Author: Editor
Stephen Ukandu (News/Features Editor) A pro-Igbo group, Igboekulie, has urged the major political parties in the country to cede their 2023 presidential ticket to the South-East geo-political zone for equity, unity, and national stability. The group argued that only justice for Igbo would foster national unity and cohesion. It contended that nobody of Igbo extraction had had the opportunity of presiding over Nigeria as President since the current democratic dispensation 20 years ago, therefore, equity demanded that Igbo should be supported to produce the President in 2023. Igboekulie in a statement jointly signed by Benjamin Obidegwu, and Prince Ben Onuora,…
By Benjamin Obidegwu & Ben C. Onuora Amidst debilitating poverty, epileptic power supply, perennial ASUU strike, galloping inflation, unrelenting depreciation of the Naira, unprecedented terrorism, and violent deaths across Nigeria, elected and appointed leaders in Nigeria have spent the past two months politicking joyfully! Hopefully, they are fully aware of the serious threats to the existence of Nigeria as a nation, posed by these attributes of a failed state. The field of aspirants in the two dominant political parties of PDP and APC is so crowded that we expect the party leaders to present Nigerians with credible candidates of proven integrity…
Nonsochukwu Uwa, Owerri A former Governor of Anambra State, and presidential aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Peter Obi, on Thursday said that under the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, “Syria has become better than Nigeria.” Obi made this statement during his interaction with the leadership and delegates of the PDP, at the State Secretariat along Okigwe Road in Owerri, when he came to inform them of his presidential ambition. He pointed out that part of the challenges of the country was that it was running an economy based on sharing formula and not a production-based economy. The presidential…
Michael Onwuka (Enugu) Reactions have continued to trail the cost of presidential and governorship expression of interest and nomination forms ahead of the 2023 general elections. A governorship aspirant in Enugu State on the platform of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Mr Chukwunonso Ogbe, says the high cost of nomination forms by political parties will lead to political monopoly. Ogbe said this on Thursday in an interview with Ikengaonline in Enugu. Recall that the All Progressives Congress (APC) had pegged its presidential expression of interest and nomination forms at N100 million while that of governorship is N50 million. The Peoples…
Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia A leading presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Peter Obi, has decried the rate of poverty in Nigeria, saying that Nigeria has more people living under poverty than China and India put together. The former Anambra State Governor who said this when he came to Abia to consult with the leadership of PDP ahead of the party primaries, said that unless something urgent was done to change the narrative, insecurity would continue to worsen in the country. “Nigeria has more people living under poverty than the two biggest countries in the world – China…
By Azu Ishiekwene Most parents like to think that their generation’s burden was the heaviest. And that today’s children are too soft and spoilt by the easy life to be up to any good. Well, I disagree. Or let me put that a bit differently: I don’t agree completely. The debate about just how far astray today’s children have gone was sparked afresh by the juvenile sex video of students of Chrisland School, VGC, Lagos, who had gone for the World Schools Games in Dubai between March 8 and 14. Since that video was leaked a few days ago, the…
Stephen Ukandu (News/Features Editor) The war of words between Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Adewale, and the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, over his anti-Igbo comment has continued with the monarch telling Ohanaeze that “no monarch in Nigeria feels the pains of the Igbo” more than he does. Trouble started when the monarch reportedly said in a public function that Ndigbo could not be trusted with the Nigerian Presidency in 2023, a remark he has flatly denied. Ohanaeze Ndigbo had descended on him asking him to learn from more intelligent and cosmopolitan monarchs. “We will therefore restrain from hoisting…
By Osita Chidoka 2015 election data at a glance. Registered Voters: 67,422,005 Voter turnout: 31,746,490 Percentage turnout: 42% Valid Votes: 28,587,564 Invalid Votes: 3,158,926 APC Vote Share: 15,424,921 PDP Vote Share: 12,853,162 APC Winning Margin: 2,571,759 In 2015, voters countrywide cast 8,103,011 votes with “No PVC, No Biometrics.” In plain words, these votes were “manufactured” as there were no records of PVC validation with the Card Reader; there was also logically no match of the biometric data. Interestingly 60% of the 8.1M votes with “No PVC, No biometrics” were cast in the South-East and South-South, while 40% of the “No…
Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia Pandemonium broke out over the weekend at Item in Bende Local Government Area of Abia State as a stray bullet allegedly fired by a security guard hit and killed a Primary School teacher simply identified as Mercy. According to a local source, Mercy had gone for a funeral service of a relation being held at the community when she met her untimely death. The source said the deceased highly reputed for her enterprising spirit and obedience was busy serving at the funeral function when the stray bullet hit and pierced her chest region. According to the source,…
Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia Senator Mao Ohuabunwa has restated his total support for full financial autonomy for Local Government Areas in the country. The former Leader, ECOWAS Parliament, who made the call while addressing Peoples Democratic Party, PDP stakeholders from the Arochukwu Local Government Council, lamented the precarious state of LGAs across the country due to inadequate funds. He argued that if LGAs were allowed to manage their allocations from Abuja without unnecessary tampering by the states, more developments would have been recorded in council areas. On the future of the party in the area, Ohuabunwa regretted that Arochukwu, a stronghold…