You’ve been contesting for President for 31 years, you need to step down – Bode George advises Atiku

A former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bode George, has advised Atiku Abubakar, the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, not to run in the next presidential race.

George, reflecting on Atiku’s unsuccessful attempts at the presidency since 1993, urged him to step aside and act as an elder statesman by leaving the presidential contest to others.

He urged Atiku who would be 81 by 2027, to end his 31-year-long bid to be President and assume the position of an elder for posterity sake.

George said this while addressing newsmen in Ikoyi, on Thursday, November 21.

He said: “My advice to Atiku is this, you will be 81 years old in 2027, and you have been contesting for presidency since 1993. This is the time for you to calm down and act like an elder. I appeal to you in the name of the Almighty Allah that you serve to take it easy and leave everything to posterity.”

Lagos Speaker, Obasa clears air on Governorship ambition to succeed Sanwo-Olu

Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa on Thursday dispelled rumour making the rounds that he was desperate of becoming the next governor of the state.

Obasa made the declaration when the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu presented a budget of ₦3,005,935,198,401 for the 2025 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly.

The Speaker, in his remarks, noted that the budget was presented at a time of complaints by Nigerians about the economy, appealing to Nigerians to be hopeful as President Bola Tinubu’s administration works to ensure the nation’s economic recovery.

On speculation that the speaker was aspiring to be Governor in 2027, Obasa said, “I have not given a serious thought about becoming the next governor of the state”.

He stated that the major concern now is to strengthen the party in the state, saying that was why he continued to enjoin more people to support the party at all times, an act he noted to have been misconstrued by ‘political detractors’ to mean that he was chasing a governorship ambition.

He added, “I have made it a personal task to mobilise people on the platform of Mandate, which has been misconstrued by some political detractors as being a selfish aspiration on the ground for me to become governor of the state. There is the need, however, to correct this wrong impression. My concern is about building our party, and whatever we do is mainly for this cause.

“To the blackmailers who have embarked on the mission to distort and redefine our mission, let me state it unequivocally here, our intention is to promote our party on the platform of Mandate.’

Obasa said becoming governor is secondary to him, adding that “it is something that I have not given serious consideration. Nevertheless, that does not mean I am too young or lack experience to run; whereas, those who have been before me are not better off.”

2023 Election: Presidency not stolen, Labour Party couldn’t have done better — Doyin Okupe

A former Director-General of the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign, Dr Doyin Okupe, says the 2023 Presidential election was not rigged by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Okupe, a former spokesman for President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday in Lagos.

“If Peter Obi (2023 LP presidential candidate) or the Labour Party says APC rigged elections, how come Obi was able to win in the home base of President Bola Tinubu?

“How come APC lost election in the home base of the sitting President (Muhammadu Buhari)? How come APC lost election in the home base of the Secretary to that government.

“So ,the accusations about rigging do not hold water ;they do not hold water at all.

“The truth of the matter is that under the best of conditions, the results we got may not have been the exact results, but they will have that ratio.

“I was in a Labour Party;we couldn’t have done better than we did. I know that for some reasons, but that is a discussion for another day,” he said.

According to him, the opposition PDP and LP appear to be unrealistic with their accusations that “the presidency was stolen”.

Okupe added: “There’s nothing like that. No presidency was stolen. I am not saying there was no rigging.

“There was no election that we have done in Nigeria since 1960 till date that was not rigged one way or the other.Not one.

Perhaps,an exception was MKO Abiola’s election because of the unique nature of the voting pattern. You know it was Option A4 ,people were counted.Apart from that, every other election was rigged.”

Okupe, who expressed strong belief in Tinubu’s reforms, said that the President’s policies would begin to yield results from the second year of his administration.

The former LP chieftain said that Tinubu had impressed him not only as a politician, but as a technocrat: “a man that is capable of deep thinking.”

He said that Tinubu had development ideologies and policies at his fingertips, “This thing, you don’t learn it. It’s a gift.”

The 72-year-old politician said that Tinubu was like the late Premier of the defunct Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, with great ideas about public policies.

Describing Tinubu as a reformer, Okupe said it was “total nonsense” to say that the President came to the office without a plan .

“I have worked with two past presidents. I have studied other presidents closely from a very close point.

“I do not know any Nigerian president from 1960 to date who has come more armed, better prepared for governance than this gentleman.

“Unfortunately for him, he has come into government at a very terrible and awful time,” Okupe said.

Noting that it would be unfair to hold Tinubu accountable for the ills of 40 years, Okupe said that the President needed a minimum of two years for some of his policies to begin to produce results.

He said that just like Singapore and Malaysia transited from third world to first world through determination, Tinubu was determined to move the country to greater heights.

“It is going to be a couple of years of pain and hardship, but he is doing what other presidents for the last 10 years or 20 years have refused to do.

“The choice he had was to run and was to come into governance and just continue business as usual.

“By the time he came to the government, 98 per cent of our revenue generated was being used to pay debt,” Okupe said.

He called on Nigerians to support the President to fix the problems slowing down the progress of the country(NAN)