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The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday asked a
Federal High Court in Abuja to vacate its order, restraining the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from publishing the
name of the Governor of Enugu State,w, as its candidate in the 2011
election.

The party, through its counsel, Olusola Oke, told the
court that it sent the name of Mr. Chime to the electoral commission for
publication on January 27, two days before the ex-parte order of
January 30 came restraining INEC not to recognise Mr. Chime.

The presiding judge, Abdul Kafarati, had in a ruling
ordered the PDP not to submit the name of Mr. Chime as its candidate for
the forthcoming governorship election in the state, pending the
determination of an action challenging his alleged nomination.

In the exparte application argued by Alex Izinyon on
behalf of a PDP governorship contestant in the state, Anayo Onwegbu and
38 others, the court granted an interim order restraining INEC from
accepting or validating Mr. Chime’s name as the party’s standard bearer
for the governorship poll.

Thirty-eight plaintiffs also got an order temporarily halting the electoral body’s dealing with alternative lists of names.

The trial judge, Mr. Kafarati, ordered “that the first
defendant (PDP) is hereby restrained in interim from submitting any
other names, list of names other than the names contained in the list of
candidates dated 17th January, 2011, which includes the plaintiffs, as
the gubernatorial candidate and deputy gubernatorial candidate for Enugu
State, 2011 respectively, and first defendants for the National
Assembly and State Houses of Assembly in Enugu State for submission to
the second defendant (INEC), pending the determination of the motion on
notice.”

Judgement too long

Mr. Kafarati will on February 16 deliver ruling on
whether to vacate its interim injunction restraining INEC from
publishing Mr. Chime’s name as PDP’s candidate in the election.

At the resumed hearing of the suit, both parties argued their applications and adopted their written addresses.

INEC, through its counsel, Onyechi Ikpeazu, argued
that the electoral body’s decision to publish Mr. Chime’s name was not
out of interest but was done so that PDP is represented in the
gubernatorial elections in April. He further submitted that as at the
time INEC was to publish the names, it was Mr. Chime’s name that was
submitted to it by the headquarters of the PDP, therefore could not have
published any other name that was not given by the party.

The party also told a Federal High Court in Abuja,
that the primary election which produce Jubrin Isah as the governorship
candidate in Kogi State, was valid, that the alleged order for a re-run
election was done in error.

When the matter came up for hearing yesterday, counsel
to PDP, Mr. Oke, argued that the inclusion of Kogi State in the list
of places where re-run will hold was an error, adding that the National
Working Committee (NWC) has the final decision on all disputes relating
to the conduct of primary election and such decision is binding on all
organs and members, including the plaintiff.

Specifically, Mr. Oke said that the party had at no
time ordered a re-run in Kogi State as alleged by the plaintiff,
stating that any other document coming from any other person which is
inconsistent with the decision of the NWC should be discountenanced.

He, therefore, urged the court to dismiss the plaintiff’s claim on the ground that it was baseless and lacking in merit.

The Action Congress
of Nigeria (ACN) has refuted reports by a section that there is a
disagreement between the party’s leader, Bola Tinubu and the party’s
presidential candidate, Nuhu Ribadu, over the choice of the party’s
presidential running mate.Media reports earlier in the day claimed the
party was engulfed in a crisis over the choice of Mr Ribadu’s running
mate.

This was made known
in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday by its national publicity
secretary, Lai Mohammed. The party also dismissed the alleged walkout of
its chairperson, Bisi Akande, from a meeting in Abuja on Thursday. The
party said its leaders, Mr Tinubu and Mr Akande are both out of the
country and therefore could not be involved in the alleged feud.

In an attempt to
clear people’s doubts, the party noted that: “Having served in many
capacities, including as Secretary to the Government, Deputy Governor
and Governor, our chairman will be the last to walk out of any meeting,
when he has acquired the experience and wisdom to resolve even knottier
issues without resorting to such actions that are being attributed to
him,” it added.

There have been
speculations in the media that Mr Tinubu had rejected Mr Ribadu’s
earlier choice of Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala as running mate. Sources believe that the former Lagos
State governor is not comfortable with the combination because he fears
that they will be too strong for him to handle.

The party however, alleged that the publications are sponsored by
those who have become jittery at the rising profile of the ACN.

The
G-11 lawmakers of the Ogun State House of Assembly known to be loyalists
of the governor, Gbenga Daniel yesterday stunned the world, as they
created a makeshift Assembly Complex inside the government house where
they deliberated on the 2011 budget.

The budget was said
to have been earlier presented in secret to them by the state governor,
Gbenga Daniel. It would be recalled that following unresolved political
crisis in the state since 2006, the House of Assembly was shut down in
September 6, 2010, as a result of a sudden impeachment carried out by
the 9 lawmakers, announcing the sack of 15 members of the Assembly.

However, in a twist
to the legislative business of the Assembly which has been on hold since
the impeachment crisis started, the factional Speaker, Shoyemi Coker
led the G11 group to the Valley View of Government House in Oke-Igbein,
Abeokuta, announcing to the ministries and agencies that the governor
had presented the budget to the house.

Compulsory approach

Mr. Coker,
therefore, called on the ministries and agencies to subject themselves
to budget defence, saying ‘‘for the sake of clarity let me say that this
is the committee level of the defence of the 2011 budget’’. The
factional members of House of Assembly thereafter moved into the cubicle
within the complex, to further deliberate on the controversial budget
of which estimate is not known to the public. Journalists were equally
sent away from the venue.

He said, the complex
turned ‘assembly’ was provided for them by the security agencies ‘‘I
want to thank the security agencies in the state, they have done a good
job in securing this complex , I really want to appreciate them.’’

“We can’t wait till
the time when our other colleagues feel it is convenient , we need to
move the state forward, that is the reason we are here.” He however
claimed that, the Assembly “receive the budget from the Excellency, we
want to commend the Excellency for a job well done in spite of the
situation in our state but at the same time, we want to appeal to him
concerning the situation of roads across the state so that we can put
them in good shape before the end of our tenure. We have done our part
on the budget.” he said.

However, journalists were not able to know the estimate of the budget
in question when they approached Mr Coker, ‘‘You will hear in due
course’’.

President
Goodluck Jonathan yesterday claimed his utterance in which he
reportedly referred to leaders of the south-west region of the country
as rascals was ‘grossly misunderstood.’ He however said that the region
must be ruled by “those who have what it takes.” The president had been
quoted at a presidential campaign rally in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital
last week, to have said that “the entire South-West is too important,
too sophisticated and too educated to be in the hands of rascals.” The
statement has been interpreted as an indirect reference to the
opposition party, the Action Congress Of Nigeria (ACN) which holds sway
over the region. Reacting to the statement, the Lagos State governor
Babatunde Raji Fashola cautioned the president saying that leaders
should refrain from using words that are offensive.

Choosing his
Facebook wall to clarify his statement, Mr Jonathan said that
“unreliable or mischievous behaviours or notions ought not to be
acceptable in any part of our body politic especially not in the
south-west where the population has had the privilege of a head start in
education compared to other parts of the country.” Noting that the
region is of critical significance to the economic and political
advancement of the country, he said, “it is unhelpful to public
discourse if we constantly twist words beyond intended meaning.” He
condemned the emphasis on the latter part of his sentence which he
claims “typifies the general tendency to dwell on the negative which we
must, as a country, refrain from”.

“My qualification of
the West as highly educated and sophisticated was easily dispensed
with, while the fact that we should not expose such civilized and
educated populace to rascality was played more upon, with emphasis on
the rascality” he adds.

Mr Jonathan said
that the foundation of the nation’s independence movement burgeoned from
the discussions which emanated from what he called the “Ibadan School
of thought” as the liberal Arts faculty of the then University College
Ibadan was then known.

He insisted that the
western region remains a very sophisticated and educated part of the
country, unique in its unequivocal stand for justice and equity and adds
that as he and Vice-President Namadi Sambo moves around the country on
his campaign train, they will continue to respect and pay tribute to the
hard work and patience of all Nigerians. “Our promise of a significant
turnaround in the way our country operates and is governed is an article
of faith.”

Support for President

Two civil society
groups; the Movement for Democratic Sustainability and Media for Ethnic
Equality have both welcomed the presidents explanation and called on
Nigerians and particularly the south west to be weary of people who were
“ exploiting” the statement by the President to score cheap political
point.

The groups claim the president further demonstrated his
responsiveness as a leader with the explanation and that the President
has taken the dialogue above the wish of those who seek to profit from
such calculated acts of sheer mischief in order to paint the Presidency
in a bad light. Iyiola Johnson, publicity secretary of the media for
ethnic equality praised the President for his “humility and inner
strength”.

The United Nations
agency, UNAIDS, has negotiated with European Commission for a three-year
grant of 2.4 million euros to strengthen the coordination of technical
support provision in six countries which include Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana,
Malawi, Nigeria and Swaziland. Out of this sum, Nigeria is benefitting
about 400,000 euros.

David MacRae,
ambassador of the European Union delegation to Nigeria, who disclosed
this at the weekend in Abuja at the signing of the memorandum of
understanding between the National Action Committee on Aids (NACA),
European Union and UNAIDS said the MOU provides the framework for an
EU-funded project designed to strengthen national capacity to scale up
towards universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment and
develop a national technical support plan on HIV/AIDS.

“The EU has worked
to develop a programme for action to confront HIV/AIDS, malaria and
tuberclosis through external assistance, mobilize funding and develop
effective ways to provide assistance to our partners to raise awareness
and deliver prevention, treatment, care and support to the population
affected by the pandemics,” he said. “Nigeria is one of six countries
benefitting from such grant and will receive 400,000 euros under this
grant.”

Mr. MacRae stated
that putting HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases under control is a
challenge, adding that the EU is fully committed to making a major
contribution to the success of this undertaking and desires that with
this financial support, UNAIDS will support the NACA to develop its
technical support plans and coordinate its implementation in order to
save lives of millions of people.

Kwame Ampomah,
UNAIDS country coordinator, Nigeria said technical support is critical
to addressing gaps and bottlenecks in the implementation of the national
response, while observing that technical support provided to countries
before now have remained unplanned, ad-hoc, supply-driven and
uncoordinated.

“Recognizing these
technical support challenges, UNAIDS in December 2007 developed a
guidance note on technical support planning. The guidance note provides a
general framework to assist national aids coordination authorities to
effectively plan, coordinate and better manage the technical support to
scale up national HIV/AIDS responses,” he said. “It is for this reason
that MOU for the grant agreement is being signed today. The key
deliverables of the grant is the development and implementation of a
national technical support plan that will ensure better coordination of
quality technical assistance for national aids response.

Working together

Mr. Ampomah
canvassed the support of all stakeholders for the initiative through
active participation in development and implementation of the technical
support plan, in addition to making financial contributions that will
sustain the EU, NACA and UNAIDS collaborative effort saying that they
must act fast to accelerate progress at achieving universal access to
HIV/AIDS prevention in Nigeria. John Idoko, director-general of NACA
stated that national response to HIV/AIDS will not improve without
adequate human capital in place.

“In order for us to
do all we want to do, we need to build human resources capacity and it
can be built not just by us but also by technical assistance. There is a
hidden gap you cannot see. You can see a gap of infrastructure, but you
cannot see the gap of intellectual knowledge skill. That has to be in
place to make the response more effective so as to achieve the universal
access we have been talking about,” he said.

He said that local government, states and national aids control agencies will benefit from the funds over a three-year period.

Former vice
president, Atiku Abubakar yesterday demanded investigation into the
death of some Nigerians at the PDP presidential rally in Port Harcourt
on Saturday.

In a message of
condolence issued by his media office in Abuja on Sunday, Mr Abubakar,
who lost to President Goodluck Jonathan at last month’s presidential
primaries of the party, described the death of the Nigerians as a
tragedy.

No fewer than 16
people lost their lives during a stampede at the Liberation Stadium,
Port Harcourt where the PDP held its presidential campaign rally at the
weekend.The former vice president, however, implored the ruling party
and the government not to desert the families of the deceased as they
are ‘heroes of democracy’.

The campaign
organisation of the presidential candidate of Action Congress of
Nigeria (ACN), Nuhu Ribadu also described the deaths as avoidable and
tragic loss. In a statement by its Director of Media and
Communications, Ibrahim Modibbo, the organisation said it sympathises
with the family of the deceased and prays that “God will grant them the
fortitude to bear the loss.”

The organisation
however asked all political parties to ensure that adequate security
measures are taken before, during and after campaign rallies and
programmes. The organisation also called for the police to be more
efficient in their duties, particularly during this campaign season as
“more political rallies will definitely take place.”

Medical assistance

In the wake of the
tragic incident ,the governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Obot
Akpabio, has set up a team of medical experts to assist some of the
victims of the stampede.

The governor, in a
statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Usoro I. Usoro, said
that “a delegation headed by the Commissioner for Health, of the state,
Louisa Ukpe, left Uyo for Port Harcourt, immediately after the
incident, to offer medical assistance towards fore-stalling further
loss of lives.

“The team is also
expected to search all hospitals and other health facilities with a
view to identifying all Akwa Ibom indigenes who might have been
involved in the incident and offer immediate help to them.” Mr. Akpabio
said that the victims of the stampede were part of the teaming crowd of
supporters that thronged the Liberation Stadium to show overwhelming
solidarity to their son, Mr Jonathan.

The governor
however urged Nigerians to vote overwhelmingly for Mr Jonathan as a
mark of honour in memory of those who died in the incident. “Today and
always, we will always remember their loyalty and support which they
carried to the end. Our heart goes out to them. We mourn with the
families of those mourning and pray with a deep sense of sorrow that
the Almighty God should console them over this unexpected calamity”,
the governor said.

Troops took control
of Tahrir Square, the fulcrum of protests that swept Hosni Mubarak from
power, to allow traffic through central Cairo on Sunday, as military
rulers struggled to get life in Egypt back to normal.

There were heated
rows in Tahrir Square on whether to keep up protests or comply with
army orders to help put Egypt back on its feet. “The people want the
square cleared,” one group chanted. “We will not leave, we will not
leave,” replied another.

The Arab world’s
most populous country was taking its first tentative steps toward
democracy and protest organisers were forming a Council of Trustees to
defend the revolution and urge swift reform from a military intent on
restoring law and order.

Police officers
gathered to demand higher pay and a security guard said warning shots
were fired in the air. No one was hurt, however. Earlier, troops, some
wielding sticks, pushed protesters aside to reopen Tahrir square to
traffic.

“Revolution continues”

Protest leaders
want the immediate release of political prisoners, the lifting of a
state of emergency used by Mubarak to crush opposition and dissent, the
closure of military courts, fair elections, and a swift handover of
power to civilians.

Despite Mubarak’s
resignation, some protesters have said they plan to stay in the square
to ensure the military council keeps its promises on transition. They
plan a big demonstration next Friday to celebrate the revolution and
honour those killed.

The Higher Military
Council has given no timetable for a transition, but tried to reassure
with a statement on Saturday affirming a commitment to democracy and
its treaties, aimed particularly at Israel with which Egypt has a peace
treaty.

The military is
expected on Monday to ban meetings by labour unions or professional
syndicates, effectively forbidding strikes, and to tell all Egyptians
to get back to work. On Saturday, the army said it would uphold Egypt’s
international obligations.

These include a peace treaty with Israel, whose defence minister has
been in touch with his Egyptian counterpart, who heads the military
council. Interior minister, Mahmoud Wagdy, has said Egypt needs “the
speedy return of the police to duty,” saying 13,000 inmates who escaped
from prison early in the uprising were still on the run.

The governorship
candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in Ogun State, Tunji Olurin,
yesterday extended a peace offering to the opposition within the party
led by the state governor, Gbenga Daniel, asking that they work
together to move the state forward rather than sit on the fence.

Mr. Olurin spoke
with journalists in Abeokuta shortly after a church service to mark the
second year’s anniversary of Chapel of Christ The Glorious King,
located within the complex of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential
Library in Abeokuta.

“We are all
citizens of Ogun State; there is no winner or loser in this issue. It
is our responsibility to join hands together to develop Ogun State.
Those who are in opposition, I will personnaly call them, embrace them
to come together with me on board to develop the state,” he said.

Accompanied by his
running mate, Tunde Oladunjoye, the party candidate who emerged from
the Olusegun Obasanjo faction of the party said his administration’s
focus would be to make rural areas attractive and stop rural-urban
migration.

“By the time we
make rural areas attractive, we will not have rural-urban migration
anymore, because most of our children go to the cities to sleep under
the bridges because they couldn’t make ends meet in their villages,”
Mr. Olurin said. “We want to transform the villages, we want to give
them the same facilities they could not get in the cities, so they can
remain there, we shall accelerate development.”

He said he is very confident about his ticket, just as he said he would embark on his campaign soon.

The Daniel faction
of the party, however, appears to have foreclosed working with Mr.
Olurin. The state Commissioner for Information and Strategy Sina
Kawonise, said there was no going back on the stance of his group,
which he said was to stick by the recent ruling of an Abeokuta High
Court which declared the Obasanjo group as illegal, null and void.

“The court
judgement still stands; the law is clear on that,” Mr. Kawonise said,
adding that the former president was earlier given a proposal to
resolve the crisis, but rejected it.

Reports at the
weekend alleged that Mr. Obasanjo had refused to entertain the plea of
a reconciliation committee sent by the party to harmonise the list of
candidates produced by the two factions. But the chairman of the PDP’s
harmonised executives, Dayo Soremi, described as false reports that the
former president tore a purported peace list supposedly sent by
President Goodluck Jonathan.

One list

In a press
statement issued yesterday in Abeokuta, Mr. Soremi said: “Our BOT
chairman and elder statesman has absolute respect for the office of the
president, which he had occupied as a military head of state and as a
two-term civilian president. We wish to state categorically that there
were no two lists of candidates in Ogun PDP, other than the one
submitted by the harmonised executives and approved by the national
leadership of our party.

“The list
containing our party’s flagbearers have been submitted and accepted by
INEC. The only alteration we made was the accommodation of Dimeji
Bankole, as directed by President Goodluck Jonathan.”

Mr. Soremi
expressed his happiness over the reaction of people to the
Olurin/Oladunjoye governorship ticket since it was confirmed with the
presentation of flag in Ibadan last Tuesday.

“I can tell you that even opposition parties in Ogun State are already imploding since the ticket was announced,” he said.

A socio-political
organization, Gateway Democrats Coalition (GADECO) at the weekend
described the gubernatorial candidacy of Mr. Olurin as a unifying force
for the 2011 gubernatorial election in Ogun State. The group noted that
the political situation in the state required a leadership that would
return it to its prosperous past and restore hope in the citizenry.

“We believe firmly that Adetunji Olurin’s candidacy will restore
needed hope, peace and bring back the unity of Ogun State,” GADECO
National Coordinator, Adeola Shoaga, said. “The recovery of Ogun State
from the scars of political crisis that has overtaken development
activities in the state in the last five years depends solely on the
election of a credible and “big picture” leader like Mr Olurin.”

Nigerians should
draw the right lessons from the 18-day revolt which saw the end of
former Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak after 30 years and do the needful
to effect a regime change in Nigeria at the April polls, presidential
candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Muhammadu
Buhari (Rtd) said .

Mr. Buhari who
praised the resilience of Egyptians who made exceptional sacrifices to
assert their collective will, said their tenacity has again confirmed
the truism that no force on earth can stop a united people.” He also
said Nigerians must gird their loins and insist on free and fair
elections that will usher in accountable leadership in April polls.

“Unlike the
Egyptians who went through self-denial for 18 unbroken days to achieve
their aspiration for leadership change, Nigerians just have to take
their voter cards, and ensure that their votes count and are properly
counted. It is time to demonstrate people’s power to free our country
from those who have held it hostage for the last 12 years and are
threatening to keep it for the next 60 years,” he said.

Peaceful doggedness

In a statement
signed by his media aide, Yinka Odumakin, Mr. Buhari equally commended
the organisational zeal of the Egypt demonstrators, their peaceful
conduct and doggedness even in the face of intimidation and provocation.

“Christians formed
rings round Muslims as they observed their Jumat prayers during the
demonstrations. For us as a people, we need to also move from balance
of hate to balance of faith as the Egyptians practically demonstrated
on the field of battle for change. Rather than allow ourselves to be
divided by our faith, we must emphasise what binds us together and
collectively fight against that hydra headed monster of corruption .
With all sense of modesty, this is part of what the Buhari-Bakare
candidacy represents,” he said.

Should we fear the
uprising in Egypt? American conservatives are caught up in an unusually
open argument about the crowds in Cairo.

“This isn’t about
Egypt,” said top-rated television personality Glenn Beck. “This is the
story of everyone who has ever plotted, or wanted, to fundamentally
change or destroy the Western way of life.” Beck is telling his
enormous audience that the protests against Hosni Mubarak are part of
an international Islamic resurgence sweeping all the way from Asia to
England. His opinions are among the most extreme in mainstream America
today, but there are a range of opinions about Egypt among Republicans
and others on the right.

“Only a child can
believe that a democratic outcome is inevitable,” writes conservative
columnist Charles Krauthammer “And only a blinkered optimist can
believe that it is even the most likely outcome.”

Broadly speaking,
members of President Barack Obama’s Democratic Party welcome the end of
dictatorship as complicated and potentially dangerous but inherently
desirable.

Obama’s stance
seems to have evolved since the demonstrations started; his latest word
is that the Mubarak regime should take prompt, careful steps to move
towards democracy. Most Republicans in Congress have quietly supported
the president’s position. But outside of Washington some prominent
Republicans are breaking ranks.

Influential
Republican strategist Newt Gingrich says the administration has been
naive about Egypt’s most popular opposition movement, because of its
roots in Islamic radicalism.

“The Muslim
brotherhood is a mortal enemy of our civilization,” he said. “This
administration, I think, does not have a clue about those realities.”
Like Gingrich, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is considered a
possible presidential candidate. She says she’s disappointed that the
Obama administration hasn’t established what’s ahead in Egypt.

“Nobody yet has
explained to us – surely they know, more than the rest of us know – who
is going to take the place of Mubarak,” she said. “They know what’s
going on and aren’t telling us.” It’s not clear that the White House is
hiding anything. A lot of America’s plans are being unsettled
unexpectedly by the sudden upheaval in Egypt.

President Obama
clearly believes that the country and the region will benefit from more
democracy. American conservatives aren’t quite as convinced.

Jonathan Mann
presents Political Mann on CNN International each Friday at 18:30
(CAT), Saturday at 3pm and 9pm (CAT), and Sunday at 10am (CAT).