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Buhari will Use Akwa Ibom Stadium, Enang Insists

Published

7 years ago

December 25, 2018

Eric

The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly, (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, on Monday insisted that Godswill Akpabio International Stadium would be used for the inauguration of the All Progressives Congress’ presidential campaign on Friday.

Governor Udom Gabriel Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State had rejected the application for the use of the stadium, citing the Nigeria Premier football league season that would start soon and the closure of the stadium by Julius Berger, a firm handling its maintenance.

But speaking at a media briefing in Uyo, Enang said the party would use diplomacy to ensure that Buhari use the stadium for campaign.

He, however, said that if diplomacy failed it would have no option but to still go ahead to use the stadium.

Enang said, “The Akwa Ibom State Government had stated that it was preserving the field for the football match coming up next year, and that the Godswill Akpabio Stadium will not be used for the campaign.

“We will continue to use diplomacy but if diplomacy fails, we will still use the stadium. It is public facility, a collective heritage of the Akwa Ibom people, Buhari is the President of Nigeria and nobody can restrain him from using any facility anywhere in the country. The President has been fair, kind and generous to Akwa Ibom people.”

Acknowledging that Udom had some measure of immunity, Enang said such immunity should stop where the right of the people started and where the collective sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was involved.

He said the APC would resist every attempt by Udom to blackmail the state.

Enang, who said the APC 2019 presidential campaign would take off on December 28, added that Buhari would present the party’s flag to its governorship candidates in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Delta, and Rivers states during the event.

“President Muhammadu Buhari and the 2019 presidential candidates of the APC will be in Akwa Ibom State on Friday, December 28, 2018 for the take off of his 2019 presidential campaign.

“The President is coming with the National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, national leaders of the party, national officers and all the serving governors under the platform of the party.

“The governorship candidates of Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Rivers and Delta states will be officially presented with the party’s flag,” Enang said.

He explained that the campaign would kick off in the state because Akwa Ibom people had accepted the President and that the state was ripe for harvest because “the governor has performed below average.”

The Punch

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

Published

3 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.”

Featured

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.