Politics
Obi: I’ll create a new nation! No more Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, but Nigerian
“We will secure Nigeria. We will ensure that when we start, no Nigerian will say, I’m from the West, East or North, but will be proud to say, I’m a Nigerian. We want Nigerians to celebrate their Nigerianness, celebrate their passports,” were the words with which Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), once again appealed to Nigerians to give him the chance of building a nation which every citizen would proud of by electing him President on February 25.
Besides, the parlous economic and social condition that had been their lot in the past years that made the country no long attractive to stay in, would be eradicated, Obi told a cheering crowd of excited supporters at the Tafawa Balewas Square in Lagos, on Saturday at the grand finale of his presidential campaign which has taken him to all state of the federation.
Blaming the past leadership of Nigeria, for plunging the country into a parlous situation where Nigerians were leaving in droves for menial jobs in other parts of the world, he particularly carpetted th government of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for its management of the economy, which he blamed for the recent rise in the phenomenon.
“Millions of Nigerians have fallen below the poverty line since the party first commenced governance in 2015. All the government has given us is poverty, joblessness, university lecturers’ strikes, and “one form of suffering or the other. All these will stop as we intend to move the country through agriculture from consumption to production. Lagos will remain the centre of excellence and finance. Nigeria has all the endowment to be a great country.
“Under an Obi-Datti administration, there will be an enabling environment for business and our gas will be developed to give more money than oil. Our government will support the youth for enterprise. Our achievement will be measurable.
Speaking of a free society where citizens would be free of intimidation, brutality and other forms of oppression from government officials and institutions, he promised specifically that his government would apologise for all the bad behaviours of previous governments in this regard including police brutality and state killings.
Hear him: “When you vote for us, I assure you that there will be freedom of press so the press can criticise what we are doing. Our security people would no longer be for harassment. Police will not harass anybody.
“We are going to recruit. We are going to train them on how to do policing and equip them. Police will be a friend, not enemy. They are going to do the work of policing. We will not have all these problems that we have.
“We will apologise to all those who are victims of police brutality. All those who had suffered in the hands of the government, we will apologise to them. We will make sure it never happens again.”
Justice Haruna Tsammani, on Monday killed the attempt by Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic (PDP) and Peter Obi, his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, both presidential candidates, respectively in the February 25 election to get Nigerians watch the proceedings at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, currently sitting in Abuja, live.
The court court, ruling on the plea that originated from the former Vice President, who had argued that it would give integrity to the process and was later joined by Obi, in a unanimous ruling, held that the application was without merit, adding that televising court proceedings is not provided for in any extant law in the country.
Tsammani, Chairman of the five-man panel of Court of Appeal Justices, sitting as PEPT, who read the lead ruling, while adopting the arguments of Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, his All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which declared him winner of the election and which also railed against the move, agreed that it would not make the outcome of their decisions any cleaner.
To him, the court sitting in public did not mean that it should sit in a stadium or in marketplace and that there was no way televising the proceedings could advance the interest of fair hearing for parties or advance the interest of the petitioners in relation to issues raised in their petition, adding that granting the request by Atiku and the PDP could trivialise the serious business of the court.
Orji Uzor Kalu, former Governor of Abia State and current Chief Whip of the Senate, may be kissing his quest to lead the National Assembly in Nigeria by becoming 10th session Senate President goodbye, if the attempt to strip him of his All Progressives Congress (APC) identity succeeds.
Kalu, seen as one of the front runners for the nation’s number three citizen, was among the party stalwarts suspended by the ruling party on Thursday, alongside Ken Nnamani, former Senate President, Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Sullivan Chime, former Governor of Enugu State.
Alongside former Speaker of Enugu state House of Assembly, Hon Eugene Odo; Director General Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu and former Commissioner in Enugu state, Joe Mammel, the APC bigwigs, who had earlier been slammed with their fate shortly after the 2023 general elections, had their suspension sustained by the party’s South East caucus.
The ratification of the suspension of the chieftains from Enugu and Abia States, who were initially slammed for allegedly engaging in anti-party activities, according to the APC Zonal Secretariat came after South East Executive Meeting on April 16, 2023.
Ijeomah Arodiogbu, National Vice Chairman (South East), who gave the reason for the action, as the need to enforce discipline in the party, in order to strengthen APC in the zone, listed other names to include: SA to Minister of Foreign Affairs, Flavour Eze, former chairman of the party in the state, Ben Nwoye; former deputy state chairman, A. C. Udeh; Obodoeze Ocho; Chukwudi Igwe; Kingsley Uduji; former Military Governor of the state, Joe Orji; Maduka Arum (A.K.A Mama) and Chidera Obed.
Others suspended alongside Kalu in Abia, included Sam Nkeire, Uche Sampson Ogah, former Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Senator Nkechi Nworgu, amongst others.
Ezeanyawu Michael, spokesman of the party in Enugu State, while stating that it was the right thing to do, said: “I want to further use this opportunity to call on the APC leadership, at both the state and national levels, not to relent in its efforts to rid the party of saboteurs.”
Former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, on Monday emerged from a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock villa in Abuja, with a definite message to Nigerians – I will introduce something new, if elected as the new Senate President.
Akpabio, who left as the Minority Leader after losing his return bid in 2019 to take up appointment as Minister of Niger Delta, flaunted his credentials as governor, where he claimed to have made significant contributions to infrastructure, stating that he would be an “uncommon transformer” as the head of the nation’s legislature.
He told State House Correspondents after the meeting: “It is well known that Akpabio is a results-driven individual. You will remember that when I was a governor, I made significant contributions to infrastructure, education, social issues, and human empowerment.
“I intend to bring a lot of reforms into the senate, in the ways and manners we do business, to assist the next administration to succeed. We will be very thorough in doing everything; we’ll bring about loyalty to the constitution.
“The restiveness that we are seeing across the nation, we’ll do our best to make good laws and to assist the administration to bring about policies that will empower the youths of the country. I made that promise even on the convention day that being a man who used to turn boys into men and who still does, that I will like to work with the incoming president, who has also shown that example in Lagos state as a governor and thereafter as a leader of the APC in Nigeria.
“So, the youths are in for a very good time, in terms of empowerment, there will be no time for slacking and we’ll restrict a lot of them from being lured into criminality, into brigandage and all that.”
BREAKING: All clear for Tinubu! S’Court dismisses PDP’s double nomination suit *Says, PDP a busy-body
Nigerians must allow the love they share abroad resonate at home – Obasanjo
Uproar, social media exchange of fire, over Ooni’s handshake with Pete Edochie, KOK
In the military, INEC boss and his team would be executed – Bode George *Why put Tinubu’s boy in charge of IT?
I’ve paid a price for joining Obi to rescue Nigeria – Datti-Ahmed *Weeps on TV
BREAKING: Sorry, you can’t contest 2023 election, Atiku tells Tinubu
