Politics
Sule Lamido on PDP crisis: Let us forgive each other
….’We are brothers, sisters’ lSays people in APC willing to come back to PDP
By Henry Umoru
ABUJA- FORMER governor of Jigawa State and a chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has urged members and those who left to forgive one another as brothers and sisters, and sheathe their sword, saying the All Progressives Congress, APC, and African Democratic Congress, ADC, were full of PDP members.
He said the PDP must reposition itself as a unifying platform if it hoped to remain relevant in future elections.
Lamido warned that failure to do so could diminish its historical legacy, and urged party stakeholders to prioritise unity over rivalry, stressing that Nigeria’s broader challenges required a stronger and more coordinated opposition voice.
He also warned that ongoing internal divisions within the party could weaken its ability to function as a credible opposition force in Nigeria’s evolving political landscape, adding that opposition politics required discipline and unity, especially at a time of security and poverty challenges confronting the people.
He said: “Politics today has become too trivial. Meanwhile, insecurity, poverty, and divisions are ignored. Governance has been reduced to palliatives. In medical terms, palliative is what you give someone who is about to die, just to ease the pain. That is what governance has become.”
According to him, the crisis is not just about leadership contests but about the erosion of unity within a party that once defined Nigeria’s democratic architecture.
“The cost is enormous, to cohesion, to unity. It is a painful victory because it has deepened division,” he said.
Answering questions on the Supreme Court ruling on the PDP political crisis, the former minister of foreign affairs who noted that the PDP risked losing its strategic relevance if it continued to prioritise personal ambition over collective rebuilding, described the current situation as a “painful victory” that had left deep political scars.
He argued that legal wins alone would not heal internal fractures or restore trust among members.
Lamido, who noted that the PDP’s foundational strength laid in its broad-based democratic culture, however, warned that this strength was being weakened by what he called “internal fragmentation and ego-driven politics.”
He stressed that the party’s internal struggles were distracting from its core responsibility of offering policy alternatives and holding government accountable, querying “has this judgment added to the economy? Has it improved security? Has it reduced poverty?”
The former Jogawa governor stated further: “Let us forgive each other. We are brothers and sisters. Why should we be prisoners of the moment? Life is dynamic. Today’s anger should not destroy tomorrow’s future.
“The most dangerous thing is a family fight. When a family begins to fight itself, it becomes very bitter. But for the sake of posterity, we must forgive and come back together.
“I don’t see any party that can dominate Nigeria in the next 50 years more than PDP. Other parties are ad hoc, arrangements of convenience.
“If you go to APC or ADC, you will find PDP people. So who am I fighting? That is the irony. It is all PDP in different forms.
“I really, really don’t know how to react to this issue. Victory is ours, but then victory is for whom? It’s a party, which is like a family, and for no reason whatsoever, we found ourselves in this kind of foolish fight, this civil war.
“There is no basis for it. PDP has a history, a shared legacy, a shared heritage. It is something we all worked and toiled for. I don’t see why we should even fight in the first instance over positions, over leadership.
“The party is built on democracy. The main pillar of PDP is democracy — people, party, democracy. So there is no problem if within us we struggle for positions. That is normal. But it should not get to a personal level where pride and ego come into it. To me, it has never been personal.
“If I emerge through a smooth, inclusive, transparent process, then it becomes a collective effort. The victory belongs to the party, not to the individual. If I lose, I have not lost. If I win, it is not my personal victory. It is about fulfilling our common objective.
“My plan, if I had become chairman, was to invite Obasanjo, Atiku, Jonathan, Namadi, former Senate presidents and speakers, the symbols of the party. PDP made them, and we have every right to bring them back, to use that symbolism to send a strong message that PDP is back.
“A number of people in APC are more than willing to come back to PDP. They are unhappy but feel safe where they are. They say, ‘give us something strong, something protective, and we will return.’ That was the vision.”
Taking a swipe at what he described as a growing obsession with internal power struggles, Lamido also warned that political instability within the PDP could create opportunities for further defections and weaken opposition cohesion nationwide.
According to him, many politicians still move fluidly between parties, based on convenience rather than ideology.
He called for urgent reconciliation efforts, insisting that dialogue remained the only sustainable path to resolving political disputes.
“No matter what you do legally, you still need a political solution,” he said, adding that unresolved grievances could continue to destabilise the party.
The post Sule Lamido on PDP crisis: Let us forgive each other appeared first on Vanguard News.
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By Omeiza Ajayi, ABUJA
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Thursday lamented that ransom payments have become as routine a household expense for Nigerians as school fees and rent.
Read Also: Insecurity: US panel accuses Police, Army of collusion in militias’ attacks
He slammed the President Bola Tinubu administration for celebrating debt statistics while the country bleeds from a security and economic crisis of devastating proportions.
Atiku, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, was responding to recent comments from the Presidency suggesting that Nigeria’s borrowing level compares favourably with some African countries.
According to him, the comparison exposed a dangerous disconnect between those in power and the grinding realities faced by ordinary Nigerians every day.
“It is both astonishing and insulting that at a time when millions of Nigerians can barely afford one meal a day, when parents are withdrawing children from school because of crushing hardship, when businesses are collapsing under unbearable electricity tariffs and inflation, and when entire communities are being overrun by terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers, the Presidency is celebrating debt figures as though indebtedness itself were an economic achievement,” he said.
The former vice president painted a harrowing picture of a country where road travel has become a gamble with death, where families go to bed dreading midnight calls about abducted loved ones, and where villages are sacked with disturbing regularity while those in power remain consumed by image management.
“In many parts of Nigeria today, travelling by road has become a gamble with death. Families go to bed praying not to receive midnight calls announcing the abduction of loved ones. Villages are sacked almost routinely while those in power appear more concerned about image management than decisive action. What exactly are Nigerians benefiting from all these loans if insecurity continues to spread and the economy continues to suffocate?” he queried.
Atiku argued that the insecurity crisis had directly collapsed food production, with farmers driven off their lands by armed gangs and terrorists across vast territories, triggering the spiral of food scarcity, hunger, and malnutrition that Nigerians are now living through.
“Across the country, farmers can no longer safely access their farmlands because vast territories have effectively fallen under the control of armed gangs and terrorists. Food production has declined sharply because rural communities now live under constant threat of attacks, abductions, and killings. The inevitable result is what Nigerians are currently witnessing — astronomical food prices, widespread hunger, malnutrition, and rising anger among citizens abandoned by their own government,” he stated.
The Waziri Adamawa acknowledged that borrowing is not inherently wrong when tied to productive investments that expand infrastructure, create jobs, and improve lives. But he insisted that under the Tinubu administration, unprecedented borrowing had produced nothing but deeper poverty, deeper insecurity, and deeper despair.
“No nation becomes prosperous by borrowing to finance consumption, sustain wasteful government lifestyles, and paper over policy failures. Countries that borrow responsibly do so to expand productivity, create jobs, secure critical infrastructure, and improve the welfare of their citizens. In Nigeria today, however, citizens see no correlation between the mounting debt profile and improvement in their daily lives,” he said.
He accused the administration of weaponising propaganda to distract Nigerians from the catastrophic consequences of its economic mismanagement, and recalled that the administration in which he served alongside former President Olusegun Obasanjo pursued disciplined economic reforms that freed Nigeria from the burden of Paris Club debt and restored global confidence in the country.
“It is therefore tragic that a government that inherited a struggling but manageable economy has plunged the nation into deeper debt, deeper poverty, deeper insecurity, and deeper despair within such a short period, yet still expects applause from suffering citizens,” Atiku said.
He dismissed the presidency’s debt comparisons as statistical gymnastics that no ordinary Nigerian has any use for, insisting that what citizens want to know is whether food is affordable, whether their children are safe, whether businesses can survive, and whether the future holds any promise.
“Nigerians do not care about statistical gymnastics from government spokespersons. They care about whether food is affordable, whether their children are safe, whether businesses can survive, whether farmers can return to their lands, and whether the future still holds any promise. Sadly, under this administration, the answer to those questions is becoming increasingly bleak,” he concluded.
Atiku urged the Tinubu administration to abandon propaganda and face the nation’s harsh realities with sincerity, competence, urgency, and compassion before Nigeria slips further into economic and social instability.
The post Ransom now item in Nigerians’ budgets – Atiku appeared first on Vanguard News.
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The Ogun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has dismissed claims by the Ladi Adebutu Democratic Organisation, LADO, challenging the indigeneship of Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola in Ogun State, calling it baseless and ridiculous.
The party opined that the claim that Adeola, popularly known as Yayi is a stranger in the state is not only reckless and mischievous, but contrary to both facts and constitutional provisions.
DAILY POST reports that the spokesperson of LADO, Afolabi Orekoya, had questioned YAYI’s origin during a radio programme on a private FM station in Ilese-Ijebu, on Wednesday.
Orekoya insisted that the 2027 election should not be handed to “a stranger” allegedly unfamiliar with the state’s political and social history.
In a statement issued on Thursday by the Ogun APC Publicity Secretary, Nuberu Olufemi, the party said the attempt amounts to desperate political propaganda aimed at distracting Ogun people from the glaring crisis and disintegration within the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The statement wondered how a politician with maternal and paternal roots in Abeokuta and Yewaland, respectively, and who is currently representing the good people of Ogun West Senatorial District in the National Assembly, could be described as a non-indigene in Ogun State.
According to the APC, the allegation clearly contradicts the provisions of the Nigerian constitution on citizenship and eligibility to contest elections.
The party urged the PDP and its affiliates to focus on resolving their deepening internal crisis instead of resorting to attacks on political opponents.
It noted that the crisis rocking the PDP in Ogun State had become so severe that several key stakeholders had abandoned the party for the APC, including the erstwhile PDP State Chairman, Sikirulai Ogundele, as well as members of the PDP caucus in the Ogun State House of Assembly.
The APC described the PDP as a sinking and crisis-ridden party whose members were daily losing confidence in its leadership and direction.
It added that it was ironic that supporters of a governorship candidate who, out of political desperation, abandoned his ancestral base in Iperu to contest election in Odogbolu, are now attempting to discredit a vastly superior candidate through unfounded allegations.
The statement read in part: “Nigerians are well aware of the fact that the PDP governorship candidate, Ladi Adebutu, is facing a Federal Government court case linked to alleged vote-buying and money laundering during the 2023 Ogun State governorship election.
“We wait to see how such a candidate, whom the people of Ogun State are keeping at arm’s length because of his poor record, hopes to derive political capital from false, jejune, and illogical statements targeted at Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola and his candidature.”
The statement maintained that Senator Solomon Adeola remains the governorship candidate to beat ahead of the 2027 election, citing his economic blueprint, grassroots engagements across the state, and extensive constituency projects.
It concluded that Ogun residents would reject what it termed the “politics of deception” and instead embrace continuity, stability, and development in 2027.
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A governorship aspirant of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, in Kaduna State, Shuaibu Idris, has rejected the result of the party’s governorship primary election.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Idris alleged irregularities, describing the exercise as a total fraud.
The aspirant further accused the ADC primary election committee of conducting a flawed and compromised process that failed to meet basic Democratic standards of transparency, fairness, and credibility.
According to the aspirant, who recently defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the ADC, he joined the party with the hope that it would provide a credible alternative to the existing political culture in Nigeria.
He added that the primary election process was poorly organised from the outset, despite concerns raised by aspirants and stakeholders during a series of meetings with the Election Committee.
“We raised concerns about the sloppy nature of the process, but proceeded in good faith and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Election Committee.
“This arrangement was clearly susceptible to manipulation, scheming, cheating, and other forms of malpractice. There was no way a credible result could emerge from such a process,” he stated.
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