Headline

2019: Dogara Set to Dump APC, Picks PDP Nomination Form

Published

6 years ago

September 12, 2018

Eric

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, has picked the nomination form to return to the House of Representatives on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, at a time dozens of his followers travelled to Abuja from Bauchi. This is in apparent readiness to dump the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Mr Dogara told his constituents during a rally, which held at his residence in Abuja Tuesday, that he all but threw in the towel on partisan politics — having served 12 years at the House, four out of which he spent as Speaker — but their overwhelming demand forced his hands to continue his lawmaking career.

“Some people said they will retire us from politics, but we want to inform them that only God and the electorate can retire us,” Mr Dogara said in an apparent reference to his state governor Mohammed Abubakar, with whom he had been locked in a fierce battle of wits over 2019 electioneering.

Mr Dogara’s dispute with his APC state governor typifies similar patterns in many APC governed states including Kano, Ogun, Kaduna, Jigawa, Oyo and so on. In many of such states, the lawmakers defected from the governing party with the belief the governors would eventually have their way in the party. Only in few instances like in Kaduna did the federal lawmakers choose to remain in the APC and battle it out with the governor.

The Bauchi politician was first elected to the parliament in 2007 as a member of the PDP, Nigeria’s ruling party from 1999-2015. He defected to the APC in 2014 as part of the new-PDP bloc that revolted ahead of the 2015 elections.

The loss of the new-PDP bloc to the APC was considered a major factor responsible for the defeat of President Goodluck Jonathan and the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari as the first opposition flag-bearer to defeat an incumbent in the country’s post-independence history.

The low-key affair under which Mr Dogara obtained his nomination form from the PDP follows a consistent pattern of his political style.

The Speaker has long been identified as amongst those expected to leave the APC, but he declined to make this public unlike Senate President Bukola Saraki and a host of other top APC politicians who abandoned the ruling party in recent months.

Mr Dogara was amongst APC chieftains who moved to polarise the party in early July, alleging unbridled marginalisation and frustrated by a reconciliation effort that was characterised by distrust between all parties.

Although Mr Dogara did not formally announce his defection to the PDP, his acquisition of the party’s form to run in his Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa Federal Constituency next February has effectively made him a chieftain of the opposition party.

The loss appears the biggest since the ruling party lost Mr Saraki to the PDP late July. The senate president is now in the race for the opposition party’s presidential ticket in primaries scheduled for next month.

Headline

Breaking: Wike Plans to Attend Thursday’s PDP NEC Meeting

Published

20 hours ago

April 17, 2024

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

The immediate past Governor of Rivers State, and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, may have concluded plans to attend the much advertised National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), billed to hold on Thursday, in Abuja.

Impeccable source, who is in the know, told The Boss that the minister, whose membership of the PDP is yet to be revoked even as he frolicks with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and serving in the President Bola Tinubu government as a minister.

The Source told The Boss that Wike’s impending presence at the NECeeting on Thursday is not unconnected with plans, already hatched with some governors, to weaken the opposition PDP.

“Yes, we have on good authority that FCT minister, Wike is planning to attend the NEC meeting tomorrow all in a bid to weaken the fabrics of the PDP, and pave the way for the continuation of the Tinubu administration come 2027, and by extension, relapse Nigeria to a full blown one party state.

“From every indication, Wike and his co-travellers, are bent on unleashing the same crisis ravaging the third force, Labour Party, and Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso’s Nigerian National People’s Party (NNPP) on the PDP for the APC to remain the only political party in the country, and ensure that Tinubu has no challenger, come 2027,” the Source said.

It would be recalled that Wike has boasted over and again that there’s no opposition against Tinubu’s re-emergence in 2027, and that they have made sure of that. He has been compensated with the Ministerial job after he withdrew support for his party, and supported the APC and Tinubu to emerge as national government.

The Source further revealed that in the attempt to actualize the intended one party state, a lot of funding is ongoing to ensure that concerned stakeholders are ‘settled’ handsomely.

Wike, prior, during and after the 2023 general elections, has been floating in between the two major political parties; the APC and the PDP. While he claim to still be a member of the PDP, he is functioning as a minister in an APC government, mocking the inability of his party to discipline him.

Political stakeholders have concluded that the outcome of Thursday’s PDP NEC meeting will determine the path Nigeria’s political trajectory will take, and that it may portend the end of multi-party system and political democracy if Wike succeeds in his plan.

Headline

Bribery, Corruption: APC Suspends National Chairman, Ganduje

Published

3 days ago

April 15, 2024

Eric

The All Progressives Congress ward in Ganduje, Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area, has suspended the party’s National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje.

The party ward legal adviser, Halliru Gwanzo, announced the suspension while addressing newsmen in Kano State on Monday.

Gwanzo cited allegations of bribery against Ganduje levelled by the Kano State Government as the reason for the suspension.

“We decided to suspend Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje from the party due to the seriousness of the allegations against him,” Gwanzo said.

Meanwhile, efforts to contact the Chief Press Secretary to the APC National Chairman, Mr Edwin Olufo, failed as his mobile phone was unreachable.

Headline

Akpabio Commits to Collaboration with Tinubu, Governor Umo Eno

Published

6 days ago

April 12, 2024

Admin

The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has stated his commitment to working closely with Nigeria’s President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and Governor Umo Eno to ensure the delivery of democratic benefits to the people of Akwa Ibom State.

Akpabio stated this in his country home, Ukana, Essien Udim Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom, while briefing his constituents on the journey so far as their representative in the red chamber.

He assured the people of Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District of his commitment to their welfare in appreciation of their total support for him, President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in last year’s election.

The Highpoint of the constituency briefing was the distribution of over 10,000 bags of rice and other essentials for his constituents from the wards, to the local governments.

A statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Jackson Udom, quoted Akpabio as saying, “I am here once again, to thank you for standing by me, our President and the party, before, during and even after last year’s elections. I have come to say thank you and also bring Renewed Hope to you all.

“As the President is doing his own, the Senate President is also doing his bit and being complemented by the state governor, Akwa Ibom would be the better for it. We have finished elections and politics, we are now into governance. The governor of the state must touch you, because he is the governor of all the people in the state irrespective of political affiliation.

” As I am touching you now from the political angle, I will also touch the state without any political party affiliation. Most of the projects we are putting in place would be used by people resident in the state. Relax, things are getting better.”

The former Governor of the state, assured his constituents that his current position as the Senate President would be used for the development of the state in collaboration with the President and the Akwa Ibom State Governor.

Hear him: This Senate President is not the one that would be fighting the state government. I will collaborate with , I will collaborate with , to make the state better for us all. We cannot be out of government for a long time. You have to go to a government that carries you along”

Akpabio promised to work for his constituents and Nigeria with all his strength, noting that, “as the President of the Senate, I am for the Southern region and the entire country. I may not come here regularly to tell you what I have been doing for you, but you will be feeling the impact on way or the other. Our unemployed youths would be gainfully employed. I will construct a mini stadium in all the local governments in the district, for our youths to develop their sporting potentials. ”