Politics

Edo In Serious Crisis, Obaseki Has Destroy Enviable Legacies, APC Laments

Published

3 years ago

October 20, 2022

The Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Thursday, alleged that Edo State is in serious crisis due to the continuing destruction of legacy left behind by past administrators.

The party attributed this to bad governance on display by Governor Godwin Obaseki’s poor understanding of democratic governance.

The state chairman of the party, Col David Imuse (retd.), while addressing journalists in Benin, further alleged that “Edo’s glory has been brutalized in the last 6 years by the “confused factional PDP government led by Mr. Godwin Obaseki.”

“In six years, Governor Obaseki has signed more MOUs, partnerships and agreements with individuals and organizations, than any state governor in Nigeria since 1960. Obaseki’s Benin Enterprise and Industrial Park, Gelegele seaport, Ossiomo Power Plant, Ologbo Modular Refinery, Benin Technical College, Edo Tech Park, Edo Innovation Hub, Benin Creative Hub, University of Innovation, Edo North Airport project, EMOWAA are a few of the comical results of these MOUs. Yet Mr. Obaseki who has less than two years in office is proposing a scam he calls 30-year development plan for Edo State with a 2050 result date”, Imuse added.

Besides, he accused Obaseki’s government of boosting the domestic debt of the state since 2016 by N75 billion, exclusive of the State’s foreign debt of over $280 million from available records, making the state the second most indebted state in the country, even as he stated that Governor has just forwarded a bill the State Assembly for additional N25 billion bond to further impoverish generations of Edo citizens yet unborn.

Imuse also told journalists that the Obaseki government has sold the state owned Nigerian Observer Newspaper to his cronies under a dubious Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, adding that the government was concealing the fact about the position of the Newspaper.

“After failing to set up a Board of Directors for the Newspaper in a record six years, Governor Obaseki closed it down in June 2022, promising to reopen it under one month after restructuring it. But in the last four months, Governor Obaseki has not only autioned it’s press, he has deployed all its staff to various Ministries, turned the Newspaper into an online medium and renamed it ‘ECHO’.

“He also demolished sections of the Newspaper office complex, occupied since 1968, imported a moribund and non-functional printing press with billions of Naira and employed a private individual who has employed a new set of staffs, as Consultant.The truth is Mr. Obaseki has sold the Nigerian Observer to his cronies under a dubious PPP arrangement that will die a natural death soon”, the APC chairman said.

But reacting to the APC’s claim, Edo State Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Mr. Chris Nehikhare, said Edo was not the second most indebted state.

“On the issue of the most indebted state, it shows how lazy APC is. If you Google, you will know which state is most indebted or the party should contacted Debt Management Office (DMO) to get their facts right”.

He explained that borrowing money was not a bad thing as long as it is to improve the state infrastructure.

On the Observer Newspaper, he said the establishment is still 100 percent owned by the state government, adding that government was reorganising the Npaper and giving out to new management in order to make it competitive with other private media outfits in the country.

The Commissioner, while describing the APC as ‘unserious party’, urged it to do more research on how to be an opposition party.

Politics

FLASHBACK: How Tinubu Blamed Jonathan For Killing Of Christians In 2014

Published

6 hours ago

November 1, 2025

Editor

As allegations of an ongoing ‘Christian genocide’ in Nigeria intensify, a 2014 statement from President Bola Tinubu condemning former President Goodluck Jonathan for failing to protect Christian worshippers has resurfaced, drawing sharp parallels to criticisms now leveled at Tinubu’s administration.

In January 2014, Tinubu, then an opposition leader, lambasted Jonathan over attacks by Boko Haram in Borno and Adamawa states that targeted Christian communities.

“The slaughtering of Christian worshippers is strongly condemnable. It calls into question the competence of Jonathan to protect Nigerians,” Tinubu stated at the time.

By April 2014, amid escalating violence including the Nyanya bombing in Abuja, Tinubu doubled down, emphasising the president’s non-negotiable duty to ensure citizen safety.

“My heart bleeds for our people and the country over the deaths in Nyanya. A government unable to protect its citizens deserves to be queried,” he said.

Eleven years on, Tinubu’s words are being repurposed by critics amid reports of widespread violence against Christians across northern and central Nigeria.

According to a recent report from the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety), at least 7,087 Christians were killed in the first 220 days of 2025 alone—an average of 32 deaths per day.

Advocacy groups like Open Doors and International Christian Concern describe the attacks by Islamist militants, including Boko Haram and Fulani extremists, as targeted persecution amounting to genocide, with over 7,000 Christian deaths recorded in 2025 and thousands more displaced or kidnapped.

The Nigerian government has denied claims of religious targeting, insisting the violence stems from broader security challenges affecting all communities.

The crisis gained fresh international spotlight on October 31, 2025, when U.S. President Donald Trump declared Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” over the “existential threat” to Christianity there. In a Truth Social post, Trump stated: “Thousands of Christians are being killed by radical Islamists in Nigeria… The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening.”

He urged Congress to investigate and affirmed US readiness to protect global Christian populations, echoing calls from allies like Senator Ted Cruz, who has described the violence as a “religious genocide.”

Opposition figures and faith-based organisations in Nigeria have invoked Tinubu’s 2014 rhetoric to demand urgent action, arguing that the same standards of accountability he once applied to Jonathan now apply to his own leadership.

Security experts caution that while the violence has complex ethnic and resource dimensions, the failure to curb targeted attacks on Christians risks further eroding trust in federal institutions.

The Tinubu administration has not yet responded to the renewed scrutiny or Trump’s designation.

Source: Nigerian Tribune

Politics

Court Stops 2025 PDP National Convention

Published

17 hours ago

October 31, 2025

Editor

The Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday halted the planned 2025 National Convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) until the party complied with the statutory requirements of the party, the Constitution and the Electoral Act.

The suit was filed by three aggrieved members of the party namely, Hon Austin Nwachukwu (Imo PDP chairman), Hon Amah Abraham Nnanna (Abia PDP chairman) and Turnah Alabh George (PDP Secretary, South-South) seeking to stop the convention on the ground of violation to the Electoral law.

Delivering the judgment, the Judge also restrained INEC from accepting report on the outcome of any national convention of the party without following the due process of the law as well as its guidelines and regulations.

The Judge held that INEC is not entitled to give effect to the convention a party not done in accordance with the Constitution, Electoral Act and the guidelines/regulations of political parties.

The plaintiffs instituted the suit seeking to stop the planned November 15 and 16, 2025 National Convention of the PDP scheduled for Ibadan in Oyo State where new National Officers are expected to be elected on the ground of breach of the party’s Constitution.

The nine defendants are, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); PDP; Samuel Anyanwu, National Secretary of the party; Umar Bature, National Organizing Secretary of the party; National Working Committee (NWC); and National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party; Ambassador Umar Iliya Damagum; Ali Odefa; and Emmanuel Ogidi.

Politics

2027: Why Jonathan Can’t Run For President – Appeal Court Ex-President

Published

17 hours ago

October 31, 2025

Editor

Former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, has clarified why former President Goodluck Jonathan cannot contest the 2027 presidential election.

According to Salami, the Nigerian Constitution explicitly bars any individual from holding the office of President for more than eight years, making Jonathan ineligible to run again.

He explained that Jonathan had already completed the tenure of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua before serving his own full term, which constitutionally disqualifies him from seeking another.

In an opinion piece, Salami argued that any attempt by Jonathan to contest and win in 2027 would amount to a violation of the law, stressing that such a victory would be nullified by the courts.

“It is painstakingly and dispassionately demonstrated that the ambition of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to contest for the office of the president in the 2027 general election is effectively and undoubtedly shot down,” Salami stated.