Former Deputy National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Olabode George, has decried Nigeria’s persistent political and governance crises, attributing them to tribalism, religious bigotry, and a deeply flawed democratic system.

In an interview, the elder statesman warned that unless Nigeria undergoes real restructuring, its democratic experiment will continue to falter.

Reflecting on Nigeria’s abundant resources, George lamented how greed and self-interest have undermined the country’s potential. “God gave us a massive land, rich in both natural and human resources. There is no part of this country that isn’t blessed. Yet, greed and self-interest continue to plague us,” he said.

He accused political elites of failing to prioritize governance, allowing corruption and inefficiency to fester. “Other nations envy what we have, but we waste it. Look at Ghana; during their elections, the sitting president conceded before the final results. No manipulations, no drama. Here, we introduce a new system, and suddenly, there’s a glitch. It’s disgraceful.”

George pointed to tribalism and religious bigotry as two major obstacles to national unity and good governance. “People make a big deal out of religious differences, ‘Oh, this one is a Muslim,’ or ‘That one is a Christian.’ But what does that have to do with the price of milk?” he asked.

He shared personal experiences of religious tolerance, including how his older sister married a Muslim and became an Alhaja. “She remained my sister till the end. So, I ask, what do religious labels have to do with how we treat one another?”

According to George, these divisions are deliberately fueled by politicians for personal gain. “The British left us two devils: tribalism and religious bigotry. But tell me, what does religion have to do with governance?”

George did not mince words in his criticism of Nigeria’s political structure, declaring that the current system is fundamentally flawed. “It has failed, absolutely. The current constitution is the root of our problems. Every month, states go to Abuja to collect their share of national revenue instead of generating their own. That’s not democracy; it’s a unitary system disguised as federalism,” he asserted.

He advocated for a return to the six-zone structure proposed by former Vice President Alex Ekwueme, arguing that it provided a more equitable distribution of power. “When one region hoards all the power, resentment builds. That’s exactly what happened to my party. The presidential candidate, national chairman, and other key positions all came from the same region. That was a fundamental mistake,” he explained.

For Nigeria to move forward, George insists that meaningful restructuring is the only solution. “Not just any restructuring, but a real, practical one. If we continue on this path, we are only postponing disaster.”

He warned that failure to implement genuine reforms would deepen the country’s woes. “People are suffering. The price of fuel is crippling businesses, yet those who control the banking sector are making billions. If the president truly cares about the people, he should work with the financial sector to stabilize fuel prices,” he urged.

With the country facing economic hardship, insecurity, and rising youth unemployment, George called for urgent reforms. “We had trade centers where people learned carpentry, tailoring, and hairdressing. Now, nothing. That’s why we have a Yahoo Yahoo epidemic, because the system has failed young people,” he said.

He issued a stern warning to political leaders: “Nothing lasts forever. Power is temporary. If you are in leadership, use the opportunity to serve, not to loot. A land of plenty should not have starving citizens. If we don’t change course, history will not be kind to us.”

As Nigeria grapples with these challenges, George’s words serve as both a diagnosis and a call to action. Whether the country’s leaders will heed his warnings remains to be seen.

…says Obi to unseat Tinubu in 2027

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Labour Party (LP) on Friday endorsed the 2023 Presidential candidate of the party, Peter Obi as its presidential candidate for the 2027 general election.

We had no N5m bribe for SARS, so i spent 10 Years in jail0:00 / 0:00

The party, which has equally endorsed Governor Alex Otti of Abia State’s re-election bid and Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour as the party’s flag bearer in Lagos State, expressed confidence that Obi will unseat President Bola Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2027 presidential election.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Abayomi Arabambi, who disclosed this in a statement he made available to Vanguard in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, said many Nigerians; especially youths are currently yearning for Obi due to Tinubu’s policies that are not favourable to the masses.

According to Arabambi, the main focus of the Labour Party in 2027 is to unseat President Tinubu in 2027 through democratic means, with Peter Obi as the front-runner for the presidency in 2027.

He said, “Our major focus is getting the APC out of office only through the ballot box if Nigerians so desire, and not through illegitimate means”.

He said, “Peter Obi would once again represent the LP in the 2027 presidential race, and reiterated the party’s determination to support Governor Otti’s re-election bid in Abia and Rhodes-Vivour’s gubernatorial candidate in Lagos”.

“We are united in our resolve to bring about a better Nigeria under the leadership of Peter Obi.”

President Trump has said he is “not interested” in deporting Prince Harry.

Harry currently lives in Montecito, California, with his wife, Meghan Markle.

“I don’t want to do that,” Trump told the New York Post.

“I’ll leave him alone. He’s got enough problems with his wife. She’s terrible.”

In February 2024, Trump accused former President, Joe Biden, of “protecting Harry”.

At the time, the billionaire business claimed he wouldn’t do the same if he wins the election and gets into White House.

“He betrayed the queen. That’s unforgivable,” Trump told the Daily Express in an interview.

However, Trump, in his interview with the New York Post, claimed “poor Harry” is “whipped” by Markle.

Trump has previously criticized Prince Harry and Markle over their reported differences with the royal family.

In 2023, he told radio host Hugh Hewitt, “I didn’t like the idea that they [Harry and Markle] were getting US security when they came over here.”

The oarent company of Facebook, Thread, WhatsApp and Instagram, Meta, is set to implement another round of layoffs across its operations in Africa, Europe, and Asia starting Monday next week.

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The company informed its staff of the plans in an internal memo seen by Reuters on Friday.

Notices will go out to employees losing their jobs starting at 5am local time Monday in most countries, including in the United States, according to one of the posts, authored by Meta’s Head of People, Janelle Gale.

However, employees in Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands will be exempted from the cuts “due to local regulations,” while those in more than a dozen other countries across Europe, Asia and Africa will receive their notifications between February 11 and February 18, it said.

LEADERSHIP recalls that Meta confirmed last month that it was planning to trim about 5% of its “lowest performers” and backfill at least some of the positions.

The Friday memo, in which Gale referred to the cuts as “performance terminations,” was first reported by The Information, unlike previous company-wide layoffs, Meta was planning to keep its offices open on Monday and would not issue any updates providing further details on the decisions, Gale said in her post. 

A separate memo, posted by VP of Engineering for Monetization Peng Fan on Friday, asked staffers to assist with an expedited hiring process for machine learning engineers and other “business critical” engineering roles.

That process would take place between February 11 and March 13, Fan said in that post.

“Thank you for your continued support in helping us achieve our accelerated hiring goals, and better align with our company’s priorities for 2025,” he stated

The dropbox visa processing option has been discontinued for United States visa applicants in Nigeria, marking a significant change in the US visa renewal procedure.

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Though the US Embassy in Nigeria was yet to issue an official statement on the change, sources have confirmed that the service, which previously allowed eligible applicants to renew their visas without an in-person interview, has been quietly removed from the appointment booking system.

Applicants attempting to schedule visa renewals have reported that the Dropbox feature was no longer an option on the appointment booking platform, suggesting that it may be due to a slew of executive orders from President Donald Trump.

The development came amid a backlog of visa applications, with many applicants waiting for months to secure dropbox appointments before the removal.

Applicants have expressed frustration over the lengthy wait for physical appointments, which has reportedly taken nearly a year.

With the Dropbox option removed and unavailable slots in Lagos since January, applicants may now be required to travel to Abuja for in-person interviews, reverting to the pre-2020 process

Managing Director of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), Akintunde Sawyerr, has announced that Nigerian students currently receiving the loan will not begin its repayment until two years after completing their National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

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Sawyerr who stated this on Saturday while featuring on a TVC News, noted that this applies to those secured jobs, and that the repayment requirements are on their employers.

He added that the employer will be deducting 10% of the employee’s salary and remitting to the Fund monthly.

“Two years after completion of their NYSC, there is a requirement for the loans to be paid back, but the requirement to pay the loan back is on the employer.

“For those who have managed to secure jobs, the employer goes to a database, he or she checks the name and the NIN number of the person who they’re about to employ.

“Then they contact NELFUND and say we’re about to employ this person and we’re going to start making deductions from their salary to the NELFUND. 

“That deduction is 10% of that individual’s salary. At no point is the obligation on the individual to pay back themselves,” Sawyer said.

He also pointed out that those that are unemployed after NYSC are not under obligation to repay the loans while self-employed persons would repay the loans by themselves.

Sawyer pointed out that while the law that established NELFUND does not currently allow it to provide loans for Nigerian students in private higher institutions, President Bola Tinubu is considering extending it to them in the future.

“For now, we only give loans to students of public institutions because the law doesn’t allow us to give loans to private institutions.

Rauf Aregbesola, former minister of interior, and Rabiu Kwankwaso, ex-governor of Kano state, have met in Lagos, to “strategise” ahead of the 2027 general election.

“Aregbesola and Kwankwaso just finished from a marathon meeting in Lagos where they strategised on the 2027 election,” a party source told TheCable.

More to follow…

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Josef Onoh, has said that former President Mohamadu Buhari’s eight years in office were characterised by monumental corruption and insecurity.

Onoh stated this in a statement issued on Friday while responding to Buharis’ claim that Nigeria experienced significant improvements in its security and economy under his tenure.

The former President stated that he inherited a bad economy and security challenges from the Peoples Democratic Party, which was in government for 16 years.

Buhari, however, asserted that his government’s strategies successfully tackled these challenges, curbing terrorism and economic hardship.

Responding to Buhari’s comments, Onoh said the country experienced economic collapse, monumental corruption and insecurity under his watch.

Onoh asserted that President Bola Tinubu’s administration is suffering from the consequences of Buhari’s mismanagement of the economy during his eight years in office.

The statement read, “Nigerians today accuse Tinubu’s administration of being the worst they have met without knowing that the President chose to be silent and carry his cross alone without shouting or calling names.

“He continues to navigate the economic minefields the Buhari administration left behind after they failed to frustrate him from becoming the president.

“Under Buhari’s watch, the North East. North Central, South East, South West couldn’t go to sleep in peace. When you assumed office on May 29, 2015, the cumulative number of people killed in Nigeria, according to the NST, was 34,972. But from the day you assumed office, the death figure rose to 98,083 as of May 16, 2023.

“Under your watch as President, 98,083 were killed in 12 years; 27,311 persons were killed in your first term in office; 35,800 were killed between 2019 and May 2023.

“Let me remind General Buhari that Nigeria has never witnessed the level of insecurity witnessed under his administration, not even during the Civil War. Let me refresh your memory with figures of Nigerians killed under your watch: In 2015, 5556; In 2016, 5763l; In 2017, 4618; In 2018, 6565; In 2019, 8340. In 2020, 9694; In 2021, 10575; In 2022, 9079; In 2023, 2921 totalling 63,111.

“You rode on the mantra of change but ended up changing Nigeria for the worst, and after you failed, you turned around to blame PDP your continuous self-assessment begs certain questions: could this stance be a political pretence or stem from a genuine insensitivity which has been your trade mark.”

Onoh said under the Buhari administration, Nigeria was ranked high in the Global Terrorism Index and was ranked low in the Global Peace Index.

He added, “In 2019, under your watch, Nigeria was ranked 3rd below Afghanistan and Iraq out of 138 countries in the Global Terrorism Index and was said to be the 14th most fragile in the world and the 9th in Africa, according to the Fragile States Index. Unsurprisingly, in the same year, our country was also ranked 148th out of 163 countries in the Global Peace Index, far below former war-ravaged countries like Sierra Leone (52), Liberia (59) and Rwanda (79).

“Under your watch, attacks and reprisal attacks continued in states like Kaduna with accusations of ethnic cleansing and mismanagement of religious and cultural diversity today. Tinubu’s administration has brought peace to southern Kaduna.

“Your insensitivity and ineffectiveness of your security chiefs were part of the reason for the spread of insecurity that allowed these groups to operate with impunity while you displayed ‘the failure or unwillingness while in authority to address these and other non-state actors and to secure ungoverned spaces, which cumulatively allowed the violence to mutate.”

The APC chieftain also stated that the former president failed to handle the economy and insecurity, which affected the country’s attraction for foreign direct investment.

He added, “On the issue of economy, your failure to handle insecurity created an environment in which Boko Haram extended its operations’. The heightening insecurity continued to impact negatively on the business environment and business flows of our nation during your tenure.

“Under your watch, one of the biggest fish markets in West Africa, located in Baga near the Lake Chad basin in North East Nigeria, has long been abandoned due to the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency and only under Tinubu’s administration has life gradually started coming back.

“Without prejudice, I maintain that in any fair assessment of Buhari’s administration, either by himself or even artificial intelligence, he must take these facts into consideration before giving false credits to his elapsed administration or himself. He should always remember these staggering statistics i have provided clearly have a verifiable impact on the direction of investment decisions, whether foreign or local.

“In the end, it affected both the perception of Nigeria globally and the reality of citizens’ livelihoods in our oil-rich country, which today Tinubu’s administration is paying the price of his ineptitude.

“Finally, one of the greatest legacies the Buhari administration left in the minds of Nigeria as its greatest contribution to the economy was a success story of a recharge card seller turned billionaire overnight and a serving Central Bank governor running for president from the comfort of his office using public funds.

“Your administration yesterday introduced “Ranka ya Dede Nepotism”, today, it’s “Emiloka”, tomorrow it might be “igbo kwenu” and what will be next tomorrow’s catchphrase. Because your 8 years in office was truly the las vegas of insecurity and corruption”.

Mohammed El-Rufai, eldest son of the former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has said he supports the probe of his father’s administration by the Kaduna State Government, provided it is done with clear, unbiased intent.

In an interview with the BBC Hausa Service on Saturday, Mohammed stressed that while accountability is crucial, any probe must focus on uncovering facts rather than settling personal scores.

The lawmaker representing Kaduna North Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, however, urged that investigations not be used as a political weapon.

“If done for selfish reasons, such inquiries only harm progress,” he said.

Speaking further, Mohammed stated reconciling his father and his successor, Governor Uba Sani, is not his responsibility, saying that the rift between the two is being exaggerated in the media.

Mohammed, however, stated that he was not happy with the ”cold war’ between his father and the governor, considering the role both played in his life.

Emphasising his commitment to serving his constituents, Mohammed stated that his priority is effective governance in his constituency and not mediating in the ongoing rift.

He said, “Some people are delighted, seeing my father and the Governor enmeshed in a conflict, just like the legendary Bollywood actors, Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra fighting.”

Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, the founder of Love World aka Christ Embassy has opened up on why several gospel musicians, such as Sinach, Joe Praize, Frank Edwards, Eben, and others left his church.

The singers had started their music careers at the Love World before dumping church. Many claimed they left due to restrictions on ministering outside Christ Embassy.

For instance, as Sinach’s international music ministry grew, her presence at Christ Embassy became scarce, which allegedly displeased Oyakhilome.

It is believed that Oyakhilome asked her to return and actively participate in the church’s singing ministry to no avail.

In a viral video, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome explained that he stopped working with the singers because they were no longer celebrating God.

According to Oyakhilome, he tried to get them to change their ways, but they refused and stopped following him. In his words:

“Why did it happen? The church was turned into a party place, not a prayer place where God’s word was truly celebrated…they were not soul winners; they led praise in church, and when it was time for prayers, they were gone.

The church lost its way of worship, everything changed, the music in the church became worldly, they danced for themselves, celebrated themselves not God, they charged for their singing, they became professionals making money from the church….and many pastors didn’t know that this was the world coming into the church.

I did at the beginning and celebrated them but when I changed, they refused to change with me, so I had to let them go; God was getting my attention and saying this is not the way. I told them the Lord wanted us to do the right thing…they had become too popular and because they were making even little money….do they know what big money is? The little money they were making was too attractive to them, so they didn’t want to follow me, so they made a detour….I hope they all repent…..they are not worship leaders.”