Patience Jonathan’s attitude cost us defeat — PDP chief

Mrs. Patience Jonathan

Bayelsa State Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Osom Makbere, has said President Goodluck Jonathan lost the March 28 presidential election due to international and domestic conspiracies.

Makbere, who is also a lawyer, stated this in an exclusive interview in Yenagoa on Friday.

He said the division in the PDP fold and the overbearing attitude of the President’s wife, Dame Patience, also contributed to the president’s loss.

Giving insight into the failure of the President at the poll, Makbere said, “History has stated that no failure, defeat or loss is a product of a single factor. Jonathan’s loss could be blamed on a multiplicity of interwoven causes.

“Jonathan was a victim and target of international cum domestic esoteric codes and conspiracies. On the international level, the passage of the anti-gay legislation led to criticisms and face-off with the US, and the West.

“The strides made in the economic sphere, especially domestic rice promotion, calculated by the Jonathan administration to flip economic growth, and boost import substitution, also negatively alerted the West. The shift to China for our railway transformation, and recently, the migration to Russia for arms and ammunition to quelling the insurgency also signalled to the West that Jonathan had started constituting a self-reliant and dependent nation-state, a feat seen too tall by the US and their allies in the West.

“The aforesaid international factors found room to flourish given the obstinacy and impudence on the part of Mrs. Jonathan. The end result of her personal ambition to plant ‘self-made’ governors triggered face-offs with some governors.”

Makbere also opined that the All Progressives Congress will perform worse than the PDP at the centre.

He said, “I can tell you that this APC will be worse than the PDP as there is already imminent fear of implosion.

“In Kano, for instance, the APC got all 40 constituencies. This meant that none of the PDP candidates were popular enough to emerge but, the PDP maintained their calm and stoicism.

“We do not know what the APC wants. Whenever they win, the PDP congratulates them, but whenever the PDP wins, the APC would induce the election observers and the electoral officers to call for a re-run or cancellation. That is the zenith of desperation.”

But Secretary, Bayelsa APC, Mr. Marlin Daniel, said the statement that APC would perform worse than the PDP was misinformed and unfortunate.

He said that APC parades men and women of proven integrity and impeccable track records of performance.

He said, “It is obvious Nigerians have seen the people in the APC. The international community knows the pedigree of people in APC leadership. When you go to states controlled by the APC you will see what is on ground.

“The President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, is an incorruptible man. So, for anybody to say that APC will perform worse than the PDP is a child’s talk, mere campaign of calumny and propaganda.

“APC is a revolution and nobody can stop it. God’s hand is in this revolution that is why the PDP lost despite all the money they spent to remain in power.”

Taraba: INEC declares PDP’s Ishaku winner

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Darius Dickson Ishaku has won the governorship election in Taraba state.

Ishaku won 10 local government areas with accumulated votes of 369,318 at the end of the supplementary election on Saturday.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Returning Officer for Taraba State Prof. Ahmed Kyari declared him as governor-elect at the commission’s office in Jalingo on Sunday.

Aisha Jummai Alhassan of the All Progressives Congress (APC) got 275,984 votes.

Ishaku won with a difference of 93,334 votes.

Candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) came a distant third with 29,985 votes.

I’m ready to step into Gowon’s, Shonekan’s shoes, says Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan is keen on playing the role of a statesman once his tenure is over on May 29.

He said yesterday in Abuja that he is already warming up to join the likes of former military Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon and Head of the defunct Interim National Government (ING),Chief  Ernest Shonekan, in serving the country and the international community in whatever capacity  he is assigned.

Jonathan who spoke during the fifth Presidential Prayer Breakfast at the State House, Abuja, also harped on the need for sacrifice at the different levels of governance with a view to turning around the nation’s fortune.

He said: “I will continue to do my best as I’m gradually joining Gowon and Shonekan to serve our country in different capacities.

“For the eight years I have been here as vice president and president, whenever we called upon them wherever they were in this world, they would try to come. I have seen that they are extremely patriotic and they believe in this country.”

Nigeria, according to him, would achieve its potential easily if all leaders could show that level of commitment and patriotism.

He added: “Everything about human life as an individual, a child, if you don’t make the required sacrifice you can’t get to where you want to go.

“If you don’t sacrifice your pleasure, of course you will know where you’ll end. As parents we know the kind of sacrifice we make for our children to go to school, to feed.

“To build a family you need sacrifice. So for those who have the privilege of leading at local, state and national, at all times we should be ready to make sacrifice for our nation to grow.

“Ministers must make the required sacrifice, our lawmakers because they look at all our laws, they can create crisis in the country if they are not ready to do things the right way.

So all of us in leadership position must be ready to make sacrifice and with our prayers and with our commitment Nigeria will surely get to where it wants to go.”

He said Nigerians must not stop praying for the country to overcome its challenges.

“At times, you are forced to think that the nation is ending. Definitely this country will overcome these challenges. That is the reason for this prayer. Just like prayer helped Nehemiah to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, our constant prayers will help us rebuild this nation,” he said.

He thanked God for giving him the privilege to serve Nigeria as deputy governor, governor, vice president and president for over 16 years.

“That is a reasonable length of time and so I have to thank God, first because if God did not will it, it won’t have happened,” he said.

In a short exhortation entitled ‘Destiny and Decision’, Pastor Paul Enenche maintained that the choices we make in life determine our destiny.

Quoting Joshua 24:15, he said that Adam, Esau, Samson and Ruth in the Holy Bible had to make choices that affected their lives.

Also speaking, the Aso Villa Chaplain, Ven. Obioma Onwuzurumba, described the session as the last presidential prayer breakfast under President Jonathan and that the country owes God immense gratitude for averting bloodshed during the last elections.

He said:”We are aware of the fears in the land before, during and after the general elections, but the President’s decision has ensured peace.

“There were predictions that either the president or his wife would die in office. But we thank God they will walk out of office alive.”

At the service were Gen. Gowon who read a passage from Philippians 2: 1-11, President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, Chief of Staff to the President, Gen. Jones Arogbofa (rtd) and members of the diplomatic corps.

Ekiti lawmakers to Fayose: Impunity can’t save you

Fayose

The 19 All Progressives Congress (APC) members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly yesterday  alleged misrepresentation of the  proceeding in the  ex-parte motion  filed by their  seven Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) colleagues at the  Federal High Court, Abuja.

But they vowed that the “impunity and manipulation of facts of his impeachment case in the media” cannot save Governor Ayo Fayose from impeachment.

Media reports yesterday suggested that the court restrained the 19 legislators from impeaching Fayose.

However, Speaker Adewale Omirin in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Wole Olujobi, said there was no such pronouncement from the court.

He said : “While the judge clearly ruled that it (court) could not stop Fayose’s impeachment without hearing from the APC lawmakers, the governor’s storm troopers went to town in a contempt of court to turn full circle the ruling by the judge.”

The lawmakers expressed dismay over the ease with which Fayose is trampling on democratic institutions.

Omirin said:”He first raided the courts and chased the judges under their tables and subsequently closed the courts. After that, he closed the House of Assembly and chased the lawmakers out of town.

“Then it is the turn of the Fourth Estate of the Realm, the media, in a mindless fraud and manipulation of the press to have an upper hand in the face of flagrant trampling on the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Just  a few days ago, the governor’s agents hacked into Channels Television’s website to plant a story implicating Speaker Adewale Omirin and Senator Babafemi Ojuduý as engaging in impeachment funding fraud totalling N250 million.”

Fayose, according to him, is now creating for himself a reputation as an enemy of the state by killing all democratic institutions and their supporting structures in a mindless pursuit of power.

PDP crisis: S/South Gov to replace Muazu

• Muazu

•Govs, Clark, Anyim fingered in plot

An outgoing governor from the Southsouth is being tipped to take over as national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the plot to unseat the incumbent, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, thickens.

Mu’azu is being targeted by many party faithful for the party’s disastrous outing in the recent elections, its worst since it swept into power in 1999.

The ‘Mu’azu must- go’  campaign is being spearheaded  by chieftains  of the party including governors in the Southsouth and Southeast who  see the two zones as the new power base of the party and which must now be in the PDP’s driver’s seat with a view to  repositioning the party ahead of the 2019 elections.

More party members are being recruited to join the campaign which sources said may terminate Mu’azu’s leadership as early as May 29, the same day President Goodluck Jonathan will be handing over power to General Muhammadu Buhari.

The PDP chairman is from Bauchi in the Northeast geo-political zone.

Okorocha wins re-election as PDP’s Ikpeazu leads in Abia

•Early returns favour Darius Ishaku in Taraba
• PDP Senator Uzodinma, INEC officials arrested for thumb-printing

voters  in Imo state yesterday  re-elected    Governor Rochas Okorocha for a second term in office, endorsing him ahead of his closest opponent, Honourable Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Okorocha who accumulated 385,671 votes  as against   Ihedioha’s 306,142 , a difference of  79529, at the close of voting on April 11,got an additional 31,326 votes yesterday leaving 13,624 for Ihedioha in yesterday’s supplementary election.

The election took place in 200 Polling Units across 23 local government areas.

Of this number of LGAs,Okorocha won in 21.

His  performance defied efforts of the PDP to manipulate  the process through rigging .

Poll returns  announced last night  are as follows:

Nkwerre Local Government. Re-run held in two wards.