Thugs on Monday attacked and destroyed properties including vehicles at the venue of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Congress in Zamfara State.
Some of the other materials destroyed by the thugs include voting materials, nomination forms, and chairs. Canopies at the venue were also set ablaze.
Naija News understands the congress was eventually shifted from Zaitun Oil mill, behind State Pilgrim Board to the Command Guest House in Gusau, the state capital.
Reacting to the attack, the Personal Secretary to Deputy Governor of Zamfara State, Umar Aminu was quoted by Channels Television to have said the PDP won’t be intimidated by the happening.
Some of the PDP stalwarts present at the congress include the Zamfara Deputy Governor, Barrister Mahdi Aliyu Gusau, and the Caretaker Chairman of the party, Ambassador Bala Mande.
Over one thousand delegates are attending the congress expected to produce the next set of officials to lead the PDP in Zamfara State.
Below are some pictures from the scene of the attack.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressive Congress, APC, may witness a major crisis early next year should it fail to conduct its National Convention as recently rescheduled, Naija News reports.
This is as a faction of the party is sending warnings to Governor Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) over the delayed party convention.
It could be recalled that the ruling party announced weeks ago that its convention will hold February 5, 2022.
In its statement earlier, the convention committee attributed the yuletide period and factional party crisis to why it couldn’t hold its National Convention this year.
As uncertainty continues over the National Convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress, a group within the party has called on the party’s Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee under the leadership of Yobe State governor, Mai Mala Buni, not to exceed the next February date fixed for the election.
The national convention was fixed to enable members elect its national officers after more than one year of being run under the caretaker Committee.
The Committee was created after the exit of Mr Adams Oshiomhole, after a protracted struggle for control of the party.
There’s also been confusion over the zoning arrangement in the party even as more than a dozen aspirants are queuing to contest for the position of the national chairman.
Insinuation has been rife that it has been zoned to the north central to counter the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP, but the party has not come out to categorically say which way.
This, plus what’s now been called a slip off from Kebbi State governor, Mr Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, who also doubles as Chairman of Progressives Governors Forum of the APC, when he said last November that the national convention would hold next February.
The Governor revealed February as the date after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, without sounding specific.
While there have been calls for actual date to be fixed, the committee has not done that.
Few days ago, after a meeting of the APC CECPC, its National Secretary, Mr John James Akpanudoedehe informed journalists that that the interim leadership would “soon unveil subcommittees ahead of the next February Convention,” without mentioning actual date.
With February less than two months away and with primary elections less than 10 months away, fresh anxiety has risen that the ruling party has failed to nail its preparation for the election starting from having a legally constituted National Working Committee, NWC.
Reacting to this development over the weekend, the Progressive Mandate Movement, PMM, in statement issued by Mr Abdullahi Mohammed and Comrade Adekunle Fijabi, the National Coordinator and Secretary of the PMM, respectively, demanded immediate release of dates and other processes leading to the national convention.
The group warned that it was ready to launch the #OccupyAPCNationalSecretariat, if the convention to elect a new set of national officers was not convened by February 5, 2022.
“For some of our current leaders who were there during the merger process that led to the formation of APC, this organisation has always been in the forefront of upholding the progressive ideology of our party and we will not stop at this critical period,” they said in the statement.
According to them, “The delay in conducting the overdue APC national convention is already giving the opposition Peoples Democratic Party some advantages, making it look like nobody is in charge of the governing party.
“We, therefore, call on Governor Mai Mala Buni-led National Caretaker Committee not to go beyond February 5 to hold our party’s National Convention.
“This group is in possession of the instructions given to the Caretaker Committee by the Presidency and we appeal to the CECPC to respect our leader and President Muhammadu Buhari by releasing to the public all the necessary information concerning the forthcoming National Convention.
“We also warn that if nothing is made public before January 5, 2022, we shall launch an aggressive operation #OCCUPYAPCNATIONALSECRETARIAT to force our leaders to do the right thing.
“We make bold to say that we do not have another party and we will not allow our leaders to make mistakes that will eventually cause us to lose elections in 2023.”
Activist and Publisher, Omoyele Sowore on Friday criticised former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd), for endorsing Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to contest for the office of president in the 2023 general elections.
POLITICS NIGERIA recalls that Babangida had on Thursday expressed his support for Osinbajo when a pressure group, Osinbajo Grassroots Organisation (OGO), paid him a courtesy visit at his Hilltop Residence in Minna, Niger State.
“I know the vice president very well. He is a good man. I have spoken with him a couple of times; he is a good person. We need a good man like Osinbajo at the helm of affairs of this country – someone people can learn from; someone people of goodwill share a common conviction with. He has this great passion for the country and I want other Nigerians to emulate his passion for the good of our country,” Babangida had said.
Reacting, staunch government critic, Sowore fired Nigeria’s past and present rulers.
“Retired, Sick and Tired Babangida “endorses” cowardly Baba Kekere Professor Yemi Osinbajo and he’s jumping all over the place. Why not ask IBB why he couldn’t even get to two PDP party primaries? Jokers!” he wrote on his verified Facebook page.
Former Military President, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida has endorsed the Vice President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo to take over power in 2023.
Babangida endorsed the Vice President when he was visited by the Osinbajo Grassroots Organisation at his Hilltop residence in Minna, Niger capital, on Thursday.
The elder statesman while speaking during the visit charged Osinbajo to be resilient and contest in the 2023 general elections.
He said, “I know the Vice-president very well. He is a good man. A man who has conviction about Nigeria; a man who can communicate with the country and inspire people. Such a man is a worthy person to work with. We need a good man to lead Nigeria.
“A man who has a passion for this country. Nigeria is a good country; the people of Nigeria are good. You must learn to understand people and constant discussion is key.
“I want to convey my best wishes to the Vice-president through you. And I want you to tell him to stay on the cause. I know it’s not easy but he has the conviction. I wish him the best.”
According to Babangida, he accepted to speak with the group because he knows the Vice President has the quality of a good leader.
The National Convener of the Organisation, Ojo Foluso, in his response to the statement of the former military president said they are happy with IBB’s endorsement.
He said, “We came to consult the Oracle and the Oracle has spoken. General IBB is an oracle because he understands Nigeria.”
He said they would continue to mount pressure on Osibanjo to pick interest in the 2023 race.
National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ahmed Bola Tinubu on Tuesday said he will consult widely before making a decision on whether to run for the Presidency in 2023.
He made the remark after a closed-door meeting with leaders of the Northern Alliance Committee in Abuja.
“I am not going to turn them down,” he said of voices that have clamoured for his candidacy. “But I will still effectively and widely consult, particularly brainstorm with my friends and find a date to come out openly and tell Nigerians
“But the President is still in office. I don’t want to distract him from all the challenges he might face today. So, don’t muddle the political waters. Consult, make our program known to the people later. And the intention is clear. So you can keep guessing.”
Tuesday’s meeting is seen as part of his consultations towards his 2023 presidential ambitions.
Some South-West politicians, including Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, have openly endorsed Tinubu for President.
Former Interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bisi Akande, has revealed how the ruling party derived its change slogan.
In his autobiography titled ‘My Participations’, launched in Lagos on Thursday, Akande said the slogan was coined by US media and political consultants, AKPD, for the party in 2013.
Akande said that the consultants were hired by the national leader of APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to help ACP boost its new image and coin messages acceptable to Nigerians.
The former Osun governor claimed that the consultants were hired as part of strategies to remove the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from office in 2015.
He said, “As we were putting the APC together, Bola Tinubu was of the opinion that we must do everything strategically and legally possible to upend the ruling PDP. While other politicians think of their states and possibly geo-political zone, Tinubu has a more holistic view. As far as he is concerned, Nigeria is one constituency. He is always thinking ahead. He is a comprehensive political strategist who does not take anything for granted. It was his strategic mind that changed a routine journey to America into a trip of serious historic implications.
“Howard Jeter, a former Ambassador of the United States to Nigeria, must have become acquitted with Tinubu during his service in Nigeria between 2000 and 2003. Tinubu was governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007, during the turbulent early days of Nigeria’s return to democracy when he had to confront the Federal Government of President Obasanjo on several constitutional issues. After Jeter retired from active diplomatic service, he and Tinubu remain friends and the two families became close. Therefore, it was normal for Tinubu to be invited to the wedding of Jeter’s daughter in Maryland slated for April 2013,
“Tinubu wanted me to come along to honour Jeter whom he described as a great friend of Africa. Howard Jeter also served as Ambassador to Botswana and later as Assistant Secretary of State for African affairs under President Bill Clinton. He said we would use the opportunity of our visit to do other things that would benefit our proposed party and our country. I have known Tinubu to be a wonderful strategic political thinker and I suspected he was thinking ahead. Indeed, he had other things on his plate beyond the wedding of Jeter’s daughter.
“To convince me, Akande wrote that Tinubu asked if he knew how it was possible for Barrack Obama, an African-American politician, to win the American Presidency twice in such a major white populated country like the USA.
“I had no idea. He convinced me that we should use the occasion of the wedding to interact with the gathering of African Americans to find out how. I conceded to him and we flew to America to honour the Jeters. We arrived in the USA on April 5, 2013 and checked into Four Seasons Hotel in Washington DC. The wedding ceremonies were on April 6. We exploited the occasion to have extensive consultations with some of our Nigerian and American friends. Among those we met were Professor Segun Gbadegesin, a brilliant teacher of philosophy at the famous Howard University in Maryland, and Ladi Delano among others. We reviewed our mission in America with them in the hotel.
“Professor Gbadegesin was not comfortable with our merger talk with the CPC and other parties and he kept on expressing his anxiety about our obstinate desire to venture into a strange partnership. We argued that every discovery that constitutes civilisations were based on experimentations. Also, many white American friends of Tinubu visited us during our stay in Washington and other cities. In the end, we accepted that the services of media and political consultants would be required. Quite a few such experts were introduced to us. Tinubu eventually invited a group called AKPD to advise us in Nigeria on how to boost the merger efforts and about the messages the new party should forward for it to be acceptable to Nigerians.”
Akande added that Tinubu single-handedly paid the consultants and also hired them to help set up a popular television station, Television Continental.
He added: “I believe it must have cost him a fortune in dollars to hire them. I know it was not funded by the party then since I was the acting National Chairman. I regarded such funding as Tinubu’s affair in party building and I always told him so. It was immediately after the same USA tour that he also took me round and introduced to me the new television complex, the TVC, as part of his preparations for the ongoing political project. I was secretly musing to myself as to what Bola Tinubu would have done if he was the one vying for the Presidency on the platform of the new party.
“Tinubu again hired and reassigned the media consultants, AKPD, to extend their findings to the rest of Nigeria. In earnest, AKPD began creating a research-based quantitative nationwide survey, organizing message summits with party leadership and stakeholders at various levels, assembling qualitative focus groups with crafted questionnaires, data modulation, party branding and message delivery strategy to the APC 12million registered members and the voters generally from sets of created ‘communication war room.’ By January 2014, AKPD came out with preliminary result forecasts and advices for improvement. The major advices were that APC must keep talking about CHANGE and JOBS.
“They stressed that the largest reason voters would support APC at that time was that they wanted change and APC should continue to say ‘APC means change’ over and over again. When talking about what that change means, they advised that the most important thing to stress is that change means more jobs. All communications on specific policies like education, infrastructure, rural development, fighting corruption, insecurity and so on, should be tied back to how fixing that policy would help to create jobs and would bring Nigerians the change they needed. AKPD stressed that in their polling, voters were telling them that they wanted to hear more of ‘change for jobs’ and APC redoubled its efforts on this message. This is something APC had done effectively and its acceptability had increased tremendously.”
OFormer President Olusegun Obasanjo has advised Adeyeye Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ife, against openly supporting political office seekers.
Obasanjo gave the advice at an event organised to honour Nteranya Sanginga, director-general of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and his wife, Charlotte, with the chieftaincy title of Aare and Yeye Aare Afurugbin-Ola over the weekend.
The event which held at the palace of the ooni in Ile Ife, Osun state, drew huge personalities and became an opportunity for political engagement towards the 2023 elections.
The Ooni is a known friend of president Muhammadu Buhari and gave his endorsement to the president in 2019.
He also identified with Vice President, Mr Yemi Osinbajo, understandably as both share the same ethic affinity.
Obasanjo, whose presentation at the event touched on political issues, advised Ooni and other Yoruba traditional rulers to reduce their open declaration of support for those vying for political offices as that has the potential to also push their subjects into supporting such contestants.
He advised Ooni that as a father to all, politicians will approach the monarch for support, but the best he should do is to “pray for such a person and let him go”.
In his words, “All the sons and daughters of Yorubaland, no matter where they are or their standpoint, will come to meet you. This is expected because you are the father of all,” Obasanjo said.
“Anyone of them who says that he is interested in politics, just pray for him and let them go. Anyone who approaches you and says that he wants to be president or governor, just pray for such a person and let him go.”
According to him, differences in political idea, affiliation, direction and aspirations are reasons while traditional rulers should limit their open support so as not to be seen to be partisan.
It has become a usual practice where office seekers visit traditional rulers for their blessings and often seek their endorsements.
Obasanjo therefore advised: “Don’t direct Yoruba people to support any aspirant, as we don’t all go in the same direction, which is part of our strength in Yorubaland.”
Former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chief Bisi Akande has revealed a political masterclass that happened in 2015.
In his autobiography titled “My Participations,” launched in Lagos on Thursday, Akande said the APC National Leader, Bola Tinubu, had to convince former President Olusegun Obasanjo before he supported the candidacy of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
He said Tinubu had to tell Obasanjo to speak to Buhari about his views about the latter’s ambition, adding that some Northern elites opposed Buhari’s presidential ambition.
Akande said, “When the party was ready and we were going around to all the leaders, someone reminded us that we had not seen Obasanjo and (former Head of State, Ibrahim) Babangida, and asked them to join us.
“We also met Obasanjo and asked him to join us. He said he would not join us but that he had his sympathy for us. He said he had decided not to join any political party since he left the Peoples Democratic Party.
“Behind the scene, however, I understood he was pressurising some of our leaders not to use Buhari as our candidate. It got to a point when Bola Tinubu had to confront him thus: ‘It is not fair sending me to Buhari. Buhari was a soldier and he was one of your junior officers in the army. Why don’t you call Buhari and let him know how you feel about his intention to be President?’
“I don’t know whether Obasanjo stopped at it. From the start, he did not want Buhari to be President.”
Akande disclosed that a Northern leader also met with the former Governor of Osun state and Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, to persuade him to prevail on the APC leaders to drop Buhari.
He, however, said the APC decided to present Buhari as its flagbearer given his charisma and the support he had receved in his previous attempts.
He said: “It was apparent from the start that Buhari would be our choice for president. That was one of the bases for the merger. However, there were pressures from the elites, especially from the North, including royal fathers, piling pressure on us not to allow Buhari be our presidential candidate.
“A prominent aristocratic leader from the North stayed several nights in Osogbo, persuading Governor Aregbesola to prevail on us not to field Buhari. He threatened that if we did, there would be trouble in the North.
“Buhari had been losing elections before because he had no structure to harness his support and transform it into votes.
“Now through the APC, we had created a formidable structure for him; bigger and better than that of any other party in Nigerian history.”
President Muhammadu Buhari has appreciated the former interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bisi Akande, for his contribution in unseating the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government.
The Nigerian leader submitted that Akande was steadfast in his quest in ensuring that APC takes over power from the then ruling party, PDP in 2015.
He stated that Akande helped fuse together different parties that became APC in 2013 and dislodge PDP from governance.
Buhari made this known on Thursday in Lagos at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos during the public presentation of the autobiography of Akande titled, “My Participations.”
He asserted that Akande’s vision for APC and his leadership qualities made him the unanimous choice as the first Chairman of the ruling party, describing Akande as a reliable and trustworthy politician.
Buhari in a statement issued by his spokesman, Femi Adesina, said: “My first personal contact with Chief Akande was, if I recall correctly, in 2006 when preliminary consultations were coming to fruition for a grand coalition to unseat the PDP Government.
”Those efforts eventually came to nothing. Neither he, nor I, nor many of our friends and associates gave up as, in Chief Akande’s words: “the country was going down and down under PDP” (p.396 of My Participations).
”Chief Akande was in the thick of further attempts in 2011 and 2014 to fuse together different groups and dislodge PDP from governance.
”The key to his thinking which coincides with mine is that Nigeria can only be successfully managed by alliances between major groups.
”Although we failed in 2011, by persistence and knowledge that PDP was driving the country towards disaster, several major parties were able to finally coalesce into APC in 2014.
”Chief Akande was unanimously chosen as the first Chairman of this great coalition.
”Throughout the difficult negotiations, I found Akande truthful, steady and always with an eye to the ultimate goal.
”In or out of office, he has retained his inflexible integrity. On p.400 of his book, he wrote: ‘I never gave to or demanded bribe from anyone all my life.’ A perfect gentleman. A perfect public officer.”
A group of young Nigerians under the aegis of Yahaya Bello Network (YBN) on Tuesday appealed to Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, to run in the 2023 Presidential race to enable the country achieve desired peace and robust economic development.
The group, composed of young people from the North-west and North-central zones of the country, besieged the state capital Lokoja in a town hall meeting.
The National Chairman of YBN and the convener of the town hall meeting, Abdulamart Mai Kwasherwa, from Kano State said the Network was out to ensure actualisation of “Not Too Young To Rule” Act and as well to appeal to Governor Yahaya Bello to contest the 2023 President race as the youngest contestant.
Mai Kwasherwa noted that the governor had proved his mettle as a capable leader in Kogi and also has the capacity to lead the country to the promised land.
“Many elders have led this country but we are yet to reach our destination in terms of development and this time around we want a young and dynamic leader in the person of Governor Yahaya Bello to contest the presidential election so that inject new knowledge and ideology into the governance of the country” he stated.
The convener of the meeting who said that God had blessed the people of Kogi State for giving them a leader in Governor Bello noted that the leadership style of the governor is very rare in the country.
“God has blessed this state with a pragmatic, detribalised leader and the youngest governor in Nigeria. I have never seen a leader that cares so much about the welfare of youths and women.
“He has the largest number of youths in his government far more than any other state Governor in this country and this is the type of a leader we want as president who will weave the six geopolitical zones together for the purpose of unity and prosperity” he said.
Kwasherwa also commended Governor Bello’s stance on the Covid-19 and efforts in securing the state.
“There was massive insecurity in the state before he took the mantle of leadership and today due to his tireless effort and commitment to security issues, Kogi is one of the safest states in the country.”
The Chief of Staff, Abdulkarim Jamiu Asuku, who represented the governor at the occasion lauded the effort of members of YBN for organising the town hall meeting in Lokoja , Kogi State.
He noted that going by fairness, equity and justice , the North-central zone since 1999 has never tasted the position of Vice President and President, stressing that 2023 ought to be for the zone without any eyebrow from other geopolitical zones.
The Chief of Staff however told the multitude of the youth that at appropriate time the people’s governor will make his intention known and he assured them that Governor Bello he knows will not disappoint the youth.
“His Excellency Governor Yahaya Bello feel your concern toward the leadership of this country, the governor will soon make his position known to Nigerians” he assured.
Also speaking, Alhaji Abdullahi Bello, Kogi State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said history was being made in Nigerian political terrain with the youths now taking their destiny in the hands to support one of their own to move the country to the next level of development.
The APC Chairman said that Yahaya Bello presidency would ensure adequate reward for hard work, excellence and dedication adding that the country’s leadership over the years had lacked a good rewarding system.
Hon. Ahmed Mohammed, Deputy Speaker, Kogi State House of Assembly commended the convener of YBN for the evolution of the group cutting across states in Nigeria.
“Our priority as Kogites is to see Governor Yahaya Bello becoming the next President of Nigeria because of the quality leadership in him which he has demonstrated in Kogi State.
“With him at the helm of affairs of this country, the Nigerian dream will come true. Our body language, thinking and dream is Yahaya Bello and our dreams shall come true and become a reality.” he prayed .
Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Dr Folashade Arike Ayoade described the aspiration of Governor Yahaya Bello as timely in view of the prevailing challenges assailing the country.
However, the town hall meeting also featured the inauguration of the Kogi State executive council of the YBN.
