APC

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

A former governor of Oyo State, Christopher Alao-Akala, is dead.

Alao-Akala died on Wednesday at the age of 71. The sad development was confirmed by the Publicity Secretary of the state chapter of the ruling party, the All Progressive Congress, APC, Dr Olatunde Abdulazeez.

Dr Olatunde, in affirming the news, said, “The news of his death is out. He did his best for the state, May his soul rest in peace.”

Mr Alao-Akala was the governor of Oyo State from January 12, 2006, to December 12, 2006. He was also elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in 2007 as the Executive Governor of Oyo State, where he served till May 2011.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Leader of the All Progress Congress (APC), met President Muhammadu Buhari behind closed doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Monday.

When asked by newsmen if he had informed the president of his intention to run for the presidency, he replied in the affirmative. He, however, said he is yet to tell Nigerians because he is still consulting.

The National Party Leader reportedly said:” I have informed the President of my ambition, but I have not informed Nigerians yet; I’m still consulting.”

Mr Tinubu, who is known to be politically savvy, also described his ambition as lifelong while answering questions from journalists.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari.

President Muhammadu, on Wednesday, while granting an interview on Channels TV, reportedly said he had a favourite successor.

The President, whose tenure will be over in less than two years, dropped the bombshell during an exclusive interview on Channels TV on Wednesday, January 5, 2022.

However, the president refused to state who the favourite successor was on the ground of their safety.

The President, in his own words, ” I wouldn’t (mention the name of my favourite successor) because he may be eliminated if I do. I better keep that a secret.”

The interview has generated ripples and different reactions across the political spectrum in the country.

By Uzair Adam Imam

President Muhammadu Buhari has confirmed that new jobs are on the way for Nigerians in the new year, 2022.

The president made this public in his new year message to Nigerians, adding that his administration would deploy ICT (Information and Communications Technology) platforms.

According to Buhari, the purpose of job creation is to ensure the diversification of the economy to support other emerging sectors.

Senate President Ahmad Lawan also asked Nigerians to continue having faith in the country and its democratic institutions.

The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, said that given the way Nigerians fought to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no doubt that they can equally “stand up to problems that seek to shackle us.”

Speaking about security challenges in the country, Buhari promised that government would not relent in tackling the problem citing the “number of insurgents and bandits who have willingly surrendered to our security forces and continue to do so through various channels and the Safe Corridor created for that purpose.”

“The persistent insecurity in certain parts of the country may have threatened to unravel the incremental gains achieved in the real sectors of the economy and in the administration’s overall objective to position the nation on the irreversible trajectory of sustainable growth and progress, but I assure you that we will remain resolute in our commitments and shall continue to press ahead with our programmes and plans,” he added.

By Abba Muhammad Tawfik

The prime priority of every government is always to ensure the safety of its people by providing adequate food and security and other necessities of life to make a pleasant bustling of it (life). However, the inability to reach that satisfactorily had made Nigerians call it an anathema on President Goodluck Jonathan’s stewardship and pinned him with the harsh tags of incompetence and murderer in northern Nigeria. For that, we prayed consistently and did everything practically possible within the sphere of our human influence until we had him ejected from power.

General Muhammadu Buhari is very well acquainted with his antique military stature of rational thoughts. And, of course, zero tolerance to nonsense and his political confederates in APC wooed us by the “change” cliche. They strategized their political expedition by accentuating majorly on Jonathan’s incompetence to ensure the security of life and property in the Northeastern states of the nation.

As hapless and helpless as we were with our lives at the grabs and pangs of insurgents, we put our complete trust in Buhari and APC, with the expectation and hope of fulfilling their promises of strengthening security setbacks and restoring peace in the nation. As a result, APC attained the peak of our love and succeeded with the power of our lives and thumbs.

Early in their (APC) administration, as they vowed before God and the good people of Nigeria of addressing the security challenges, we can honestly say that the waterloo of Nigerian enemies was celebrated. Normalcy was restored in most Northeastern states like Adamawa, Gombe, Bauchi, Yobe, and Borno, which were then wrecked by detonations and eruptions of improvised explosive devices.

Expectations often fail, and most often, most of their promises fail. The accomplishment of the war being waged furiously against insurgents turned out to be a mirage. It was short-lived, and insurgence spread its tentacles ubiquitously across the nation.

Up to now, a two hour thirty minutes drive from Damaturu to the once known “Home of peace” is like penetrating through the boundaries of the “Bermuda triangle” despite having an airforce base that is well equipped with military fighter jets in Maiduguri. The road will be barricaded for hours, and people would be wantonly slaughtered like animals in abattoir by insensate humanlike beasts without any intervention.

Sadly, the enormity of the matter is that even those who have taken the solemn oath and are saddled with the heavy responsibility of protecting the lives of innocent Nigerians are not spared.

Moreover, the country’s Northwest and the Northcentral segments have also responded to the topsy-turvydom of insecurity and have become a furnace hell on earth. The Kaduna–Abuja road remains a highway of death where people are daily being mercilessly forced to breathe in death and exhale life and stripped of their chattels by kidnappers. 

One of the worst tribulations that betide one in today’s Nigeria is being a resident of Zamfara, Sokoto, or Katsina. The daily news reaching us from the region is that of kidnappings. Bandit terrorists bathe in the bloodstream of innocent souls, turning wives into widows and children into orphans.

Despite the economic hardship in the country,  one has to struggle to fulfil Darwin’s law of survival. But, unfortunately, only our vital forces dearly pay the cost of so doing. May Allah, in His infinite mercy, restore peace to our dear nation. Amen. 

Abba Muhammad Tawfiq is a 500L Medical Rehabilitation student at the University of Maiduguri. He can be reached via abbamuhammadtawfiq@gmail.com.

By Abdulrazak Iliyasu Sansani

It is harvest time, where farmers all over the country harvest their crops. Some have already harvested the early maturing varieties of crops, while others are counting days to commence harvesting, or at least have started preparations for the harvesting of Agricultural produce after toiling, expending funds, and hoping of getting bumper harvest as a reward for everything.

By Musa Sa’adu

Political parties remain the only vehicle or platforms for candidates/politicians to aspire for political offices. This, however, leads to the emergence of various interest groups within a party. The groups work harmoniously together to pursue their common goals. However, the success or otherwise of a political party depends mainly on how the stakeholders manage these interest groups in the distribution of party positions, party tickets, appointments and the traditional largesse as the case may be. Failure to do these for any reason has, on so many instances, led to the internal party crises.

The 1983 election that produced Senator Sabo Bakinzuwo against a well-performing Governor Abubakar Rimi, seeking reelection resulted fromf party crises. The PRP crises that metamoposed into ‘Tabo‘ and ‘Santsi‘ factions, led by Malam Aminu Kano and Rimi respectively, forced Rimi as a sitting Governor to dump PRP for NPP to seek reelection. However, this was one of the cardinal reasons behind his Waterloo despite his performance in office throughout Kano and Jigawa.

Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau and, of course, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje are no doubt the principal actors of the Fourth Republic Kano politics. The three have benefited and suffered the consequences of internal party crises.

Our memories are still intact on how the political hullabaloo, shenaniganism and internal party wranglings ruined the reelection bid of Governor Kwankwaso during the 2003 Governorship election. The defection of Danhassan, crises between Kwankwaso and some members of the National Assembly, notably the then speaker of the House Of Representatives, Hon. Ghali Na-Abba and perhaps General Buhari factor were among the contributing factors that led to the Kwankwaso/Ganduje downfall and the emergence of Malam Shekarau.

Likewise, Shekarau suffered the repercussions of internal party crises; his anointed candidate Salisu Sagir Takai was defeated by Kwankwaso/Ganduje. The crises between Shekarau and his deputy, Abdullahi Gwarzo, popularly known as Ruwa Baba, the over fifty thousand votes garnered by him during the Governorship election, has smoothly leveraged the second coming of Kwankwaso and Ganduje in the 2011 election.

The current turmoil rocking the Kano APC is a cause of concern to any committed party member. The internal crises that paved the way for two parallel conventions that produced Abdullahi Abbas and Haruna Zago representing Ganduje and Shekarau led factions respectively will create a hole that will gradually sink the Kano APC ship, and neither the Ganduje nor Shekarau will survive the mishaps including their supporters.

In politics, number matters; everyone is important! Don’t tell me someone who’s Governor for eight years and a serving senator doesn’t have political influence, and these G-7 members, as they fondly called themselves, are blessed with sturdy supporters and resources to bankroll political movements that can make or mar an election.

With the Tuesday court verdict favouring the Shekarau-led faction and considering the nature of Nigerian litigation processes, I’m afraid that whichever faction the pendulum swings and even if they won the general polls, the replica of Zamfara 2019 is imminent.

Both Ganduje and Shekarau should tread with caution; there is still time. They shouldn’t listen to the sycophants instigating the crises. Let them sit, discuss and iron out the grey and problematic areas and find out political solutions; otherwise, Kwankwaso will send them to political oblivion.

By Aliyu Ammani Junior

Leadership has been one of the common unbalanced difficulties in Nigeria’s political space since independence: 1964 Federal Election Crisis, January 1966 coup, 1966 counter-coup, Nigeria/Biafra civil war, Gideon Orkar’s failed coup, post-June 12 political crisis, and more. All in one way or another—linkable to one part’s sentiment of being marginalized, omitted, or denied the sense of representation.

Ideally, merit, competency, integrity, and capacity are the benchmarks in selecting a leader, not a power rotation or sharing formula. Nevertheless, the situation in Nigeria, a complex country of multiethnic and multi-religious organizations with uneven federalism that is almost consolidated, is not about competency, merit, integrity, and capacity.

A centralized structure ravaged by agitation, deep suspicion of fear of ethnic and religious hegemony demands a rotating power between north and south to accommodate the emotions and sentiments of these regions and their people. Providing a rotation formula would go a long way in sustaining a united Nigeria considering the existing deep divisions among Nigerians. It will produce fairness, equality, equity, justice, a sense of possession, and identification.

Unless a requisite equate is attained, where every part and tribe has developed a sense of possession, identification, and the federalism is no longer leaning; Nigeria will always require a practical formula for unifying the diverging segments that formed ‘The Federal Republic Of Nigeria.’

The fault of power rotation is theoretical and unrealistic; some argue that it is ‘undemocratic’ because it deprives certain people with competence, capacity, and experience the right to be voted—for when zoning does not favour their locus. There is no universal structure of democracy; what is universal about democracy is the basic principles that guide it. The focus of democratic practical demands remains locally confined. As a substantial social value, democracy has complex and diverse considerations and needs. Therefore, it should be hacked to suit local conditions and circumstances.

It is deceiving and tricky to limit the democratic system to mechanical conditions (popular will) without referring to instrumental conditions like the blanket sense of identity—inclusiveness—possession from every component.

Another narrowed argument against the rotating formula is that it is ineffectual and of no help – since a typical citizen from the leader’s zone is not better comforted ‘materialistically’ than other citizens from distant zones. Realistically, it is restricting, reducing, and neo-Marxist to limit the decisive quest of political aspirations and struggles to ‘distribution of resources’ without appreciating other factors; recognition, possession, and sense of identification. In a heterogeneous populace, it is significant to feel represented and connected by having someone from your spot and its experience, occupying a high post (including the office of the President) at least—in a while.

As earlier acknowledged, in usual events—merit, competency, integrity, and capacity should be ‘benchmarks’ in deciding a leader, not a formula. Undeniably, the merit, competency, integrity, and capacity test is a dubious and probable trial.  With a power rotating procedure, the questionable and possible trial remains untouched. Except that something is going to be fixed, every portion will develop a sense of possession, identification, and responsibility “I played: it’s time for someone.”

Aliyu Ammani Junior

Kaduna, Nigeria.