Anxiety As Judge Adjourns Suit To Stop Buhari Till Today

There was anxiety in the camp of the All Progressives Congress on Tuesday as a Federal High Court in Abuja fixed Wednesday (today) for further proceedings in one of the suits challenging the eligibility of the presidential candidate of the APC, General Muhammadu Buhari, to contest in Saturday’s presidential election. Justice Adeniyi Ademola is to rule on fresh applications by intended parties seeking to join the suits as defendants.

The judge fixed Wednesday for the ruling after hearing the intended parties’ applications on Tuesday.

Those whose applications for joining the suit as defendants were heard on Tuesday are:

Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, Chukwuma Ochu, Sunusi Musa, Ahmed Maitarki and the Fiscal and Civil Rights Enlightenment Foundation.

The suit was filed on January 26, 2015 by a lawyer, Chukwunweike Okafor, asking the court to declare Buhari ineligible to contest the presidential election slated for Saturday over his (Buhari’s) alleged failure to submit his school certificate along with his Form CF001 to INEC.

The Plaintiff’s counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), had in his objection to the applications of the intended defendants, described the applicants as interlopers.

The existing defendants in the suit are INEC, Buhari and the APC.

Earlier on Tuesday, the judge ruled that he would hear both the main suit and Buhari’s preliminary applications challenging the court’s jurisdiction together.

The plaintiff, through his counsel, Ozekhome, insisted that both the main suit and the preliminary applications should be heard together.

But Buhari and the APC had urged the court to hear and determine their preliminary applications which bordered on the court’s jurisdiction first before entertaining the main suit.

The court agreed with the plaintiff and ruled that he would entertain the preliminary applications and the main suit together.

But when the suit will be heard depends on the outcome of the court’s ruling on the applications of intended parties in the suit.

Buhari and the APC had challenged the mode of service of the plaintiff’s originating summons on them, insisting that the issue bordered on the jurisdiction of the court.

Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), who is representing Buhari and Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), counsel for the APC, had while opposing the plaintiff’s prayer to quickly hear the suit, argued that there was no law stipulating that pre-election cases must be heard before the conduct of the elections.

Peter Obi Fires Back At Soludo

Former governor of Anambra state, Mr Peter Obi has dismissed Soludo as a man haunted by his past for stating that he (Obi) built no signature project in Anambra State during his tenure.

Speaking through his Media Assistant, Mr. Valentine Obienyem, Obi described the article by Professor Charles Soludo as full of evidence of one who is still nursing deep hatred against those he wrongly assumed were responsible for not renewing his appointment as the Governor of the Central Bank and those that thwarted his move towards becoming the Governor of Anambra State last year.

Obienyem in his response agreed with some vital points raised by Soludo but regretted that the aim of the write-up was not to instruct or contribute to positive national discourse, but to hit back at those he is nursing secret grudges against.

Obienyem recalled how Soludo in 2013, said he was the foundation upon which the new Anambra State was built, and went on to commend him on how he changed the fortunes of the state.

He wondered why Soludo would just turn around so soon to declare that the tragedy of Obi’s tenure was that he built no signature project by which his regime would be remembered but saved money in the midst of hunger thereby impoverishing the people of the State.

Obienyem said it was surprising that a renowned economist as Soludo, who in the same write up, prided himself of saving $45billion in the nation’s external reserves when he was the Central Bank Governor in the same article should condemn Obi for saving money for Anambra State, questioning the wisdom of savings where there were things that needed to be done.

“When he said he saved $45bn, does it mean that at that time Nigeria’s problems were over? Now oil price is falling and state’s allocation are bound to fall, Soludo should be told that the money Obi saved will be used to cushion the effect, among others reasons for states to save at all times. He also talked about clearing Nigerian debts without acknowledging that the architect of it is Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who is still part of Jonathan’s Government”.

On Obi leaving no signature project, Obienyem said that Soludo merely displayed his ignorance of what true development is, insisting that development is nothing if it does not involve the totality of man.

“Talking about signature project, Obi has them in abundance. He built over 30 bridges, built the State Secretariat, built the teaching hospital, built the permanent site of the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu University, rebuilt Iyienu, Borromeo hospitals, Holy Rosary and St Joseph hospitals; and Our Lady of Lourdes among many hospitals with signature structures dotting them.

“Beyond the foregoing”, Obienyem continued, “Soludo should be told that Obi did much more in areas that are far more important than mere structures. He returned schools to the Church and committed billions that could build any form of signature project of Soludo’s imagination. Because of this, Anambra State is today the number one in external examinations in the country.

Moreover, he changed the psyche of the people of the State and removed Anambra State from her pariah status to one of the exemplary States in the country.”

As #NigeriaDecides By Fahad Garba Aliyu

On January 7 2014, the world sadly witnessed another barbaric and cowardly attack by terrorists on innocent people, killing 12 people, journalists and police officers. The world rightly came together to condemn this despicable act. On 11 January 2014, millions of people marched in Paris including 40 world leaders in a unity rally to honor the victims of the terrorist attack.

About 6000 km away from Paris, another horrendous act occurred few days earlier. An estimated 2000 people were slaughtered in Baga, a village in the Northeastern part of Nigeria. Lots of people have been wondering why the world ignored and didn’t give this massacre the attention and uproar it deserves. The simple explanation is that the President of our country doesn’t car; so why should the world care?

It is UNEXCUSEABLE that our President is yet to condemn the Baga massacre but he has condemned the Paris attack. He is busy campaigning for re-election while innocent Nigerians are being killed daily, with little to no response from the government. Our country has never been this divided; tension in the polity is so high and sharp that no one can predict what will happen post next month’s election. The president, in a desperate attempt to test waters for his re-election bid, finally visited Borno State under the guise of Remembrance Day. However, it’s too little too late to show you care Mr. President; we surely know the reason you’re visiting now is because you want to get the votes of Borno people.

Sadly, I was among the people that voted for the incumbent in 2011. I was among the people that were deceived by the famous “I have no shoes” speech. After 6 years of ineffective and weak leadership, he is now asking for an additional four years to do what? Finish killing the country? If he couldn’t move the country forward in 6 years at the realm of leadership, what more can he do with additional four years at the mantle of leadership but put us in more mess? Terrorism has become the norm in our country (don’t let me start about corruption under this administration).

When we think things cant get any worse, the presidency never fails to surprise us. The irresponsibility has tickled across to different agencies now; our police force is not only an enforcer of law but an interpreter as well. The State Security Service is not only the primary intelligence agency in the country but also is an avenue for witch-hunting opposition members. Whenever you criticize the government, the presidency or PDP calls you a member of the opposition or alleges that the opposition is sponsoring you. You are a good or patriotic person only when you praise or support them but unpatriotic and divisive when you disagree with them or give constructive criticism

As Nigeria Decides next month, it is imperative in the interest of our dear country that we vote for change on February 14, 2015. We can’t have another four years of this mess of a leadership, a directionless form of government. Here is to hoping for a violence free election.

Al Jazeera estimated around 10,000 deaths from Boko Haram attacks in all of 2014 but over 2,000 death already in the first two weeks of January. May the souls of all the innocent people we have lost in Baga (#I am Baga) and other villages rest in peace and May Almighty Allah give their families the fortitude to bear the loss. Amin

It’s my hope and wish Nigerians rally behind Buhari and elect him to the mantle of leadership in our country. I am more than convinced that in the persons of Gen. Buhari and Prof Osinbajo that Nigeria is in safe and able hands.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria

Fahad Garba Aliyu
@fahadaliyu
fahadaliyu@gmail.com

Fahad is a Hult Global Ambassador and a 2015 MBA candidate at Hult San Francisco Campus. He is a firm believer of the unity and oneness of Nigeria.

Views expressed are solely that of the author and do not represent the views of www.omojuwa.com and its associates

Come To Bayelsa And Watch Us Give You Massive Trouble – Bayelsa Youths Tell Patience Jonathan

Some concerned youths in Bayelsa State, under the auspices of the Bayelsa Youth Vanguard, have threatened to disrupt the Peoples Democratic Party presidential rally if President Goodluck Jonathan’s wife, Patience, comes with her husband for the campaign.

The rally is slated for February 5 at the state capital, Yenagoa.

The organisation therefore warned Patience not to accompany her husband to the presidential campaign.

It accused her of causing crisis in the state and warned her to desist from that or face the consequences.

The warning, the group said, was sequel to what it described as attempts by the President’s wife to destabilise the state and fuel needless crisis and political tension in the state.

The spokesperson for the BYV, Precious Ebi Johnson, in a statement in Abuja on Thursday, said that Patience would only be allowed to come to the state “unless she retraced her steps or otherwise we will mobilise against the President’s rally.”

The statement read in part, “We are constrained to issue this statement to bar the President’s wife from accompanying President Goodluck Jonathan to Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, for the presidential rally on February 5.

“Our action is well informed by the various steps and activities of the President’s wife in recent times which portend clear danger for the good health of our dear state.

“We note with regret the various attempts by the President’s wife to create crisis in the state through subterfuge or using surrogates.

We Won’t Postpone Feb Polls — INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, yesterday, rebuffed entreaties to postpone next month’s round of elections, saying it was financially and mentally set for the polls.

The commission, nevertheless, affirmed that the go-ahead for elections in the troubled Northeast would be given by security agencies. Also yesterday, the Inspector General of Police, Sulieman Abba, vowed to deal with errant politicians who heat up the polity through negative utterances, saying he would show to them that no one could be above the law.

The assertions at a workshop for the training of security agencies ahead of the general elections came as INEC said the conduct of election in the troubled Northeast would be determined by the counsel of security agencies. Chairman, INEC Electoral Training Institute, Dr Ishmaeal Igbani, who spoke on behalf of the commission in giving the readiness of the commission for the polls said the commission was comfortable with the fund it has at its disposal at the moment.

He said: “Anytime there is election in Nigeria, there is always some form of tension. I have been around for a while and I don’t think it is something new. I don’t think people should be afraid. But it is also essential that we get ready just in case.” Lagos pastor, Tunde Bakare had last Sunday called for the postponement of the elections for the purpose of allowing tension among political gladiators to ebb. According to him, “it is also very important that we have peaceful elections, it is also important that voters come out to vote without fear. It is also important that the personnel who will work for us and the environment itself is peaceful and for it to be peaceful, it is important for the security agencies to be alert and ensure that they do what they are supposed to do.”

He said a minimum of 50 personnel were being trained, adding: “We call this cascade training. After this training of trainers who will now go to their various security organisations to train others and so forth which will go down the line in that way. More will be trained in a more cheaper way.“

Credit: www.vanguardngr.com

I’ll Expose Failures of Ex-Heads of State – Jonathan –

President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, pleaded with Nigerians to vote him in for a second term on account of his achievements in the last six years. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, while inaugurating the Goodluck/Sambo 2015 Presidential Campaign Organisation, PCO, at the PDP Presidential Campaign office, Legacy House, Maitama, Abuja promised to unfold to Nigerians what his government has done in the last couple of years that presidents and heads of state before him could not achieve.

Jonathan promised to expose the failings of his predecessors including Buhari, which stunted the country’s growth and development. Former Military President, Ibrahim Babangida had described his government as saintly compared to successive administrations in terms of prevalence of corruption, just as former President Olusegun Obasanjo, on Monday, took a swipe at President Jonathan, accusing him among other things of squandering $55 billion crude oil savings left behind by his administration.

President Jonathan, who noted that his administration has performed more than the previous ones with the nation’s economy as the largest in Africa, said: “When we start campaigns, we will confront them with what we have done as a government, we will tell them what they did not do when they were heads of state. Some people want to still keep these children as shoe cleaners, we must lift them up. Our children should not be used as cannon folders. They should be allowed to move forward to be governors like us.

“We have everything it takes to run an excellent and victorious campaign. Our great party has demonstrated to Nigerians that it is the party with the broadest appeal. We are the strongest and the biggest. We have engaged the people of Nigeria positively with people-friendly policies, which have moved Nigeria forward.” He continued: “We have sustained the democratic tradition. We have strengthened democratic institutions. We inherited a rather complex security challenge but we are waging a determined war against it. We are succeeding in preventing terrorists and insurgents from turning more of our communities into enclaves for their dastardly activities.

Read More: www.vanguardngr.com

Panic In Presidency Over Pastor Osinbajo #2015Elections

Who ever convinced the APC leaders and gladiators to adopt Yemi Osinbajo as vice presidential candidate to General Muhammadu Buhari deserves an award. He is the masterstroke APC needed for 2015!

With the choice of the frontline Lawyer/Pastor as General Buhari’s running mate, PDP chiefs have rushed back to the drawing board, giving the caliber of men the APC has put forward for the election.

The PDP and Presidency are said to be jittery over the choice of the Professor of Law and former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State.

A top source said: “There was gloom in PDP on Wednesday, following the announcement of Osinbajo. The calculation was that APC will be plunged into a crisis on the choice of its running mate, but that was not the case.”

The ruling PDP, The Nation learnt, was building its campaign against the APC on the pillars below:
•If the APC goes for a Moslem-Moslem ticket, it (the PDP) will brand the opposition party as insensitive to Nigeria’s glaring religious divides; and

•A Southwest candidate will make it difficult for the PDP to win the zone’s sympathy. Now the APC has picked a son in-law of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who is revered even beyond the zone.

Osinbajo’s “impeccable” personality has dismantled every plan to launch an attack on the person of the APC presidential running mate, it was said.

The ruling PDP had plotted to latch on religious factor to win the sympathy of Nigerians during the campaign for 2015 presidency.

There were strong indications yesterday that the PDP has returned to the drawing board on how to curtail the growing support base for APC.

According to sources, PDP leaders were shocked that APC chose a running mate without rancour.

It was learnt that PDP had expected a slip from APC in order to make a campaign gain from it.

It was gathered that some “attack dogs” had already been positioned to launch vexatious propaganda against the opposition on its running mate.

There have been consultations between the Presidency and the PDP leadership since Osinbajo was named.

The source said: “The PDP had been looking for a slight mistake to brand APC a religious party after it could not sustain the bigot stigma on Gen. Buhari. Some attack dogs were on standby to hit the APC. All the plans have now failed.

Another source said: “By picking Osinbajo, the chances of PDP in the South-West have become slimmer because the party had wanted to take advantage of the political dynasty of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo to make an inroad into the region.

“The Presidency had tried to accommodate the grand son of the late sage, Mr. Segun Awolowo by making him the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Export Promotion Council(NEPC).

“But APC has also made the late Awolowo’s son-in-law as its vice-presidential candidate putting paid to any scheming by the PDP in the Southwest.”

A third source said: “With the emergence of Osinbajo, the PDP has returned to the drawing board. The ruling party is now left to base its campaign on issues than sentiments.”

When contacted, Publicity Secretary of PDP, Olisa Metuh, said PDP could not lose sleep over Osinbajo.

Metuh, who spoke with The Nation, said: “Who is Osinbajo? He was an ordinary commissioner and we have hundreds of commissioners in the country. The APC vice-presidential candidate is an unknown individual in politics. He is not a threat to PDP.

“One thing I know is that if it comes to issues and performance we will win the 2015 presidential election but if it comes to throwing anarchy or chaos, the APC will have upper hand.”

Source – Global news

#KakandaTemple ~ A Note to Critics of Change

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There is no disaster as devastating as the aggregation of petty and polarising sentiments by a people at a crossroads, a people being offered options, yet unwilling to consider these, despite their loud clamouring for change. I’m talking about these cynical Nigerians who have furiously condemned the status quo and find the brand of democracy in practice here “abominable” and in consequence will not take positions or act. These are the people for whom, as an angry Dante Alighieri once told us, the darkest places in hell is reserved for—their sin being neutrality in times of moral crisis.

I was among those who challenged the promotion of General Muhammadu Buhari as “the only morally upright politician” by some zealous supporters, finding such a formulation insulting and an unfair indictment of our generation. I held that accepting that Buhari was the only upright man meant if he bowed out, we had no replacement, and that we all needed to stop celebrating that nonsense and either begin crying or pointing to alternatives. There are indeed some out there, only lacking the myth surrounding the old soldier. Yet, I also maintained that whoever the APC fielded as presidential candidate for the 2015 elections, if against this famously failed leader named Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, would be my candidate. This, of course, held a dilemma for me at that time.

But that dilemma has now been terminated by the recently concluded presidential primaries at the conventions of the nation’s two major parties in which Buhari defeated other career politicians to pick the APC’s ticket, while the congregation at Eagle Square, possessed by Stockholm Syndrome, praised the failings of Jonathan, the man they now compare to Mandela and Martin King Jr., and thus asked him to fly PDP’s ticket at the ominous February Polls. Well, we all know the consequences of presidential anger. If you don’t, consult Jigawa’s Governor Sule Lamido. Perhaps it was this possibility that encouraged the amnesia of our Eagle Square delegates?

Unlike many others, my idea of a change in Nigeria isn’t tied to the elevation of APC to political dominance, rather to have the two major parties tangled in heavily competitive bout, with each striving to be the better suitor. Having PDP entirely replaced by APC is a return to status quo, clearly, considering the ease with which politicians defect in this space.

So, my idea of change in 2015 is more of a resolve to have the central government under the leadership of a sensible human being. But the question we ought to honestly ask ourselves, even though the answer may be unsettling, are: can the opposition oust the incumbent in this period running up to the 16th anniversary of this chaos we call democracy? Or, let me say, with a mischievous tone, are the actual majority off Twitter and Facebook and at remote villages and “forgotten cities” set to form a structure to resist the tools of “stomach infrastructure” on the way to their houses even as we speak as Election Day draws near?

I’ve compromised on some principles, but compromise that leads to the continuation of a government as tragic as Jonathan’s is something I simply can’t afford. What I must highlight is, that I don’t like Jonathan doesn’t mean I hate PDP. I believe there are some great minds in PDP, the same way I see pretenders mingling with the great minds in APC. Which is why I’ll be casting vote for some PDP candidates running for some offices in 2015.

I will not engage in, or be lured into, any petty denigration of the opposition party, nor of its newly presented presidential candidate, as is being championed by some supposedly responsible thought leaders in this space.

It’s convenient to ridicule the quest for change if you’ve not felt the impact of the maladministration that has brought this country to its knees; if you’re in faraway Europe or America, with 24-hour power and water supply; if you wake up every day without a fear over your safety and that of your loved ones; if you’re not affected by the stealing, which our wise leader once said isn’t the same as corruption, that has wracked every institution in the country; if you’re not turned against your brother from another ethnic group or religion or region by the politics and gimmicks of a dangerous President. It’s convenient to trivialize the essence of a government if you haven’t lost a family to insurgency because of an incompetent leadership. And unless you enjoy a 24-hour power supply, quality service at corruption-free institutions, impressive social amenities, all in a de-polarised system, your defence of this administration is either a case of sycophancy taken too far or delusion shamelessly justified.

There are things that shouldn’t be an issue of intellectual masturbation, and the quest for change by pathetically oppressed Nigerians is one of such. If you’ve no power to restore the lives and properties destroyed by bad leadership, the sage thing to do is being neutral and awaiting Dante Alighieri’s prescription of a harsh hell for your ilk.

But February 2015 is an uncertain period. Which is also why we must now promote, especially for those who consider politics a do-or-die affair, the meaning of democracy. We must assure the zealots that the only way to elect a new leader is by converging at polling units to vote, not by threatening those against them, or even breaking loose and harming those in the Other party. And while we do this, let’s also remember the electorate at villages with no motorable roads; those who do not know what we mean by change; those who only need food to eat, land to till, crops to harvest who are more vulnerable to the seduction of a wad of cash in exchange for their ballot papers.

Another bitter truth we have to chew is, nobody can rig an election without the complicity of the people. And when some of us contribute to electoral malpractices, the last I checked, the courtroom is the only place for resolution of such conflicts. No citizen deserves to die for the ambition of any politician. The bad and the good must co-exist, so long as our shared nationality isn’t a myth. This country is a reflection of ourselves. May God save us from us.

By Gimba Kakanda

@gimbakakanda on Twitter