AHEAD OF ONDO 2016 GUBER POLL : CAN PDP BREAK THE FEDERAL MIGHT JINX THIS TIME?

Unlike most of the other states in Nigeria one peculiarity and constant political factor that has been driving the politics of Ondo State since its creation is the political psychology, perception and ideology coupled with the nature of the people who normally vote during elections which has placed it as the only state in the South West State that has an unbroken history of swimming against the tide in matters of electoral decisions.

It is also historical that from the creation of the state in 1976, amongst all the other states in South West, Ondo State has consistently maintained an unmatched chronological landmark achievements of confronting, humbling and winning against the federal might.

Looking back at the political antecedents of the past, it has become more or less a known fact that as far as Ondo State is concerned, the talk about Federal has never held water in the political history of the state .the emerging political actors and the latest political sentiments in Ondo State today.

During the second republic it was Pa Michael Adekunle Ajasin of the Unity Party of Nigeria [UPN] and the architect of Ondo Progressives clan versus Chief Akin Omoboriowo of the National Party of Nigeria [NPN] in 1983, and Ondo State voters resisted the federal might as Ajasin reclaimed his mandate as the State  Governor  before the 1993 coup.

Even 15 years after the 1979 and 1983 saga of the aborted second republic the progressives returned this same feat through the Alliance for Democracy [AD] in 1999 when Chief Adebayo Adefarati emerged as the AD flagbearer from an obscure regional party to defeat Dr.Olusegun Agagu  an aspirant backed by the almighty federal might of the PDP.

Apart from 2003, when the Dr.Olusegun Agagu led Peoples Democratic Party,[PDP] that Ondo State people succumbed to the  Do-Or-Die rampaging of the South West  by President Olusegun Obasanjo and Ondo State was delivered to the federal might .

This euphoria soon fizzled out as in  2007 the former status quo and sentiments of not aligning with government at the center soon resurfaced in Ondo State politics as the Do-Or-Die political strategy of the PDP Federal might was humiliated from capturing Ondo State.

It is on record that the self-acclaimed African largest Peoples Democratic Party, PDP led by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo despite his Do-Or-Die mentality met their waterloo as the party candidate and the incumbent, Dr.Olusegun Agagu lost woefully to the Labour Party [LP] candidate, Dr.Olusegun Mimiko.

Instead the state was politically seceded to a very minute and relatively unknown Labour Party [LP] which midwived the government of Dr.Olusegun Mimiko as the state governor defeating the combined forces of federal might and the power of incumbency.

 After the 2007 saga another very keenly contested guber elections was held in 2012 in Ondo State and on that occasion the federal might lost and has continued to bow to local might through different controversial circumstances.

The political atmosphere in 2012 also gave best opportunity to political pundits and analysts in and around Ondo State the opportunity to re-write the history of the federal might but alas, the same minority party candidate and the incumbent governor, Dr.Olusegun Mimiko of LP to the consternation of all flatly defeated both the revolutionary Action Congress of Nigeria [ACN] candidate, Barrister Rotimi Akeredolu and the then federal party but abandoned candidate of the PDP, Chief Olusola Oke.

And 13 years on after the federal might captured Ondo State, political pundits and analysts are however now pondering that notwithstanding the array of politicians being paraded by the All Progressives Party( APC) in the forthcoming November guber election, indications are rife that GOVERNOR Olusegun Mimiko may be on the verge of breaking the jinx in view of antecedents to his credit as a master on top of the game of politics in the State.

Though a section of political watchers of the next gubernatorial election in Ondo State are hoping that the Federal might victory might pay off this time around in the State because of the current economic recession and in particular the integrity crusade of President Muhammadu Buhari, but a substantial number of the people of the state and politicians feel and believe that Mimiko possesses all it takes to turn the table to break the jinx under the PDP ticket to ensure that the PDP guber candidate wins at the election.

Without mincing words, the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Ondo State between the different political parties is being seen as that of wits and mastery of the knowledge of the electorates and neither that of incumbency nor federal might in view of the known fact that there myriads of unresolved macro and micro issues dogging the PDP government in Ondo State and the APC government at the center in the face.

However, because the nation has continued to be enveloped in cloudy, hazy and obscure political atmosphere the people of the State now have their fears heightened of a possible re-occurrence of the past political failures of the federal might repeating itself in 2016,but only time ,dexterity of the political gladiators and the political parties and the voters will tell especially because of unpredictability in politics.

     

Buhari says APC Govt will restructure and equip Army,Police to end insurgency in Nigeria.

Gen Muhammadu Buhari,APC Presidential Candidate                

The Presidential candidate of the All Progressives  Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu  Buhari, has promised that if he is elected as  President of Nigeria in the forthcoming election in the country on February 14 this year, one of his first priorities will be to restructure the Nigeria Army and Police.

Gen Buhari made the promise while addressing party supporters who besieged the Democracy park in Akure,Ondo State capital during his campaign to the State last Saturday.


He said that   the need for the restructure  of the army and police  by an APC led government if elected became  necessary because the enemies had become more and highly sophisticated in the use of weapons, and such effort would boost the morale of the two security institutions to battle insurgency with renewed vigour.

"Our Army and Police will be highly equipped with all the required weapons while  educated and uneducated youths who now currently roam  the nook and crannies of the country in hopelessness will be employed through different programmes that will be created by our administration,"he said.

"We will rebuild our educational system and employ youths not on sentiment and god-fatherism,he stressed.

He called on the youth to remain vigilant but maintain peace during and after the elections so as to  ensure free and fair elections in the country.

Speaking earlier, the APC Vice Presidential candidate,Prof Yemi Osinbajo told the large crowd of party supporters that the reason why the opposition party,the People’s Democratic Party were afraid at this moment was because it has dawned on the members that the time of change has come in Nigeria and their time in government was up.

“They are indeed asking for the postponement of the elections now and  the reason is because they are afraid that Buhari if elected to rule will ask them a lot of questions about how they managed the economy of the nation which led us to this precarious situation we now find ourselves and that he will do everything within his power to stop corruption in the land.”he emphasized.

Prof Osinbanjo urged all party supporters of voting age to ensure that they collect their PVC’s in order to be able to effect the change which the APC was clamouring to effect come February 14 this year.

"PDP's 16years rule in Nigeria,a disaster."....Asiwaju Tinubu

President Goodluck Jonathan 

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu 

A leader of Nigeria’s leading opposition party, the All Progressives Party, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has described the 16 years of PDP rule at the federal level as a period of steady decline into disaster. “

The former governor said this in a statement titled ‘A Return to Decency’, on Monday.in Lagos while commenting on the state of the nation preparatory to the country’s celebration of 54years of her Independence.

 Tinubu, who served as a former governor of Lagos State said the many years of misrule by successive Peoples Democratic Party presidents had continued to sink the country further into crisis.

He lamented that “The longer they rule, the less benefit the people derive. Nigeria now needs a ‘common sense revolution,’ a revolution that calls forth a return to decency, probity, transparency of process and fairness in outcome.

This is done not by subterfuge, divide and rule and turning Nigeria in a field of discord or a street of broken institutions. It is accomplished by honouring the principles of democratic good governance and economic justice. It is done by persuading the people they are better off as one instead of better off tearing at one another’s throats.

Noting that  there is a need for the country to undergo a “common sense” revolution, the APC leader urged Nigerians to be prepared for change. Said Tinubu ,”We must rescue Nigeria from those set to cause it irreparable harm. The change I talk about is the only route to our deliverance from 16 years of the PDP locusts. Nigeria is ours to keep and its democracy is ours to save.”

He advised that this year’s Independence Day should be a time of sober reflection because other countries that received independence at the same time as Nigeria had since surpassed the country.

He described the Nigeria of today as the nightmare of its founding fathers .and  berated the PDP-led Federal Government of using religion to divide Nigerians.

He said, “We commemorate this Independence Day because the nation has survived despite its many challenges. We dare not celebrate because the nation has not flourished as it should. Fifty four years our national trek began with hope and promise, peace and unity.

“Today, the nation staggers beneath the weight of trouble multiplied by hardship. Peace and unity seem to have yielded the moment to violence and discord. We exist as a political unit on a map but we do not prosper as brothers and sisters in one nation, under one flag and pursuant to one accord.”

“Never has an elected government in Nigeria which now employed religion as a tool to divide the people, setting Nigerian brother against brother in a manner that allows this administration to function at the basest level of governance while seeking to establish a political domination that seeks no greater purpose than its self-perpetuation.”

He described attempts to stigmatise and physically intimidate the APC and the militarisation of elections as features of a perverse democracy.

He described President Goodluck Jonathan’s transformation agenda as an avenue to siphon funds through a dubious blueprint. as their purported  blueprint and vision is for excessive self-enrichment. Their equation is simple: You work, they feast. You toil, they grow fat. You seek a decent wage; they pilfer the collective treasury to enjoy a king’s ransom,” he said.

INEC Ad-HOC Staff Arrested for disappearance of voters cards.

By Tunde Olowu.
As collection of permanent voters cards exercise continued in some designated states of the country on Sunday, an ad-hoc staff engaged by the Independent National Electoral Commission,INEC has been arrested in Umunaga ward in Ebonyi for alleged disappearance of permanent voters cards which he was expected to issue to the people.

The official ,a member of the national youth service corps could not tell people who besieged his polling unit to collect their cards which had been issued out to him earlier for distribution to their owners,thereby leaving them stranded.

Confirming the development, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ebonyi, Mr Sylvester Ezeani claimed that it was true that a Youth Corper on duty for the exercise had been handed over to the police in the State to explain what led to the disappearance of  the permanent votters cards allocated to him for distribution to their owners.
Ezeani expressed satisfaction at the peaceful nature of the people during  the exercise in the State.

President Jonathan appoints AIG Suleiman Abba as new IGP.

President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the appointment of Assistant Inspector General, AIG Suleiman Abba as the new Inspector General of Police.
AIG Abba by his appointment takes over the headship of the Nigeria Police Force following the retirement of Mr Mohammed Abubakar who has served the force for the mandatory 35 years.
The appointment of Abba which was announced through a statement issued by the special assistant to the President on Media,Dr Reuben Abati takes effect from August 1, 2014.
The new IGP was before his appointment, the AIG in charge of Zone 7 comprising Abuja, Kaduna and Niger States, and hails from Jigawa State.
He had served as Deputy Force Secretary and Commissioner of Police in Rivers State as well as ADC to the wife of late Head of State, General Sanni Abacha.

I have been grappling with diabetics for 18 years now,Kosoko admits,gives credit to God and his doctor.

Kosoko

By Tunde OLowu.
Popular Nollywood actor, Mr Jide Kosoko has owned up to the fact that he is a diabetic patient, disclosing that he has in actual fact been grappling with the ailment for close to eighteen (18)years.

Making the revelation while speaking at a Nigeria Entertainment Industry health insurance lecture series held in Lagos, Kosoko,aged 60, was however quick to tell his audience that he was able to contain the sickness seen and known as a killer of the young, old, wealthy and poor in society through the special grace of God.

He quipped to the consternation of those present at the event “Yes I thank the Lord, but I have been able to contain my medical challenge because of my cordial relationship with my doctor.

Jide Kosoko who was apparently inspiring his colleagues on healthy lifestyle, lamented the non challant attitude of many nollywood actors towards their health , a situation which he sorrowfully noted was responsible for the alarming rate of deaths recorded within their fold in recent times.

He therefore admonished artists in the country to take the issue of their health more seriously to stem the tide of sudden deaths.

Rapper-Footballer Relationship in offing as Lil Wayne strikes deal to manage Ronaldo.

By Tunde OLowu. Barring any unforeseen hicups all now seems set for Dwayne Michael Jr,known in the hip hop arena as Lil Wayne to forge and set a pace for a strong relationship between music and football . Towards this direction ,the American wrapper and big boss at Young Money Cash Money BillionairesYMCMB, has signified his intention to start a Sports Management Company in the United States and has chosen Real Madrid prolific footballer ,Cristiano Ronaldo as his first client. TMZ says Lil Wayne intends to get the deal working with the assistance of Polaris Sports via Jorge Mende, the agent of Ronaldo. Wayne signing on Cristiano Ronaldo, currently recognized as the world’s best footballer is gonna definitely be kept so busy in view of Ronaldo’s commercial needs. Source :Caughtoffside /