News

Edo Guber: INEC Cautions Politicians On Use Of inflammatory Languages

Published

5 years ago

August 20, 2020

Editor

Political parties and their candidates for the forthcoming Edo State governorship election have been charged to eschew the use of intemperate, inflammatory, and base language designed to inflame passions or incite violence as the election draws nearer.

Festus Okoye, Esq, National Chairman, , Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, IVEC, gave the charge Thursday in Benin at a workshop organised for journalists in the state.

The workshop was titled: 2020 Edo Governorship Election: Processes and procedures.

Okoye urged stakeholders to therefore conduct their activities in a manner that does not jeopardize the due and constitutional conduct of the election.

According to him, the Commission has deployed all the non-sensitive materials required for the conduct of the Edo and Ondo governorship elections, stressing that training for all categories of ad-hoc staff towards a successful election is in full gear.

He added that the Commission is conducting the Edo and Ondo governorship elections and fifteen outstanding bye-elections within the context of COVID-19 pandemic that has substantially altered the previous ways of doing things.

” Furthermore, the Commission has deployed all the non-sensitive materials required for the conduct of the Edo and Ondo Governorship Elections.

” The training of all categories of ad-hoc staff is in full gear and all the sensitive materials required for the conduct of the election will be delivered ahead of time.

” As we have pointed out, the Edo and Ondo Governorship elections are end of tenure elections with strict and immovable constitutional and legal timelines,” he said.

Speaking on the training for journalists, Okoye said INEC identifies the media as an important and indispensable component of democracy process hence the training.

He noted that the programme was part of a series of measures put in place by the Commissions to engage all critical stakeholders in the forthcoming governorship election in Edo State, and that the media role cannot be underestimated.

He said, “The media is an important and indispensable component of the democratic process, and we will continue our robust partnership with members of the 4th estate of the realm as we seek to consolidate Nigerian democracy.

” This programme is part of a series of measures put in place by the Commissions to engage all the critical stakeholders in the forthcoming governorship election in Edo State. The Commission is aware that it can only communicate effectively when the media understand and key into its processes and procedures especially at this difficult period.”

While thanking the media for the support in the past, the INEC Commissioner urged the media to be alive to its responsibility of holding public institutions and individuals accountable for their actions.

“We urge the media to be alive to its responsibility of holding public institutions and individuals accountable for their actions. The media must continue to name and shame those that dwarf the prestige and integrity of our country and bring the electoral process to disrepute,” he said.

On his part, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Edo State, Dr. Johnson Alalibo said the workshop becomes necessary due to the new processes and procedures in conducting election that has been occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stating that journalists are saddled with the responsibility of informing the public what is happening in the society, Alalibo noted that this makes the workshop apt and timely.

“It is therefore important to note that the advent for the COVID-19 as changed the narrative of the processes and procedure of conducting election.

“It is pertinent for journalists to be conversant with the new processes and procedures in conducting election in this pandemic era,” Alalibo noted.

News

Peter Obi Condemns Tinubu’s Saint Lucia Trip

Published

2 hours ago

June 28, 2025

Editor

Labour Party leader and former presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s planned trip to Saint Lucia, describing it as poorly timed and lacking in sensitivity, especially amid Nigeria’s deepening economic and security challenges.

Tinubu is expected to leave Nigeria on Saturday for Saint Lucia and is also scheduled to attend the upcoming BRICS summit in Brazil.

In a post shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, Obi expressed dismay over the president’s travel, questioning the state of governance in the country.

Obi argued that Tinubu’s trip highlights a pattern of misplaced priorities by the administration, particularly at a time when citizens are grappling with widespread hunger and insecurity.

“What I have seen and witnessed in the last two years has left me in shock about poor governance delivery and apparent channelling of energy into politics and satisfaction of the elites, while the masses in our midst are languishing in want,” Obi stated.

He lamented the toll of rising insecurity across Nigeria, pointing out the country’s deteriorating safety situation.

“In the past two years, Nigeria has lost more people to all sorts of criminality than a country that is officially at war.

“Without any twilight, Nigeria ranks among the most insecure places in the world. Nigerians are hungrier, and most people do not know where their next meal will come from,” he wrote.

Obi said he was stunned when he learned of the President’s travel plans, especially following what he described as a recent holiday in Lagos.

“With such a gory picture of one’s country, you can imagine my bewilderment when I saw a news release from the Presidency announcing that President Bola Tinubu is departing Nigeria today for a visit to Saint Lucia in the Caribbean,” he said.

Quoting Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister, Philip J. Pierre, Obi noted that the visit comprises both official and personal segments.

“According to the Prime Minister’s announcement, ‘two of these days, June 30 and July 1, will be dedicated to an official visit, with the remainder of the trip set aside as a personal vacation,” he said.

Obi noted that he initially found the report hard to believe.

“I told the person who drew my attention to the Caribbean story that it cannot be true and that the President is just coming back from a holiday in Lagos.

“I didn’t want to believe that anybody in the position of authority, more so the President… would contemplate a leisure trip at this time,” Obi said.

He condemned Tinubu’s failure to visit disaster-stricken areas like Minna in Niger State, where over 200 people reportedly died and hundreds remain missing due to flooding.

“This is a President going for leisure when he couldn’t visit Minna, Niger State where over two hundred lives were lost and over 700 persons still missing in a flood natural disaster,” he said.

Obi also took issue with Tinubu’s recent trip to Benue State, claiming it was politically motivated rather than compassionate.

“The other state in crisis where over two hundred lives were murdered, the President yielded to public pressure and visited Makurdi… for what turned out to be a political jamboree than condolence as public holiday was declared and children made to line up to receive the President who couldn’t even reach the village, the scene of the brutal attack,” he said.

Drawing comparisons between Nigeria and Saint Lucia, Obi questioned the logic of prioritising a visit to the Caribbean nation over addressing pressing domestic issues.

“Makurdi is 937.4 Km², which is over 59% bigger than St Lucia, which is 617 km², and Minna is 6789 square kilometres, which is ten times bigger than St Lucia. St Lucia, with a population of 180,000, is less than half of Makurdi’s 489,839 and Minna, with 532,000 is almost three times the population of St Lucia,” the former Anambra governor said.

He concluded his post by stressing the urgent need for leadership that is grounded in empathy and focused on addressing the suffering of ordinary Nigerians.

He said, “I don’t think the situation in this country today calls for leisure for anybody in a position of authority, more so the President, on whose desk the buck stops.

“This regime has repeatedly shown its insensitivity and lack of passion for the populace…”

Obi added, “This very obvious indifference of the federal government to the suffering of the Nigerian poor should urgently be reversed.

“One had expected the President to be asking God for extra hours in a day for the challenges, but what we see is a concentration of efforts in the 2027 election and on satisfying the wealthy while the mass poor continues to multiply in number.”

News

World Bank Lists Nigeria Among 39 Nations Facing Rising Poverty, Hunger

Published

2 hours ago

June 28, 2025

Editor

The World Bank has listed Nigeria among 39 countries where poverty and hunger are deepening as a result of conflict and instability.

In a report released on Friday, the bank said the economies, a mix of low- and middle-income countries, span all global regions. Among them are Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Sudan, Ukraine, and Zimbabwe.

The report, which assesses the economic impact of conflict and fragility in the post-COVID-19 era, revealed that 21 of the 39 countries are experiencing active conflict.

According to the findings, extreme poverty is rising more rapidly in these countries, taking a severe toll on economic development, worsening hunger, and derailing progress toward key development goals.

Since 2020, the report noted, the average per capita GDP of these economies has declined by 1.8 per cent annually, in contrast to a 2.9 per cent growth rate recorded in other developing countries.

The report partly reads: “This year, 421 million people are struggling on less than $3 a day in economies afflicted by conflict or instability—more than in the rest of the world combined.

“That number is projected to rise to 435 million, or nearly 60% of the world’s extreme poor, by 2030.”

News

Nigeria’s Public Debt Rises To N149trn

Published

2 hours ago

June 28, 2025

Editor

Nigeria’s total public debt rose to N149.39 trillion as of March 31, 2025, according to the latest data released by the Debt Management Office (DMO).

The nation’s public debt represents the indebtedness of the federal and state governments, as well as the Federal Capital Territory.

The Federal Government owes N74.89 trillion, while the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) owe the balance of N3.87 trillion.

The figure represents about 4. 72 trillion or 3.3 percent increase over the preceding quarter, with a debt stock figure of N144.67 trillion.

The data showed that external debt rose minimally by 0.5 percent between the end of 2024 and the end of March 2025 (N344 billion).

Although the nation’s external borrowing has been quite low since the last quarter of 2024, the Naira depreciation has had a very negative effect on the stock.

Domestic debt stood at N78.76 trillion as of the end of the first quarter compared to N65.65 trillion in March 2024.