Politics
PDP’s GREAT BETRAYAL AND THE CHOICE BEFORE THE APC
PDP’s GREAT BETRAYAL AND THE CHOICE BEFORE THE APC
With the emergence of a Northerner as its presidential candidate I wonder how Afenifere, PANDEM, Ohaeneze Ndigbo, the Middle Belt Forum and the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum now feel about their favoured child known as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)?
The virulent and avowed opposition that these august and highly respected bodies had against a Northern presidential candidate has been overuled by their party.
Their call for an Igbo presidential candidate has been ignored and treated with contempt and disdain.
Their preffered party is fielding a Northerner and there is nothing they can do about it.
They have been misled, fooled and scammed and they have no influence or power over the affairs of their favoured party.
Despite their reverred age, wealth of knowledge, profound insight and depth of wisdom their PDP has tossed their collective counsel into the dustbin.
Permit me to welcome them to the world of ‘real politik’ and I advise that they stop allowing themselves to be so easily manipulated and deceived.
Politics is a game of numbers where words and the knowledge of history alone count for little and where only insight, passion, a firm resolve and a large war chest coupled with the ability to conspire and the courage to build bridges even with past adversaries and former foes are the keys to success.
In this game, like the words of Shakespeare’s witches in his famous play ‘Macbeth’,
“fair is foul and foul is fair: hover through the fog and filthy air!”
It is a strange and difficult game filled with intrigue, betrayal and treachery.
It is murky, it is foggy, it is dark, it is treacherous, it is full of intrigue and mystery and nothing is as it seems or appears.
They thought their PDP would produce a Southern candidate even if the APC failed to do so but now they know that the trust they bestowed on their arrant yet favoured child was misplaced.
This was a shocker to them.
And let me assure them that more shockers and surprises are coming.
I believe it is time that they start thinking differently and adopting a new approach in order to achieve their noble objectives of a fair, equitable and just Nigeria in which we are all equals regardless of ethnicity or faith.
Constantly suppporting and relying on the PDP and hoping they will come to power to do something new, fix the problems and provide the solutions is an ill-placed illusion and dangerous delusion.
It simply cannot work.
I advise them to have a rethink and to realign.
In doing so they may well make a difference and achieve their noble objectives.
Now permit me to get to the meat of this essay.
It is interesting to note and quite an irony that the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC), a party that the opposition PDP has wrongly labelled as a bunch of Northern irridentists and hegemonists, are now the ones that could possibly provide a Southerner as their flag bearer.
Conversely the PDP, the party that has always claimed to champion the precepts of equity, justice and Southern rights and that has always prided itself on its strong Southern base, has opted to give its presidential flag to a Northerner.
They turned their backs on the people of the South East who have given them more support than any other ethnic nationality in the country over the last 23 years.
They spurned the people of the Middle Belt who saw in them a hope of salvation and emancipation.
They rejected the people of the South South whose sons and daughters stood firmly behind them through thick and thin.
Finally they displayed their usual and utter contempt for the people of the South West who they have always regarded as nothing but the biblical “hewers of the wood and the drawers of the water” and the poor relatives of the party ever since President Olusegun Obasanjo left power in 2007.
Worse still they gave their ticket to a man who is the best of friends with Sheik Ahmad Gumi, the defender-in-chief of the terrorists of the North West, they gave it to a man who withdrew a public condemnation of the savage lynching of Miss Deborah Emmanuel in Sokoto and they gave it to a man that refused to condemn the brutal slaughter of a pregnant Fulani lady and her four children in Anambra.
They gave their ticket to a man that lost the 2019 election and promptly left the country for 3 long years for beautiful Dubai, abandoning all his followers and supporters to weather the Nigerian storm and waters.
How this man can sleep at night I really don’t know!
They gave their ticket to a man who is soft on the terrorists that are butchering the people of the North West and North East and who has offered no solution to the plague of unknown gunmen and terrorists that are slaughtering people in the South East.
Is this a party that can be trusted with power?
Have they not become the very monster that they once claimed to seek to oppose and destroy?
Have the tables not turned?
Has the party not been taken over by faceless hardliners with a hidden agenda?
Can the people of the South West, South East, South South, North Central or even North West and North East trust Atiku with power?
I have my doubts. The truth is that the PDP has been high-jacked by a dangerous cabal who have utter contempt for anyone and everyone that is not part of their inner circle.
Many ask, who are those in this cabal?
Who are those that now control the PDP and that ensured that Nyesom Wike was defeated and Atiku emerged?
The same forces ensured the emergence of Atiku at the Port Harcourt Convention in 2018 by whispering his name at the last minute to the relevant stakeholders and they have done it again in 2022.
How can a serious political party not afford Ayo Fayose, Dele Momodu at least ONE vote each at its presidential primaries simply because they refused to bribe the delegates?
How can they lose Rabiu Kwankwaso, Peter Obi and Enyinnaya Abaribe to other smaller and totally inconsequential parties just before their convention?
How can they deny Pius Anyim the presidential ticket?
How can they not encourage Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, who is the best of them and the brightest star in the South East, to run for the nomination?
How can they reduce Emmanuel Udom to 13 votes, Bala Mohammed to 20 votes and Bukola Saraki to 70 votes and how can they deal such a ruthless death blow to the aspirations of Nyesome Wike who struggled so hard to bring the Presidential ticket to the South?
Had it not been for Aminu Tambuwal’s decision to back Atiku at the last minute, Wike would have won with flying colours.
And look at their Convention itself? Was it not a show of shame where the highest bidder simply took the prize?
Were the activities there not worse than those in an 18th century Parisian whore house where money was exchanged for services rendered?
This was not an election but a shameless gathering of corrupt souls in which the dollar determined the outcome at the behest of its providers.
The delegates were bought and their price was on open display.
It was a shameful dollarfest in which honor, decency, politics, merit and seriousness had no place.
It was a jamboree of spending and an act of open worship to Mammon, the god of money.
A candidate that emerges from such a gathering and as a consequence of the invocation of such dark and bestial forces and powers cannot be expected to do any good.
If there was any reason for INEC to nullify a party Convention this particular one provided it.
Put together, the PDP convention was worse than an Arab carpet bazaar and an Indian brothel all rolled into one.
It stank to high heavens and it resulted in a shameless mess which lacked any pretence to legitimacy.
The truth is that there really is something defective about the thought processes and reasoning of the PDP.
Time will prove that.
Interestingly there are many in the ruling APC who have expressed a strong preference for a Southern presidential candidate for 2023 and most of them are from the North.
Would it not be a remarkable thing if President Muhammadu Buhari, the man many in the South have constantly viewed with suspicion and skepticism and who many have wrongly labelled as an ethnic warlord and religious bigot, was the one that gave the South what they wanted?
And make no mistake about it, this decision is Buhari’s and his alone.
He alone will most likely determine who APC will field and where that person comes from.
If he chooses to stop any presidential aspirant from emerging even at this late stage he can do so, no matter how popular, rich and powerful that aspirant may be.
Just one phone call from him to the relevant stakeholders can achieve that.
He can also endorse the weakest and most unlikely contender even at the last minute and that person will emerge.
Such is the respect, trust and affection that the leaders and members of the party at every level have for him.
As they say, he has the “yam and the knife” and he can determine what will happen or choose to sit back and allow all the aspirants to slug it out until the best man wins.
I am on record as saying that the three zones that ought to be considered for the nomination before others are the South East, North Central and North East and I stand by that.
Compared to the South West, North West and South South none of them have had a fair crack of the whip when it comes to democratically- elected Presidents and they all deserve to have their chance.
They are not slaves and they need to be encouraged, given a sense of purpose and carried along.
I maintain this position even if I am the only one that refuses to hedge my bets and say so publicly.
I also maintain that it would be easier for a Northerner to defeat Atiku but, if truth be told, it would also be a reflection of the courage and sense of fairness of the President and the APC that, even if it means risking the 2023 election, it is better to do the right and proper thing, assuage the fears and worries of the South, honor past commitments and allow a Southerner to take over.
This alone will make Buhari a hero above all else.
This alone will give Nigeria a new lease of life and will restore and strengthen North/South relations.
This alone will assuage the feelings and heal the wounds of those that live in perpetual fear of Northern hegemony and domination and quench the awesome fire of the militants and separatists that thrive in the South East, South West and South South.
This alone will send a strong signal to Boko Haram, ISWAP, the killer herdsmen and the foreign terrorists that they have failed to destroy our fragile unity and to divide us.
This alone will be a legacy that will speak for our President and our party into eternity.
The question therefore is whether we do the right thing by giving the ticket to the South or do the politically expedient thing by giving it to the North.
That choice will be made at the APC convention in a few days time.
Let us wait and see.
(FFK)
Obasa Appointed to CPA African Executive Committee
The Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. (Dr.) Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa, has been appointed as a Sub-National Representative to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) African Executive Committee.
The announcement was formally conveyed through a letter from the CPA Africa Region, which was read on the floor of the Assembly by the Clerk, Mr. Olalekan Onafeko, on Tuesday, March 10. The appointment confirms Speaker Obasa’s three-year tenure, spanning 2026 to 2029.
Lawmakers took turns to congratulate Speaker Obasa, praising his devotion to parliamentary service and his consistent efforts to strengthen legislative practice. They described his appointment as a recognition of his hard work and a reflection of Lagos State’s growing influence within the Commonwealth. Members noted that his achievements continue to bring pride not only to Lagos but to Nigeria as a whole.
In his remarks, Speaker Obasa expressed gratitude to his colleagues for their support, urging them to remain steadfast in prioritizing the progress of the Assembly and to continue working collectively to advance the legislature. He further directed the Clerk to send a formal letter of appreciation to the CPA African Region for the honour bestowed upon him. “Let us always put the House of Assembly first and never relent in our efforts to move the legislature forward, ” Obasa concluded.
The CPA African Region plays a pivotal role in advancing the interests of African parliaments within the Commonwealth. It is widely recognized for promoting gender equality, women’s empowerment, respect for human rights, democracy, and good governance across member nations.
TINUBU RENEWS TENURE OF THREE PERMANENT SECRETARIES
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the renewal of tenure for three Permanent Secretaries in the Federal Civil Service, in line with existing public service regulations.
The approval was disclosed in a statement issued by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, indicating that the renewed appointments will take effect from April 27, 2026.
The affected officials include Kachallom Shangti Daju, Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare; Beatrice Jedy‑Agba, Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Justice; and Mary Ada Ogbe, Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Regional Development.
According to the statement, the renewal represents a second and final four-year tenure for the officials, in accordance with the provisions of Public Service Rule 020909, which allows Permanent Secretaries an initial four-year term with the possibility of a second term based on satisfactory performance.
The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Didi Esther Walson‑Jack, congratulated the Permanent Secretaries on their reappointment and urged them to see the renewed mandate as a call to greater dedication and excellence in service delivery.
She further encouraged them to deploy their experience and professional expertise toward strengthening governance and advancing national development.
The statement was signed by Eno Olotu, Director of Press and Public Relations in the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, and dated March 6, 2026.
Politics
Governor Dauda Lawal’s Prompt Action Against Insecurity in Zamfara State Yielding Positive Result’ – GDL Media Force Fires Back at Critics
‘Governor Dauda Lawal’s Prompt Action Against Insecurity in Zamfara State Yielding Positive Result’ – GDL Media Force Fires Back at Critics
The attention of GDL Media Force and other well-meaning supporters of the Dauda Lawal-led administration has been drawn to a recent statement syndicated on social media by influencers from a group calling itself the Zamfara Good Governance Forum, which ludicrously attempted to portray the Governor’s security efforts as a “total failure.” This characterisation is not only divorced from reality. Still, it represents a desperate attempt by political opponents to rewrite history and undermine a Governor whose growing influence and performance clearly terrify them. It should be on record that in the whole of the North West region, Governor Dauda Lawal has tackled insecurity head-on with verifiable evidence that even those in the opposition have commended him for his huge investment in equipment that will further give security and armed forces an edge over those fueling insecurity in the country.
Since his assumption as Governor of Zamfara State, Dr Lawal has vowed that as the Chief Security Officer of the state, as well as the chief rescuer, an unprecedented commitment to tackling the security challenges that have plagued Zamfara for over a decade is his top priority and he is engaging it with much gusto. Unlike previous administrations, that engaged in shadowy deals with non-state actors, this Governor has chosen the path of transparency, capacity building, and decisive action. He was one of the Governors who openly declared that His administration would not negotiate with bandit rather his administration with fight them to a standstill and ensure they are cleared out.
In a bid to address the issues of insecurity with a well-planned arrival plan, he procured heavy Security Assets that even the Federal Government commended, him for. The recently procured and unveiled 25 units of Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and an 80-meter endurance surveillance drone capable of covering 50 kilometres and operating continuously for eight hours. This represents the single largest state-government investment in security hardware in the history of Zamfara State.
The Defence Minister, during the inauguration ceremony, praised what he described as a clear demonstration of the Governor’s commitment to protecting lives and property, making the striking projection that “if we continue like this in the second term, Zamfara will look like Dubai”. This is not praise from a partisan source it is professional acknowledgement from the highest level of Nigeria’s defence establishment that Governor Lawal is doing something right.
Beyond heavy military hardware, the Governor has operationalised the Community Protection Guards in accordance with the law, providing them with 60 brand-new, well-equipped Hilux operational vehicles and specialised motorcycles to ensure swift response and effective first-responder services in difficult terrains. This is complemented by the distribution of 150 Hilux vehicles to mainstream security agencies including the Nigeria Police, DSS, and NSCDC, plus 20 Toyota Buffalo vehicles (both armoured and soft-body).
Perhaps most significantly, Governor Lawal established the Zamfara State Security Trust Fund, which provides a predictable, structured framework for logistical support to security forces. This moves the state away from the era of fragmented, reactive responses to a professional, sustainable security architecture.
When recent attacks occurred including the unfortunate February 19 incident in Anka LGA, Governor Lawal did not go into hiding or issue condolence statements from his office in Gusau. He immediately convened and personally presided over an emergency security meeting with all heads of security agencies at the Government House in Gusau, tasking them to urgently review the current security framework and implement coordinated countermeasures.
The Governor charged security chiefs to maintain “heightened vigilance, strengthened intelligence, and immediate, coordinated countermeasures” to ensure that criminal elements do not gain further ground. He also commiserated with affected communities and assured them of his administration’s full support both logistical and institutional. This is not the behaviour of a detached leader. This is the conduct of a Governor who understands that his primary constitutional responsibility is the protection of lives and property.
The public needs to understand the pedigree of those behind these allegations. The so-called “Zamfara Good Governance Forum” has a well-documented history of partisan attacks against Governor Lawal. A simple review of their previous statements reveals a pattern they have consistently attacked the Governor while remaining conspicuously silent during the administrations that presided over the worst years of banditry in the state. Interestingly, these attacks often coincide with political manoeuvres by the immediate past governor, Bello Matawalle, now Minister of State for Defence. The Zamfara State Government has previously accused Matawalle of using federal security apparatus to intimidate opposition figures in the state. The current criticism fits a familiar pattern, when you cannot defeat a Governor politically or at the ballot box, you attempt to undermine him through sponsored propaganda spreading sheer falsehood to ensure the public turns their back on a performing Governor who is rebuilding the rot the Matawale-led administration caused.
These same critics who now demand a “security roadmap” conveniently ignore that Governor Lawal inherited a state that was virtually a failed entity where farmers could not access their lands, where markets were paralysed, and where government had lost all credibility through failed negotiations and ransom payments to bandits.
Critics also conveniently ignore a fundamental reality Governor Lawal is the only opposition governor in the entire North-West geopolitical zone. Since taking office in 2023, his administration has received no federal intervention funds beyond statutory allocations no special palliatives, and no enhanced security support that flows to states with ruling-party governors. Yet despite this political isolation, he has managed to fund security without resorting to new borrowing, while monthly servicing N1.2 billion in inherited debts from the Bello Matawalle-led administration. This is governance under siege fiscally constrained, politically isolated, yet still delivering.
Governor Dauda Lawal has never claimed that the battle against banditry is easy or that success will come overnight. What he has demonstrated is sincerity of purpose, strategic vision, and relentless commitment. From the Security Trust Fund to community protection guards, from armoured personnel carriers to surveillance drones, these are not the actions of a leader who has failed. The growing influence of Governor Lawal across the North-West clearly frightens those who benefited from the old order of insecurity. When banditry thrives, politicians who negotiate with criminals remain relevant. But when peace is restored through genuine security architecture, such elements become obsolete.
Zamfara State is on the path to lasting peace. The detractors may continue their campaign of falsehood, but the facts on the ground speak louder than their sponsored propaganda. Governor Dauda Lawal remains focused, undeterred, and absolutely committed to restoring full normalcy to every inch of Zamfara State. The people of Zamfara see the progress. The Federal Government acknowledges the investment. And history will remember who truly fought for the state’s liberation.
Signed: GDL Media Force Support Group
March 4, 2026
Abuja, Nigeria
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