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Former CBN Deputy Gov, Moghalu Emerges YPP Presidential Candidate

Published

7 years ago

September 8, 2018

Eric

Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, has emerged the presidential candidate of the Young Progressive Party.

Moghalu, who was a former UN officer, emerged through delegates election at the party’s first National Convention and Presidential Primaries on Saturday in Abuja.

Moghalu scored 243 votes out of 253 accredited delegates, after his only opponent, Mr Donald Igwegbu, stepped down for him.

Igwegbu, announcing his decision to step down, said he took the decision not because he was not qualified to contest in 2019 but because Moghalu shared the same vision with him.

Igwegbu called on party members and his supporters to support Moghalu, while urging other politicians to emulate his spirit of sportsmanship.

He said: “Let us embrace spirit of love and patriotism.”

In his acceptance speech, Mogbalu said Nigeria needed a leader of international repute, not politicians that had failed the country.

“More than ever before, Nigeria needs to be driven by a vision, informed by a worldview that determines everything else.

“Up till about 40 years ago, China was viewed as a basket case; overpopulated, unproductive and ruined economically by policies of the decades prior to that.

“Today, they snap their fingers and nearly every single African Head of state shows up in China with their hands out, eager for Chinese largesse. That’s what a country driven by a worldview can achieve.

“In accepting the presidential ticket of this great party, I stand here before you to say that Nigeria is fully capable of achieving greatness at home and abroad in our lifetimes.

“But this cannot happen with the normal way of doing things, the so-called Nigerian way.”

Moghalu said that he joined the YPP because he believed the party would live up to its name of being progressive, as well as be an agent of raising standards across the board for politics and policy.

He said that it was time for the country to close the era of waste, corruption, and incompetence that held Nigeria back from achieving its potential.

“It is a choice between remaining a mere fractious assortment of ethnicities and religious on one hand and building a real nation on the other.

“It is a choice between freedom and slavery under our recycled and corrupt politicians; between poverty and prosperity for our masses of the poor, and the unemployed, and between stability and continuing instability of the Nigeria state.”

Moghalu also expressed worry about nonsigning of the Amended Electoral Act Bill by President Muhammadu Buhari.

(NAN)

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Akume Leads Nigeria’s Delegation to Jesse Jackson’s Funeral in US

Published

2 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Eric

President Bola Tinubu has approved a five-person delegation to represent Nigeria at the final burial rites of Rev. Jesse Jackson, the American civil rights leader, activist and former presidential candidate who died at age 84 on February 17, 2026, in Chicago.

Senator George Akume, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, is the leader of the delegation, according to a press statement from the Presidency on Wednesday.

Other members are the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu; Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa; the Special Presidential Envoy for Global and Pan-African Affairs, Brian Browne; and the Senior Special Assistant, Foreign Affairs and International Relations, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaye.

The delegation will deliver President Tinubu’s message of condolences to the Jackson family.

In an earlier tribute, President Tinubu described Reverend Jackson as a great friend of Nigeria and Africa.

“He was a moral voice and a formidable resistance to apartheid in South Africa. He played a leading role in the campaign for the release from prison of Nelson Mandela and other African National Congress leaders. He won critical support for sanctions against the then apartheid government,” President Tinubu wrote.

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Tinubu Nominates Oyedele As Minister of State for Finance, Moves Anite-Uzoka to Budget Ministry

Published

2 days ago

March 3, 2026

Eric

A statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga, has announced that “President Bola Tinubu has nominated Taiwo Oyedele as the minister of state for finance, replacing Doris Anite-Uzoka.

“Mrs Anite-Uzoka will now move to the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, as the Minister of State, her third portfolio in the administration.

“President Tinubu has today conveyed the nomination of Mr Oyedele to the Senate for confirmation in a letter to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.

“Until President Tinubu nominated him as a minister, Mr Oyedele from Ikaram, Akoko, Ondo State, was the chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, which overhauled Nigeria’s tax system.

“Mr Oyedele, 50, is an economist, accountant and public policy expert.

“He attended Yaba College of Technology, where he obtained a Higher National Diploma (HND) in accountancy and finance. He attended Oxford Brookes University and earned a BSc in applied accounting.

“He also completed executive education programmes at the London School of Economics, Yale University, the Gordon Institute of Business Science, and the Harvard Kennedy School.

“Mr Oyedele spent 22 years of his working career at PwC, joining in 2001 and rising to become the Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader.

“Mr Oyedele is also a professor at Babcock University in Ogun State and a visiting scholar at the Lagos Business School.”

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Defection: Atiku’s Son, Adamu, Resigns As Adamawa Commissioner

Published

2 days ago

March 3, 2026

Eric

Adamu Abubakar, the first son of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, has resigned as Adamawa State’s commissioner for works and energy development, days after Governor Ahmadu Fintiri defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress.

Abubakar’s resignation letter, dated 2 March 2026, was addressed to the governor through the Secretary to the State Government. He gave no reason for his departure.

The timing is pointed. Fintiri announced his defection to the APC in a statewide broadcast last Friday, saying his cabinet and the PDP’s state structure had moved with him. Within 24 hours, 22 commissioners and special advisers publicly announced they were following suit. Abubakar, whose father remains one of the PDP’s most prominent national figures, was not among them.

In a statement issued Monday night, Abubakar’s media aide Abdulaziz Jauro said the former commissioner thanked the governor for the opportunity to serve and pledged continued loyalty to the administration’s developmental agenda. He also expressed gratitude to his father “for granting him the moral support and blessing to serve the people of Adamawa State” — a line that, read in context, suggests Atiku was consulted on the decision.

Abubakar said his resignation was not a withdrawal from public life. “This does not mark the end of his commitment to public service,” the statement read, “but rather the beginning of new avenues for developmental collaboration.”

The resignation leaves unresolved the question of whether it reflects a political break with the governor over his defection or a personal decision unconnected to the broader party realignment now reshaping Adamawa’s political landscape.