Politics

N5.2b contracts payment: Again, FCT local contractors urge Tinubu to order Wike to pay

N5.2b contracts payment: Again, FCT local contractors urge Tinubu to order Wike to pay

Three weeks after local contractors of Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), owed about N5.2billion by the Administration, penned an open letter to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over their plight, they claim no word has come to them yet from Aso Villa on the vexed matter. The contractors also claim that the payment bill is for public welfare contracts given, procured, executed and certified for payment in the life of the administration of current FCT Minister, Barrister Nyesom Wike. These include jobs in school and hospital equipment, furniture in Minister's conference room, drainage and others.However, they remain downcast that the Minister…
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Why Trump Is Bad for Africa

Why Trump Is Bad for Africa

By JULIUS OGUNRO The US presidential election is only a few days away and polls show Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump statistically tied with no clear sign of a victor. This is probably the closest US presidential election ever. Harris, the Democratic Party’s candidate, and Republican Trump are campaigning tirelessly in the battleground or swing states, where both parties have no overwhelming support and either can win, making the states highly competitive and crucial for the outcome. Whoever wins the election has serious implications for the rest of the world, especially the continent of Africa. Because…
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T-Pain As A Salesman Of Hope

T-Pain As A Salesman Of Hope

Tinubu’s 'Renewed Hope Agenda' has led to the wiping out of the country’s once thriving middle-class. This is no way to renew a people’s hope. But who will tell Mr. President that Nigerians need to be alive today to enjoy the glorious dawn that only him envisions? Who will tell Mr. President that merchandising hope to a hapless people with the promise of a better tomorrow when he is living large in the present buying luxury yacht, state-of-the-art aircraft, exotic presidential limousines, etc. smacks of fraud? By IKECHUKWU AMAECHI For those who may not know, T-pain is President Bola Tinubu’s…
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The Charade, From Edo To Rivers State

The Charade, From Edo To Rivers State

By SHEDDY OZOENE As we read this, the results from Saturday's local government elections in Rivers State are still filtering in. The elections held in spite of the refusal by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to avail the state electoral body an updated version of the state's voters register. To add to the intrigues, the Police - supposedly acting on a court ruling - abdicated its responsibility and refused to be part of maintaining lawful conduct of the polls. The elections held all the same and by the time all the results are called, Governor Sim Fubara will surely…
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If I Were Asue Ighodalo

If I Were Asue Ighodalo

The Edo election has confirmed what every discerning Nigerian knows: the Mahmoud Yakubu-led INEC is a fraud with no moral fibre to conduct free, fair and credible elections. If I were Asue Ighodalo, the latest victim of Nigeria’s soulless electoral mafia, I will not go to court. The matter will be settled on the streets of Edo. If that is what those inclined to being politically correct call anarchy, so be it. Truth be told, unless and until Nigerians show the capacity to resist the malfeasance of INEC and their enablers on the streets, not in courts, this impunity will…
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Edo Polls And The Famous Product Vendor

Edo Polls And The Famous Product Vendor

AZU ISHIEKWENE By his admission, Senator Adams Oshiomhole is a lousy product vendor. In the real commercial world, his premises would have been closed and his products banned. But in politics, crime multiples grace. Oshiomhole dragged Godwin Obaseki into the governorship race in 2016 when the odds were against him. Obaseki’s daytime job was minding his business at Afrinvest, a financial services company he founded. But he soon landed a side hustle as chairman of the Edo State Economic and Strategy Team in Osadebey House, Benin. When Oshiomhole wanted to hand over the baton in 2016, after two terms as…
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Edo Election: Monday Okpebholo Copies From The Tinubu Playbook

Edo Election: Monday Okpebholo Copies From The Tinubu Playbook

By SHEDDY OZOENE  Monday Okpebholo, the 54-year old governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Edo State has been in the news since the past 10 days. He had veered off from the pleasing words of the average Nigerian politician by promising the people ‘insecurity’ if elected governor. The video recording of his campaign rally at Ovia North LGA where he goofed while addressing the crowd, has been trending across Edo State and beyond. It has also fired up concerns among people of the state about his suitability for the job, notably Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party…
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Agballah Affirmed As APC Chairman, Enugu State

Agballah Affirmed As APC Chairman, Enugu State

By Jonathan Okpanachi The national hierarchy of the All Progressives Congress has reaffirmed Barr Ugochukwu Agballa as the Chairman of the party in Enugu. The declaration has therefore put to rest the leadership crisis rocking the state wing of the party. Agballa alongside his executive was recently suspended by some faction of the party in the state. The decision was a part of the resolutions of the party during a meeting held weekend in Enugu. During the meeting, the leaders and stakeholders of the party “frowned at the recent display of gross indiscipline and total disregard to the APC Constitution…
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Tinubu: Overfed Father of Starving Children

Tinubu: Overfed Father of Starving Children

By FAROOQ A. KPEROGI The unfailingly abiding emotional investment I have in the wellbeing of common people springs forth from my experiential and mediated identification with the twinge of hunger and misery that poverty breeds. As people who read my columns know, my father, who died on December 31, 2016, was an Arabic/Islamic Studies teacher at a government-owned primary school for almost four decades. His salary was modest and often not guaranteed both during military regimes and civilian administrations. So, my siblings and I grew up in relative deprivation. But there were choices he made as a father that earned…
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Joe Ajaero: Dangers Of Being NLC President In A Tinubu Presidency

Joe Ajaero: Dangers Of Being NLC President In A Tinubu Presidency

By IKECHUKWU AMAECHI Five days after Comrade Joe Ajaero, former General Secretary of the Nigerian Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) and Deputy National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), made history as the first NLC President to be elected unopposed at the 13th National Delegates Conference in Abuja, on February 8, 2023, I sat down with him in Lagos for an exclusive interview. Still basking in the euphoria of his victory, he was hopeful and bullish as he discussed the labour movement, what Nigerians should expect of his presidency and the impending 2023 elections. He was analytical and measured.…
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