Tag: 2019 elections

PDP Loses Out as Tribunal Upholds Reps Member, Jimoh’s Victory
Judiciary, Lagos News, Legislature, News, Nigeria

PDP Loses Out as Tribunal Upholds Reps Member, Jimoh’s Victory

The national and state Houses of Assembly petition tribunal sitting in Ikeja on Wednesday, struck out the petition filed by the PDP and Tajudeen Jaiyeola Agoro, challenging the election of a member House of Representatives, Hon Jide Jimoh of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the Lagos Mainland Federal Constituency seat. The election was held on February 23,  2019 across the federal constituency. The PDP candidate challenged the election on account of alleged unlawful declaration of Jide Jimoh as winner of the poll and claimed that the poll was marred with rigging, multiple thumb printing and did not comply with provisions of the Electoral Act. In a unanimous judgment, read by Justice Olamide, the tribunal held that the petitioner failed in all the petitions and ...
Nigeria: Buharig: The Inauguration of an Illegitimate President  by Farooq Kperogi
News, Nigeria

Nigeria: Buharig: The Inauguration of an Illegitimate President by Farooq Kperogi

Today, Nigeria will inaugurate an illegitimate president who unashamedly stole someone else’s electoral mandate in broad daylight. Buhari (whom most people now call “Buharig” because of the unprecedentedly crude electoral heist he perpetrated in February) and the cabal of corrupt, clueless, and unconscionable provincials who rule on his behalf instructed their minions to rig the last presidential election because they knew Buhari had not a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the election. In spite of their rigging, however, Buhari still came up short. He lost to Atiku by nearly 2 million votes from their own rigged figures. So he ordered INEC to invent arbitrary figures and proclaim him winner. And degenerate, unprincipled, and morally compromised Mahmood Yakubu who has gone down in ...
Opinion: Who Is Afraid of Atiku Abubakar? by Femi Aribisala.
News, Nigeria

Opinion: Who Is Afraid of Atiku Abubakar? by Femi Aribisala.

There are indications today’s APC government is not averse to using the Shugaba playbook on Atiku. These are very interesting times in Nigeria.  The APC government has reportedly won a major election, but it is finding it difficult, if not impossible, to celebrate and enjoy its victory.  Before the champagne could be uncorked, Atiku Abubakar filed a case in court challenging the result, claiming it was fraudulent from start to finish. But this was a challenge unlike any other that Nigeria has seen before.  Out of the blue, Atiku produced another set of results different from the one declared by INEC showing that he had actually won the election.  Except that this other result also came from INEC.  As a matter of fact, it was retrieved from the INEC server and it was authenticated by ...
Opinion: Nigeria Will not Survive the 2019 Presidential Election – Femi  Aribisala
News, Nigeria

Opinion: Nigeria Will not Survive the 2019 Presidential Election – Femi Aribisala

What we witnessed in the recently concluded election was the death knell of democracy in Nigeria. For those of us who had hoped against hope, the 2019 presidential election has proved to be the last straw.  We are now convinced that Nigeria is a hopeless case.  This country is not just a major disappointment; it is decidedly firmly on the trajectory of a future break up. Today, the silence in the Nigerian political space is deafening.  Just look back to 2015 and before, when there was vibrant debate about almost everything under the sun.  But now it is “siddon look.”  We just had an election that was no election and more like selection.  It was even more a mini civil-war, characterized by killings, voter-suppression and intimidation, ballot-snatching and falsification of results. ...
Nigeria: Disqualify Atiku, He’s Not a Nigerian – APC to Election Tribunal
Cameroon, News, Nigeria

Nigeria: Disqualify Atiku, He’s Not a Nigerian – APC to Election Tribunal

The All Progressive Congress (APC) and the winner of the February 23, 2019 Presidential Election, has filed a motion at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja that the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in the poll, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, is not a Nigerian and therefore not qualified to have stood for the election. The Party claimed that the former Vice President is a Cameroonian and not a Nigerian citizen and his petition against President Muhammadu Buhari, its own candidate, should be dismissed for lacking in merit. In a reply to the petition of Atiku and the PDP praying for their declaration as the lawful winner of the presidential poll, the APC said that the 11.1 million votes recorded in favor of the two petitioners should be voided and considered a waste b...
Opinion: Can we Escape this Gathering Storm? – John Nnia Nwodo
News, Nigeria

Opinion: Can we Escape this Gathering Storm? – John Nnia Nwodo

Forty-eight hours after our elections, we still have no results. There is hardly any voter in Nigeria, who does not know the results of elections in his polling booth. The INEC server is down, yanked off by INEC. Conflicting results dominate the social media. The two major national parties claim contradictory victories. Returning officers in Rivers and Imo claim to be under siege, being executed by a minister and a governor respectively. Igbos in Lagos are being threatened for exercising their civic rights to vote. This morning, they were stopped from opening their market stalls in Oshodi. The Acting Inspector General of Police refused to pick my three calls to him. The Oba of Lagos remains quiet. The Governor of Lagos State makes no broadcast. The safety of more than four milli...
Nigeria: INEC Postpones Election Result Announcement to 11am Monday
News, Nigeria, Press Statement

Nigeria: INEC Postpones Election Result Announcement to 11am Monday

The Independent Electoral Commission has postponed to opening of the national collation center to 11am Monday morning. The commission had earlier told reporters that the collation center will be opening bu 6pm on Sunday 24th February 2019. With this shift, Nigerian's are concerned about what could happen to the results in the intervening hours. According to Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the reason for the postponement was because no state returning officer had gotten to Abuja with their results. In a different post, a concerned Nigerian, Jude Ndukwe had made a suggestion to INEC. He said "It was not easy, but Nigerians braved the odds, including intimidation and threats to their life, to come out and cast their votes for their preferred candidates at the 2019 presidential/national assemb...
Breaking News: Naira Returns to 361 to a Dollar
Breaking News, Economy, News, Nigeria

Breaking News: Naira Returns to 361 to a Dollar

Google currency converter shows naira to dollar has now returned to 361 to a dollar. A few hours ago, Nigerians were shocked to see on Google currency converter that the exchange had dropped to 184 to a dollar and 240 to a pound. See Also: Breaking News: Dollar Exchanges $1 to N184 Though the official rate on CBN did not reflect any of these changes, there are speculations that some heavy transactions might have been done secretly by the government at 184 to a dollar to have triggered this. Following that argument, getting it back to the current rate will also require some heavy transactions. No official statement has however been made by the government on this brief anomaly.
Nigeria: President Buhari’s Address to Nigerians on the Eve of the Presidential Elections
News, Nigeria, Press Statement

Nigeria: President Buhari’s Address to Nigerians on the Eve of the Presidential Elections

For a president who has not been known to relish speaking to Nigerians, these last few days have witnessed more addresses than Nigerians ever thought possible. On this eve of the new date of the Presidential elections, President Buhari again addressed the nation. Below is the full text of his address. "Dear Nigerians, Finally, we have reached the eve of the rescheduled first round of this year’s general elections. 2.     Tomorrow, the polls open. Tomorrow, we affirm that Nigeria stands as a democracy and that no worldly hand can deter us from this wise and fitting path we have chosen for ourselves. 3.     While democracy is the most beneficial way to select a nation’s leaders, it is far from the easiest thing to achieve and maintain. 4.     It requires a combination of pa...