Rabiu Kwankwaso has been expelled from the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) by its National Executive Committee (NEC) due to his alleged failure to attend hearings before the party’s disciplinary committee.

Earlier, Mr. Kwankwaso had faced suspension by the party’s leadership during the national convention held on August 29 in Lagos.

Following this, the NEC established a disciplinary committee and instructed them to extend an invitation to Mr. Kwankwaso to address allegations of serious anti-party activities and mishandling of party and campaign finances within a five-day window.

The NEC had cautioned that if Mr. Kwankwaso failed to appear before the disciplinary committee, he would be expelled from the party, as per the provisions outlined in the party’s 2022 constitution (as amended).

Consequently, NNPP’s acting spokesperson, Abdulsalam Abdulrasaq, issued a statement on Tuesday in Lagos, confirming Mr. Kwankwaso’s immediate expulsion from the party due to his refusal to respond to the committee’s invitations.

Mr Abdulrasaq said, “The NEC met in an emergency session on Friday, September 1 and resolved as follows: Following the refusal of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to appear before the disciplinary committee, which sat on Thursday, August 31 after being duly invited in writing, he is hereby expelled from NNPP with immediate effect.”

He added, “That the erstwhile presidential candidate, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, will be reported to appropriate quarters to answer questions on financial impropriety relating to mismanagement of public funds.”

The crisis within the NNPP started when the NWC of the party loyal to Kwankwaso announced the suspension of the NNPP founder, Dr Boniface Aniebonam and the National Publicity Secretary, Dr Agbo Major, on August 24.

The service of DAAR Communications PLC Management, the owners of AIT and Raypower, which was disrupted at the request of the Rivers State government, will be restored soon.

They stated that the ongoing dispute between DAAR Communications PLC and the Rivers State Government is currently being heard in court and that further comments on the matter will be withheld in order to avoid jeopardizing the legal process.

In a statement issued yesterday in Abuja, the management said that on September 4th, 2023, at approximately 10 a.m., a joint operation involving the Rivers State Government and federal security agencies resulted in the collapse of the Transmission Mast for AIT and Raypower in Port-Harcourt.

According to management, the unfortunate incident damaged the transmitter building and antennas, making AIT and Raypower terrestrial transmission temporarily unavailable.

DAAR Communications PLC’s management assured its valued audience that alternative means of accessing AIT and Raypower content remain available, including DStv, Gotv, StarTimes, the FreeTV platform, and the AIT and Raypower Apps available online.

Furthermore, the company stated that it is actively working to expedite the restoration of terrestrial broadcasting services.

It stated that the public will be kept up to date on any developments.

It was stated that DAAR Communications PLC is grateful to well-meaning Nigerians, media organizations, corporate interests, and political stakeholders who have expressed sympathy and support during this difficult time.

Despite these setbacks, the company stated that it remains committed to providing high-quality media services. Raypower FM and AIT are expected to emerge stronger and more resilient from adversity.

The Minister of Works, David Umahi on Monday claimed that the National Assembly withheld N650 million met for road projects in the country.

According to Umahi, the projects were almost completed but the lack of funds is keeping the contractors on site.

The former governor of Ebonyi State during a press conference called on the lawmakers to release funds.

He further stated that the way Nigeria’s budgetary allocation was designed is not encouraging for contractors to complete road projects.

The minister noted that the release of funds to contractors on an annual basis made road projects linger as in most cases.

He said, “When you give a contractor N150m a year for N600m road project, he’ll pocket it while mobilising to the site without doing anything on the ground. When confronted, he’ll say he’s yet to get the material he requested for outside the country as the money was not enough.”

He encouraged Nigerians to plant cash crops across road corridors to prevent kidnappings.

Umahi said, “Nigerians must get value for their taxes, the road is everything, where we are having kidnapping is on the spot where roads are bad, we should remove the bushes and plant cash crop, it is ideal and acceptable and we should replicate it in all parts of the country. It’ll remove the kidnappings.”

Umahi said the construction of concrete roads would not be enforced on projects awarded already.

He, however, said contractors would need to give assurance that roads built with asphalt would last up to 30 years even though the concrete roads would last longer.

The Minister added, “We are not stopping asphalt works but it is not possible to be paying the job that we know will not stand for five years. Contractors hide under the funny excuse of overloading for the road not standing long.”

He said the operations of the Federal Road Management Agency would be reviewed to “ensure that any intervention in states would be done with the input of the state government to know the roads with top priority.”

The Labour Party (LP) has said it is ready for the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) to deliver its final ruling in its petition challenging President Bola Tinubu’s victory.

Naija News reported that the Presidential tribunal, on Monday, confirmed that September 6 had been chosen as the date to deliver the ruling on the petitions challenging the victory of President Bola Tinubu at the 2023 presidential election.

In a statement on Monday, the Court of Appeal Registrar, Umar Bangari, confirmed the date for the much-anticipated verdict, adding that the court proceedings will be open to live broadcast by interested television stations.

Bangari stated that everything has been put in place to ensure a hitch-free delivery of the judgment in the three petitions.

He added that adequate security had been put in place and that only the invited members of political parties and the general public would be allowed into the courtroom to avoid congestion and security breaches.

Reacting to the development in a chat with Daily Trust, the LP National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, expressed optimism that the judgement would be in its favour tomorrow.

Ifoh stated that the wish of Nigerians would prevail and all the party’s prayers to the tribunal would be answered.

He said: “We are optimistic that the judgement would be in our favour and that all our prayers to the tribunal would be positive.”

Recall that the Labour Party (LP), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), as well as their presidential candidates, had petitioned the tribunal seeking to nullify the election of President Tinubu the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the 2023 presidential election as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

It would be recalled that after adopting the final written addresses of the parties involved in the suit, the five-man tribunal headed by Justice Haruna Simon Tsamani reserved judgment and said a date to deliver the verdict would be communicated to concerned parties and their lawyers.

Mohammed Bello Adoke, who turned 60 on September 1, 2023 served Nigeria as Attorney General and Minister of Justice, April 6, 2010- May 29, 2015. He holds the esteemed, silky rank of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR). He is one of the finest gentlemen that I know, a sound professional, brutally honest, intellectually gifted, a man whose first code of relationship is loyalty. I admire him for his intellect and forthrightness, but even more so for his stubborn loyalty to persons and causes.

There are persons that I have had cause to criticize in the recent past, in the line of work basically, but Adoke would insist he would never condemn any man in public who has ever been nice to him whatever the situation may be. And yet he has the most caustic tongue that anyone can ever think of. I have always warned him never to think of a career in journalism, lest someone breaks his bones literally, because when he takes on a subject that he is passionate about, he does not know how to measure his words. He is one of such persons who believe that their syntax must match the exact timbre of their feelings. When he is opposed to a subject, he wields an axe, when he is in support of a particular matter, he waxes lyrical.

Legal practice suits his temperament perfectly. Lawyers are basically technicians, wielding facts and evidence and relying on precedents and the law to build a case in favour of their clients, and lawyers are fine in that regard as long as they do not behave like characters in Charles Dickens’s The Great Expectations or The Bleak House where Dickens, 19th Century English satirist offers a most unflattering view of the law. The key thing about our common law jurisprudence is that the court-room restrains lawyers from speaking as it comes to them outside the rules of professional conduct. Adoke’s professionalism is not in doubt. Called to the Bar in 1986, after obtaining a degree in law from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria (1985), he holds a Postgraduate Diploma in International Tax Law from Robert Kennedy University, Zurich, Switzerland, a Diploma in International Commercial Arbitration from Keble College, Oxford and an Advanced LLM in Public International Law (specializing in international criminal law) from the University of Leiden, Netherlands. He has practised law in diverse areas such as civil litigation, commercial disputes, arbitration, election petitions and oil and gas culminating in his attainment of the rank of an SAN, membership of the International Law Commission in Geneva and his appointment as Chief Law Officer of the Federation: a position that places him in a special class in the legal profession.

The other day, ahead of the celebration of his 60th birthday, he granted an interview which has now become very controversial, to a lady, Ms Adesua Giwa-Osagie, on a platform called “Untold Stories”. In the interview, one thing led to another and Adoke, reacting to allegations that he was charged for corruption by the Buhari administration told his interviewer that no he was not corrupt, but that Buhari ran “the most incompetent government we’ve ever seen in this country, ran by the most incompetent President that this country has ever had and will never have again…by a set of political morons.” This was that side of Adoke’s persona that I talked about in action. In a few words, he delivered the most devastating assessment of the Buhari administration so far since Buhari’s departure from office on May 29. To accuse a man of incompetence at his work is to declare that he is not worth it at all. To dismiss a whole Government as a government of morons is brutal. It was therefore not surprising that by Monday morning, quite a number of news platforms reported a sharp rebuttal to Adoke’s statement by Mallam Garba Shehu, former senior assistant spokesperson to President Buhari. One example would suffice.

This newspaper yesterday in its lead front page story quoted Garba Shehu as having claimed that President Buhari’s fight against corruption is unprecedented. He was said to have cited the Process and Industrial Developments (PID) matter, Paris Club, and the Ajaokuta Steel Company as cases that Buhari had to take on which were inherited from the Jonathan administration under which Adoke served. He reportedly said that Buhari was on “a rescue mission”. Adoke’s interview, ahead of his 60th birthday, was on a relatively modest platform. I have always warned that volubility is not an asset in the business of spokesmanship. He who speaks for another must know what to ignore, what to respond to, and what to manage. By responding to Adoke, Garba Shehu has taken what could have been overlooked as a side comment to the front pages, and drawn more attention to President Buhari’s legacy. He should have kept quiet. But he didn’t. And now he has ignited a conversation around the question: what exactly did President Buhari rescue?

It is true that in 2015, President Buhari had promised Nigerians that he would address the issues of insecurity, the economy and corruption. By the time he left office in May 2023, he had left the country in a far more insecure state than he met it. The economy was in the doldrums. Nigeria was in so much debt, even Buhari’s economists advised against the perils of further borrowings. Inflation had become unmanageable. The country’s unemployment rate was so high, the succeeding Tinubu administration has had to engage in the voodoo manipulation of statistics to reassure Nigerians that the unemployment index had dropped using a different methodology. But the same Tinubu, APC to APC government has not hidden the fact that the new managers inherited a badly managed economy.

Wale Edun, the current Minister of Finance and the Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy has said publicly that the last time the Nigerian economy was stable was about a decade ago, in other words before Buhari/APC assumed office at the centre. He added, to drive the matter home, that “we inherited a bad economy.” So, what happened to Buhari’s rescue mission. The standard excuse that has been given in his defence is that he was “not aware” of most of the things that happened under his watch. Tinubu, his successor, from the same party has been carrying on as if he is aware, and that is why he has been prying into some of the transactions under Buhari: the CBN, the foreign exchange, import waivers, management of palliatives, the anchor borrowers’ programme. His only saving grace would be that if Tinubu with his “over-sabi” fails to deliver on his reforms, then people could become kinder to him, but if Tinubu is able to make a difference, then Buhari’s legacy would be in tatters. The jury is still out. Buhari’s spin doctors are no longer in a position to dictate how he should be remembered. The old line about Buhari fighting corruption that was hatched under Jonathan is a worn, over-flogged tale that no longer sells in the light of present realizations.

As a person. Muhammed Bello Adoke has used the occasion of his 60th birthday to defend himself in the public domain. Before his recent interview, he had written a book titled “Burden of Service: Reminiscences of Nigeria’s former Attorney General” (London/New York: Clink Street, 2019, 270 pp.) in which he provides a detailed reflection on his trials and triumphs as Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice: the mischief of those who witch-hunted him, specifically the OPL 245 Controversy and the Ajaokuta Steel Settlement. Adoke’s main argument is that he acted in the utmost best interest of Nigeria in all that he did and strictly within the purview of the rule of law. The frustration that he expresses in the book about the intrigues in the corridors of power is enough to discourage anyone from agreeing to serve the Nigerian government. Depending on the circumstances, you could go in as an innocent person interested in service, only to come out with a heavy Sisyphean burden on your shoulders. In 2016, the Buahri administration charged Adoke to court along with others over OPL 245. He was hounded from pillar to post, even as far as the Netherlands. He was eventually arrested in Dubai after spending about six years in exile. Adoke is in the best position to tell his own story, and he probably would do so in another book. What is certain is that a court in Milan, Italy discharged and acquitted him of any wrong-doing in the OPL 245 debacle. The Commercial Court in the UK ruled that he had nothing to do with the P&ID debacle which seems to have gone cold most conveniently. The former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN advised the government in a written opinion that the Federal Government had no case against. Adoke. Mr Ibrahim Magu, former EFCC Chairman, by Adoke’s own account, also found cause to apologise to him. This is probably the root of his deployment of strong adjectives to dismiss a leader that was once a “constituted authority” in this country as the most incompetent in Nigerian history. Politics is a function of time and chance, hall of mirrors, a revolving door.

Adoke was not originally my friend. We quarrelled before we became friends. When I assumed duties at the Presidential Villa in 2011, one of the first pieces of advice I got was from Akachikwu Nwankpo, then Special Adviser on Technical Matters to the President and later Gubernatorial candidate in the 2022 Anambra elections. Nwankwo had drawn my attention very early to what he called the existence of a “A Gap Theory” in the Villa, in the sense that the place was a jungle and the only way to survive was to defend your territory with every ounce of energy within you. I thought he was joking. But he was dead serious. “You see this place my brother, you have to watch your territory, even when you are doing your best people are perpetually looking for how they can do your job for you.” I felt that was odd. People had specific titles and job descriptions.

But as it turned out, I discovered on my own that my assignment as Presidential Spokesperson was something everyone had their eyes on. I usually briefed the President every morning at the breakfast table. In a short while some people started dragging it with me. They would plant themselves at the table and before I started the briefing, one of them would have launched an unsolicited media commentary: “Daddy, on AIT yesterday…” Oga, I heard that so, so and so editor.” Ha. Would these people allow me to do this job? Many of the interlopers used to go directly to the President to introduce editors and other media players, claiming to know the media better than everyone else. Some had the effrontery of directing me to issue press statements. I was caught in the web once or twice, but when I saw the President didn’t like me producing press statements that he did not personally authorize, I became fiercely territorial. Only the President could tell me what to do.

I had a different kind of baptism in January 2012. That was during the “Occupy Nigeria” protests following the Jonathan administration’s decision to deregulate the downstream sector, which resulted in the pump price of petrol going up from N65 per litre to N141 per litre. Mayhem descended on Nigeria. There were riots in Ojota, Abuja and other parts of the country. For more than a week, organised labour and civil society fought the Nigerian government. They wanted the removal of subsidy reversed and they were determined, not the kind of “testing, testing” protest that Labour leaders of today are organizing on the same issue. There was unease in the Villa as there was in the country. There were casualties. It was felt that the President needed to address the nation. I wrote a draft in which I tried to appeal to the people and calm the nerves. Then came along Adoke with a militant draft speech in which the President was meant to sound stern and warn the dissidents and their sponsors who were disturbing the peace of the nation. The version that Adoke brought was pugilistic and fierce. The President told me to go and look at it and get back to him. I came back with a modified draft, only for the President to opt for the militant piece. It was his statement, not mine. But I was bitter. I complained to Dr. Fortune Fiberesima, the President’s physician who said he too was facing the same challenge – all kinds of people trying to do his work, even when they had no knowledge of medicine. One Minister, who always boasted that his wife was a medical doctor, in fact relished offering the President medical advice. Fiberesima used to fume.

I decided to talk to Mohammed Adoke. I told him he should not do my job. He should focus on his AGF work. He was nice. He said he was interested in the purity of the law, not other people’s assignments and indeed, with the law, he is one of the finest that Nigeria has had as AGF and Minister of Justice. The story of our friendship since then till date is another story to be told some other day. For now, please join me to wish him a happy 60th birthday. Congratulations, AGF Emeritus.

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has explained why they shunned the meeting with the Federal Government over increasing hardship and suffering across the country caused by the removal of fuel subsidy.

Naija News recalls that the NLC had refused to attend a last-minute reconciliatory meeting with FG before embarking on its two-day warning strike.

Speaking on the reason for shunning the meeting, sources in the NLC leadership told Vanguard that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong had held a media briefing where he allegedly castigated labour leaders.

This reportedly forced the NLC leaders to shun the meeting that would have been held at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Federal Secretariat.

The minister was said to have threatened the NLC leaders at his briefing, foreclosing any chance that NLC would honour the meeting.

One of the visibly angry NLC leaders told the aforementioned publication that they had to shun the meeting so as to avoid possible arrest.

His words: “We were scheduled to meet the Minister of Labour and Employment later today (yesterday), precisely by 3 pm but a few hours to the meeting, the minister called a media briefing where he castigated us and threatened us among other uncomplimentary words.

“Not that the meeting would have stopped the strike, but we intended to attend the meeting in the spirit of social dialogue. But as you are aware, the Minister of Labour, before the scheduled meeting, held a media briefing castigating and threatening us.

“You do not expect us to attend a meeting when we had been warned of a possible arrest.

“In fact, we thank the minister for putting us on notice of their plan. So, the right thing to do is to keep away from such meetings and avoid any possible arrest.

“What the minister had done was nothing short of industrial dictatorship and naked blackmail. The Federal Government had already taken decision on the proposed meeting, the minister was kind enough to hold a briefing ahead of the meeting to disclose part of the government’s decision.

‘’Well, like I said earlier, the strike goes ahead as planned. After Wednesday, we will determine what next steps to follow. The NEC’s communiqué was loud enough. We cannot continue as if we are living in a different country from our political leaders and their cronies.

‘’You cannot continue to beat us and say we should not cry. Everywhere you go in every part of the country; people are complaining of hardship and suffering without concrete efforts by government to lessen our pains. Instead, the government is unleashing more policies to send us to untimely death.”

Federal Workers Forum (FWF) has vowed to shut down Federal Secretariats across the country ahead of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), two-day warning strike.

The National Coordinator of FWF and former Trade Union Congress (TUC) Chairman, Oyo State Chapter, Andrew Emelieze disclosed this in a statement released on Monday.

The statement read, “We at the Federal Workers Forum are in full support of the call by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for a two-day national warning strike from Tuesday 5th to 6th September 2023 over issues of government insensitivity to the plight of workers and the citizenry at large.

“As federal workers, we are also badly affected by the economic crisis visited on Nigerians as a result of the hike in the pump price of petrol, all in the name of subsidy removal.

“We had earlier written to the federal government to adjust our wages automatically in line with the existing economic realities but that has fallen on deaf ears.

“It is over three months now that fuel subsidy had been removed and fuel has equally been increased twice by over 300%, with a price shift from ₦187 to over ₦620 but salaries have remained the same. Federal workers within this period have gone through excruciatingly tough times. It has been stories of mass suffering and life has been made almost meaningless to the federal workers.

“Everything has been nauseating and hunger is now a way of life among the federal workers. As a matter of fact, federal workers have been financially embarrassed as against the provisions of the general order of the federal civil service rules and regulations.

“Federal government workers are no slaves, we therefore query this pathetic situation and call on all federal workers to ensure that the two-day warning strike is successful.

“We call on the federal workers to ensure that all federal government Secretariat across the federation is shut down during the strike period. Workers are to also ensure that every other government office, department and agency is shut down nationwide.

“We call on all industrial unions, organising federal workers to comply with the directives of the NLC.
The Trade Union Congress (TUC) is also called upon to ensure the success of this strike action.

“We urge the federal government to meet up with the demands of labour.

“We demand also that the government pay up all outstanding arrears of salaries, promotions, duty tour allowances (DTA) owed the federal workers and particular attention to the arrears of salaries of federal university workers in Nigeria.

“Henceforth, federal workers will no longer tolerate any oppression of federal workers anywhere and we shall not hesitate to join any workers group in solidarity strike when oppression is noticed; our attention here is drawn to the plight of our colleagues in the federal universities.

“We equally call on the NLC to pursue this struggle to a logical conclusion and stop this mass cheating of workers. The NLC must not disappoint Nigerians, the labour movement has our collective support.”

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative technology with the potential to revolutionize various sectors, including medical care, legal services, education, and scientific innovation. The benefits of AI are not limited to individual productivity but also extend to the overall growth of economies. Recognizing the significance of AI, the Chinese government has implemented a regulatory framework to ensure its responsible and ethical use.

As a preemptive measure, prior to the proliferation of the use of AI for mischief and unethical purposes, it is very crucial for the Federal Government of Nigeria commence without delay, the establishment of a similar regulatory framework to harness the potential benefits of AI while addressing potential challenges.

Artificial intelligence has the potential to bring profound benefits to Nigeria, improving various sectors and enhancing productivity. However, to ensure responsible and ethical use, the Federal Government of Nigeria should establish a regulatory commission similar to that of China, that would be charged with the following responsibilities:

1. Ensuring Ethical Use of AI:
The implementation of a regulatory framework will enable the Nigerian government to ensure the ethical use of AI. This framework can include guidelines and standards that govern the development, deployment, and use of AI systems. By setting ethical boundaries, the government can prevent the misuse of AI technology, such as the creation of deepfake videos or the dissemination of false information.

For example, the Chinese government has established regulations that require AI companies to obtain licenses for certain applications, such as facial recognition technology. This ensures that AI systems are used responsibly and in compliance with privacy and security standards.

2. Protecting Citizens' Privacy:
AI systems often rely on vast amounts of data to function effectively. Therefore, it is crucial to protect citizens' privacy and personal information. The Nigerian government can establish data protection laws and regulations that require AI companies to obtain consent from individuals before collecting and using their data.

China has implemented the Personal Information Protection Law, which provides guidelines for the collection, storage, and use of personal information by AI companies. Similar legislation in Nigeria would safeguard citizens' privacy and build trust in AI systems.

3. Promoting Research and Development:
A regulatory framework can also foster research and development in AI. By providing clear guidelines and support, the Nigerian government can encourage investment in AI technologies and innovation. This will not only benefit the economy but also promote scientific advancements and technological breakthroughs.

China's regulatory framework includes policies that support AI research and development, such as funding initiatives and tax incentives. Nigeria can adopt similar measures to attract investment and nurture a thriving AI ecosystem.

Finally, Artificial intelligence has the potential to bring profound benefits to Nigeria, improving various sectors and enhancing productivity. However, to ensure responsible and ethical use, the Federal Government of Nigeria should establish a regulatory framework similar to that of China. This framework should focus on ensuring ethical use, protecting citizens' privacy, and promoting research and development. By implementing such a framework, Nigeria can harness the potential of AI while safeguarding its citizens and fostering innovation.

Popular human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has expressed concern about the attention the expected verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal is generating from Nigerians.

The lawyer stated that no election petition has attracted such a level of blackmail and intimidation of the judiciary since the colonial days as the 2023 tribunal.

Falana however pointed out that the verdict of the tribunal is not final and all stakeholders need to remember that the Supreme Court can still overturn whatever be the presidential tribunal’s ruling.

Naija News reports the lawyer made the submission on Monday during an interview appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

In his words, “We have been having election petitions since the colonial era, but none has attracted such level of blackmail and intimidation of the judiciary.

“I am worried that people give the impression that everything ends with the judgement of the Court of Appeal, the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal. Any party that loses on Wednesday still has the opportunity to appeal to the Supreme Court. So, what is the basis for the cheap blackmail that is going on?”

The senior lawyer noted that regardless of the outcome of Wednesday’s tribunal ruling, the heavens won’t fall and the judges must not be intimidated.

“As they say, even if the heavens will fall and the heavens won’t fall anyway, the judges must not be intimidated, they must give their decision regardless of blackmail or intimidations convinced that they can justify their judgment.

“That is what is required of them, to examine the evidence, apply the law and deliver a decision. One way or the other, some will lose, some will win; but those who lose in the case and are aggrieved will have another opportunity to approach the Supreme Court and demonstrate how the Court of Appeal has erred,” Falana submitted.

It would be recalled that the Court of Appeal on Monday confirmed that it will deliver judgement on the presidential election petitions on Wednesday, 6th September, 2023.

Former Deputy National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Bode George, has warned the judiciary not to truncate the electoral process as it delivers judgment on the Presidential Election Petition.

Naija News reports that the elder statesman, while speaking during a state-of-the-nation press conference in Lagos on Monday, said the judiciary should never go through the route of announcing any of the 2023 presidential candidates as the winner.

Bode George said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) procedure was faulty; therefore, the judiciary should order a rerun.

He noted that pronouncing any of the candidates as President would redefine democracy in Nigeria as the government of the judiciary.

The PDP leader said, “Whoever that the tribunal eventually announces as the winner of the election, I am saying, if the judiciary pronounces anybody the President with the shambolic procedure from this election, it will be a shame on this country. The judiciary should never go through that route.

“The procedure is faulty, so they should direct the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to go back and do the election again. If it is one million times, go back and do the election. You see now that there is peace in Kenya because the Supreme Court said go back and do the election.

“Otherwise, if they pronounce Mr A or Mr B as the winner of that shambolic election, then democracy in Nigeria would be redefined as the government of the judiciary, for the judiciary and by the judiciary. Is that a democracy?”

Bode George also took a swipe at the economic policies of President Bola Tinubu‘s administration, saying it is hurting Nigerians.

He faulted the Federal Government’s method in the distribution of N5 billion palliatives to Nigerians, describing it as voodoo economics.

He said, “There is no individual in this globe called earth that knows it all. Who is the Chief Economic Adviser in the Villa? Is he a voodoo economist? Is he a medieval economist? Basic theory in economics says that when too much money is chasing a few goods, it causes hyperinflation. You gave N5 billion to states as palliatives, Who took that decision? Lagos has more than 22 million people, Bayelsa has about two million people and they have the same money.

“Kano with a huge population got the same with Jigawa. Is it money for the boys or money for the people? The whole world is now a global village.

“The moment Russia shut down their gas pipeline to Europe; they have all been in hell. What we are talking about here is the pain the people are passing through.

“In England too, there is pain and the people are shouting, doctors are on strike and the salary can no longer meet their daily needs. The cost of electricity has gone through the roof. But in Nigeria, what the hell are we doing here?”