Politics

Why PDP Loses Gov Elections In Lagos — Ex-chairman

Published

4 years ago

March 24, 2022

The immediate past Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, Lagos State, Adedeji Doherty, says the party now has a grassroots structure and state executive to win the 2023 elections.

Doherty said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Lagos.

He said that lack of structure at the grassroots and candidate imposition had resulted in the failure of the party in previous elections.

According to him, the Feb. 27 Elective State Congress of the party remains a watershed for the party to recruit executive members bent on nothing but winning elections in the state.

“After serving as chairman in Lagos state, I can categorically say that disunity is not the problem of PDP winning election in the state but nonexistence of structures at the grassroots level, which has now been created in the last state congress.

“We have between 500,000 and 600,000 registered people now as members of PDP in Lagos.

“We lost elections because we don’t have the structure; if you don’t have the structure, you cannot spend money in the right place.

“The structure is already on ground to win election. We are working now. We are galvanising people and everybody has to be onboard,” Doherty said.

He said that imposition and selection had been the major setback for PDP, adding that they always created divisions and disunity in the party.

“In Lagos state PDP, the norm up till the last state congress has always been imposition and selection and this led to failure in 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, and 2019.

“Those of us that have been in the party for over two decades decided to come together and change the narrative because we cannot be doing the same thing, getting a particular result and believe that if we continue doing the same way, we will get a different result,” Doherty said.

According to him, the last ward, local and state congresses of the party revealed the voices of the majority of the party members and the way forward for the party.

He said that those casting aspersions on the outcome of the congress because consensus failed to work, did not want the progress of the party.

“There was consensus, but no harmonisation and consultation, hence the call for elective congress which produced the new executive,” he said.

The former chairman said the new executive would do everything possible to reconcile with whoever was aggrieved by the outcome of the congress, adding that the new Chairman, Mr Philip Aivoji, had commenced reconciliation process.

Expressing confidence in the Aivoji-led executive, Doherty, who is eying the governorship ticket of the party, said that the new executive had started galvanising people at the grassroots to win elections for the party.

“Now, they are thinking ‘win’, and nothing in their head than ‘win’. This is a sacrifice we have to make to build. Now, we have goal-getters and result-oriented excos,” he said.

Doherty said that Aivoji has the credentials, capacity, competence, and network to rebuild the party as a former party zonal officer, former commissioner, and council chairman.

NAN reports that some party leaders condemned the outcome of the state congress over imbalance and lack of level playing field for all contestants, and called for a new state congress.

NAN/PUNCH

Politics

Tinubu Sends Ex-INEC Chair, Former Oyo First Lady, 30 Additional Ambassadorial Nominees To Senate

Published

11 hours ago

November 29, 2025

Editor

President Bola Tinubu has forwarded 32 additional ambassadorial nominees to the Senate for confirmation, just days after submitting an initial batch of three names.

In two separate letters to Senate President Godswill Akpabio, the President urged the upper chamber to consider and swiftly confirm 15 career diplomats and 17 non-career nominees.

The list includes four women among the career nominees and six women among the non-career nominees.

Prominent names on the non-career list include Barrister Ogbonnaya Kalu from Abia State; former presidential aide, Reno Omokri (Delta); former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmud Yakubu; former Ekiti First Lady, Erelu Angela Adebayo; and former Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.

Others are former Speaker of the Katsina State House of Assembly, Tasiu Musa Maigari; former Plateau State Commissioner, Yakubu N. Gambo; and former Deputy Executive Secretary of UBEC, Yakubu K. Musa.

Also nominated are former Plateau senator, Prof. Nora Ladi Daduut; former Lagos Deputy Governor, Otunba Femi Pedro; former Aviation Minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode; and Barrister Nkechi Linda Ufochukwu from Anambra State.

Additional nominees include former Oyo First Lady, Fatima Florence Ajimobi; former Lagos Commissioner, Lola Akande; former Adamawa senator, Grace Bent; former Abia governor, Victor Okezie Ikpeazu; Senator Jimoh Ibrahim of Ondo State; and former envoy to the Holy See, Ambassador Paul Oga Adikwu (Benue).

The career ambassadorial nominees are Enebechi Monica Okwuchukwu (Abia), Yakubu Nyaku Danladi (Taraba), Miamuna Ibrahim Besto (Adamawa), Musa Musa Abubakar (Kebbi), Syndoph Paebi Endoni (Bayelsa), Chima Geoffrey Lioma David (Ebonyi), and Mopelola Adeola-Ibrahim (Ogun).

Others include Abimbola Samuel Reuben (Ondo), Yvonne Ehinosen Odumah (Edo), Hamza Mohammed Salau (Niger), Ambassador Shehu Barde (Katsina), Ambassador Ahmed Mohammed Monguno (Borno), Ambassador Muhammad Saidu Dahiru (Kaduna), Ambassador Olatunji Ahmed Sulu Gambari (Kwara), and Ambassador Wahab Adekola Akande (Osun).

The new nominees are expected to be deployed to countries with which Nigeria maintains strong and strategic diplomatic relations, including China, India, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, South Africa, and Kenya, as well as to Permanent Missions such as the United Nations, UNESCO, and the African Union.

Their specific postings will be determined after Senate confirmation.

Recall that President Tinubu, last week, forwarded three ambassadorial nominees, Ambassador Ayodele Oke (Oyo), Ambassador Amin Mohammed Dalhatu (Jigawa), and retired Colonel Lateef Kayode Are (Ogun), who are being considered for postings to the UK, USA, or France.

President Tinubu said additional ambassadorial nominations will be announced in due course.

Politics

Soludo Visits Tinubu, Goes Into Closed Door Session With President

Published

2 days ago

November 28, 2025

Editor

Anambra State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Charles Soludo, on Thursday, paid a courtesy visit to the President, Bola Tinubu, GCFR at the State House.

Report by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Soludo, Mr Chris Aburime stated that President Tinubu received the Anambra State Governor with excitement, describing him as his long standing friend of over 22 years.

Aburime said, “The President used the occasion to further congratulate Governor Soludo on his landslide victory in the just concluded Anambra gubernatorial election.

“Recall that President Tinubu had earlier issued a congratulatory message to Governor Soludo immediately the governorship election was concluded.”

Governor Soludo was declared winner with 73% of the votes cast by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Other details of the meeting were, however, not disclosed as the press Secretary told DAILY POST that both men went into a closed door meeting after the reception.

Politics

2027: I Will Resign If Tinubu Loses In Edo – Governor Okpebholo

Published

2 days ago

November 28, 2025

Editor

Edo State Governor Monday Okpebholor has vowed that President Bola Tinubu will win the 2027 presidential election in Edo State.

Okpebholor in an interview captured in a viral video vowed to resign if the outcome of the 2027 election does not favour the president in Edo State.

According to him, the entire people in Edo State are ready to vote for the president, citing projects that his (Okpebholor) administration executed since the All Progressives Congress, APC took over the state.

He claimed that there is no opposition in the state, stressing that everyone is supporting the ruling party ahead of the 2027 elections.

He said, “There is no opposition here in Edo everybody is for Asiwaju in this state.

“Tinubu is more popular than me in Edo state. If he doesn’t win the presidential election in Edo in 2027, I will resign.”