Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ‎has developed an app as part of efforts put in place by the commission to stamp out the menace of vote buying that has found its way into the electoral process of the country.

The i-report app, according to a statement issued on Monday by the Chief Press Secretary of the commission, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, allows citizens to report wrongdoing and malpractices including vote buying and selling during the elections to the commission.

He stressed that the app also allows and encourages ordinary citizens to submit reports ‎by text message and pictures of such incidences.

On how to use the app,‎ Oyekanmi‎ explained that: “Nigerians must first download myINEC app via google play store.

“Open the app and scroll down to the ‘report INEC’ segment and click. After that, take a picture or attach a picture from your gallery.

“Preview your picture in the ‘preview‎’ section, then enter your name and phone number in the next text field.

“Send a typed report in the ‘report field’ indicating time, location, (name or description of the area and give polling unit details).

“Tap the send ‎arrow button in the report to INEC.”

Similarly, the commission has released dedicated telephone lines that Nigerians can call to report any case of vote buying to the commission‎.

INEC dedicated lines include: 09050858629, 09050858675, 09050858649, 08180958715, 08180958717, 08180958709, 09025038466, 07086945927, 08120183063, 07062896047, 08105119010, 08146697603

Thisday

Former Commissioner for Information and governorship candidate of YES Party in Ogun State, Mr Sina Kawonise, has picked Alhaja Ganiyat Folasade Agboola as his running mate in the 2019 election.

In a press release signed by Acting Director, SK Media Office, Mr Doyin Owobamirin, Kawonise reportedly came to the choice after wide consultations with party leaders and key stakeholders in Ogun State.

Alhaja Agboola, according to the press statement, is a community leader of note, business woman, and a political leader of the progressive hue.

Alhaja Agboola, 47, from Abeokuta North Local Government area in Ogun central senatorial district, graduated more than two dacades ago from University of Jos, having degrees in Zoology and Computer Science. Agboola was chosen for her youthfulness and vast experience in community relations and grassroots development.

A former Commissioner for Information in Ogun State, Mr Sina Kawonise, has been elected the governorship candidate of YES Electorates Solidarity Party, (YES Party).

The election, which held in Abeokuta on Sunday and witnessed by INEC officials, also had three aspirants emerging as candidates for the three Senatorial districts of the state, six for House of Representatives; while 24 emerged as candidates for House of Assembly. All the 34 candidates left Social Democratic Party (SDP) with Kawonise to pick the tickets of YES.

Prominent among those elected for Senate and House of Representatives are Alhaja Basirat Sonekan-Umaru, a Diasporan based in Maryland, USA, Mr Muyiwa Onabanjo, Pastor Segun Ogunnaike, among other prominent Ogun indigenes.

In an unprecedented move, YES Party gave three out of the 26 available House of Assembly seats to non-indigenes and one to a physically-challenged person. Kawonise explained that the four seats were reserved for those special categories of Ogun residents to give them a sense of belonging and opportunity to participate in governance at the highest levels in the state.

It would be recalled that SDP conducted its governorship primary last Thursday. It was alleged that the primary was fraught with fraud and violence, leading to the exit of two out of the three aspirants that contested the election.

In his acceptance speech, Kawonise promised to run an issues-driven campaign that’ll provide Ogun electorates the real alternative they have been yearning for.

YES Party has as its Presidential candidate Comrade Alistair Soyode, Chairman of Ben TV, London.

As Muslims celebrate, this year's Eid-el-Kabir, Nigerians have been urged to make use of the major lessons of "sacrifice and obedience" inherent in the festival to liberate the Nation by participating fully in the electoral processess.

This was contained in a congratulatory message by the former Commissioner for Information and leading Gubernatorial aspirant in the Ogun Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Sina Kawonise, released by Acting Director of SK Media Office, Mr Doyin Owobamirin.

In the statement, Kawonise congratulated all Muslims for the opportunity to witness the festival, urging them to continue to embrace the culture of love, tolerance and peaceful co-existence.

Kawonise, who is also Publisher of NewsScroll newspaper, noted that God had blessed the Nation with every needed and useful resource, but disobedience to God and lack of love for the Nation have made us to neglect our responsibilities as patriotic citizens.

He said, nothing would change positively, if righteous people and those with the fear of God continue to complain only but refuse to rise up now and participate, by joining the SDP, which rightly belongs to the people.

Kawonise, who explained that sacrifice and obedience were needed to follow up the electoral processes, pointed out that, the love for a better Ogun State would come in, by voting credible people and not those who come to buy their conscience and destinies.

He noted that the people will be at the centre of his administration when elected, as "we will work together to implement robust economic policies and programmes that would make life better for all".

According to him "Nigerians are going through terrible hardship because most of the people at the helms of affairs bought their ways in".

"You only see them when they need votes, giving you pittance and donating gift items, but immediately they get into office, they need to recoup their money and the people would be made to suffer for four years till another four years when votes will be needed again".

This festival should thus make us reflect soberly and ginger us all to save ourselves and the incoming generations from bad leadership, dysfunctional society and life of poverty.

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday released the notice of activities for the 2019 general elections.

The notice was pasted at Federal Capital Territory (FCT) office of INEC in Abuja.

Ndidi Okafor, Head of Voter Education and Publicity Gender and Civil Society Liaison of INEC, FCT said the notice was in accordance with section 30 of the Electoral Act 2010.

According to the notice, collection of nomination forms for national and state elections by political parties is fixed between August 17 and August 24.

Collection of forms for FCT elections will take place between September 3 and September 10.

“The last date for submission of nomination forms by political parties has also been scheduled for December 3 for presidential and National Assembly Elections and state elections December 17.

“The collection of nomination forms for FCT Area Council elections would commence on November 3 to November 10, while the last date for the return of the nomination forms is December 14.

“On October 25 INEC will publish personal particulars of national election candidates on October 25 and those of the state candidates on November 9.”

Ms Okafor said INEC has announced November 17 as last day for withdrawal or replacement of candidates for president and National Assembly elections, and December 1 for governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections.

INEC would on January 2, 2019 publish notice of the polls, and on January 7, 2019 publish official register of voters for the election, which will begin with presidential and National Assembly elections on 16 February.

NAN

Sina Kawonise, a professional in politics, is a former Commissioner for Information in Ogun State is a founding member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the former lecturer at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, and seasoned journalist, in this interview with KUNLE ODEREMI, sheds light on the task before the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), the Obasanjo factor; Ogun politics and the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration in the last three years. Excerpts:

THERE is still huge suspense weeks after the emergence of the CUPP. Is the idea of the opposition parties forging the alliance not coming too late, given the fact that the general election is just seven months away?

On the question of coming too late, if you look at what they are set to achieve, I don’t think it is too late. If you are talking of the type of merger that produced APC, it will certainly be too late. But CUPP is not a merger; it is an alliance of the existing political parties that have decided to work together for the purpose of the 2019 elections. I think it is a positive development for the Nigerian democracy, because what most observers have noted is that the Nigerian opposition has been a little bit weak in terms of providing credible  and robust opposition to the ruling party, and that is without prejudice to whatever the performance of the ruling party may be. The opposition has not been really very vibrant in terms of vigorously opposing the ruling party. Whatever negative perception that people have of APC, as a ruling party, mostly came from their own – what you call ‘own-goal’ – in terms of what they did to themselves; not the things that the opposition really brought against them; a self-inflicted problem that reduced APC in the esteem of Nigerians. So, for the 39 opposition parties to come around at this time is a very positive development for the country, because don’t forget that we have 68 parties, which I think is rather unwieldy in terms of the electoral process. So, if 39 of them are now saying they should come together, I think it is a positive development.

The PDP appears to be the real biggest partner in CUPP, whereas your party, SDP has a longer history of existence. What does it portend for your party in the whole arrangement, since the overall goal is to capture political power in 2019?

Actually, that is the more troubling part of the whole arrangement. PDP, as a party, is not really positive in the estimation of Nigerians, given their misrule for 16 years. It is this misrule that led to their being defeated at the polls in the last election. And PDP hasn’t done anything really significant to convince Nigerians that they have actually changed their way. The last national convention they had was also filled with fraud, with the same vote-buying, corruption, manipulation and imposition, and that is the PDP way. The PDP way is what the APC has learnt, and the APC is doing even worse than them. So, there is still really nothing to convince Nigerians that PDP has changed, and that is the more troubling aspect of this alliance. The hope that someone like me has is that maybe the alliance will be able to produce a credible candidate that conscientious Nigerians can support. Beyond all these oldies, all these familiar faces that have been part of the problem of Nigeria. Nigerians know all of them; I don’t want to start mentioning names, all these former these, former that, that are still angling to become the presidential candidate of the PDP are a problem. If you are forming an alliance to tackle the ruling party, we must be able to see that you want to present something that is new; something that is different from what we have seen in the past, because the popular perception is that APC is 70 per cent PDP; all the leading lights of the APC, 70 per cent of them were in the PDP. Now, the Reformed-APC, still coming out to join the alliance, they are PDP elements; don’t forget that they were members of the old nPDP. So really, Nigerians have not seen anything different except one of the parties in the alliance produces a presidential candidate that would be perceived by Nigerians as being a new face and representing a credible alternative. Or in the alternative, PDP produces the presidential candidate that is not among those that are just showing faces now, not among these so-called frontliners because I don’t see anyone to choose from them as a credible alternative to (President Muhammadu) Buhari. That is what the alliance needs to address. I’m not saying everyone in PDP is bad; the world is not like that; you have good people; you have bad people. The bad people may even be in the minority, but because of the resources they control, it would appear as if they are the predominant there. It may not be so, therefore, if PDP as, of course, the biggest party in the alliance, is the one to produce the candidate, they would have to look at the untainted candidate; a completely new face, not all of these former this, former that, who are saying they want to become the president of this country. I don’t see Nigerians buying into that kind of candidate, no matter the pains Nigerians are going through at the moment.

Then, what kind of arrangement and power sharing formula do you expect in CUPP preparatory to the election if it must achieve the primary objective of forming government next year? 

I had a lengthy discussion with the national chairman of the SDP, Chief Olu Falae, who happens to be the chairman of the alliance. This is how he explained it: whichever party that produces the presidential candidate, that candidate will run on the platform of that party. If, for instance, the candidate they are going to use emerges from PDP, that candidate will run on the PDP; if it is from SDP, he will run on the SDP. All other parties in the alliance will direct their people to vote for that candidate, as it happened in 1999. When I raised the issue with Chief Falae that, in 1999, you were a member of the Alliance for Democracy (AD); the AD/APP (All Peoples Party) agreed that you should be the presidential candidate with your running mate coming from APP, you ended running on the platform of APP. He said that arrangement was adopted for strategic reasons. I’m quoting him; he said that was for strategic reason because of the higher level of education in the Southern part of the country than in the North, in the sense that if being AD candidate, he had run on AD, it would have been more difficult to educate northern voters to say ‘yes, this man is running on AD, but he is the candidate of the alliance.’ So, the APP supporters, who controlled the northern base voting population at that time, would have had a bit of challenge in educating them because of the lower level of education in the North. So, it would be easier for the people in the South to say ‘yes, this is our candidate, but he is running on APP, so that the people of the South, especially in the South-West would still vote for APP.’ That was exactly what happened. But now, the situation would be different, in the sense that all the parties have support base across the nation, so, the issue of say because you have predominant support base in a particular section of the country may not really arise. Therefore, the candidate that emerges from a party will run on that party; that was the explanation that Chief Falae gave me.

Many Nigerians are increasingly becoming skeptical about promises usually made by politicians when elections are around the corner. What is the special thing, the unique thing CUPP is bringing to the table that is different from what Nigerians have been offered since 1999, first by PDP and currently, APC?

What the alliance is bringing to the table that is different. It is restructuring, pure and simple! Buhari and the APC government have shown that they are not committed to restructuring. Buhari said he had put the report of the National Conference of 2014 on the shelf to be gathering dust. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) they signed is that all of us that signed it are committed to the fundamental restructuring of Nigeria. So, that is what they are bringing to the table that is different from that of APC.

The major concern of the ordinary man today is how to survive under a suffocating economic climate, so the issue of restructuring might sound academic, if not esoteric to him. To what extent do you believe the restructuring agenda will jell among the majority of voters, to make them realise that they are bound to benefit more under a restructured Nigeria, as they are bogged down by the challenges of food, shelter and weak purchasing power?

But even if we are looking at it from the issue of food and shelter, the APC has failed. When you look at the unemployment figure, even from the government-owned body, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), we know that in the last three years of this government about five million Nigerians have lost their jobs, apart from the ones that were already unemployed. And the government with all its efforts: N-Power has provided temporary jobs for just about 300,000 people, when a teeming number of Nigerians had lost their jobs. Inflation is at an all-time high; even the latest statistics from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows that poverty is spreading, yet we said we are out of recession. We have a population growth rate of 2.5 per cent per annum, which is very conservative. The economy, even if it is expanding marginally, cannot cope with the high rate of population growth. That again is a matter of poverty. So, if in terms of dividends of democracy; in terms of bread and butter for our people, APC has failed in a very obvious manner. There is no question about that. Infrastructure, they have added only very little. The only project they have commissioned is the Kaduna-Abuja railway; the project that was about 95 per cent completed before Dr Goodluck Jonathan left office as president. Even the Abuja light rail project was almost 75 per cent completed before Jonathan left. So, they do not have anything that they can show and say, ‘this is what we have done.’ Whatever gain they are claiming to have made in terms of agriculture is being eroded by herdsmen killings all over the place. The World Food Organisation has even warned of imminent famine in Nigeria because of so many farmers in Benue and Taraba states which constitute the food basket of the country have not been able to go their farms because of killings all over the country. So, there is really nothing that you can say that the APC has achieved and that is even on the matter of bread and butter.

Let us go back to the issue of restructuring; that can people really appreciate it? You would be surprised by the level of awareness that our people have concerning what we are losing because of the lopsidedness of this federation. For instance, the state police they are talking about now, it has been part of the restructuring agenda for a long time. Maybe, the National Assembly and the state Houses of assembly will approve it because they must be involved in the amendment of the Constitution, and Buhari may still not sign it. So, the issue of restructuring is ingrained in our people; in their sub-consciousness, that restructuring is in fact the way to go if we are really going to have a credible and enduring development in Nigeria. if you talk about restructuring in the South-East, South-South, the Middle Belt, people know what it entails and the inherent benefits. If you talk about resource control, people know, and no group of people talks about restructuring more than the people of the Middle Belt, who are suffering from the lopsidedness of the federation. So, it is a veritable election matter.

You want to be the next governor of Ogun State, but the opinion in certain quarters is that you would have been on a good stead if you have not settled for a very weak structure, when SDP is compared to the structures of PDP or APC in Ogun State. What justification do you have for choosing SDP?

Let me tell you that APC is dead in Ogun State because of the monumental failure of the present state administration. Just on Friday, some videos went viral on the social media. There was massive flooding in the state capital, Abeokuta, where the governor had concentrated even the road expansion project he has done because he did the expansion without touching the inner roads of the community. Abeokuta, where he has executed 80 per cent of his road projects, became flooded.  There is no way APC would provide a candidate that would win, either in Ogun East or Ogun West, not to even talk of Ogun Central. So, APC is totally weak and weakened by the monumental failure of Governor Amosun. Let’s come to PDP. Apart from the odium that people have for the party, in Ogun State, it is especially very bad. The PDP is divided into at least five factions in the state, as we speak. One faction belongs to (Senator Buruji) Kashamu. And when you look at it from the legal point of view, it is recognised by INEC, and by the court, as we speak.  Another faction of PDP in the state belongs to Ladi Adebutu who also wants to be governor. Accord Party in Ogun State led by Doyin Okupe, there is no Accord Party in Ogun State; it is still part of the PDP that is inside the Accord Party that is calling itself Accord Party. The ADC, where Gboyega Nasir Isiaka (GNI) who has contested twice to be governor, wants to contest now, is still part of that PDP. It is a splinter group from the PDP.  Whether you are talking of GNI, the Tunde Alabi group, they are all part of the old PDP in Ogun State. There is also another faction led by Dimeji Bankole (ADP). It is still part of that PDP because all these people are not bringing new people into their different structures; it is still the same old PDP that has failed to win elections since 2007. When they were together they didn’t win. Is it now that they are divided into five or more factions that they are going to win? Forget all the noise that you keep hearing. The man on the street in Ogun State does not want to hear either PDP or APC because they have failed in the state, and that is why we are expressing reservations that if it is still same old people, we will not even be able to campaign for the CUPP alliance in Ogun State. Tell me, what are we going to use to campaign for PDP if it is the party that is producing the same old faces or one of the old faces? We would find it difficult to campaign for even the alliance that my party belongs to. The good thing about it is that all these things they are talking are basically about the national level.

What exactly do you mean?

What I mean is that the alliance they are talking about is basically to produce a presidential candidate. The national chairman told me that states that can come together will do so, I’m quoting him. Let me make it abundantly clear that people don’t want to hear about PDP and APC in Ogun State; we are on ground; we are are the ones doing the walk; we are meeting people, holding consultations. People that we have not even reached call us that they are tired of APC and PDP and their splinter groups.

Don’t you think that the influence of Obasanjo could overshadow your ambition, and that he could hijack and influence the process, given his antecedents in the PDP as the de facto leader while in the party?

Number one, with due respect to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, that he exercises influence nationally is not in doubt. He has considerable influence nationally and internationally. But in terms of Ogun politics, Obasanjo has vowed not to get his hands dirty with local politics. And I think the 2011 experience taught Baba some lessons. Remember he brought out Gen. (Tunji) Olurin. He came out to campaign and he also asked his private sector ‘boys’ to support in terms of funding. But Olurin nevertheless failed. OBJ, our own Baba, is not only a national figure, he’s the father of all in Ogun State, and I know that he would not want to reduce himself by getting too much involved in Ogun politics.  But, the fact remains that Baba hasn’t developed any potent structure in Ogun State that can win election.

But Obasanjo has footsoldiers that walk the talk to deliver the good?

Those foot soldiers are different from what we call structures; to have structures statewide: at the level of local government; at the level of polling units, Obasanjo has not developed that. I’m saying I have been a major player in Ogun politics from 2010. I have been involved in two major elections. So, I know exactly what I am talking about. He has played a crucial role in the formation of the alliance. But beyond that he and part of the restructuring argument is that Obasanjo was part of the problem because while he was there, he refused to do the needful in terms of restructuring. Don’t forget what he did to Lagos State like seizing the local government federal allocations to Lagos State.  Obasanjo re-consolidated the lopsidedness of the nation and made even the Federal Government more powerful under him than he inherited. So, that is the perception in the South-West in particular.

On the issue of hijacking the machinery of the process, he is not in a position to do that. When you say alliance, Chief Falae is the chairman of the alliance. He would not allow that to happen. How is he going to hijack it? If he produces the presidential candidate of the party he supports, he would now impose it on other parties? No, it would have to be by persuasion; by consensus. I will give you an example, Afenifere that I belong to was desirous of getting all other candidates in the governorship election in Ekiti State to come together and form an alliance opposed to APC in that state. They set up a committee; they tried; spoke to all the candidates, but it didn’t work. So the fact that they are mentioning the current alliance doesn’t mean that at the end of the day, it is going to work because let me also tell you a technical point. Each party in the alliance is going to produce its own presidential candidate first and foremost, who will pass through the normal process, including party primaries. That was what Chief Olu Falae explained to me and I support that it makes sense. For instance if Professor Jerry Gana wants to be president; John Dara too, and more will still come. So, each of them will go through SDP primary to produce one candidate. PDP will do its own; ADC will do its own. All the minor parties in the alliance will do their own and we will now have 39 presidential candidates. Who are we now going to choose? We should know the nature of human beings; so it requires a lot of prayers because when somebody emerges as a candidate, ambition takes over. So, whether it is going to work or not it is still something; a lot of payers; give and take; a lot of horse-trading that will still take place. In that kind of contest, nobody can say this individual will come and hijack the process. How will Obasanjo hijack the process? The very nature and character of that process would not lend itself to be hijacked by anybody, no matter how seemingly powerful.

Sunday Tribune 

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday announced inclusion of weekends and public holidays as work days for its personnel in ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR).

Extension to those days would commence on Aug. 1 and end on Aug. 17 when the exercise would be suspended until after 2019 general elections.

This commission disclosed this in statement by its National Commissioner and Member, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Mohammed Haruna, in Abuja.

The statement said that decision to extend the registration period was reached at the commission’s meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) from all the states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) which reviewed the nationwide exercise.

It added that the exercise would also be extended from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, instead of the current daily duration of 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“Against the backdrop of the decision to suspend the exercise from Aug.17 until after the 2019 general elections, it was resolved that starting from Aug. 1, CVR exercise will take place between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. instead of 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. as obtains presently.

“It was also resolved that there will also be registration on Saturdays and Sundays as well as public holidays (if any) within the period.”

The commission assured Nigerians of its commitment to ensuring free, fair and credible elections in 2019, and said that it had reviewed the conduct of Saturday’s governorship election in Ekiti.

It also said that it had started preparations for the governorship election in Osun scheduled for Sept. 22.

“INEC noted the satisfactory conduct of Ekiti governorship election as attested to by both domestic and international Observers, the Media and other Stakeholders.

“The meeting also noted with deep concern, the rising phenomenon of vote-buying during elections and restates its commitment and determination to continue to work with all stakeholders, especially security agencies, to stem the ugly trend.” 

NAN

All the treachery, betrayals and double-dealings that formed the bedrock of the APC in 2014 has now come back to haunt the party in 2018.  

With the declaration that Kayode Fayemi has won the gubernatorial election in Ekiti, APC spin-doctors went into overdrive. Lai Mohammed, well-loved by all and sundry for his vacuous bombasts, came out shouting on the rooftops that the Ekiti election is a referendum on the Buhari administration.  However, the honorable minister needs a gentle reminder that Buhari was not on the ballot in Ekiti.

Femi Adesina, the president’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, also proclaimed: “With the victory of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the just-concluded Ekiti governorship election, Nigerian people have spoken, and they have spoken loudly, about their perception of the APC-led Buhari administration. The election was more than one state’s gubernatorial poll. It was a referendum on the performance of the Buhari administration.” 

This is a lot of hot air. Nigerians did not speak in the Ekiti election: only the good people of Ekiti spoke. The election was not a referendum on the performance of the Buhari administration. The Buhari administration did not perform in Ekiti.  At best, the election was a referendum on the performance of the Ayodele Fayose administration in Ekiti, especially since the PDP candidate was Fayose’s deputy governor.  

Bad omen for APC

On the assumption that the election was free and fair (a position hotly contested by the PDP), what the people of Ekiti did was to throw out the government in power.  To that extent, the one person in the APC who correctly acknowledged the message sent by the people of Ekiti through the election was governor-elect Fayemi himself. He described his victory as a symbol of liberation from hunger, poverty, and indignity suffered by the people of the state under the Governor Fayose-led administration.  

Transposed to the national level, this assessment should not provide any cause for jubilation on the part of the APC. On the contrary, it should provide ample grounds for trepidation. Let me draw clearly the lines of comparison. The people of Ekiti were so dissatisfied with Fayemi as governor in 2014, they threw him out and replaced him with Fayose. However, since 2014, they have become so dissatisfied with Fayose that by 2018, they would rather have Fayemi back than continue with the Fayose administration, as represented by his deputy.  

Similarly, Nigerians were dissatisfied with Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP in 2015, they threw him out and replaced him with Buhari of the APC. But since 2015, Nigerians have discovered that Buhari and the APC are a sham. Therefore, they will be inclined to throw them out in 2019 and go back to the PDP.

Under the dismal economic climate currently prevailing in Nigeria, every government in power is in trouble come 2019.  APC cannot shout change in 2015, and then insist on no changes in 2019. The Ekiti election indicates change is in the air.  This change is bound to sweep away Buhari and the APC in 2019.

Buyers’ remorse

The evidence for this is not limited to Ekiti. In 2015, the cry for change led the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwaal, to switch allegiance from the PDP party that elected him, to the APC that did not. As a result, Tambuwaal was elected Governor of Sokoto State under the APC. Today, 2018, Tambuwaal is no longer enamoured of the APC. The governor has not endorsed Buhari’s re-election bid and is said to be considering a presidential bid of his own against the president.

Like Tambuwaal, Bukola Saraki, the current Senate president who defected from the PDP and came to power under the APC, is now disaffected with Buhari and the APC. He was hounded in APC for using the same shenanigans that APC approved for Tambuwaal to become Speaker in 2011, to become Senate president in 2015.  Having finally been discharged and acquitted by the Supreme Court for the same crime for which Bola Tinubu was discharged and acquitted, all Saraki’s henchmen have ditched the hostile APC and returned to the PDP; waiting for him to make his move. What this means is that things are not looking good for Buhari in Kwara in the 2019 election.

The same goes for Kano, whose gargantuan votes virtually swung the election to Buhari in 2015.  Then, the point-man for Buhari in Kano was Rabiu Kwankwaso, the former governor. But now Kwankwaso is no longer with Buhari. Neither are the other members of the faction that broke up from the PDP in dissatisfaction in 2014 and merged with the APC; fashioning themselves as the new PDP.  Apart from Rotimi Amaechi, they are now dissatisfied with the APC, have re-fashioned themselves as the Reformed APC and returned to the PDP.  

History, they say, has a tendency to repeat itself. It also appears karma is out to get the APC. All the treachery, betrayals and double-dealings that formed the bedrock of the APC in 2014 has now come back to haunt the party in 2018.  

In the 2015 election cycle, some prominent Nigerians became so dissatisfied with the PDP, they asked for change and ultimately opted for the APC. These included people like former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Professor Wole Soyinka, and Reverend Father Ejike Mbaka, who came out of the woodwork to support Buhari. All these people are now against the president. 

Father Mbaka says: “Mr. President wake up; sit up; God said you are toying with the privilege given to you; there is no time; Nigerians are dying in your hand; people are not happy with your system. Change or you will be changed.” Says Wole Soyinka: “We simply cannot continue one day longer to endure this forceful feeding of human blood. The plain expression is ‘ethnic cleansing’ and we must not beat around the bush. The shade of Rwanda hangs over the nation.”

Journalists like Dele Shobowale who were loud in supporting Buhari in 2015 now have buyer’s remorse. Dele now says of Buhari: “He has never been and is incapable of building great teams because, with his deeply ingrained nepotism, he invariably starts his team selection from Katsina, Daura and Daura family. If he had been the National Coach of the Super Eagles, half of the team would have come from Daura.”

The same goes for many others like Jimi Disu, Benzak Uzuegbu, Lande Atere, and Ladi Bada.  They are now convinced their earlier support for Buhari was a big mistake. The Obama media group that helped Buhari mount his internet publicity effectively in 2015 is now completely disaffected with the president and the APC. It is now working for Kingsley Moghalu. 

Incompetence and disaster

The same goes for rank and file Nigerians. Go to a marketplace up North and shout “Sai Buhari” today and see what resonance you will get. It is now clear that Goodluck Jonathan did far more for the Northern poor than Buhari. Try saying “Sai Buhari” in the Middle Belt and run for your life. Say it in the South-west and you might create a riot between the pros and the cons. But don’t even bother where the South-east and South-south are concerned.

Everything under this APC government has gone from bad to worse. The economy is worse.  The cost of living is worse. The security situation is worse. The naira is worse. The unity of Nigerians is worse. The corruption index is worse. The NEPA situation is worse.  The ministers in the presidential cabinet are worse. The liberty of Nigerians is worse. The rule of law is worse. Law and order is worse. The political climate is toxic.

We are not just saddled with an incompetent government. We are saddled with one that merely watches while we are being murdered in our homes, farms and churches. We are saddled with a government that tells us the choice we have is either to lose our land to carpetbaggers or lose our lives. We are saddled with a government that defines itself as a northern, instead of a national government; with all its security architecture in the hands of northerners. This is certainly not the change Nigerians bargained for in 2015.

Therefore, the same government that came to power shouting change no longer believes in change. It has changed its slogan from change to progress. But there can be no progress in Nigeria without change. The desire for change led to the ousting of Fayemi and his replacement by Fayose in 2014.  The continued desire for change has now led to the ousting of the Fayose’s team and the return to Fayemi in 2018.  

That process is likely to be duplicated at the national level in 2019. What most Nigerians want right now is a drastic change from Buhari and his APC.

Same-old, same-old

But therein lies the danger for Nigeria. The people of Ekiti were dissatisfied with Fayemi. They replaced him with Fayose. Now they are equally dissatisfied with Fayose. But who do they replace him with? They replace him with the same Fayemi they were dissatisfied with before.  

There is no indication that the Fayemi they are opting for now is any different from the Fayemi they rejected before. Since 2015, Fayemi has been a minister in the Buhari administration. In these last three years, there is no evidence that he achieved anything meaningful as minister.  He has no legacy. Therefore, nothing recommends his return other than disaffection with Fayose.

Should this be replicated on the national level, we would be back again with the PDP. Nothing recommends the PDP today beyond the fact that APC has been abysmal. Therefore, another round-robin to the PDP cannot be in Nigeria’s interest. We need new blood. But the message from Ekiti suggests an electorate prepared to give second chances to failures as a result of mere rhetorical flourishes. This does not augur well for Nigeria’s future.

This is where a man like Kingsley Moghalu deserves serious consideration. Moghalu is not part of the musical chairs of the PDP and the APC. He is not a political hack or has-been. He is not a Nigerian Bourbon who has learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. He is not 75 years old.  He is not an old horse that cannot learn new tricks. He is young, erudite, experienced, educated and forward-looking. He belongs to the new generation of leadership that Nigeria sorely needs.

An anonymous wise man says: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  Certainly, the Nigerian electorate is not insane. Therefore, come 2019, we need to say in one accord: “a plague on both the houses of the PDP and the APC.”  Enough is enough. Let us give competent hands like Kingsley Moghalu a chance.

The open purchase of votes by both All Progressive Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the just concluded Governorship election in Ekiti State, once again vindicates the oft-repeated position of the leading aspirant in Ogun Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Sina Kawonise, that the two political parties are one and the same.

In a statement released to the media on Sunday by Acting Director of SK Media Office, Mr Doyin Owobamirin, Kawonise, former Commissioner for Information in Ogun State and Publisher of NewsScroll newspaper, was quoted as saying that “both PDP and APC are like Siamese twins, joined together by corruption and perversion of Nigeria’s electoral process by exploiting the poverty they threw our people into through vote buying”.

According to him “It really does not matter which of the two corrupt parties won; for irrefutable video evidence proved that both APC and PDP induced poor Ekiti voters with money. The conclusion from this latest subversion of Nigeria’s democracy is that making our people poor and keeping them so is a deliberate policy of Nigeria’s ruling class in order to make our people vulnerable in the patently faulty electoral processes of the country.

“As it has been established, the continuous underdevelopment of our country is closely linked to the faulty and corrupt electoral system that produces only shady and incompetent characters who perpetuate poverty and violence in our land.”

Kawonise, therefore, urged Nigerians, particularly Ekiti people, to ignore the hypocritical cry of rigging by PDP outspent by APC, and the immoral rejoicing of APC whose candidate is claiming an illegitimate mandate. 

Kawonise, who believes that all hope is not lost, calls on all people of goodwill in Ogun State not to allow the Ekiti scenario play out in the coming 2019 general elections in Ogun State.

His words: “With determination to enthrone good governance in our dear state, conscientious people should come together to support me in SDP in this lone cry for electoral integrity and eventual good governance by educating our people to shun those inducing them with material things than can’t sustain them beyond a few days. I believe we can make all the difference in Ogun State that produced national icons and heroes as Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief MKO Abiola, Professor Wole Soyinka, among many other Ogun indigenes celebrated nationally and internationally.”

Kawonise says further: "We should not leave the political process to them again, we should all go out to join SDP and participate fully in ensuring genuine democracy. The internal processes of the new SDP forecloses the corrupting influence of big money. The party is about the people, and it is the platform to free us from the shackles of oppression, poverty and godfatherism".

A former Commissioner for Information and Strategy, in Ogun State, Sina Kawonise, has faulted the delegate system of choosing  candidates by political parties in Nigeria, noting the system would always be fraught with corruption.

Kawonise stated this, on Sunday, at the formal declaration of his gubernatorial aspiration under the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), held at the party’s secretariat, in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

Kawonise, who served under the administration of Otunba Gbenga Daniel, pointed out that the system had always given room to the ‘highest bidder’ and ‘corrupt’ aspirants to eventually emerge as party candidates.

He, therefore, advocated the Option A4 system, to allow for more transparent, credible and non corrupt primaries.

According to him, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) bastardised the delegate system in Nigeria by introducing money to induce delegates.

Kawonise, who recalled how the PDP in 2011 during its presidential primaries, spent a whooping sum of N4b, did not spare the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which he claimed spent N3b during the governorship primaries that produced Governor Rotimi Akerodolu in Ondo State.

He, however, commended the leadership of SDP in the state for deemphasizing money politics, expressing confidence that the party will emerge winner in 2019.

On his plans, if elected governor, Kawonise mentioned human capital and economic capital development, establishment of ward development council and addressing the lopsidedness in project implementation in the state, as parts of his cardinal programmes.

In his remark, the state chairman of SDP, Kunle Majekodunmi, described the party as a party of true democrats.  He added the party would provide a level-playing ground for all the aspirants to ensure the emergence of credible candidates.

Sun