Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo, says Nigeria needs “only the best at this time” as the country prepares for the 2023 general election. He spoke on Saturday when Bola Tinubu, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), paid a visit to Oyo over the deaths of Jimoh Oyewumi, the Soun of Ogbomoso; Saliu Adetunji, the Olubadan of Ibadanland, and Alao-Akala, former governor of Oyo. The APC chieftain, on Monday, had said he had informed President Muhammadu Buhari of his intention to contest the presidency. According to a statement by Taiwo Adisa, Makinde’s chief press secretary, the Oyo governor wished Tinubu well in his quest to become president. “I want to welcome you to Oyo state. We are really grateful for this visit. This is the year political parties will elect their candidates towards the election that is coming next year. So, what this had demonstrated to us is, you stood for politics without bitterness,” Makinde was quoted as saying. “During this political season, you may have to question yourself on why you need to come to the Government House because people might have another interpretation to it. But you sent a message across to me and I was delighted to host you in Ibadan. “We lost two traditional rulers almost in quick succession. First, it was Soun of Ogbomoso land, and we were planning for the burial when the Olubadan of Ibadanland also joined his ancestors. We were still in the middle of that when former governor Akala also died. I can see that in Oyo state, we try to take politics out of what we call ‘omoluabi’. “We may fight, struggle for political positions but we know power can only come from God and He gives it to whomever He will like to give it to at whatever time. “We really thank you for this visit and want to let you know that we have taken proper notice that you have risen above politics and all that is going around here to come and share with us at this moment that we are grieving. We say thank you. “Let me also use this opportunity to wish you well in your political quest to govern this nation. We want the best for this country and only the best is good enough at this particular time.”

Oyo Governor Seyi Makinde has entered a closed-door meeting with members of the Olubadan-in-council. According to sources, the nominated Olubadan of Ibadan Senator Lekan Balogun; Ex-Governor Rashidi Ladoja and other members of the Council, numbering about 10, are attending the meeting. The meeting started shortly after the Governor attended the Armed Forces Remembrance Day event at the Remembrance Archade, opposite the Government House, Agodi Ibadan. Buhari honours fallen heroes at Armed Forces Remembrance Day… Barring last-minute change, the Governor, to be accompanied by the members of the Olubadan-in-Council are expected to brief the press. A source close to the government hinted that the meeting was facilitated to resolve and address all issues bordering on the selection of the next Olubadan of Ibadanland. It was gathered that, if things go well at the meeting, the Governor may appoint and or confirm the nomination of Balogun to ascend the Olubadan stool. Details shortly… The Nation

The overwhelming majority of politicians warning up to takeover power in 2023 and continue the business, as usual, should be rejected, leaders of the Northern Elders Forum ( NEF), have said. The NEF leaders who reiterated that they were the Kingmakers, were made up of Prof. Ango Abdullahi, Dr Hakeem Baba Ahmed and others. They spoke in Kaduna on Saturday during the meeting of Northern Leaders of Thought at the Arewa House. Democracy, they said; was essentially the freedom to choose a good leader and everybody should be allowed to choose the person he wanted. “We want a President with the vision and the capacity to retrieve the country from the verge of collapse,” they said. Our leaders, they warned, should avoid the temptation of coming up with policies that would raise the emotions of the poor. “Millions of Northerners are angry and frustrated that their level of living is worse than how it was in 2015,” they alleged. The Northern leaders said, ” we say to them turn your anger into an asset” by voting for the right candidate (s) in the forthcoming election. In a keynote address titled “Rebuilding the North”, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, Director, Publicity and Advocacy, Northern Elders Forum, said “anger is not the best fuel for change, but in our case today, it is the most potent. If used constructively and responsibly, it can create an environment that will remove its sources and its manifestations. Unfortunately for the North, it is also the only fuel source we have. We have voted people into power who have either turned their backs at us or have usurped the very sources of their power and turned them into personal assets.” to them turn your anger into an asset” by voting for the right candidate (s) in the forthcoming election. In a keynote address titled “Rebuilding the North”, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, Director, Publicity and Advocacy, Northern Elders Forum, said “anger is not the best fuel for change, but in our case today, it is the most potent. If used constructively and responsibly, it can create an environment that will remove its sources and its manifestations. Unfortunately for the North, it is also the only fuel source we have. We have voted people into power who have either turned their backs at us or have usurped the very sources of their power and turned them into personal assets.” He said: “May I start by expressing my profound appreciation for the privilege of delivering this Keynote Address on a date and a venue that have major historical significance for the North and Nigeria. This honour is all the more humbling given the significance of our present surroundings as well as the current state of the North and the country as a whole. This is also a rare event. Although groups and associations have raised voices on insecurity, poverty and the damaging decline of the economy of the North and the setbacks in relations between communities that make up Nigeria, many Northern elders and leaders with personal integrity and other qualities who should stand up to be counted have largely retreated into the discomfort of silence. “Younger Northerners are angry, frustrated and alienated, with virtually no linkages with elders and leaders, unless they are hired thugs in the service of politicians. Many others are criminals, bandits, informers or kidnappers exploiting the weaknesses of the State, or at margins of hopelessness in a country that they believe promises a lot and delivers nothing. This meeting appears to have been designed to commence the building of bridges that should link generations of Northerners around a vision which gives hope and heals a region lacking a single excuse for its many wounds.” ” The effort of the organizers of this meeting, specifically to bring together prominent, elderly and future leaders of the North is particularly commendable. In this room, and in these surroundings, there is the history of people who took over the responsibility to steer the North through the challenging waters of decolonization and finding for it a fitting place in the new Nigeria. Most of them were in their 30s and 40s, but they understood their historic opportunities; the values they were prepared and groomed to defend, and the challenges which they were to face. “Their team leader, Sir Ahmadu Bello, fell to bullets from cowardly murderers in these very premises. The people who killed him simultaneously launched Nigeria into a different and negative trajectory from which it has not recovered. Today, we can speak as three or four generations of Northerners who have seen the best and now live in the worst of the North. We can lament the loss of great opportunities, but we will also support each other to find the strengths and the courage to ask the right questions and find the right answers.” ” We should use this day, at this venue full of history, to signal a turning – point in our circumstances as a people and bring an end to lamentations. We have wasted enough lives, blood, energy and resources drifting and blaming leaders who have reaped hugely from our misfortunes and self-inflicted injuries. It is enough. “We have no one else to cry to; no one to look up to, to lead us out of terror and poverty and no one willing to use their positions to turn the fortunes of the North around. Our fate will only be designed and determined by us. We may be facing unprecedented challenges, but these are times to prepare to find extraordinary strengths and assets so that our children will be rid of the current nightmares which are our lives today.” ” We do have massive sources of energy and muscle to bring real change to our circumstances. We have the anger of people whose lives have been taken over by armed criminals who know we are basically undefended against them. We have limits on how much we can run away from bullets, rapists and kidnappers, and

Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), former military head of state, says the ideal president for Nigeria in 2023 should not be as old as he is. He said this in an interview with Daily Trust TV. When asked about his choice of president in 2023, 80-year-old IBB responded saying: “It is not who do I have in mind but who fits in.” “Any person who fits in within these criteria, then he is the right person as long as he is a Nigerian; he is a politician, he is not old like I am; he is very conversant with the country, he communicates, he is a very good communicator,” he said. “He should be able to communicate because a president should be able to walk into a group of people and talk to them on issues concerning Nigeria; not all the time but most of the time. “He must have somebody he knows in every part of the country. It is not a tall order. “You could limit it to states, you could limit it to local governments even to the wards if you can but somebody such that once you hear the name, it is somebody you will say, yes, I have heard that name before either in the country or in his profession; if he is a doctor, a journalist or whatever, all areas, we have heard the name before; okay then I will make an effort to know more about him.” On whether he sees such a person among the current political office holders, he said he believes the process will take care of that. “Within the process, of those people you mentioned now, there are people who could fit into this category and I believe the process can take care of that,” he said. The former head of state also spoke about his decision not to remarry after the death of Maryam, his wife. She died at the age of 61 on December 27, 2009, after battling ovarian cancer for years. IBB said he stayed unmarried to honour his late wife. “The media still snoop around me, they should have known. I haven’t. It is a matter of choice; I decided to honour her by being not a bachelor but being unmarried,” he said.

Continued delay in the assent to the Electoral Act (2010) amendment bill may affect the adoption of the new amendments for the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission has said. The commission said though it operates based on existing legal regime, it was important to have the law that would guide the elections in place at least 12 to 18 months before the exercise. Already, the Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, has announced February 23, 2023 as the date for the presidential election, which is about one year from now. The amendment, prompted by the compelling need to engender transparency, improve the electoral process and boost the credibility of elections, had generated nationwide debate, especially the need for electronic transmission of results and the contentious direct primary made mandatory for political parties. The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), revealed in his letter to the National Assembly that the direct primary clause, inserted by the lawmakers, was the sole reason he vetoed the bill, noting that parties should have options on the mode of direct primary to adopt. “You can’t dictate to people and say you are practicing democracy,” he added. INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Festus Okoye, in an interview with Saturday PUNCH on Thursday, however, said, “The commission operates on the basis of the existing legal regime. The commission released the timetable and schedule of activities for the Ekiti and Osun states governorship elections based on the extant and existing constitutional and electoral legal framework. “The commission does not operate on the basis of speculation and deductions. Yes, the commission is aware of the pendency of a bill to amend the existing legal regime. That bill is still inchoate and does not become law until it is signed by the President and or the National Assembly determines otherwise. “Hopefully, issues around the amended law will soon be resolved. It is important to have the legal regime in place at least 12 to 18 months before a major election. It is also important to resolve the issues based on the differential timelines in the existing electoral act and the one that is projected in the bill.” After the President vetoed the bill, many lawmakers expressed anger over his decision. In the upper chamber, angry senators threatened to override his veto. Some of them had begun collecting signatures to this effect, but the move was later jettisoned following persuasion from their colleagues and the party. The two chambers agreed to revisit the bill after their Christmas and New Year recess.