Echotitbits – Nigeria News

Tag: APC

  • Akande lauds Ibrahim-Imam’s Appointment, describes him as APC’s cornerstone

    Akande lauds Ibrahim-Imam’s Appointment, describes him as APC’s cornerstone

    By Idowu Sowunmi

    The former Interim Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, has described former Presidential Liaison Officer, Alhaji Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, as the party’s cornerstone hitherto overlooked in
    appointments.

    He said Ibrahim-Imam played a crucial role in the merger of legacy parties culminating in the birth of APC.

    While congratulating Ibrahim-Imam on his appointment as Chairman, Board of Trustees of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Akande also thanked
    President Muhammadu Buhari for doing what he called the right thing.

    “When Buhari’s government, perhaps inadvertently, gave Ibrahim-Imam no position, Tinubu requested me to talk to Buhari on Ibrahim-Imam’s behalf. I refused because I presumed that there must have been a dangerous disconnect between the APC and its government.

    “Now that the President has approved a position for Ibrahim-Imam in government, I congratulate President
    Buhari. I congratulate Ibrahim-Imam. I also sincerely congratulate the APC. I hope that from now on, the party and the government can learn to work in sync.
    Ibrahim-Imam’s appointment shows that the rejected stone has been reserved for the corner of the house,” Akande, who is also a former governor of Osun State,
    said.

    Akande’s special tribute to Ibrahim-Imam on his appointment read: “As soon as the All Progressives Congress (APC) was registered as a political party in
    July 2013, there began series of momentous events, which included the emergence of a new faction of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) called ‘The New
    PDP.’

    “This PDP faction must have had its origin in an earlier discussion between Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and some leaders of the PDP, especially Dr. Olusola Saraki,
    Rotimi Amaechi and Aminu Waziri Tambuwal. They must have toyed with the idea of starting a new party perhaps with a merger of their faction with the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

    “When another set of merger that produced APC had taken place, Asiwaju Tinubu was no longer comfortable
    that he had not carried his ‘friends’ in the PDP on board. Through the instrumentality of Kashim Ibrahim-
    Imam, a programme had been dramatically drawn up to put pressure on the party leadership so that General
    Muhammadu Buhari (as he then was), Tinubu, myself and other leaders would tour the country, meet leaders to showcase APC and invite them to join the new party.

    “Kashim is the son of Alhaji Ibrahim-Imam of Maiduguri who used to be the Leader of Opposition and of the Action Group (AG) in the old Northern House of Assembly. The younger Ibrahim-Imam is distinctively cerebral as an old boy of Kings College, Lagos.

    “He was in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) during the Babangida era and later became a Special Adviser to President Obasanjo on Senate Matters. He is an
    ebullient character, very friendly and very generous. I used the word ‘generous’ because of our experience when, once, we went to see Buhari in Kaduna. Ibrahim-Imam and Buhari were living almost on the same street.

    “On our way back, Tinubu and I decided to say ‘hello’ to Ibrahim-Imam and his family. By the time we got there, for he was expecting us, he had prepared three
    giant pots of pigeon soup made of special delicacies.

    He wanted to start serving us but we said no because we had already being treated to a feast by Buhari and were in a hurry to catch a flight back to Abuja.

    “By the time we got to Abuja, we found that the pots of soup were being sent after us. Someone from Ibrahim-Imam’s household had been mandated to take a flight to Abuja just to deliver those pots of soup at our residence! For more than one week, we were eating pigeon soup!

    “More so, it was Ibrahim-Imam who masterminded the arrangement for an all-APC initial first visits across the country. There were not many planes. Sometimes we got one, and sometimes two, and each might not be taking more than 10 to 14 persons. We started with
    Rotimi Amaechi, then Rivers governor, in Port Harcourt because of the difficult terrain of politics in the South-south on 29th October, 2013.

    “From Port Harcourt, we flew to Minna to meet former governor Babangida Aliyu in Bida and from there, to Yola to meet then governor Murtala Nyako and then, Ilorin to meet with former governor Abdulfatah Ahmed and Senator Bukola Saraki. It was Ahmed who received us at the Government House in Ilorin and told
    us they would deliver our message to their principal, Saraki.

    “We visited all the PDP leaders one after the other. We went to Jigawa to meet with the governor, Sule Lamido, who told us, very rudely too, that he would not leave the PDP.

    “Our going to Kano became acrimonious. By the time we were at the Abuja airport, former governor Ahmed
    Shekarau called to say we should not come. He warned that if we came to Kano, there would be violence. We formed the APC with Shekarau. He was a leading member of the Merger Committee and was very active in the merger arrangements.

    “For him to be warning us not to come to Kano was disturbing. We did not want to defy him but we felt we needed to be in Kano. I told him we would drive straight
    to his place once we got to Kano from where he would lead us to Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso. He didn’t like it. We went ahead with our trip and moved to meet
    Governor Kwankwaso who received us warmly with his people. Ibrahim-Imam had been in Kano before our arrival. When Kwankwaso eventually decided to join us, Shekarau painfully left for the PDP.

    “When the party was ready and we were going around to all the leaders, someone reminded us that we had not seen Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida to ask them to join us. We also decided to extend the same courtesy to Atiku Abubakar being a former Vice President.

    “But we were a bit reluctant about Atiku because he was being avoided by the new PDP. The more he wanted to be part of them, the more they were pushing
    him away. We did not know what they saw. In the end, with persistent pressure from Ibrahim-Imam, we decided to meet Atiku.

    “The team met him in Abuja. He did not make any demand of us. He participated actively in all the congresses and tried to help the APC grow in his area. There were reports that he gave money to help the efforts at registration of members and the organisation of congresses while I was still the APC Interim National Chairman.

    “When Buhari’s government, perhaps inadvertently, gave Ibrahim-Imam no position, Tinubu requested me to talk to Buhari on Ibrahim-Imam’s behalf. I refused because I presumed that there must have been a dangerous disconnect between the APC and its government.

    “Now that the President had approved a position for Ibrahim-Imam in government, I congratulate President
    Buhari. I congratulate Ibrahim-Imam. I also sincerely congratulate the APC. I hope that from now on, the party and the government can learn to work in sync.
    Ibrahim-Imam’s appointment shows that the rejected stone has been reserved for the corner of the house.”

  • Is Senator Amosun really an “Alaseju”?

    Is Senator Amosun really an “Alaseju”?

    By Atanda Odewole

    Keen observers of Ogun State political developments are still trying to discern the outcome of the All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries. On one hand, the Peoples Democratic party (PDP) seems to be irreconcilably divided with the Dayo Adedayo led faction emerging victorious through the judicial process. This has almost certainly assured Senator Buruji Kashamu the gubernatorial ticket.

    On the other hand, the Ogun APC primaries brought a different dimension. While the PDP gladiators fought their battles in courts, the Ogun APC leaders opted to settle scores through the ballots. A former Governor of the State, in tango with an erstwhile Governor of Lagos State have pitched their tent with the official APC candidate, Prince Dapo Abiodun, who emerged through a process described by most observers as lacking democratic participation by APC party members. In essence, Prince Abiodun’s emergence as the gubernatorial candidate was ordained by the aforementioned erstwhile Governors through the National Chairman of APC Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

    The other party in the Ogun APC, simply opted to restructure their electoral participation through the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), where Governor Amosun’s preferred gubernatorial candidate and many others emerged as INEC recognised candidates for various elective offices.

    So what could have led to this scenario? Is this a case of Ogun APC becoming the jewel of the shrine in the 2023 political calculations of Capo Du Tutti? Or as some have suggested that the Governor is an “Alaseju”.

    Be that as it may, the point must be made that as fractious as APC appears, the opposition, as personified by PDP, is equally so weak that it poses little threat to the outcomes of the 2019 Ogun electoral battles.

    But in order to comprehend the causal factor of the Ogun APC fracture, it is necessary to highlight the departing pressure points. First is the October 2nd 2018 gubernatorial primary and second the October 7th primary. Both primaries were conducted by two different NWC panels led by Indabawa and Col. Ali Ciroma (Rtd.). The October 2nd 2019 primary conducted by the Indabawa NWC panel became controversial following the annulment of the primary results that threw up Hon. Abiodun Akinlade as the winner. On another note, the October 7th national and state assembly primaries were rancour-free and the results were declared by the NWC Panel Chairman Col. Ali Ciroma (Rtd). These results, won fairly by Amosun loyalists, were also jettisoned by the Chairman of APC Comrade Adams Oshiomhole on the instigation of the aforementioned erstwhile Governors. It is this that finally led to the parting of ways by the Ogun APC leaders.

    Bearing these in mind, the question that lingers in the minds of some who desired mechanical unity is that “Is Amosun an Alaseju?” As the leader of APC in Ogun State, Senator Amosun has tried his best to keep the party together as one family. Up till September 2018, before the primaries, the party was strong and united. If all other things were to remain equal, there is a high probability that the APC will coast home to victory in the 2019 governorship election without much ado.

    But the same cannot be said of Ogun APC today. The party is now in a big mess following the controversial primary election in which the mandate given to Hon. Adekunle Abdulkabir Akinlade was annulled and handed over to Mr. Dapo Abiodun by the Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party. This was a rape of democracy, the height of injustice and the most inglorious electoral robbery ever perpetrated in the history of APC.

    It is only natural that the governor, who is the leader and conscience of the party, must respond to that development. In the midst of his response, which was not palatable to his detractors, we often hear a riposte that Senator Amosun is an “alaseju”, meaning, when literally translated, that he is overdoing things and cannot be kept under check. Haba! I am tempted to say that this kind of riposte on the part of some supposedly learned individuals lacks a sense of history and fails to understand the power play within the party.

    A recount of how the APC under Senator Amosun got to where it was, before hell was let loose, will clear the air. Prior to the 2015 elections, a group within the party led by a respected former governor of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun Osoba, stirred the hornets’ nest and decided to organise a parallel governorship primary in Ogun APC, which did not jell. In an attempt to avoid the shame of losing out in the primaries, Chief Osoba and co, including all their disgraced candidates, left APC to contest the election under the banner of Social Democratic Party (SDP). Osoba boasted to high heavens that the SDP would win the 2015 elections and put the Amosun-led APC to ignominy. As it turned out, the results showed that Chief Osoba and his group were electoral liabilities as they lost the 2015 elections woefully.

    The Amosun-led APC won the said elections with a landslide victory. Senator Amosun immediately initiated policies that transformed the APC into a virile and the most organised chapter of the party in the country. As it were, the rancour-free congresses of the party in May 2018 had kept the other chapters in the country wondering how the Ogun State chapter did it.

    Though Chief Osoba and co found themselves back in APC on the eve of 2015 elections, one cannot really blame them for this. Chief Osoba is a well discerned politician. He realised that while he was outside the APC, Senator Amosun had used his resources to build the party. There is nothing bad in wanting to be part of the success story. However, Chief Osoba and co had a different agenda; the intention was to come and hijack the APC structure and feed fat where they didn’t sow.

    What happened before, during and after the primaries in Ogun APC is no longer news. Chief Osoba, in concert with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Chairman of the party, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, upturned the will of the people and imposed Mr. Dapo Abiodun as the governorship candidate of APC in Ogun State. The imposition of Mr. Dapo Abiodun was a volte-face.

    In his response to this treachery, Senator Amosun didn’t do anything unwieldy to warrant the shout of “alaseju” as some gullible observers would want us to believe.  He only allowed those who were cheated in the primaries to exercise their democratic rights. Would it be right for Senator Amosun to stop them from dumping APC and moving to a new party?

    Indeed it is unreasonable to expect Senator Amosun to agree to the Oshiomhole-led treachery. It would have amounted to committing a political hara-kiri, just as Wole Soyinka said: “The man dies in him who keeps silence in the face of tyranny.”

    Senator Amosun is perceived to have acted rightly by standing firm without betraying his conscience.

  • 2019: PDP dares Buhari to face Atiku in live debate

    2019: PDP dares Buhari to face Atiku in live debate

    By Tobiloba Kolawole

    The main opposition People’s Democratic Party has challenged President Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate to a policy debate with its candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

    The party made this call in a statement released by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbodiyan. It said President Buhari should present himself for a live debate on critical sectors of the economy, especially on his blueprint, “to enable the electorate weigh him alongside the party’s presidential candidate”.

    The PDP spokesperson chided President Buhari as being “mortally afraid of facing our candidate Atiku Abubakar, in a general debate organized by independent bodies”.

    Ologbodiyan said “for this the PDP grants him (President Buhari) the liberty to choose a venue, date and time convenient to him to face our candidate before a neutral panel”.

    The party insisted that Nigerians already know that President Buhari is afraid and not fit to engage Atiku Abubakar in an intelligent debate.

    “If Buhari cannot face political debate, how can he vigorously engage in international competitions? President Muhammadu Buhari must face Atiku in person”, Ologbodiyan insisted.

    FronPage recalls that during the heat of the 2015 elections, President Buhari, then a candidate of the APC said he was not ready to participate in the presidential debate with then President Goodluck Jonathan. He stated that the record of the PDP in its 16 years in power and that of Jonathan in government was poor and of no basis for debate.

     

  • My Relationship With President Buhari Remains Strong – Amosun

    My Relationship With President Buhari Remains Strong – Amosun

    By Tobiloba Kolawole.

    The Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun has restated that his relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari remains strong and unimpeachable in spite of the desperation of the political opponents to orchestrate disaffection between them through mendacious propaganda.

    In a press statement personally signed by the governor and released on Tuesday, Amosun vehemently denied the allegations against Buhari, which were attributed to his person, describing them as lies from the pit of hell.

    According to Amosun, “The ultimate aim of the purveyors of these unconscionable falsehoods is to drive a wedge between me and the President and tarnish my hard-earned reputation. This hatchet job will not work as Mr. President is discerning enough to know the source(s) of the pack of concocted lies.”

    “The relationship between President Buhari and myself transcends partisan politics. I hold President Buhari in the highest esteem and nothing will change that”, Amosun emphasized.

    “The target of this grand campaign of calumny is actually our dear President Muhammadu Buhari”, Amosun said in the statement.

    For the avoidance of doubt, let me state categorically that the people trying to cause disaffection between those of us loyal and committed to Mr. President and the success of APC, are plotting to strip Mr. President bare so that their grand design to achieve unfettered domination of the party would be achieved,” the statement concluded.