Former Education Minister, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has publicly rebuked the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, over false claims that he led the Economic Management Team in the Obasanjo-administration where he served as Vice President. Ezekwesili, who also served in the administration and was indeed a member of the Economic Management Team, explained that the former Vice President played no role in the team and could not advertise its success, particularly economic reforms, as evidence of his administrative competence. She was responding to a tweet by the PDP candidate where he claimed to be “instrumental in designing a private sector…
Author: Albus Dauda
Following his virtually hour-long tirade – an Ecclesiasticus, he seems to perceive it – concerning his interpretation of the Nigerian political climate, Pastor Tunde Bakare, a man whose words were once widely regarded as carrying the wisdom and anointing of God, now comes across as a pitiable figure. The anointing of God, it seems, he has sent on a hiatus, and that’s what makes him pitiable. Had he remained a faithful steward of the anointing, there would be nothing to pity and everything to covet about him. How then did this tragedy come about, for tragedy in the classical sense…
Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has faced criticism over his display at Chatham House, a policy institute in the United Kingdom where on Monday, he discussed aspects of his widely-faulted manifesto. Nigerians have accused the former Anambra governor of evading challenges to his little-known plans to grow the country’s economy amid ongoing global headwinds and manage its security complications, despite a heavy reliance on prepared notes projected via a teleprompter and other physical guides handed to him on the rostrum. Obi, who is running as an unlikely third-party candidate in an election he appears sorely unprepared for,…
Obi’s refusal to turn over the financial account of his UK-based firm, NEXT International, for a legally-mandated review has prompted allegations of fraud and forced the UK government to shut down the firm over suspected illegal dealings and possible misappropriation. This was the finding of a recent media investigation made public this week. The investigation, led by Nigeria’s Premium Times, found that the company was purged from the record in September 2021 after it failed to comply with income and account management regulations, despite a first and second gazette notice of compulsory strike off of the entity. This strike off…
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has lost the battle to control his state’s chapter of the PDP after the electoral body, INEC, upheld candidates loyal to Dan Orbih, the party’s National Vice Chairman with whom he has been feuding, as the legal candidates in the forthcoming National Assembly elections. The news came this week as INEC, in another confirmation, announced candidates who emerged from the primaries conducted by Orbih’s faction of the party in Edo State as the PDP’s recognized representatives in the Senate, Reps, and State Assembly elections slated for next month. It was a major blow to…
Nigeria’s main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has been forced to halt its campaign following the London hospitalization of its candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, whose long battle with an unknown ailment has hampered his physical activeness and ability to focus, reports say. The former Vice President was reportedly flown from Dubai, a location he made his personal abode to evade media attention as he manages the ailment, to London to seek emergency care after the ailment progressed negatively, rendering him unable to resume his campaign back home. A source within the PDP confirmed the development, noting widespread and…
As Nigeria draws closer to the general elections, the initial bravado of ‘Obidients’, the supporters of Labour Party’s presidential candidate Peter Obi, may have given way to frustration and despondence following a streak of poorly attended rallies despite public offers of inducements. Although the Labour Party has always struggled to translate its stage-managed online crusade into meaningful — and far more electorally useful — grassroots followership, things came to a head this week in Ekiti State where the party’s grand rally was shunned by locals despite assurances of free transportation to and fro the event and a promise of cash…
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has been accused of obtaining $300,000 from his Deputy, Mr Philip Shaibu, under the false pretence of settling the cost of procuring the governorship ticket of the PDP in the state following his late and controversial switch to the party in 2020 to seek re-election. The allegation was made by Chief Dan Orbih, the South-South National Vice Chairman of the party who led the PDP in Edo State for several years and managed Obaseki’s switch in 2020. He made the shocking revelation to some party stakeholders who visited his residence seeking an explanation on…
The embarrassing disintegration of the Labour Party’s presidential campaign has continued following news that the party’s replacement for Doyin Okupe, its disgraced director-general who was forced to resign after he was criminally convicted for joining in the diversion of arms fund, is standing election as the senatorial candidate of the Zenith Labour Party in Ekiti State. The party announced the choice of Akin Osuntokun, equally a former PDP operative, earlier this week after Okupe’s forced exit. But checks have revealed that Mr Osuntokun remains a member of the Zenith Labour Party and is the party’s senatorial candidate for Ekiti Central…
Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, has been accused of colluding with his disgraced former campaign DG, Doyin Okupe, to pay his N13m criminal fine with campaign funds sourced from members of the public for party operations. This comes days after Okupe’s criminal conviction by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court in Abuja for the laundering of funds meant to purchase arms in the fight against terrorism during the life of the previous GEJ administration. Doyin Okupe, who served former president Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP as a ranking media aide, was found guilty of…