Strengthening the affairs of Democracy in Nigeria...
Apart from fears on what could arise from the 2015 general elections especially the presidential polls where the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) has threatened to form a parallel government to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Administration, if the polls were rigged, the economic outlook does not give much cause for cheer.The All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday, lambasted President Goodluck Jonathan for being hypocritical by urging Nigerians not to sow the seeds of discord or hatred saying that the members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, were preaching hatred among Nigerians.
Lai Mohammed
The National Publicity Secretary of APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed who made this known in a statement in Lagos, said that Jonathan should lead by example instead of engaging in mere rhetoric, pointing out that ‘’talk becomes cheap the moment words lose their meanings.’’
Mohammed said that President Jonathan’s exhortations at a Christmas service in Abuja Thursday would have carried weight if the President had acted in such a way that his compatriots would not doubt his sincerity, wondering how the President could admonish others to avoid sowing the seeds of discord and hatred through their utterances when that was ‘’exactly the stock in trade of his political associates, supporters and spokespersons.’’
The statement further read, ‘’Everything that the President’s political associates, supporters and spokespersons have done has been geared toward creating division among Nigerians and sowing the seeds of discord and hatred, and the President is not on record as having ever called them to order.
‘’Recently, Chief Edwin Clark, a die-hard supporter of the President, said glibly that if the opposition has its way it can poison or kill President Jonathan just to take power. No statement could be more absurd and incendiary, yet the President never called him to order.
‘’Another dyed-in-the-wool supporter of the President, Mujaheed Asari Dokubo, said on national television that there will be blood on the streets if President Jonathan is not re-elected in 2015. He also said we will not take any prisoner of war. It will be total battle, but the President never uttered a word to rebuke him.
*OrtomHence, the APC leadership wasted no time in anointing him as the flag bearer of the party irrespective of the position of other gubernatorial aspirants who saw the decision as an attitude of superiority manifested and displayed in an overbearing manner.Understandably, their agitation arose from the fact that they had, over a long period, traversed the entire state drumming support for their candidacy with the ultimate belief that having done the needful, the choice of who takes over the platform as flag bearer would be left in the hands of party faithful who, through APC’s laid down rules, would decide the fate of the aspirants.
Zubairu Turaki, a Civil Servant, a farmer, an administrator, a politician wants to be the next governor of Kebbi State. In this Interview, Turaki who is the Wazirin Dabai bares his mind on his plans for the state, the nation’s politics, among others. Excerpts:
By Henry Umoru
Can you give an insight into yourself?
Zubairu Turaki is 49 years old. I was born on the 7th of December, 1965 in the ancient town of Zuru in Zuru Local Government Area of Kebbi State. Education took me to the seat of the Caliphate. That was where I had my primary education, in what is now called the Cement Company of Nigeria, (CCNN), Primary School. It was then known as Model Primary School. That was in 1972. Still in Sokoto, I attended famous Government College Sokoto, (now, Nagarta College) for my secondary education, which I completed in 1983. I did my undergraduate at the Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto, where I studied Agriculture.
I them moved to the University of Ibadan in 1990 for my Master’s degree in Agriculture. I Came back home to serve and began my Civil Service career with the Kebbi State Ministry of Agriculture in 1989 as Produce Officer II. I became the Farm manager in College of Agriculture and was eventually appointed Director, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Kebbi State Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (KARDA). After several years of service on State level, in December 2003, I moved to the Federal Government. I was appointed Head of Monitoring and Evaluation Unit of NAPEP SCC Office in Kebbi State.
