PDP

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.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The Federal Capital Territory Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Sunday Zaka, has passed on.

Mr Zaka, who was popularly known as HIV, was involved in a car accident that claimed his life on Saturday morning.

Bawa Benjamin, a close aide of the deceased confirmed his demise to newsmen.

According to Bawa, Mr Zaka lost control of his car and crashed into a tree on his way home from the party’s meeting.

He also disclosed that the deceased was rushed to the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital Gwagwalada, where he was confirmed dead by doctors.

Reports have it that Mr Zaka’s personal security also died alongside his boss in the car crash.

A chieftain of the party, Michael Kpatuba mourn the death via a post on his Facebook page on Saturday morning.

“Dying Election day is really heartbroken to the FCT, PDP family.

“Rest in peace, Hon Zaka Sunday, FCT PDP Chairman”, the post read.

By Muhammadu Sabiu

A coalition of civil society organisations asked Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, to step aside in favour of Musa Kwankwaso, the candidate of the Nigeria Peoples Party, to prevent needless vote splitting in the North.

Bishop Godwin Abah, the coalition’s head, said in a press conference at the NNPP secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday that Nigeria’s future was in jeopardy and that, as a result, the Kwankwaso Presidency’s political sagacity and tenacity of purpose were needed to turn the country around.

Abah noted that the organisations had carefully examined the presidential candidates of major political parties, as well as their backgrounds and democratic credentials, adding that Kwankwaso stood out among the other candidates.

He was quoted as saying, “A servant-leader with milk of human kindness, Kwankwaso transformed Kano State as a two- term governor and will bring his wealth of experience as former Minister of Defence, Ambassador, Senator, Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives etc., to bear on national governance as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“It was also the opinion of the rural Nigerians that the coalition interfaced with that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should set aside his presidential aspiration for a dynamic, pragmatic, energetic and resourceful Kwankwaso.

“Accordingly, the coalition calls on Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate to step down for the NNPP presidential candidate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to avoid unnecessary splitting of votes in the North.

“Kwankwaso will inject fresh air in governance, restore hope to a bewildered nation that has seen more carnage than dividends of democracy and build a new Nigeria we all desire.

“Atiku has done his best for the nation, we appreciate his contribution as Vice President of Nigeria. He remains a statesman.

There are now about three days left until the presidential election, which involves four major contenders, including Bola Tinubu (APC), Atiku Abubakar (PDP), Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (NNPP), and Peter Obi (LP).

By Sumayyah Auwal Ishaq

The United Christians Leaders Eagle Eye Forum (UCLEEF) has formally endorsed the former Vice President and People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, GCON, as its presidential candidate ahead of the February 25 general elections.

According to the group’s national coordinator, Pastor Aminchi Habu, “as the great democracy defender of Africa, we see Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the political pilot that will fly Nigeria to its promise land, the political engineer that will repair the damaged engine’s of Nigeria economy, the political architect that will redesign and take Nigeria to a glorious future and the political doctor of our nation who has the prescribed drugs that will heal Nigeria of all its security and other societal ills”.

Pastor Aminchi further stated that “we have four Million two hundred and sixteen thousand one hundred (4,216,100) registered members, which we have instructed each and every one of them to win at least one (1) vote for His Excellency Atiku Abubakar GCON at the coming Polls, so as it stands now we have eight million four hundred and thirty-two thousand two hundred (8,432,200) votes on the ground for his Excellency”.

Representative of the former Vice President, Mr Dele Momudu, thanked the group and promised that an Atiku presidency would be for all Nigerians irrespective of religious, ethnic, or political differences.

By Uzair Adam Imam

The Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, vowed to implement policies presented to him by Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) on Tuesday.

According to him, the CAN’s policy document was not in contradiction with his belief, as some of the points presented were contained in the book he wrote when he was a vice president of Nigeria.

The Presidential Candidate made this disclosure during his meeting with the CAN leadership in Abuja Tuesday.

He said, “I have listened to the presentation of the CAN document and I can tell you the CAN document is totally in conformity with my thoughts in a book that I published when I was the Vice President and this led to a fundamental disagreement with my boss as well as my constituents.

“There is no difference between my book and CAN’s presentation. I stand before you not to campaign but to tell you the honest truth, what you have presented is what I have always believed in. And if I have the opportunity, I swear to God I will do it.

“Oil didn’t send me to school, my parents paid cattle tax, market tax, radio tax and these were the taxes that sent me school from primary to university. If God has given you gold or oil, take your oil or gold but I will tax you.

“Why should we be fighting over resources that have been endowed to whoever it is endowed to,” said the presidential candidate.

Atiku was received by the CAN’s President, Archbishop Daniel Okoh, the Secretary of the association, and other executive members.

The CAN’s president, while presenting the document they titled “Policy Roadmap for Future Nigeria”, said the the document was for avoidance of doubt.

He said, “For avoidance of doubt, we present the policies that we believe will address the crises of development in Nigeria.”