Politics
INEC: Preparing For March 19 In Rivers

L-R: Head of Departement,Voters Education, INEC, Rivers, Mr Godfrey Achebe; Administrative Secretary, Rivers, Mr Tom Ongele and Rivers Resident Electoral Commissioner, Elder Aniedi Ikoiwak, during a meeting with Rivers INEC Staff in preparations for the March 19 re-run Election in Port Harcourt, recently
From Abua to Andoni,
Opobo/Nkoro to Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni, from Khana to Akuku Toru, Etche to Eleme, they converged on the state headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Aba Road Port Harcourt. The date was Tuesday, March 8, 2016.
They said their gathering was to have a family meeting and when the roll call was taken, not one of the Electoral Officers (EOS) of the 23 Local Government Areas of Rivers State was missing. They came in their full number. They came in their full strength with an appreciable compliment of their staff at the local government offices.
This was not the first time the premises of the INEC Office on Aba Road was hosting critical stakeholders in the electoral process in Rivers State in preparation for this week’s re-run legislative elections in the state. A meeting of all the political parties and their candidates for the elections with the management of INEC had held earlier.
Ditto for security agencies and their operations, and civil society groups in those meetings, INEC engaged with the stakeholders as the one of the helm of affairs, to acquaint them once again with the guiding rules and regulations of process and to extract from them a commitment to abide by the rules of engagement for a free, fair and credible exercise . In talking about expectations from the stakeholders, the commission was also mindful to make commitments with regard to its own expectations.
The meeting of March 8, was therefore part of the commission’s own strategy of equipping and organising itself to face the challenges of delivering its own side of the bargain to achieve a successful outcome of the March 19 outing. To underline the importance of the meeting, all offices were ordered to be closed and all officers surmounted to be part of the gathering. Little time was spared for any protocol except a brief praise, worship, and prayer session to invite the Spirit of God for direction and divine enablement for the enormous task shead.
Like a responsible head of the family who has a firm grasp of the issues confronting the group, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Elder Aniedi Ikoiwak, did not only resolve to speak the truth with his members but to render it bare and undecorated.
Indeed, he spoke like one with the conviction that only the acquaintance with the truth of how far they had deviated and thereby put themselves in much jeopardy could bring them back to the path of rectitude and redemption.
In no uncertain terms, the REC told his staff that they had strayed from their core values of independence and non-partisanship. He said it was unacceplable that division along political lines had been allowed to creep into the commission thereby weakening the commission and making it vulnerable to the intrusion and manipulation of politicians.
Elder Ikoiwak said elections will remain a mirage if INEC personnel find it difficult to distance themselves from politicians and desist from aiding and abetting them to corrupt the system, noting that it was no longer hidden that staff of the commission sometimes engage in delivering electoral materials to politicians in hotel rooms and such other unlawful places to their shame and damnation.
The INEC boss charged them to derobe themselves of all vestiges of bias and allegiance to any other interest and work as officers who are proud of their job and worthy of their engagement by the commission. He said that, beginning from the coming elections, staffers of the commission will continually be under surveillance by independent monitors whose reports will determine their fate.
He emphasized that he will not hesitate to deal decisively with any recalcitrant personnel whose conduct or misconduct compromises the responsibility of the electoral umpire, adding that sanctions will include but not hinted to, dismissal from office of such staff.
“At the end of this election, I hope nobody will come to my office and roll on the ground begging for forgiveness because I will personally see to it that any staff who engages in anything unlawful to embarrass the commission and compromise the fidelity of the electoral process is taken out of the system,” he warned.
To demonstrate the commission’s resolve to strictly adhere to its guiding rules, Elder Ikoiwak said the old practice of receiving application from intending adhoc staff had been jettisoned.
In its place, he said, requests had been made to the heads of federal institutions including the NYSC, University of Port Harcourt, Federal College of Education, Otuoke, and the Federal University. Otuoke, Bayelsa State for personnel to undertake the assignment.
He explained that even though INEC was not involved in the direct recruitment of the adhoc, staff, the commission retains the responsibility of protecting and being accountable for its materials and charged his staff to rise up to the challenge of safe keeping of the materials and ensuring that they are delivered only to those whose duty it is to handle them.
He assured the staff that everything necessary and needful was being done to enhance their effective and efficient performance and implored them to also prepare themselves to make necessary sacrifices to achieve success. The REC urged them to take no satisfaction in any other than the pride of delivering on the mandate of the commission to superintend over a free, fair and credible poll.
At the end of his address, there was total agreement and endorsement of all he had said. Ass it were, the REC did not only succeed in correctly identifying the gaps that exist within the electoral body and how to bridge them, he also succeeded in bringing the staff to making a commitment to turning a brand new leaf towards achieving the overall goal of a transparent, open, and acceptable conduct of the March 19, 2016 re-run legislative polls in Rivers State in particular.
Speaking on the development, the Rivers State Director of the National Orientation Agency, NOA, Mr Oliver Wolugbom, expressed the view that the March 19, re-run elections present INEC with a golden opportunity to redeem its badly smeared image in the state.
Mr Wolugbom said it was encouraging that INEC was talking to itself and reviewing its activities and performances in the past with a view to making amends and rededicating itself to delivering on its core mandate.
“INEC must stand its ground and take responsibility and charge over this election,” he said adding that to this end, the commission should have only its personnel as collation officers in all the 319 electoral wards in the state.
For the purpose of accountability, the NOA boss proffers that the bulk of the adhoc staff should be staffers of INEC so that the commission can have a greater grip of the activities and performance of the personnel. To achieve this objective, he said, it would not be out of place for the electoral body to empty itself into Rivers State from Surrounding states.
According to Mr Wolugbom, the more non-staffers of the commission are engaged in the exercise the greater the chances of comprise in the system, insisting that whosever is engaged must be impressed upon to do only that which is fit and proper to deliver a desirable outcome.
The NOA Director reiterated that the groundswell of misgivings against the commission has aggravated the need for it to acquit itself creditably and enjoined the electoral umpire to adequately equip and educate all its personnel to be deployed for duty.
In truth, the eventual outcome of the March 19, re-run elections in Rivers State is a shared responsibility among the stakeholders including the security agencies, civil society organizations, the political parties and their candidates and the Independent National Electoral Commission. However, it cannot be gainsaid that no one singular role or function is as vital as that of the umpire whose statutory responsibility is to coordinate all others to achieve the desired end.
It is worthy of commendation that the Resident Electoral Commissioner and his staff realise and appreciate this fact. But just being aware and appreciating the task in only the half of the job. The other and the most important part is the practical demonstration of the rhetoric. Nigerians are watching and Rivers people cannot wait for INEC to either redeem itself and shame its critics or to disappoint itself and prove the critics right and earn the damnation of condemnation of the people.
Opaka Dokubo
Politics
Reps Constitution Review Committee Holds Zonal Hearing For Rivers, C’River, Akwa Ibom In Calabar

A press statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the Cross River State Governor, Mr Linus Obogo, disclosed that the Calabar Centre — designated as Centre B — will host representatives and stakeholders from Cross River, Rivers, and Akwa Ibom States.
The public hearing is scheduled to take place on Saturday, July 19, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. at the Transcorp (Metropolitan) Hotel, Calabar.
The initiative, according to the statement, is designed to promote inclusive dialogue and capture the aspirations of Nigerians from all regions.
It aims to serve as a platform for citizens to contribute meaningfully to the ongoing national efforts to refine and strengthen the country’s legal and institutional frameworks.
“Citizens, civil society groups, professional bodies, traditional rulers, and other interest blocs are invited to participate in this landmark engagement aimed at advancing a more just, equitable, and responsive Nigerian Constitution,” the statement read.
The hearing forms part of the broader review process of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), and is seen as a strategic move toward fostering national unity and addressing structural legal issues within the federation.
Politics
Tinubu’s Contribution To Buhari’s Presidency Marginal – Ex-SGF

For the first time since 2022, when then-presidential aspirant Alhaji Bola Tinubu declared he made former President Buhari Nigeria’s President in 2015, Mr Mustapha dismissed the claims, stressing that the merger only contributed about three million votes in addition to Buhari’s existing 12 million votes in the North.
He insisted that former President Buhari’s integrity, national stature, and disciplined messaging were central to the breakthrough, not the three million votes from the merging parties, which he described as insignificant.
Speaking on the role of the merging parties, particularly President Tinubu, the leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Mr Mustapha, who was the keynote speaker at the launch of the book ‘According to the President: Lessons from a Presidential Spokesman’s Experience’ authored by Mallam Garba Shehu, described the impact of the votes from other merging parties as very insignificant.
In attendance were former Head of State Yakubu Gowon, chair of the event; immediate past Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; SGF George Akume, who represented President Tinubu; PDP’s 2023 presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar; former Chief of Staff to Buhari Ibrahim Gambari; elder statesman Babagana Kingibe; former governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Chris Ngige (Anambra), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Raji Babatunde Fashola (Lagos); former ministers Solomon Dalung and Sunday Dare; former Army Chief Tukur Buratai, and Bayo Onanuga, President Tinubu’s spokesman, among others.
According to Mr Mustapha, “I do not intend to stir up any controversy. The merger in 2013 was midwifed to create a Buhari presidency. Let us look at the statistics. In the 2003 election, it was the Obasanjo-Buhari presidential contest where Buhari recorded 12.7 million votes. In 2007, it came to 6.6 million, and it went back to 12.2 million in 2011.
“When we were conceptualising the merger, what would give us a headstart? Obviously, it was at the back of our consciousness that the merger with the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), though it had only one state, the ACN had six states, ANPP three states, and when you sum up the total votes that we had as the presidency in 2015, the aggregate of the total votes was 15.4 million.
“So, basically, what we brought to the table after the merger outside the Buhari 12.5 million votes was three million. Before turning to that presidency, it is important to recognise the former President’s role in reshaping Nigeria’s political trajectory.
“In early 2013, as the leader of the CPC, Buhari formally requested and supported the creation of a CPC merger committee, part of a broader coalition-building process that brought together the ACN, ANPP, APGA faction, and elements of the ruling party through the breakaway ‘new PDP’ group. His endorsement and participation, along with other party leaders such as President Tinubu and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, lent credibility and direction to the merger, helping to unify disparate party factions under the banner of the APC. That coalition-building paved the way for the first democratic defeat of an incumbent ruling party in Nigeria’s history.
“President Buhari’s integrity, national stature, and disciplined messaging were central to that breakthrough. No account of President Buhari’s tenure would be complete without acknowledging the extended periods he spent on medical leave. These moments, while politically delicate, were also telling of his leadership philosophy and personality,” he said.
In his remarks, President Tinubu promised to build on the legacies of former President Buhari, stressing that “nation-building is a relay. The efforts of one administration lay the foundation for the next.
“In this regard, I acknowledge the efforts of my predecessor, President Buhari, and assure all Nigerians that the reform-oriented path he initiated will be consolidated and strengthened under this administration. Our Renewed Hope Agenda is inspired by the desire to build a resilient, just, and inclusive Nigeria—a nation that delivers dividends of democracy to all its citizens”.
Politics
Your Lies Chasing Investors From Nigeria, Omokri Slams Obi
Speaking during an appearance on live television on Wednesday, Mr Omokri alleged that Mr Obi’s statements were misleading and damaging to the country’s economic prospects.
Mr Omokri said some investors currently operating in Nigeria were considering exiting the market due to Mr Obi’s remarks.
“That is not true. He doesn’t rile me up. I rile him up. The reason why I came here is because I’m a patriot. Peter Obi lied. You know, foreign direct investors are watching your programme, who are making investment decisions not to come to Nigeria. There are foreign investors in Nigeria that are making investment decisions to leave Nigeria because of the lie he told.
“One of the lies he told is that President Tinubu has borrowed more than the administrations of Yar’Adua, Jonathan, Buhari. That is a blatant lie”, Mr Omokri said.
To buttress his claims, Mr Omokri referenced figures from the Debt Management Office (DMO), maintaining that President Tinubu had actually reduced Nigeria’s external debt burden since assuming office.
“I have here with me data from the Debt Management Office, and Nigerians who are watching can go to DMO.com and search Debt Management Office, Nigeria State of Indebtedness 2015.
“As of 2015, Nigeria was owing a total of $63 billion. When Buhari was leaving office, Nigeria was owing $113 billion. Today, from the DMO, our debt has gone from $113 billion to $97 billion, meaning that Tinubu has reduced our debt by over $14 billion.
“We should be appreciating this man. Yet Peter Obi came here and lied to the Nigerian people. He took the debts and translated them into naira to make it look like the debts have increased”, he said.
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