based on a video trending on social media. President Buhari appealed to residents of Kaduna State to vote for APC Gubernatorial candidate Senator Uba Sani and other candidates of the APC for the Kaduna State House of Assembly.

The appeal by President Buhari came following the humiliating defeat of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the presidential and National Assembly elections in Kaduna State.

By Abubakar Suleiman

The period preceding the presidential elections was greeted with intense and unrestrained emotions, outright bigotries and zingers from political opponents and supporters alike, so much that discussing issues that really matter was out of the table.

Public pundits who tend to raise their voices or pen down their thoughts on the challenges ahead got their ideas or pressing questions drowned amidst fierce online arguments. Discussing the manifestoes of the parties of the major contenders took the back seat while bickering on variables like the contestants’ age, health, religion, region, and ethnicity became the front burner across many platforms.

As the wave of the electioneering is beginning to disappear and the elections have been won and lost, I think we can start to ask the president-elect, where do we go from here? His job has been well cut out for him. And it will definitely not be an easy ride, and we need to be realistic.

Contextually, should subsidy finally go or stay? Should education at tertiary institutions be subsidised or commercialised? How do we push the country towards a knowledge-based economy? How will the poor access quality basic and tertiary education? How do we fund deficits in the power sector to make industries wake up? Can we change the security architecture? Should state police be created? Should we continue to maintain two chambers in the National Assembly? And how do we source the fund to run the government? To what extent should we play politics with governance? Can all these and many more be done in 8 years? The questions are many.

The election and its aftermath exposed the fragile unity between the regions and religions that made up this geographical space called Nigeria. Therefore, as a matter of urgency, the President-elect should hit the ground running by reaching out to aggrieved regions and their leaders by assuaging their real or imagined fears and grievances.

The problems of the country are too enormous to be dragged back by agitations and the feelings of being left out. Therefore, an inclusive government and approach to governance have never been this necessary.

Security

Just when President Muhammadu Buhari was about to claim victory over Boko Haram and insecurity in the North East, unprecedented spates of killings, kidnappings and banditry reared their ugly heads in Northwestern Nigeria.

A huge swathe of land became inaccessible, many major roads were deserted, farming nosedived, and a humanitarian crisis ensued. With these problems, many people found themselves in the yolk of poverty. Others became homeless, and fangs of hunger rendered many others dead.

The security structure is in dire need of an overhaul. Community policing, intelligence gathering, using a non-kinetic approach and the continued procuring of more weapons cannot be over-emphasised. The procuring process of these weapons should be monitored to evade financial abuse by unpatriotic elements in security management.

Personnel on the front line serving the country should also be motivated. A situation where underperforming service chiefs are rewarded with tenure extensions or a slap on the wrist should end with President Buhari.

Furthermore, I think decentralising the Police Force is necessary to curb the spread of insecurity across the country. State police is an idea that could be floated and established while strong laws preventing sub-national governments from abusing it should accompany such establishment.

Successive governments have failed to face and address the epileptic power supply problem headlong. A humongous amount of public funds have been infused into the power sector only to purchase more darkness for Nigerians. We had intermittent national grid failure with President Buhari. Many Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) depend on the power supply to fester as many others have yet to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and cashless policy shocks and effects.

The state of the economy is scary. Unemployment has increasingly become high; inflation rates are biting hard; economic growth is sluggish; the country’s debt burden upsurged; the gap between the poor and rich has widened; and the conservatism of the Central Bank was thrown to the dogs by Governor Emefiele thereby making monetary and fiscal policies blurred.

These indices have been detrimental to the security and well-being of the citizens and their businesses. Therefore, the President-elect has a considerable responsibility to close the gap between the rich and poor through job creation, effective wealth distribution, social protection programs with measured outcomes and strengthened fiscal policies.

Subsidy

Only a few among the unlettered in Nigeria don’t know this word. Even those who cannot speak English have a name for it in their language. It is obviously no longer sustainable, as we even borrow to close budget deficits. However, oil is the most critical ‘social safety net’ for the poor in Nigeria; a tweak in its price is greeted with snag, suspicion and impoverishment.

The distrust between the leaders and the led has reached a crescendo, and the oil sector is marred with irregularities so much that we are not even sure of the amount of our domestic oil consumption. Therefore, critical infrastructure needs the money channelled into the subsidy to enhance economic diversification and gradual departure from over-reliance on oil.

And an excellent way to allay the masses’ fears that the money derived from the lack of subsidy might be squandered is through involving vital stakeholders like the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress, civil societies, sub-national governments, community leaders, and other relevant bodies. A comprehensive Key Performance Indicator or milestone should be developed and tracked by these stakeholders, and a project implementation and result delivery unit on the side of the Federal Government.

ASUU-FG Debacle

Another problem the President-elect will carry forward from President Buhari and even presidents before him is the ASUU-FG debacle that has refused to succumb to any pragmatic solution. Fake promises and insincerity on the side of the Federal Government and dogmatic or unbending approach on the side of the Academic Staff Union of Universities have made it impossible for the two to reach a sincere, realistic and practicable solution on the way forward.

Corruption

Plus, we are still battling corruption. Padding in the budget, red tape in the civil service, inflation of contracts and other forms of abuse of public office for personal gain are still with us. Corruption has basically been cancer eating up the already meagre and dwindling resources meant for economic growth, nation building and stability.

Corruption will not disappear overnight, but with the help of technology, building strong institutions and strengthening existing ones like the Judiciary will go a long way in minimising it.

The issues mentioned above and many more are parts of the conversations we should naggingly keep having with the President-elect, who will be sworn in as the President come May 29, 2023.

We should be less tendentious in doing so, but we should never relent in holding our leaders — presidents, governors and other elected or appointed public officers —accountable as humanly possible. The era of lack of communication and the body language that being our President is like doing us a favour should end with President Buhari.

I wish the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, successful days in office. May Allah grant him firm political will and a competent team to drive good policies and push the country towards greatness. Let the conversations continue.

Abubakar Suleiman writes from Kaduna and can be reached via abusuleiman06@yahoo.com

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmad Tinubu, has received the Certificate of Return as the President-elect of Nigeria.

On Wednesday, the certificate was presented to him by the Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.

Tinubu was accompanied by his beloved wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, Vice President-elect Kashim Shettima and a retinue of governors and party chieftains.  

Tinubu had polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat his closest rival, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 6,984,520.

The Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima, also collected his certificate of return alongside his principal.

By Muhammadu Sabiu  

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the candidate for the All Progressives Congress, has been declared the winner of the 2023 presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission. 

After gaining 8,805,420 votes to win the election, Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State, was named president-elect. In the wee hours of Wednesday, INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu made the declaration at the International Collation Centre in Abuja. 

Tinubu triumphed against rival candidates Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party. 

The three front-runners for president each won 12 states, although Kwankwaso only won Kano State. Atiku, a former vice president and his closest rival, lost to Tinubu by a margin of no less than 1.8 million votes. 

Other candidates vying for the presidency of the country, in addition to Tinubu, Obi, Atiku, and Kwankwaso, are Dumebi Kachikwu of the African Democratic Congress, Kola Abiola of the People’s Redemption Party, Omoyele Sowore of the Africa Action Congress, Adewole Adebayo of the Social Democratic Party, Malik Ado-Ibrahim of the Young Progressive Party, and Prof.

Christopher Imumulen of the Hamza Al-Mustapha of the Action Alliance, Sani Yusuf of the Action Democratic Party, Nnnadi Osita of the Action Peoples Party, Oluwafemi Adenuga of the Boot Party, Osakwe Felix Johnson of the National Rescue Movement, and Nwanyanwu Daniel Daberechukwu of the Zenith Labour Party are also on the list. 

Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Kwara, Ekiti, Kogi, Benue, Zamfara, Borno, Rivers, and Jigawa are among the states that Tinubu has won, while Atiku has triumphed in Bauchi, Yobe, Gombe, Kaduna, Kebbi, Bayelsa, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, and others.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

A pressure group, Voice of New Fagge, has demanded that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declare the winner of the Fagge Local Government’s National Assembly election held on Saturday.

Dr Muhammad Suleiman Abdullahi Fagge, the spokesperson of the group, made the request in a letter addressed to the chairperson of INEC in the Fagge Local Government Area of Kano State on Tuesday.

According to Mr Fagge, tension and uncertainty are brewing in Fagge over the refusal of INEC to declare the winner in the election on time.

He said: “We write in order to notify INEC about the growing tension, apprehension, anger and uncertainties brewing in Fagge Local Government’s communities over the recently concluded National Assembly elections. We also want to notify all the authorities concerned that the Fagge Local Government’s National Assembly election winner should be declared without wasting time.”

Mr Fagge also alleged that plans are underway by Hon. Aminu Suleiman Goro to increase the number of cancelled votes in order for him to comfortably thwart the will of the electorates.

He said: “There’s an allegation that Hon. Aminu Suleiman Goro, who is the third in this election, is working tirelessly to increase the number of cancelled votes to pave the way for him to rig the election in his favour, and this will not augur well with our democracy and the peace of the people of Fagge Local Government. It is upon this background that we call on INEC to immediately declare the winner of Fagge Local Government’s National Assembly election. This is in order to preserve the peace of the good people of Fagge Local Government and Kano State in general.”

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

A former Chief of Army and Defence Staff, General Akinrinade Alani, has faulted President Obasanjo’s call for the suspension of the collation of results of the presidential election.

In a press statement released to the public on Tuesday and titled, “An Interloping Former President is a Danger to Democracy”, General Akinrinade condemned the former president’s stance on the ongoing presidential election.

The retired soldier said, “The recent statement by former President Olusegun Obasanjo over the recently concluded elections must be condemned in the strongest terms by democracy loving Nigerians and those who care about the unity of this country.”

President Obasanjo in a press statement had earlier requested for the stoppage of collation of result on ground of electoral malpractices.

General Akinrinade further stated that, as Obasanjo’s contemporary, who fought for the unity of this country, he finds it disturbing that Obasanjo made such suggestion.

He therefore called on President Muhammadu Buhari to ignore Obasanjo’s vituperation and focus on the lawful process.

He noted that he is confident President Muhammadu Buhari will let the process run its full course and will not intervene in an undemocratic manner.