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We Remain Vibrant, Major Opposition Party, PDP Tells Presidency, APC

Published

6 years ago

October 14, 2019

Eric

The Peoples Democratic Party on Sunday said it was untrue that opposition was missing or dead in Nigeria.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, during a media briefing in Abuja said the statement credited to the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Mr. Issa Onilu; and Mr. Shehu Garba, media aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, that opposition was dead, was a figment of their imagination.

He stated that the PDP had remained vibrant as a major opposition party.

He also said Nigeria will never become a one-party state, warning that efforts to turn the country in the past to one-party state failed; adding that Nigeria will always survive dictators.

Ologbondiyan advised people who are advising the Buhari presidency to attempt to turn Nigeria to a one-party state to back off.

He said, “The Buhari presidency came out to claim that there are agitators for a third term. We quickly pointed it out to them that there are no agitators; rather, if there is anything, it is the Buhari Presidency who is bringing the third term to the issue of national discourse.

“We assured them that, given the magnificent failures of this Buhari Presidency, Nigerians are not ready to discuss it.

“From there, they have moved to the issue of one-party state and bringing it to national discourse. Even that is totally unacceptable to us and I want those who are advising the President on this issue to back off.

“As they came out to claim that the major opposition party is dead, we want to state clearly that our party is the consensus political party of the majority of Nigerians and our party, after a long journey of overhauling, has become the centre for seeking for power and good governance in our nation.

“The PDP does not contain certificate forgers; it is not a party of people who are contrivers.

“Our political party is relating directly with Nigerian people and we are working assiduously to make sure that democratic tenets of our nation is not only entrenched but seen to be entrenched in our nation.”

He added, “As we do not have space to respond to the gimmicks of former democrats who went around the nation and brought a despot into a democratic order, so also do we have no space to engage in verbal discussion with characters who are known to be pillaging and stealing directly from the patrimony of our nation.

“As such, we are not going to respond to the innuendos such characters are bandying.

“The PDP remains the bastion of democracy in our nation. PDP is in the Supreme Court to ensure that the mandate which was given to Atiku and has been stolen is restored to us.”

The Punch

Featured

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.”

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.