Politics
2023: Ebonyi indigenes reject Umahi, say Nigeria will collapse in one week under him
***Demand Umahi’s stewardship in the state
The Association of Ebonyi Indigenes in the Diaspora (AESID) said it received with mixed feelings the news that Ebonyi state Governor, Engr. David Nweze Umahi, declared his intention to contest for presidency, saying the governor should give stewardship of his seven years in the state.
While totally rejecting Umahi’s presidential ambition, the Ebonyi indigenes said Nigeria won’t survive a week under the “dictatorship style of governor Umahi” as president.
Governor Umahi had on Tuesday met with President Muhammadu Buhari and thereafter announced his intention to succeed the president.
But reacting to the development through a statement signed Thursday and made available to newsmen in Abuja, AESID’s president Ambassador Paschal Oluchukwu, who acknowledged Umahi’s constitutional right to contest, said the governor has failed “to secure our tiny Ebonyi State with the consistent and reported attacks and communal clashes recorded under his administration, some of which are allegedly fuelled even by his political appointees.
“As we speak, thousands who were displaced by communal war in Effium, Ohaukwu Local Government Area of the state are yet to return to their ancestral homes, needless to speak of receiving any succour whatsoever from the Umahi administration.
“The thousands of victims who were also displaced in three communities in Ezza north LGA where he is lavishing public funds in building an International Cargo Airport remain displaced as they are yet to be duly compensated by the Umahi administration. Hunger and poverty has been weaponized by his government such that all might come to beg for crumbs on his table.
“Any wonder Ebonyi is now officially rated the poverty capital of the entire Southern Nigeria by the National Bureau of Statistics.”
While rejecting Umahi’s presidential ambition, the group said: “With the way and manner he has handled the State’s House of Assembly which is ordinarily a separate arm of government, are we not certain that a National Assembly under an Umahi Presidency would be worse than the current rubber-stamp legislative arm that we have in Nigeria?
“Will Nigeria truly survive just a one-week reign of a Dictator like Umahi?
“AESID would wish to ask; which impact and mark has Governor Umahi made in Ebonyi’s critical sectors such as, Education- given we are classified as Educationally-Less-Developed, Health- given our poor maternal mortality rate and Agriculture-given our rich potentials in this sector? What about the State’s Civil service he has left in its shadows, including Lecturers in our State-owned tertiary institutions whose salaries he has withheld and pays any pittance he feels like? Is it the retirees some of who have died in their pains and agonies over non-payment of their due entitlements or their sorrowing relatives that would drum support for Umahi’s touted 2023 Presidential ambition?
“Mysterious deaths such as the sudden ‘disappearance’ of some five NELAN contractors sometime in November last year among other cases of suspicious demises all points to alleged diabolic and wicked extent the government has gone in its dealings with the now beleaguered Ebonyi masses.
“Rather than provide jobs for our teeming populace, what the Umahi government specializes on is to appoint, through proxies, our vibrant youths who daily sing it’s praises on the Social media for some pittance.
“For this noble accountability platform in particular therefore, we believe it is time for him to be held to account for the little opportunity he has had in just one, out of a total of the 36 States of the federation that he now aspires to pilot their affairs.
Although the Ebonyi group expressed reservations that the Igbos have not been fairly treated on the issue of Nigeria’s presidency, but added that “all who feel they have the right qualification shouldn’t whip up this sentiment. They should rather convince the electorates like it is done in saner democracies and build bridges across the Niger to enable them realize their ambition of clinching Nigeria’s Presidency.
“AESID is amazed that rather than learn lessons from Egwu’s sordid experience which he is fully aware of, Umahi who backed out of supporting the Atiku/Obi Presidential ticket of his then PDP in 2019 with a flimsy claim that he was not ‘consulted’ before the choice of the later was made as Atiku’s running mate is towing exactly the same ignoble path.
“Whereas, it is within his constitutional right to run for the highest office in the land no doubt, we are also compelled by morality, truth and good conscience to bring the issues of his rather mishandling of our dear State’s affairs in the about seven years that he has held sway as Governor to bare so that some gullible Nigerian publics will not be deceived by the antics of a man who drops the name of ‘God’ in every sentence but has his heart full of evil and wickedness!
“Drawing reference from the age-long cliché that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, we are not in any doubt that a more absolute power for an Umahi could mean arming a man who has ran amok with a knife to enter the market place.”
***Party Receives Boost From Aggrieved Aspirants from APC and PDP
The Chairman of Labour Party (LP) Governorship Primaries in Ondo State, Mr Olusola Ayodele has declared the resolve of Party to take back Ondo State in the forthcoming coming Governorship elections of the state billed for November 2024 by the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC)
A statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Obiora Ifoh, quoted Olusola Ayodele to have made the declaration when he Addressed the Southwest Leadership of the Party on Friday in Ibadan, Oyo State capital.
Ayodele who conducted the Ondo State Governorship Primaries of the LP in Akure a fortnight earlier stated that all preparations by the Leadership of the party to win the Ondo Governorship elections have been concluded with the formation of a proposed Southwest Task Force on the Ondo Governorship elections .
According to him, the Task Force being put together comprises key leaders of the party in the Southwest, who have been charged to mobilise a high-powered National Campaign Team of the Party for the Governorship elections to reenact the LP – Mimiko victory and 8 years good governance of Ondo State
He said, “To lead the Ondo National campaign committee is Mr Peter Obi, Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party and Mr Alex Oti, Governor of Abia State. They are to be supported by all LP Senators, Reps Members, State Lawmakers and other key leaders of the Party in the country with formidable solidarity from key members of the Obidient Movement in diaspora.”
While clarifying the rumour about the possibility of the party conducting a substitution primaries for the Governorship candidacy of the party, Ayodele said “this would only happen, if the current governorship candidate of the party decides to withdraw from the race during the substitution window created by INEC and if the National Working Committee, NWC of the Party also finds governorship aspirants who have the required competence and capacity as possible replacement to fly the governorship ticket of a mega party like the Labour Party, especially, a party which has ruled Ondo State for 8 years before”
Ayodele said although some aggrieved frontline governorship aspirants, especially from the APC and PDP are already discussing the possibility of crossing to Labour Party with the Committee, it is only the National Working Committee of the Party that can sanction such discussion before the close of the substitution window of INEC. He however applauded the youths, students and the masses of the people in Ondo State for remaining steadfast with the Party.
Apparently worried about the state of the nation and the increasing uncertainty in the living conditions of the poor and underprivileged, the 2023 Presidential flag bearer of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi has consulted some top opposition leaders to chart a way out.
Among those Obi consulted with were Former Vice President, and PDP Presidential Candidate in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, the Former Senate President Senator Bukola Saraki and the Former Governor of Jigawa state, Alhaji Sule Lamido.
A statement Spokesperson Dr Yunusa Tanko indicated that his visit to the leaders is in continuation of his determination to live up to his expressed commitment to the peace and progress of the nation. “His abiding devotion has always been for the emergence of a Nigeria that works for all its peoples where the people are quickly pulled out of poverty.
“At the center of discussion during each of these visits was the state of the nation and how to reduce the suffering of all Nigerians irrespective of class and location.”
The statement explained that the desperate condition of the downtrodden in in the country was particularly highlighted.
“Of particular interest and emphasis in these discussions was the worrisome situation in the Northern parts of the country”
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The National Chairman of the Zenith Labour Party, Dan Nwanyanwu, has insisted only fresh election can reinstate the 27 lawmakers from Rivers State who who dumped the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to him by voluntarily switching political allegiances, the lawmakers have effectively relinquished their previous seats, with no avenue for reinstatement.
Despite directives to INEC to refrain from taking action, Nwanyanwu argued that delaying elections merely prolongs the inevitable outcome.
According to
In an interview with Arise TV, he remarked, ”I agree with Wike that nobody will remove the 27 lawmakers but they have removed themselves.
They have on their own volition decided to leave the state assembly. And I want to say without mincing words that nothing will bring back the 27 lawmakers to their seats unless another election is conducted and they emerge victorious in the election.
As of today, any lover of democracy and laws would know that the constitution has written it clearly that if on your own, you decided to join another political party, there is no provision that you want to come back.
I’m aware that there are plethora of cases and INEC has been told not to do anything. But you see, they are just postponing the day of the election.
These lawmakers are no longer recognized members of the state assembly. I’m a lawyer and most lawyers are unanimous on this matter. When a law is clear and unambiguous, you don’t need to give it any strange interpretation.
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