THE National and State House of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in Kano State has nullified the electoral victory of Yusuf Umar Datti, the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) candidate for the Kura/Madobi/Garun Malam Federal House of Representatives. News Point Nigeria reports that, Justice Ngozi Azinge, who presided over the case and delivered the verdict, cited Datti’s failure to resign from Bayero University, Kano, within 30 days before the election as the grounds for the decision. Justice Azinge emphasised the importance of electoral guidelines, stating, “electoral rules and regulations are crucial in maintaining the integrity of our democratic process. Failure to…
Author: Tahir Ibrahim Tahir
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SAME time as this last year, I wrote an article celebrating Kashim Shettima, GCON, The Vice President of The Federal Republic of Nigeria. “Kashim @ 56!: Gone through all the rudiments & has all the condiments.” was published on the 2nd of September last year, to celebrate him on his birth date as described by the title. The article, one of very numerous pieces I’d written on The Vice President, waxed thus: “It is not tiring, but rather, scintillating and ever more interesting, as I cover Sen. Kashim Shettima’s political/ leadership sojourn, starting from the 28th of April 2019, in…
‘PALLIATIVES’ is now household vocabulary in our dear motherland. It is also a brand new conduit or pipeline if you may, for corrupt government officials to siphon public funds meant for the alleviation of the sufferings of the common man. It is now the most lucrative business where cash, food items and other measures and means of cushioning the bad times and its devastation on the suffered life of the poor Nigerian are looted calmly. Looting is no longer restricted to the TSA or other government coffers. It has been successfully transferred to the special purpose vehicles that were manufactured…
GOT till it gone, and over the past few decades, Nigerians have been walloped by the agonies of the vacuum created by the lack of depth in leadership, or most times poor governance, and basically: the lack of purposeful leadership, with genuinely effective government policies and programmes that can better the lives of the common man, and generally uplift the standard of living of Nigerians. Nigeria’s corridors of power have seen the good the bad and the ugly a couple of times, over and over again, and cumulatively, Nigeria is left in the delirium of relishing the yesteryears of past…
ACTING National Chairman of the APC, Distinguished Senator Abu Kyari, CON, who was Deputy Chairman North of the APC before taking up the Ag. Chairmanship position, is a walking example of honour and integrity, as described by the present day Deputy President of The Senate, Mr. Barau Jibrin, as he introduced him at the Senate screening exercise of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ministerial nominees. There is also a trending video that captured Sen. Adams Oshiomhole, former Gov. of Edo State and former Labour Union leader, speaking to Abu Kyari, who was standing with Sen. Abubakar Maikafi, (danmadamin Bauchi), in the…
“NAPOLEON Bonaparte once said that, China is a sleeping giant, let her sleep for when she wakes she will shake the world. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is poised to redefine the concept of modern leadership in Nigeria, The Giant of Africa, which has woken up from its slumber and is now poised to move the world.” These are the remarks of Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima GCON, while speaking at The UN World Food Systems Financing Model in Rome. Kashim waxed philosophical as he quoted Archimedes. “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it,…
IT is with a very heavy heart I put my pen to you, to convey my most sincere best wishes, after rigorous swooches, in my head, contemplating whether to write you or not; so as to brief you of certain developments and messages that are of utmost importance to you, and the rest of your dedicated customers. It is without any doubt, that Max Air has done considerably well, in plying northern routes mostly abandoned by other airlines. It is a no brainer to appreciate the fact that those routes are low revenue routes, compared to heavier and more consistent…
PRESIDENT Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Thursday asked the Senate to approve a borrowing request of $800 million. This newspaper reports that former President Muhammadu Buhari had, towards the tail end of his administration, forwarded same request to the 9th Senate in May. But the 9th Assembly could not consider the request before its tenure ended in June 11. Tinubu, in a letter read by Senate President Godswill Akpabio during plenary Thursday, asked the 10th Senate to approve the borrowing request. The president, in the letter, explained that the loan would be used to scale up the National Social Safety Net…
DEEPLY entrenched in our ethno-religious diversity as a nation is an unfortunate gullibility that makes a nuisance of our intelligence. There is also a very worrying degree of religious extremism across the different religious groups of our society that polarises us at the slightest. Religion they say is the opium of the masses, and worryingly more so, in a frighteningly religious society like ours. Modern day Nigerian politics has religion as the most potent factor or ready ingredient in cooking up a devout and cultist following. In the civil service, it is equally an index for the accelerated growth of…
THE densely populated North West has held sway over the North’s hold on power for decades and it is by a mighty miracle of God that our Vice President Kashim Shettima, who comes from the North East, made it through the quarter finals, semi finals and finals of the 2023 electoral season to become the nation’s number two citizen. Merit, experience, religion and valour among many key criteria made it possible for the former two term Governor, and one term Senator to become Nigeria’s serving Vice President. His choice from a maze of many former ‘Excellencies’ was hard fought and…
I COULDN’T help myself as I was rollicking in laughter over the ridiculous and laughable press statement by a coalition of middle belt youth leaders, led by one Nasiru Jagaba, asking VP-elect Sen. Kashim Shettima to step down for a Christian VP. Nasiru means success, and Jagaba is of course a leader of success, as exemplified by Tinubu. This particular Nasiru Jagaba ofcourse failed to live up to the true meaning of his names as he failed to lead his members to victory, when they massively voted for the Labour Party, in support of Peter Obi. Even if it is…
PRESIDENT-ELECT Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is scheduled to be sworn in God willing, as The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 12 days time. In the heat of this count down, is the ‘musical chairs’ at the National Assembly once again, as members jostle for Leadership positions in the incoming 10th Assembly. The Senate seems settled with an Akpabio as its President, on a joint ticket with Barau as Deputy Speaker. The heat is formenting more rapidly at the lower chamber level where Tajuddeen from the North West is anointed as Speaker, with Kalu from the South East…
A LEADING opposition figure picks on PMB’s seating position at King Charles III’s coronation, in a classless effort to demean Nigeria and denigrate Mr. President. A clever observer pointed out where the US President was seated and it was just as where the other guests were seated. The event hosted virtually all the leading figures in the world, mostly with their spouses and some top government functionaries. Everyone invited to the coronation was at Westminster Abbey, The Royal Church at the centre of London. Was PMB anointing King Charles with holy oil? No. Was he presenting The King with the…
GOVERNOR Inuwa Yahaya’s fine ensemble of both human capital and infrastructural development, has ensured his victory at the just concluded 2023 polls, guaranteeing his second term as Governor of Gombe State. Continuity has been the bane of development in Nigeria’s democratic era and Gombe State has been quite lucky in this regard. It has been blessed with visionary leaders who have done so well in the infrastructural development of Gombe State, which has made it capable of competing with States that were created 20 to 30 years before the realisation of Gombe State. Despite being in the centre of the…
SINCE ‘Sudan: Home sweet home’, so much has come to the fore over the plight of Nigerians, trapped in war torn Sudan, and the very valiant efforts of Nigerian government officials and agencies, working their tails off and putting their wits to work, to safely bring back students especially; back home to Nigeria. Customarily, Nigerians condemned the government over the efforts it was putting into the rescue of the students from the war zone. One accusation over the other were churned out on a daily, belittling The Foreign Affairs Ministry, NIDCOM, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, NEMA and the Presidency. A…
SUDAN has been a hotbed of conflicts in the last twenty years. It has seen so many military take overs, ethnic conflicts, and has had two civil wars. A culturally very rich country, it is also rich in mineral resources especially Gold. Aside its internal political and ethnic tensions and its resource endowments, its proximity to the Arabian peninsula adds to the reasons why Sudan has remained volatile over the years. This may remain so, as the world’s super powers continue to jostle for allies and friendly nations around the world, as they battle each other for supremacy. The present…
INCONTROVERTIBLY, ‘God’s time is the best’. For Bola Ahmed Tinubu this is just apt. ‘Time is a storm in which we are all lost’. We all have been lost as to when Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Presidential ambition berthed on the shores of Nigerian democracy.’The two most powerful warriors are patience and time’. Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s story has taken a lot of time, deploying patience to sustain a steady trajectory that has seen him rise to greatness, gobbling up all the undertaking elements that could have decimated his ambition and political profile. His patience, political brickmanship, wealth, and wealth of experience,…
IT was really delightful to have such a young lady, become appointed the MD of the Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA back in 2016. It spoke loudly in many different languages. It was a positive for gender equality, and it was a headway for the younger generation into executive positions, partaking in decision making, not just as PAs and SAs in the governance hierarchy. It was light in the dark tunnel of the lost generation of Nigerians who are neither youths, nor elders, enclosed in an age bracket of entrapment. One minute they are considered in the old age bracket of…
DO you remember my piece, ‘Dikko Radda on my Radar’? It was published on the 22nd of January, 2023; about 3 weeks before the 2023 polls, where I introduced you to whom Dikko Radda is. Aside being the APC flagbearer for the Katsina gubernatorial elections, I tried to make you see why Dikko is best for Katsina; afterall they say Katsinan Dikko right? Shortly after, the scary Presidential polls came upon us and from the punitive measures taken by Gov. Bello Masari of Katsina State, in axing some political appointees; it was obvious that a few party men and government…
ELRUFAISM means thorough, calculated, effective and objective – not divine, but the kind flawed by the limitations of human judgement. From his days as FCT Minister, though some continue to punch holes in his style of governance, to his years as Kaduna Governor; Elrufai has proved to be one of the finest Governors that would have served two terms, between 2015 to 2023. It is so easy to deduce that he was the best FCT Minister Nigeria has ever had, because till date, residents lament and decry the absence of his touch or type of administration, as Abuja is fast…