With its attention totally focused on winning elections, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has boasted that it will win Rivers and Delta states in the 2027 elections after clinching Edo State on September 21, 2024.
Tony Okocha, leader of the APC’s Caretaker Committee in Rivers State, made the disclosure while addressing newsmen in Port Harcourt on Monday.
The party chieftain also warned prospective candidates in the October 5, 2024, local council election in Rivers state not to waste their resources.
He said a court order bars the Independent National Electoral Commission, the Army, and the Police from participating in the election, rendering any outcome null and void.
He said, “Can you see billboards, jingles, etc? The election cannot hold, and if they are ahead, the outcome will not stand.”
Okocha, backed by the National Working Committee (NWC), the presidency, and FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, cited several court cases affirming his group’s legitimacy in the state. He commended Wike for strengthening the party.
Okocha added that court judgments supported the legitimacy of 27 lawmakers, emphasizing that they did not meet the legal requirements to defect to another party.
The APC took over from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after its presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari defeated incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.
Buhari’s eight years in office has been characterized as most corrupt, inept, nepotistic, and witnessed unbridled rise in insecurity and economic woes.
One and half years of President Tinubu, another APC government has also been characterized by massive cost of living crises, hunger and economic downturn.
Apart from the New Nigeria Peoples Party, other leading players at the last election except the ruling All People’s Congress seem to be imploding, all as a result of frenzied moves ahead of the 2027 general elections.
For instance, both the PDP and the Labour Party, the first and second runners up at the 2023 presidential election have been neck deep in internal wranglings for no specific reasons other than the machinations of greedy party members to self destruct in favour of an individual’s ambition to conquere power in 2027.
In an apparent redundant move the Labour Party has revoked the automatic tickets previously reserved for its 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and the Governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, for the 2027 election.
The decision was made during the party’s National Executive Council meeting held on Monday, September 9, in Abuja.
Following the meeting, the party’s National Working Committee, led by Julius Abure, announced that all party tickets, from the presidency to the House of Assemblies, would now be open to all qualified Nigerians.
In a communique signed by the National Chairman of the party, Abure, and National Secretary, Umar Ibrahim, the NEC nullified the decision taken at the stakeholders meeting convened by Otti.
The NEC insisted that there was no vacuum in the leadership of the party after “conducting its National Convention in line with its constitution, the Electoral Act and Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on March 27, 2024.”
The real reason Ajuri Ngelale resigned from his plum job as President Tinubu’s spokesperson yesterday is that he was about to be sacked.
Ajuri, the 37 year old newsman, like Betta Edu, the former minister of Humanitarian Affairs, simply ate more than he could chew. But unlike his other youngster peer, Ajuri realised he had fallen out of favour of friends and foe alike and he took his own poison.
Betta Edu, former Humanitarian Affairs Minister: Suspended for stealing allegations
Facts emerging from the Villa indicate that it was the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. George Akume that pressed the button that ignited the storm against Mr. Ngelale.
It all started when Ajuri began to create offices and making himself the head like: Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Action, Chairman of the Presidential Steering Committee on Project Evergreen, Nigeria’s first green industrial zone, as well as Secretary of the Presidential Committee on Climate Action and Green Economic solutions, which is chaired by President Tinubu.
George Akume, Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF) Complained about Mr. Ngelale’s power grabbing tendencies
This move, apart from the SGF, angered many others, especially technocrats in the climate change movement who felt that Ajuri did not have what it takes to productively steer these engagements.
This turned out to be Mr. Ngelale’s second major and last battle after the first, when he leveraged on his chubby relations with Deji Tinubu, the son of the president and Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to President Tinubu to clinch the job of Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, initially penciled down for Mr. Dele Alake.
From the above incidents it can be said that, amongst other factors, two elements that hastened Mr. Ngelale’s fall from power were inexperience and greed. Upon ascendancy, Ngelale was found not to be a whiz kid in information management after all.
Some examples include when, in September 2023, he made an incorrect announcement, claiming that Tinubu was the first African president to ring the Nasdaq closing bell.
Another instance was when he declared, rather prematurely that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government had decided to remove Nigeria’s prohibition on visas. The outcry from the media each time was especially embarrassing for the government.
Ajuri simply didn’t fit the part as a topnotch professional to occupy the coveted office. As someone remarked, “Some of his press statements were simply childish,” referring to Ngelale’s social media post in which he claimed to have shattered the State House record for the most statements made in a single day. This happened on July 13, 2024.
The end for Mr.Ajuri Ngelale, presidency revealed, came recently when he was asked to chose between special adviser to the president on media and publicity and special presidential envoy on climate action/ chairman, Presidential Steering Committee on Project Evergreen.
Expectedly, he chose the former. This was however, declined as he was told that if he must continue function in that role then he must work under guidance of an experienced media master.
From thence, Mr. Ngelale knew that the die had been caste and his job had gone. He had to resign.
The lesson for Mr. Ngelale and others in powerful positions is to be mindful of the toes they step on. When you step on too many toes or ‘certain’ toes, you may loose your balance and fall.
…the crafters of the speech made a fundamental mistake of relying on the president assuaging the pain of the citizens by regurgitating and enumerating the different policies his government has enacted to ease the pain his reform polices especially the removal of oil subsidy and floating of the forex has caused, when in fact empathy was needed.
Compared to what happened recently in Kenya and the bombastic prediction by the planners of the “EndBadGovernance” protest, President Tinubu and our dear country just dogged a huge bullet. We are very fortunate to have averted what could have been catastrophic conflagration. Our country is still standing, thank God. So it was totally appropriate and expected that the president would address the nation. I listened to the president’s much anticipated speech, this morning as I was heading out to the airport relieved that my flight had not been cancelled by the protest.
It was a beautifully crafted and well delivered speech with the right cadence. It included a laundry list of various policies that have been taken by the president’s government to reposition the economy for sustainable growth and to ease the the pain of some of his critically needed but painful reform policy like the oil subsidy removal. The president also provided the contextual underpinning for some of the painful policies he has had to implement
However, the crafters of the speech made a fundamental mistake of relying on the president assuaging the pain of the citizens by regurgitating and enumerating the different policies his government has enacted to ease the pain his reform polices especially the removal of oil subsidy and floating of the forex has caused, when in fact empathy was needed. As great as some of those policies might be, their impact are probably longer term ame will not address the immediate needs of the populace for relief from the economic Armageddon that confronts them daily as they try to eke a living and survival in an economy that is close to comatose. Presidential speeches are usually not the best forum to discuss arcane complex policies that might not be understood by most citizens especially those who are hurting. What good does a government credit policy for nano and micro-enterprises do for a hungry man?
The president’a speech was ended on the usual empathy, “I feel your pain” piece when it should have been front center from the onset.
The president would have been better served had he started with the “I feel your pain” piece rather than at the end. It would have been great had the president stated the speech with “I heard your message loud and clear”. As your your president, I feel your pain and know daily struggles. While we have done so much to ease your pain, your protest tells us, we need to do more.
The other missing piece in the president’s speech, was the failure of the president to tell the citizens, what he will do differently in response to protest! It would have been great has the president talked about what he would do to reduce the cost of governance, to make his administrative bureaucracy lighter, more nimble and more aligned to the the country’s economic reality and the sacrifice that the citizens have been called up to make. That was a big and regrettable omission in the speech.
Yes, as commander in chief and the chief security officer, it was important that President communicated his commitment to maintaining law and order as mandated by the constitution. But his role as empathizer in chief could have been given more prominence than it was in the speech.
Overall, it was a good speech, timely, much needed and well delivered.
