2019 election: South West APC planning to replace Buhari with Tinubu – Dele Momodu

Publisher of the Ovation Magazine and former Presidential aspirant, Dele Momodu has given interpretations to recent comment by an All Progressives Congress chieftain, chief Bisi Akande. Akande during a meeting of the South West leaders of the ruling party had made it clear that there was no automatic ticket for President Muhammadu Buhari. Reacting to the matter in a long article he shared on social media yesterday, Momodu pointed out that Yoruba leaders are preparing a former governor of Lagos State and national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bolaji Tinubu for presidency come 2019. He said the decision is borne out of frustration, adding that the Yoruba leadership will no longer support any other tribe for presidency. Part of his article reads, “What Baba Akande has not said is simply that the days when the Presidency would be voluntarily zoned to exclude most sections of the country in favour of another section, whether the candidate presented and supported by the people is competent or useless, are over. “The truth is zoning never worked anyway, as some Presidential candidates left their original parties for other parties in defiance of the zoning formula of their own party. “Without mincing words, it is obvious that the Yoruba leadership has decided it would no longer support other tribes, zones or regions to attain to power to the exclusion of their tribe. “They would rather work hard, reach out, and join hands with like minds to get power. “Their decision is borne out of the acute frustration and disappointment that makes them feel cheated about the Nigerian configuration which does not throw up the best but regularly favours the dregs of society who have only contributed to drawing Nigeria backward, in most cases. “The campaign has probably started in earnest, culminating in the search for a Yoruba Presidency. “Though the Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Peter Ayodele Fayose has controversially but ceremoniously thrown his hat into the ring, it is the fact that the capo di tutti capi, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, may be warming up for his turn to take a major shot at the race of his life that is most significant. “Mark my words. One of the greatest political strategists in Nigeria, Tinubu is tired of being a kingmaker and he would rather be the king. “Indeed, that has always been his ambition but this has been largely curtailed by circumstances. “Like many of those who supported Major General Muhammadu Buhari to attain power, after so many attempts, the former Senator and former Governor of Lagos State, feels he’s not gotten the respect and relevance he deserves for his monumental effort. Accordingly, he seems determined to make a personal push. “Apart from the virtues of Baba Akande that I have enumerated above, a lesser known one is his deep sense of loyalty.”

Kogi workers commence indefinite strike

Following the expiration of the seven working days strike notice issued to the Kogi State Government on Thursday 21st September, 2017, the organized labour in Kogi State has directed workers to resume their earlier suspended indefinite strike from Friday 22nd September, 2017. The unions comprising the Joint session of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Public Service Joint Negotiating Council (PSJBC), noted that the strike was the only life line left for workers in Kogi state to negotiate their survival in the hands of the present administration. Announcing the strike on Thursday, the TUC chairman in Kogi State Ranti Ojo said “never in the history of our state has civil servants recorded the massive hunger induced death as being witnessed currently, not to talk of trauma, anguish, pains, sickness, penury, truncation of children’s education, huge unsettled house rent/ medical bill etc that workers and pensioners are currently experiencing. We must rise against this now or never.” He noted that the government’s white paper on the screening exercise being currently implemented was aimed at achieving massive retrenchment of workers, precisely all those in the directorate cadre and civil servants that have 5 years and below to retire. This according to Ojo had already started with permanents secretaries. The union while expressing their resolve to remain committed in their demands as contained in their letter sent to the Kogi State Government dated 13th September, 2017, however direct all workers in the State Civil Service to stay away from government offices, establishment, institutions and facilities. It also urged civil servant to ignore and discountenance all threat, intimidations, blackmail from government quarters, stressing that the escapades of tyrants can only be checked by courage, perseverance and resoluteness. “All Muslims civil servants are to pray in their respective mosques on Friday 22nd September, 2017 and Christians civil servants to pray in their churches on Sunday 24th September, 2017, for God to protect our labour leaders and the entire workers in the course of this struggle. “The General Public and the entire workers are also enjoined to pray earnestly and consistently for God to rescue Kogi Workers and our dear state. Comrade remain calm, law abiding and prayerful, but prepared to stay at home for eternity if it takes the government eternity to meet all our demands”, Ojo added. Meanwhile, the State chairman Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) comrade Onoh Edoka while fielding questions from journalists on the strike dared the state government to sack workers who complied with the industrial action. According to him, Kogi State civil servants had suffered enough in the hands of the current administration, pointing that their would be no sabotage on the strike. “Workers will surely comply on the strike because it was their decision for us to resume it. “I besiege you journalists to go round tomorrow and see for your self. All government offices will be shot down”, he said. Edoka also described as laughable the rumour making the rounds that the Kogi State Government has the intension to proscribe labour unions in the state. “When I heard the information, I described it as the joke of the century. I believe his legal adviser has told him that what he did to KSU lecturers was one of the greatest mistakes he made as the chief executive of this state. “He cannot proscribe NLC, TUC, and other union because they all belong to the exclusive list”, the NLC chairman Stated. In another development, local government workers in the state will not be part of the strike. According to the president Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), comrade Tade Adeyemi, the union alongside Medical and health workers union of Nigeria, and the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has issued a seven-day ultimatum, commencing from 20th September 2017 to the Kogi State government to meet their demands or join the strike called by their sister unions in the state.