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It is settled law that the question of who is a candidate of any political party for any election remains the exclusive preserve of the political party. This time tested principle is recognition of the fact that a Political Party is supreme over its membership. This is the clearest indication of the concept of the supremacy of a Political Party at play. It is well settled that a political party is a voluntary association and any member that joins a political party agrees to subscribe to the ideology of that political party, its ethos, rules, regulations and constitution. If you join a political party you have invariably or unwittingly agreed to subsume your rights under that political party and such you are bound to obey its rules, regulations and constitution. So if at any time a member of a political party thinks that he or she is not obligated or is not willing to obey any rule or regulation or directive or any provision in that party’s Constitution laid down by

Sanate President Bukola Saraki, who stoned yesterday with rocks and water sachets by an irate mob at the Eid Prayer Grounds in Ilorin, Kwara State, has accused Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of leaving him vulnerable and open to attack, an aide of the governor has told SaharaReporters. Our source added that Governor Ahmed confided in aides and the traditional ruler of Ilorin that the Senate President made himself the target of furious crowd because he failed to listen to security reports and advice urging him to stay away from Ilorin during the Sallah holiday. A security source corroborated the governor’s sentiment. According to him, security agencies in the state had been aware of public anger against the governor and Mr. Saraki, especially as information circulated among residents about the size of the senator’s assets and personal wealth. He added that many people in the state, among them unemployed youth and workers who are owed arrears of salaries, felt that the Sar

Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Chief Olu Falae, who was freed after spending four days in captivity, yesterday recounted his ordeal. Falae, who reunited with his family in Akure and was welcomed home by a crowd, said he slept on the bare floor for four days. The septuagenarian added that he trekked more than 30 kilometres from his Ilado farm in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State, where he was abducted, to a place in Owo Local Government Area where he was kept during his captivity. The former SGF was kidnapped on Monday by suspected Fulani herdsmen who stormed his farm in Ilado. But yesterday, Falae returned to his home in Akure, the state capital, in company with the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, who led the rescue team. Arase and the family said no ransom was paid to the kidnappers before Falae was released. However, Falae, who was visibly worried, said he did not sleep in one location during the four day

I was alarmed this morning when I received a message from whatsapp from one my numerous contacts suggesting that the current travails of the Senate President, Dr Abubukar Bukola Saraki is being masterminded by President Muhammadu Buhari because his father, late Dr. Olusola Saraki as Senate Leader in the 1980s headed a Committee that allegedly indicted the then General Muhammadu Buhari! Nothing can be farther from the truth. I know I am not the Spokesman of President Buhari but as a conscientious citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I am duty bound to refute with all my mighty such  devilish efforts to peddle falsehood and plain lies against the person of  President Buhari by some faceless hirelings on the pay roll of some corrupt mandarins who have deservedly found themselves at the wrong side of the law to ?pull wood over the eyes of gullible Nigerians who were not born in the 1980s. At least I was in Secondary School when the brohaha over the alleged miss

Today, the Muslim Ummah celebrated. Today, in Ilorin, the Eid organisers disappointed and displayed colossal incompetence. Today, Mr. Saraki was humiliated. All around the world, Muslims celebrated and gathered at several Eid grounds to worship. It was no different in Ilorin, home to great Islamic scholars. What was different however, was that for the first time in recent history, the organisation was so bad that many people left without praying. People far off from the Imam could not link up to him as a result of bad/insufficient speakers. The disappointment I felt is the same the man beside me must have felt when shortly before the prayers he was lamenting: “First, they said, we were uneducated, so we went to school. Now that we’ve gone to school, there are no jobs for us. The few that have jobs have not been paid for monthsShortly after the prayers, I noticed commotion. There were water sachets and stones flying in the air – all directed at the direction whe

THE Islamic calendar turns another leaf with today’s celebration of the festival of Rams, also known as Eid-el-Kabir or Eid-el-Adha. It is a bit discomforting that most Nigerians, even Muslims who should know better, tend to perceive Eid-el-kabir as an occasion mainly for merriment and feasting, more so as the rams slaughtered are to be consumed with friends and neighbours. Nothing can be farther from the truth, as a reflection of the history of the festival reveals. Firstly, this occasion had its origin in the days of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) who, as both the Holy Quran and the Holy Bible record was called upon by God to sacrifice Ishmael, his only son at the time, for the Almighty. The request came in frequent visions and dreams, and Ibrahim (may Allah’s peace be upon him), being God-fearing, decided to fulfill the demand. Surely, that decision, along with the surrounding circumstances, is anything but cheery. And the apprehension was further underlined by the fact

On Thursday, October 2, 2014, I was in the ancient town of Ile-Ife to attend the wake keep of Olori Beatrice Omosigho Adedapo Aderemi, the wife of late Prince Adedapo Morounfolu Aderemi, the first son of the late Ooni of Ife, the revered Sir Adesoji Aderemi. Prince Adedapo died in October 1963 at the young age of 39. After the wake keep which held at the Aderemi’s family house,  popularly known as Glass House  in Ile-Ife, I drove to Oja Ife (Ife Market or Oba Market) located some walking distance from the palace of the Ooni of Ife. I went there just to fraternise with Bunmi Adegoke, my childhood friend and old school mate, who retired from Union Bank as a Manager some years back and now into a distribution business. Few years ago, he bagged the traditional title of Sooko, which literally stands for the head of a branch of a ruling house in Ife. Sooko Bunmi Adegoke is from the Lafogido Ruling House in Ife. Altogether, there are more than 40 Sookos in Ife.

As the economy continues to face challenges which demand innovative and radical policies, the stakes are high on President Muhammadu Buhari. He is expected to provide inspiring leadership and deliver on key mandates, ensuring security of lives and property, galvanise state resources to engender prosperity, keep a watchful eye and maintain rigorous stewardship over federal treasury, tax collection, public service recruitment and development and deliver services that are responsive to citizens’ need, be accountable and ensure public trust in government. Nigeria is expected to be among the top 20 economies in the world with a minimum GDP of N144tn (US$900bn) and a GDP per capita income of no less than N640,000 (US$4,000) per annum by 2020 and the priority areas to achieve this target include physical infrastructure, real sector development, human capital development and governance. The current stock of core infrastructure in Nigeria is estimated to be about 30-40 per cen

If anyone needed a good hint on President Muhammadu Buhari’s likely economic policy direction, he has given one by declaring that there will be “no more devaluation of the naira”. It is the clearest signal yet that the exchange rate policy may not be formulated by the monetary policy committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). It is going to be determined, effectively,from Aso Rock. Thus, the exchange rate may have no direct connection to the interplay of demand and supply in the currency market. Is this good or bad? Actually, every policy has its good and bad sides, but I honestly don’t know how well Buhari’s pronouncement will work out. Things could even get messier. Listen carefully to Buhari: “The naira has been devalued.It used to be around 160, and now it is hovering around 200 and above and I don’t think it is healthy for us to have the naira devalued further. That’s why we are getting the central bank to make modifications in terms of making foreign excha

False accusations are of particular interest to sceptics and the media houses because scepticism has often been at the forefront of lending voice to the wrongly accused. In climes like ours, it is important as  concerned citizens to take a critical look at the allegations made by the Code of Conduct Bureau against the Senate President Bukola Saraki, and the increasingly refined methods adopted by those in support of seeking facts. I hereby  state the reasons why the charges against Dr. Bukola Saraki by the Code of Conduct Bureau/Tribunal (CCB/CCT) are on a baseless ground: 1. Going by the available evidence, Bukola Saraki, has clearly declared his assets since 2003, when he ran for governor of Kwara State. With countless assets declared, and no other inconsistency found, Nigerians must ask: “Why did the CCB suddenly find this particular asset declaration from 2003 worthy of note?” Given that the declaration in question was for a different office than the office that

A tweet purportedly made by Senate president Bukola Saraki, published by eagle online have further exposed the narrow mind of the senate president who failed whooply to address the basic issue generating serious concern. He started the tweet with the following quoted statement which only exposed his myopic shortsightness, avoiding and refusing to address the real issue that have generated serious brouhaha within the Nigerian political landscapeBukola Saraki said “My appearance in court today once again demonstrates my belief in the rule of law and respect for the judiciary of our country.” While Saraki is free to verbally vomit whatever he felt could be helpful to confuse those that are yet to grasp the ordeal Saraki went through at the code of conduct tribunal, what we rather saw was entirely the opposite of what Saraki was broadcasting to the public. We only saw Saraki running away from the law, showing up at the tribunal only when he realised that all possible optio

THE office of the president of any country is not a post people get at easily, especially a country like Nigeria, the giant of Africa, little wonder many do all sorts of things in order to be there. But what becomes the fate of a person who was freely elected by the entire country to be there and all of a sudden , somebody who felt that he was powerful came up and declared the election annulled. This was the case of late business mogul, Bashorun MKO Abiola, acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election, declared by international observers as the fairest and freest election ever conducted on the Nigerian soil. And of course, he did not give up, though his struggle to reclaim his mandate eventually claimed his life and that of one of his wives, Kudirat Abiola.