PDP

By Uzair Adam Imam

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has slammed President Bola Ahmed Tintubu over the bitting economic hardship caused by the recent hike in the pump price of fuel from N534 to N617 per litre in Nigeria.

Mr. Debo Ologunagba, the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, mounted this challenge in a statement he made available to journalists.

Ologunagba also described the new price as provocative and extortionate, adding that the recent increment worsened the already suffocating economic situation under the leadership of the APC.

The statement read in part, “Our party insists that the N617 per litre of fuel is excessive, unacceptable and cannot be justified under any guise. This is especially given the economic potential and prospects within our country.

“It is appalling that instead of seeking ways to stabilise and grow the economy, the APC administration has abandoned the welfare of Nigerians which is the primary purpose of government under Section 14 (2)(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and left the citizens to the vagaries of market forces and exploitative cabal; a disposition that is characteristic of a government that is not accountable to the people.

“The PDP is alarmed that with its ill-thought out, badly planned and hurriedly-executed policies, the APC is running Nigeria’s economy aground with the value of naira rapidly plummeting, businesses and production shutting down; citizens losing their means of livelihood, commercial and social activities crippled, with millions of families no longer able to afford their daily needs as the costs of food, medication and other essential goods and services continue to skyrocket.

“Indeed, this is not the nation that Nigerians yearned for after the abysmal, harrowing and inhuman eight years of the Buhari-led APC administration as the situation has currently gone from a frightening bad to a terrifying worse with no hope in sight,” the statement said.

According to Ologunagba, “Even with the removal of subsidy on petroleum products, with a deft, transparent and innovative management of resources, economic potentials, national comparative advantage and expanded value chain in refining capacity, fuel should not sell for more than N150 per litre in Nigeria.”

By Salisu Uba Kofar Wambai

Atiku Abubakar made campaign promises about tackling border closure which seriously ushered hardships, especially in the North. He equally rolled out plans to liberate Nigeria from the shackles of foreign loans President Muhammadu Buhari immersed it into.

PDP is the party that has formidable and unnerving politicians who fought tooth and nail for democracy to thrive in this country. The party people know the long walk to freedom they walked, and their 16-year dispensation spoke for them. 

PDP mastered campaigns for the creditors to give us waivers, which prevented the country from such loan spells. They ensured Nigeria hadn’t been submitted to total external control like we see today with APC’s inexperienced and heartless dispensation.

PDP has think tanks that guide their foreign relations which made sure we did not accept in toto any development strategy which could undermine the welfare of citizens in the long run. Thanks to their inclusion of technocrats both from home and outside in their socioeconomic and political decision makings 

Atiku was an integral part of all these goodies mentioned; that’s why we suggested northern voters vote for him during the 2023 presidential campaigns. As a northerner who willingly gave power to the South from 1999 to 2015, I thought it was economically stagnant due to the selfish allocation of federal government projects under OBJ and GEJ. The North had expected Buhari to compensate the region for even development of the country.

However, Buhari seemed to have failed and was ignorant of why power was being rotated at the centre. He favoured the South in many aspects of development project allocations like railways, good roads, bridges and electricity. 

Most of the projects Northerners have been clamouring for, like Mumbila Power Plants, Baro Port, Ajakuota Steel Company, KKK gas pipeline projects, and roads linking states of the region, have not seen the lights of the day. And how could North continue to support power-sharing and shift these injustices, shabbiness and iniquity?

The southern PDP governors under Nyesom Wike led a mischievous campaign against their party candidate PDP to work for the southern presidency. They were not a bunch of idiots like some undesirable elements of the northern politicians who selfishly sold out the region for their egocentric notions.

Now that Nigerians are paying the price of what they had bought by bringing APC to power again, we must remind our people how to become politically smart next election season. And many folks from this part of the country cannot still see things as they are. Sad.

Salisu Uba Kofar Wambai writes from Kano State and can be reached via salisunews@gmail.com.

By Uzair Adam Imam

Senator Lawal Adamu Usman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial Zone, has bitterly denied the allegation swirling around that he forged certificates and threatened to take legal action.

Senator Usman was said to have presented a fraudulent academic certificate as part of the documents presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the 2023 election.

Reports have it that a former student of the Department Public Administration of Ameer Shehu Idris College of Advanced Studies, Zaria, had claimed that the serving senator used her result to gain admission into a university.

But in his reaction, Senator Lawal Adamu Usman, in a letter through his solicitors Messrs E. N. Ogbu & Associates, stated that the story published on 12th July 2023 with the caption: “Kaduna Senator used my result for varsity admission, witness tells tribunals” is libelous and defamatory, and therefore threatened legal action.

The letter further reads: “However, the procedure to obtain these facts were thrown to the wind with respect to the reportage in itself as same, according to our Client, were a calculated effort to wickedly dent an image and status earned over the years by dint of hard work.

“Our Client has suffered emotional and psychological trauma over the “fake news” printed to dent his hard-earned reputation in the eyes of the public over information that is not only false but inexistent.”

“The Nigerian Government has times without numbers strictly warned the generality of the public against spreading what is now known to be “fake news.”

By Uzair Adam Imam

The reservation of some slots to the opposition parties by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu could be seen as a move afoot to get a better Nigeria which was one of the things his administration promised Nigerians since his victory.

The Daily Reality recalls that Tinubu promised to run an inclusive government that would thrust Nigeria into greatness.

Speaking as the president-elect in March, Tinubu said he was seeking a better country not just for himself and his supporters but for all Nigerian people, regardless of their political affiliations.

The Kwara State Governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, relayed the news about the slots reservation to journalists at a meeting of the forum in Abuja on Tuesday.

He said that Tinubu reserved some appointments in the governing boards of agencies, parastatals, institutions and government-owned companies for members of the opposition Labour Party and the Peoples Democratic Party.

Abdulrazaq stated that the President asked the governors to nominate competent persons to serve on the boards and parastatals of Federal Government agencies which were dissolved last month.

According to him, Mr Tinubu dissolved the boards last month, which left no fewer than 2,000 vacant positions expected to be occupied by new nominees.

He added that “Among the agencies are the North-East Development Commission with 12 vacant board slots, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission with seven board seats; Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, seven; Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, 21.

“Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, 12; National Universities Commission, 21 and Transmission Commission of Nigeria, 14; National Health Insurance Authority,12

“Others are the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau, 7; Nigerian Meteorological Agency, seven; Nigerian College of Aviation Technology,8; Nigerian Police Trust Fund, 8; Nigerian Natural Medicine Development Agency,10; Federal Institute of Industrial Research, 11 and National Centre for Technology Management, 11 among others,” he stated.

By Zayyad I. Muhammad

The 2023 Adamawa governorship election was not only tough for Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, but it also shocked him to his marrows. Fintiri said he didn’t only contest against Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed Binani, but against a powerful people in Abuja- Governor Fintiri further said it was an attempted coup d’état against him.

The aftermath of the April 15th governorship election rerun led to Gov. Fintiri ending his first term in a kind of ‘Anger’. So, Fintiri’s second term is highly likely to begin in anger, vengeance, and fighting real and imaginary political enemies.

This is where we must pity Fintiri; if he mistakenly allowed these three things to control his thinking in making appointments, siting of development projects, and creating policies and programs – his four years of the second term would be shrouded with just politics, politics and politics. if  Fintiri is not very careful, he will allow the ‘trauma’  of April  15th to be on his head- his second term’s appointments, projects, and policies will be full of vengeance, anger, and unnecessary fights- if that happens; it will be the beginning of the end of his political future,  because of 2 things- the complexity of Adamawa politics and the current moment.

Nevertheless, Fintiri’s first actions will be how to punish those he presumed did anti-party in the PDP and how to compensate the ‘outsiders’ who did anti-party in their parties to his advantage. This is where the first problem of Fintiri’s second term will commence- new enemies within his party, the outsiders will feel meagerly compensated while those who worked hard for his second term will feel that the outsiders have more than what they ought to have.

For his political survival, Fintiri’s second term should be a kind of political redemption for him- work on his poor relationship with some of his party stakeholders, discard any thought of unnecessary fights with people who he thinks have worked against him and cool the growing tongue and faith division in the state’s polity, especially among jobless young people.

Fintiri’s second term should be a reconciliatory one towards some of his party stakeholders, the traditional class, and some of his so-called enemies. And his appointment should reflect Adamawa’s complexity and the people that truly contributed to his victory in both his first and second terms. This will go a long way to ‘heal’ the past and ‘nurture’ the future.

As things stand now,  if Fintiri doesn’t apply the science of politics and wisdom in his thoughts-  most of his actions will be viewed through the prism of ‘we’ vs ‘them’, which will be very bad for a Governor in a second term; because second terms are intricate – one’s political values diminish as he utilizes the term’s years; followership  reduces, permutations and carpets cross occur without necessarily factoring the second term’s driver’ while those wishing to replace the driver becomes more of yes men, at the detriment of the driver

Fintiri should quickly make some in-delectable marks with legacy programs and projects in the area of youth empowerment, poverty reduction, and human development and industrialization, amongst others. Roads projects are good- but  within 10-20 years, often,  people will forget who to do them; while some will deteriorate, new ones will replace them, but human development and youth empowerment are everlasting- this is where Kwankwaso and Tinubu derived their unending popularity at their primary constituencies

The truth is, the Binani case is a big hammer dangling on Fintiri’s head. Anything can happen in a Tinubu regime that will be thirsty to maintain the old & get new strongholds and votes, including being non-apolitical on some issues.

Fintiri should be fast- bring new thinking, new ideas, and new vigour. Though this is only possible if he brings on board all his party, including young people and even people with opposing political views, to do some intelligent thinking free of politics but development.

Congratulations, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri.

Zayyad I. Muhammad writes from Abuja via zaymohd@yahoo.com.

By Muhammadu Sabiu
 
The Labour Party (LP), the Peoples Democratic Party, and their presidential candidates’ requests for a live broadcast of the election petition proceedings in court have been declined by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja.
 
On Monday, Justice Haruna Tsammani, the Tribunal’s head, denied the request for live coverage of the court proceedings, adding that the request lacked merit.
 
The All Progressives Congress candidate, Bola Tinubu, won the presidential election on February 25.
 
Atiku Abubakar, the PDP’s candidate for president, submitted a request on May 8 for live coverage of the court proceedings in his case.
 
Peter Obi, who was also running for president in the election, had also submitted a request for a live broadcast of the court hearings related to the election petition.
 

By Mohammed Kabir Ibrahim

The March 18, 2023, governorship election in Adamawa State was unarguably the tightest-ever contested race in the history of the state. The incumbent governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, was up against a formidable challenger, Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed (popularly known as Binani), a former member of the House of Representatives and the current senator representing Adamawa Central Senatorial District.

The election was shaped to a large extent by ethnoreligious sentiment. While most Christians and ethnic minorities voted for the governor, most Hausa-Fulani/Muslims voted for Binani. Although the election was declared inconclusive, Binani committed avoidable mistakes that denied her the chance for a landslide victory.

Disrespect for elders was Binani’s first mistake. Shortly after the APC primaries that saw her defeat prominent politicians, including a former governor, Jibrilla Bindow, and former EFCC chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, some concerned Adamawa elders prevailed on Binani to reach out to those who lost the primaries for their cooperation and support towards winning the general election. Rather than heeding their elderly sound counsel, Binani was said to have exhibited a high level of arrogance and dismissed them as “Ribadu’s errand boys”. The elders took offence and refrained from making any further reconciliatory efforts. This singular display of hubris emboldened her opponents to teach her political lessons. While former Governor Bindow, alongside thousands of his supporters, dumped the APC for PDP, the former EFCC boss, Ribadu, opted to challenge the nomination process at the court.

Binani’s second mistake was populating her strategic campaign team with an army of incompetent, immature and belligerent youth under the aegis of “Binani Ambassadors”. These young people, some of whom are still fresh students in universities and colleges, have become her veritable political strategists. They dished out spurious propaganda and disparaged anyone who challenged Binani’s politics. The brazen manner in which the Binani Ambassadors demonised and denigrated Binani’s challengers on various social media platforms without restraint contributed to anti-party activities, particularly among thousands of Ribadu supporters during the governorship elections.

The Binani Ambassadors also misled her into believing that she had sufficient grassroots support and, as such, she didn’t need the backing of APC stalwarts in the state. The case of Fufore Local Government Area is a glaring example where Binani and her incompetent strategists bypassed and excluded renowned APC stalwarts and appointed lightweight politicians to coordinate her campaign.

Preference for political vendetta against perceived political opponents over reconciliation and cooperation preparatory to the all-important general election was Binani’s third political mistake. Perhaps acting on the ill-advised strategy of the insecure Binani Ambassadors, Binani initiated and pursued indiscriminate infighting between her loyalists and anybody loyal to Bindow or Ribadu within the Adamawa APC. The obsequiousness of the former state chairman of the party, Alhaji Ibrahim Bilal, further aggravated the intra-party conflicts. It had reached a point where the party leadership in the state got fed up and showed Alhaji Bilal the exit door.

Binani’s seemingly conceited and domineering nature is another mistake that cost her a sweeping victory at the end of the March 18 election and may likely work against her at the forthcoming supplementary polls. Those who know her say she always insists on having her way at all costs, even when her actions are supposedly unreasonable. For example, she allegedly stormed Ribadu Ward in Fufore Local Government Area and unilaterally sacked duly elected ward officials of the party. A senior ward official made several pleas for reconciliation and cooperation, but Binani was said to have dismissed his overtures and challenged him to go to court. A cursory look at the results from IREV shows that she narrowly won the Ribadu Ward, a largely Hausa-Fulani domain that could have given her an edged advantage.

Binani also shot herself in the foot when she started an unwarranted battle against the party officials at her Ward in Yola South Local Government Area. She was alleged to have orchestrated the suspension of some key party officials loyal to Ribadu, although her antics were not successful. Binani’s relentless pursuit of political vendetta did not stop at the state level. She was also said to be clandestinely fighting with the loyalists of the first lady, Aisha Buhari and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha. Perhaps that explains why Mrs. Buhari’s brother, Mahmood Halilu, was seen alongside Governor Fintiri at the residence of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar during a press conference calling for the declaration of the election results after several delays. Even most recently, there are speculations that Binani is behind the suspension of the SGF.

Regardless of the outcome of the yet-to-be-scheduled supplementary election, Binani has succeeded in creating the impression that she is an authoritarian who will give no room for the opposition if, by the rarest coincidence, she becomes Nigeria’s first democratically elected female governor.

On the other hand, her philanthropic initiatives, massive support of women voters, ethnoreligious sentiment, and the fact that she hails from the central zone, which has the highest concentration of voters in the state, contributed in large measures to her impressive performance at the March 18, 2023 polls. Winning the cooperation and support of her party stalwarts would have closed the insignificant margin and propelled her to a landslide victory. As it stands now, Binani would need a miracle to win over 35,000 votes from the mere 37,000 available to defeat Governor Fintiri and become Nigeria’s first elected female governor.

Mohammed Kabir Ibrahim wrote from Kaduna and can be reached via mohammedkabir.ibrahim@gmail.com.

By Muhammad Suleiman Yobe

Speaker Yobe State House of Assembly, Hon. Ahmed Lawan Mirwa of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, has lost his seat in the just concluded governorship and state house of assembly elections held yesterday, Saturday, March 18, 2023.

Lawan Mirwa, representing Nguru outside constituency in the Yobe State House of Assembly since 2003, has lost his seat to People’s Democratic Party, PDP, candidate Musa Lawan Majakura.

Majakura got 6,648 votes, Mirwa got 6,466 votes, Bukar Jatau of New Nigeria People’s Party got 23 votes, while Mai Zare Idriss Idriss of APM Party got 14 votes followed by Isah Sa’idu Shehu of the ADC party who got 30 votes.

While declaring the election results, the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC’s returning officer, Nguru Outside state Constituency, Alhaji Mahdi Damaturu, announced Lawan Musa Majakura of the PDP as the winner.

“Musa Lawan Majakura of People’s Democratic Party, PDP, having satisfied the requirement of the law, is hereby declared the winner and return elected”, he added.

Musa Lawan Majakura, who is 29 years old, obtained a diploma from Atiku Abubakar College of Legal and Islamic Studies Nguru, Yobe state. Before winning this election, the ruling party APC did its best to force him to withdraw his candidacy, but he refused.

Recalled that the Speaker, Ahmed Lawan Mirwa, first came to the Yobe State House of Assembly in 2003 and became the Speaker of the House in 2019.

By Muhammad Suleiman Yobe

Yobe has been called a one-party state since the return of the fourth republic. Firstly, in 1999, after the return of democracy, the All People’s Party, APP, won the governorship election, where former Governor Bukar Abba Ibrahim won the election and was re-elected in 2003.

After ruling the state for eight years, the late Mamman B. Ali won the state governorship election held in 2007 also in the same party APP, after the party’s name was changed to All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP).

After spending two years in power, God took over the life of Mamman B Ali and later, his deputy Ibrahim Geidam at that time, became the governor of Yobe state.

Ibrahim Geidam continued to lead the state for ten years in power. The ANNP continued ruling the state until 2014, when the coalition of opposition parties united and created a new party, the All Progressive Party (APC).

This means that since the return of democracy in 1999, only one party has been ruling the state up to 2019 when Mai Mala Buni emerged as the governor of the state under the banner of the APC party.

The most surprising thing in Yobe state is that there has never been a victory over the ruling party in the presidential election until this year’s elections. Even in 2011, when the ANPP nominated Malam Ibrahim Shekarau as a presidential candidate, the ANPP party won the state in the presidential election by a wide margin.

The question here is, what caused the ruling party’s failure in this year’s presidential election?

 How will the presidential election affect the success of Governor Mai Mala Buni?

Of course, the election held on February 25 scared the leaders of the APC in Yobe state, especially the way the opposition party PDP won by a considerable margin.

In the election held, Professor Umaru Pate, the returning officer of the state in the just concluded presidential and national assembly elections, declared the PDP party as the winner of the election as follows; APC 151,459, LP 2,406, NNPP 18,270 and PDP with 198,567.

This means that the PDP won by a margin of 47,108 votes, even though elections were cancelled in some polling units with large crowds in Fika, Bade, Fune and Jakusko local governments, which are expected to be won by the PDP.

What is more surprising and interesting is how the ruling party failed to win in the major local governments with the most registered voters as follows:

(1) Potiskum 181,091 registration voters

(2)Damatura 122,197 registered voters

(3) Fune 121,900 registered voters

(4) Bade. 113,716 registered voters

(5) Nguru. 101,044 registered voters

Total = 639,948 registered voters.

Surely! If the people of the towns mentioned above will vote massively for the PDP again, there is no doubt that governor Mai Mala Buni will fail because the total number of registered voters in the state is 1,485,146. As we saw in the presidential election, only less than 400,000 cast their votes.

The presidential election may not signify Mai Mala’s future, but there is a threat to the ruling party. Because many years ago in Yobe state, it was not possible to oppose the state government because of the threat of firing a person from a job or confiscating a person’s farm if he did not support the ruling party, but now because of the emergence of social media, there has been a change in society’s awareness and opposition.

Further, the change in the presidential election happened because Mai Mala Buni failed to meet the situation of the top politicians helping the state’s poor people.

Similarly, the emergence of Bola Tinubu in the APC presidential elections contributed to the downfall of the APC because the people of the state did not accept him. And the governor failed to help the rural residents, so the government lost the presidential election in his local government of origin (Gujba).

With this, I think if the state residents will be allowed to vote for their prepared candidates without buying votes, without compulsion on the people, both APC and PDP will all be able to win the gubernatorial election on March 18, 2023.

Muhammad Suleiman Yobe wrote via muhammadsuleiman190@gmail.com.

By Muhammad Sabiu

Nigeria’s main opposition party, the PDP, has declared to contest the presidential election results.

Dino Melaye, a PDP representative at the national collation centre in Abuja, stated this on Monday while raising the alarm over presidential election results coming from Kwara.

Mr Melaye contended that the results are in doubt since INEC failed to promptly post the results from the polling units online.