Presidential Poll: Losers should go to court, not streets — Buhari

 

•Congratulates APC candidate, Tinubu over election victory 

•Tells those who believe there is fraud to bring evidence 

•Urges candidates to honour signed Peace Accord

President Muhammadu Buhari in the early hours of yesterday asked opposition parties and their supporters against the outcome of the presidential and National Assembly elections to take their grievances to court, rather than embarking on street protests.

He also congratulated winner of the presidential election and candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Reacting to the outome of the election, President Buhari in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said:  “I congratulate His Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his victory. 

''Elected by the people, he is the best person for the job. I shall now work with him and his team to ensure an orderly handover of power. 

“The election was Africa’s largest democratic exercise. In a region that has undergone backsliding and military coups in recent years, this election demonstrates democracy’s continued relevance and capability to deliver for the people it serves.

“Within Nigeria, the results revealed democracy is ripening in our country. Never has the electoral map shifted so drastically in one cycle. In the presidential elections, states in all regions across the nation changed colour. Some among you may have noticed my home state, among them. 

"The winning candidate did not carry his own home state either. That happens during a competitive election. Votes and those that cast them cannot be taken for granted. Each must be earned. 

''Competition is good for our democracy. There is no doubt the people’s decision has been rendered in the results we look at today. 

“That is not to say the exercise was without fault. For instance, there were technical problems with electronic transmission of the results. Of course, there will be areas that need work to bring further transparency and credibility to the voting procedure. 

"However, none of the issues registered represent a challenge to the freeness and fairness of the elections. 

“I know some politicians and candidates may not agree with this view. That too is fine. If any candidate believes he can prove the fraud they claim is committed against him, then bring forward the evidence. 

''If they cannot, then we must conclude that the election was, indeed, the people’s will, no matter how hard that may be for the losers to accept. If they feel the need to challenge, please take it to the courts, not to the streets. 

“However, to do the latter means they are not doing it in the interest of the people, but rather to inflame, to put people in harm’s way and all for personal, selfish gains. 

“After a degree of polarization that necessarily accompanies any election, it is now time to come together and act responsibly. I call on all candidates to remember the peace pledge they signed just days before the election. 

''Do not undermine the credibility of INEC. Let us now move forward as one. The people have spoken.” 

El-Rufai C'ttee's report: President-elect must respect party supremacy —APC Vice Chairman

By Omeiza Ajayi

Abuja—Even as Asíwájú 

Bola Tinubu, was being issues his Cerificate of Return as president-elect, the National Vice Chairman, Northwest of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Salihu Lukman, yesterday said under the incoming APC administration and leaders of the party must subordinate themselves to party decisions.

He was speaking against his belief that the outgoing government of President Muhammadu Buhari to discarded the Governor Nasir El-Rufai committee report on true federalism, saying such action should be regarded as an anti-party activity, especially the committee was set up by the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee, NWC, of the party. 

"Its report was distilled into a workable document and forwarded to both the executive and legislature controlled by the party. 

"However, the committee's recommendations were never debated, let alone considered for implementation," he lamented.

Lukman said yesterday that,  "Leaders of the party must have the humility to subordinate themselves to party decisions. 

''A situation where the party will invest time and resources to produce recommendations such as the one produced by the Mal. Nasir El-Rufai committee on true federalism and ignored by government is not only unacceptable but should be regarded as anti-party activity.

"The commitment of leaders to democracy must be reflected in their willingness to implement decisions of party organs".

He said the next era of APC government under Tinubu must produce the rebirth of the struggle for democracy in Nigeria.

"It must signal the era of renewed hope for the development of democracy in Nigeria. It should above all be the era for the institutional development of APC as a political party," he stated.

Why big-time 

politicians lost

Lukman also lampooned the parties for the absence of internal democracy, saying it was the main reason those who imposed themselves on the party lost elections.

He said:  "Unhealthy state of internal party contest, therefore, leading to imposition of candidates could be attributed as the source for legitimacy for the disrespectful conducts of candidates and politicians who lost elections.

"It is also perhaps the source of challenges leading to some of the avoidable outcomes of the 2023 elections in many states".

Lukman also noted that the APC had to manage its presidential campaign as though its presidential candidate was an opposition candidate.

"For instance, our leaders had to dissociate themselves from a crudely managed cashless policy of the APC controlled Federal Government, which had the attributes of facilitating the defeat of APC in the presidential elections. 

''That Nigerians, across every part of the country elected Asiwaju Tinubu as the next president of the Federal Republic reflects the trust being invested both in APC as a party and Asiwaju as the president-elect. Without doubt, this is well earned trust," he stated.

Make Adamu's 

NWC accountable

He also advised Tinubu to make the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee, NWC, accountable and obedient to laws governing the party.

He said:  "At this point, we must, as leaders and associates of the president-elect, accept this trust with high measure of humility. We must acknowledge and thank President Muhammadu Buhari for his leadership. 

''In doing so, we should appeal to Asiwaju Tinubu, being the new leader of our party, to consider this golden opportunity as a call to action to continue the struggle for the development of Nigerian democracy.

"This will require considerable attention and focus on the development of our party, which will require some internal reform measures to guarantee internal competition within the party. Some of the things that should be immediately done is to ensure that the National Working Committee, NWC, is accountable and respect the constitution of the party.

"A situation where the NWC will operate for almost a year without rendering financial report to any organ of the party is unacceptable. Similarly unacceptable is a situation where the NWC will continue to refuse to convene meetings of the National Executive Committee, NEC, as provided in the constitution of the party.

"Being the leader of the party, Asiwaju Tinubu should avoid replicating the mistake swhere as president of the Federal Republic produced by the APC, he will limit his relationship with other leaders of the party to only the national chairman and some few leaders of the party."

trauma of producing a government that does not reward the efforts of party members.

According to him, strangers and in some instances, antagonists to APC became the main players.

"This must change if our party is to develop democratically.  Another point that must be highlighted at this point of victory is the need to be faithful to our electoral promises. One of the shortcomings of parties managing governments since 1999 is that everything is left to the discretion of elected representatives. 

''Requirements to give life to provisions of party manifesto is absent. In fact, many elected representatives are ignorant of provisions of the party manifesto. This needs to change. 

''All party leaders aspiring to be appointed into government must familiarize themselves with provisions of the party manifesto as well as envision how to produce desired outcomes," he stated.

JAMB dismisses 2 staff over alleged misconduct

By Joseph Erunke

ABUJA—THE Joint 

Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, said it has dismissed two of its staff for gross misconduct.

The board in a statement yesterday, gave the names of the dismissed staff as Mr. Bilyaminu Ishaku and Mr. Andrew Anebi Candidus, both from JAMB office in Makurdi, Benue State.

It explained that the action was the fallouts of the accused appearance before the Senior Staff Disciplinary Committe which interrogated them for their actions considered 

inimical to the image of the board.

Their dismissal, according to the statement released by its Head, Public Affairs and Protocol, Fabian Benjamin, took effect from February 27, 2023.

The statement read: "sequel to your appearance before the Senior Staff Disciplinary Committe and the subsequent recommendations of the committee, I am directed to convey to you the approval of the Honourable Minister of Education of your dismissal from the service of the Board from 27th February, 2023 for serious misconduct."

According to the statement, the dismissal was in line with the Public Service Rule 030401, which defined serious misconduct as a "specific act of very serious wrongdoing and improper behaviour, which is inimical to the image of the service and which can be investigated and if proven, may lead to dismissal.

"The staff were directed to submit their identity cards and all other property of the Board in their possession to the State Coordinator, JAMB Office, Benue State, for onward submission to the Director, Human Resources, with immediate effect."

Thousands lament as Twitter 

suffers another global outage

Twitter suffered 

another global outage yesterday, with thousands of users unable to refresh or load their timeline feeds. 

The users reported the outage on the Down Detector website, a website that monitors outages.

Down Detector also reported that the issues affecting the microblogging platform started just after 2.15 am pacific time and affected users worldwide.

While it is not clear what is causing the outage, some users lamented that the issues are affecting their timelines.

According to the users, they can send tweets but in many cases, only the author can see their tweets, given that timelines are not working.

They also said they are being greeted by the message “Welcome to Twitter!” in place of their usual feed of posts.

While some users are still able to tweet as normal, others shared photos to indicate that their tweets weren’t loading on Twitter.

Culled from Vanguard