Politics

El-Rufai to youths: Shun protest, be part of selection process

Published

4 years ago

February 20, 2021

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, has urged Nigerians to shun protests and take more active interest in politics, if they really want to contribute to the country’s development.

Speaking when he appeared on ‘Urgent Conversations’, a programme organised by Radio Now 95.3, in partnership with Nextier, and with the support of Channels TV, the governor said protests would not bring about solutions to the problems confronting Nigeria.

El-Rufai asked “good people” in the country to leave the private sector and come into politics to make the county better.

“I am of the view that the reason we have the sort of parties we have now in the republic — the fourth republic — which essentially are platforms rather than ideologically-consistent kind of organisations — was the nature of the emergence of the fourth republic and what happened before,” he said.

“Many people in 1998 did not believe that after the death of late General Abacha, the military would leave. This is because of the endless transition programmes that the country went through, and maybe by then, the better people, the best politicians, the more honest politicians got exhausted and dropped by the wayside.

“But I think the best people in Nigeria, those that really believe that politics should not be about personal interest kept away. Now, once the first set of governors and others went in, it’s very difficult to dislodge them.

“Good people must offer themselves for public service and suffer the indignity that we all suffer. We get abused every day; we get insulted; we get accused, but we must have our best people in public service. We must have our best people in politics. We must not have them in banks, in telecoms companies, in oil companies and in civil societies protesting. Protesting what? Protesting will take you nowhere unless you have a seat at the table and the most important table is that political table.”

He also urged youths to ensure that they embrace politics, but also be patient while contesting for positions, as governance is a process.

“My call to Nigerians is, if you want to see better governance, be part of the selection process of those that offer themselves for public service and politics. And the only way to do so is to join political parties, and be active, and influence the leadership that emerges in the political parties. There is no other way; no shortcut to it,” the governor said.

“The pastors and imams that have made money, the bankers, the telecoms guys, leave that thing, come and make Nigeria work, because if it doesn’t work you will not sleep at night no matter how much money you make. I believe that if we have more and more young people, and we have five million of them attaining the age of 18 every year, they can come and overwhelm the parties and chase out the old men like me and take over.

“But they must come and not stand on the sidelines and keep criticising. Any fool can criticise. Solutions are what this country needs. You can only propose these solutions, fight for them if you are in the system.

“I have said this before and I will say it again. Young people think that because the not-too-young-to-run bill has been passed and they join a political party yesterday, they will go for elections tomorrow. It doesn’t work that way. You must not come into any organisation with a sense of entitlement. We are all young too. We worked through the ladder to get to where we are.”

El-Rufai also called for “aggressive reduction” of the cost of governance, just as he insisted on the immediate need for state police.

Politics

Breaking: Supreme Court affirms Sly Ezeokenwa as APGA National Chairman

Published

2 hours ago

November 27, 2024

Trends Admin

Sly Ezeokenwa

Breaking: Supreme Court affirms Sly Ezeokenwa as APGA National Chairman

The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, affirmed Mr. Sly Ezeokenwa as the authentic National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA.

A five-member panel of the apex court, in two unanimous judgements, invalidated Chief Edozie Njoku’s claim to the national leadership position in the party.

It held that its earlier verdict on the appeal marked: SC/CV/687/2021, delivered on October 14, 2021 and corrected on March 24, 2023, which Chief Njoku purportedly relied on to lay claim to APGA Chairmanship, did not confer any enforceable rights on him.

In the lead decision that was read by Justice Stephen Adah, the apex court stressed that the reliefs it granted on the protracted APGA leadership tussle, in 2021, were only declaratory and not executory.

The court noted that it particularly held that that issue of leadership or who becomes the Chairman of a political party, was an internal matter that is not justiciable.

Justice Adah held that it was wrong for Njoku to have gone before the lower court to enforce a judgement that had nothing to be enforced as no executory relief was granted to him.

He faulted the lower courts for wrongly relying on the previous decision of the Supreme Court to declare Njoku as the National Chairman of APGA.

Politics

Damagun writes INEC to conduct by-election for 27 vacant Rivers assembly seats

Published

1 day ago

November 26, 2024

Trends Admin

IIiya Umar Damagum

Damagun writes INEC to conduct by-election for 27 vacant Rivers assembly seats

Few days after governors on the platform of the Peoples Democracy Party (PDP) handed down an ultimatum for things to change in the party, the Acting National Chairman of the party, Umar Damagun has moved against the FCT Minister and his loyal lawmakers, the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

Damagun in a letter addressed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) dated 13th November 2024 and released on Sunday by the spokesperson of the Opposition Lawmakers Coalition, Ikenga Ugochinyere urged the electoral umpire to conduct a bye-election to fill up the 27 seats, they vacated to join the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Wike has been accused of being behind the crisis in the PDP over his disagreement with the Rivers State governor, Sim Fubara, his successor.

The crisis which started over control of resources divided the party in the state with 27 lawmakers in the state assembly siding Wike and defected to the APC following Wike’s acceptance to serve in the government of the APC.

He has also been accused of working in cahoots with Damagun to damage the PDP by not organising the National Executive Committee which would lead to the acting Chairman’s ouster.

After a series of agitation, the latest being from the PDP Governors’ Forum over the weekend, Damagun has demanded that INEC conduct elections as soon as possible, apparently moving against the FCT minister.

He argued in letter titled, ‘DEMAND FOR IMMEDIATE CONDUCT OF FRESH ELECTION IN 27 STATE CONSTITUENCIES OF RIVERS STATE WHICH HAVE BECOME VACANT PURSUANT TO SECTION 109(1)(g) OF THE CONSTITUTION’ that it’s “unlawful” for the 27 members to defect.

Damagun writes INEC to conduct by-election for 27 vacant Rivers assembly seats

Politics

Nigeria would have been better under Peter Obi, too much nepotism under Tinubu – Senator Abaribe

Published

1 day ago

November 26, 2024

Trends Admin

Nigeria would have been better under Peter Obi, too much nepotism under Tinubu – Senator Abaribe

Nigeria would have been better than what it is currently if Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), had won the 2023 elections, the senator representing Abia South, Enyinnaya Abaribe, has said.

Abaribe, who spoke on ‘Politics Today,’ a Channels Television programme, on Monday, said Obi would not have been as nepotistic as the administration of President Bola Tinubu.

“Number one, he would not be as nepotistic as this government; he won’t; it’s not in him. That is just who we are; we feel for the other people.”

The lawmaker called attention to Tinubu’s appointment of four ministers from Ogun alone, noting that many other states have just one.

“I say it, and I don’t think so. We are seeing it everyday. I just gave you one example. How can Ogun state have four ministers? Why does he favour Ogun state? Oyo state has only one minister,” Abaribe said.

”The nepotism of Buhari, which nobody followed, has now deepened under President Tinubu because Buhari did it, and nobody said much. I was the only person shouting.”

He said that rather than waiting for presidents to be fair to the people of the south-east, it is high time people of the zone went back to revamp it, make it more livable, better, and more cohesive.

“It’s obvious that if we continue to look at whoever becomes president, they will look at us and do us right. Apart from Obasanjo and maybe Jonathan, I do not think that we have seen that same type of fairness,” he said.