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Nigeria Is A Smouldering Fire Waiting To Be Inferno – Ikpeazu

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Nigeria Is A Smouldering Fire Waiting To Be Inferno - Ikpeazu
Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu

Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has fumed at developments in the country, urging President Muhammadu Buhari to take urgent actions for peace.

To stem the growing tension in the polity, Ikpeazu urged the president to visit 109 senatorial zones across the country.

The governor said that Buhari should also hold town hall meetings and talk to Nigerians on the need to live in peace and harmony.

The governor stated this in an interview in Aba, while noting that lots of people were disenchanted with the state of affairs in the country.

He described Nigeria as a country of “smoldering fire where burning charcoals are swept under the carpet and ignored till the inferno” begins to emerge and the country starts fire fighting.

READ ALSO: INEC Releases 2023 General Elections Timetable

According to Ikpeazu, Nigeria has been suffering from its failure to manage “smoldering fire concealed under the carpet.”

He urged Nigeria to emulate Rwanda which emerged from a bloody genocide, but has achieved national cohesion as the citizens vowed never to allow their country tread the evil path again.

“I have said that Nigeria is a country of smouldering fire. We sweep smouldering charcoal under the carpet and we see smoke and we ignore it. The fire begins to emerge in flames and we start fighting it. Another group of people becomes disenchanted and complain but we still cover the smoldering charcoal under the carpet. We don’t talk.

“If you ask about my foremost recommendation to our national leader, as a response to all the issues, what I will say is that he needs to find energy to visit all the 109 senatorial districts and hold town hall meetings.

“I’m a student of economic growth and advancement and developments in Rwanda. They just made it out of a bloody genocide and yet there is palpable cohesion. The refrain in the mouth of every Rwandan is never again. How did they get to that point?

What is it that they did not do? Can Nigerians say never again?

“The president needs to talk to people and have them take notes. Some of the things people will say may be stupid or wise. People are capable of selective hearing, they will hear what they want to hear and ignore what they don’t want to hear.

“Sometimes, they do analysis and perceive it in the negative perspective. This is why I say that the greatest thing Mr. President needs to do is to talk to Nigerians. Our youths here did not commit any crime in saying that there is injustice in the land. People are not properly treated. Appointments are not as fair as they are supposed to be. People seem to be abandoned. Some herdsmen have invaded our forest and raped women.

“People can’t go to their farms and we can’t cope with it. When somebody begins to raise issues about such things, he needs to know the steps that are being taken. People need to understand that there is a red line if they go beyond a certain level, irrespective of where they come from. When that wasn’t forthcoming, people started reacting. Everybody doesn’t have the same equivalent level of mind stability. All these led to this widespread disenchantment.”

He urged the president not to get weary of talking to the citizenry, stressing that Nigeria is a ‘rainbow country’ with different sentiments, traditions, cultures, beliefs and persuasions which must be handled with love and tolerance.

READ ALSO: Credibility Crisis In INEC’s Online Voters’ Online Registration – HURIWA

“Talks, conversation, discussions can help. It is only when intelligent discussion or engagement fails, that you get fracas and brigandage takes place. If a conversation ends in a deadlock, you continue the next day. Choose your words rightly and show commitment. We must be governed the way we want to be governed. You don’t govern us the way you want. Anyone who denies that the federal character law is not an important one in Nigeria is joking. There are more than 30 languages in Adamawa alone. We are a rainbow country, our sentiments, traditions, cultures beliefs and persuasions are different. We need to be sensitive. Telling people that they can’t do anything is unfair.

“In the concept of educational disadvantages, some states have cut-off points of 100; some have 200 and 2 for others. All of us kept quiet because some states are seemingly disadvantaged and need to be accommodated. Nobody has come to say that the cut-off point must be level. This spirit of accommodation is embedded in our constitution through the federal character principle; politicizing the federal character principle won’t work and can only create a milieu that promotes enslavement and tendencies of holding down some people,” he said.

 

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LG Election: Opposition Parties On Holiday, APC Remains Party to Beat – Abiodun

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My Dad Asked Me To Prioritise Civil Servants, Pensioners, Teachers - Abiodun
Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun

Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun has declared that based on the performance of his administration in the last five years, opposition parties are clearly unpopular and invisible in the forthcoming local government election.

The governor added that the quality of candidates the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is presenting in the election would make it the party to beat with landslide victory in all the 20 Local Government Areas of the State.

Speaking through his Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Hon. Kayode Akinmade, over the weekend, Prince Abiodun explained that his administration has changed the hitherto volatile political environment in the state and made it conducive for opposition parties to operate without hindrance or intimidation.

According to him, instead of the primordial machinery of intimidation, his administration has dwarfed the opposition parties in the state through sterling performance and creative ideas for development.

Governor Abiodun, therefore, urged members of APC in the state to show more commitment and work in harmony to sustain the feats already attained in the past years and ensure resounding victory during the November 16 local government poll.

“With the quality of candidates our party is presenting in the forthcoming local government election in the State, APC remains a part to beat; we have assiduously and consistently made remarkable impacts in the life of our people and this is indeed our selling point.

“Without going through the primordial route of physical intimidation of opposition parties, our administration has obviously silenced them by our intimidating projects, creative ideas and prudence, which have earned us a leading status among other federating units.

“It is now incumbent on every APC member across the 20 Local Government Areas to sustain the enviable feats our party has recorded in the last five years by showing more commitment and work in unison for the victory of our party come November 16,” Abiodun said.

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LP Chieftain, Kenneth Okonkwo Disagrees With Peter Obi

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LP Chieftain, Kenneth Okonkwo Disagrees With Peter Obi

By John Michael Ojo

Kenneth Okonkwo, a chieftain of the Labour Party who doubled as the party’s spokesman during the 2023 general elections has accused the party’s chairman, Julius Abure of corruption and mismanagement of the party’s fund.

Okonkwo, a Nollywood Actor turned politician disclosed this on Tuesday via microblogging platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

He also alleged that the LP’s national convention organised by the Abure-led National Working Committee lacked merit in its entirety.

While distancing himself from the embattled party’s chairman, he wrote: “I am suspending my relationship in all ramifications with the purported Abure-led National Working Committee of Labour Party.“

For me, it’s either a new Nigeria or nothing. I prefer to lose doing the right thing to winning doing the wrong thing.

“Nothing can wash out the criminality, corruption, and incompetence with which the purported Natokoional Convention was purportedly organised by Abure.

“I did not leave the comfort of a ruling party, APC, because I believe that they are incompetent and dishonest, only to come and join another incompetent and corrupt association, which is the current Abure-led National Working Committee of Labour Party.”

Okonkwo’s claim is coming barely days after the presidential candidate of party, Peter Obi drummed support for the Abure-led NWC.

Obi who was viewed as a favourite in the build-up of the presidential election came a distant third behind former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar.

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Abiodun Commends Ogun Assembly For Seamless Transition As Elemide Is Elected Speaker

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L-R: Hon. Adegoke Adeyanju; Minority Leader, Lukman Adeleye; Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwasina Ogungbade; Deputy Speaker, Hon. Bolanle Lateefat Ajayi; new Speaker, Oludaisi Elemide; Deputy Governor, Engr. Noimot Salako-Oyedele; SSG, Mr. Tokunbo Talabi; Deputy Chief of Staff, Toyin Taiwo; Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Ganiu Hamzat; Majority Leader, Yusuf Sheriff and Hon. Waliu Owode.

Ogun State Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun has congratulated the new Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Oludaisi Elemide and other lawmakers for ensuring a rancour-free process.

The governor, who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Engr. (Mrs.) Noimot Salako-Oyedele spoke when he received 19 members of the House who accompanied the new speaker on a courtesy call on him on Tuesday in his office at Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

He commended the seamless manner in which they elected the new speaker, reaffirming that the lawmakers have the right to decide who would lead them in a democracy.

He said: “It is worthy of note that the executive has not interfered in the process to make sure that you are comfortable in what you want to do, that led you to making your decision. And we support you in the decision that you make.

“You have gone through the process in a way that is exemplary. This is not the first time in this country that members of a particular legislature have decided to change their leader.”

He emphasized that the executive arm would continue to adhere strictly to the concept of Separation of Power and the rule of law in its relationship with the House of Assembly.

The governor pledged that his administration would support and work closely with the legislature to maintain the harmonious relationship that has existed in the last four and a half years.

In his remarks, the new speaker, Rt. Hon. Elemide said the House would continue to complement the executive and avoid the unnecessary mudslinging that may hinder the progress of the state.

“We are not going to fight, and neither are we going to compromise the executive. In the legislature, there is room for lobbying. We will lobby where we need to lobby, we will assert where we need to assert, and we will let the whole people of the State know that we are there for them.

“To my colleagues, I would not want to betray their confidence that they have in me. It is going to be we and not I. I am just the first among equals, and we were voted in from our various constituencies. I will take cognisant that we are equal.

“I will be there to speak for them, and I will speak whatever they put in my mouth,” Elemide concluded.

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