Ahead of the party’s National Executive Committee meeting, scheduled to take place on Thursday, the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general elections, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mr Nyesome Wike attended the PDP’s national caucus meeting on Wednesday.
Since after the presidential election last year, this is the first time that the former Rivers state governor will be attending a meeting of the PDP.
Mr Wike has been at loggerheads with the PDP leadership and did not support the party’s choice of Abubakar as the party’s presidential candidate for last year’s election.

Apart from his opposition to Mr Atiku’s campaign in the election, the decision of Mr Wike to accept a ministerial role in the cabinet of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress had worsened the rift between him and key stakeholders in the party.

This caucus meeting is one of a series of meetings by members of the PDP, ahead of the NEC meeting, where critical decisions regarding the leadership of the party and other issues that have threatened the party’s unity will be discussed.

***Accuses President of running a ‘Lagos-Boys’ Government

Fiery All Progressives Congress (APC) Chieftain, Garus Gololo has described the federal government’s tariff and tax increase economic policies as having the trappings of capitalism in President Bola Tinubu who doesn’t care about the welfare of Nigerians.
Speaking to newsmen on Saturday in Abuja, he accused the President of not living up to his “Renewed Hope” promise to the country as he insisted the government was insensitive to the plight of Nigerians.
According to him, he is waiting to see what the APC will use to campaign in 2027, maintaining that he was convinced Nigerians will not give the party another chance.
“If you want to choose from the people, watch the person’s track records. Is he for the masses? We have Senators, we have House of Reps members 366, we aren’t supposed to have poverty in Nigeria.
“Under the present economy you want to buy a bottle of water which used to be N100 but now it is N400. How do you want to solve the problem? Where do you want to start from fixing this economy?
“If you go to the market where you want to buy salad they will tell you Dollar. If you want to buy maize or Guinea Corn they hinge the price on Dollar. The bag of Guinea Corn I bought yesterday was N70000. What concerns Guinea corn with the Dollar, did we import it from the US?
“From the time we returned to democracy in 1999, let me just take it from Obasanjo, before he became president, a bag of guinea corn and Maize was N300, it increased to N500 and later to N1500. After Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yaradua who was ready for the masses, he did not stay long if not God would have used him to liberate us from where we are today.
“When Yaradua came on board he returned the price to N1000. After Jonathan took over the price went up to N2500 and later N5000. When Buhari took over it moved from N5000 to N15000. Before the end of Buhari’s tenure it was N25000. As I speak it has moved from N25000 to N75000.
“Rice N80000, sugar that we used to buy and give out during fasting, this year I could not give anybody sugar because sugar is N80000 per bag. Ordinary sugar. If you go to many shops today you can not see sugar to buy.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu told us about renewed hope. Pump price of fuel he jacked it from N180 to N640. We don’t need this hope, the renewed hope is zero.”
This is as he revealed an upcoming merger that would create a political party which would wrestle power from the governing party in the next election.
He explained, “As far as I am concerned our votes in Nigeria have become our Albatros. As the masses vote and forget about it. We masses will come back and forget about the Muslim-Muslim ticket. The religious colouration is a lie, they are only doing it for their families.
“Look at the appointments. All the appointments Buhari made were skewed in favour of the North but when Tinubu came all his appointments are from Lagos.”
The APC chieftain also accused President Tinubu of running a ‘Lagos-boys’ government in which “All where money is coming from is Lagos only. Does it mean only Lagos that voted him, where he lost woefully to the Labour Party? So you can see the one sided game.
“Buhari gave appointments to Northerners from different States but in Tinubu’s case they are from only Lagos State. He did not appoint people from Ogun State, Ondo State, Osun but only Lagos, so it is a Lagos boys affair and people who served him as commissioners in Lagos almost all of them were appointed including the present MD for NIMASA, he served him as Commissioner. Even the former Governor of Osun State was a Commissioner under him, he is his brother who he has made the minister for Blue Economy.
“So there is a bloated cabinet of 45 ministers doing nothing. All key positions where money is he put Lagos boys. His government has become a Lagos show.”
Continuing, the former military officer turned politician kicked against the federal government’s student loan programme, insisting that many Nigerians will not benefit from it, he added that “the money will end up being siphoned.”
On opposition political parties, he said, “Another thing we should understand is that Nigeria no longer have opposition, the only opposition we had before was PDP, who is even campaigning for the PDP now. Atiku has been fighting for himself not for Nigerians.
“The Labour Party whom we were thinking would pull a string, the chairman of the Party now wants to inherit it as a permanent chairman.
“After he finished his tenure he is imposing himself on the people by hook or crook. If they have accused you, why not resign so that the party can make headway. The other Party AA, Sowore who is the owner of Sahara Reporters is only a Television Presidential candidate.
“The other day he was saying they should arrest Malami, Buhari. Do your campaign, Buhari is gone. Campaign against the present government so that we know you are a real opposition. Look at the Senegal President, the guy came from Prison and he won the presidency because he was a true opposition, he went to prison, came out and he was imprisoned again.
“In Nigeria we don’t have opposition, the only opposition is to fight for themselves and their family.”
Gololo bemoaned prevailing economic hardship arising from government’s policies as he stressed that, “Formerly in Abuja you see people raising structures. People can take up menial jobs of carrying blocks but as of the present cement is expensive, the sand is expensive so people are not building.”

In its effort to regain legitimacy the Labour Party (LP) has started digging into its archive to produce historical limitations to the powers of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) over the Labour Party (LP).

According to the letter displayed by the LP, the Nigerian Labour Congress does not have any status conferred by the statute over the Labour Party; instead, it enjoys the status of any member of the Labour Party.

The letter written in 2015, signed by Mrs Augusta C. Ogakwu, Secretary to the Commission, and addressed to the former leader of the Labour Party, Ayuba Wabba, reads: “With reference to your letter on the above subject dated August 5″, 2015, I am directed to inform you that the Commission has reviewed relevant documents and records in its possession in respect of the Labour Party and has established the following:

“Membership of the Labour Party as provided in Articles 1 and 9 of the Labour Party’s Constitution, 2009, does not confer any special or superior status on the Nigeria Labour Congress.”

The letter, INEC/DEPMI/LP/16/T/68, is entitled: Re: request for INEC’s Urgent Intervention To Arrest The Activities Of An Imposter Group In Labour Party

The letter further said, “In accordance with Article 15(7) of the Labour Party Constitution, 2009, the elected National Executive Committee (NEC) has a tenure of four (4) years.”

In a commentary signed by the National Publicity of Labour Party, Pastor Obiora Ifoh, Labour leaders should acquaint themselves with history to avoid unnecessary conflict

The comment reads, in part: “A good student learns from history. If people refuse to learn from history, history will continue to repeat itself. When the Nigeria Labour Congress attempted to crookedly take over the leadership of the Labour Party in 2015 and wrote INEC, INEC replied that they had no locus standi to interfere or change the leadership of the party.

“They have failed to learn from that trajectory, and it is surprising that Joe Ajaero’s NLC is also taking the same line of action and trajectory, and they are expecting a different result.

“A reasonable NLC would have been thinking of how to consolidate with the leadership of the Labour Party having made huge exploits and having achieved great results from the 2023 general election; rather, they have chosen a collision cause that will neither help them nor help Nigerians.