Nigerian entrepreneur and economist, Atedo Peterside, on Thursday said parties thinking of fielding Goodluck Jonathan as their candidate will be doing so in the face of damning data. He made the comment while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily amid speculations that the former President may defect to the All Progressives Congress and contest for President in 2023. Mr Peterside said although he voted for Jonathan in 2011, his approval ratings have since gone down and the job description for a Nigerian President has evolved. “You know again that I am a data person and I’m sorry, I cannot change who I am,” Mr Peterside said. “Goodluck Jonathan, I was on his economic team, I worked with him, I was also on Yar’Adua’s economic team. “Let me use the data, I said in 2011, Goodluck Jonathan had a 54% approval rating and by 2015 before election, it had collapsed to below 26%, the recent poll I saw, not done by us because we don’t waste time on things that are not all that relevant, his approval rating was below 5%. “So everybody is free to ignore data and come out and do anything they want to do. In fact, I hope that the APCs of this world would make a mistake and bring out people whose approval ratings are very low. You cannot fool all of the people all of the time. “He was the best candidate, I voted for him in 2011, that was a different era, that was a totally different era. The skill set, the gravity of the problem, the coverage required, it is a totally different job. Time does not stand still. But please, let parties ignore data and bring out anybody they like. Everybody should run the party the way they want to run their party. I have no say in APC, I have no say in PDP, I mean, I joined SDP just this week, I have a bit of a say but I’m not even a party officer. “I’m in a chapter; the chairman of my state chapter is a lady who is below 35. You know, these are young people that have come in en masse because they don’t want APC, they don’t want PDP and I’m following them.”

  The Abia State Government has declared Thursday as a public holiday to enable residents participate in the ongoing voters registration exercise in the state. The one-day holiday is “to enable those who are yet to take part in the exercise to do the needful in fulfilment of their civic rights and responsibilities,” a statement from the government said. “To this end, all markets, schools, government and other public offices are to be closed to ensure full participation.” The government believes public participation in the voters registration exercise in the state has been lower than expected. The voter registration exercise is being conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). According to INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, the country is now in the fourth quarter of the ongoing continuous voter registration (CVR) which was restarted n June 28 after it was suspended for the 2019 general election. However the exercise has been marred by challenges such as invalid registrations. INEC has also suspended voter registration in parts of Imo State over insecurity. The exercise takes on larger significance as the 2023 general elections loom.

  Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has endorsed Senator Uba Sani (APC, Kaduna Central) as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 election in the state. Daily Trust reliably gathered that the decision was reached after extensive discussion with some of the aspirants, where the governor made his choice known to them. “We met for about three hours. Everyone consented to allow Mallam’s decision to prevail. He has chosen Uba as the flag bearer. “We need to accept this as the will of Allah SWT and avoid unnecessary back talk. Let’s see how to manage our supporters amicably,” a message sent out by one of the aspirants, which was sighted by this newspaper, reads. Daily Trust also learnt that the governor asked a former Chief of Staff and two-time former Commissioner of Budget and Planning, Muhammed Sani Abdullahi, popularly known as Dattijo, to pick the form for Kaduna Central Senatorial District. Dattijo, who was earlier touted as the anointed candidate of the governor, Daily Trust gathered, was planning to pick the governorship form on Friday before he was dropped by the governor for Senator Sani. One of the aides to the senator also confirmed his choice by the governor, noting that he started consultation almost two years ahead of other aspirants. “We are happy that the governor has anointed him. He started ahead of these other aspirants. The APC is a big family and we expect everybody to work with him for the good of the party,” he said in a telephone interview last night. El-Rufai had, while featuring on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme, said his preference of a successor is in his core team. “My preference is in our core team; that is the first 11. I said core team because these are the guys that have worked with me since 2014 to organise our party, our campaign, and we won and got elected,” El-Rufai said. Daily Trust exclusively unveiled the members of El-Rufai’s core team to include Uba Sani. The 10 other members of the team are the deputy governor, Hadiza Balarabe, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Balarabe Abbas Lawal, three commissioners – Bashir Saidu (Finance), Muhammed Sani Abdullahi (Budget and Planning) and Samuel Aruwan (Internal Security). Others are Senator Sule Kwari (Kaduna North), Jimi Lawal (Senior Adviser, Councillor), Hafiz Bayero (Administrator, Kaduna Municipal Authority), Muyiwa Adekeye (Special Adviser, Media) and Saude Atoyebi (Deputy Chief of Staff).

  Heavily armed police personnel, Thursday morning, took over the state secretariat of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Abia located at Finbars Road Umuahia. The stern-looking security agents prevented staff and visitors from accessing the premises. One of them, on inquiries, said it was “an order from above”. When contacted, the Publicity Secretary of PDP, Hon. Fabian Nwankwo, said there was no cause for alarm. He said the party was observing one day of rest and asked party officials as well as workers to stay at home and rest. According to him the party officials and staff needed to rest because of accumulated stress arising from weeks of heavy activities. He said that activities would resume at the secretariat the next day, insisting that the presence of security personnel at the premises is not new. There have been protests and counter-protests at the secretariat since Tuesday following disagreements among party members over the three-man delegates congress. Some persons have accused the Dr Asiforo Okere-led State leadership of the party of compromise and plots to manipulate the process in favour of a certain anointed governorship aspirant. They demanded his immediate resignation or sack to enable the party to have leadership that would provide a level playground for all aspirants. But there was a counter-protest on Wednesday as a mammoth crowd besieged the office in solidarity with Okere-led leadership. They urged him not to be intimidated by those attempting to hijack power. The 47-member State Working Committee, SWC, had also dismissed those protesting and petitioning against the Chairman as ” faceless”.