Politics
2023: Tinubu Has Rejected Northern Christians’ Votes – Babachir Lawal

Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, has described the decision by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its standard bearer, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to field a Muslim -Muslim ticket for the 2023 presidential election as an existential threat to Christians in Northern Nigeria.
Lawal said Tinubu’s affirmation of Alhaji Kashim Shettima as his Vice Presidential nominee despite all protestations by well-meaning APC members across the country is especially a declaration that the APC flagbearer does not need the vote of Christians and that “Christians can go to hell with their votes” in 2023.
In an exclusive chat with The Tide source, the APC chieftain assured his former ally that his brickmanship to perpetually relegate unborn Northern Christian children to second-class citizens and irrelevance in their own country, where they would neither aspire to be President nor Vice president would fail flat.
He said they have picked the gauntlet, stressing that the God of justice and equity would vindicate their cry through Nigerian voters when the votes are counted in February 2023.
The former SGF cried that Tinubu, by his choice, is driving a wedge on their right to justice and peaceful coexistence with all adherents of other religions, pointing out that the political gambit would be met with an appropriate response, citing a quote from the bible.
“I did say it, “those the gods want to destroy they first make mad”.
“Tinubu has thrown down the gauntlet. He has submitted Alhaji Kashim Shetima as his nominee. He has stood by his affirmation that he only requires Muslim votes to be President and for all he cares, Christians can all go to hell with their votes. This is his position and he has a right to it. I concede to him.
“We have picked it up this gauntlet. The God of justice and equity through the Nigerian voter will decide the victor between the Nigerian Christian, Alhaji Tinubu and his party the APC.
“This is our country and we will not let Alhaji Ahmed Bola Tinubu relegate us, our children and our religion to second-class status in our own country.
“For us, this is an existential crisis. Our rights to justice and peaceful co-existence with all practitioners of other religions are under threat. A northern Nigerian Christian child deserves to be bequeathed a future in which he can aspire to be President or Vice President of Nigeria.
“The Bible supports our position and the Nigerian Constitution supports and even guarantees it.
“Come on Alhaji Tinubu! Come on APC!
“Again, “to your tents o Israel. “ The Bible records a time like this in history:
1 Chronicle 12: 32: “from the tribe of Issachar, there were 200 leaders of the tribe with their relatives. All these men understood the signs of the times and knew the best course for Israel to take” .
Politics
Presidency Tackles Baba-Ahmed Over Anti-Tinubu Comments

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications’, Mr Sunday Dare, says no political “conspiracies” can prevent the re-election of President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
Mr Dare was responding to a recent statement by Dr Datti Baba-Ahmed, former vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election.
Dr Baba-Ahmed had said that President Tinubu’s time in office was over and that the signs of his impending electoral defeat were becoming increasingly clear.
“I expect Tinubu to throw in the towel if he is that smart politician,” he had said.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Mr Dare described Dr Baba-Ahmed’s remark as “flawed, devoid of reason and empty”.
“His political logic is not fit for even a first-year political science class, and even then, they will query his postulations,” the statement read.
“He chose to base his political calculations on President Bola Tinubu not winning a second term given his antecedents and because Nigerians will decide at the polls, among other things. He conveniently avoided the substance of performance and capacity.
“Unfortunately, he chose to walk into a lane he was unfamiliar with and chose to confront a politician he is no match for.
“Politics is not for theorists or the faint-hearted nor the parochial. Politics is for those with a solid track record of performance, the courageous, far-sighted and gifted. Qualities he clearly lacks.
“Another thing Baba Ahmed lacks is the capacity for honesty because that is the only way to describe his claim that President Tinubu is not fulfilling his campaign promises. The positive impacts of the tough choices President Tinubu has made in the interest of the country are already being felt, and the economic indices are there to prove this”, he added.
Mr Dare said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently applauded President Tinubu for his economic reforms, noting that they have put the economy in a better position.
The presidential aide said President Tinubu “will win comfortably in 2027 no matter the volume of armchair theories and political conspiracies”.
He said President Tinubu’s performance “will clear the path” for his re-election.
“So, instead of running the circuit of television networks to peddle his poorly thought-out conjectures, Baba-Ahmed should seriously consider how to rehabilitate his failed political career, an intervention he urgently needs”.
Mr Dare asked Dr Baba-Ahmed to either keep quiet or leave politics for those “equipped” for the “complicated art”.
Politics
LP Crisis: Resign Or We Flush You Out, NLC Tells Abure

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged the National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure, to resign from office to avert plunging the party into a crisis that could jeopardise its 2027 electioneering campaign.
Acting Chairman of the NLC Political Commission, Prof Theophilus Ndubuaku, said this in an interview with The Tide’s source.
Prof Ndubuaku disclosed that the embattled LP Chairman had, through his lawyer, sought an out-of-court settlement two weeks before the Supreme Court judgment, seeking to step down in exchange for certain conditions.
According to the union leader, Mr Abure still has the opportunity to honour his pledge before the NLC takes a drastic decision to eventually ‘flush him out’ of the party secretariat.
He said, “After the National Transition Committee set up by the stakeholders asked him to vacate the secretariat, Abure ran to court, where he challenged the NLC and NTC leadership. That case came up in the Federal High Court, Zuba.
“After our response to their submissions by our counsel, Abure’s lawyer told the judge they were no longer interested in continuing with the case, adding that Abure had agreed to yield the chairmanship seat to us, based on certain terms he didn’t state.
“They requested more time for an out-of-court settlement, and the judge gave them up to the 28th of June to bring their settlement or adoption to court. This same Abure took that position two weeks before the Supreme Court ruling. So, what has now changed?
“His case is like that of someone with a mental illness. This is no longer a game. Abure is still sitting tight despite knowing that he has been removed.”
But reacting, Mr Abure’s camp denied that the LP chair requested a soft landing in exchange for giving up his position.
Speaking with The Tide source, the National Publicity Secretary of the LP, Obiora Ifoh, said, “It is not true. That is propaganda. There is nothing like that. We didn’t have any out-of-court settlements or any commitment like that with anybody, let alone the NLC.
“Are these not the same people going for discussions on coalition and trying to use the party as a transactional vehicle? They want to sell the party. No, it is not possible.”
Politics
LP Condemns Baba-Ahmed Over Statement On Tinubu’s Administration

The Julius Abure-leadership of the Labour Party (LP) has condemned a statement by the former vice presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Senator Datti Baba-Ahmed, who said President Bola Tinubu’s government is ‘questionably constitutional’.
The rebuttal, signed by Dr Arabambi Abayomi was issued to newsmen on Saturday in Kaduna by the National Secretary, Umar Ibrahim.
Dr Abayomi said the LP viewed the comment as undemocratic, therefore dissociating itself from any surreptitious action capable of inciting Nigerians against the present government.
He said the party approached the 2023 general elections with all the determination to make a difference in the way Nigeria was run.
The scribe also recalled that the party had sponsored candidates it believed at the time could win elections.
He also recalled that the result of the 2023 presidential election declaration did not go its way, and the party challenged the result up to the Supreme Court and lost.
“For the interest and peace of the nation, the Labour Party accepted the judgment of the Supreme Court.
“This was not because we were pleased but because of the finality of the Supreme Court’s judgment. The party has since moved on,” he said.
Dr Abayomi lamented that the party was astonished by the illegal and unconstitutional meeting called by Governor Alex Otti of Abia and Peter Obi on April 9 in Abuja.
He said that at the meeting, Sen. Baba-Ahmed still referred to the 2023 presidential election as ‘questionably constitutional’ even with the legitimacy conferred on President Tinubu’s government by the Supreme Court.
Dr Abayomi also alleged that Sen. Baba-Ahmed, in an interview with a national television station, said, “The appointments they are making are fake and illegal.
“The paraphernalia of government they are enjoying, destroying our country, and spending our money is only for a little time.”
He, therefore, said for them at the party, such a statement was clearly inciting and a call for mass action against a constituted authority.
Dr Abayomi said, “We think there should be a limit to whipping up the public sentiments against a legitimate government.
“The Arab Spring that rattled the entire Middle East started when the Arab leaders paid no attention to Bouazizi’s subtle comment.
“There was also the persistent galvanisation of the youths against their governments leading into the mass demonstrations, revolts, and revolutions that almost consumed the region.”
He recalled that Senator Baba-Ahmed, while refusing to concede victory in the 2023 presidential election, also alleged that President Tinubu’s government harboured a grand scheme to dismember Nigeria into six possibly autonomous zones.
He had also alleged that the administration had thrown Nigerians into untold hardship.
All these, Dr Abayomi said, were efforts to whip up sentiments against the government.
He emphasised that Nigeria was presently passing through a dangerous and precarious phase.
According to him, this needs every well meaning Nigerian to realise the fragility of the nation by putting politics aside and help to move the nation out of the woods.
Dr Abayomi maintained that the leadership of LP had stated clearly that it was within the right of every Nigerian to hold the government accountable for its inability to live up to the expectation.
He, however, said statements that were inciting and capable of plunging the nation into unwarranted combustion, particularly by the political class, must be avoided.
“The Labour Party under the able leadership of Mr Julius Abure, therefore, wishes to completely dissociate itself from the unfortunate and reprehensible comments by its former vice presidential candidate,” he said.
Similarly, Dr Abayomi said the party also viewed the alleged comment by Gov. Otti of a possible ‘doomsday’ awaiting the Julius Abure-led leadership as a direct threat to the lives of the party’s executive members.
He called on all the security agencies to beef up security around their leaders.
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