Nigeria’s Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has declared intention to contest in the 2023 presidential election.
Naija News reports that Amaechi declared his ambition during the Rivers All Progressives Congress (APC) held in Port Harcourt today, Saturday.
Amaechi said, “I stand before you today to declare my intention and submit my application to serve as your next President.
“I did not come to this decision lightly. I have served as Minister of Transportation, Governor for eight years and another eight years as Speaker.
“I have served as Director General of President Muhammadu Buhari campaing twice.
“I am well equiped for the presidency and have compassion for Nigeria.”
“I am compelled to place my experience and proven capacity for the service of the nation at the highest level,” Amaechi added.
He stated that Buhari government had planted trees for the growth of Nigerians future.
Rotimi Amaechi and his wife
Those present at Amaechi’s declaration include Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State; former APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomole; Senator Ali Ndume; Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Ahmed Idris Wase; Minister of State for Transportation, Gbemisola Saraki; former Jigawa State Governor, Jibrilla Bindow.
Amaechi
With Amaechi’s declaration, he would be contesting for the ticket of the ruling party against APC national leader Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State amongst others.
Wife of Ondo State Governor, Mrs. Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, has joined the 2023 Senatorial race.
This is coming after Mrs Ebelechukwu Obiano, wife of the immediate past governor of Anambra, purchased nomination form for the senate.
Addressing journalists in Owerri, Imo State capital, on Friday, the Ondo First Lady said she has interest in representing Imo East Senatorial District because she wants to make a difference.
Mrs. Akeredolu, who spoke to members of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Owerri, said Owerri West senatorial zone has received the poorest representation in recent times.
Fondly called ‘Ada Owere’ (Owerri First Daughter), Akererdolu pledged to tackle the worrisome cases of infant and maternal mortality arising from minor or major complicated pregnancies, non-availability of functional health care centres and life-saving equipment.
She said that she would rely on her experience within and outside the country to bring to bear on the development of the zone.
She said that she’s been in constant touch with her people and if elected as a senator, she would strengthen that links.
She said that as a village girl who has taken a critical appraisal of their challenges, she would embark on human capital development, provision of basic necessities of life, stop the pollution of the Otamiri river and also ensure regular evacuation of refuse in all looks and crannies of the zone.
Additionally, she would take steps to assist rural farmers with modern agricultural implements, promote girl child education, stem child killer disease, youth unemployment and restiveness.
“There is lack of compassion and understanding of how life can be made meaningful for our people in this century hence the need for a wake up call, Leadership should be not be gender based but neutral,” she said.
On whether her marriage to a non-indigene of the state would impede her ambition, the Ondo First Lady argued that being a bonafide indigene of the state who has already endeared herself to the people and has touched many lives, she was emboldened to join the race to enhance their wellbeing.
The Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Charles Soludo, on Wednesday announced some individuals to address insecurity and the agitations by the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the state and other southeast territories.
Top among those named are former Chairman, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof. Chidi Odinkalu who is the Chairman of 15-member committee and Bianca Ojukwu, wife of the late Biafra warlord, Odumegwu (Secretary).
According to a statement signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Solo Chukwulobelu, obtained by POLITICS NIGERIA, the committee would be inaugurated soon. They were also given six months to conclude their activities.
Others members on the list are Dr Joe Nwaorgu, Dr Udenta Udenta and Dr Uju Agomoh.
Also listed are Dr. Joe Abah, Rev. Fr (Msgnr) Jerome Madueke, Canon Dr. Okechukwu C. Obi-Okoye, Charles Oputa (Charly Boy), Dr. John Otu, Mr. Ngozi Odumuko, Ms Onyeka Onwenu, Chukwuma Okpalaezeukwu, Sam Egwuatu and Prof. Joseph Ikechebelu.
“Given the cross-border nature of the conflict, the focus goes beyond Anambra, and possibly covers the entire Southeast. Specifically, the Terms of Reference for the Committee are to identify the remote and immediate causes of the agitations, restiveness, violence, and armed struggle in the South East since 1999; and document victims/circumstances of death, brutality and incarceration.
“To identify stakeholders and groups who have played critical roles in the agitations and conflicts, their roles, capabilities and demands; address any other issue(s) that may be germane to unravelling the extent of the crisis and charting the roadmap for the future; and make recommendations for sustainable peace and security in Anambra state/Southeast. The Committee shall be free to draw up the methodology to accomplish its assignment,” the statement reads in part.
The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike on Monday visited a former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida and former head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar.
The presidential aspirant was accompanied by some Peoples Democratic Party Governors; Seyi Makinde,
Okezie Ikpeazu, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and former Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State.
Recall that Wike declared his intention to contest the presidential election in 2023 during his visit to Benue State.
The Deputy Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Governor Ikpeazu while addressing newsmen after the meeting said the delegation was in Minna to consult with the former Head of State ahead of the 2023 election.
He said, “I have come with my colleagues, the Governor of Rivers, Governor of Enugu, Governor of Oyo, some members of the National Assembly and other stakeholders
“First, to consult with the former Head of State and discuss national issues: economic development, security, and unity of our country.
“And also, to commend him for his support for the unity of this country. And the discussions went very well and we will advance it from there.”
Ikpeazu while speaking on the response IBB gave them, said the former military president expressed strong concerns about the need for younger Nigerians to be courageous in taking up the challenge of providing leadership to the country.
He called on the youths to take up the baton and rescue Nigeria.
*He has delivered on key components of governance – Senate President Lawan
A sudden excitement seizes on Kwara as you read; it’s subdued yet electric. The chatter pauses for an instant, then erupts with cultured determination, sometimes, in wild abandon. Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq is on song. He is the poetised visionary and the crowning progressive, the nurturant leader on whose watch Kwara has regained its greening.
Governor Abdulrazaq has earned the citizenry’s good graces, no doubt. He is a revolutionary leader and Prince Charming in one breadth. Before him there was nothing. Kwara careened and listed to the plunder of rapacious oligarchs. But at Abdulrazaq’s foray into the state’s political arena, Kwara, hitherto distraught, like the proverbial bride who lost her beauty and allure to the ravage of foul-minded suitors.
Kwara, proudly identified as the “State of Harmony,” lost its congruent repose amid the ruckus of rancorous oligarchs. The state, erstwhile notable for its rich melange of culture and ethnicity, lost its fabled peace and unity to the dissembling of felonious sons of the soil.
But no sooner did Governor Abdulrazaq assume the mantle of office than Kwara experienced the rejuvenation that eluded it throughout the locust years of the Bukola Saraki-led People’s Democratic Party (PDP) government and Saraki’s successor, Abdulfattah Ahmed’s unremarkable administration.
Infinitely gracious and sagacious, yet elaborately simple, Governor Abdulrazaq, has redirected the affairs of the state towards more promising trajectories, since he took over.
With unequalled grace, he has quietly gained the confidence of his people courtesy of the massive developmental projects that he initiated in the state. Many of these projects are ongoing in the state.
For instance, before his administration came into being, pipe-borne water was hard to come by in the state. Most residents relied on water tankers for their daily usage, while some who have the means provided their personal water supply system. Even the Government House suffered a dearth of water supply hence it also patronised the water vendors. This was undoubtedly an eyesore in the estimation of concerned citizens and illustrious sons of Kwara State, like Abdulrazaq, hence he intervened.
To put an end to this ugly situation, within his first year in office, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq embarked on projects that will ensure a seamless supply of water in the state. These include; rehabilitation of Lafiagi Water Works, rehabilitation of Asa-Dam Water Works, rehabilitation of Patigi Water Works, rehabilitation of Igbaja Water Works, rehabilitation of Kaiama Water Works, rehabilitation of Gwanara Water Works, rehabilitation of Up Kwara Water.
The Governor also ensured the refurbishment of Agbabiaka Water Tanks Ilorin, rehabilitation of Yashikira Waterworks, rehabilitation of Oro-Ago Water Works, Inter-connection of Eastern Reservoir, and Awolowo Road in Tanke, diversion of ductile iron pipes across Alagbado stream, repair of Lafiagi Water Works and its environment, among others.
Abdulrazaq’s intervention attains better resonance at the heel of water scarcity foisted on the state by previous administrations. In 2019, for instance, just about 6,725 households were connected to public water sources in Kwara. However, none of these households was getting water since the waterworks were either non-active, inoperative even as water corporation staffs were on strike to protest their unpaid salaries. The people were left at the mercy of politicians who moved round with water tankers in exchange for votes.
This has changed. To date, Governor Abdulrazaq’s administration has increased the number of households connected to public water supply to 10,426, that is, about 55 percent with defined access to potable water.
The number of public water stand pipes has risen by 1,107 more, or 72.31%. Measured against the population of the state, the figure is low but it represents a significant turnaround in the system. The administration has not only revived many of the moribund waterworks, including the one in Oyun, it is also building two new ones in Jebba (Moro) and Dumagi (Edu).
Aside from his remarkable success at restoring the state’s water supply, Governor Abdulrazaq has scored inspiring feats in the state’s erstwhile comatose education sector. Since he assumed office, Governor Abdulrazaq has given priority to education in the state. The sector had hitherto suffered neglect by previous administrations leading to the state being blacklisted from accessing the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) fund for more than seven years before his emergence as the governor.
It would be recalled that, prior to Abdulrazaq’s emergence as Kwara governor, the state foundered under the leadership of his immediate past predecessor, Ahmed. A major legacy of the Ahmed and Saraki administrations was the ghostly nature of the Kwara hinterlands.
That was a function of many things, atop of which is the lack of basic amenities like functional schools with teachers, healthcare facilities, drinkable water, and access roads.
Most schools in the Kwara hinterlands were without teachers, worsening the out-of-school children syndrome and drastically reducing the quality of education. In Isin and Oke Ero local governments, for instance, less than 50 percent of their senior secondary school teachers’ needs were met. Kaiama had just 68 teachers, falling below 45 percent of its needs, across its vast communities. Patigi had just 121, while Ekiti boasted just 135.
Abdulrazaq’s intervention in education, however, ensured new dawn of effectiveness and promise in the state; on his watch, Kwara accessed a backlog of N7.1 billion UBEC counterpart funds with a matching grant of N7.1 billion – these funds have been instrumental in no small measure to the gradual repositioning of schools and general improvement in education delivery in Kwara. The state is also carrying out renovation works in, at least, 43 basic schools. With the grants from UBEC now in the state coffers, about 600 basic schools are to get a facelift while teachers are also to be trained.
In order to increase the quality of education in the state, the governor recruited 4,701 qualified and competent teachers into the public primary, junior and senior secondary schools in the state.
The private school owners have also profited from his developmental efforts in the education sector. During the COVID-19 pandemic, proprietors of 1,119 private schools were given soft loans to help cushion the effects of the pandemic due to the shutdown.
Enthusing about Abdulrazaq’s achievements, incumbent Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, recently rated him very high on performance and project deliveries, saying his administration’s achievements have surpassed that of his predecessors, Bukola Saraki, and Abdulfatah Ahmed. According to Lawan, Governor Abdulrazaq has achieved in two years, what Saraki and Ahmed struggled to achieve all through 16 years of their administration.
Saraki, who is also Lawan’s predecessor as Senate President was Kwara’s governor from 2003 to 2011, while Ahmed took over from him in 2011 to 2019 before the ‘Otoge’ movement that ushered in the incumbent governor on the platform of All Progressives Congress.
Speaking in Kwara, at the mega constituency empowerment programme organised by Senator Umar Sadiq representing Kwara North in the National Assembly, Lawan urged Kwara residents to support Abdulrazaq in consolidating on his remarkable achievements in the last two years.
The Senate president said the governor’s administration has delivered on key components of governance in a style not seen before over the past decade in the state.
Likewise, a former member of Kwara State House of Assembly, Hon. Abdulmumin Katibi, said, “In May 2019, water tankers were the source of potable water in most parts of Ilorin, the capital city, even in the Government House. Today, pipe-borne water is back and stable in the metropolis while nearly 500 boreholes have either been dug or rehabilitated across the state. No fewer than nine waterworks have been fixed since this governor came on board while contracts for more have been awarded.”
The presidency has said the Peoples Democratic Party has no moral right to criticise it saying under the opposition party, Nigeria had an army whose soldiers’ pay ended up in the pockets of politicians.
The Presidency was reacting to the criticisms by the governors of the PDP which accused the All Progressives Congress of bad leadership.
The PDP governors had met in Abia a fortnight ago where it condemned the APC describing it as a party that was unfit to participate in the 2023 general election.
The PDP governors had also called the APC a failed party that had become a menace to Nigerians.
Reacting on Sunday, Mr Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, said in a statement that the PDP governors were attempting to cover up the “serial failure” of the opposition party’s period in office.
He said the Buhari administration and APC “have strived these past seven years to repair” the damage done by the PDP.
“We cannot forget under PDP, the nation had an army full of phantom soldiers whose pay went to PDP politicians’ pockets while our under-resourced real soldiers died in the fight against terrorist insurgents and our international allies refused to supply Nigeria kit and military aid,” the statement reads.
“Today with the APC, the army is resourced, we have fighter jets from our partners, Boko Haram is being driven from every inch of Nigerian territory, and ISWAP’s leader eliminated in a Nigerian airstrike.
“We cannot ignore how PDP politicians sought – and continue to seek – to inflame ethnic and religious tensions by refusing to even proffer a solution to the herder-farmer clashes which became most prevalent under their misrule.
“Today with APC in government, there are ranches on Federal land and in state land where there is the willingness to establish them. Clashes are reduced. Lives are saved, and livelihoods are enriched.”
Garba also said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation under the PDP government was mismanaged.
He said under the APC, funds from NNPC are directly and transparently used to fund social and health programmes – such as the COVID-19 response and the construction of public infrastructure.
“The Governors reeled out numbers on the economy, pretending as if the once-in-a-life COVID-19 pandemic, with its huge and devastating effect, disrupting global supply chains, uniformly battering the world economy never happened,” the statement further reads.
“COVID-19 brought suffering and hardship to the doorstep of the entire global community-less maybe, of the affluent and pretentious PDP Governors-and to the credit of this administration, Nigeria’s economy recovered faster and stronger than the entire world ever imagined.”
The Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello on Saturday officially declared his intention to contest for the 2023 presidential election.
Bello made the declaration in Abuja to lay to rest speculations about his presidential ambition.
The likes of Senator Jonathan Zwingina, Femi Fani-Kayode and several others were in attendance.
Zwingina while speaking at the event described Bello as a detribalized Nigerian, who ruled his state with appointees from other states.
He said, “governor uprooted insecurity from Kogi, the state would have been a breeding ground for kidnapping and banditry, but his leadership skills.”
Yahaya Bello will be hoping to clinch the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress ahead of the 2023 race.
The likes of the National Leader of the party, Bola Tinubu, former Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, the Chief Whip of the Senate, Orji Uzor Kalu have declared their intention to run on the platform of the ruling party.
However, there are speculations that the minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi might be contesting in the 2023 race and also has the backing of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Former President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan has rejected the conditions given to him by the presidency to clinch the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress in 2023.
A source that spoke with SaharaReporters disclosed that the presidency asked Jonathan to join the ruling party with some Peoples Democratic Party governors in the South-South and South-East regions.
The source further stated that the former president rejected the conditions and told the presidency that he doesn’t have an interest in the 2023 presidency again.
It was gathered the presidency was embarrassed by the response of Jonathan, describing him as a traitor.
The source said, “They are now accusing Jonathan of not fulfilling some of his promises after all the several meetings and soft-landing given to him.
“He was to come on board by converting some PDP states in the South-South and South-East to APC, and that way he would get the automatic ticket uncontested. Some other conditions were also given to him.
“But guess what? He told them he won’t contest again. They are now angry, saying he was deceitful. They said after getting some of his seized monies back, his wife’s monies returned to him, he finally decided not to contest.”
This is coming a few days after a former Minister from the South-South was reported to have said the former president is set to decide if he would join the APC with the convention of the ruling party now over.
A former governor of Kano State and leader of the Kwankwasiyya movement, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, has defected to the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Kwankwaso in a letter dated 29th March, 2022 and addressed to the Chairman of the PDP in his ward, said he was leaving due to some serious and irreconcilable differences.
The letter read, “It is with deep sense of humility that I write to notify you that, as a result of some serious and irreconcilable differences, I have reached the conclusion that my continued stay in the PDP is untenable.
“Therefore, effective from today, Tuesday the 29th of March, 2022 I have withdrawn my membership from the Peoples Democratic Party.”
Earlier, close political associates and supporters of Kwankwaso had defected to the NNPP.
The defectors include a former PDP governorship candidate in the 2019 general election, Engr. Abba Kabir Yusuf, also known as ‘Abba Gida Gida’, as well as his deputy, Comrade Aminu Abdussalam Gwarzo.
THE WHISTLER had earlier reported how stakeholders in the PDP moved to withdraw the leadership of the party from Kwankwaso’s control over his ‘political romance’ with the NNPP.
The South-West unity list for the 2022 All Progressives Congress’ convention has been released.
The name of former Minister of Communications, Adebayo.Shittu, is conspicuously missing on the list made available on Saturday.
Five APC governors in the South West signed the list. They are: Governor Kayode Fayemi ( Ekiti) Rotimi Akeredolu ( Ondo); Adegboyega Oyetola ( Osun); Dapo Abiodun ( Ogun) and Babajide Sanwo-Olu ( Lagos).
On the list, former Deputy Governor of Osun State, Senator Iyiola Omisore, was nominated as the National Secretary of APC.
Former APC chairman in Ondo State, Isaacs Kekemeke, was listed as the National Vice Chairman South West and 11 other APC members were nominated in the list.
Akeredolu had said in a statement by his Commissioner for Information, Donald Ojogor, that some forces outside the region were trying to impose some persons on the APC in the South-West. But he said the governors had agreed to support Kekemeke as the National Vice Chairman ( South West).
It read in part, “This is to confirm that one of our own, the former APC state chairman, Duerimini Isaac Kekemeke, is in the race for the position of the National Vice-Chairman (South-West). Kekemeke has the full backing of Governor Akeredolu and his brother governors in the South-West.
“It should be noted that critical stakeholders in the South-West had earlier micro-zoned the positions that were brought to the region. Among these were the national vice-chairman, which was retained in Ondo, and the secretary, which was micro-zoned to the Oyo/Osun axis.
“For emphasis, what we are going for is national vice-chairman with Kekemeke as our candidate, and not national secretary. Those outside the South-West, who are attempting to micro-zone our offices for us in the South-West, are only creating unnecessary confusion and any such of their permutations outside the decision of stakeholders in the South-West should be ignored.”
