Former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Professor Usman Yusuf is of the opinion that none of the APC governors in the North will be able to deliver for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the forthcoming election.
Professor Yusuf stated this on Monday when he appeared as a guest on Channels Television’s The 2023 Verdict.
“None of the APC governors in the North, has the goodwill of the people to deliver anything to him (Tinubu)… None,” the former NHIS boss exclaimed.
According to him, Tinubu’s politics has been regional (especially) in Lagos “where he is Alpha and Omega, nobody challenges him.”
Professor Yusuf added that though the APC flagbearer has built people, still he has no experience as to politics within the national front.
“His inexperience is showing,” the oncologist asserted. He further noted that in the North, Tinubu is not talking to the people, opining that the APC presidential candidate is merely sub-contracting the campaign to praise singers, and APC governors.
“When it comes to the campaign hosting, he only dances and leaves,” Professor Yusuf emphasized.
Speaking on President Muhammadu Buhari’s professed desire to hand over to a candidate from the APC, the former NHIS boss said only the people’s wish will prevail.
In his opinion, Buhari has squandered all the influence and goodwill which he had internationally and nationally and as such can see to birthing the dream of handing over to a candidate from the APC.
A former Deputy Governor of Lagos State and a member of the APC’s Presidential Campaign Council, Femi Pedro, has said gaffes made by the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, are mere slip of tongues as a result of pressure from campaigns.
Pedro, who insisted that Tinubu is fit both mentally and physically to lead Nigeria, said mistakes are common and not unusual adding that anybody can commit such blunders.
Pedro, who was the second-term deputy to former Lagos governor Tinubu between 2003 and 2007, said this during a live appearance on Channels Television’s election programme, The 2023 Verdict, on Monday.
The APC flag bearer had made some gaffes during the ongoing campaigns that trended online among Nigerians on social media. Some of which are; “PDAPC,” “balablu” and “down payment for a roasted corn.”
Pedro however said, “He (Tinubu) might have made few slips here and there; everybody does that. The other time (Iyorchia) Ayu on national TV said PDP should be rejected. He didn’t mean PDP, of course, but it was a slip.
“When you’re on a campaign trail, the pressure, the noise, the gravitas, the general rally atmosphere, you can easily have a slip of tongue. That is not unusual and it’s not unheard of all over the world.
“Asiwaju is very fit, he is fitter than me. He is energetic and he is everywhere. Asiwaju’s cognitive skill is perfect; most of the speeches we hear or read are doctored. That is the narrative that has been presented by the other opposition to make him seem unfit.”
Pedro said Nigerians had nothing to worry about as regards Tinubu’s health and cognitive abilities.
He said, “I was with him two days ago in Abuja with other leaders. I was pleasantly impressed by his energy, his vigour; he has not been hiding. We have seen him speak before in Nigerian economic summits, town hall meetings in Kano, Rivers and Lagos.”
It was a dramatic moment in the Big Brother Titans house as two housemates, Jenni O and Khosi, broke one of Biggie’s rules after engaging in a physical altercation on Monday night.
The fight, which caused all the housemates to interfere, started with a verbal exchange between the duo.
It all started when Khosi was playing cards upstairs, and Thabang decided to go talk to her. Nana, who already feels Thabang‘s closeness to Khosi was the reason they had been twice nominated for eviction in a row, joked about his movement.
Apparently, this was already not sitting well with Khosi, who rushed down to confront Nana in a way Jenni O didn’t like.
Just as Jenni O rushed to Nana’s aide, Miracle also moved to the scene to protect his partner, Khosi.
Babatunde Fashola, minister of works and housing, says the position of Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), shows the latter as an activist and “fighter and champion of the downtrodden”.
Speaking on Monday in interview on Channels Television, the minister said Tinubu stayed true to form as an “activist” for taking a position on the naira redesign.
On January 25, Tinubu said saboteurs in the istration of President Muhammadu Buhari are using the petrol scarcity and naira redesign to scuttle his chances in the forthcoming polls.
Fashola said: “That is why our candidate was the first to speak out about it [naira redesign].
“Even though it was his party [APC] that was in government, he was the first.
“That is consistent with Asiwaju Tinubu's position as an activist, the fighter of the downtrodden, the champion of the downtrodden.
“And once he sees people in pain. It was after he spoke that the others now found their voices.
“One of them said ‘don’t extend it’. What is he benefiting from contributing to the pain by saying they should not extend it?
“Because it is clearly having consequences that are not intended. One of the consequences that is unintended is pain and inconvenience.”
Over the past days, Nigerians across the country have been battling with the scarcity of new naira notes — a development that has led to queues at banking halls and automated teller machine (ATM) points.
The development has also led to protests in parts of the country.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had given a deadline of January 31 for the use of old naira notes — but it was recently extended to February 10.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said that he is also affected by the naira redesign carried out by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Fashola, who made a live appearance on Channels Television’s The 2023 Verdict on Monday, was reacting to the outcry over the widespread scarcity of the N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes since they were unveiled on November 23, 2022.
According to the CBN, the old versions of those denominations will no longer be legal tenders after February 10, 2023 as the apex bank targets hoarders of illicit funds in the buildup to the general elections.
He said: “I see people at ATMs, I see people in banks crowded, struggling to get their money.
“I get , I don't have cash too.
“The naira swap policy is not working at this moment, it's causing unintended consequences.”
The Federal high court has fixed March 7 for hearing in the suit seeking the investigation and prosecution of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic party, Atiku Abubakar, over alleged offenses against the code of conduct for public officers, money laundering, criminal breach of trust and criminal misappropriation and conspiracy.
The suit was instituted by the spokesman for the Presidential Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress, Festus Keyamo following the ‘Atikugate’ scandal.
Justice J. K Omotosho of the Federal High Court on Friday gave the go ahead to serve Atiku all court processes in the suit filed against him.
The court gave an “order granting leave to the plaintiff/ applicant to effect service of the originating summons and all subsequent processes in this suit on the 1st defendant by substituted means to wit : by serving same on any adult staff of the Atiku Abubakar campaign Organization located at Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent, besides Access bank, Wuse II, Abuja or by pasting same at a conspicuous part of the Atiku Abubakar campaign organization office located at Ademola Adetokunbo crescent , beside Access bank , Wuse II, Abuja.
“That this matter is adjourned till 7th day of March, 2023 for hearing”.
Recall that controversial videos were released some weeks ago by a former aide of Atiku, Michael Achimugu, who claimed that between 1999 and 2007 when Atiku was vice president, he conspired with ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo to rip off the country using what he termed “Special Purpose Vehicles.”
Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State Thursday said the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, will not win the 25 February presidential election.
The governor in an interview with TVC News said the projection by ANAP Foundation’s poll and other opinion polls in favour of Mr Obi were not accurately done, thus can not be relied upon to measure the success of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party.
Some polls had shown Mr Obi leading with Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), respectively, trailing him.
Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) emerged as distant fourth behind Messrs Tinubu and Atiku.
For instance, the ANAP poll conducted in early December 2022 showed 23 per cent of voters are willing to vote for Mr Obi in the presidential election and 13 per cent proposing to vote for Mr Tinubu who came second.
Atiku came third with 10 per cent and Mr Kwankwaso was a distant fourth with only two per cent of voters proposing to vote for him.
But Governor El-Rufai said the poll was not conducted accurately and that Mr Obi’s Labour Party is using ethnicity and religious bigotry in its campaign which will also make him not win the election.
“I was a teaching assistant for statistics, I understand it. I am not talking as a politician or a layman. The most important thing in looking at any opinion poll is the sample followed by the methodology.
“When you have hundreds of millions of ed voters and you are sampling three thousand ed voters, your results are unreliable, will have a high margin of errors and most of these polls (predicting Peter Obi as the winner of the election) are like that,” Mr El-Rufai said.
“All the opinion polls conducted, the Bloomberg one, the ANAP one and the Ngozi Iweala one all use the telephone. Only 31 per cent of voters ed contain phone numbers. When you pick your sample out of the 31 per cent, from day one, your result is dead on arrival.
“I can take every one of these opinion polls and deconstruct them because I understand what is sampling and what is a methodology and those polls are a joke with the greatest respect,” the governor said.
He added that one reliable poll conducted shows that the election is going to be a close contest between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“We have done a poll with a sample of nearly 40,000 across Nigeria and the results of the polls show that we are ahead, and it’s going to be a tight election. There is a large percentage of undecided voters. We must work hard to swing the undecided to our side but we are ahead,” Mr El-Rufai said.
The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has said President Muhammadu Buhari was shocked when he was told that Senate President Ahmad Lawan was the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s anointed candidate.
El-Rufai disclosed this while answering questions on a programme on TVC on Thursday.
In June 2022, before the APC presidential primary started, the National Chair of the party, Abdullahi Adamu, announced Lawan as the consensus candidate for the party.
The announcement was met with mixed reactions, including a rejection by several APC governors.
“We went to the president and said ‘Mr. President, this is what we are hearing; this is not what you’ve been telling us in the past two to three years. Is it true?’
“And the president expressed shock and said ‘I’m not part of this’.
“Right there and then, he summoned Garba Shehu to issue a statement that he hasn’t anointed anyone. And he told us very clearly ‘I have not anointed anyone’,” El-Rufai said.
Rabiu Kwankwaso says the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) is not planning a merger with the PDP or any political party ahead of February’s presidential election.
While there have been claims that the NNPP presidential flagbearer is in talks with other leading candidates for this month’s exercise, Kwankwaso says there is no truth in such claims.
“We are not going to go into discussion with anybody. From now till the 25th, no discussion with any party whatsoever,” the former Kano State governor said during his appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday.
Kwankwaso, one of the frontrunners for the February poll, however, says a possible merger might happen if the election goes into a run-off.
“But after the first election, if need be, of course, we would discuss with people,” he added.
According to him, the NNPP is making inroads in major parts of the country which he believes is enough to give his party victory when Nigerians head to the ballot.
“My discussion now is with the voters. We have been going now from village to village,” the NNPP flagbearer maintained.
“People were receiving us in all the villages and towns across the country. We believe we are the people on the ground,” the former lawmaker said. “All these guys that are flying from one city to the other don’t even know what the problems that people are having in this country.”
He accused other contenders of not doing enough to woo voters across Nigeria, describing them as “weak and lazy politicians”.
“We are very happy and getting assurances by the day that they would go and vote for our party because we are the only people today with a national party that stands for change,” he said.
“We are the only party that has credible candidates. We are the only party that really believes in the suffering of the people.”
The presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) Rabiu Kwankwaso has faulted the new naira swap deadline, claiming it only affects the masses and not the political elites who he said have banks.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had on Sunday extended the deadline for the swapping of the newly-designed naira notes, bowing to pressure from many quarters.
But Kwankwaso said the February 10th deadline given by the apex bank is not enough, arguing that if the move was meant to curb vote-buying as many believe, the aim would be defeated since major politicians have access to the banking system.
“I can tell you, from our investigation, what the government is saying has to do with people who would want to take too much money; lead us in politics. They don’t know that many of our colleagues, those who are contesting, especially presidential candidates, and by extension, all those in their parties, are owners of the banks,” he said Thursday when he featured on Channels Television’s breakfast show Sunrise Daily.
“Not only that, people close to them are having banks everywhere. So, they would lose nothing. And they have governors -PDP has governors, APC has governors – and I am sure by now they would have collected so much money from the banks in their states.”
According to him, the timeframe for the swapping of the new currency is short, arguing that in many parts of the country, especially in the northern region, there are no banks.
“Up till now, there are many states, especially in northern Nigeria, where local governments have no single bank,” the former Kano governor said.
“And in some areas, even the local government headquarters is well over 100km away and it becomes extremely difficult for them to take their money.
“We are not talking about big businessmen. We are talking about petty traders with a capital of N5,000 and even less. Now, if you give them three months, it would be very difficult for the information to reach them.”
The former minister said even a six months period for the swapping of the currency is not even enough, calling on the government to give ample time for the new currency to circulate.
Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has blamed President Buhari and some people he described as “fifth columnists” for pushing some government policies, including the naira redesign and persistent fuel scarcity, that he feared could eventually cause unrest in the country.
The governor, in a monitored broadcast on Channels Television today, said the currency redesign move was the idea of a few people in the Presidential Villa, Abuja and never the policy of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
He said, “The [Naira Redesign] is not the policy of the APC, this is not the policy of our candidate [Bola Tinubu], this is the policy of fifth columnists. They want to bring us down, they want to bring this country down.”
In an interview on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily programme on Wednesday, Nasir El-Rufai, the Kaduna State Governor and member of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC), said that some persons are hiding behind the president’s “desire to do what he thinks is right.”
“The currency redesign, you have to understand the president. People are blaming the Governor of the Central Bank for the currency redesign, but No.
“You have to go back and look at Buhari’s first outing as president.
“He did it; the Buhari-Idiagbon regime changed our currency in secret in order to catch those who were stashing illicit funds.
“It is a very good intention. The president has his rights. But doing it at this time within the allotted time does not make any political or economic sense.”
Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Tuesday, criticised the recent currency redesign policy and the country’s foreign exchange (FX) rate management system while speaking at his party’s campaign rally in Cross River state.
The rally was held at the UJ Esuene Stadium in Calabar, Cross River’s capital.
The former Lagos state governor criticised the recent currency redesign policy and the rapid depreciation of the naira.
He said when the present government took over in 2015, the naira/dollar exchange rate was about N200 to a dollar but it has depreciated to about N800/$ at the parallel market.
The two developments Tinubu spoke about at the campaign rally occurred under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led istration.
“Don’t let them lie to you about change of currency. They have never understood what inflation is about,” the APC presidential candidate said.
“They never understand (sic) what money laundering is all about.
“To change and the torture moved the exchange rate from 200 to 800. If they had repaired it, if they had arrested this, we won’t be where we are today. We will be greater. They don’t know the way, they don’t know how to think, they don’t know how to do.
“I say, follow me. Are you going to follow me? Are you going to vote for me?”
South African Juicy Jay and Nigerian housemate Yvonne both shared a beautiful moment in the Big Brother Titans house last night and ended it with a ionate kiss.
Juicy Jay shouted ‘Chineke’, meaning God in Igbo language immediately after the locking of lips moment to the amazement of Yvonne who replied with “its the Chineke for me”.
She thereafter praised Juicy Jay's kissing skills and said, “Not like you are so great [at kissing], but you tried.”
Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has revealed he would “hit back” the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Tuesday.
The governor, a member of the G5, spoke on Monday at a campaign rally in Etche Local Government Area of the state.
Wike reacted to the alert by the PDP national leadership about some lawyers appearing in court without legal briefs and authorisation.
The PDP said it would not hesitate to take stringent measures on any infractions that are misleading, questionable and fraudulent.
The spokesperson Debo Ologunagba referred to Article 42 of PDP’s constitution (as amended in 2017) which places the exclusive responsibility of conducting litigations on the National Legal Adviser.
Ologunagba stated that only the official has the competence to engage external solicitors to handle cases on behalf of the party.
On Monday, Wike warned the PDP leadership that any attempt to slam anti-party allegations against him and allies would have consequences.
“Anti-party begets anti-party. You seen what they did? We took small parties in Rivers to court…APC, SDP.
“The people in Abuja that say they are national went and collude, wrote to our lawyers to hands off the case in plan to kill the cases we filed.
“I have told him to remove them. No problem, the cases will die. Me too, I’ll hit them back by tomorrow,” the Rivers helmsman hinted.
Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says he “rescued” Atiku Abubakar from former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Abubakar, former vice-president and now standard-bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had a running battle with his former principal for years.
Both men reconciled in the build-up to the 2019 general election.
Obasanjo also endorsed Abubakar for the presidency during the 2019 polls, saying that he was better than incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari.
However, for the 2023 presidential election, Obasanjo has since thrown his weight behind Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP).
Speaking on Monday at a campaign rally in Uyo, capital city of Akwa Ibom, the former governor of Lagos said Abubakar and his party are just about “stomach infrastructure”.
“They don’t have a mandate; what they have is ice cream. It has melted. I am the one that rescued him from Obasanjo who wanted to roast him like goat meat,” he said.
“He ran away to Dubai, and when the election came again, he came for stomach infrastructure. He came to Lagos. We rehabilitated him and gave him a ticket but he wasted it and used it to collect money.
“He faced Obasanjo, faced Buhari and failed. He failed with Jonathan. He failed in all his subjects.
“You better watch him before he starts selling the little palm trees that you have left. What we need to do is to develop our country. We have enough gas reservoirs on our land.
“Akwa Ibom, you will not suffer again. That boy [Emmanuel Udom] that brought Atiku here, that calls himself governor, tell him enough is enough. He lived in my backyard in Lagos. If not that we are one, I’d have driven him home.”
BBTitans house witnessed another fight between two housemates. And again, the two housemates involved in the fight are of Nigerian origin.
Yemi Cregx and Miracle OP finally set it off in a heated argument after the two seem to have been fighting for Khosi’s attention.
Earlier in the week, Khosi had returned to Yemi Cregx and even slept in his bed even after kicking off another ship with Miracle.
On Thursday at the second pool party, Yemi Cregx was visibly seen exchanging public displays of affection with Blue Aiva and Khosi, despite being with Miracle OP, wasn’t going to allow it to fly.
After the pool party was winding down, she met with Blue Aiva to express her dissatisfaction with her kissing and romancing her man.
Following the moment, Khosi met with Yemi Cregx to explain her disappointment and inquired why Yemi Cregx was embarrassing and slighting her with Blue Aiva. The two had a long discussion until after dinner. During their discussion, Miracle OP interrupted saying he needed to have time with his partner and much later, Yemi Cregx walked to him to express his disappointment saying he felt insulted by Miracle, whom he had no issues with.
However, on Friday night, the two who maintained a distance from one another all day went all into it in the wee hours of Saturday morning when they had a shouting match and heated argument.
A former aide to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) Atiku Abubakar, Michael Achimugu has alleged plans by his former principal to murder the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike.
Achimugu during an interview with TVC on Wednesday said the plot was brought to his attention by Atiku’s daughter in Yola.
He claimed the former Vice President of Nigeria plans to implement the killing if he emerges as the winner of the 2023 presidential election.
The former aide who claimed his own life and that of his children are not safe, vowed to reveal more details later.
He said: “Atiku’s daughter told me in Yola that his father if elected will turn Wike and his group to shreds.
“She said many things including assassination. I’ll release the details.”
The former aide alleged that Atiku has so much evil up his sleeves and definitely can’t be trusted.
“Many evil things surround Atiku, including terrorism, assassinations among others. I will roll them for Nigerians to see,” he added.
Popular socio-political activist, Deji Adeyanju, has condemned the action of the spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Presidential Campaign Management Committee, PCC, Dino Melaye, for mocking the health condition of the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu.
Melaye had made jokes about the health condition of Tinubu in the form of a mock dance during a campaign rally in Delta State on Tuesday.
Reacting to the development, Adeyanju, in a tweet via his Twitter handle on Wednesday morning, described Melaye’s action as ‘bad and unacceptable’.
He tweeted, “Mocking someone because of their health status is bad.
“You can demand for ability and full disclosure from someone wanting to be president and even criticize them for this but open mockery is just unacceptable.”
DAILY POST reports that this is not the first time Melaye has mocked Tinubu.
The Kogi-born politician had recently challenged Tinubu to recite the Fatiha and three suras to demonstrate that he is a true Muslim.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says its January 31, 2023 deadline for the validity of the old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes remains.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele announced this after the apex bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja on Tuesday.
The CBN also raised the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), which measures interest rate, to 17.5 percent.
According to him, kidnapping and ransom-taking have reduced since the three banknotes were redesigned.
He said: "I don't have good news for those who feel we should shift the deadline; my apologies.
“The reason is because 90 days should be enough for those who have the old currency to deposit it in the banks.”
The CBN on October 26, 2022 had announced its plan to redesign the three banknotes. President Muhammadu Buhari subsequently unveiled the redesigned N200, N500 and N1,000 notes on November 23, 2022, while the apex bank fixed January 31 deadline for the validity of the old notes.
There have been concerns from many Nigerians over the slow spread of the three new naira notes as the January 31 2023 deadline approaches but the apex bank has insisted that the date stands.
The CBN also recently directed commercial banks to halt over-the-counter payment of the new notes and load their Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) with the redesigned naira notes to boost circulation.
The apex bank also launched a cash swap programme nationwide to enable those in the unbanked areas to exchange their old notes for new notes before the deadline.
However, the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum have asked the CBN to extend the date to enable more Nigerians get the new notes.
Kashim Shettima, Bola Tinubu’s running mate in the February 25 presidential election, has come to the latter’s defence, insisting that he is the best candidate to become the next president.
“We are not asking Nigerians to turn down critical assessment of their leaders. But we want them to look at the larger picture,” Mr Shettima said.
“We are not preparing for (the) Olympics. But for an institution that thrives on the superiority of ideas and established track record.”
He added, “I will urge you all to vote for the one that would sustain the legacies of President Muhammadu Buhari; for someone who has the integrity, the character, and the skillsets to catapult this nation to a higher pedestal.”
The former Borno governor said this on Monday at a banquet for President Muhammadu Buhari, who visited Lagos to inaugurate the Lagos deep sea port.
Mr Shettima’s statement came after Naja’atu Muhammad, an APC chieftain and member of the party’s presidential campaign council, dumped Mr Tinubu on claims that he is unfit to run for president.
“I sat with him for two hours in London; when you talk of green, he will give you an answer of red. He can’t even decipher. He has very serious dementia; I believe he has Alzheimer’s because he cannot even hold a cup of tea,” Ms Muhammad told DCL Hausa a day after she dumped the APC.
In several of his public engagements, Mr Tinubu has made incoherent statements, making his critics raise the alarm over his frail health.
However, Mr Tinubu dismissed criticisms about his frail health, saying being Nigerian president is not grave digging that requires his physical strength.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan has alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) abandoned North East region to Boko Haram insurgents when it was in power.
Lawan said this during presidential campaign rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bauchi State on Monday
He said until President Muhammadu Buhari came into power, the region was vulnerable to attacks by Boko Haram insurgents.
Lawan said, “PDP abandoned us until you came into office. In 2015, when you were sworn in, your first task was to liberate us. Thank you very much for what you did.
“We in the North East are probably the most beneficiaries of your istration. In fact, we were the first to start enjoying your istration more than any other part of Nigeria, because Boko Haram was technically defeated immediately after you came into office and you appointed our son, Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai and, of course, Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar, as Chief of Air Staff.
“They did so well that your government gave the security that we are enjoying today. The North East, from 2015 particularly, enjoyed the most important appointments in your istration. That is to say that you are a northeasterner. This crowd is a testimony. Everywhere you go is Buhari, in the northeast.”
Lawan thanked the President for the many developmental stride for both human and capital benefits the North East enjoyed from his istration.
Governor Nyesom Wike (centre) at a rally in the Ikwerre Local Government Area of the state on January 17, 2023
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has hinted that talks with his political allies in the G5 on the preferred presidential candidate to in the February 25 election will soon be concluded.
Wike spoke on Tuesday during a rally of the Rivers State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Ikwerre Local Government Area of the state.
The governor maintained that the people of the state know their political bearings and will not play second fiddle concerning the general election slated for February 25 and March 11 2023.
“Now, it is one man, one vote. All the votes must be in one basket from governorship to House of Assembly. The other one we are concluding. When we conclude, you will be told,” he told the party ers at the event.
“Nobody should intimidate you. Nobody should tell you any story. We are free born of this country. We are not second-class citizens. Nobody can tell us anything. I dare them. Let anybody do any funny thing, We’ll tell them we are from Rivers State.”
The governor also said the 2023 elections is a fight to finish. “This election we are going for is a fight to finish and we are very ready. We are waiting for those strangers, those people who can sell their state for a pot of porridge, we are waiting for them to come back. Do they have anything to offer?” he asked his ers who chorused a loud, “No”.
For months, the G5 has been at loggerheads with PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar and Iyorchia Ayu over the chairmanship of the latter. The five dissatisfied governors want Ayu to step down for a southerner as a precondition to Atiku’s decade-long ambition in the February 25 presidential election. But Ayu has insisted that he would only resign after his four-year constitutional term.
Wike and his allies were reported to have met the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu in London recently on a possible deal but both the Rivers State governor and Tinubu have denied the meeting.
In November, Wike promised logistics for the campaigns of Labour Party’s Peter Obi; and his New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) counterpart, Rabiu Kwankwaso. Wike has also of late hobnobbed with APC stalwarts like Adams Oshiomhole and Governors Dave Umahi (Ebonyi), Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), and Ben Ayade (Cross River).
While Wike and his allies have not been seen to campaign for Atiku, it is not clear whether they will Obi, Kwankwaso or Tinubu in the contest for Aso Rock’s top job.
MrNotAgain: 10:18pm On Feb 13, 2023 